The central band is nearly done.
Click on the photo and see if you can find your fabrics!
As you can see, the part on the right of the centrepiece is now complete. On the left, I have a block of 15 or so more flowers to make and attach, and then the whole left side strip will be finished and I can attach both side panels to the centrepiece. At that point, the front will be halfway done. The next stage will be strips for the top and bottom, probably three flowers deep. I have plenty of fabric left, and it’s going pretty well; not quite a production line, but I think I have identified the quickest way of making and assembling the pieces – or at least, a way that works well for me.
Yesterday, I received another package of Friendship Fabrics for this quilt. The lovely Esther at ipatchandquilt has sent me these pretty pieces, which I will be able to use on the front. Esther has a gorgeous, colourful blog, and her machine quilting is just phenomenal, so do yourself a favour and go over there and browse extensively. It also shows what a small world we bloggers inhabit; she’s the other side of the world, but teaches art at the same high school in the Netherlands where my brother-in-law was a teacher many years ago!
I’m still surprised at how motivated I am to work on this quilt. Normally, by this stage of a large hand-pieced quilt I’m feeling a bit ‘meh’ about it, and am casting around for something else to get excited about. Not this time. I have the lovely scraps and pieces of fabric which arrive in the mail, and the participation and comments of others to keep me on track. Not to mention that everyone else will lose interest unless I show good progress on a regular basis!
I have one of my UFO/unstarted projects in hand as well, something I can sew quickly on the machine as a break from hand stitching. It’s a job which is easy to pick up and put down, and I’m sort of making it up as I go along. Too early to show progress yet, but I hope to have something to post about soon.
Onwards. There’s a box of squares waiting to be turned into hexies.
talltalesfromchiconia 
Looking good.
Do you cut your fabric squares into hexagons first or do you just wrap them straight round the paper hexies?
No, I don’t waste time cutting them into hexies, I just wrap the square round the paper as I go. I don’t even use a paperclip to hold things in place. I’ve made so many thousands of the things in my life that I could probably do it with my eyes closed. I can certainly watch TV while I do it, and not miss much!
That’s interesting because, although I am working with pre-cut hexies, I don’t bother to pin first and I was doing some together with a friend yesterday and she was pinning each side and it looked so laborious. Then I happened to have a book with me ‘Quilting On The Go’ which I got for Christmas and there were photos of how the author wraps all the different paper piecing shapes and I noticed she used squares for the hexies which, if I do more and don’t splash out on pre-cuts, would be much less hassle. A good use for stashed jelly rolls too as they come in 2.5 inch strips. What I do need though is a clear idea of what I’m going to do with them eventually. I need a project in mind to keep me going with them otherwise I’ll lose interest. There’s no rush so I’m just making them as and when and hope I see something that will catch my eye.
Have you started to assemble your hexies into flowers yet? Or are you just building a collection of individual hexies in nice colours? There are so many lovely quilts out there using them, jump onto Pinterest and search for hexagon quilts. One day, I’m going to assemble a quilt made from all my scraps, brightly coloured flowers but with centres in black with a medium white polka dot to pull the whole thing together. And the nice thing is that you don’t have to follow a formal design, you just keep adding on and adding on. Go for a smallish lap quilt, say 60″ square, so it’s not too intimidating.
growing nicely Kate. I went cross-eyed looking for my fabric, didn’t find it, probably because I can’t really remember what I sent you lol Haven’t lost interest yet 🙂
I could point to them very easily, but describing where to find them is almost impossible! Try this: left hand section, bottom row, third flower in. That one has some of your blue fabrics. I haven’t used any of the reds yet.
It’s like a good TV soap (are there any?) in that I’m always looking forward to your next instalment! I shall remember not to cut the squares into hexies, next time I do some.
It’s a good way to save time and mess; you just cut lots of 2.5″ strips, and then cross cut those into 2.5″ squares and away you go. I always wrap down the left side of a point first, and work my way round, rather than starting with a straight edge, I find it gives me a neater finish.
Like TV soaps, I’m taking a short break, but not leaving you with a cliffhanger! I have a gift to work on, which I’ll be able to show after today, as it’s the start of a birthday present which the recipient doesn’t yet know about.
Wow, it’s looking amazing 🙂
It’s definitely going to be a big quilt!
Hey hey! Glad to hear the postman got my card to you! 😊 I was wondering when it would arrive.
Had a very busy wekek, but did manage to get some sewing time and I am glad for it! For now, I am sticking to small projects: thing I can get done in a couple of days and that will be leaving my house as gifts soon…. Just heared that one of another colleague of mine will be having a baby too…. Unbelievable, where do these babies come from?! 😉
Hugs,
Esther
That’s the trouble with making baby quilts; it encourages everyone to have babies! My older siblings are already having grandchildren, and I expect my work to increase quite a lot over the next few years…
So I see you´ve been buzy like a bee, sewing this. It´s looking great! I´m proud to be one af many friends 🙂
Gun, Sweden
And one of the first, too! I must give my fingers a little rest from the hand sewing, they get a bit sore in the evening. But I’ll come back to Worldwide Friends very soon.
W—-O—-W
Thanks! Lots and lots of stitches… Nearly half done.