Thursday 1 March 2012

This, that and the other

Hello all :) My silence has been a screen for lots of activity of the stitching kind which I'd love to share with you but can't just yet. Hopefully you'll think it's worth the wait when I can reveal all! In the meantime there has been a little sewing activity that I can share with you :) You might remember that I started the Kaffe Fassett Not So Lone Star quilt last year. Not a great deal of progress was made on it last year as frankly I was nowhere near skilled enough to tackle it. After a really productive year I feel much more capable of tackling all those diamonds and to prove the point I have finished the first of eight giant diamonds! This photo doesn't really show the scale of this block but each side is around 30". I'm hoping that if I do a row a week I might get round to finishing this top in 2012....won't hold my breath though.
This year I've really tried to stretch my hand sewing skills. I'm naturally very impatient and I have always associated hand sewing with long term and by definition slow projects so have tended to give it a wide berth. Well, no longer! I've seen so many inspirational hand projects in flickr/blogland recently that I just couldn't resist joining in. So, last night while I waited for my templates to arrive from Katy I thought I'd practice with some hexies. It would appear that hexies are hugely addicitive, much to Mum's amusement! I think I'm quite a way off being as mad about them as Mum but I can see their appeal more now than I ever have. Here's my first flower.
I've taken them to heart so much so that I've given them a home in my pouch that I made with my fabrics from Karen. All neatly packed away so I can grab them if I need them :)
Talking of Karen, a little while ago I commissioned her to make some quilt labels for us and today they arrived! How cool are they? Karen has made the screen for these so I can order more when we run out, I can't wait to use them :) I'm sure that if you fancied some for yourself, Karen would be more than happy to consider another commission.
And finally, I received a fabulous package of Heather Ross charms from Susan that I won in her recent giveaway! How cool is that?! Thanks Susan, you rock! My mind is already whirring with ideas of how to use them with the rest of my Heather Ross stash. Those plans will be on ice for a while as I have a million and one other things I need to do first but it's lovely to have such pretty thoughts :)
Catch you all soon x

10 comments:

  1. Wonderful diamonds and hexies! Looking forward to seeing more! Jxo

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  2. All totally lovely looking - I swore no more hexies last week, but I'm feeling the urge again!

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  3. Oh wow, Lone star is a biiig job, but its gonna look gorgeous though :-) Good luck, keep at it ;-)

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  4. Oh yes, those hexies can be addictive, took me a long time to realise that...

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  5. I find EPP can be hugely addictive. The key is not to stop. When I made my 1" charm hexie quilt having the flickr group and doing swaps of fabric with people really kept me motivated. I must have sewn together well over 1200 hexies and couldn't have imagined that when I first started. Funnily enough though when I started Lynne's Hex-a-long the hexies were much much bigger, but I went on holiday and sort of ran out of steam. You'd think bigger would mean quicker and easier wouldn't you?

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  6. Thank you for the lovely write-up, Reene and what a perfect pouch for your gorgeous hexies ;-) All looking fab and so glad you are pleased with your labels...can't wait to see them on your beautiful work ;-)

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  7. Yup, I'm addicted to hexies too! Love the lone star diamond and the labels!

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  8. That diamond block looks gorgeous!
    I haven't yet caught the handsewn hexie bug, but I hope to make time one day! Yours look very cute in their lovely home :)
    Love Karen's labels too!

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  9. Diamond block looks great. Hexies are fab, I keep a little zip pouch near the sofa so when the tv is rubbish I can stitch away!

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  10. Your welcome. Glad you like the HR win.

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