Painted Hexagons - a finished quilt-

A finished quilt ! In the end, the quilting and binding came together very quickly. I spend a few days agonising if I should quilt a crosshatch but in the end decided on simple diagonal lines.

And looking at the quilt in the picture confirms that this was the right decision. The single diagonals work well with the shape of the hexagons.

Although I took great care to reduce bulk when I pieces the hexagons by ironing most seams open, there was still a lot of fabric in the hexagon centres. My machine manages this well but ditch quilting which I briefly contemplated would have provided quite a challenge nonetheless.

I quilted with a 28w Aurifill thread in beige which blends in with the newspaper fabric and with the overall tone of the quilt.

When I started this quilt I (thought) I knew that I wanted to choose as backing the same newspaper print I used as background on the quilt top and also the same as binding. Well, I changed my mind and had to laugh at myself for being surprised about it. I always tell my students when they want to choose backing and binding on the first day of a quilt making class, that they should wait because they'd change their minds about a half dozen times at least. It appears that happens to the teacher too....

The backing fabric I finally settled on is "Spotted Owl" by Alexandre Henry in grey. It works perfectly for this quilt because the grey has a tinge of purple in it that blends with the purple on the front. I have had this print for so long and only used some of it on a smaller quilt ages ago. It's a tricky colour and never seemed to work with anything but finally found its match.

Once I had settled on the back, the choice of binding was an easy one. Of course purple and of course dots (K. Fassett).

The quilt is smaller than I had envisioned it when I started with 57" by 54" inches but I used 90% of the fabric I had and that was my aim. When the top was finished I however added a small border in newspaper print around it to make it a little bigger.

I hope you enjoyed my frequent updates on how this quilt came together and my aim is to keep doing this rather than just showing one or two updates. After all it's all about the process, isn't it ?

 This quilt is for sale in my Etsy shop.

Painted Hexagons - part 4

Finally a finished quilt top !
I say this seldom but am I glad it is finished. This was a surprisingly tedious job and whilst I am very happy with its outcome, I struggled over the last 15 or so Hexagons. It just dragged on too long.

Things looked up when I put it all together with the gorgeous newspaper print as background.

And I love how each hexagon is framed by the solid fabric which I think brings it all together. I had enough fabric fro 39 hexagons. Actually I would have had enough for a few more but not enough for another row of hexagons, so I left some of the purple fabric out as I thought I already have enough of it in here and I am not that fond of purple. 

It was a bit of an odd experience to just use the prints in this collection because I have not done this in a long time. It was sort of restrictive and possibly added to my being a little bored with the hexagon making in the end.

But I do love the way it looks and how each some of the prints change their characteristic through the hexagon shape.

And although paper piecing took a long time I am convinced it was the right decision because I would have had a lot more issues with biased cuts otherwise.

I kept the paper on as long as I could and removed first just the bits that covered the solid fabric when piecing the hexagons to the newspaper triangles and then later on once I created the diagonal rows, the rest. In this way the whole thing kept its shape rather well.

Now onto basting and quilting. But how to quilt....

Painted Hexagons - part 3 -

A little peak today. I now have over 20 hexagons and probably need about 40. I will sew until ALL the fabric is gone, determined to use every scrap of it. I cut the strips so that I have minimum waste and maximum usage.

This coming weekend I hope to produce a couple of sets more. I always sew or six hexagons together so that I have a bit of a production line going but this still takes a couple of hours (would you believe it) and I am not slow on the machine. Still I enjoy it and sew whenever I can set aside 3 hours, so this will take a while until it is completed.

Painted Hexagons - part 2-

So what did I do with those 2 inch strips ? No I did not do a strip quilt although that is on my to-do list of things. I have a couple of K. Fassett books and when looking through them for inspiration for the Bloomsten fabric, a hexagon quilt caught my eye. It is called 'Drifwood My Fair Lady' and is from Brendon Mably and you can find it in the book ' Kaffe quilts again'.

And I thought this would be perfect as I could use the large amount of newspaper print I bought as background. I changed the pattern somewhat in that I made myself a foundation paper template for the hexagons. The pattern in the book advises to piece strips together and then to cut out the 6 triangles for the quilt using a template but I find this not accurate enough. The triangles are basically cut all on the bias and loose form the minute they are cut. Sewing them on paper ensures they keep there form until the hexagons are done. Whenever I paper piece I keep the paper attached as long as I can handle it.

So the long, very long  process of paper piecing has started. Although it can be a bit tedious, I do like it as it is methodological and it is fun to see the hexagons coming together.

On my Travels II - mostly Dresden

I thought it is time for another edition of my traveling project. And it is a fun one.
This gorgeous giant hexagon was mostly assembled on a recent trip to Dresden but admittedly I could have done many more if the 2nd season of Breaking Bad wouldn't have occupied me quite so much.....

The number fabric in the center is a print from Kumiko Fujita called 'black & white calender' available at the Eternal Maker, the diamonds were made from a selection of Novelty prints from Timeless Treasure available at the Fat Quatershop and the red and white dots are from stash and I can't remember what the fabric was called.

Happy sewing !

On my travels II - on the train to Cornwall -

So this is the start of my second ‘On my travels’ quilt following the 13 month long previous project. Again I will only or let’s say mostly work on this whilst on my frequent travels.

I so much loved the EPP process that I will stick to it but this time I am going for something more complex and will create giant hexagons from 3 different shapes.

I got the idea from Clare from selfsewn. Clare frequently makes the most gorgeous quilts from EPE shapes and one of them is a quilt called ‘Summer of Love’ that is absolutely stunning. I saw the shape I have chosen for my new project on one of her tutorials for fussy cutting. I followed her clear  instructions to make templates for the 3 individual shapes but omitted the slim border around the giant hexi. 

Then I dived into my fabric scraps and stash to look for something suitable. This little assembly above is made using K. Fassett fabrics and I think some J. Dewberry and was sewn together on a relaxing train ride 2 weeks ago to visit friends in Cornwall.

I love fussy cutting and will attempt to use in each and every giant hexi at least a fussy cut shape for the the inner hexagon if not for the diamonds too. 

Happy sewing....the weekend is not far....

On my travels I - a finished quilt

Apologize if you have seen this quilt in the making once to often but I promise these here are the last photos. Why ? Well because it is now finished.

I started this beauty about 13 month ago at the first Fat Quarterly retreat where Tacha and Brioni taught me EPE with hexagons. The plan in the class was to make a cushion but I when I had finished my first set of hexies I  had already changed my plan to make a baby sized quilt because I was so taken by what grew in front of my eyes.

They do say EPE is addictive and I can attest to that. There is something very satisfying about making hexagons.

I quilted it by hand along the edges of each hexagon which was a bit painful to be honest. The quilt back is a gorgeous print from Windham Fabrics called 'Presents Books and Letters' that was gifted to me but is or was available at Tikki. I kept the binding simple and used one of the Muslin Mate prints I had in my stash as I don't want anything to distract from the beauty of the quilt top.

My plan was to only work on this quilt while traveling, hence the final name for it: On my travels I (you noticed the I, yep there will be more additions to the series). I stitched on the Eurostar on my way to see my parents in Germany. I stitched even more hours when staying at my parents. Then I stichted on airplanes to far flung countries, on holidays, on other train journeys through the UK and also a little bit at home in my Garden (full disclosure, short journey from indoors to outdoors, might that be a little bit of traveling ?).

So I put the last stitches on the other day and added the binding this week and when I saw the finished piece I was even more in love with it than I was at the beginning. So much so that I already have started work on a large king size version of this but with 5" squares and NOT hexagons. I know Brioni would do that with Hexies in about 6 weeks but alas I can't and won't. I am however convinced that a large  quilt in squares will look just as good.

I have cut all the remaining fabric I had from this quilt and the collection of Moda Muslin Made I had (by the way the Fat Quatershop has a bundle of the newer editions available here) and already went to the Cloth House and bought a few pieces of rough linen to add to this. It will be glorious, I am sure of it.

This quilt will be earmarked for a yet to be announced niece of nephew.......(so glad my brother does not read this blog).

Previous posts regarding this quilt can be found:
here, here, and here.

So that's it then

So that's it then for the next four weeks at least. As already mentioned to you in my windmill post I will be without my trusted Janome for several weeks during building works. And because I don't want to bore everybody senseless with posts about mundane things such as the progress or -non progress of the renovation work I will keep stumm until it is all sorted and will instead put all my energy in hand quilting this beauty here.

Thank you so much for all your helpful tips on my Hexagon quilt.
And by the time I am back this quilt will hopefully be finished and ready to share with you.

See you soon
Judith

Hexagon - a finished quilt top and some advice please

Remember last year July when the first FQ retreat took place in South Kensington. And remember that I started guided by the great Tacha and Brioni my neutral Hexagon quilt ?

Well I have worked on and off on the piece over the past 9 months and made a massive push towards the finishing line when I spend a long weekend at my parents a few weeks back. I always take something to stitch with me and it usually is either knitting or hand stitching in the absence of my trusted Janome.

And now the top is finished and I am soooooooo very pleased with how it turned out 

I love every single hexi in this baby quilt because it includes so many great fabrics. There is tons of Muslin Made from Moda that were left over from one of my first quilts I made. 

Then there is rough french linen bought at the Cloth House right next to actual old linen from my grandmother. We are talking at least 50 years old.

There are modern text fabrics in there, there is Japanese linen in there, there is delicate Oakshott and so much more.

And this is the back side just in case anybody wants to know how it looks from the back.

Now the big question is how to quilt this beauty ? I have been pondering this question for a while now and can't make a decision. I love the quilt as it is and therefore in-the-ditch quilting would be great but I don't think that is an option as I realized that hand stitching isn't quite as stable and durable as machine stitches so I think it needs to get some extra stability through the quilting process.

Should I hand quilt or machine quilt ? Should I sent it to a longarmer for something special ? Should I just stitch along the seems to underline the hexi shapes are totally ignore it ?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Hexagon - an update

Not a lot of crafting was going on over the weekend because I paid my parents a long overdue visit in Germany. But I took the opportunity to take my Neutral Hexi quilt quilt with me and stitched on the train journey and some in the evenings.

So what better then to show you how far I am. You can see it is taking shape and I envisage it to be a baby quilt in the region of 1 m x 1.30m or so.

I started the quilt at this year's fabulous fat quarter retreat in London and hope to have it finished for the next retreat in 2013 for which tickets just have gone on sale !!

What have Haxagons to do with Tennis

...or football for that matter.....

Well, you see I love watching football and even more tennis which means over the past 5 weeks I was doing a lot of just that.

But when it gets all to exciting and tense I need to either hide behind a pillow (like when you watch a scary movie) or concentrate temporarily on something else.

I know it is pathetic and I have missed over the past years a lot of excellent Chelsea and Germany moments on the pitch and even more tennis points with this technique. But its the only way. On the plus side it increases the number of hexagons for my neutral hexi quilt I started at the Fat Quarter retreat.

Have a look.

This here is my magic black box that holds all I need for my hexis.

This is the box opened. It's got my already cut squares, lots of finished hexis, my little rubbish basket for the cutoff corners and also my scissors and thread but I removed them to show you the inside of my magic box better.

And this little pile plus all the basted hexis that are still in the box is the sum total of 5 weeks of Euro 2012 and Wimbledon. You can see that it was tense and in particular the tennis !

And lastly a few trial layouts ! Do you see the hexi flower that is entirely made from the 'Tea Labels' fabric from Lakehouse Dry Goods ? That is a present from the lovely Fiona.... aren't I a lucky girl ! You can purchase the fabric at Simply Solids and also at Tikki. .

I am so looking forward to the Olympics ! Mind you, when Usain Bold runs I'd better pay attention as it will be all over in 9 seconds !

Fat Quaterly retreat

What a weekend it was. There was of course the minor issue of the Queen and and the whole country celebrating the Diamond Jubilee. And celebrations they were ! In true style and torrential rain the mighty Thames hosted over a thousand boats in a river pageant in honor of HM that organisers will struggle to match in the future. My favorite moment by far was the Royal Philharmonic choir singing there hearts out while being literally soaking wet. There is absolutely nothing that gets the British Spirit down and that is one of many reasons why I love to life here.

But there was of course another grand event taking place in a small conference center in the lovely South Kensington. About 100 quilters had gathered for the first long awaited Fat Quarterly retreat ! The preparations for this splendid weekend were long and plentiful. Name tags were swaped, fabric was bought and finally humongous suitcases were packed with fabric, tools, sewing machines and a few pieces of clothing for those that came from afar.

Quilter arrived from all over the world. I met those coming from Oz, Canada, the Czech Republic, Holland, Switzerland, the US and Germany and of course lots and lots of Brits !

Kerry explaining her freezer paper technique

I don't know what other participants expectations were but mine were to learn something new in the classes I had booked and to meet as many people as I could. Were my expectations met ? Oh yes they were and much, much more than that. I enjoyed every minute of the retreat. It was fantastically organized by the Fat Quarterly team and it was apparent that they put not only a lot of thought into this but also a lot of heart.

Tascha explaining EPP to a class

I loved that multiple courses took place in the big hall so you could walk around and see what other people were up to. The atmosphere was so very friendly and communal and that made everybody feel at home. I am sure that was one of the team's prime aims and they achieved this with full marks. I attended three course and learned something new and valuable in each of them.

I met all of my fellow Brit Bee members and that in itself was just wonderful. It means so much more to talk to somebody who is sitting in front of you than through flickr streams and e-mails. I am sure each of us discovered a lot of new things about one another. I met so many new quilters and saw so many wonderful quilts. I laughed so hard and often and even had a lump in my throat when I finally saw our finished project 51.

We hard at work making our freezer paper pin cushions

It was a fabulous weekend in every way and for that I would like to say THANK YOU Fat quarterly team. You have done an amazing job and I sure hope you will make this a regular feature (no pressure there or course).

So let me show you what I learned and crafted over the weekend.

First of Saturday morning I had a class with the fabulous Lucy Summers. I was very keen on learning her famous porthole technique and this was possibly my most eagerly anticipated class.

Lucy ran a great class and all of us managed the technique by the end and some even went on to graduate making a heart. The porthole sample she made us sew was a three hole piece and I chose to use some of my Melody Miller fabric for this. I forgot to bring some colourful solids but Amy was kind enough to lend me some of this fabulous green. Back home yesterday I was keen to do something with the block and so I added a fourth hole around it and made the whole thing into a cushion !

This is a fantastic technique and once you actually got it (which shows itself in a very pronounced AH effect) then it is a breeze. I love it and will definitely use this in a future quilt.

Next on the agenda was an EPP workshop with Tacha. This was a great class as we all sat around a large round table. It was so relaxing and we all chatted and for a while Brioni (also from the FQ team) joined us too. The aim of the class was to learn the technique and possibly start towards making one of two pillows Tacha had brought as samples. Already when I finished the first couple of hexies I was hooked and decided that I would not make a cushion (oh NO) but a quilt of neutral hexies. That of course will take time but I found that this is not only a relaxing technique but lends itself very much as an in-front-of-TV or craft-on-the-go project which is something I always need . Brioni told us that she can make a king size EPP quilt in 6 weeks. I won't be doing that but I am impressed by this speed (if not slightly scared) . Both ladies evidently life and breath Englich paper piecing and Tacha just published her first fantastic book on the subject.

My last class was on Sunday morning and this was another eagerly anticipated one by me; Freezer paper piecing. I wanted to find out what it was all about and what the difference between normal; i.e. foundation paper piecing and freezer paper piecing is. Kerry of verykerryberry tought this class excellently and made a point of showing everybody the finished pieces throughout the morning. We had the choice of making pin cushions or an intricately pieced house. I decided on a pin cushion as you know I have a soft spot for them.

It turns out that freezer paper piecing lends itself excellently to the piecing of the dreaded Y seams.  I was pleased with how my pinni turned out (filled with my customary rice and lavender mix; I do love a heavy and fragrant pinni !). I will definatly use this technique again in smaller items such as pin cushions but possibly not on a large quilt as it is rather labour intensive. I have sewn Y seam on a large quilt before and whilst it is difficult you can get the hang of it after a while. It is also somewhat easier on larger pieces.

So that was it. A great weekend that I will not forget for a long time  ! I hope you had fun too and would love to hear your stories.