Grannies Garden - using hexagons

If you've been following my blog you'll know that when I travel I take hexagons with me to stitch. These travel easily in a small bag and can be sewn on planes, coaches, in hotel rooms, etc.

As you can see the way I normally work produces a very random design.

I showed you this quilt made from 70's fabric in August and decided I would try this Grannies Garden design whilst I was travelling to Portugal.

I realised that I have never told you the size of these hexagons. The ones from the 70's are 3.5cm to a side. All the recent ones I have shown you are 2.5cm to a side.

I decided I wanted all the centres to be the same colour and the flowers would be set in cream. Each flower would use only one fabric for the petals.

As you know I like working in strips so here is my method. You need one centre hexagon, six hexagons for the petals and five cream hexagons for each flower. You will create three strips: 

a) one cream, two petals b) two cream, one petal, one centre, one petal, one cream c) one cream, two petals

When you sew the strips together they will look like the one below. You repeat this several times.

You can then put the flowers together

I have sewn about 50 flowers together and need to do about 50 more to make a quilt to fit a double bed.

When I was cutting out these hexagons before travelling I happened to glance in my wastebin at all the bits of fabric in there - surely I could do something with them. How about smaller hexagons?

These little ones are 1cm to a side. I have about 20 of these - a step too far do you think?

It's All in the Print

This was a workshop being run yesterday by Art Van Go. As they are in Knebworth and I am working at Duxford (about 30 minutes away) I thought I would go along for a play.

The first thing we did was to grid up the white fabric with masking tape

One colour was added using a roller directly onto the fabric or by using a variety of mono-print techniques. We rolled out the fabric paint onto a sheet of plastic, made marks in the paint and then printed this onto the fabric. The paint was sandwiched between two plates which were then printed onto the fabric. Stencils were also used.

When the paint was dry we removed the masking tape

The masking tape was saved to be reused

This masking tape was then repositioned on the fabric

A second colour was added

The masking tape now needs removing again but as I want to keep and perhaps use the tape I will wait until I get home before doing this.

In between printing on fabric we practiced on paper and also made sure that all paint was used up so that none was washed away.

Using up fabric - nine fat quarters to make a quilt

As we are shortly to travel to India and there is a small possibility that I may buy some fabric I decided I needed to use up some of the 'sets' of fabric I have in my cupboard. These themed fabrics are designed to go together. The first pack was Makower's 'Party Time'. Here is the completed quilt top.

I had four different fat quarters of patterned fabric and some small labels.  

I decided to team up the four fat quarters with five plain ones. The first thing was to cut the fat quarters into 10cm (4") strips.

You then sew them together in groups of three. Two patterned fabrics either side of a plain (twice) and one group of three plain fabrics (the centre fabric will end up quite small so could be a bold colour). Sew until all strips are used up and press the seams. (I forgot to take a photo before I cut them again so try to ignore the horizontal cuts)

Cut across the new fabric into 10cm (4") strips.

Sew these in groups of three to make a nine-patch. Press the seams.

You then need to cut the nine-patch in half vertically and horizontally.

Arrange these new squares into a pleasing pattern and sew together. Here is the quilt top again ...

... and here is a detail

How To Make A Removable Book Cover

As you can see from earlier posts I often make covers for my books, diaries, folders, etc. Here is a really easy technique for making a removable cover.

Here is the prepared fabric. This has been hand dyed and printed but you could use any fabric. You do not need the wadding unless you are intending to quilt the fabric.

Hem the two side edges

Measure the fabric around the book, making sure the book is closed and fold over the two side edges to make the flaps

Cut a piece of lining fabric. Place this on top of the cover (right sides together) and stitch along the top and bottom edges.

Turn through to the right side. All rough edges are now beautifully covered.

Finished cover