Eleven-eleven-eleven-eleven

So, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 2011, I finished sewing the eleventh ring of hexies to my charm quilt. Cool, huh?

As well as the technicolour photo above, I took one in black and white to check out how the values were working out:



I think it's working out ;-)

Hand Sewing WIPS

The trouble with hand sewing is that it's slooooow, which doesn't make for lots of photo opps. So you see, I haven't been slacking off the last few weeks, it's just that most of my sewing has been by hand. I'm working like mad to get Waif's "Fenced In" quilt finished before the cold nights set in. Plus adding the odd few hexagons to my charm quilt here and there. I tend not to make much progress on EPP in the darker months, because I find I need natural daylight to be able to see well enough to sew them together and there's not enough of that to be had :-(

Anyway, here's some work-in-progress shots of Fenced In (apologies for the scruffy basting threads that I haven't yet removed!):





And a little one of my charm quilt. I am about two-thirds of the way round the next "ring":



And I have added borders to Harry's name banner. Next job to get this quilted, which I will probably do by machine:



And yes, I have been continuing with the ICAD Challenge. I have even been following prompts from Tammy. Here's "scissors":



And this one's "zebra" (although it does look somewhat like a stripy cow I know!):



I think I may tackle "pineapple" next :-)

Quick Hexie Update

I haven't posted much about my hexies lately, so thought I'd better have a count up and post some new piccies.  I have now made a total of 314 hexagons, of which 126 are sewn together into 18 "flowers".  I'm still not sure what I am going to do with the flowers...strips of colour, or random placement, or dark/light value strips..?  Or shall I applique them onto squares to sew together?  Or give in and make into a traditional grandmother's flower garden pattern?  No matter, I'll keep sewing them for now :-)

I have been working on a few other things but can't post pics cos they are TOP SECRET :-).  Which is to say that I have been making fabric postcards for a swap on the Lib-Quilters yahoo group.   I am not sure whether I have quite cracked it yet, but hopefully other liberated quilters won't mind receiving my experiments (!).  Will post pics when swap is done.  Meanwhile, here's a pic of Waif enjoying some of the embellishments used :-).  Oh how we love ric-rac!!



I have been to several exhibitions in the last few weeks, which have all been inspiring in their own different ways.  Firstly, to the King's Lynn Embroider's Guild show at Lynn Museum (well worth a look, I think it runs for another week or two), the Samphire Quilters exhibition at True's Yard Museum and the very wonderful textile art exhibition held at Blickling Hall by a group from Norwich.  I am also feeling very inspired by a book from the library about the Quilters of Gee's Bend.  If you haven't seen their work, check it out.  These quilters are the foremothers of liberated quiltmakers everywhere and I just love their bold, improvisational style.  Several of the quilts were made from corduroy and I love 'em, so have started rummaging round charity shops (like I needed an excuse!) looking for lovely soft, old corduroy to make my own Tribute to Gee's Bend quilt.  Watch this space :-)

Talking of inspiration, it was fab to meet up with fellow liberated quilter, Clare of Dordogne Quilter fame this week...although we did nearly come to blows when I managed to steal this bargain from a charity shop for £1.50 - the Rowan book "A Colourful Journey".  Sorry Clare - all's fair in love and patchwork!!

Hexies n Houses

With all the sunshine, and the World Cup, and my growing addiction (!) my pile of hexies is growing.  I have sewn about 10 together into flowers.  It takes about half an hour and sits very comfortably with watching a bit of footie or Doctor Who or Star Trek (can you tell I live in a household full of boys?!).  I am tempted to start sewing the flowers together now, so I don't have a massive job to sew them all together at the end, but then that would spoil the fun I have juggling the flowers round and seeing how they look.  Ooh, decisions, decisions.



I have been working a bit on Waif's houses too, trying to get my head round putting them together into a finished quilt top.  I figured the easiest way to do this would be to make them into blocks the same width, then sew them together into columns.  I've done three so far, and am quite enjoying playing around with them to make them up to the right size.  I wonder if I need more trees...?  Or stars?  Or flying geese?  Or half square triangles...?

I have mostly been...

...making Morsbags



...and sewing hexagons:



I have decided to sew together hexies into individual flowers of similar colours as I go along so I don't have a huge task of sewing them all together at the end!  I am not sure how I will be arranging them but will just see when I've got enough, whether they look better grouped together by colour or laid out randomly.