First border on Hexagon and Blue Star and more Lazy Punk blocks

I'm working slowly on Hexagon and Blue Star but I am making progress. This is the fabric I purchased for the first border. The fabric was created by Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics. The print is from 2011 and the pattern is 5533. I decided to use the blue stripe so I cut 1/4" beyond the off-white band on either side of the stripe. This made for a 4" finished border.

This border has now been stitched to the quilt. I wanted to take a picture outside but it is too blustery so partial images will have to suffice for now!

The original quilt in the book Feathering the Nest has a narrower border that is a lighter, airier print.

I do like it but the Andover fabric really spoke to me. I liked the deep, rich colours.

I will add one more border of the light blue fabric and I think it will measure the same width as the blue floral border, 4". When this border is added the quilt will measure roughly 63" x 76". The original has a rickrack finish and I am tempted to try this out. When there's a sale at my shop if they have wide rickrack I might just buy some and give it a go!

So that might be my task for today - get the last border on the quilt.

When I'm cutting or sorting fabrics I often cut patches for a Lazy Punk block. When I'm out and about and have a few minutes I stitch them. They are starting to pile up! Most need the centre circle but that will just be another hand sewing project to fill time when I'm out. At the rate I'm going I'll soon have enough for another quilt!

The strong winds are blowing away the few leaves that are left on the trees. This leaf may not look particularly impressive but it measures 12" across. It is big. It comes from my sycamore tree which I bought and planted when it was just a whip. Now it is a big beautiful tree (and getting bigger all the time) and it has a beautiful olive and gold smooth bark that reminds me of a python.

Time to do some sewing so until I post again, hold on to your hats because it's windy out there!

Hexagon and Blue Star quilt is now in the works and an African quilt

I just can't resist the Hexagon and Blue Star quilt in Feathering the Nest - I've simply must make it!

And so today I made a start. Step one: make some tools to speed up the process. I'll need, hexagon and triangle templates plus a window template for fussy cutting.  The hexagon and triangle templates in the book do not have a seam allowance so I traced around them on tracing paper (also known as onion skin) making sure to mark the grain line on each. I cut them out being sure that there was 1/2" all around and glued the tracing paper to a heavier stock (I used a scrap manila envelope). With a rotary cutter and ruler I cut out the templates being sure to add the 1/4" seam allowance all around. I next placed my new hexagon template on a piece of paper and traced around it. I cut out the hexagon from the paper so I would have a window template.

Now I'm ready to cut some hexagons! Some of my fabric has pretty little images like these birds on a pink ground and I want them in my quilt.

I'll use my window template to locate the bird.

I placed my template inside the window.

 



I carefully remove the window template and then trace around the hexagon.

 

 

I cut out the hexagon and there you have it! One fussy cut hexagon. Not all of my hexagons will be cut this way but the odd few will add interest to my quilt.

 

In no time at all I had a nice pile of hexagons!

I'll need to cut the triangles so I do this by cutting strips of fabric that are the height of my triangle. I cut from the length of the fabric rather than the width because I get more triangles from the length (assuming I have more than 42" of fabric which I do). I fold my fabric, pin the edge so it stays straight and I pin further over about 1" beyond where I will cut the strip. The reason for the second set of pins is that it will keep the edges of the fabric lined up until I'm ready to cut the next strip! So the fabric is pinned I cut one strip and leave the pins in place on the folded fabric because it saves me time not having to line up the edges over and over! I don't remove them until I'm positive I won't need any more strips.

I fold my strip in half and place my triangle at the beginning and trace the sides. I flip the template and move it over being sure to line up the template with the line I just drew. I draw the next triangle. I repeat this process until I've marked the entire strip.

I use my rotary cutter and rule to cut on the lines.

Once I've cut the entire strip I'll know how many triangles each strip will produce. I can then cut the number of strips I need for all of the triangles. One final tip: I cut a bunch of triangles and leave them on my cutting board exactly as they are shown above. The reason is that the grain line is important and I know that when they are set up this way the grain is parallel to the top and bottom edges. I can just pick up a triangle, lay it on my hexagon and sew, sew, sew! When I've used up what I've cut I cut some more and sew some more.

My Mom (Anne H) has asked me to quilt another of her African themed quilts. I've got it pinned and ready to go under the sewing machine needle. I think this one is going to look really nice when it's done.

 

That's it for today and there'll be no post tomorrow. Come back on Friday for an update on my progress on the projects I showed you today!

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!





Teepee and canoe, the man in the moon and another hexagon project

I've completed another tiny world make-do pincushion. I found this wonderful pottery dish at the local thrift shop. I liked the earthiness of this dish and thought it needed a pincushion with an outdoor theme.

So here it is.....a teepee and a canoe that are lakeside. This was a fun pincushion to make and it is my own design! I call it Teepee at M'Chigeeng. M'Chigeeng is a town and a lake on Manitoulin Island. It is the largest fresh water island in the world and it is located on one of the Great Lakes, Lake Huron.

Here is a close-up of the teepee and canoe.

I had promised to show you some close-ups of the hand quilting in A Pound of Stars. My camera and computer are co-operating (for the time being) so I was able to take some pictures. I started at the edge of the squares and simply quilted concentric squares until I got to the middle. I had no idea how to mark a quilt so this was a perfect solution!

Here you can see an even larger area which is made up of four squares. Rather than quilt them individual I quilted them as one large square.

In the ice cream cone border I quilted a crescent moon, Saturn, stars and in each corner the man in the moon.

Close-up of the man in the moon

Finally I've decided on just one more hexagon project. This one should be relatively quick and easy because it is entirely machine pieced with 4 1/2" hexagons and equilateral triangles. The quilt is in this lovely book. I don't normally make quilts from patterns but there are some lovely ideas in this book so I just couldn't resist. I'll put my own touches with colour selection and quilting!

The name of the quilt is Hexagon and Blue Star.

 

 

I have a nice pile of charm squares many of which are more along the line of reproduction fabrics and I think they will look great as large hexagons.

 



 

I've been through my stash and selected the background ad border fabrics.

I have had the lighter blue fabric for some time and I thought it would work well. It is a nice soft blue with a hint of green so it will work as a neutral and really show off some more colourful fabrics. I recently saw this striped fabric and decided it is the perfect inner border. I'll use only the blue stripe because I think the yellow and golds are a little more subtle and they add a nice highlight.

The first step will be to make the hexagon templates to make the cutting go a little faster. The second step will be to cut the border strips from the length of the fabric so I don't have to piece the border and from the leftovers I will cut the equilateral setting triangles.

Until I post again, why not keep me company and start another hexagon project?

Butterscotch Ripple Quilt and Yoga in the Garden

I admit I am addicted to hexagons - just can't get enough of them. Every time I see a hexagon quilt I want to make it! Even the simplest of hexagon quilts is alluring! I read a post by Kath of Hillside House. She has a chair named Peggy and Peggy had a simple hexagon quilt on her back. I think it looks quite elegant and I want one just like it!  Or check out this sweet little Harriet cushion that is embellished with hexagons. It was made by Natalie of Sewing Room Secrets! I need one of those cushions too!

There was another hexagon quilt that I came across a couple of years ago while I was zipping around the internet and you guessed it! I wanted one! All I found was a picture of an unfinished quilt top. Large prints were framed with a diamond of hexagons. I loved the idea so I made myself a quilt top. After the top was finished I discovered that the original quilt was made by Brigitte Giblin and that she had just published a book titled Feathering the Nest with Vintage Inspired Quilts. There are loads of hexagon ideas in the book and the photography is so pretty that I couldn't resist....I bought the book!

This is the hexagon quilt I fell in love with!

The basic shape was a diamond of hexagons framing a large print and there were little diamond and triangle fillers. It was simply a matter of selecting the size of hexagon I wanted to use and then deconstruct the hexagon to create the diamonds and triangles. I wrote about how to do this here.

My version of the quilt

I chose to work with a hexagon that was just over 1". Each diamond is one third of the hexagon and each triangle is on half of the diamond. I used a light buttery-toffee colour for the diamonds and tiny triangles throughout the quilt.

The original quilt doesn't have a border but I usually add a couple of borders to my quilts and had done so with my quilt before I found the book. The inner border is a repeat of the buttery-toffee fabric I used for the diamonds and triangles and the outer border is a butterscotch stripe fabric with curvy ribbons; I knew it would be perfect and I just had enough fabric to border the quilt. Directional prints such as stripes can add pizzazz to a quilt. I wrote about the use of these prints here.

I call my quilt Butterscotch Ripple for two reasons: the colour of the outer border reminds me of butterscotch but more importantly when I pin basted the quilt I realized that the border was not laying flat and there were ripples!!!!  I had to do some reverse sewing to correct the problem!  Normally I would hand applique the quilt top to the border but I had read so much about machine applique that I thought I would give it a go. I had machine appliqued the quilt top to the border with invisible thread and a tiny blanket stitch. It worked very well and was invisible BUT it had to be unpicked because of the ripples. It was a huge pain to remove those invisible stitches! In future I will hand applique because it works just fine for me! And if any reverse sewing is required, it will be easy to do! So I reverse sewed the problem areas but left the basting pins in the quilt. I then made the necessary adjustments to the border and hand stitched it to the quilt top. It is much better now!

The border is separated from the quilt

So here is my quilt Butterscotch Ripple! I took the picture under the arbor this morning and had not yet repinned the border.

I really love the backing fabric which is magnolias on a robin's egg blue. Too pretty for words!

So with the border correction complete, I can now pin baste it. I can't wait to start quilting this one! First step will be to stitch in the ditch in every single seam and then the fun will begin although as usual I have no idea as to how I am going to quilt it......yet!

When I was out in the garden photographing this quilt I thought I would take a stroll to see if there was anything interesting. Aren't these colours glorious - yellow sunflower, orange trumpet vine, lilac balsam and little purple something or others! The bees are absolutely delirious with the abundance!

 

This bee kept bumping into me as he went from flower to flower! 

 

This looks like something from the milkweed family

I was enjoying myself with the bees in the balsam when I first heard the unmistakable voices of Turtle Girls. I had forgotten that they were holding a yoga class in the garden today. I wonder if anyone showed up!

 Not a bad turn out from the looks of it - six doing yoga plus Turtle Girls!

And three observers!

They started with some gentle stretches (as always)!

 

And then it was right into downward turtle. But wait, who is that in the background stretching? Do you see him? I don't recognize him but it looks like he is interested in yoga! He does look rather shy so I won't bother him because he seems to be enjoying himself.

 Immediately after downward turtle they started dropping like flies! They were all worn own except for Zebra Fellow!

Looks like everyone took off and left Turtle Girls on their own.

And with that their noses were out of joint so Turtle Girls got up and wandered off into the garden!

I turn back and can't believe my eyes! What do I see?

My quilts!!!! They were using MY quilts as yoga mats! And they had my silk quilt that I told them was not to go out to the garden! Those Girls are going to need a talking to, that's for sure!

Until I post again, be sure to hide your quilts if there are Turtle Girls around and happy sewing!