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.

Scraps, scraps and more scraps

I have a drawer full of 1.5" scrap strips.  Originally the idea was to make a log cabin quilt using them, but I have enough quilts at present and nowhere to put any more (that is until I decide to give some away....) then......

So, in the meantime, what do I do with these strips?  Aha, the light went on!!!!  While I was sewing some more hexagons in my lounge I noticed the mat at the front door was looking a tad tired.  Recently I bought a box of piping cord because I was going to make some fabric 'piped' bowl/s.  Why not make a mat for the door instead, I said to myself....  A good idea....

To sew them, just take the cord, fold and wrap the material around the cord and sew together with a zig-zag stitch using a neural coloured thread.

You can start with a small circle or as I have a rectangle and just keep sewing until the mat is big enough. When finished you have something lovely at your front door and the bonus that it is washable.

To Do or Not To Do......Bonnie Hunter's mystery......

How many of you are doing (or have done) Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year?  It's called Grand Illusion, named after a hotel in the US where she taught some classes earlier in the year (2014).

I thought, and thought about it.  I have loved her mysteries in the past, but didn't think I would sew it this year.

A couple of weeks ago I went to my monthly GTG of the CBD group of Scquilters in Melbourne and two of the girls (Vireya and Jeanette) had their nearly completed mystery quilts for Show and Tell.  I quite liked what I saw, although I still think it is a very busy quilt with nowhere to rest your eyes.

This one is Vireya's.  She decided to make it smaller - which I like.
















This is Jeanette's - Jeannette has made it full size.  She hasn't got the borders on as yet.

Comparing the two - it does look different with the borders on.  Hope to see Jeannette's with hers at our next meeting.

Apologies here - for the table and (I think) Vireya's hat.



I went through my stash (before it started) and found most of what I would need.  Changed the colours slightly - I'm substituting Royal Blue for the Black, as it's not a colour I like very much in quilts and I don't have very much of it - used a lot in the Orca Bay quilt. Not sure if I want to use the yellow Bonnie is using -  I am taming it down a bit - have quite a stash of yellow, no problems there, also have a huge amount of green, as well as the pink - mine is more of a darker dusty pink; but the lighter blue or aqua is a problem - not much of it in my stash. Plenty of neutrals, but I'm sticking with creams/cream-on-cream.

Now that I have seen the finished quilt, I know I can make it smaller and therefore will have enough of the aqua material to finish it.  I am thinking of double bed size not the large queen that she has made. Bonnie's is 5 x 5 large blocks with sashing.  Vireya's (above) is 3 x 3 - I'm thinking 4 x 5.

As I sew happily along I will post what I have achieved at each stage.  Having collected all the steps I will be able to work through them - and of course, typically, there is a lot of cutting, sewing, cutting, sewing.

Following Bonnie's instructions is very easy - full of explanations and photos.

Back to the sewing room - have completed all the cutting, cutting, cutting. Will post the first step very soon.

Take care,
Joy

Triangles, triangles, triangles...

What does one do when you find a box of triangles, all cut, some slightly different sizes and all types of colours, and materials.  I found these when cleaning up the other day.  They are left overs from various other projects, mainly from sewing a square onto a corner block then cutting the excess off which produces another triangle.

Well, I got out my trusty little portable Janome and started to sew them into pairs - no pattern or direction, just a coloured piece sewn onto a background piece.  Not sure what I will turn them into, but just couldn't leave them in the box could I?

There is still a lot more than what is shown here, but these are the neatest ones!! Once sewn some will definitely need to be re-trimmed to size.  I'm thinking the most common size of 2.5" square, unfinished.  I also have quite a few 2.5" strips so maybe they will all go together at a later stage.  Will have to get the 'little grey cells' in my head to work.  Maybe some of you out there may have some ideas for me.  If so, please let me know.

Also I was itching to do some machining while waiting for my Pfaff to come home.  I didn't want to start something very important as you all know different machines can give you different 1/4" seams.  Not sure what it is or why that is, but I do know if you examine the stitching different machines can give you different results.