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 :-)

Checkin in with the Challenges

Another ring added to my Hexalong project:




That's 331 hexagons stitched together. Phew.

And, yes, I've been continuing with the ICAD Challenge:



As you can see, I haven't really stuck to much of a theme with these ones and I did (shock horror!) even miss one day, though still on track to complete 25 for September :-)

Now all I need to do is start on something for the Christmas Through the Year Challenge for September. I am feeling a bit uninspired :-(

Seeing Red

I've gone with a red theme for my most recent index cards:



I did prep 7 index cards with red acrylic paint, thinking I would do a week's worth of red cards, but I feel all red-ed out now so maybe I'll save them for later.

I thought I'd better share a bit of sewing, just in case you thought I'd forgotten this was meant to be a sewing blog. Here are a couple more blocks for my Liberated Wife quilt:




I love the "Waste Not" block but not so keen on Linoleum...I think it's the colour of the solid I used. It's just a bit too pinky pink. Meh.

I am still beavering away at my hexagon charm quilt, I have about 6 or 7 more hexagons until I have completed the next light coloured round. I have had to raid my mum's stash tho, cos running short of light colours, so not sure what I will do when I get to the next round! Maybe a white/cream charm pack..?

That's all, folks.

First Hexagon Star

first hexagon star, a photo by Viv J M on Flickr.

It's a star. Inside a hexagon. Nuff said :-)

Dotty over the Hexalong

If you don't already know, there's a Hexalong going on over at Lily's Quilts. Why don't you join in the fun?!

I am planning to continue with my hexagon charm quilt. Progress as of today here:



But I have also been falling in love with BIG hexies made up of smaller parts, in particular 60 degree diamond star hexies. I have put together a bit of an inspiration gallery over on Flickr:

Hexalong Inspirations, a gallery on Flickr.

I think (don't hold me to this!) I want to do something like summerfete's Summer of Love quilt, which you can see on her blog here. And because I'm feeling a bit dotty, I thought I would make all the stars with dotty and spotty fabrics. I'm not sure how I managed to inadvertently collect so many spotty fabrics but I pulled together all these from my stash:



Cos of using the incompetech graph paper (thanks for the tip Lilys Quilts) if I decide the dotty stars are just toooooo much I can make some big plain coloured hexies to go in between them. I am thinking maybe light grey for those, I am just too grubby for white lol.

Oooh, the excitement!!

And because my ICADs reflect what I am reading about, or doing, or thinking about, you won't be surprised to see my card for today: