Mini Tutorial - Floating Hexies

 I decided that I wanted to make something simple - and this is based on the excellent pattern in Pam and Nicky Lintott's 'New Ways with Jelly Rolls' for a quilt back.

Too good to hide away on a back, in my opinion!

 So I've made mine with just two fabrics.  One for the hexies, one for the background.
You need to cut 4.5" strips x WoF.  I cut four strips for the dark purple, and seven for the background.  You need to add extra half hexies at the ends which is why you need more background shapes.

 Then use your 60 degree ruler, and use the lines between the 8" and 3.5" lines to cut the half hexie shapes, flipping the ruler round after each cut to be as economical with the fabric as possible.

Next sew them together to make strips - you can see below how to create the hexagons from two strips.

I planned a 3 - 4 - 3 layout.  Once you lay them out you can see where to add the extra background half hexies.

 I liked laying mine out to make sure that I'd got the right number (facing the right way!) in each strip.  You can see here that I was part way through the process and needed to add more sections at some of the strip ends.

When you are happy with your strips, line them up and sew together.  Work out where the hexagons are going to be to work out how each pair of strips will line up.

The ends will look something like this.

You need to cut them off to make a straight edge (generating more scraps to play with, of course!).

That's it.  You have made enough for a runner, perhaps.  Mine finished at 54" x 24".  If you made two it would make a good lap quilt or cot quilt size.

What I actually went on to do was to add deep borders around my central part, before backing / basting / quilting / binding.

The quilt finished at 70" x 46" which is a reasonably useful size for cozying up under.

The backing was a bit random.  Life saver rings and another fabric with a flash of red on it.  Not a bad combination, but perhaps not the best players with the front of the quilt!  Sorry, whoever ends up with this one - but it was sewn with love if that counts for anything.

Mixed Sewing (again!)

 

 More mini homes as my #the100dayproject2020 offering.

Different techniques, and still throwing in the occasional reference to daily life - like the loaf shaped house at the top to show our home baked bread from the weekend....

 More scrubs bags - now delivered to the London Ambulance service.  Check 'for the love of scrubs' on Facebook if you want to try and find somewhere local to you asking for scrubs / bags / hats / bands.  Some places are very specific about the fabrics that they will accept for various items, and you should plan for everything to be able to be washed at 60oC.

Finally, two blocks for the Richmond and Kew Quilters charity block idea from Marianne - a Trip Around the World type block.

Mixed sewing

 Another rainbow window hanging - as we wanted to have one to show thanks to the key workers using the train station that we overlook.

Thanks to Patch and Dot for the base pattern which you can find here.

 And using the same fabrics, I started my #100dayproject - this year I'm planning to make 100 tiny homes, reflecting on how many of us are currently staying at home - and how grateful I am to have a home that I enjoy being in.

It's been fun so far.  These little fun houses are set on a grid of 2.5" square to make sure that I don't let them get too large!  I plan to keep using a variety of techniques to make them.

 Finally, I've started making a batch of 'scrubs bags' for the London Ambulance service.  Many thanks to my BF who - many years ago - gave me lots of bed linen.  Fabric that hasn't been made into quilt backs is now being pressed into service.

The pillow cases in particular were an easy conversion into drawstring bags - and I'm lucky to have had a roll of cotton tape on hand for the drawstring part of them.

The ones in the pile on the right are cut from a duvet cover, and I made my own 'strings' from the cover too.  More time consuming, but I don't have enough tape to use in all the bags that I plan to make.

Interesting times, as they say, but at least I can still sew.

Lots of Small Projects

This was my completed quilt for the week - roughly 20" square and based on this pattern by Kjersti Smith (thank you Kjerski and Creative Quilting for making it free  to download for April).

Displayed in our window to say 'thanks' to everyone who is still working, whether at home or out on the front line, in service, care and health industries and every other industry too!  We will need all of you who are preventing the economy to completely grinding to a halt, as well as those who are more commonly recognised.  Thank you everyone who is doing their bit to keep the wheels on!

 Here is the start of my scrap busting.
This carpenters wheel has used all my neutral or near neutral charm squares, and most of my blue and purple ones.  At 32" square it needs more to be a useful size, but I will look through my  scraps and 'small yardage' bits to see what falls into place.

I'm so pleased to make this, though, as it has been on my list for years to make!

 Then it was time to make cards.  I may not be able to see family and friends this Easter, but I can share the love by sending a card.

During March there were a number of birthdays that I made cards for too.  I need to get making the ones for April now (and ask my DH to buy some more postage stamps!).

Stay safe, stay well, and stay in!

Small Victories

 My scraps are finally all sorted (for the moment!)

It's hard to believe that they all fitted into the three plastic drawers, even harder to believe that they all fitted back again!

 But here's the proof!

Neatly sorted.  Either by size, or, with the irregular strips and rectangles, by colour (in the zip lock bags in the middle drawer.

It's left me with decisions about how to use them, of course.  But a decision for another day!

A second small victory?  This floral wreath is complete - a cross stitch piece that I've been working on for an online course (showing that I can use variagated thread - there are only six different threads used here.  Sometimes with thread lengths used 'top to tail' to give variation within a stitch, sometimes just trying to use the darker and lighter colours to pick out different parts of flower heads.

Reminds me of something that my grandma might have liked!

A third victory?  Not so small, this one.  My BF had her lumpectomy (a victory in itself in these uncertain times) and the cancer hasn't spread into the lymph node!  Hurrah!  Thank heavens for screening programs...... and what a shame that they are temporarily closed in many places at the moment, for obvious reasons.