Leaps and bounds

My June entry into the 12WIPSin2012 challenge is my Hexie quilt. In my original WIP list (written Dec 2011) I mentioned that the Quilt had stalled the previous May when I had only half the required hexagons complete. There are 330 hand pieced 2" hexagons in this quilt, divided in into sets of 22 and then hand stitched into 15 hexie blocks.  I made my first Hexie block in March 2011 and finished the last in May 2012.

Right from inception of this quilt I had the general layout in my head... 15 hexagon blocks cut down into a large square and sashed in grey in a 3 x 5 layout. I was going to worry about the small details like size of sashings etc when I got there.

Over a year later, when I finally got there, I was really nervous about cutting up the hexagon blocks and making a mistake. So I used the iPad App TouchDraw to help visualise the layout and sashing sizes BEFORE I started slicing and sewing.  I decided to cut down the Hexagons to the biggest square I could (13.5") and sash with 4.5" grey homespun. However, that was going to result in a really long quilt- much longer that needed for a single bed. I toyed with removing one of the rows of hexagons blocks, leaving a 3 x 4 layout of blocks.  However, since that represented about 3 months of hand stitching time I just couldn't do it!They all had to take pride of place on the front of the quilt!

The above TouchDraw image shows a to scale layout of the quilt-  13" (finished) pink 'hexagon' blocks with 3" (finished) horizontal sashing and 4" (finished) vertical sashings. The only deviation I have made in the final quilt is to make the green border thinner- and its not green (as  you will see below).

The moment of truth! cutting into the hand stitched hexagon block.

I immediately added the horizontal sashing to stop the hand stitches unravelling and secured the other two sides by running a row of stitching 1/8" away from the edge.

With the sashing on.

The first outer border.

I have stalled here while I audition the thin border. My original drawing had a 2" border in green. But the black and white stripe was calling to me so I decided to let it have a test run. I love it, however, 2" is too much, and I have cut it down to 1.5"  for a thin 1" border in the finished quilt.

After a 14 month poodle with the hand stitching, this quilts has come along in leaps and bounds in just one week.

--May Blocks--

This month in my quilting bee I made blocks for Denni. She sent enough fabric to make two Greek Cross blocks using this tutorial. The tutorial was well written and I found the blocks came to gether in about half an hour plus some extra time hunting through my stash. It almost felt like cheating to finish so quickly and I would have done an extra block if I had more of the grey! Sorry Denni. As it was I had to scrimp a 1/8" seam allowance once becasue I cut the grey up a tiny bit too generously.

We were allowed to swap out the corner triangles for some solids from our own stash (denni supplied plain white if we didnt want to do this). Not really knowing what the overall colour scheme of the quilt was I substituted for colours that were in the fabric supplied to me (except for the green, I just took a punt there).

I hope you like them Denni.

My Bee month is July and I have finally settled on a block and have started collecting fabric. I am getting excited for my turn!

She's Off

This week I pressed and trimmed all the loose threads off the Swoon.

The backing fabric (3m wide Batik) arrived from Widebacks and its a perfect match in colour and style.

I've bundled them up and posted it off to Emma How of Sampaguita Quilts to be quilted. I'm looking forward to seeing what magic she works on it.

MonSwoon sashing and borders

At 95.5" square this quilt top is very hard to photograph!

 I had to resort to the driveway for the clearest shot (and got some dirt on the quilt Grrrrr).

I used 5" sashing between the blocks (cut 5.5"). This spaces the blocks further apart than the Swoon pattern suggests, but I wanted the quilt to be big enough for a King size bed.

 I also added a 7" border around the outer edge. I wanted 10" but didnt have enough my neutral bacnground fabric (I bought 6m!).

As you can see I ditched the cornerstone idea.

This is the moment where you go "Whoa, those blocks really are huge!". I usually have really dark bedding (blues/browns) on the bed, so this is quite quilt is quite a deviation for me.

This bed is a Queen, and the quilt has a decent drape over the sides. I hate quilts that aren't big enough!

This baby is heading off to be professionally quilted. I cant wait to get it back so I can (1) show it to you and (2) start using it! I will try and work on the matching pillows while its gone.

Christmas table runner {WIP 5 of 12}

I was really starting to wonder if I would be able to squeeze in a May WIP. I decided to go for the christmas table runner, because it was the WIP that needed the least amount work to finish it. I made one for my sister last December, and I had so much fabric left over that I managed to get a second to the quilt sandwich stage before Christmas was upon us.

During this last week I unpicked the (terrible) quilting I had started and then quilted it properly. I attached and stitched down the binding yesterday.

This runner is mostly made from Spotlight 'Fat Flats' that I bought in the lead up to Christmas in 2011. Some are actual Christmas fabrics, but many are just fabrics with green and red in them. I like that it doesn't really scream 'Christmas' and I can use it any time of the year.  

 Quilting was just a simple stipple. I didn't really have the mental energy to try something new.

I grabbed a spot fabric from my stash to bind the runner. This is the only deviation from the original runner I made my sister.

Backing fabric is a tad more traditional and formal than the front. I like it, but picked it more with my sisters tastes in mind.

This last month I also finished the last two (of fifteen) hand stitched hexagon squares.

I am planning on completing the quilt top as my next project. If I can work on it quickly enough I will make it my June WIP for the Challenge.

These are some of my favourite fabrics in the latest two blocks. The sleeping owl is from Spoonflower, The goldfish is a Paula Prass fabric (playdate). Girl with chickens is a fabric from spotlight, the cat is from Michael Millers First sight range (virtually impossible to come by and the fish... no idea! The purple ships belongs to the Tula Pink Parisville range.

Cornerstones?

Cornerstones? Yes or no? Please vote in the comments because I cant decide. I leaning towards no.

eight nine swoon

 Well Yay me! I have finished the last two of the nine blocks that make up the Swoon quilt.

Blocks 8 and 9 are very similar, both consisting of an intense (almost lime) green and a deep dark brown. They defiantely arent my favourite blocks, but they do stop the overall quilt being wish washy. This is a monswoon quilt after all. I'm not going for the look of a gentle down pour, but an intense tropical storm!

It took a very long time to settle on this layout. I feel like I have ended up with a great distribution of the green blocks, but managing to maintain a balance between the blocks with blue in then and avoiding a cluster of dark brown anywhere.

In addition to a balanced arrangment of colours I also wanted my favourite blocks on 'my side' of the quilt and I had to try and put my least favourite blocks up the top, where they will eventually be hidden by pillows. Can you see why it might have taken me a while to get the final arrangement?  

And just from a different angle so you can see the different shades of the batiks.

I am now really eager to add the sashing and get the top done.  

Not another hexagon (NAH) quilt

Well I need a new project like I need a hole in the head. But the fabric was just calling me, ever so softly. I swear it was calling out "Milly... sew me please". I just couldn't resist. This fabric started out life as a kona jelly roll. I bought if from here, which is a great place to buy Aussie based fabric if you ask me. Good prices :) and its nice to support grass root WAHMs.

So jelly roll unravelled I searched around the net for inspiration. Finally I found it on my own blog,of all places! Ever since this quilt, I've wanted to do another, non scrappy version.

There are 42 strips in my kona jelly roll, and I managed to divide them up into 14 sets of 3 strips. Each set had one shade of colour, but a dark, medium and light tone of that colour. Here is a little 3 photo tutorial of how to put together this quilt:

Sew 3 strips together using 1/4" seams.

 Using a equilateral (or 60deg) ruler cut the strip into 6.5" equilateral triangles. The 6.5" refers to the HEIGHT of the triangle, not the length of one of the sides. See how the triangle template has measurements down its spine?  Well you use those markers to measure the triangle. The width  of my 3 strips is 6.5" so I would like the bottom of my strips up with the 6.5" line on the triangle template. I also used the seams between each strip to keep things accurate (as it was a bit hard to match the 6.5" line with the pinked edge along the bottom of the strip). In the pic above the seam line between the dark and medium strips lines up perfectly with the 2.25" line- so I checked that measurement too every time I cut a triangle.

From each strip you get 10 (sometimes 11) triangles. Half have the dark toned fabric at the bottom and half at the top. I was really hoping to get 6 of each type from the strip so I could create monochromatic hexagons. I must admit I had a bit of a dummy spit when I realised that I would only get 5 of each. I had to change tack and go for a multi-colour hexagon approach. I actually think its a happy mistake, and I like it this way better.

I have created hexagons with dark inners or dark outers but haven't mixed the two. Not really sure what the final size of this quilt will be. I have enough triangles for a generous lap quilt I think. I do have a second jelly roll, so I made use that to and just keep going until I get to a single bed size.

The new quilt is sharing space with my swoony quilt. I love walking past the doorway and seeing this :) Even if I'm too busy to sew I get to look and enjoy.

I got the thumbs up...

From my two stylists. Not sure how much a 12 and 9 year old can be trusted, but I didn't get any strange stares from the general public. Seems my 12 year old likes to take 'arty', angled photo's just like I do.