Photo Finish

Phew, there is nothing like a deadline.

A couple of hours ago the last quilt was dropped off for tomorrow's Open Day. It will be exhibit number 66.

Just minutes before the doorbell rang, I put the final stitches into the binding of my hexie quilt.

I started this project, in Julyl last year when Lynne and Gail launched their Hex a Long. I had quite consciously avoided hexagons and piecing over papers, for about 13yrs, never liked Grandmother's Flower Garden.

But this HAL was different and I was enchanted by the variety of shapes that were emerging from the humble hexagon. Oh, if my maths teacher could see me now.

My hexie project became a bit of an obsession - even yesterday, on the way to work, I stopped and took a picture of a pavement.

I played along and didn;t really have a plan to make a quilt but it just sort of happened. I started with a selection of soft greys and teals, then popped in some pinks, leftovers from other projects, a wee bit of purple 1001 Peeps, more purples, any old scraps...........it was - fun!!
I have had great support and advice from others in the flickr group and am now declaring a finish.

 Can I spot a licorice allsort in there?

I don't do a lot of hand sewing so this was new for me - all hand pieced. However, I chose to machine quilt it - I used a 30wt variegated Sulky thread in 100% cotton.

I don't really trust my hand stitching to stand the test of time so I pretty much quilted all the seams using this fancy stitch (above wip) this stitch is on most machines as a utility stitch and is called, I think, a faggoting stitch. I also use it to join offcuts of my 80/20 or cotton wadding/batting. It works beautifully. I don't always recommend using fancy stitches to quilt as their default stitch length and width often produces a tightening effect on the quilt. On my trusty machine I am able to change the stitch width and length on most stitches so I can create the look I am after.

In the case of this quilt, which has a traditional look, the fancy stitch harks back to the days of crazy quilting.

I treated the borders differently but have forgotten to take close ups so will come back to that in a day or two.Rumour also has it that I might add a wee bit of hand quilting here and there too.......

Meanwhile I am going to put my feet up and relax before tomorrow - it promises to be a busy day. Hoping to share some photos with you very soon.

Hope you are all having a great weekend.x