Saturday 26 May 2012

Time for a dip

A closeup of DFG pond centre: water themed fabrics surrounded by reeds, stones and decking, to be enhanced by the quilting later on. Most of the reeds and stones are found elsewhere as path elements.  I have been over this dozens of times taking papers out of various sections, I just found a paper I left in the middle!


Thursday 24 May 2012

Six sided stock take


I have been assessing the three hexie projects on the go- Random Hexie, Darwin's Flower Garden (DFG), and Rainbow Hexie.
The tins are six-sets for 'flowers' to be made up, though I won't do these unless I need them to finish DFG, I only have to 'square' the edges on this now.
If I don't need these six-sets for DFG they can be broken down for the other projects.
There are fresh cuts of six-sets plus extras  for the random and rainbow hexies in the plastic bin.
These are all the flowers I have already sew up-many more than I need to complete the 'Darwin's Flower Garden". 

I have taken out the really ugly ones and duplicates to drop into the Random hexie. where their beauty will be enhanced!

I feel there is another project to add to the list to use these 'good' DFG flowers up.  
NUMBER 28!!
Here goes: a more traditional setting, each 'flower' with a 12 piece surround, but in leaf fabrics....the surrounds will be the same fabric for each centre, mock-up in random greens shown......







Note to self:  YOU WILL NOT START THIS in 2012! 

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Inching along

Time to put the strips together to see how much more I need to do for the rainbow hexie.  The shapes are just under an inch per side- at a guess to make a 6ft  square double bed topper it needs to be just over twice as big as this across the widest part.  I have a few more strip sets to sew up, then it will go away for a while until I have stitched in more papers.

Sunday 20 May 2012

Darwin's Flower Garden

I realised I haven't posted a picture of this-I'm working on 'squaring the corners' at  the moment. red section. It is far bigger than I anticipated as I started cutting the hexies than came up with the design. Pond and decking in the middle, each set of paths is a different stone design

So many ideas, so little time

I had another idea for a quilt. The book man at work left this  with the stack.  As I am a closet Star Wars Geek, I very nearly bought it.  Now I wish I had, the blocky nature of the lego figures would have made a good 'people' quilt.  If any one makes a quilt after reading this, please send me a picture, as I doubt I will ever make it.  My boys are in their 30's!

Sunday 13 May 2012

Rainbows after dark

I have been working on the rainbow hexie in the evenings this week. I found it goes together quicker if I sew the colour strips then join the strips.  There are less ends with the potential to unravel, at least.  I'm going to try doing the Random Hexie this way too.

Last weekend was spent clearing away the mess: I have finished cutting-the strips, squares and triangles, all stashed away.  I had to rearrange the spare room to get to the various boxes I needed!
I got rid of some uglies-these are what I call ugly. Pinky girlie eeews.  I am generally happy when I buy a mystery bundle form one of my favourite Internet shops, Lady Sew and Sew. Not this time, so I chopped it up for strings and fillers. Still not small enough for me!

I  have space for the sewing machine projects now.  I will be layering a quilt this week (can't post about it yet, its a gift and they will see!)

Friday 4 May 2012

London

I finally finished this book, it took around 2 months-1300 pages though!  The plot follows the lives of several families through time from pre-Roman London to the present, linking the families, politics and the geographical development of the city to real events.  It was fascinating finding out why areas of London were named and developed as they did.  The book is broken into manageable bites of around 70 pages and has a full list of characters in the front. If you like well written historical novels, give this a go.