...having a go at hand piecing

On the last school holidays (or is could have been the ones before - these things tend to get away from me) a  took a few days of work and worked my way through a reasonable jam packed 'Crafty things I would like to do/try that I never have time for'. It was the best holiday I have had for a long time - at home, with purpose.

One of the things I did was attend a class on hand piecing at Amitie with Jenny. I have been interested in hand piecing for a little while but apart from the EPP projects I hadn't sewn anything together with just needle and thread (ie sans machine).

Frankly, I didn't trust my stitches to hold up over time - even just the time to get the top together, let alone quilting and years of use. And I couldn't bear to think of it falling apart as I was sewing or soon after and have all the hours of stitching wasted.

The class lasted the morning and I took along a small bundle of fabric and a new acquired pattern (Galaxy by Trish Harper) that specifically recommended hand piecing and the normal odds and sods of sewing. To that bundle I added a new 1/4 wheel, a sandpaper board and and needles recommended for hand piecing.

And the process was much as I had imagined but a little demonstration and encouragement can go a long way when you are learning something new. I pieced the center section of one star that day and have just now started working on it again. It think this block will became a cushion cover as I am not quite convinced with the fabric choices I have made for this one.

But in the meantime of course I bought the Green Tea and Sweet Bean pattern booklet and starter pack and I have started it!

I've drawn around the templates and then added the seam allowance as directed and stitched and stitched and now I have the first block for this quilt.

My two biggest decisions with this new technique developing now are
1. What project to take with me to Perth over the Christmas break, Green Tea and Sweet Beans or the unfinished Circle Game?
2. How I am possibly going to find time to start, let alone finish even half of the hand piecing projects I how have my eye on!

...another Hexy MF update

On Friday night I sewed the last (with the exception of a few for the borders) of the flowers. There are 70 there - seven in each of the fabrics.

For those that are mathematically minded interested (I am sure the minded can work it out for themselves) that is 490 basted 1.5" hexies and 8820" of hand sewn seam. 

I spent some time at the inaugural Sew Shells event laying them out on the floor and mixing them up until I was happy with the placement (there were a couple of changes after this picture was taken but it is the one I am working from)

The background is ordered (Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in Beige) along with some samples for the stems and leaves.

Better get to adding more columns to these to then!

...Hexy M(ini)F

It is Mini because there is only 2 so far!

I've finally started, what feels like weeks after everyone else.

I got my fabric chosen just after the papers arrived in the mail. In the end I went back and bought the fabrics from this post that I really liked, rather than those I thought I needed to co-ordinate, and then took this bundle to Amitie during the sale to add the extra 4 prints (or more if it turned out one I chose wouldn't work but that didn't happen).

Somewhere in between the first fabric purchase and the visit to Amitie I came across this series of posts - I found the one about bundles interesting but it wasn't so helpful in the store as I looked at shelves of fabric with a feel rather than a picture of what I wanted in mind. I also chose the chartreuse from Dear Stella for the flower centres, I didn't catch the name of the colour on the end of the bolt.

I made a start at the Sit and Sew evening on Friday night and now I have a couple of flowers sewn, all the centres basted and all the petals cut.

I have cut my strips at 3.5"and then cross cut at 4" to give me a 3.5"x4" rectangle - and then cut this into hexies with a template Lisa made me with the 3/8" seam allowance I like for EPP. Cutting this way I was able to get all the centres cut from just over 3/4 yard of fabric.

Katy has given a couple of different basting methods. My preference is to secure the fabric to the paper with a circle of glue to hold it steady (I find pins move or fold the papers) and then baste through the paper with a stitch at each corner and one in the centre of each side. Leaving the knot at the front when I start makes it easier to remove the basting threads later.

There are 74 of these flowers to make - I'm labelling them as I go.

...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.

...English Paper Piecing

I've been away for a conference at work this week and bought a little hand sewing with me, in a pouch I made the night before I left.

This last minute sewing before I travel seems to becoming a semi-regular tradition!

I have run out of fabric so I have been playing with papers and coming up with some ideas for future projects!

I bought the Playing with Paper Pack 31 by Patchwork with Busy Fingers

A doll quilt...done.

I started this quilt early in the swap period. Just as well too because although it is only a small quilt, at about 20" square it has taken me a long time. A lot longer than I thought it would that is for sure.


But I am really happy with how it has turned out....and I hope my partner is too when it arrives on his or her doorstep.


It started with this design idea.

And tracing and resizing and drawing some templates


I paper pieced and trimmed the 'petals'.

And appliqued them down. I really wanted to piece them but I just was not confident in getting the petals to meet neatly in the middle and I really wanted them to.

The backing stumped me for awhile, I considered an AMH print but couldn't find any of the designs locally in the quilting weight and didn't think the voile would be strong enough. In the end I pieced a contrast back and actually really like the striking contrast to the print, and the front.

The quilting was one of the things that took me longer than expected. There are 16 petals in this quilt and 7 triangles in each petal. If you are better at maths than me you will know right away that that is 112 triangles that were quilted in one of 7 different coloured threads.

I broke 2 needles in the fist 6 petals quilting these. I usually use a chenille needle and No. 8 perle cotton when quilting. This one was done in proper hand quilting tread and with a betweens needle - apparently they don't bend as much as the chenille.

I also really love the way the quilting stitches show up on the back.

In the end I bound it with some voile - and only because I didn't think the quilt would face a lot of punishment and it was the best colour I had to do it. I'd never use it for a 'to be used' quilt. It beautiful and soft but just doesn't seem that strong.

The label was printed on fabric paper and included the flickr group logo.

Now it is labelled, packaged with some small extras and on the way to a new home.

Stats
Fabric:    Anna Maria Horner Voile (mostly Good Folks)
               Kona Ash
              Kona Coal
Binding: Anna Maris Horner Voile - Pastry Stripe -Blue

Size: 20"x20"

Construction: The triangles to form the petals and the backing was machine pieced as well as the front of the binding. Petals were hand appliqued with a needle turn method. Quilting was by hand.

Label: Printed on fabric and appliqued on. Image taken from the Flickr group button designed by Badskirt.

A weekend of almost dones....

I've been really busy this weekend and have made a lot of progress with nothing finished to show.

So a series of progress shots

Claire's quilt - do Good Stitches {a Charity Bee}

This one was basted with a Ikea fabric backing, quilted in a grid pattern with horizontal and vertical lines approximately six inches apart.

The binding (Kona Coal) has been machine sewn to the front, just waiting on the back to be hand stitched.

Doll Quilt
I finally finished the hand quilting 

and this this was bound using a voile - Pastry Stripes in blue.

A label has been made using printable fabric and just waiting to be stitched on.

Charming Stars in the Park quilt
This was basted and then machine quilted 1/4 inch inside each of the sashing lines and borders.

I have started hand quilting inside each of the stars in a variegated blue perle no 8 cotton.