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Tag Archives: quilt

Half Hexagon Tutorial Part Two cutting and auditioning the hexagons

Okay once you have the fabric make sure it is ironed….it is up to you whether you wash it or not. I wanted the starch to stay in mine so I left it unwashed. Cut your fabric into strips the width of the template you are using.I don’t know whether I told you all but I used scraps for my mosaic quilt…yes scraps…and I am cutting out more with… ..yes ….scraps!!!

But for this project I bought co-ordinating  fabric …but in fat quarters…just to be difficult!

If you have your hexagon template you can now cut out other templates from template plastic or whatever you prefer to use. I personally do not use plastic templates and rotary cutters due to health reasons but understand that I am a dying breed! So the graphic below shows how to lay the template on whatever width half hexagon you are using. The templates Ruth drew up for us finish at 10cm…4in and 15cm….6in and they allow for the usual quarter inch seam allowance. The method of strip cutting really allows little wastage which is a very useful thing in quilting.

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Okay now to my rather eccentric but painless way of cutting out templates…it is basically English Paper Piecing or Paper Piecing without the need to keep the papers in when sewing. This is a very accurate way of cutting out and also is useful to me as I have very little room in our flat to lay things out so I can do this on a collapsible craft table quite comfortably. I am all about the comfort!!  To enable a really smooth and enjoyable time cutting out my half hexagons for my mosaic quilts….I currently have about three in varying sizes that I am collecting fabric for….I had my scissors sharpened and they then cut through quite a deep pile of hexagons! I was amazed actually at how blunt my scissors had become over time…yes I hung my head in shame as the repair person at Mr Minit examined the tools of my trade.

So I recommend if you are cutting templates the old fashioned way…once you are sure your scissors are sharp enough to cut off your little finger…..that you stack those strips of fabric! I defy anyone to tell me its not as much fun or as accurate as rotary cutting!!! I’m such a rebel at heart! You will need to cut out enough paper templates to fit the width of the fabric you are using, don’t forget.

Oh I forgot to say grab yourself  a coffee or a beverage…..non alcoholic….you need your wits about you with those sharp scissors and / or those rotary cutters…not to mention all those angles!

Oh by the way I have found another method of cutting out half  hexagons… this method involves using a clear 60 degree triangular ruler and strips of fabric. If you have the triangular ruler it would be an easy way of cutting out the trapezoids.

Now a word about fussy cutting…as you can see this fabric has a delightful….well I think so…pattern on it and it requires a bit of positioning of the template to ensure the seam will still align quite well. I like to use a few larger prints as it adds visual appeal.

So here we have a few trapezoids or as we call them half hexagons …these are only a selection….various people I have seen make these quilts seem to recommend at least twenty different fabrics. Variety does seem to help with placement I feel.

Okay so next…the auditioning of the blocks. Using some sort of design wall or design board….whatever works for you… start adding various pairs of half hexies until like Joan, you get a pleasing arrangement. If you are anything like me you will end up doing two quilts as you just can’t decide between mosaic quilts!

My random quilt for this tutorial is a work in progress…meaning I have to run up to Spotlight tomorrow to get more of those coloured ones scattered through with white that my son suggested I get weeks ago! Believe me more is more with this kind of block…variety just  seems to work better, visually anyway.

Please let me know if I have forgotten anything. Next step is the sewing of the strips…an interesting adventure in which several of my friends and I reversed our first seam somehow…we have nnooo idea how and it never happened again!!! At least I was in good company!

I would again like to thank Ruth for her kind use of the graphics and templates.

Wild Blue Yonder Wip

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So I am asking your patience today as there have been a few unforeseen problems caused by my uploading so many photos…remember when I taught myself to upload them? Well apparently I have not been resizing them so the ten that I uploaded to flickr this evening took up a gigantic 10 megabytes my son said. Yowser!!! So if you don’t mind just for today click on Wild Blue Yonder and you will see more of what I have been up to lately! This is going to be a series of quilts of throw size with a very pale to soft inner centre of at least a square metre going gradually darker to the last few rows of blocks which will be really dark with the odd splashes of lilac to purple in one and pink to red in the other. Each block is 15cm in size so it will end up having 100 blocks….for some reason 100 blocks appeals to me.

I had no sooner put them up to our group on flickr when I started getting comments and questions…must remember to do that after I have cooked dinner…not during! Speaking of flickr I have found the most amazing talent, both globally and locally and I am hoping to start bringing you design reports or updates on what these wonderful artists designers are doing and more importantly, where to find their work. Not only are they incredibly talented with an astounding amount of work behind them but I have also found some new designers, so look out for them……get in now while they are not as well known and save yourselves a lot of money while getting a piece of a new designer’s history. It is very exciting and it is a privilege for me to be sharing resources and knowledge with these very talented designers and artisans.

meme…7 weird things you don't know about me

I have been tagged by Kate for this meme…..thanks I think!

The rules are:

1.Link back to the person who tagged you.

2.Post “The Rules” on your blog.

3.Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag seven people and link to them.

5.Comment on their blogs to let them know they have been “tagged”.

As Kate said it is strange that there are not seven rules…but I so enjoyed writing the rules out as just love Kate’s music on her home page.

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[1] I saw Led Zeppelin in concert in Sydney in the seventies, still cannot believe my parents let me come to the city on the train, it took two hours, then I stayed with my friend Linda at her Grandma’s house in Randwick. Three great things happened, my parents who were very strict trusted me to go to away, I had such a wonderful time with a grandma [my family migrated here in the early 60s] and I finally got to see and hear Jimmy Page play the guitar….heaven.

[2]My vocational guidance test in high school said that I should be a computer programmer. This was 1971 and we did not even have a computer at the hospital where I went nursing 18 months later.

[3]Since 2000 I have had a sleep disorder that has caused my sleep pattern to change from going to bed at 10pm for most of my adult life to anything from 3am to 7am. Even if I do not sleep at all one night I will still not get to sleep until 3 to 5 am the next day! But hey I took up quilting because of it and look at me now!

[4] I hate cooking, it is the bane of my existence.

[5]Almost two years ago the doctors and consultants at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney told me at 10pm, after admitting me with a monstrous headache to casualty at 5pm, that I had better say goodbye to my husband and son as they “did not know if I would be alive the next morning”. I did not as it just did not feel like I was dying. Apparently they were all stunned that I spent the whole night consoling the nurses and the doctors who messed up repeated lumbar punctures…and I mean repeated… Well they did not know that I have insomnia so it was my daytime ha ha.

[6]I am very messy and I just do not care! During the above incident all I could think about was how messy my storage area and sewing area was and promised myself I would fix it, ready for when it was my time to go, for my guys. Well it is almost two years now and I am only half way there. But it is still an improvement on before!

[7]Apparently I have the skeleton of an 80 year old. And I don’t look a day over 58.

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I tag Janey, Bombshell, Kara, Judy, Ruth, Sunnie, and Stina.

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Okay that took longer than I thought, all that linking, its exhausting! I am sewing madly at the moment, or should be. Have sandwiched my Japanese cranes and dragonflies together with some fabulous used to be curtains in Laura Ashley fabric and some lovely low loft poly batting…cannot wait to get hand stitching…it is 1.13 am here so better get cracking only got a few hours sewing ahead of me.

I have also got a few ideas for some of the old embroidered linens I rescued recently so have to get going on those. When they are ready they will be available to buy from my website or etsy store…when I get one that is. Also thought I would sell some of my retro and quilting fabrics online too. Photos of all of the linen are on flickr, they came up fairly well. Have a few quilts to make for friends and a few orders also. Maybe it is my new sewing table but I have felt more inspired….it could also be that it has been a bit cooler here lately.

Hillary on Kaffe

Much to my astonishment when I watched CBS evening news this morning…..we have Foxtel and get all the stuff live….I saw Hillary Clinton being interviewed by Katie Couric on the economy and wait for it……..

She was standing in front of what appears to be a beautifully executed quilt …..Handkerchief Corners ………..which is a Kaffe Fassett design. Not only that but Hillary had on a stunning yellow suit with a black collar and we all know that Kaffe’s Handkerchief Corners has an acid yellow centre to each block!!!!!!! What a stunning move by either Hillary or her stylist/advisor. Now she gets the quilters of America behind her and the arty types and the fashionistas!!!! Stroke of genius whoever thought up that combination. You couldn’t accidentally get that colour scheme going, it had to be planned.

I salute you Hillary and whoever was behind it. Kaffe are you out there, what do you think?[He is probably not too keen on me after my expose of the colouring of one of his quilt kits] Anyway I salute you too Kaffe, imagine how he must feel……I mean even if it isn’t his own quilt it is his design and his genius, all hail Kaffe! By the way, I am just high on quilting and politics ……haven’t had a coffee in hours.

I also am excited cause it is the first time I have embedded a video and sent emails  straight off the video on CBS.

By the way, you will have to suffer through the other candidates as Hillary isn’t on until the last minute or so, but it is worth watching the rest to see how dull the others look by comparison.

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