Hexagons again

I'm happily hexagonning away at the moment. I'm glad I started with something quite small though - I think there are about 400 hexagons in my plan and I've done around 150. Which makes me feel comfortable with it. If I had planned to do a 10 000 hexagon monster I would probably be throwing it all in the bottom of the Cupboard of Doom about now. I'll post a photo of the bottom of the cupboard one day, it's a sad little pile of failures.

Red, then gold, then blue. There'll be one other main fabric in the quilt, plus neutral backgrounds, but I haven't picked it yet. I think probably another warmish gold or maybe brown, or perhaps red. Plenty on the shelves to choose from.

Because I'm not feeling well, I'm spending a lot more time reading about quilts than doing them! I haven't sat at my machine for weeks, although I probably could. Reading blogs is fun, although like everything, if you do too much of it, it starts to all look the same. The very few genuinely creative people stand out a mile.

Orange peel progress

These are never going to win an award for quilt photography, but at least they show progress. I've pinned up the orange peel and have started hand quilting it. I'm going with simple outline in matching thread.

It could take a long time because it's competing with the hexies for handsewing time. But there's a bigger problem - I may have made terrible mistake with the backing fabric. I thought it was 100% cotton but it has a funny slippery feel when you sew it - like it's dragging on the needle. You know some fabrics are light and happy and welcome being sewn? This is the opposite of that. I seem to have bought a Grumpy Check.

I had nothing to do with this

A dear friend in Brisbane sent graffiti t-shirts for the boys to do, as a craft project while I'm not well. Son number two is fond of all forms of art and craft loved the whole concept, as expected. Less expectedly, he took a while to think about what he wanted to write. He even google imaged "caution signs". Then he took the t-shirt and the markers off for a while and did his shirt, all by himself.

Isn't he clever? Although I think the true genius is on the back. I am not sure if this means I need to have a chat about religion or if my hard-line atheism is working as intended.

He wore it to a six-year-old birthday party this afternoon. I forgot to ask if there were any comments.

Trying something new

Here is a hurdle that I haven't wanted to leap over in twenty years quilting ... paper piecing! I have never really liked the end results of hexagon piecing because I associate it with traditional quilts in pastels. But, of course, you can do whatever you want with them!!! And when I saw Bonnie's no fuss method over on quiltville.com, I thought I would give them a go.

Of course I do it the even-bodgier way. I just very roughly cut the hexagon shape (bigger than the template provided, I like a good solid overlap),then fold it over with my fingers and tack into place, then sew it to another one as per Bonnie's excellent instructions. I'm not sure how well they're going to hold together but looking good so far!

Isn't this pretty? This is for the next set of flowers, around a red centre.

The hexagon drafting was quite a hit in the house, both kids wanting graph paper to make pretty patterns with. And I quite liked it too! According to this plan the finished item will only be about three feet across, which isn't good for anything, but I figured it was better to start with something small. So I don't get horrified and give up.

"Limes and Grapes" finished

I've decided to start naming my quilts - maybe it's a maturity thing! I feel that I can finally call something a name without feeling like a complete tosser. So this is "Limes and Grapes" for, hopefully, self-explanatory reasons.

It's pretty straightforward - big stitch quilted in embroidery floss which has been fun to do. I've been out for the last few weeks with health issues, and this has been my first finish for ages. It was very therapeutic to sew the last bit of the binding down! No, I wasn't watching the cricket while I did it. That's quite random.

An old one

We've just had another week at the beach - no sewing as usual, just surfing, sitting, drinking beer and doing 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle!!! I took a photo, which is pretty sad, but it was the most I accomplished all week.

Here's an old one to show some quilting photos - I did this in 2005 I think, when I was just starting machine quilting. I wanted to do something reasonably complicated, so carefully marked in the cables and feathers with pencil and tried to stick to the lines! With limited success, I haven't done that again - now it's freehand or nothing.

It looks OK I suppose - but what on earth can you do with it? It's too white and stiff to be useful for a baby, and far too small for a bed. It has been folded up in the cupboard-where-quilts-go ever since.

Monochromatic challenge FAIL

Well, I tried. I do love yellow, and I was very excited about using different shades of yellow to make a small orange peel quilt - two tones working together and circles and stuff. BUT I pulled the yellow hand-dyed, and the greeny-yellow, and the orangey-yellow and none of it had a high enough contrast for the pattern. So I halfway abandoned it and put a lovely soft denim-blue with the yellow - which was nice, but a bit obvious. Yellow and blue do look well together but it wasn't what I was after. Then I tried this peachy / apricot with the blue and it looks awesome! A real 1980s colour combination, in fact I think my first quilt in 1988 was apricot and blue. And cream, possibly. I must drag it out and take photos of it - we need a laugh.

So, the orange peel are blocks are orange and blue, and I'm having fun making them. This is the first time I have done freezer paper applique (except it's not freezer paper, because I didn't have any, it's just some paper that was on the floor) and I'm enjoying it. It's a very simple shape, and my stitches aren't exactly invisible, but it's not the big mystery I thought it might be!

However, in terms of Judy's monochromatic challenge, I have emphatically failed!