Gee, thanks everyone for the sweet comments and conversation about my first hexagon "honeycomb" quilt. It's always a thrill to complete a quilt project and super fun to be able to share it here on the blog with you guys. As I mentioned in the last post, Honeycomb Quilt #2 was already in the works, and here it is in various stages of progress. I actually worked on both quilts in tandem. That may sound a little manic, but it really worked amazingly well. Because one night I would do quilting, the next some piecework or cutting out hexagons. Sort of a tag-team quilting marathon. Switching off gave my hands and wrists a rest from too much repetitive motion with one task or another.
A dining table is perfect for layering quilts. I didn't baste this one because I planned to put it in a table-frame straight away, so just used a few safety pins around the edges to hold it in place.
A peek at the flip side. I like using my own 4" freezer paper templates printed onto letter-sized sheets. I can iron one template on top of a few layers of fabric and just simply eyeball the quarter-inch seam allowance as I cut them out. The seam lines are accurate because they are folded over the template, but the seam allowance is less critical.
Ready to start quilting. This wooden table frame is like a gigantic embroidery hoop. It's half the size of a cardtable with the same folding legs. I like that I can just move it around or pull a chair up to it. I bought this at a quilt show in California, from a couple who designed and made them back in the 1980's. I don't think they are around anymore. The quilt-frames or the couple. Sadly. But I bet they would both be very happy to know their marvelous invention was still in use!
Nice weather prompts me to move the whole operation outside. Sheer heaven. Sometimes, I just drape my quilt over the frame without the hoop piece, to keep it off the ground while I work on small areas with a quilting hoop. There are lots of turning angles with a hexagon. The hand-quilting went a little faster this time using the "stitch in the ditch" method, rather than doing double rows of stitching on each side of the seams. The end result is a softer, fluffier quilt.
I've now begun Honeycomb Quilt #3 with a new color palette of pink. This is what I already had in my stash, but I couldn't resist skipping round the web for fabric and color inspiration and happened to run across these precut 6" hexagons that come with a template to mark the sewing seams, along with directions on how to assemble them by machine. I'm just passing this information along in case anyone is interested. I'm rather enjoying all the hand-sewing just now, but may try that out sometime.
Also found this interesting. Did you know that it is possible to make an entire quilt top in about 40 minutes starting with one really, Really, REALLY long strip of jellyroll fabric? It's awesome how this works. Check it out. Click twice to see this full-screen and hold onto your hat.
Pretty neat, huh? And these plum fabrics look SO yummy.
OK, back to my quilts. Will update my progress on them in a couple of days.
