...a finished top - entierly by hand!

I almost can't believe that I had the patience and persistance to finish this quilt top - and that I still am enjoying it so much that I am already planning the quilting to be done soon - and by hand as well.

There are 32 'star' units in the quilt as well as 6 half 'stars' at the edges, 62 hexagons, 16 half hexagons and 10 half diamonds to form the edges. Each one was basted by hand and hand sewn into the top and then all 304 paper shapes removed. Well almost all, I have left the edge ones in for now and remove them at basting time.

All that adds up to 1592.5" of whip stitched seam. I was glad of a thimble.

The top measures 45" x 56" so it it pretty firmly a baby-lap sized quilt - and leaves me with nothing but admiration for people that can made a full sized quilt in this way - and using much smaller shapes!

I've started on the backing - ready for basting soon. There are 'spare' hexies (basted when I was going to make a multicoloured bacground) joined and then hand appliqued to the backing to hide the seam joining the two backing pieces together. There is a random spare star to be appliqued on the back as well - but I need to wait for after basting for placement. Confused - I'll explain in pictures later!

 

The next job will be to prepare the batting - as this quilt is part of the Scrap Attack Quilt Along I thought I would continue with the scrap theme. I have an (overflowing) box of reasonably decent sized batting scraps and will piece two of these together to get the batting for this quilt!

...more scrappy stars

In fact I have finished basting all of the shapes and sewing all of the whole star units together. I do still have to go and re-raid the scrap boxes for the half stars but it has been just too hot and stuffy to do anything like that this weekend.

I have worked out the placement of them all - there is one leftover that will make its way onto the backing in some way when I get to that.

For now all these ones are sewn down - more than half. I'm surprising myself at still enjoying the process of this one. I thought the slow and steady nature of it would have done my head in by now.

Just love it - I'm glad I went with hexagon spacers rather than the diamonds - I love the way it makes each of the stars stand out.

...a hexagonal baby quilt

I have wanted to make this quilt for age. It still isn't quite finished, I have to choose some fabric for the setting diamonds but I am so excited about it I couldn't wait to blog about it.

The pattern is one designed and originally sewn by Malka from A Stitch in Dye. As I recall it was made for Quilt Market during the second half of last year. I am not sure if it was on display at all but the pattern was definitely featured in the magazine. I thought there was no chance I would ever get my hands on the pattern and then I happened to come across the magazine on some obscure online quilt store in Canberra some time later.

It has taken a few more months for me to find the perfect recipient for the finished quilt. Now I have one in mind I'm finally making it.

The large centre flower garden unit is made of six hexagons, each made of the irregular shaped units cut from string pieced units. The three units that make the hexagon, and the hexagons themselves are all joined with "Y" seams that I had not sewn before.

I was really happy with how they all turned out and with some careful marking they were not as difficult to get accurate as I had feared. The plan is to source this setting diamond fabric this week and get this basted and quilted soon...before the recipient is born!