Bits and Pieces

Well, it's been a while, I know, but I have been working on a few bits and pieces...

I am the Queen Bee this month for the online quilting bee, ANZAC Bee.

I have received a few blocks in the last couple of days and although I am yet to piece them together, this is the look I'm going for.  I think it's going to be a really beautiful quilt!

I'm also working on a good old fashioned 9-patch using fabrics from the American Jane "Breath of Avignon" range.  I love these colours with a navy background.  This will be a gift for the next baby boy that comes along (there are plenty of babies on the way!).

I have completed 30 hexagon flowers with Judie Rothermel civil war reproduction fabric, ostensibly for the Hexagon Charm Quilt piece-along that I am a member of, but it's not going to be a charm quilt, so now it's just a hexagon project I'm working on.  I was going to applique the flowers to a background fabric, with sashing in between each piece of appliqued fabric, but I didn't really enjoy the applique, so I'm thinking I may now need to make an awful lot of hexagons to go in between the flowers....  Not sure yet.

And because I am basically insane, I have started making another set of hexagons out of liberty prints.  Don't ask me why, because I don't know myself!

This is a sneak peak of yet another project I have on the go at the moment.  The technique is called "pojagi", which is Korean patchwork.  It is a double-sided piece of patchwork, with no batting in between, making it an excellent patchwork project for someone living in a warm climate.  I first learned of this at The Silly BooDilly's blog.  This woman's work is seriously beautiful!  Do yourself a favour and check out her blog.

  Then I found this lovely blog, which gives EXCELLENT instructions on how to make pojagi patchwork.  This blog is written by a Japanese lady in English, which is her second language, but her instructioins are nonetheless really clear.  She has used pojagi to make a furoshiki, which is a Japanese wrapping cloth.  Her furoshiki is divine.

So, as usual, I have an enormous number of projects on the go, with many more UFOs waiting for some much needed attention piling up in the corner of the dining room!  Oh well, I don't fight it anymore.  This is how I work.  Now I just go with it.

Thanks for dropping by, and if you are reading this now, thanks for reading all the text as well!

Cheers!

Hexagon charm quilt update

I've appliqued the first of 30 hexagon flowers to the background fabric... I like it!  This was originally going to be a charm quilt, but I have changed my mind.  I want to make individual blocks with a hexagon flower appliqued to each block, and then I want to have sashing between all the blocks. 

This will be something a bit different from the last hexagon quilt I made, which was just all hexagons pieced together.  I still haven't decided whether I'm going to hand quilt it, or have it machine quilted by Barb on her long arm quilter.  Decisions, decisions!

And now, on to other matters...

I've been doing some more hand quilting with the Perle cotton #8 from Threadart.  I'm enjoying it so much more than I thought I would.

Any ideas on how to quilt the liberty / pink four patches?  Just outline quilting like the pinwheels?  Or little flowers perhaps?  Or a cross through the fourpatch?

Hexagons

About a week ago, I decided to joing the Hexagon Charm Quilt Piece-Along Flickr Group.  I tthought that I might like to make another hexagon quilt, this time for my Mum.  I have been dreaming about fabrics and layouts and had pretty much decided on a plan:  French General Rouenneries + navy japanese style cottons in a Grandmother's Flower Garden design.  I even ordered the freezer paper templates for the project from Jackie at Canton Village Quilts, which will be here any day now.  The problem is...

In the mean time, I couldn't not make hexagons!  I was so excited to be starting another hexagon project, that I just had to make some while I waited to start the "real project".  This is what I've managed so far...

180 x 1.25inch sided hexagons made out of Judie Rothermel civil war reproduction fabrics!  Once I started, I just couldn't stop.  So, change of plans.  I've ordered 10 more fat quarters of the Judie Rothermel fabrics from Quiltsmith's and I'm going to save the Rouenneries and freezer paper templates for the next project.  Crazy, I know.  This just seems to be how I do things. :-)

I've also managed to finish the hexagon quilt top I have been working on for my unborn daughter (due this Saturday!) for the past 14 months.  It's all ready to be quilted.  What do you think??

I'm so chuffed.