When traveling by car I never drive, so passenger seat time is spent on handwork, or practicing the ukulele - now that I have that new form of entertainment. My long-term, on-going, will-take-years-to-finish handwork project is making these 8" English paper-pieced hexagons. I put together three of them while riding from Florida to Kansas and back again.
The design is called Spinning Wheel, and I think it makes into a pretty cool quilt. Though pre-cut papers are available for purchase, I drafted this shape in EQ7 and printed my own card stock papers that I cut out with a rotary cutter. The paper's aren't quite as accurate as purchased papers, but I've found that as I remove the card stock, if something is puckery, when it's fabric-only it eases out.
I'm 23 hexagons into this project, and will work on them again when traveling or when I can't take my sewing machine with me to a quilting activity. I'm out of pre-prepared fabric pieces, so I need to spend time doing some cutting.
My scrappy Slopes quilt is getting attention. I've now sewn blue blocks and purple blocks, and continued to use my 18"-long Strip Stick to press seams open. I don't know how us quilters managed to press nice, tuck-free seam allowances before this gadget was invented!
After pressing, I cut the pieced strips into 6-1/2" X 6-1/2" blocks. This picture is of the smallest remaining trimmings. They're the ones I toss into a bag sewn from upholstery fabric. When the bag is full, I'll sew it closed and donate it to a pet rescue facility to be used as a bed. These beds are one of several charity projects by Big Cypress Quilters.
This is how Slopes looks on my design wall. I love it! But I don't have enough scraps to repeat every one of the colors. Right now it measures 60" wide by 48" high.
I've wondered if I should go ahead and put it together, rotate the design, and call it done as a kid's quilt. It looks good this way too.
More than anything, I've been itching to quilt again. An in-progress quilt has been languishing on the Janome for too long. So, here I go a-FMQing! Linda
Your Slopes quilt is looking really wonderful! If you don't have the scraps, I'd say yes to finishing it up! Looks good either way, right?
ReplyDeleteYour Slopes is amazing!!!Wow.
ReplyDeleteLovely!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous!!! I love your Spinning Wheel, and your Slopes . . . sew pretty :)
ReplyDeleteBoth projects are so cheery! I just love Slopes in landscape orientation and I think it would be awesome on a wall.
ReplyDeleteI truly love your to go project! While it seems as though they take forever, looking back over the years, I'm always surprised to see how many finished to go projects I've accomplished. The Spinning Wheels will be beautiful. Slopes is coming along nicely. It's difficult when you reach that point of deciding to keep it small and move on, or continue. I'm actually at that point with an Elizabeth Hartman pattern. There are just so many projects I want to start (and finish). On the other hand, I'd like to make a quilt of substantial size for a change. Decisions, decisions!
ReplyDeleteLove both your quilt projects! I have been doing Spinning Wheels as foundation piecing and have enough hexagons done for a quilt but I am going to do half hexagons to fill in the three-sided spaces. It won't be a really big quilt but I'm happy with how it's going.
ReplyDeleteHi Daphne! You're a no-reply commenter, so I hope you read my reply to you here. Thank you for saying you like my projects! Neat that you too are making Spinning Wheels. I'd like to see it. Since I'm not even close to being done making hexagons, I haven't thought-out how to complete the edges. But, I really like your idea, and will keep that in mind. Thanks for telling me! Linda
DeleteHi Linda! I have read your reply (I'm not sure how to change from being a no-reply commenter!) and will certainly send you a photo when the quilt is finished, but don't hold your breath, LOL!
DeleteI'm glad you read my response. A lot of people who comment don't know that they're "no-reply," so you're not alone! It's been YEARS since I had to change anything for myself, but I recall that I had to go into my profile and change a setting that let my edress be visible. I hope you can figure it out. I've learned from friends who use Yahoo accounts that they're not able to make a change because Yahoo and Blogger don't play well together. :-) My best!
DeleteI had not seen this spinning wheels EPP pattern before and love the way you get the illusion of circles when you put the blocks together.
ReplyDelete