Project Updates and News

It's time for updates on some ongoing projects.

Hexies

I was busy working on free motion quilting after my holidays, but then got attacked by a nasty flue bug and was out for the count. After a week of only reading cozy-mystery novels, I was finally able to work on my hexies.

Progress on my Hexie Runner

I attached the last two flowers and am now working on the white border. I think that it's long enough because I'm now tired of working on it 😊 I will be finishing the piece in the same way as my last hexie project. That will take a while to do, but is totally worth it!

Hexie flower table topper

Finished back of the tat

I also have a few hexie flowers left, so I'll have to work these into another project, eventually!

"Not playing the supporting role!" quilt

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ)

I finally felt well enough to do a little bit of FMQ on my "Not playing the supporting role!" quilt.

I haven't been able to do anything that's too complicated. I am very happy with my rudbeckias. These come from Muv's free motion quilting videos (see Related Links below).

Rudbeckias and swirling leaves

I'm really enjoying "sort of following" the fabric design such as the swirling leaves above. I find that I don't need to be very accurate, that it's more about the flow of the quilting, at least for that fabric.

A solid fabric block means that I can play with swirls, paisleys and lots of echoing. That was a lot of fun.

Swirls, paisleys and echoing

I like using the fabric as a guide for deciding on what to quilt. Since these are full of squarish orange spaces, I've quilting squares within squares. I like that some of the spaces in this quilt call for swirls while others are more linear.

Squares within squares

Finally I added fans in the borders of one of the big blocks. Again, they got progressively better as I made more of them.

Border quilting

News!

I have some exciting news that I can now talk about! I am a big fan of the digital magazine, Make Modern. It's got some really nice projects, is affordable and I really like that it's digital.

Last July, I decided to take a chance and submit a proposal for a baby quilt pattern, based on my Beautiful Day Baby Quilt. Of course I had to go shopping for fabric 😊. I then sent them my proposal and it was accepted! Wow!

Buying fun fabric for a baby quilt!

The pattern comes out next Friday, March 2, 2018, in issue 21. I'll be writing up a post on the application process as well as what I learned while writing the pattern, making and photographing the quilt.

I received this in the mail - I love their postcard and the Make Modern pin!

What I learned

As much as I love hexies, I eventually get bored of working on the same project for a long time. I think that I will always have to keep my English Paper Piecing (EPP) projects small, or they will never get finished!
It may take a while for me to finish the hexie runner since making hexies to match the entire border is very time consuming. I do believe that it's worth it since it's really a lovely finish.
It just dawned on me that all of those finishing hexies will be in white - that may prove to be very difficult cause I get bored easily when I'm not playing with colour. I'll have to think of a solution to this....
I was surprised that I wasn't able to FMQ when I wasn't feeling well. I didn't realise how much concentration and attention it requires. It also doesn't help when I have to figure out what design to quilt.
To keep the decision making to a minimum, I may use Angela Walter's Dot-to-Dot technique since it fits well in most blocks and is fairly simple and quick.
My border fans are not very consistent - I will be planning them the next time!
I have learned so much in the last few months about writing a pattern and getting it published. I was a great experience and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you next week!.

8 comments:

Cathy Tomm24 February 2018 at 00:58
Great table runner in the works and the finished topper. I love working on Hexagons too. I have a project that so far is 4 years 2 months. I still have lots to go.
Lisa J.24 February 2018 at 15:40
That flu is really getting around. I had a bout of it as well and also did some E.P.P. It takes a long time to recover and get the energy back up for just about anything. Your quilting looks great .
Mary Marcotte24 February 2018 at 23:27
Your hexies are pretty! It's amazing how exhausting it is just recovering from the flu. I'm sure that it's too much to be able to do any machine work, even at the domestic.

I'm going to have to check out the video for the rudbeckias quilting. Those are really nice and maybe I'll find more ideas to add to my pocket. :) Hope you feel back to your usual self soon!
Susan25 February 2018 at 19:58
Your hexies are so pretty, and that is a great spot to show them off!
Suzanne26 February 2018 at 18:32
Congrats on your pattern being published....that's very exciting!
Cynthia Brunz Designs26 February 2018 at 21:22
Congratulations on your upcoming publication! Your hexies are looking great. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!
Muv1 March 2018 at 17:28
Hello Andrée,

Looking forward to seeing how many FMQ patterns you can fit on the "Not playing the supporting role" quilt. Great to see the rudbeckias making an appearance - they are fun to do, aren't they?

Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!

Love, Muv
Angie in SoCal4 March 2018 at 23:56
I like your hexies. I have several projects with them, and I too, lose interest at times - so much to try out there. Congrats on getting your proposal accepted. Look forward to learning more about it as I make a lot of baby quilts.

Hi! I would love to hear from you and I will try to answer you. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a message. :-)

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Friday, February 23, 2018

Project Updates and News

8 comments: