Hexagons Made Easy
Oct 18, 2009 Quilting
Recently, I discovered Red Pepper Quilts and Half-hexagon Quilts on flickr. As a girl with a lot of left over scraps, I saw a lot of potential with this pattern.
So putting my brain to work, I drew up a template to work with my scraps (2.5″ wide). I decided to just use my own template (versus the one on the flickr group) to make sure it worked with my scraps. After watching a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, I had a nice pile of blue and green half hexagons.
Now I never intended to make a quilt wholly out of hexagons. I didn’t want to spend the emotional energy that would be necessary to keep track of all the rows and columns of half hexagons. Instead, I made half-hexagon blocks. In fact I made nine just like this one.
Then I turned the nine blocks into this quilt.
So far I’m happy with how it’s turning out. Now I just need to be inspired with an amazing border, and it will be done. Of course this means, I’m stuck. The quilt needs a border. I have some scraps, mostly 2.5″ squares.
Yet the little squares don’t excite me. I need something else. Does anybody have any ideas?
For the Moment
Oct 15, 2009 Quilting
I’ve put the Colored Bar Code quilt on our bed.
It’s a temporary solution. Our bed quilt was falling apart and really needed be washed. I’m pretty sure washing it would bringing it to its final death. I made a new quilt top at the beginning of the year. It’s just needs to be quilted. Unfortunately, I’ve been paying for things like car repairs and property taxes instead of getting it quilted. I’m hoping that looking at the this quilt on a daily basis, which is just a touch too small, will motivate me to get my quilt quilted.
Puzzle Quilt: Red, White, and Blue
Oct 9, 2009 Quilting
Amy’s (from Park City Girl) Blogger Quilt Festival is the perfect opportunity to blog about my puzzle quilt that I finished several years ago. My picture really doesn’t do it justice. It I had a bit more energy I’d take another picture, but I don’t. Please enjoy
I started this quilt in Fall of 2004 in a class. First I should explain the name. Each block in the quilt has a matching block with the same line drawing. Color value is the difference between the two blocks, thus the puzzle quilt concept. The class met once a month for about 8 months. Each month we were assigned 2-4 blocks. The class was more than just new blocks and color value. We also learned different piecing techniques with each block. I can honestly say that this class taught me more than any other quilt class that I’ve attended.
Below is a picture of each block in color and in black & white. Why both? Well viewing a block in black & white is the key to seeing the different color value. As you can see, I was more successful with some blocks than others. I apologize for showing so many photos in one post. All of them are important. I couldn’t exclude any.
Month 1
Snail’s Trail
Square in a Square
Log Cabin
Whirly Gig
Month 2
Trip Around the World
Nine Patch
Month 3
Tumbling Blocks
Stars
Month 4
Periwinkle
Diamond Chain
Month 5
Windmill
Dutchman’s Puzzle
Month 6
Card Trick
Star of Hope
Month 7
Streak of Lightening
Flying Geese
Month 8
Diagonal
X-Quisite
Saturday Morning
Good Friends
Colored Bar Code Quilt – Finished!
Oct 4, 2009 Quilting
Yep, that’s right. I have a quilt to add to the done pile.
Side A:
Side B:
I’m really pleased with this quilt. I enjoyed working with all the scraps, sorting by color, and deciding how to arrange them. I did the quilting by myself on my home machine. It’s a simple cross-hatch design. I used my walking foot and guide to space the lines about 2″ apart. If you look closely, you’ll see that the lines aren’t too straight. It adds charm, or at least that’s what I tell myself. I probably won’t make it a habit to quilt quilts this large on my machine. It’s a lot to manage.
The quilt still needs a label. Normally, I sew one onto the back. Some how that seems all wrong with this quilt. I consider Side A the front. Yet, Side B really doesn’t have room for a patch. Right now, I’m leaning towards just writing on a white rectangle. I need to decide before I forget to do it.
Now, I’m on to the next quilt. I still have lot of scraps leftover from this project. I’m trying to put some of them to good use.
