Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Handsewing in the Hotel - Hexagons

I'm nothing if not a girl of contradictions. After not long ao declaring I didn't enjoy hand sewing now I've started a whole hand sewn project!

Generally, I’ve been busy the last week or so, the house was finally packed up and loaded on the truck, cleaned and then my Dad and I drove down to Melbourne with my dog to join my partner. Since we got here we have been looking for a house and signed a lease on Saturday for a house with room for a dedicated sewing space, I’m so excited!

Remember that ‘no new fabric until I’ve moved’ pledge? Well I almost kept it. As soon as the movers left I went down to the Remnant Warehouse sale. I justified it by needing something to do while I didn’t have access to my machine. I got some precuts and two different packs of Matilda’s Own Hexagon templates. I have since discovered there are a series of these (and am on the lookout for them) that each make 8.5inch hexagons across the widest point. They are designed to be used for machine or hand piecing but I have used them to make some English Paper Piecing templates and constructed them so far.



All of the pieces for each of the blocks will fit on a sheet of A4 cardstock and I have been cutting them form sheets of Whimsy layer cake I got in the sale. From 3 sheets I can get 2-3 blocks.

I completed this one first, I need to do another two of these with each of the colours in different positions but all the tiny triangles and diamonds are difficult to do and I can only get the point ‘pointy’ enough with the hair straightener method, but the tiny sixe leads to some burnt fingers!


These two were made with the same teamplate set but the templates offer two variations. Where as the first block took a week of short sessions these two came together in an evening. The bigger peieces certainly make the blocks go together more quickly but it is much harder to keep the pieces flat while basing when the edges are so long.




The plan is to keep these as a short hand sewing project, use up the layer cake and then see if I have enough blocks for a lap quilt.

1 comment:

katie@stvital said...

I love the first block! I hope you are able to finish it someday.