Fortuneteller

After four years, yes, four years (!) of having Candied Hexagons in the hoop, I'm going out on a limb to say that it will be coming out of the hoop this week. Woohoo!

Quilting the last of the large hexies went quicker than I had imagined as there were a few less that I thought I had to do.

So then it was on to the setting triangles. With only five along each side and another straight line quilting design, I finished up the last of them last night. The pink is an Art Gallery fabric and was a dream to quilt.

Thinking that everything was wrapped up I laid it out on the floor only to discover that I had missed on hexie, so that will get quilted tonight. I'm no fortuneteller, but this one is soon to be bound. It's almost hard to believe!

While I'm in a giddy mood I thought that I'd get in on all of the Senator Bernie Sanders memes from last week's presidential inauguration in Washington that are circulating. You will recall that the photo of him dressed for the weather with his practical jacket and mittens has gone viral with folks placing him in lots and lots of interesting situations.

Needless to say, the quilting ones caught my attention...

so I just had to share a couple. He also made it to the covered bridge in my home town 😄. The guy gets around! He's taking it all in stride and is behind a plan to sell sweatshirts with the image, all profits going to charities like Meals on Wheels. Good on him.....M

Solving the Puzzle

Believe it or not, I think that I now have all of the pieced hexies in Candied Hexagons quilted! I suspect that there might be one that has yet to be quilted lurking in there somewhere but I was keen to finally turn my attention to how the large, unpieced hexies were to be quilted and was looking for a change of scenery. The only rule: a straight line pattern so that I could continue to use my painter's tape to mark it - no marker, chalk or template, please.

In the end, it was quite simple - crisscross the hexie three times from corner to corner and then stitch a zigzag pattern around the edge to create a bit of a star. It's proving to be a nice mix with the various patterns already stitched into the pieced hexies and nicely feeds into my idea of a bowl of hard candies of all different designs.

To ensure that my zigzag is even all the way around I created a rough guide that I lay out at the centre point of each side of a hexie and place a pin(Ithe little white dot) to mark where I change direction and head for the next corner (I am bound and determined not to mark anything!).

I think that there are eight or nine hexies to be quilted like this and I have already finished three, so it's moving along nicely.

Much as I love this print, I am glad that the quilt does not have more of it - SO difficult to see for quilting! Maybe my eyes are just getting old, but it was much tougher than for the lighter prints.

Anyway, soon the next piece of the puzzle will be figuring out how to quilt the setting triangles; I'm hoping that I can develop a version of this pattern, which has me dreaming of actually binding this beauty some time this year! 😉....M

Rock & Roll Soul

Here's another finish from late last year, this time by Jane. Called Rock & Roll Soul, it is a memory quilt for a dear friend and former colleague Dianne, made with her late husband's shirts.   

There were seven in total, all quite interesting designer shirts, some of them purchased in England. A few of them had different fabrics lining the collar, cuffs and inside of the back yoke where the labels were. One shirt had two or three different fabrics used in the same shirt. Jane did not include any fabrics other than what was in the shirts. 

Mel was a huge music fan and loved music of all genres. He especially loved the Beatles, and a couple of his shirts were designed by John Lennon, including this one with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds embroidered across the front two panels, crossing over the button placket. She couldn’t figure out how to use that one without compromising the design, so she is going to make it into a pillow for Dianne. She did use the rest of the shirt, including the tiny embroidered stars that were on the back yoke and cuffs. 

All of the shirt labels were incorporated into the quilt as well, as they were all graphically interesting. I think my favourite fabric is the cream embroidered with small flowers shown in this photo.

Jane's two favourite shirts were the floral ones, the dark navy and the white with blue and navy print. She thinks that the dark one was Liberty fabric, as it was so beautiful to hand sew. There are a few bits of red throughout, the lining of cuffs, a collar and a yoke.

A great blue backing finishes it off and Roberta at Cocoa and Quilts quilted it for her with a terrific ribbon-like panto.

She's very happy with how it turned out and Dianne loved it. Such a beautiful finish, and a fitting and comforting memory for Dianne to cherish....M

Treeday

The calendar might say Sunday but today, sadly, was take-down-the-tree-day. I love having my tree up and never look forward to having it disappear, but it's been up for a month so it's time.

I seem to recall that I was able to do it in about an hour last year but this year it dragged, taking me most of the afternoon. Ah well, nothing left to do now but have the guys pick it up and recycle it.

I'm turning to my Little Trees to help soothe my soul. Each block is about 2" x 4" and they are sweet - a happy little hand stitching project to get me through this seasonal transition....M

Huddling in Place

On Boxing Day our province went back into lockdown so everyone is huddling in place again, except for the most basic of needs. It reminded me that I have been holding out on you. This past fall (a few months ago already), in an attempt to divert my attention from something else that I should have been doing, I picked up all of the blocks for Huddle and arranged the final layout...

ensuring that all of my Xs were angled in the same direction. 

Within a day or so it was all together. 

I love the fabrics in this one. The choices were inspired by the image on the pattern and I'm not sure that I would have made them on my own.

It's amazing how many times you think, ah, this is my favourite...

and then you change your mind.

I find it surprisingly light in colour, but it still evokes the feel of a woven coverlet.

I took a pic of the flimsy outdoors just before the snows flew but it really doesn't do it justice. It will help you see the overall layout though. Not sure if I will keep this one or if it will be a charity quilt but it's nice to have it in the finished column. And with a name like Huddle, it is a good reminder for the times: stay at home and stay safe....M

Just What I Needed

It is not surprising that my expectations for this past holiday season were considerably blunted by the issues that we all continue to confront due to the coronavirus, but on this, the last day of our Christmas vacation, I have to say that different didn't necessarily mean bad. Thanks to food deliveries and Zoom gift openings we found little ways to adapt and still connect to celebrate the season. And, having my new Little Trees quilt to work on was an added bonus!

The last several months have been very busy so things have been a little slow on the quilting front, but having a week to relax and stitch has been the perfect ending to an otherwise herkie jerky year.

More and more prints that are hiding on my shelves are getting worked into the quilts, making it truly scrappy. I'm loving finding new prints to integrate, including the deep dive that I took into the green scrap basket; I suspect that there might be a few additional treasures in the red basket as well...

And I've dug into my surplus Minnie hexies and trimmed several down to use as trunks - they are the perfect length and do a wonderful job of adding to the mix (we'll just ignore the fact that if I wanted a hand stitching project to work on I could have easily picked up Minnie, shall we?).

And so it grows.

So, despite my consternation earlier in December, we truly have enjoyed a happy holiday. I'm not overly keen to have it end and get back to work tomorrow, but I have one day of holidays left and you can pretty much guess how it will be filled.

Thank you for stopping in every now and then to see what I'm up to and for sharing your generous comments - it means the world to me and is so valuable in continuing to feel connected. Wishing you and yours a wonderful, and much healthier, New Year! Let's continue to be creative and find ways to enrich our souls as we work through this challenge....M