A week of quilting

Last week was quilting. I had intended to post this in instalments, but the quilt developed its own momentum, and here is the account of the whole week.

On Monday I set off to Hettie's Patch with my hexagon patchwork bedcover neatly ironed, to get some wadding, backing and advice on creating my quilt.

I ended up with polyester/wool wadding and a slightly-marbled neutral cotton backing. I had intended to buy enough quilting clips to hold my (vast) edges together, but the staff at Hettie's Patch insisted that this was unnecessary, and that glueing was the way to go, so I ended up with a can of spray glue instead.

My feeling is that this was a mistake. Although I followed their instructions about laying out the fabric, folding back, spraying and smoothing, the size of the quilt, the fact that I had no table big enough and needed to use the floor, made for difficulty.

I know it would have been difficult anyway, but I think I'd have been better off with the clips - and/or safety pins.

I was determined to quilt this myself - but did find it difficult and daunting. On Tuesday I began in the centre, intent on stitching along the edge of the black hexagons. I managed three rows in the centre, then switched to stitching every second black row.
It wasn't the thickness that defeated me, but the weight pulling on the needle and the difficulty of manoeuvring the fabric along the angles of the hexagons.



It took me all Tuesday to quilt the hexagons. On Wednesday we had friends to lunch, so I got little quilting done, but re-did a section or so where the tension had been loose.

On Thursday, I straightened, readjusted and pinned the border sections. I  released the fabric from the glue to get it smooth and even. I then ruled a starting line using an old 2 metre-long window-opening rod and a chalk pencil. Once I had the starting line, I could quilt in straight rows around each side.

Originally, I had intended to quilt the edges by hand in red and purple perle thread.  I decided, however, that the edges would be better without colour and a lot quicker by machine.

At the end of Thursday I had something that resembled a quilt and only the edging left to do!

On Friday I cut into strips the fabric I had left from the purple hexie centres.  I attached these to each of the four sides on the inside of the quilt. Again, I had originally intended to hand stitch the edging down, but could see no real advantage. I also recall seeing an example of someone using a decorative stitch on a quilt border, so decided to give it a go.

I chose a stitch that seemed to complement the hexagons and was fairly simple. It worked well, although again, the weight of the quilt made it difficult to prevent the stitches distorting slightly as can be seen at the left hand end.



That left the task of checking all the stitching and cutting all the threads.


On Friday afternoon the finished quilt went on our bed. The hexagons have dimension and the weight has proved  perfect for our autumn nights.

As a final touch, this morning, after a visit to Spotlight to buy a permanent fabric marker, I added the label my friend Vivienne sent as part of my birthday present earlier this year. I have called the quilt Re-collections, to capture the sense of memories in the quilt as well as the use of fabric and ideas collected over many years.

Thanks to all my friends and family who have encouraged and supported me through what for me has been a large project with quite a few unknowns. I wouldn't have made it without you all.

Patchwork progress

The last time I posted progress on my patchwork quilt, I thought I had eight rows of hexagons to add to get the required size (25 rows).

Since then I have worked steadily and have added four of the eight rows.

I am still working to a routine of constructing the hexies two rows at a time - black hexagons first, then coloured, join each into a row, then embroider the centres of the coloured rows, then join the two row together and add them to the quilt.

I enjoy each bit of the process but the treat is the embroidery of the centres.


I've experimented with a few on the rows just finished, including some bullion buds, a circle and a satin stitch flower.

Of course, there have been quite a few old favourites.

When I tried the now 21-row quilt on our bed I decided that I only need two, not four more rows. With the edging, this will easily be as high as I want the quilt to come on the bed. In fact, I am wondering if I could/should make the top border on the quilt narrower than on the other three sides. I don't want a black border to overwhelm the look of the quilt and I don't want to have a double layer of quilt around our heads. I will think about this as I add the last two rows of hexagons.

More Hexagon Centres

Here are a few more of the embroidered centres of my hexagons. The first two are couched daisies - picked up from a project in an embroidery magazine.








This is a spiral using reverse chain stitch - another idea from Mary Corbett. I'm not sure this is any faster than regular chain stitch, but it may be more even, and I enjoyed trying it out.








I also played around with strawberry leaves and a whipped stem stitch.








Niamh took me up on a suggestion she embroider her initial on one centre. This is the centre she chose and she managed a very creditable couched initial.




The one on the right was not embroidered by me. It is one of my late father's initialled hankies.






Since last posting I have added four rows to the quilt - two black and two coloured. I have eight more rows to go and it now looks like this:

Patchwork Progress

I have now struck a rhythm of stitching up and adding two rows of hexagons at a time to my quilt. I have a pattern of stitching one full row of 16 coloured hexie "flowers", then one full row of 17 black hexie "jewels". Then, as a reward, I embroider the centres of the coloured ones.

Finally, I stitch the two rows together and then stitch the two to the quilt.

I now have 13 rows finished - 6 coloured and 7 black. Two rows ago, I thought I might only need 27 rows in all, rather than the original 29 planned. After 13 rows I tried the work the other way around on the bed, placing it where I'd like it to end up.

I discovered I have already reached half-way. It will only need 25 rows, not 27 or 29.

I am, of course, overjoyed by this discovery - even though it means I have two spare rows of coloured hexies cut! It gives me a bit more flexibility in mixing my fabrics - and I am not even beginning to think what I can do with spare hexies!

This is a big incentive to keep my rhythm going as I go away for a few days break (with a supply of papers and fabric squares!).

Hexagon patchwork quilt progress

When I calculated and bought the black fabric I am going to need to finish my patchwork quilt I decided to cut from the black fabric the borders I would need for the quilt. This means I can have borders on the quilt without unnecessary joins and can then cut 2" black squares from the rest for the remaining hexies.

Having cut the borders, I decided to applique the first row of the quilt to its border now. This gives me an idea of what it will look like, and also means I can remove the papers from the first row.


Since then, I have added two black rows and a coloured row, bringing the total number of rows completed to 11 - out of a planned total of 29.

I am trying to work two rows at a time - to give myself a bit of variety as the black stitching is less interesting than the coloured stitching!  I am now in a position where I can keep adding two rows at a time without the thought of one more black row at the end.


 
I think there is a chance I will find that I only need another 16 rows (a total of 27). I don't want to fold the quilt over at the top to sleep under it - so we will see how it looks as I get closer to the top.

While snow and ice may make for good stitching in the Northern hemisphere, the weeks of temperatures well over 100F in southern parts of Australia have also meant staying inside and stitching. Stitching two rows together before adding to them to the quilt minimises the amount of time needed to hold the whole piece - much cooler!

Further hexagon centre embellishments

I haven't embroidered all the hexagon centres with a specific motif. For some I have made up the embellishment as I went along.

This one, for example, is a buttonhole flower using variegated thread in shades similar to the surrounding fabric.

This one is a whipped chain stitch circle.

Mostly the embroidery is flat, but I did succomb to small bullion buds for one.

I managed a whipped chain stitch wheel with button hole spokes on the fabric left  from Fionn's snack bag.

In some, I just continued the lines of the fabric.

Some are more successful than others, but it is a lot of fun just playing around with such small motifs and breaks the long sessions of stitching he hexagons together.

More rows on hexagon quilt

In between embroidering the centres of the coloured hexagon 'flowers', I have progressed to four rows.

I tested it on the bed  and made a few decisions.

I had worked on the basis of the hexagons on the top of the bed and a plain border or around 12 inches overhanging. At this point I decided I wanted two more hexagons in the width (from 14 to 16 coloured ones) so there was one row overhanging on each side, then a border of around 12 inches - so there will be good coverage.

I also decided to finish each edge with a row of full black hexagons, rather than the half-rows I had before.

I then made the appropriate additions to the four rows to establish the new scheme.







By testing the 16 row width on the bed as the length, I decided that I would make the length 14 coloured rows, plus the border. I want this to be a working quilt, so I think I now have the dimensions that will work for our bed.

This has enabled me to make more accurate calculations about the number of hexagons I need - and additional black fabric I will need to buy. The numbers of 3/4" hexagons stack up to 2087 black, 128 red centres, 128 purple centres, and 1428 other coloured.

I had already identified and cut nearly enough coloured pieces, so have topped these up to the requirement and organised them in plastic bags for each row. I have bought the black fabric I need, and will gradually cut and add this to the bags, so each bag will allow me to progress one coloured and one black row.

I also figured out that Monica was right in suggesting my 300 papers are not going to be enough. I took on board the suggestion of another friend and managed to find (after quite a bit of searching) a paper punch that will make 3/4 " hexies. I have so far added about 200 papers to my supply and am recycling the 500.

So - all set for production!