Another Masai quilt, another tote bag and another hexagon quilt

I've started quilting Mom's latest Masai quilt and it is coming along nicely. Small pieces are so easy to work on and they really help built machine quilting skills.

I've quilted the ground and now am ready to move on to the hills, huts and sky. Mom added some trees and used brown paint to create the illusion of leaves and she embroidered trunks and branches. The trees appear to be floating so what I plan on doing is quilting hills behind the huts so that the trees are not growing in thin air! I will use a darker variegated gold thread for the hills behind the Masai and a lighter variegated gold for the hills where the trees are growing.

The sign up for Lia's secret tote bag swap is closed and I have my partner. I have the details about what she likes and doesn't like. I've pulled a couple of fabrics that I think she may like and they are in keeping with the theme "nature". I had planned on using the paisley print as the lining but I'm thinking it is so pretty that I may use it on the front and embellish it with some beads and embroidery. I'll be sure to add one of my grasshoppers! I've got a nice bloody tomato red that I think would make a great lining!

Finally I thought I would share a few close-ups of another one of my hexagon quilts. I call this one "Mom's Flower Bed". If you read my post about constructing, deconstructing and reconstructing hexagons you'll have an idea as to how I made this quilt. This is a picture of the centre of the quilt.

Close-up of "Mom's Flower Bed"

Since the inspiration for my quilt was my Mom's flower garden there had to be some bees so I used my technique for making bees that I wrote about here.

Close-up of "Mom's Flower Bed"

And here is a larger shot of the centre of the quilt. Believe it or not all of the stars were made from a single fabric. I started out fussy cutting each star but quickly decided that too much fabric would be wasted doing this so I figured out another way to create all of these stars with almost no wasted fabric. I'll write up a tutorial to explain how I did in the near future. And I'll post more pictures of my quilt too!

Close-up of "Mom's Flower Bed"

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!