So a little explanation with pictures

Hi everyone

So for many posts I have been just showing Hexagons pieced into diamonds.  So I thought I would explain and show what I am doing with them.

Each time we (the family) go in the car for any sort of road trip, my tin of cut Hexagons, papers and threads come along too.  I baste them ready to stitch together.  I don't do the glue method, I find it hard to be tidy with the glue in a moving vehicle.  I can also get a little car sick if I don't keep my eyes on the road enough.....so I baste with needle and thread, works for me....

After I have basted a whole heap (technical term for Many), I then play around with combinations for the pieced diamonds.  I bag them into little snaplock bags ready to go.  So on the nights I want to stitch but not have to think too hard I start putting them together.

Now the inspiration for this quilt is from the book "Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899, by the Virginia Consortium of Quilters.  I love this book, and have many pages tagged of "want to make someday" quilts.

The particular quilt I am making was made by Maria Hester Monroe Gouverneur, around 1830.  Unfortunatley is was never finished, I hope to finish mine, eventually.  The orginal is made using 3/4" hexagons, mine is with 1" hexies. The orginal is still basted with newspapers of the day, amazing. Maria Hester was the daughter of President James Monroe and Maria was the first daughter of a President to be married in the White House. Maybe this heritage helped in the preserving this quilt for us too see today..

So I continue to piece the hexies into diamonds

Join the diamonds into a larger hexagon, joining with random neutrals

then join those hexies together to make a row, again with random neutrals

then I have to do several rows and then I will make some half units to fill in the spaces.

so that's what I am working on in between other stuff.  I love this quilt and really hope to finish it, as I do want to make it a big quilt, I don't do small quilts very often

I hope you like the pics.  I am teaching tomorrow so I should get some rest soon, maybe after a bit of stitching..

enjoy

A Retreat at Home

This weekend I hope to get some fabric pushed through the machine.  All other family members are out, leaving me at home by myself, poor me.  Are you jealous????  My daughter is at Scout camp from early Saturday morning to late Sunday afternoon.  Hubby and son are helping our friend out Kart racing over the weekend, but home in the evening, so the slow cooker will be getting a work out over the weekend for dinner.

I could list all the projects I hope/would like to get done in that time, but realistically I may get one finished. Hopefully this one

 

 

It is a split 9 patch and is for my daughter.  It is her quilt for the caravan.  Apparently everyone has theirs finished and not hers.  I have been working on it slowly for over a year.  So this weekend it is the focus and if it gets done then I will feel like I have gotten somewhere and anything else achieved will be a bonus.

  I didn't want to make a big list and then only see what was not done.

These are all the parts I need to put together. Above are the pairs of lights and darks.  The blocks are totally scrappy for the lights and darks.  All squares are 2.5" with the block finishing at 6"

More light squares that need to be added to the red polka dot tucked in there.

I hope to make 132 blocks in a 11 x 12 grid. It should measure at 66" x 72", a nice size for a tweeny..

My essential supplies for the day....

And my sewing table with everything lined up ready to go, no wasting time trying to find what I need, just straight into the sewing.

One more item needed, the Ipad, with music, podcasts and movies for company..

Fingers crossed all goes to plan, starting with a good nights sleep

BOM Rehab

Yippeeee!!!!!!

I have got the last block done for Merry Merry Christmas.  Gosh it feels good.

I have started and finished all the blocks IN THE ONE YEAR.

now to do the borders and the top is complete

I will not get it quilted this year but that's okay, we are not going to be home much this christmas anyway.

I am linking with Sinta at Pink Pincushion this week for my BOM finish

Back to BOM Rehab

Hello

I have had a chance to get back to my BOM Merry Merry Snowman, but alas only the embroidery completed on a previous block. But it is finished and I have started on the next.

 This is Block 2 completed ( insert little happy dance)

I also played with these. This top is finished. I will show a picture when quilted, don't hold your breathe waiting though, I have a few custom quilts to get done first.

While I was away from this blog I was making the Amy Butler Weekender bags for the family.  Well this is the one for my sister, I forget to get a pic of Mum's.  My sister loves it. yay.

So check out the other BOM Rehab girls over at Pink Pincushion.

I'm off to put a roast in the oven, so cold here this weekend.....

Homework is done,

I am off to Toowoomba this weekend for my classes with Sue Ross at  Precious Times shop.  This is a beautiful shop, staff and town, you must visit. Lisa has a lovely blog also with pictures to admire.

So this is part of my homework for class completed.  It was not mandatory but I certainly needed to get this quilt to this stage for myself.

I have had to applique the circles to the backgrounds, then applique all the scallops on each block.  Each block has 4 scallops and there is 9 blocks, that makes 36 I had to do.  The past couple of nights I have sewn the sashings and blocks together and got the last of it done last night.

The pictures look washed out, it is very overcast here with no chance of changing in the next few days.

The next step is applique borders, they have a vine, flowers and leaves. Yay more applique, more poor fingers.....
My other homework that will be checked up on, is not completed.

Some Finishes - Sort of - of Mine

I have to take any kind of finish I can get these days...

Block 1 from Merry Merry Snowman Quilt by Annie of Bunny Hill Designs ( the eyes are buttons that are put on after quilting).

Finished piecing the blocks for "Bennington" Schnibble from Carrie Nelson's book "Schnibbles times two".  I have made it a little bigger as I had a layer cake to use and not Charm packs.  I have sewn 5 of the 7 rows together, then just borders etc to go.

Finished piecing the blocks for a new jelly hexagon quilt.  This is made with 2 Jelly rolls from French General (moda), Pom Pom and Rural Jardin. The green triangle  fabric is also from moda, Winter, by Minick and Simpson.  I am not sure how big this will be but am enjoying the piecing..

And this is my son (the food inhaler) finishing his laps at practice day on the weekend.  We are off to race in Lismore later.  Have to see if any quilt shops are around the area.....

oh and I have finished this block from "Halloween Baltimore" by 3P designs.  Do you like the black edge effect.  We have a new camera and I was trying it out and thought this would be cool for the Halloween Blocks.

I am attempting to do one block from my BOM each month to keep up and get finished.  On track still for the first month, not sure about month 2.

I have linked with Sinta's Blog Pink Pincushion along with other quilters motivated to finish BOM breeding in our dark cupboards

Time to cook dinner, kids are hungry AGAIN....

So, Happy New Year To All

Ahh the fireworks over the ocean, beautiful, much better than my photo, but you get the idea.

The last few months have been very busy for me.  Lots of quilts needed to be done by Christmas. All done....

Then spend some time with the kids before xmas, decorating and cooking, wrapping presents and organising family gatherings.  We all had a wonderful xmas, a bit busy, but great.  Many lovely gifts given and received and small children excited and happy. The adults eating way too much food and having a merry christmas drink or two.  I did not get any photos of xmas, I forgot to get my camera out the whole time.

Boxing Day arrived and I just slept most of the day and night.  Isn't funny how you know the end of the year is here and you can stop and relax, but your body just shuts down completely.

So after resting, I have had a chance to get the my sewing machine and play.  The following  pictures are of quilts that have been finished a little while ago and also this week.

I made this small quilt to work out how it was done.  I saw it here ages ago.

I have always wanted to take Binding shots of a quilt. Ta da!!!

I then started this bigger one after and finished it this week. It is big quilt, still to be quilted though.  I love the effect of Clamshells without the paper piecing.   I do have the papers to make a Clamshell quilt traditionally and will still do that one day.  I always need a hand project for footy season each year.

Earlier this year I made a Hunter Star quilt and really enjoyed it. Another really big quilt, still to be quilted also.

And have now made a smaller version. Also needing to be quilted, and another row added ( i ran out of fabric by only 2.5 inches, bugger)

I have made the smaller quilts with the view of teaching these techniques.  While working at a patchwork shop for the last 5 years I have noticed that the space available for hanging quilts is limited, you want to hang them all but the walls are not big or long enough.  So the smaller quilts can be hung without taking up valuable space but still being able to see the impact of the quilts.  I tend to teach quilts with one block repeated creating secondary patterns and this also gives the option for students to make the quilt to any size that suits their needs.  Not everyone wants to make big quilts like I do.

I have other quilts in my head and beside the machine to work on this year and hope to show you more of those as I go along.

I was once told that whatever you are doing on New Years Day is what you will do for the year.  So today I have covered the areas of Family, Friends, Quilting, Sewing, Organising and Decluttering and my Health.  So I should be set for a good year ahead. Fingers crossed.

Happy New Year to you and your family, give them a hug and and kiss whenever you can...