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!!

A Brief Foray into the World of Polyester

Well, one of my sewing goals for 2010 was to attempt to make something I could wear and I have achieved that!  Well, sort of...I suppose technically I could wear it but M would probably file for divorce if I didn't dehydrate from sweating so much in the night first.  Yes, it's a nightie made from some ahem..."vintage" polyester sheets!!



It hasn't been a total waste of time because I have learned a few things:

(a) polyester is not nice to sew.  and even not nicer to wear.

(b) I may have erred on the side of caution a little too far with the hemline...

(c) my gathering stitches will be seen so it might be an idea to use a coordinating thread :-P

I may give it another go using cotton...

...or I may just stick to patchwork!

The Village is Growing



In the meantime, I have put together a few more blocks on Waif's houses quilt.  I am enjoying this process.  Take the house, add a tree, or a star, or some flying geese until it's the right width to fit together with the others.  Fun!

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...?

A Thrifty Week

Ooh, it's been an exciting week of bargains, charity shop finds and swapping stuff.

First of all I spotted this book for sale in a charity shop:



It has some sweet projects in it (though really not sure about the patchwork shower cap ;-)) and quite an extensive section on English paper piecing, including this picture of an antique English quilt from the 1830s which I could gaze at for hours:



Even better, there was a leaflet inside from The Quiltery (not dated) all about hexagons:



I was quite intrigued that both of these referred to simply backing the hexagon patchwork, rather than actually quilting it.

The second excitement of the week was receiving this fab selection of 2.5inch squares from a scrap swap on Flickr.  Thanks Jan!  25 more hexies for the price of a first class stamp!



And thirdly, drumroll please......................................................

I am now (thanks to a lovely lady on Freecycle) the proud owner of a 1940 Singer handcrank sewing machine.  70 years old and she works beautifully.  Can't wait to use her for some Morsbagging.

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.

Anna Williams at Lazy Gal Quilting

Have a look at Tonya's blog.  She is hoping to get AQS to reprint a book of Anna Williams' quilters.    You can read all about Anna Williams here.  Her quilts were wonderful and liberated and improvised.  Tonya did it for Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking  - let's see if she can do it for Anna Williams!

If you would be interested in seeing this book published, leave a comment on Tonya's Lazy Gal Quilting blog.  The link is here:

http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2010/06/anna-williams-possible-book-reprint.html

On Safari in Norfolk

Mum and I spent a lovely morning at Mileham Village Hall this Saturday for The African Fabric Shop's annual safari to sunny Norfolk.  They had a beautiful display of baskets, African fabrics, beads, buttons...



I couldn't resist the temptation to add a few bits and pieces to my stash :-)



The Castle Quilters hosted the event and they had a lovely display of three dimensional quilted objects (bags, mobiles etc) made for a recent challenge using the African fabrics.

And homemade bakewell tart was a definite added bonus ;-P