Anna Levens Comes Out of Hibernation

After a very cold and miserable spring we finally seem to be into summer weather, and that means hand stitching on the deck, which also means that Anna Levens has resurfaced. I think the last time I posted about her was the August long weekend of 2024, so it's been a while.

I had picked it up very briefly over the winter and recently managed to get enough hexies together to sew another 42 to one long edge, so I'm hoping to keep the mojo going. I'm loving revisiting all these prints!

I still get a kick out of the basting papers that I use and the messages that they seem to send me. I punch my own papers from business reply cards that come in magazines and mailings so there's some interesting reading...

And some I take as prompts. There's still rhubarb in the garden so me thinks that it's time to bake a little something from them - scones, muffins, cake?....M

Love Me A Long Weekend

Our August long weekend is always a little bittersweet for me in that you realize that summer's half over, but it's a great chance to kick back for a little hand stitching.

After a fun-filled day with life-long friends on Saturday, Sunday was stitchin' time.

My little basket of Anna Levens hexies has resurfaced so I was busy basting, which always reminds me of Lori Holt from Bee in My Bonnet. She once wrote about paying one of her children five cents for each hexie that they basted for her; this is what 95 cents looks like 😏.

A makeshift needle holder keeps all of my essentials in one place (just love that little acorn print - wish I could find more!)....M

Happy Victoria Day Weekend!

After waiting yesterday for the rain that didn't come, we set up our deck furniture today and proceeded to enjoy much of our day out under the awning. It's been a glorious holiday weekend so far with more great summer-like weather promised for tomorrow, the perfect time to pull out one of my 'from here to eternity' hand stitching projects.

Anna Levens has been dormant since late last summer so hopefully a few newly basted hexies will give her a little boost.

And what's not to love about using thread that comes on a spool of that gorgeous coral colour??? It came to me via Roberta, who occasionally tucks little surprises into my quilts when she returns them to me so it was time to try it out.

It's by Presencia and is really lovely to work with - very buttery. Thank you Roberta!

Before long, the beginnings of a hexie string begins to emerge. A good day all round. 

If you are celebrating Victoria Day this weekend I hope that it includes lots of down time...M

Minnie & Me

Minnie is still sitting by my side when we watch TV but only lately have I picked up my needle again. With all the rush to get a few QFS flimsies ready I didn't have the energy left for hand quilting, but this past week or so I have picked up my needle again.

It's such a treat! I love revisiting every flower and diamond.

I remember being determined to incorporate the tiny white floral into this block. It was a very small scrap from Jane and is just the prettiest wee print. I do remember it being a bit tough to work with (I think it's a polished cotton, so a little heavier and a tighter weave) but it was well worth the effort.

And you can't argue with the end result....M

Bliss

No wildfire smoke.

No sweltering heat.

No rain.

No construction banging and clanging.

Just a lovely day on the deck with Anna Levens, stitching my hexies....M 

Quilting Betty's Hexies

There will be no shortage of colour in Betty's hexie quilt (I think it needs a better name that that, don't you?), and that includes her quilting threads. She's using this gorgeous collection of crochet cottons.

The quilting weaves through the quilt in a random diagonal wave pattern which is a nice offset to the geometry of the pattern.

It's almost easier to see it from the back.

Speaking of the back, she has pieced it using this collection of fabrics. That dark teal along the bottom used to be a favourite dress of mine; shot linen - absolutely loved it. I remember buying it at The Linen Shop (or was it The Irish Shop?) in Toronto, one of my first splurges after I started working. Still love the colour.

Here's a close-up of the fabric that was the jumping off point for the entire quilt, the navy with turquoise and lime; she thinks that it might be a Liberty print. It's a coarse weave, which may explain why she chose to work with small diamonds, but she definitely decided to offset it with the bold and bright prints used throughout....M

Sew Slowly

Just a little over a week ago COVID finally caught up with me. It was inevitable I guess, but not in the least bit welcome. Needless to say, it's been a pretty low energy several days so my plans for Halo never did hit the ground, but occasionally I have picked up Anna Levens.

I haven't worked on this quilt for several months; it was folded up before the holidays and is only resurfacing now to work it's healing powers.

My hexies are basted on an as needed basis and I am amazed that my funky little paper clip is still in the bin after all this time. I use it to secure the fabric to my paper...

and keep it in place until I finish basting the entire thing. It makes all the difference in keeping things secure and minimizing slippage.

I'd hardly say that I made huge progress, but I have managed to finish assembling a row of hexies and getting it attached to one of the sides, which feels good....M

Hexie Heaven

Why baste just one quilt when you can do two? After Sandy had finished basting what I am calling Under the Sea she wasted no time moving along and putting Hexie Heaven on the basting table, another colourful beauty. Look at all of those hexies; a girl after my own heart.

During the last year, when she wasn't stitching little fish she's been busy turning her Kaffe jelly rolls into hexies - so colourful! She scored a terrific deal on three of them a while back and managed to find the last one, called Parakeet, online, so that made her really happy.

This project went with her to the lovely island of Male in the Maldives for a dive trip. All of that time in the air resulted in lots of progress. 

While on a stopover in Abu Dhabi she noticed that there was no shortage of hexie inspiration. Just look at that ceiling!

It's a mosaic tile structure; just look at all of the tiny pieces!

The backing is a Kaffe as well, this gorgeous Millefiore print in rich blues, the perfect foil for all those lovely hexies on the front. Luv.

Here's a better shot of the entire top.

She is hand quilting this one, wanting to keep the pattern simple and also maintain the outline of the flowers. There's still some thinking to be done regarding how to quilt the border. She seems to remember seeing a hexie quilt where they’d somehow managed to quilt it looking like lattice work, which sounds lovely, so I suspect that there will be a deep dive into Pinterest one of these days to see if she can find that again. In the meantime, she's enjoying all of those lovely hexie flowers....M

Anna Levens Returns

Minnie might be ready for quilting but fear not, there are lots more hexies that need some attention now that Anna Levens is back in the rotation.

Much as I love this quilt, it is not as easy to bundle up and move about as Minnie; because the hexies are paper-basted there is always the risk of the papers popping out, making it trickier to sew together. So, I only work on it when I have a bit more of a 'controlled' environment.

The large hexies have been together for quite a while and I've been working to fill in the ends and corners. I'm at the point now where I have several rows of hexies to add to each side. 

I decided to try sewing strings of five or six together and adding the string rather than adding one hexie at a time and I have to say that it worked quite well, so I'm going to keep going that way....M

A Milestone For Minnie

I almost cannot believe that I am typing these words, but Minnie is now a flimsy! After heaven knows how many years, the last little hexies have been stitched into place and it's time to sit back, enjoy it and start planning how to quilt it. This one will be going into my hoop, for sure.

The bulk of it has been finished up for a while now with the exception of the four corners so I picked it up while watching the latest installment of the January 6 Inquiry. The extra setting triangles that I had stitched came in very handy.

I just found a colour combo that worked with the hexies around it, stitched the piece in place and then ripped out the extra bits. Worked like a charm.

A few hexies that were near and dear to my heart were left on the cutting room floor, but it is what it is. The edges will be trimmed straight but I will wait until it's quilted to do that.

The back is almost as interesting as the front - it's a frothy collection of hexies that reminds me of a flamenco dancer's dress.

This has been such a fantastic hand stitching project - despite working on it for so long I never felt rushed with it or pressured to finish it. I picked it up when it suited, took it along on many, many road trips and genuinely enjoyed it every step of the way. 

Though I'll miss not having it to turn to when I'm looking for something to do with my hands fear not, there are couple of contenders waiting in the wings! Now to think about a backing....M

A Pleasant Surprise

Part of the reason that it's taken so long for me to start sewing the larger diamond blocks for Minnie together is that I found the prospect a little daunting. I knew that I had to have my wits about me to get it started, but now that I have, I am very pleasantly surprised at how well it is coming along.

The diamonds are being joined in diagonal rows and they are all now assembled except for the last two, each of which needed another large diamond sewn together before the blocks could be joined. 

I tried using existing setting triangles as the starting point for the blocks that I needed to make but found that I had really picked through my hexies and in many cases don't have any more of the fabrics that I was looking for, so I used bits and pieces for one and am sewing the second one from scratch. I'll start sewing the outer border on them today as I send out prayers to the Ukrainians as they suffer through this totally unwarranted and brutal war waged by Russia. They are proving to be strong and resilient and will need all of the support that we can give in the coming weeks and months.

And a quick reminder that if you'd like to get in on the Quilt Design Book giveaway you have until end of day tomorrow, February 28, to leave me a comment....M