"When Stars meet Hexagons" and Ann Randoll progress

Well - I really should be machine quilting my 'Simon' quilt but arthritis is being, literally, a pain in the neck at the moment. Sitting at the machine seems to aggravate the neck and shoulder ache, so I will have to wait awhile. 

Ann Randoll quilt :  I completed the hand pieced border around the centre. For some reason it fitted best with only 23 of the 24 diamond sections that are in the pattern - so that is how I joined it! Hand piecing has never been my forte. Unless I use papers I seem to be woefully inaccurate. The end result looks fine so no problem I think...

Pieced border pinned in place

Next to cover the seam with an appliqued bias strip, then trim back the brown background:

Bias strip appliqued over seam

Appliquing to the cream background with another bias strip - and that completes the centre ring: 

Centre ring complete - appliqued to cream background

Next step is a tiny saw tooth border and corner feature - to be appliqued. In the workshop we prepared freezer paper templates for the applique, as this is Rhonda's preferred method. Here they are :

Freezer paper template - decided not to use this method

But...I am not confident in this method,  so I decided to do my saw tooth border by back-basting prep for the applique. Here is the prep done ready to needle turn applique:

Back-basting prep done

I tried a little of the needle turn but am not happy with my thread colour - it showed too much when I used a neutral beige shade. Ideally it needs to be a dark brown to be less visible - which I don't have. Bit of shopping needed ...

"Stars meet Hexagons" - this is the name of a lovely little red quilt in Petra and An's book - 'Promenade in a Dutch Garden'. I saw their quilt at Quilts in the Barn 2013 and absolutely loved it - knew I had to make it sometime. 

Picture of the quilt in the book Promenade in a Dutch Garden

I know I have only just finished an EPP star quilt (my Mary Leggett Star Bouquet repro) and that  classifies me as having a truly sad case of EPP addiction! But some of you will understand?

This time I am using 1" stars, hexagons and triangles. The pieces in the book are 7/8" but I happen to have 1" templates and papers already, so am going that tiny bit larger. 

Just for comparison with my 'M L Star Bouquet' quilt: this new quilt will have smaller pieces, different construction, and a lot more creative variety in fussy cutting. Here is the start of 'Stars meet Hexagons' alongside the 'Star Bouquet'.

It is great to find use for a couple of red Coverlet collection repros. They have been lingering in the stash. I bought them years back because I loved them but then never found the right project. I think they are wonderful for fussy cutting but am going cautiously, mixing them with others, because I'm afraid there is only a very fine line between terrific and tacky in fussy cutting....and am hoping I haven't crossed it!

Two fold mirror reveals all sorts of possibilities

Whoa, reining in !  time for something more subtle.

I'm not using glue for this - just paperclips.

Stitching through the fabric only - so the papers pop out easily for re-use.

Progress so far

I'm stitching the stars and hexagons together as I go - in an ever expanding blob piece. By adding fabrics in this way I can hopefully, keep the colour, pattern and values balanced. Such fun!

I couldn't resist this little pot of Lisianthus - cheaper than a bunch of flowers and going to last so much longer. And what do you think of the container (if you can read it)? Wrong spelling but the right word!

Hope you are all coping with the world temperature extremes at the moment - whether too hot or too cold. We had a few days of blissfully cool weather here and I frantically worked in the garden, but I think the heat is heading back :(