Hexagon hoo ha hullaballo…

I’ve finally finished sewing all the hexagon and half hexagon shaped patchwork pieces together, and was hoping to be able to say “ta-dah” and show off the completed project, however I then experienced a bit of a hoo ha hullaballo and had a bit of a brain melt and so managed to sew the same thing completely wrong twice. It was definitely a case of less speed more haste. Grrr, shaking my fist up at the sewing gods.

So after a second lot of unpicking and generally grumpiness, (which even a pot of tea and some saffron fruit buns couldn’t help disperse) I thought I would just share the pictures that I have taken so far of the work in progress and hopefully be able to show the finished item in the next day or so..

I’ve tried not to repeat any of the fabrics although a couple managed to sneak in before I realised they were there.

I love the back of paper piecing, most of the papers have been take out in the above picture. I prefer not to sew through the paper when I am sewing the fabric over, I allow a little extra for seam allowances and find it makes removing the papers that much easier, and very rarely do any just drop out of their own accord.

A few years ago, me and my friend Beth went to the Quilts 1700 – 2010 exhibition at the V and A museum in London and there was a marvellous paper pieced quilt top, with all it’s little papers still inside.

To have the top and bottom nice and straight I cut some of the hexagon papers in half and folded the fabric over the four edges before sewing them into the little gaps. I could have just sewn in hexagons then folded them over but I thought that would make it too bulky along the edges.

Once the half hexagon was sewn into place I then removed the papers from the hexagons either side.

This is the finished patchwork, it measures just over 25 inches by 12 inches, and the hexagons are 2 inches across at the widest point. Just looking at it is a real trip down memory lane for me, there is fabric from the first quilt I made (which my mum now has) fabric from Joyce and Sylvia, fabric from Phil’s shirt, fabric from my Nanny’s bed sheets, fabric from Alison who taught me to quilt, some yellow fabric from my friend Georgie Girl who I lost touch with a few years ago, beautiful Sanderson’s fabric from Sasha, and then scraps and snippets from my scrap boxes. For me this is like looking at a photo album, or meeting up with old friends.

Now to finish that un-picking and hoping with tightly crossed fingers that the sewing goes right.