Giant Hexagons Update

In need of some mindless sewing and a real break from work - yes, even I go to quilting when I need a break from the work of quilting - I pulled out these old blocks. With a million (or 40) WIPs sitting in my sewing room it only made sense to grab one of those projects instead of starting something new. I'd always had it in my head to add a coral block to these giant hexagons so I went ahead and did it. Then I added that low volume grey, and a yellow one. 

You can see more of these in my interview with Alex Anderson.

When it came time to playing with layouts I tried something new. There is a lot of bias in these blocks and I didn't want to handle them that much. Plus, as you can see, there is also some other work on my design wall that a certain five year old is not ready to remove. Needless to say, I was quite excited to find some hexagon graph paper!

The internet is a wonderful thing. Sure you can make it yourself, but the chances are someone has probably already done it for you. That was the case when I typed in a few choice words into the search engine the other night. And up pops a PDF of graph paper that is exactly what I need. A little more digging and there are sites where you can create and print your own graph paper in many shapes and sizes. It is a quilter with a penchant for colouring's dream!

http://www.freeprintableonline.com/categories/graphs
http://www.printablepaper.net

Have fun!

Now, I'm only waiting for the rest of my perfect background fabric for these to arrive. Then I can add this to the pile of quilt tops ready for attention.

Good Times with Alex Anderson

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Alex Anderson about my books, quilts, non-obligation sewing and finding the pleasure in quilting and the craziness of life. This first bit includes a lot about how I like to slow down and sew, and how you can too. Not to mention some gorgeousness and advice from the book.

Check it out here! And stay tuned for the second part.

Just Playing

Sometimes you just need to play. Start with something, anything, and see what happens.

In this case. I started with a jelly roll and some charms, serious temptation from two lovely designers.  When I was head down on that king sized quilt and buried under slabs I caved at some point in August to play. I sliced the charms in half and cut pieces of the jelly roll down to match. Then it was a matter of sewing pairs together. A lot of chain piecing and pressing. Then rows, then chunks like this. There are more chunks to go as there is more fabric to be used, but I am liking this so far. I have yardage of a subtle text print that will serve as background. You can just see bits of it used on the edges of this chunk.

No, if only I could find more time to play again.

Snippets on Dates

For the last two or three years I've kept this bin of fabrics scraps by my side while I sew. It sits next to one of my big glass jars full of seemingly useless snippets of scraps. Tiny pieces, big pieces, odd pieces. They all live together in the hopes of becoming something more.

Slowly, slowly, they are indeed doing that.

As I sew, particularly improv sewing, I use these little bits as leaders and enders. That is, instead of having dangling threads on every single seam I often grab two snippets and sew them together. At the end of a moment of sewing I have a new collection of pairs.

Some pairs are small, some a bit larger, and some teeny tiny. Eventually, they will all get sewn together into some kind of crazy, hot, scrappy mess. And I will love it. For now, however, they are still sitting in pairs, like some sort of speed dating event.

On the weekend I wasn't in the mood to sit while we watched UFC and Le Tour at the end of the night. So I set up my iron and finally tackled the pressing of these lonely dates longing to be part of the crowd. And three hours later I wasn't quite done, but I made a good dent.

Now it is time to create a new set, by sewing these piles together. And so on, and so on... It really is going to be chaotic when done, but I'm pretty sure I'll love it. How can I not, when I have these little precious combos littered throughout?

Keep these leaders and enders in mind when you're making your slabs. Makes the process faster and neater.