Monday, January 23, 2017

I’m back, I think….

Sheesh, I didn't realize it had been this long since I posted. Just been too busy doing hobbies I guess.

But....I think it is about time I showed some more stuff that I have been working on. Since the new year I have got back to quilting....here are some progress pictures: All of these are made with hexagon shapes, but I am not using English paper piecing, since that just wastes time with basting pieces of fabric to paper and then piecing them together, then having to remove the paper again. It is so much faster to just print the cutting and stitching lines on the back of freezer paper stabilized fabric and stitching together with the running stitch. I use Inklingo for most of my qulting, it makes life so much easier….

flower basket

This is as far as I've progressed on my flowerbasket quilt done in 1 inch per side hexagons. I have almost the top left quarter completed, just need 2 more rows, then we'll get the top right quarter done. I am trying to add a few hexies every day, since I quickly get bored with all the background pieces. I originally started this quilt with cutting the hexagons with a rotary cutting ruler, and then used a plastic template to draw the stitching lines, since there was no way I was going to use EPP. Needless to say, before long this became a chore, so it got put away. Then a few years ago Linda Franz invented Inklingo, and I never looked back. I even recued several of the already cut hexies that didn’t have the stitching lines by ironing them in place on a ‘pre-printed’ piece of freezer paper and sending it through the printer so that I had stitching lines to work with. But…it is still boring to add all the background pieces, so it is progressing, but slowly.

 

albertI have added a few more 1/2 inch per side hexagons to the Albert Small reproduction, though not as many as I’d hoped. But is slowly increasing in size. I am using EQ7 to draw out the individual units, using a picture I found on the internet as my guide. I know that the original was done in 1/4 inch hexies, but I am using 1/2 inch ones, which are easier to stitch, but that means I’ll likely not make the whole quilt as the original, since it would become way too big.

 

 

 

 

 

prudenceIn the past year I also started on the Dear Prudence quilt, it is done with 1/4 inch per side hexies, but this one is very slow going, The hexies are soooo tiny it is fiddly to stitch. But it also is slowly getting bigger, I try to add a few each day, but I get frustrated with the tiny-ness of the pieces, so can only do a few at the time. The outer round of mainly beige on this has been finished since I took this picture. I am about to start the next rounds, which are blue, white, blue, white before adding another border of flowers.

 

 

Then a few days ago I came across mention of another hexagon quilt, called La Passion. Of course I had to go check it out, and since the pattern was free I had to download it….and ended up purchasing the 3/8 inch Inklingo hexagon file. The original quilt is done in passion 21/2 inch hexies, but I decided that I wanted to try the size between 1/2 and 1/4 inch. I am really enjoying stitching these hexies, they only take about 4-5 stitches to do a seam, so stitch fast, but is not too fiddly like the 1/4 inch ones. I am also having fun selecting fabrics, since Grit used several leftovers. I am using several 5 inch and 6 inch charm cut fabrics, which gives you either 14 or 23 hexies. And I can stitch one of the flower shapes in about 10-15 minutes (haven’t timed exactly). We’ll have to see how long I will be working on this one before it gets put aside….. Hmm, I just noticed that I put the outer pink and red in the wrong place, Guess I’ll have to undo the seam between the white and pink and move the pieces up some.

Well, here’s hoping I’ll post a bit more often than once a year.