Grey.....and grey....

Do you remember when........DS3 asked me if I would make him a quilt for his bed - naturally I said yes, what would you like.  He replied just blue and white squares, thanks mum and none of that fancy stuff on the top?

Well that quilt which you can read about here has been used and used and is now relegated to the spare room.

So....he has asked me if I would make him another.  Yes, I said.   When I asked what he would like this time the reply was 'just plain grey' thanks mum.  I suggested he buy two plain grey flat sheets and I would join them and he could put his doona in it!!!  "Oh, I really would love a quilt if that's OK."     Plain grey???  I then asked him to send me some photos or clippings from mags showing what he liked and I would work from that.  (ps he loves Ikea...)

Among some of the stuff he sent me he said he liked the one with a couple of 'arrows' on it. OK, says me - I will have a look and found the one with the 'arrows' - plain pale grey doona cover with - yes - 'flying geese' at the bottom!!!

Decision made - material brought and here is a little snippet -













Just to make this a little bit more interesting with a much nicer photo I have been busy sewing more hexagons into my 'hexagon star' quilt.  I love the way this is looking, still not sure how big I will go - probably not much more than this.  With the extra bits that need to make it square I think will be enough. It will finish at around 5' square.  I am itching to start a '60 deg' diamond next - The seven sisters' pattern.

Progress....

As you all know some time ago I started another hexagon quilt.  This time working the hexagons into stars.  I joined these star shapes into a larger star with a traditional 6-point hexagon in the middle. Now I have began the process of joining them into a quilt.  With the single round of star shapes I sewed 2 rounds of cream hexagons and are using these for the joining pieces.  This has now made a secondary shape in the piece - a 3 pointed star.  As I work through sewing the shapes together it will be more pronounced (hopefully...)



While hand sewing all of the above, I actually finished machining my mat of 1.5" strips.  It now resides by my front door.  Yes, I do allow visitors to step on it!!!!!

This year is Geelong Patchwork & Quilter's Guild's 30th birthday.  All members have been given a piece of cream background with instructions to make a 5" finished, bound, hexagon.  We could 'decorate' the middle anyway we wish and have also been asked to sign it.  These will then be sewn into a large quilt for hanging at our meetings.  Hopefully every financial member will have contributed a hexagon.  This is my contribution - as I love hexagons I appliqued 3 on to mine.

It's nearly October already....

Time does fly.........

October is only a few days away and  I've realised I haven't posted anything since August....Dear me, I have been slack...

Do you ever feel you have lost your mojo for a while?  I did, but hopefully all is coming back gradually.

I finished sewing the top of my 'Blue Rhapsody' quilt - you know the one with all those blue and brown hexagons and now have it tacked ready for quilting.

My apologies for the clarity of the photo but the sun was shining right in the window and I didn't realise it till posting the photo.  The quilt is now at the machine and I have started quilting it.

I have also been very busy with hand sewing.  After all the years sitting at my machine I am really loving hand sewing and of course hexagons. (What else...)

This quilt started off being a copy of Martha Washington's Flower Garden in which all the flowers are shaped as diamonds, not the traditional flower shapes.









After sewing quite a few of these together - see some of my previous posts labelled 'hexagons' - I was playing around with them (as one does...) and I really liked what I saw when the diamonds were placed into a star pattern with a 'flower' in the middle.








This is now what I have decided to do with these diamond hexagons. Here are two that I have finished sewing.  What do you think?

Progress

At last some progress has been made on a couple of languishing Phd's (Projects have done...) (I love saying I'm working on my Phd....)

It takes the thought of a quilting retreat/camp coming up this weekend to get a move-on.  Whoever thought of going to a retreat and not having something to work on!

Remember the blue and brown hexagon quilt I had started?  Well now I have completed the applique borders and them tacked them down to the hexagons in readiness to applique them on. The outer hexagon border is also completed, but I haven't tacked it down. That is happening later today. Once completed then all I have to do is to add a narrow border, sandwich with batting and backing, quilt, then put the binding on.  No big deal!  I can do this!  Although I won't be quilting it this weekend, but at least I will have it to that stage.

I have also completed some of my diamond hexagons for the Martha Washington quilt I am replicating.  Not in her colours as it is too hard to match up, but using what materials I have in my stash.  IF, and I mean IF, I have completed what I plan to do this weekend, I will work on some more of these diamonds.  I am loving them. They are 5/8" hexagons, not quite 1/2" but still small.  I love working with small pieces and love handwork.   I find it very therapeutic.

I guess this comes from all the stitching - embroidery; cross stitch and tapestries I used to do before I found quilting.  If I have the time I prefer to hand quilt rather than machine quilt.



These are some of the single rounds awaiting their final round.

And here are some with their final round applied.


No more rounds - they need to have the neutral hexagons in between.  For these I'm using a mixture of creams, beige, cream on cream, and some very very light patterns on cream.

When sewn together they will form larger diamond shapes, which also form a 'star' so you get a secondary pattern in your quilt.

Till next update, enjoy your weekend - are any of you planning on retreating this year.  I would love to know where/what you are planning with friends.

Take care,
Joy

OMG has it been hot!

Last week here in my part of Aussie land we experienced some of the hottest days on record.  I thought I was going to melt!  I have a small portable air-con but it is only good for my lounge room.  And did it work overtime!  We had 4 days in a row of over 41C (103F) reaching 44C on Thursday (110F) with no respite at night - although it did get done to 28C (81F) one night.  But I survived and am now enjoying some sunning days with a sea breeze.  We usually get the odd day over 40C in summer here but this year the four days in a row was an exception.

On the plus side, because it was so hot in the back of my house where my sewing machine is, of course nothing got done, but I was able to do a lot of hand sewing by the air-con in the lounge.





This first pic is a little applique on three blocks from the 'Votes for Women' quilt.

The next one I finished the applique for the centre block of another quilt and also managed to finish the hexagons for the surround.  It is pinned on at present - just needs to be appliqued to the centre;  then I have another round of applique and finish with a border of hexagons.








I was quite pleased to get so much done.  Of course I was also watching the Australian Open Tennis championships and so wishing I wasn't playing in that heat (or even sitting in the stadium).

To top the week off, Cathy Miller (the Singing Quilter from Canada) and her husband John Bunge have been out here in Australia on a working holiday.  I met both Cathy and John a couple of years ago when they were in Townsville for the Scquilters Retreat and we have exchanged the odd email and read each other's blogs.  Plus we both looooove hexagons.....

When I heard they were heading for Melbourne, driving from Adelaide, I hinted that they might like to stop off in Anglesea.  Well they did.  They also know Margaret who lives here in Anglesea too, we decided (because of the heat) that the Golf Club would be a good place for lunch.  Unfortunately for Cathy and John the kangaroos were deep in the cool of the surrounding bush.

It was lovely to catch up on all their news and yes, we had a little show and tell.....  Here we are - Cathy in the middle and Margaret on the right.

On a different note - with this heat we have also had some serious bush fires here in Victoria - especially in the Grampian ranges where a few houses have been lost.  In total across the State of Victoria there were something like over 150 fires burning at one stage.  That's a lot for our little State.  Unfortunately we do have the title of the most fire-prone State in Australia.  Here in Anglesea we are always on high alert at this time of year as we are situated right near an extremely large natural forest and the area is tinder dry at present.

Sending my prayers to the areas that are/have been affected and hope this break in the heat will help extinguish the fires.

Updates, late (better late than never...)

It has been a couple of weeks since my last posting.  My time being taken up with some family stuff.

But I did manage to get "some" sewing done.  The first lot of photos here are more of my blocks from Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOW, that I have called Votes for Women.

 Another project I'm working on is a hand sewing one - to take along when I go to Guild and my local sewing group.  The centre is an appliqued quite large square surrounded by hexagons.  I have chosen to keep with a colour scheme of blues/browns for the hexagons to compliment the centre square.  I have sewn the strip of hexagons down yet - I need to trim the centre and measure the next strip of hexagons to make sure the fit the sides.  But you can see how it will look.

When the surround is finished there is another round of applique finishing with another round of hexagons.

After 12 years a labour of love is finished!!

It is 12 years since I first started my hexagon quilt - Nell's Garden.  Finally it is finished and on my bed!

Nell's Garden

 I've called it 'Nell's Garden' in memory of a dear Aunt who taught me to sew, knit and embroider when I was a little girl.  She loved her garden and she also loved making hexagons.  Auntie Nell had them all over her house - even the curtains in her spare bedroom were made from hexagons!  Most special of all I was allowed to take the papers out!!  How good was that?  When she knew her time was coming she gave me her cardboard shapes - a whole shoe box full - my uncle who worked for a Greeting Card company had them specifically cut on the guillotines at work using some of the excess greeting card paper.  They measure 7/8", not sure why they are this size.

When I started to cut out the material I chose to fussy cut the centres of the flowers to represent something that is found outside or in the garden.  You can see from the following two pictures some of the centres.

 For the border I chose a brick red to 'fence' her garden and make it safe for all the kids who used to play there.  You can also see that I quilted (by hand) around each hexagon.  That is why it has taken so long to finish.

It truly was a labour of love.