Hexalong

I've joined Lynne's summer Hexalong over at Lily's Quilts. I'm working on a paper-pieced medallion with lots of curved seams. The central hexagon is finished, and now I'll build off the edges. At this point the edges are 4".

Lynne has posted a bunch of tutorials, and there's lots of hexie action in the Lily's Quilts flickr pool. Check it out!

SFO -> JFK

SFO -> JFK
119 one-inch hexies basted
JFK -> SFO
70 one-inch hexies basted, plus some piecing. For some reason I'm never as efficient on the flight home.

The wrenches continue to be the most controversial fabric in this project. But I love them, so there.

Hexagon WIP

I've made quite a bit of progress on my hexagon quilt lately.

It languished in a corner for several months, but recently I've spent a fair amount of time on airplanes, and hand-piecing hexagons is a great way to pass the hours. This is not without its hazards, as my fingers tend to be pretty sore by the end of a six-hour flight. On one trip I wore my right elbow raw on the armrest from the repetitive stitching motion. I didn't even realize it until I stood up to get off the plane.

The design has expanded a bit since my original sketch and may yet grow more. I'm currently working left to right. All of the large four-inch hexagons are done (with some machine piecing) and I have mostly small one-inch red ones to add to the right side.

My favorite detail so far is the way the small shapes meet the big shapes with half hexagons.

Hexy update

The one-inch hexy count has reached 820. I've started hand stitching the pieces together into larger hexagon blocks. Over the holidays I hope to start working in some four-inch hexies over the holidays.

It's been a while

I put down my sewing projects for a while, but lately I've been busy again. I have several quilts in progress that I'll be posting about. Today I offer the hexy count update: 617

I think it's time to start sewing them together.

When I started quilting...

I swore I would never do this:

Obviously something has changed. My first 125 one-inch hexies are basted and ready for piecing.

Hexagons

I'm thinking about starting a hexagon quilt project. I have so far avoided hand piecing in favor of the efficiency of my sewing machine. I am such a slow hand sewer. But these days I get fidgety when I have a free moment and nothing handy to sew. In the interest of always having something to take along on a train, in front of the tv or with the kid at the park, hexagons seem like a perfect long (long) term solution. 

I am going to use the English paper piecing method, which involves wrapping fabric around paper hexagons with a temporary basting stitch, hand stitching adjacent hexagons together and then removing the paper and the basting thread. 

The palette will be based on the rich red and royal blue in a shawl Hamish brought me from India.

I haven't settled on a pattern yet, but I know I'm not a grandma's-flower-garden type of guy. I'm toying with mixing small and large hexagons (3/4" and 3" sides, or 1" and 4" sides), with large fading into small. I colored up a few copies of a quick concept sketch. 

Red bigs fading into blue smalls:

Blue bigs fading into red smalls:

Blue fading to red, big and small:

I thought I was going to like the mixed colors best but right now I'm leaning toward blue bigs and red smalls. I guess that decision can wait until after I choose a size and cut out a boatload of paper hexagons.