The hexagons are a finished top!

It's not only a top; I've already taken it to the long-armer, Elly Prins. This is the first time I've asked someone else to do the quilting for me. Unfortunately it won't be back until in the New Year.

I made this quilt during the online QAL with Sheila Christensen from July 2020. All the hexagons are traditionally pieced; no FPP or EPP in sight! The fabrics in the hexagons all came from my stash, and the background fabric is a basic from Stof of Denmark in yellow/gold on cream. 

I needed a push to get the rows sewn together, and the borders on, but within a week it was a top. The push came from the end of year "finishfeestje" (finish party) hosted by Deveney. 

 

Happy sewing

Marly.

Hexagons resurrected

 After more than 2 years I've taken my hexagons out of storage and done some work on them.

These were made in the Hemisphere Quiltalong designed and hosted by Sheila Christensen through the autumn of 2020. All fabrics are from stash.

The pieces were already joined into 10 rows of half-hexagons and at the beginning of this week I joined the rows into pairs, and yesterday joined rows together: rows 1 & 2 are joined, 3, 4, 5 & 6 and 7, 8, 9 & 10. It took a lot of pinning, matching the points, but most of them so far are spot on! This afternoon I hope to finish joining the centre of the top. Then I'll be cutting and attaching the borders.

It feels so good to be working on this again.

I'm linking to:

Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

 

Wendy's Quilts and More 

Happy sewing

Marly.

Table scraps challenge

Almost at the eleventh hour here is my yellow scrappy mug rug for the table scraps challenge.

 

I've been making a lot of pieced hexagons lately, but this is by far the simplest design, and in all senses scrappy. I made it in record time, and that shows! Nevertheless it will function very well as a mug rug. Surprisingly I had very few yellow scraps long enough to make this from.

In March I shall start thinking about the challenge sooner, and hopefully won't resort to a hasty mug rug.

I'm linking to the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter,

Patchwork & Quilts no. 41 at  Patchwork Quilting Appliqué

and

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge at Socrappy.

Stay safe and healthy.

Happy sewing

Marly.

Hemisphere progress

In the middle of August I noticed that Sheila Christensen was running a mystery triangle quiltalong. The fun had started at the beginning of July, so I was well behind the schedule, and hadn't looked out any fabrics yet. I registered immediately, and I'm so glad I did. Sheila broadcasts live on her video channel weekly at 10:00h on Thursdays - that's 10 a.m. in New Zealand, and about 02:00h here! Fortunately for me the broadcasts are recorded and posted on her video channel. The block patterns are being published once a week for 26 weeks and during the broadcast Sheila shows how to make the latest pieced unit.

I posted the photo of my first block on 31 August and now I have seven blocks:

random layout; they are really half hexagons and will be completed in the final step.

This may look like EPP but, no way! I would never attempt such a complicated EPP design; for me that is for "patchwork on the move"! Apart from cutting strips of fabric - everything here has been cut from 1.5", 2.5" or 4.5" strips - all the pieces have been cut using a 60 degree ruler. The blocks look complicated, but really they come together easily, and the cutting is not hard once you've watched the video!

Last year I made the Mini Wonders table runner from a pattern Sheila had published in instalments in Make Modern Magazine, so I was already used to her method, but now I am learning the finer points and have more insight into the calculations. These blocks have so far been easier than the hexagons in the Mini Wonders table runner.

I'm linking up to

so click on the button to see what more people are working on.

Have a good weekend, and keep safe and healthy

Happy sewing

Marly.

September is orange ...

in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and see here, what a lot of orange I've used!

EPP hexagons with 1" sides

When Angela announced the colour for September I was on holiday, and although I had fabric with me for making hexagon flowers, I didn't have enough orange for even one flower! Now I'm back home I went through some sorted orange scraps in a small zip-lock bag and found these:

orange scraps, mostly the ends of 2" strips

They are not enough to make one of these:

unlined scrap basket - pattern from Fiona at BubzRugz

There are probably more lurking in project boxes, so I'll get searching over the weekend.

This is all I have to show for September on the sewing front. Let's hope October proves to be more productive, especially as in addition to orange I still have to make an aqua and a blue basket.

I'm linking up to

so head over there to see more (much more) orange delights.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15: week 27: Mid-year review

 To all my friends in the US:

Happy 4th July!

To the rest of the world:

Enjoy the Day! 

Here we're having a heatwave (yesterday was the hottest day EVER), and the Tour de France is about to start in Utrecht. The heat will not be a problem for the cyclists who are used to these kind of temperatures, but the spectators will be hard pressed to find a cool place to stand. I hope everyone goes well-prepared.

And now out of the sunshine and into the Rainbow!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge is hosted by Angela at Soscrappy, who gives a different colour each month and many quilters concentrate on using that colour for the whole month. Some make blocks of  their own choosing, but Angela also publishes block patterns to use in a sampler quilt.

This is an overview of my Sawtooth Star sampler blocks so far. They are in a random order here.

All stars in the night sky in a random layout

I'm not happy with the two on the right of the top row. In January the colour was dark blue, and when you have a dark blue background dark blue stars pose something of a problem, don't you agree? As Angela's background is neutral I decided on neutral stars, but now I'm wondering if I should remake them in a medium blue, like Royal or Kingfisher. What do you think?

Green and yellow in the final layout.

This is as far as I've got with the alternate blocks which take their colour from the adjacent star blocks (great design: not my idea, but Angela's). So far I only have one pair of adjacent colours: yellow and green and I'm really pleased with how this is turning out. Below yellow will be orange, so the second half of the block between the two yellow stars will be orange. (If that doesn't make sense look here on Pinterest; you'll need to scroll right to the bottom.) Above the green will be blue, but I'm going to have to do some rearranging of my blue stars first.

This month's colour is red, and I haven't made any red sampler blocks yet, but I have made 3 hexagon flowers:

two added to the pile

and one already sewn into the top.

The hexagons are all made from scraps, at least 2.25"square, but for this red one there wasn't enough of just one fabric. This project started during my holiday last year as a "take away project", but this week I've been working on it at home. Sitting in the sun on my balcony, I made a start on joining the blocks. There aren't nearly enough for a quilt, but I'll just keep going: there's no deadline, and the little scraps keep coming!

I shall be linking up to 

so hop over there and have a look at all the rainbow progress this year.

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15: week 25: some blue and a lot of green

Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and the RSC group make patchwork in that colour. This month's colour is pale/medium blue and teal/aqua. I haven't made any sampler blocks this month, but I did get some hand sewing done during my holiday in Ireland.

three English paper-pieced blue hexagon flowers

When I was in Ireland I visited Kylemore Abbey in County Galway.

The Abbey is the home to a group of nuns, but was built in the nineteenth century with other occupants in mind. The first owner wanted a castle in a beautiful park and gardens to honour his bride. The result is a neo-gothic castle set in the most beautiful park with the mountains as backdrop.

Being Ireland the predominant colour is green, but among the green I managed to find some blue in the walled garden:

most of the woodwork in the enclosed garden was teal

 A year ago I didn't know what teal was; now I see it everywhere

Gardener's cottage (with gardener).

Isn't this the perfect location? I shall be publishing more photos from my holiday during the coming week so come back from Tuesday for some more views of Ireland and of Wales.

But now I have to catch up on sewing. I have four sawtooth star blocks to make; the ones that you all made while I was away!

I'm linking up to:

 

Pop over there to see many more blue patchwork projects in progress

Happy sewing

Marly.

RSC 15: week 18: the last purple hex and pulling green

Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and some sampler patterns and lots of people round the world use that colour: some to make the sampler blocks, others to work on other projects. In April the colour was purple. This month's colour is dark to medium green. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week. 

One more purple hexagon squeezed in at the eleventh hour last month and is looking forward to green. Maybe it's jealous? Anyway it's heart is with green.

That's the only green I sewed yesterday, although I did manage to pull out some small green pieces and a few (almost) fat quarters.

Because I'm using dark blue as my background fabric I can't use really dark green. This is as dark as I expect to go. I'm looking forward to piecing the sawtooth within a sawtooth star as soon as I've finished quilting RSC14 - border now under the FMQ foot.

I'm linking up to:

   

Click on the buttons to see what creative scrappiness has been happening this week.

Happy Sewing

Marly.

RSC15 week 17: The Last Full Purple Week.

Each month Angela at Soscrappy gives a colour and some sampler patterns and lots of people round the world use that colour: some to make the sampler blocks, others to work on other projects. This month the colour has been purple. On Saturdays we link up to show one another what we've been making in the last week. As this is the last post his month, here's a round-up of the whole month.


Firstly the two sampler blocks given by Angela:

Carrie Nation

Broken Sugar Bowl

In addition to the sampler blocks, I made:

Four nine-patches

Four hexagon flowers

and two scissors cases

pattern by Dawn Cornell

for the Moda Bakeshop (19 May 2014)

of which this is one; the other  I gave away without photographing it first! I was so glad I'd met the deadline, I wrapped it, packed it, took it to England, and it wasn't until I was on my way back to the Netherlands that I thought that I had maybe forgotten to take a photo!

I have also been quilting my Optical Illusion Quilt, which is 50% purple, and has 95% purple quilting thread! In my book, that counts as purple! All that's left to do is sew down the binding; at last I can pull the purple thread out of my machine!

I'm linking up to Angela at Soscrappy for

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet

Two weeks ago I had the wild idea that I should make something for Christmas and that I only had two months to get it done. When I saw Any Smart's hourglass block tutorial I had an idea for a Christmas decoration that would be quick (from a charm pack) and simple (one block repeated forty times)!
Here is the top which I did indeed have put together in two days, two weeks ago:

Fabric: "Solstice" by Kate Spain for Moda
Pattern: Amy Smart (minimally adapted.)

"Why is it still only a top?",  you might be asking. Because there was an event in Houston which was so compelling for the ladies who own my LQS that they shut up shop for two weeks to attend; no-one in their right mind crosses the Atlantic for just a couple of days! While I have enough wadding I don't have enough backing fabric, so have been waiting until they open up again next Tuesday morning. I hope to have this finished by next weekend.

While waiting for the shop to reopen I have gone further with my hexagons,

Hexagons

done some catching up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge,

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 14: October

and made some more letters in the Little Letters Quilt Along at The Temecula Quilt Company,

Little letters

Also in October I made two small table mats for our bedside cabinets from a Martingale freebie pattern:

table mats

Click on the photos to read more about each of these projects.

I'm linking up to Lily's Quilts for both

and

               

so head over there to see what else has been happening in October.


Happy Sewing

Marly.

Hexagons

During my holiday, in September, I worked on a hexagon project and posted about it here while still in warmer climes. But these are only the orange "flowers" as the post was for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up and September's colour was orange.

In the meantime more flowers have grown, along with some loose petals and some leaves. I haven't decided on a layout yet, but, at the moment, I favour a random sprinkling of flowers and leaves, something like this:

although the loose petals have all blown together in colour groups in my photo!

What do you think would be a good layout for a scrappy hexagon quilt? Does this work well or would it be a good idea to surround each "flower" with an outer ring of hexagons in a neutral colour?A more traditional layout.

Almost all the flowers have six petals of the same fabric, which I believe is the traditional style. However, a couple of the flowers (blue, lower left, and the adjoining aqua) have petals of different fabrics (simply because I couldn't cut six the same from the contents of  the scrap bin). It works for me as long as they're in the same colour-way. What do you think?

These may seem strange questions but with a design as traditional as this I'm worried about how many conventions I may actually be breaking. I first wrestled (unsuccessfully) with hexagons at the age of nine and vowed I would never touch one again. Although I now enjoy mindlessly sewing the pieces together and in most projects happily go my own way, in this matter there is a little voice at the back of my mind telling me how they should be done!

Wedneseday update
Following the encouraging comments I have decided to go ahead with this layout. I must also add that when I was playing with this during my holiday I couldn't remember ever having seen anything like it before. This morning I read Lee Anna's blog , "Not afraid of Color", and took a good look at her title photo; now I see where the idea came from. I must have seen it 20 times without LOOKING properly. Thank you Lee Anna for the inspiration!

I'd welcome your ideas and I'm linking up to

   

Happy Sewing

Marly.

Essential sewing supplies for a trip!

I shall be away from my computer for a few weeks, but have scheduled a few posts for during my absence. I shall also try to post via mobile Blogger from my iPad, but I haven't tested that successfully yet. 
I know that I shall have infrequent access to the Internet, so I may not be able to respond to your comments very quickly.

Making the decision what was essential was difficult. More difficult was, "Have I got enough?" Hmm, I hope so!

Here is a list of the stuff I packed and will be using over the next few weeks.

1.  Tools

It's a good job I took photos; it was only after I took a photo of this that I realised I didn't have all the Aurifil 50 thread I would need.

Handy book! ...

... opened up with tools

2  Projects

a.  Tulips on the table

Tulips on the table

The background fabric has been made by stack and slash (a first for me) and the appliqué pieces have been prepared. Quilting will have to wait until I'm home.

b  Toadstool House

Toadstool House.

with fabric for the windows and skeins of  DMC embroidery cotton for embellishing. (Now I see I need to pack my embroidery hoop as well) This will get a border and be quilted when I return.

c.  Grandmother's Garden

The rest of the hexagons

   

Just in case that's not enough, I've got this too:

Sony Reader: with the hinge on the right
and the opening on the left!
Interestingly cross cultural!

and with about 20 books installed.

I should manage to be separated from my Bernies for a few weeks.

Happy Sewing

Marly