Another One Bites the Dust - The Hexy Flower Quilt is Finished

This quilt was started back in May 2024. I needed some hand stitching to work on at stitching days, so started making some random hexy flowers with no project in mind.  It was also something that fitted in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I thought it would be something that ticked over for a very long time.

Fast forward just a couple of months and Anorina Morris had a pattern published in Homespun magazine called Bigs and Smalls and I now knew exactly what I would make with the hexies I had started and it gave me the impetus to get them made a bit quicker.

I became a little obsessed and really enjoyed the process of making the flowers.  I used up all the suitable fabrics in my little scrap tubs and then started using some fabric from my stash.  I seem to be a scrap magnet.  You know how they say to donate those scraps that you won’t use, there is someone who will like them…..well, that’s me.  A garbage bag of scraps came to our patchwork group and after the better pieces were removed, the rest of the smaller pieces were going to be thrown into the garbage bin.  Noooo!  They came home with me and many of them have now found a home in this quilt.

Finally, it was time to start hand appliquéing them to the grey backgrounds, which also came from my stash.  Some onto just one piece of fabric and some pieced.  It broke it up and also used some of those smaller pieces of fabric.

Then, in January 2025 all the blocks were made and after making my design curtain, especially for this project, it was time to play with the layout.  That was great fun.

I think I looked a bit happy when it was all in place.

By the end of January the quilt top was completed.  This was so much quicker than I ever expected.

Now, how to quilt it?  A lot of work had gone into it and my quilting machine was still not playing nice.  Would I consider hand quilting it?  I packed it away to think about on another day.

Tuesday this week was the day.  I now felt confident enough to quilt it on Elly May.  This involved yet another learning experience, as the design I wanted to use was one that I would have to purchase and download the software.  It all went rather smoothly.

It took quite a while to quilt, as the design was detailed.  I wanted movement, but not flowery or too round, so chose one call Tendrils.  

I’m really happy with the results.

I knew from early in the making of this quilt what I would use for the backing.  It is the second orange vintage sheet that I bought at the church fete some years ago.  I think it suits the sunny, happy feeling of the quilt. I used the other one to back the Crossroads Quilt.

This quilt will definitely be a keeper and has already found a home on our bed. Something to cherish, as I never thought I would complete a hexy quilt.

QUILT INFORMATION

Measurements - 84" high x 70" wide

Pattern - Bigs and Smalls - published in Homespun Magazine June/July 2024 - by Anorina Morris 

Fabrics - Various from stash and from scrap bags

Quilting Design - Tendrils #1 by My Creative Stitches

Batting - Bamboo/Cotton

Backing - Vintage Sheet purchased at church fete several years ago

Thread - Glide - Warm Grey 4

Another Finish For the Year and Post Christmas Happenings

We had a lovely day on Christmas Day, spending time with family and friends. The weather was perfect, being sunny and with the temperature in the mid 20s C.  We may have got a little sunburnt, as it was nice to sit in the sun, without being hot enough to look for the shade.

Boxing Day was a nice, relaxing recovery day, with the Test Cricket on the tele. I have a new tradition, this being the third year, if you can call that a tradition, of starting a jigsaw on Boxing Day.  Another one found at the church fete.  When I had a good look at it I realised that it wasn’t going to be a quick easy one, with all that quilt section in the middle.

This is how much I achieved on Boxing Day and I haven’t done much more as yet.  As you can see, all the easy bits are done and now I have to concentrate.

In the meantime, yesterday was another coolish day.  Check out our morning temperature.  Brrrr.  Tomorrow morning isn’t forecast to be much warmer.

What that did mean was that it was rather pleasant to sit on the back verandah and knit. I now have a completed beanie.  I love the way it turned out.  This was a great introduction to knitting cables.  The pattern chart was easy to follow, I just had to sit quietly so that I wasn’t distracted.  

I had read a comment that it was a largish size, as there was only the one size in the pattern, due to the design.  After blocking, it is definitely too large for me, but Mick has happily claimed it.  My plan was to knit him one the same in blue, but I will now knit another pattern for him in the blue and will find another pattern for me and find some more neutral coloured wool.  A good excuse to knit something else. 

What else have I been working on?  Well, I set up the design curtain and laid out the Wensleydale Quilt blocks.  They have been sitting there for a couple of days and I have tweaked it a bit, when walking past.  I think it will have to do, or I will start to overthink it, which I don’t want to do.  Next, to get it sewn together into a flimsy.

I have found some suitable backing fabric to quilt another couple of quilts, so hope to get to those fairly soon as well.

The other main job for today was to put Christmas away.   We were expecting this to happen a little later than today, as it is normally a job for after the cricket match has finished, but it was all over in two days!  And the Poms won!  Not the plan at all, so we go the decorations down a little earlier than scheduled.  Mick packed up all the lights outside, while I packed away all the inside decorations.  It takes a while to get it all out and then away, but it does look nice for those few weeks.  As usual, everything seems a little bare at the moment.

And that about sums up what we have been up to since Christmas.  I had grand plans for these few days between Christmas and New Year, but as usual, they will not all get done.  However, that doesn’t matter.

Spending Some Time With my Sewing Machine

When I look back at what I have done this year, it has become apparent that I have done very little stitching at my sewing machine since Scrub Stitchin’.  It’s time to get back into it.

So, what have I been up to so far this month?

Once we arrived back home from our latest trip to Baradine, my first priority was to make three shadow blocks for Betty’s group quilts.  These were July’s prompt, but this was the first chance I had to make them.  Fortunately, there was no real urgency for them.  The prompt was one to be brownish, one kid’s print and one a favourite print in blues or greens.

The next thing I wanted to work on was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for this and last month and look at the Chookshed Challenge goal of putting together the Split Nine Patch quilt top.

It was time to bring out the Design Curtain again.  How to lay out the blocks?  I ended up grouping them by colour.  Now, I have just been making two blocks each month for the last three years, not thinking about the layout.  Of course, that has meant that I have six blocks, which make up one and a half big blocks.  To make it bigger I needed to make quite a few more blocks, which I wasn’t really thrilled about doing.  The alternative was that I could use what I had to make a smaller quilt with two blocks left over.  That seemed a much better idea, so no extra blocks were made.

It didn’t take too long to stitch them together.

While I was stitching away, I continued to make some more leader and ender blocks for “Bonnie Lass”.  I had stitched up what I had previously cut out, so it was time to dig into the scrap tubs and cut some more. There are now sufficient to keep me going for a while.  

Meanwhile, while the design curtain was up, I thought I would see what it was looking like and what other fabrics it would need.  This is 60 units and I will need 396, so quite a way to go.  Mmm.  Some brighter, clearer colours are needed, as it looks rather muddy at present.  I now have 110 units stitched, so a quarter of the way there.

Let’s make good use of the design curtain, while it is adding its decorating style to the sitting room.  Why not have a look at those Rainbow Scrap Challenge fish, now that all the blocks have been appliqued?

My plan has always been to make two smaller quilts, rather than one large. So a bit of juggling to work about the best colour distribution.

Next, to add some filler blocks.  I must say that being able to play with the blocks here, rather than the floor or bed, has been a game changer.  It works so very well.  

Then it was time to add the narrow border around them.  I wanted to have them not quite the same.

Today, I have added the border to the Split Nine Patch and the second border to both of the fish quilts.  That blue batik has been in my stash for about twenty years.  I think there is enough for the bindings and then it will be all used, other than some small scraps.  That is a big win in my books.

I’m so pleased to finally have these to the flimsy stage.  Now they have been added to the ever growing “To Be Quilted” pile.

While the design curtain is still hanging in the sitting room I am going to have a play with something else that has been hanging around for too long.

Did I say that I like the design curtain……

Saving the Best Till Last

How good is this? One completed Hexy Flower Quilt top.  I’m so pleased to have it all done.

My wish was to have all the blocks appliquéd in January, and then once that was achieved, it was amended to have all the blocks joined together. I had that done the day after I laid them all out on the design curtain.  Next, I wanted to add a narrow border, just to keep all those seam ends secure.  That happened late this afternoon.  Nothing like leaving things to the last minute, but I really wanted to have the top completed this month.  I have even prepped the binding, ready for whenever I am up to that stage.

While stitching away on my blocks, I was considering how to lay them out. I looked at various similar appliqué hexy quilts on Pinterest and some had all the blocks with the lump of the hexy flower at the top, some had the vee at the top and some were totally random.  Totally random isn’t me.  I also had to take into consideration that several of my background fabrics are directional and I hadn’t taken that into consideration at all when basting the hexy flowers to their blocks.  In the end I decided to alternate each block.  That worked for the backgrounds and also give the quilt a bit of movement, or so I think.  Anyway, I’m happy with what I chose to do.

The next decision is what backing to use.  Everything is from stash up to now, so I have to see what I can find that will be suitable. 

Then to decide how to quilt it.  An all over pantograph is just not going to cut it, considering all the hand work that I have done on it.  I could custom quilt it, but I don’t have the skills yet.  Then, I thought I could hand quilt it, but it is big and hard enough to lug around as a flimsy, let alone as a basted quilt.  Oh, and this would be my first hand quilted quilt.  Mick reckons to do straight lines to outline the blocks.  I may follow Mick’s suggestion and then do big stitch hand quilting around the hexies.  I’m not going to rush into anything at this stage.  It will come to me when it is ready.

Anyway, I am absolutely delighted to have it as a flimsy, as a quilt like this is something that I never thought I would make.

Well, That Wasn’t Expected

This morning, at breakfast I was reading the comments on my blog post about my hexy quilt.  

One comment suggested that I could make a design wall using flannelette on a rod, suspended over a door using hooks.  Well, my first reaction was, I wish, but I haven’t got a flat surface suitable.  It’s not as though I haven’t thought of every possibility already.

A design wall is something I’ve coveted for some time, but there is no flat surface in my sewing room and all our wardrobes have sliding doors. It is just something that is not possible.

Well, while sitting at the breakfast table, my eyes fell on our large glass display cabinet in the sitting room, just beside my sewing room and the cogs started ticking over.  It wasn’t long and Mick and I had the tape measure out and decided that it could possibly work.  

A trip was then made to Spotlight. We bought a lightweight curtain rod, some flannelette and some plastic over door hooks.

The start.

The curtain rod was 2 metres long, so two widths of fabric would be perfect, with just a seam up the middle and no need for side hems………..except, when I got it home I discovered the fabric was 60 inches wide, not 42.  Blast!  Now there were side hems to sew, as I still wanted a centre seam for lining things up.

After a bit of work it was ready to hang.  

Ta da!  One design curtain.  It only seemed fitting that the last hexy flower that I appliquéd should be the first placed on it.

Then it was time to play.

All done.

This quilt is a biggie, so one row still ended up on the floor.  I love it.

I don’t think I will have a chance to start sewing the blocks together tomorrow, but now that they aren’t on the floor, I doesn’t matter if they stay there for a couple of days.  The best thing is that my sewing room is right next door to this cabinet.

Once the blocks are all together, I can pack everything up.  There is the minor matter that we can’t open the cabinet doors while curtain rod is hanging there.  Mick joked that he can bring a motorcycle into the sitting room and put it on the coffee table to work on, now that I have encroached on the space.  I know that is the last thing he would want to do.  Also, despite what I said in my last post, he would not mind me having the blocks on the floor, as long as he could get around them.

I’m so grateful for the comment that had me thinking again, as now I have a really useful addition to my toolbox.