Must try harder

I have been sewing recently but it's all been bits and bobs, Linus stuff and teaching samples.  I've also been teaching rather a lot (well, 4 days this month has seemed a lot to me!) and haven't been blogging either.  So I've decided to try harder (both with quilting and blogging) so here is what I did yesterday.  Liz decided to try and reduce her collection of shirts by making a quilt for Injured Servicemen, and cleverly asked members of Rocheberie Schoolhouse Quilters to help her.  She provided the fabric and pattern, and is expecting completed blocks in return.  Here are mine. 

 

 

Easy, right?  Well, not as easy as I thought.  The fabrics are nice soft shirtings, and while Liz warned in the instructions that they might need starching to stabilise, Leap-before-you-look-Lynda just dived straight in, and found out the hard way that starch would have been a good idea!  One thing that Liz didn't mention was that the fabrics weren't all 100% cotton (why should she? wasn't it obvious?) so the first pressing resulted in melted fabric and a messy iron.  Should have thought of that too!  Never mind, at least the blocks are done, and they're such an effective design.  The measurements are 2.5" strips cut into 2.5" squares, then 6.5" strips and 10.5" strips, to make a 10" finished block.  Lovely.

 

So then I got out a little bag of HSTs which someone at Rocheberie had given to me.

 

 I joined them into flying geese and then into Dutchman's Puzzle blocks.

  These will be an 8.5" finish and there are enough for five blocks.  That'll make a nice Linus quilt for a baby.  I'll try and get on with it and post some pictures for a change!

Can't believe it!

I haven't posted for a while, as life here has been very hectic.  When we came back from our holiday, we went straight into our drama group's production of Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible', for which I had done the costumes.  Then no sooner had the hired costumes been returned and our own costumes washed and put away, than we were busy with DH's 60th birthday!  Family lunch on Sunday, a stay in London for DH and myself and then a party last Saturday.  We all had a fabulous time, but there wasn't much sewing going on!  The only piece of sewing I did, was ........... wait for it ..........
hexagons!

 

I saw an article in 'Quilter's Newsletter' by Micky Depre about her wanting some hand work, and Bonnie Hunter suggesting hexagons.  (The mention of Bonnie's name immediately perked my interest!)  Micky played about with some fabrics and has made seven new designs for hexagons, and this, Spike pieced hexies, took my fancy.

 

Micky simply pieced a strip in the middle of her fabric, and aligned it with marks on the paper.  I'm not working on it furiously, but think it will be a good portable project.  I must say, I never thought I'd be starting a hexagon project, which just goes to show that you should never say never!