Week 3 of Handstitched :Class:

We've done some English Paper Piecing for last week's installation to the Modern Medallion quilt.  Rachel has made one alteration to the classic Storm at Sea blocks, where she removed the tiny half square triangles and square in the corners of the blocks and replaced them with a 1" square just to simplify things for us.

These Storm at Sea blocks were meant for the corners of this round in the quilt.  We had to attached the blocks to the solids patchwork strips and it wasn't easy for me!!!  After a few failed attempts to sew exactly to the edge of the outer points of the blocks to the patchwork strips, I've opted to handstitched these blocks and found it easier to get them right.

Round 3 is done and I am not too thrilled with my top!  You don't have to look closely to be able to see the little waves around the inner and outer borders.   I know I've stretched some parts of the fabrics when I did the embroidery and that might explain the waviness.  I wanted to use lighter shades of solids but went ahead and use what I have on hand instead.  I'm hoping the fabrics used in the next round will help balance out the solids patchwork strips.   I did put up a different photo ( the top was laid, not hung) to the group pool but remove it a day later - too embarrased as I find it looked terrible!!!  I did get some feedbacks whilst it was in the pool though and I'm really hoping with quilting, the top will lay flat and also hide my inconsistencies!


On to one of the small projects from English Paper Piecing week - Star Blossom Stretched Wall Art.

I've completed this block last week but have yet to applique it to the background fabric which will then be stretched onto a painters canvas.  The Star Blossom block measures at 13 7/8" in height.  Even though it's meant to be a wall art piece, I am still considering on what to do with mine - wall art / tote or maybe a start to another quilt !?!? hmm I don't have to finish this piece now so I'll have plenty of time to decide my options.


I am working on another small project from EPP week and hope to share some pictures with you soon.


Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm linking up to Katey's Handmade Parade :

My Inspiration for the Tessellation Blocks

I  love English Paper Piecing...( think I've mentioned it before ),  I also fell in love with this quilt made by Vreni of Oops-Lah using EPP.

Her quilt top was constantly in my head after I've read that post!   I emailed her a few days later and she was kind enough to share the sizes, shapes and fabrics used to make her Tessellation blocks.   She gave me a link for an online store ( which carries both paper and acrylic template - used for fabric and fussy cutting ) too.  Her kind gesture is truly appreciated.


These are the blocks I've made so far and they measure at 11" in diameter :

I love fussy cutting and to get 6 or 12 cuts of the same design is quite a challenge when the fabrics you have are fat quarters / half yards of big prints with a very few repeats!  I was hoping to get more blocks made but there were just not enough basted shapes to make up for complete blocks and some coloured shapes just doesn't compliment the other.   

Anyhoo, I am in no hurry to finish them as I am thoroughly enjoying the whole process of experimenting and searching for wonderful fabrics to use.   I have not applique the blocks to the background fabrics yet but will do so after I've pieced the remaining blocks.  

Fyi, these blocks were made before the start of Handstitched Class and I am so looking forward to working on them some more after the class has ended.   I am no good at working on more than 2 projects at a time and I envy those of you who can!!!

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

I'm linking up to Katie's Parade Day :

A Finished Top and Back On The Needle!

Six months in the making and the hexagon charm quilt top is finished!

I have hand pieced 1,033 pieces of 1 1/2" hexagons to achieve the required size.

The top measures at 72" x 73"











There are no straight borders for this quilt as my daughter loves the hexagon shaped edging and wanted me to leave it as such.  I'll be adding more hexagons for the backing edges once the quilting is done.





It'll be backed with Topiary from the Parisville line by Tula Pink - it's one of my daughter's favourite prints.

I'll be hand quilting following an outline flower design using pearl cotton thread.

On another note, I have resumed knitting, it was my on-the-go project prior to piecing the hexagons.  I've picked up where I left off on the Mediterranean Lace Shawl - a pattern from 'A Gathering Of Lace' knitting book by Maureen Egan Emlet.  I have a few more rows before I get to the edging then on to blocking!

Hope to have more pictures of it soon!

Have a great week, everyone!

Hexagon Progress

My hexies have grown..... a month into my charm quilt and  I've stitched 679 hexies together.


I am still stitching them in strips of 9s and 10s then attaching them into sections of 30 hexies each.  These hexies are stitched together everywhere I go but home.  That's what I love about English Paper Piecing - its versatility and ease to make just about anywhere.  The only thing I've done at home with my hexies is piecing the sections to the large piece.



This is what I have done so far

I have tried to not let any of the same colors or collections touch and when it happened once or twice ( ok like a few times ) I did not pick out my stitches, left it as it is - just like what a random quilt would look like!

I do have about 290 hexies sitting in an empty biscuit tin waiting to become attached to its friends.

So how is your work in progress coming along?

A quarter done

Now the fun begins!  Finally my charm quilt is starting to take shape!  I've pieced together 8 strips of 30 hexagons each.  I am trying to evenly distribute colours in the quilt.

 I love the mishmash of fabrics!

I have 90 hexagons that have been sewn into sections, ready and waiting to be added to the large piece.

This is what I have done so far and I am still piecing hexagons to make into strips of 9 and 10.

QuIP (Quilt In Progress)

Just a quick post on the hexagon charm quilt I am working on. Eventhough I am using a random layout, I have decided to lay out the 974 basted hexagon first in order for me to distribute similar fabrics throughout the quilt.   I've numbered them based on rows and sequence before putting them away in shoeboxes. Tedious I know but I think it's worth it!   It's just my way of making sure that the colours and collections are well distributed.

 one and a half inch hexagon pieces

I started sewing the hexagons together in strips recently using hand quilting thread and I have used the whipstitch method for attaching the hexagons. 

My plan for now is to sew these strips of ten together and then attaching them to my largest piece once I've created a small section. I like this method because it's portable. I can sew strips together just about anywhere.

Above, I sewed the two rows together (I'm alternating strips of 9 and 10 hexagons). Then I would lay out another strip trying to get a nice color distribution and this would make up for one small section.

This is what I've done thus far....

The sections above contain 30 hexies each

Happy Stitchin' Everyone! :)

Another Hexagon Quilt in the Making....

I've been paper piecing these hexagons for some time now and have managed to persuade one of my besties, Hafizah, to join me.  It's been fun getting hexies basted during the little bits of time and it is quite addictive to say the least.

I really like the idea of creating a colourful, random collage of hexagons.  My goal is to have a charm quilt, with no single piece of fabric repeating.

I chose 1 1/2" hexagons this time around thus I need 974 of them to make about 72" x 75" charm quilt.

I started out with scraps from my previous projects, also pulling from my fabric stash and ordered charm packs to get the number of hexies I needed. I did some fussy cutting (made my own template using transparent plastic-for finding perfect spot on busy prints) on some of the fabrics.

I've basted the hexagons following Lori Holt's of Bee in my Bonnet  tutorial.  I have about 1,100 of these babies all basted and ready to be attached to each other.  I've made extras with thoughts of adding a few for the backing.

At the moment, I'm treating this as a portable side project and one that I hope will not take a long time to complete! haha

Details on progress of these babies to come soon......