Thursday 16 February 2012

No photo day

No photos today but I have finished the cheat's hexagon quilt top - just need to put the borders on and get the whole lot sandwiched for the first weekend in March when four of us from our quilting group are going to our friend Renate's house for a quilting weekend. Sadly, one of our American members (there are only nine members altogether) is returning to Seattle at the end of March and we will be very sorry to see her go. Renate had the idea for a repeat of our lovely quilting weekend when she lived in Bremen last year - we had such a lovely time that she thought we could repeat the idea so we could have sewing fun with Nancy before she and her husband leave Bonn. Although it is a ladies' weekend, my husband has been invited because Renate's husband does not want to be alone in a sea of quilts and they both love to discuss business ideas together, so they will be happy.

I am also working on a little something that I cannnot show just now - I think photos will have to wait as it is a secret. but eventually....

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Progress

So, here again are the blocks before the little squares were added:





And here is a bigger area with the hexagon effect. I must say, doing the applique little squares is addictive. To make it easier, I have only made up half the quilt and when I finish adding the little squares I will then make the other half of the quilt. Otherwise, the top would be a bit clumsy and awkward to handle if I were doing the applique on the whole thing. I shall then join the two halves together and start hunting for border/binding fabrics. It feels really good to be making a quilt again after all that embroidery.

Monday 6 February 2012

Cheat hexagons appearing



Have been making some progress on the new quilt. I haven't completed the top yet but as I had a few rows done I wanted to try the cheat hexagon technique to check it looked okay - if I didn't like it then I could change my ideas for the design. But I'm quite pleased with it and it has been very peaceful doing some applique for a change. Here is a close up of the effect:



I think it will probably look better when quilted (as do most things) and then the little squares will look flatter, but I'm happy with it - off to do some more...

Friday 3 February 2012

New Quilt beginning...


Above is the beginning of my new quilt. The fabric is the 'Hartfield' range by Moda - I bought a layer cake over a year ago and thought I should use it instead of stroking it. I love the names of the fabrics, which are houses in Jane Austen novels, etc; my favourite author.

I decided I wanted something very simple, so cut the layers into four 5" squares and am just sewing them together by hand in rows of 10. But then I shall make lots of little cream squares and applique them where the seams meet - this will give the look of a hexagon quilt without having to make and sew hexagons. Below is the photo from the book I got it from.


So the effect is as shown in the drawing below

I think it will be harder to make and applique the corner pieces I will need to keep up the hexagon effect but I like applique and those little cream squares will look good, I think (and hope).