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

That Wasn’t Expected

On Friday I realised that I had no hand stitching to work on at my stitching morning.  That’s not technically true, but there was none that I could work on for my projects that I am currently concentrating on.

Time to have a dig into the other projects and the one that surfaced was my Slow Stitching Pouch.  This was started back in June 2025.  You can read about it here.  I completed the slow stitching part in August, while up at Baradine.  You can read about that here.

I had left it at the stage of having to have a think about how to proceed.  That seems to be the theme of why things stall with me.  Anyway, I had stitched everything down onto a very light weight pellon and felt that the pouch would need more structure. 

This project was to be completely made by hand.  No sewing machine on this one.

Last month I had made a frankenbatting to use and I had previously selected a pretty fabric for the lining.  Time to lay it all out and work out how to join the layers together, as I felt they would be a bit loose otherwise.

I decided to use invisible stitching to attach the lining to the wadding and then flip it over and do the same from the front, as I didn’t want to detract from the stitching I had already done.  Looking at the above photo, the stitching really is invisible.  I fortunately had the perfect matching thread.

The pin is pointing to a stitch.  I just took a teensy weensy stitch and then threaded the needle through the middle of the layers as far as it would go, about two inches, before taking the next stitch. They were so hard to see that I actually sewed over them at a couple of spots.  

I had the lining and half the outer stitched down while at the stitching morning.  As I was enjoying myself so much, after lunch I set myself up on the back verandah and kept going.  The weather was perfect.  The sting has now gone out of the heat.

A lot of slow stitching projects have raw edges just whip stitched or blanket stitched, but I’m not really a fan of that style for me.

I had thought to bind the two short ends in different fabrics, but looking at the size of the lining, decided to just self bind by turning it under.  It worked well on the first end, with some additional running stitch for texture.

I then trimmed the sides of the piece and the other end………flush with the top.  Sometimes I really don’t know where my brain is.  Oh well, it looks like that end would be bound with a different fabric….back to Plan A.

I used the blue fabric I had originally thought of using.

Now to actually construct the pouch.  As this was to be completely constructed by hand, initially I just whip stitched the sides together.

Then I bound them.  Time to see what was lurking in the binding scraps tub.  There was one that would work quite well and there was enough for both sides……..except for 3 inches.  That would be right.  What else is there?  I found a scrap of a green fabric that I had used in the body of the pouch that would work OK, so I just added it onto the other binding. This was then added by hand and then slip stitched down.

Before long it was completed.

It is just the right size for an iPad, not that I need a pouch for my iPad.

Having said it is completed, I may add a little more to it at a later date.  I haven’t added any closure and the inside of the flap looks a little bare.  Maybe somewhere to put some needles if using as a project bag? 

 

I’ll mull over it for a while. It is  “slow” stitching after all.

Chookshed Challenge #8 Is Complete

Can you believe it.  I actually completed a Chookshed Challenge project within the month!

I did not expect to get this project completed in May, but we did not expect to be back home after only about a week away.  Let’s recap.  You can read my initial post here. 

So, this was the kit I was working with.

As I explained at the time, I replaced the embroidered centre hexagons with vintage doiley pieces.  Despite saying I would include a yellow fabric, it was too strong.  In the end I made the three EPP motifs the same.

The kit used two different background fabrics for the blocks.  They were from fabric that was cut at ten inches square.  I felt that an extra half inch would give the motifs just a smidge more room to breathe, so would use something else.  I have a box of fabric labeled “Pretty”, so I was hoping to find something suitable in there, and I did.

This super soft green on cream was ideal.

I also wasn’t too fussed on the border fabric.  It was a bit too lolly pink I felt.  Therefore I auditioned a few options, all with the striped binding fabric that came in the kit.  

This is what came with the kit.  When I look at it now, it would have been fine.

This fabric was one of the fabrics that came with the kit and was to be the background for one of the blocks.  I liked it, but then realised that it was directional and that wouldn’t work.

I found this one in the Pretty box.  Mmm, that’s OK.  Still a bit too pink.

Let’s try something else from the Pretty box.  Maybe a bit to green.

Now, what if you refold the fabric, which has large florals?  That’s better.  

Next to look for some batting.  I knew I didn’t have sufficient iron on batting, but maybe I could make some frankenbatting that would work, and also use up of some of those small bits.  

It worked….just.  Mum would be proud of my frugality.  She was always careful with fabric usage.  If ever she used a commercial pattern, she would lay it out at home before purchasing fabric and inevitably found that you didn’t need as much as the pattern recommended.

I found a backing fabric in the Pretty box that would work but I’m not that fussed on.  You won’t see it, so a great way to use it up.

So, here it is.  All finished on the 29th of May.  

And the back.

I am so very pleased to tick this one off the list.  It is very “pretty”.  In the end, the only fabrics I used from the kit are the pink and blue in the EPP and the binding, but I am happy with the fabric choices I ended up making.  The other fabrics from the kit have now been added to the “Pretty” box for use in the future.

I am linking up with Deana.  Pop over to see what the other girls achieved.

Now, we just need to have a nice afternoon tea with pretty cups and saucers.

Stitching Wishes for May

I’m starting to sound like a cracked record, as once again, I won’t have a great deal of stitching time. This time it is because we will be away for much of the month.  Let’s see what I hope to achieve.

First up is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This month’s colour is green.  The split nine patches shouldn’t take too long.

Now, for the Chookshed Challenge…..

The number drawn is Number 8.  The goal for that number is to make a quilt from the split nine patches that I have been making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I had already decided early in the year that I need another year’s worth of RSC blocks to get to a decent size.  Hence, it has to be late in the year that I work on this one.

Therefore, for the fourth time this year I need to swap things around.  Hand stitching will be the go.

The project I have settled on is the Tilly’s Tea Party table runner.  This was initially the project for February, but was swapped out then.  The delay was the stitchery on the centre hexies.  This is a kit from a stitching day that never ended up happening due to Covid.  When I opened it up earlier this year, the printed stitchery design has actually faded to a level that you can’t follow it and I can’t be bothered to retrace it.  It was suggested to me that I could possibly use vintage doiley embroideries for the centres.  Now, I liked that idea.

This afternoon I had a little hunt and found a piece that would work.  The motifs fit nicely and are a suitable colour.  It has quite a few small holes in it, so I have no hesitation in cutting it up.  None of the holes are anywhere that will affect the areas I plan to use.  It is currently soaking in some Oxyclean to get it all nice and fresh and hopefully remove a couple of marks.

One of the fabrics in the kit looked a bit wishy washy next to the embroidery, so I switched it out for the yellow.  Other than that, I think this will work.  It is something I can prep and then take away with me.  All I intend to get done is the EPP motifs.  The rest will have to wait till we return home, so I am not aiming to get it finished in May.  If that happens, it will be a super bonus.

The hexies that I basted last month are currently all packed up in a pile.  I think I will lay them out again, in a similar fashion to the above photo and stitch them into that shaped panel.  Then I plan to join it into a ring and make it into a panel around the base of a tote bag.  I’ll just need to add two more hexies.  I think I can manage that……all subject to change, of course.

Other than that, I just want to work on my crochet blanket. That will keep me out of trouble for quite a while……if I can find more of the yarn on our travels.

I really don’t anticipate that I will manage to complete all of these wishes, but I at least want to have them prepped and packed into my sewing basket that lives under the seat in the caravan.  There would be nothing worse than running out of projects…..as if.

I’m going to link up over at Deana’s.  Pop over and see what other Chookshed Challenge projects are going to be worked on this month.