Last Monday I took my youngest granddaughter to the Denver Botanical Gardens for her fourth birthday. I think she had fun, don’t you?
It was a beautiful day with a beautiful granddaughter.
On the quilting front – my projects are going slow, but some progress has been made. The binding and sleeve for Starry Night Hexies was sewn down
and all the hand-stitching was completed yesterday.
The machine stitching in the background is straight lines alternating up & down and across. It was slow going, but gave me practice with ruler work. I am glad that it is finished and very happy with the quilt.
May is the month for quilts from recycled shirts. My sewing room looks like a tornado went through, but hopefully it will all be under control by the end of the month. It is all my own dang fault, since I started two new recycled shirt projects to go along with the four already started. The goal is to have at least two quilt tops completed by the end of the month. We shall see how that works out.
This was the progress on the Starry Night Hexies a week ago – three half blocks to be made with full & half hexie flowers to be appliqued to the background fabric.
However I was more than ready for this project to get to the quilt top stage, so I focused on the handwork every evening. By Friday night I had the blocks completed and the center sewn together.
As you can see, I ended up moving some of the blocks around. I think that this arrangement gives a more balanced look. After waking up very, very early Saturday morning, the borders were added. First the side borders –
then the top & bottom borders with 4-patch kaleidoscope cornerstones.
The original pattern did not include an inner border or cornerstones, but I like the additional interest they add to my version.
Now I need a new handwork project, but before I can start one there are a couple of pants that need to be mended. Oh joy!
Two of the projects that I want completed by the end of the year are the Swing Your Partner and Starry Night Hexies. Only three more blocks need to be made for the Swing Your Partner quilt top.
Although Bonnie Hunter used HST as sashing in her quilt, I plan to do something different. By the time the last three blocks are completed, I should have it all planned out.
Starry Night Hexies is coming together slowly since so much of it is hand work. All the full hexie flowers are in the process of being sewn down on the background while three more half hexie flowers need to be made.
I also made a trial block for a quilt that I am calling Elephants on Parade. The pattern is Aromatic Rings in the book Rainbow Quilts by Judy Gauthier. This quilt top is on my 2019 goal list.
Each block is 25″ square finished with a 3 x 3 setting. This is going to be a fun quilt to make and it looks even better than the image in my head.
Last week I was busy working on a gift, so no pictures until later. However I did find time in the evenings for hand stitching the hexies for Starry Night.
All 10 of the full hexie flowers are completed, so now they are being stitched onto the background. I am also working on the 4 half-hexie flowers.
One of my favorite things to do at a thrift store is pick up old quilt books especially the series Great American Quilts by Leisure Arts. I am always on the lookout for different or unusual quilt blocks and I found one in the Great American Quilts 1993. The name of the block is Texas Star.
Isn’t it great? It really wasn’t difficult to piece although you need to be gentle with the bias. The plan is to make 6 blocks to form a star.
Check out all the other quilting inspiration at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.
Call me Tiggr – I have been bouncing around from project to project. First up – another Starry Night Hexie has been completed. This is number 6 out of 10 full hexagon flowers for the wallhanging.
Each one is an adventure with a surprise at the finish.
Two more Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler blocks have been added to design wall.
A-7
N-9
My first thought was to alternate dark red & green cornerstones in the sashing. However I knew it was a mistake as soon as I saw it on the design wall – too dark & too distracting.
What if the cornerstones were a different fabric close in color to the sashing strips?
The cornerstone fabric isn’t noticeable from a distance, but is a nice surprise upon closer inspection. Only two more blocks until the top row is completed and a sashing row attached.
I had forgotten how much I enjoyed sewing hexies until I did the hexie block for Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler. Before the block was even finished I had planned my next EPP project.
It all started with this pattern from American Patchwork & Quilting website
and this fabric.
My piece of Starry Night fabric was 51″ long and contain 6 repeats at 8″. I cut the fabric Stack-n-Whack fashion to make 18 groups of 2 1/2″ squares for 10 full hexagon flowers, 4 half flowers and 4 cornerstones.
Each grouping is the start of a new adventure of design.
A pale yellow batik is going to be the background.
This project is small wallhanging size at 27 1/2″ x 34 1/2″. I wonder what tonight’s design will look like.
There may have been a bit of this going on also.
Check out all the other quilting inspiration at Judy’s Design Wall Monday.
