Hexagon quilt progress

My hexagon quilt is making progress but is undeniably quite slow since it is entirely hand sewn using english paper piecing technique. I thought I would have had it finished by now, but it is a sort of background task to do of an evening in front of the telly and has been much disrupted by christmas and birthday crochet and knitting. I actually un-sewed quite a bit of it on holiday as my original design didn't look quite right so I bit the bullet and changed it. The reasoning was that the hexagon 'flowers' in a granny's garden pattern were not prominent enough, and whilst it looked quite nice it just looked a bit of a hexagon mish mash. See what you think. The picture on the left is as it was, and the picture on the right was how I planned to change it. The photo's are less than perfect, but this actually helps focus on the overall vision of the quilt rather than the detail. The left picture is dominated by the red dots whereas in the right picture you can see the flowers. Anyway, that's how I see it and so I spent a wonderful couple of days unpicking the red dots and replacing with beige ones. Tedious but worthwhile......I hope.

Now I'm preparing a round of bright red flowers with pale red centres and it seems that finally I have a design! I'm not very good at planning to the last detail. My quilts generally evolve with a frisson of worry as to whether I will have enough fabric to finish. As for this quilt I did some panic buying to stock up with (I hope) enough fabric as it looks like it is becoming extinct. I have some enforced sitting around at the moment due to hip surgery so have made quite a bit of progress with the red flowers, although I had to do a huge amount of ironing to prepare the hexagons. Fortunately, all this can be done whilst sitting down listening to Harry Potter - it's all about the simple pleasures in life......... :)

Ongoing and finished projects

I haven't blogged lately about my current works. That is mainly because I haven't actually finished very much. I'm still beavering away with my hexagon quilt which is going to be a variation on the 'grandmothers flower garden' pattern. So far I have completed 40 flowers, so that is growing nicely. I decided to press all the hexagons with their seam allowances so that it makes it easier to sew together, and it does......but blimey, such a lot of ironing. The only way to do it without going mad  is to set the ironing board to a comfy height and do it in front of the telly or whilst listening to a  good audio story (Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man is the current listen).

I am still quilting my african themed quilt at Nottingham Patchwork Group sewing days. I progressed this a bit further last Sunday and it is close to being finished. I reckon a couple more sessions and it will be finished........well, possibly. Here is how it is at the block layout stage

mad pirate

My pirate outfit is finished, but I can't show you that yet because it's a surprise present. Oh, ok then, here it is..........modelled by me! I know, it really suits me.

i-cord vase cover for a jam jar

And finally, something finished and it's for me. It started life with my newest knitting gadget to make knitted cord (see here).  I wanted  a pretty vase and although we have many vases, they are all in storage, so armed with an empty (and clean) olive jar, I decided it would look really nice with the cord wrapped and stitched around it. Well, it does look lovely, but bloomin' heck, it took ages. I'm definitely hanging onto this one - kids, are you listening? 

I'm also working on a very secret crochet project, so I don't know why I mentioned it because I just cannot say what it is. I'm also planning a knitting project which is a special request from a daughter. More on that to follow. 

Ooh, and I found a photo of some pottery that I had a go at during the new year holiday. I was very much guided by Rob Rutterford,  the master potter himself - see here for his website, and I really can't claim any input at all to the glazing, but I really enjoyed playing with the clay! The buttons will go on my hearts and flowers garland when I get around to it. They were made especially for it and are absolutely perfect for the job. Will update with a photo when it's done!

Hexagon quilt

How many people spend as much time planning their holiday sewing as they do the holiday itself? (substitute 'sewing' with craft of choice). My cunning plan was to make a hexagon quilt. Ambitious eh? It all began when I saw a demonstration of a sizzix template cutting machine and saw how easy it would be to cut hexagons, and then I thought that hexagon hand sewing  or 'english paper piecing'  would be the perfect travel companion. A long story cut short - I bought a cutting machine and had some hexagon die cutters for my birthday. If i needed further justification, I would be making a quilt for us, which is something I haven't yet managed. I could imagine myself sitting on a balcony in the Alps with a glass of wine and some hand sewing, occasionally glancing up and marvelling at the mountains. All this of course after climbing every mountain and fording every stream (singing as per Julie Andrews).

hexagon and mountain view

We didn't manage a long walk today, but that's because we did an epic one yesterday and now we're having a day off. Instead we drove up the mountain for a coffee and a fantastic view of Mont Blanc

Then we had lunch back at the apartment and then drove (not walking) to Sallanches in search of a sewing shop as don't like the sewing needles I brought with me - a good excuse I thought. Anyway, we found a lovely shop called 'Tissus de Savoie' which had a fab range of Savoyard tea towels and tablecloth type things, but also a little sewing section. I couldn't resist some Savoyard patterned quilting material for a future project, although it might make it into the hexie quilt. I did buy some aguilles too!