Hexagon Star

Hanging on the wall at last!  

approx 62 inches by 56 inches

I was expecting all the EPP seams on the half inch hexagons to be hard going with hand quilting but they weren't too bad - just a bit bumpy at times. The hand quilting progressed surprisingly quickly and I was finished within a month. 

No marking was needed as I just outlined all the 'flowers' in the garden, and followed a lot of the star and diamond edges.

To give a little definition to the outer borders (single coloured hexagons among cream ) I quilted straight through three rows all around the outside of the quilt - see below:

Just in case anyone wants to know - I used YLI cream quilting thread, thin cotton batting, a 16 inch square hoop and my usual handful of hardware (Clover brass half thimble, yellow needle puller and TJ Quick quilter spoon) - no affiliation with any of these suppliers but they are Australian stockists. After losing a couple of my usual needles (flicked into the 'ether' across the room - as you do!) I tried a new quilting needle which I now also love - Sew Easy Quilting gold eye size 9. They were $2.65 for 20 strong little needles from Lincraft - got to love that sort of economy. 

The backing is a favourite old floral called 'Plantation' from Windham.

I thought that, especially as this was to be a wall hanging, this quilt would suit a no-show binding. If you google and Pinterest search there are quite a few handy tutorials on various ways to do this. 

In 2014 I made a hidden binding on my 'Simon' Dutch quilt (click to see more in the link) but I was not entirely happy with the corners on the back as they were a bit bulky and not particularly neat. Mind you the quilt hangs beautifully square and I love the finish on the front. 

So I decided to take a chance and give another method a try - adapting the method in this tutorial from QuiltArtNews.

To reduce bulk a little I only used a single fabric thickness (not double as in the tutorial). 

a nice straight bound edge on the folded quilt

The result is just what I hoped for -  a firm, neat edge (front and back) but still flexible enough to drape. And I highly recommend the method - very easy to stitch up.

Having a bit of photo fun with a "focal black and white" faded finish - how's this for an Autumn garden photo? 

Posies and Plaid - lots of pictures to finish this one off

time to stitch the blocks together...

pin basting with cotton batting ...

a variety of hand quilting threads selected for 'Big Stitch' hand quilting...

we had a good run of rainy quilting-and-binding weather...

and my favourite photo in the garden... sunshine after rain is extra special isn't it?

And a bit of a blurb about the quilt? 

I started it in May 2016. It measures approx 70 inches by 78 inches and is my own design. I was initially inspired by an antique quilt spotted in Jane Lury's book (about her antique quilt collecting). The design went off on a tangent - a bunch of tangents really! A few unpickings and alterations later it has ended up as a blend of a few ideas, and a mix of reproduction and modern fabrics. I especially loved experimenting with Big Stitch quilting and a mix of different colours and weights of threads. 

I'm hanging Posies and Plaid in the entrance hall at home and that meant a shift around the house of other quilts. It's always the way that one change leads to another! The guest bedrooms have had a makeover and quilts as bedheads provide a cosy finish. 

I've now got a space on a wall that is just the right size for my Hexagon Star quilt. So it has zoomed up the quilting queue and has just gone in the hoop for hand quilting - again with thin cotton batting. These are half inch hexagons so I think best suited in size and style to traditional (small stitch) quilting. But I'm not planning on dense quilting so am hoping for a relatively quick finish (fingers crossed!). 

 

How many hexagons?

Someone asked but I've no idea. If any body knows a quick formula I might try it but am not going to count them the slow way!

Hexagon Star - top finished.

I have a hand full of hexagons (half inch) left over but am calling this a finish at 56" by 62". It will be a good size for a wall quilt . For now - off to join the others awaiting hand quilting. 

 

I really enjoyed the portability of this project - using zip lock bags to store and organise the pieces. I know some will think it quite mad to be stitching half inch hexagons by English paper piecing (stitch basted), but I found it very relaxing and quite manageable. In fact I found this size hexagon was quite a bit more comfortable to handle than the large 1.25 inch hexagons in my Grandmother's Garden quilt .

Chapman Coverlet

On the rare occasions when I feel like machine stitching I make it a marathon session! The last one got me a bit further ahead with this quilt. Still have a box full of appliqued squares to join and quite a few more rows to go...so here's hoping for another "rare occasion" soon.

Posies and Plaid

I've not posted on my applique quilt design since May last year, for various reasons. A lot of changes have been made and the unpicker has been very busy. For example I have scrapped the original broderie perse centre - it was just too dark and distracting. 

Unpicker at the ready

In keeping with mixing modern fabrics in with the repros, I'm trying to interpret a lot of different traditional elements with a more contemporary feel.  It's not coming easy for me but I'm happier with it now. Don't you hate it when there is a vision but poor execution!

I've had fun with various applique techniques:

But mostly I have needle turned with back basting prep:

Just a little more applique to go and then I'll be stitching the blocks together. Hopefully there won't be too many more changes (LOL) as I'm really looking forward to Big Stitch hand quilting this ...maybe with coloured perle thread. 

Works in progress

It's been a few months - well and truly time to stop lurking and update progress.

And what has prompted a return to posting?

Well....

Have you read Barb's  latest great post, and her plea to all quilters to "put yourself out there" - especially the hand quilters? Susan - more quilting please 😊 

Another inspiration has been Meredithe and her "17 UFO's in 2017" - will be fun to follow her progress ....but am not setting myself any schedule. Good to see Carole will be joining her - such a super beautiful list of sewing there.

Then if you want to see a truly accomplished 2016 review check out Kyle's smilebox - just makes me itch to stitch. I added a page to my blog - my 2016 finishes - a modest list compared with some but I enjoyed making them so much. 

On that note -  a BIG thank you to these and many other inspiring bloggers that I follow - and may we have another super blogging year 📝 

Here are some UFO works in progress:

Grandmother's Garden

I started in mid 2014 and am now hand quilting it with big stitches but there has been a Summer pause in proceedings as it is just too hot to quilt in the hoop, especially with a thick wool batting! 

Chapman Coverlet

Started middle of last year - I had a red central fabric selected but wanted to put it into an octagonal frame. First I stitched on pieces of the black stripe fabric. Then I made a bias strip and appliqued it over the seam to frame the red centre.

There are many, many more 4 inch blocks to be hand appliqued -  then joined by machine in rows around the medallion centre.

Hexagon Star

Started early last year - a portable EPP hand stitching project that is not too large as they are half inch hexagons. I had the centre done in August and am gradually adding borders. 

It's a bit tricky turning corners with hexagons - they have a geometry all of their own!  It will have irregularities but I quite like that - just trying to mirror the corners and sides. I'm finding the free downloads of hexagon graph paper and some colour pencils very helpful.

Here's one that's new to the blog -

Forget Me Not - a cathedral window quilt.

I have quite a few old doilies (not embroidered by me unfortunately) that are treasured but unused, many are damaged or stained with age. I was also kindly given some doilies with Forget-me-not flowers on them - hence the name came to mind as a way to honour the embroiders too. 

Forget-me-nots in my garden in Spring

Forget-me-nots embroidered on doilies

I have been in awe of the huge cathedral window quilts on a few Dutch blogs I follow - often with carefully selected window colours. My cathedral window quilt has 'windows' made of squares cut from my vintage doilies and linen. I needed to research the technique in books and blogs - found that there are quite a few ways to do this, and ended up with a combination of methods that suits me. I machine stitch the invisible part - joining the linen blocks together - and then hand stitch the doily windows. Hopefully the pictures will give you some idea what I'm on about. 

A start - getting addicted

I cut linen squares of 9.5 inches. Then I followed the method in this excellent tutorial and they end up as approx 4.25 inch squares. These are joined together as in pics below.

2 inch doily squares are placed on the linen blocks (see picture below) ready for pinning with applique pins. The loose edges of the linen blocks are rolled over the doily squares and then hand stitched/hemmed (as in top picture).

This is part of my sewing room - quite a few other UFO's in there - but not 17 I'm sure...hehe