Double Hexies

Double hexagons: strips sewn together and cut with 60 degree ruler. Each pair of strips makes two hexies with inner and outer fabrics transposed; there are of course other arrangements too. There are five pairs of blocks in here and two odd ones without their partners.

this is cushion sized as I used two inch strips, and i plan to quilt the rest by hand with big stitches in thick silk thread, in the car on the way to my Granddaughter's wedding on Saturday.

Work in Progress

The severe electrical storms seemed to interfere with the laptop and I haven't been able to post for several days. Herewith some pictures of stuff I am working on.

 I have set my little experimental squares into wide sashings of very pale blue hand woven linen that we found in the drapers in Bungay, lovely stuff but you have to wash it first as it shrinks.

I was trying out the technique of using very narrow strips of fabric, using plains and Oakshott cottons from my stash. I have another set of these, bigger blocks using a deep mustard yellow and black with Japanese fabric, which are waiting their turn at the finishing...

And below is my second attempt at image transfer using paper lamination. This is for the Stretching Art challenge based on Illuminated Manuscripts, but I've rather turned the idea on its head as in my piece the meaning is obscured, partly by the technique where the paper is mostly washed away (picture of that to follow) and also because I have used texts which mainly I cannot read as they are in a variety of languages.

There are texts in French, German, Spanish, Chinese and even the English is taken from the financial information at the back of the newspaper on stock prices, which is all gobble-de-gook to me!



I've also been working on some more Modern Blocks using Log Cabin as this is the subject of the next two classes I'm doing with my rolling program for beginners. I have traditional samples so its nice to make one that is freer and plays with the idea.

 First two completed blocks: but as you can see from the picture below it does make an awful mess... had to get out the hoover before the day got started!

And finally:
No Room At The Bin!!!

Workbench

I am continuing to work on strips for my Dislocation piece, and I've also made set of doorways, or portals that will be set into the Landscape-like background. I think that they will be unavailable/blocked so I am stitching barriers across them.

Here is my dining table which doubles as a workbench.
This free piecing way of working is rather more chaotic than my usual mess!
mostly I am working from scrapbox scraps of hand-dyes, batiks and prints that blend with the colours that I am using.
The measurements are given in cm which is not familiar to me and I was pleased to see that the back of my cutting board gives me an idea of how wide 50cm is!
It needs to be 50cm x 120cm so I had better make some more!!

Playing with Strips

Today I quilted my third Journal quilt and then gave myself permission to play with strips:

Chevron strips

 I had some jelly roll strips but not enough so I cut some more from stash. I organised them into colours that blended and stitched them together in pairs. They were chopped into squares and laid out on point. Some strips were a bit short and I ended up remaking 5 blocks. I quite like the chevron effect but I'll have to look for a larger piece of fabric for setting triangles.

Winter sun

I'm not sure how big this will end up, but will probably make a single bed size Linus quilt unless one of the grandchildren likes it.
I've been revisiting what to do with strips and squares as I have been asked to teach my beginners course again.


The low Winter sun came out from behind the clouds and lit up the world! The iPad takes a reasonable photo when required..
The was an incredible rainbow after this with a very high arc and I found I was driving towards it - magical.

End of Day.

End of Day is the name of the block I made today. But it is beginning to get dark as I write this and I'm yawning!

I thought it would be easy to make this one from strips joined together first, and so it is - except that you only need one side of the pieces you cut! Inevitably you make enough for two blocks. . .

  Because I really hadn't thought it through, on my first attempt I made enough parts for four blocks, as I cut the strips all on the same diagonal and then had to make more as you need mirror images.

Have a look at the picture of four and see if you can spot the differences!

It then transpired that they were too small! I had started with 2" strips, joined them and then cut squares before cutting on the diagonal, but when I came to join them they had shrunk!

Cut like this!

Well after that I remembered the blocks I had made on retreat from Jelly-roll
Strips for the baby quilt as these are the same design with the corners rotated; and tried some with 2 1/2" strips. These will make a 7"block, but can easily be trimmed to make a 6" block for the Farmer's Wife sampler. Join the two pairs of strips and press, then place them RS together dark on light, matching seams. Cut into 4 1/2"squares. Draw the diagonals and stitch either side, cut on the drawn line and press open. For details of how to trim these, contact me as I have now made a crib sheet for it!

 Rotating the corners of the block before assembly makes the Double Pinwheel I used in the baby quilt. I should have remembered they were a challenge to put together as some were clockwise and others anti-clockwise!