The stars are aligned!

The stars for the middle side panel are aligned and have been stitched together to the red border for my Birds in the Loft hexagon quilt. This isn't the clearest of pictures and the colours look flat but you get the idea of how it looks. I love the scrapiness of the various reds!

Once the star strip and red pieced border were stitched together I added them to the section of hexagon rosettes that will go on either side of the centre panel. Here you can see it attached to the left centre section of the quilt. I plan to applique the red pieced border to a strip of red fabric. I've got scraps that are 2 5/8" (leftovers from the "made fabric") so I'll sew them together to be used for the border to create the straight edge.

I am super happy with how the border looks against the quilt; the assorted red scraps I used just glow. There are all sorts of reds from deep blue reds, to purple-reds, orange-reds, fuchsia-reds and barn red just to name a few!

Here you can see the top border pinned to the fence. It is still in progress and there are more pieces to be added. Did I mention that this quilt will be big? I'm also stitching together the rosettes that this border will surround and am almost done!

That's it for today. I'm all fired up and itching to sew, sew, sew because the end is in sight! Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H
p.s. I'm linking up with Sarah Did It HeLP for Hexie-aholics. If you followed my Value Proposition Hexagon Quilt Along you can see the progress Sarah is making on her quilt in that post! It is gorgeous!

Sewing the border hexagons together

Eloidastitches asked about the size of the yellow strip in my "made fabric" hexagons that will form the border of my Birds in the Loft hexagon quilt. I had mentioned that I could have used 3/4" hexagons to make this quilt and she also asked if it would be possible to make the stars with smaller hexagons; I'll write about that in an upcoming post this week. For now I'll talk about the size of the scraps I used for my "made fabric". The pale yellow strips started out at 3/4" wide (by 2 1/4" long) and finish at 1/4" wide more or less. For the following hexagons I cut the red fabric 2 1/4" wide. The piece that goes on top is 1" x 2 1/4" and the bottom piece is 2" x 2 1/4". These hexagons are used only on the sides as fillers.

Side filler "made fabric" hexagons

In this pictures you can see the fillers positioned between the stars between the stars along the top edge. I'll stitch them in so that I have a relatively straight edge to which I can sew the next border when it is stitched together.

The majority of "made fabric" hexagons are cut from strips that are 2 5/8". I need two reds that are 1 1/2" and one yellow that is 3/4" x 2 5/8".

"Made fabric" hexagons that will be used for the border

I'll also need to cut a pile of red hexagons to fill in certain spots between the "made fabric" hexagons. So far I have stitched and basted almost all of the "made fabric" hexagons.

This is my quilt diagram; it shows one quarter of the quilt. The first thing I want to do is make the corner units for the border.

This unit will fit in the upper left corner and the lower right corner.

This unit is a mirror image of the unit above and it will fit in the upper right corner and the lower left corner.

The next step is to start sewing the "made fabric" hexagons (that will not be used as fillers) into pairs like this example below.

To make the units that will attach to the sides of the quilt I will sew two pairs together and add two solid red hexagons.

They will fit together perfectly to make the side borders. In the following picture you can see two together. The green line indicates where they will be joined.

For the top and bottom borders I will sew two pairs together a little differently and I'll only need to add one solid red hexagon.

You can see how these units will fit together in the following picture. The green line indicates where they will be joined.

If you refer to my quilt diagram you can see how everything will fit the quilt.

That's it for today. I'm itching to sew like crazy. These components stitch up very quickly so it will go fast! Soon I'll have a finished quilt top and then it will be on to the next quilt. Wonder what it will be! I've got so many ideas that it is hard to choose!

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network; it is where Canadian bloggers share what they are working on!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

Birds in the Loft border plan

I've sketched the first part of the border design for my Birds in the Loft hexagon quilt but before we take a look at it I'll share my latest rosettes that will be the background for the centre medallion (you can see it here). All were made in pairs and I'm adding the path to them as I go so that the assembly of the background will be much faster!

Now for the border design. The first component a toasty oatmeal fabric that will frame the inside edge of the quilt once all of the rosettes are added. The toasty oatmeal fabric will create a visual stop between the centre of the quilt and the final borders. You've already seen this section of the top border with the toasty oatmeal added. I just had to stitch some of it together to get a feel for how the quilt would look and I am pleased with it!

This section will be the top and bottom edges of the quilt. This is my diagram of the upper left. My design sheets were not large enough to sketch the entire quilt so I'm working on it in quarters.

Upper left corner of Birds in the Loft

Upper right corner of Birds in the Loft

The sides will have these units stitched in the even rows. You can see that there are four toasty oatmeal hexagons around the bee but there are five in the diagram above. The fifth hexagon will be inserted between the pieced hexagons in the next border. There will also be a fifth hexagon at the top and bottom. These will also be stitched to the pieced border.

You can see the fifth toasty, oatmeal hexagons circled in red in the upper right corner and in the lower left corner of the following diagram.

So what will the quilt look like with these following two pieced hexagons added?

This where I am headed!

I know what I want to do next and you can see some of it in my sketch. I'm going to start my test hexagons for the final border this weekend and when I am satisfied with what I see you just know I will share them with you!

Tomorrow I'll be attending a "quilted rug" workshop with Al Cote. I'm really looking forward to this workshop! You can see some of his students' work here.

Just a reminder that if you leave a comment and don't receive a personal reply from me that means that you are a no reply blogger and I have no way to contact you unless you update your profile or you include your email address in your comment! I've had a few no reply comments lately and I feel bad that I wasn't able to thank you!

I'm linking up with Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden. If you have a moment click on over for a visit!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

Godstone Grannies - the top is together

The last sections of hexagons for my Godstone Grannies (GG) quilt top are stitched together! I'm going to drag this out just a little bit! Silvana left a comment on my last post and she asked how I combined the colours so I thought I would share some of the things I do or think about when I make a scrap quilt.

• I don't spend a lot of time thinking about fabric choices. I try to work quickly. If I like something I will go with it and if I'm not sure I will either set it aside and think about it or discard the combination right way.
• I like to play with my fabric. I will put oodles of fabrics on a big table. I move them around and sometimes I’ll see a colour or print combination that really works and it is often a combination that I wouldn't have thought about. 
• I try to use fabrics that are the same style. For example I wouldn’t combine children’s prints with Civil War prints.
• I think about the "tone" of my quilt. I am fond of muddy or earthy tones. A little bit of bright thrown in with earthy or muddy tones will make a quilt sparkle but a lot of brights will mute the effect of the earthy tones/muddy tones. If I want a bright quilt then a little bit of muddy colours will make the brights really shine. If I use equal amounts it just doesn't work because neither stands out.
• I think about what the overall colour of my quilt will be. The more of that colour I use the more likely the quilt will read that colour even though other colours are used.
• I don’t match fabrics when I am buying. I just buy fabrics that I like; I figure that my tastes don't really change so the new fabric will probably work with what I've already got in my stash.
• Colour is important but value is more important. Value is the lightness or darkness of a fabric when compared to another fabric. I try to make sure that there are lights, mediums and darks in most blocks. The eye sees value first and colour second.
• When I make a scrap quilt I try to repeat some of fabrics in more than one block. This makes the quilt look more cohesive. In this way I don't have to worry that each fabric goes with all of the others. As long as some of them are repeated they will all work together!  
• Using a single fabric for the path in a hexagon quilt will separate the blocks and it also makes the quilt look more polished because it is a fabric that flows throughout the quilt.
• I like to make little 3” nine patches with my scraps. It is a great way to learn about colour and value. When I do this I think of colour combinations I would never have considered. If the block doesn’t look beautiful it will still work in a quilt because it is small but if it works, I have a good idea for combining colours for another quilt! If the block looks really bad I can take it apart and make something different or I can just throw it out!

The lecture is over so it is back to my GG quilt top! In this picture you can see that I've attached the lower right corner to the center strip. Looking good!

The last step was to attach the upper left corner....just one long seam and GG would be a hexagon quilt top! I am so pleased with how this quilt has turned out. The path fabric appears grey but in fact it is a very dull, faded pale peach.

The final step is to add narrow border strips around the quilt top. If I were to just place border strips on the quilt with the right sides together and stitch the border to the quilt top by machine I would have to cut through the hexagons at the edges and that would change the look of my partial diamonds, many of which were fussy cut for effect. I don't want to do that so I am going to add a narrow border to give the quilt straight edges. My plan is to applique the quilt to the borders. I want to do it this way for three reasons:

• I do not want to cut through my hexagons,
• a narrow border will make quilting the hexagons at the edge easier (it gives me something to hold when I quilt) and
• I want flat, smooth, straight edges to make it easier to attach the binding when the quilting is done.

I'll explain how I'll  attache the border in an upcoming post!

Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H