Hexie circle finished..........three more to go

Here is the first circle of nineteen circles completed and laid out on the bed on which the finished quilt will go.  I will definitely need four circles plus extra hexies to fill in the gaps to make the quilt rectangle shaped.

Hexagon 19 Bluebirds

Here is the final hexie in the first group of nineteen.  I wasn't sure how this one would turn out after the vibrant Peacock but in the end I am happy with the end result.  Now I can join all of these hexies together to form the first circle.

Hexagon 18 - Peacock

This has got to be the most challenging hexie so far.  The colours were not my usual ones and I have to admit to being waaay out of my comfort zone. I feel as if the hexie and I were in a continual battle of wills and inverably, the hexie won!!  There was loads of stitching, unpicking, more stitching, more unpicking etc however I am really happy with the end result and I think the hexie is happy too!!!

The two pieces on the sides of the peacock were cut from a piece of patchworking fabric called "Arabian Nights" and they set the colour scheme for the block. The glass peacock button was from Thearica Burroughs as part of my prize for the "Message in a Bottle" challenge and it seemed to cry out for a bead frenzy.....again, not my usual style.

Hexies 16 and17 Completed

I spent the day with my husband at Royal Perth Hospital while he went through the procedure of being injected with dye and then hanging around for over three hours until he could have the bone scan.  Needless to say I took these two hexagons with me to stitch the black Feather Stitching around the edges.

Here is Hexie number Sixteen which shows a little girl with her grandfather in his garden. The original painting is called "In Grandpa's Garden" so the hexie really suited lots of flowers and gardening charms like the fountain, watering can, humming bird and Ladybird (Australia) Ladybug (USA).

Hexie Seventeen turned out to be one of my favourites - amazing how it developed a happy Spring personality (I won't say Summer because the little girl feeding the Swans is wearing a Winter dress).  Several people contributed to this hexie - I bought the berry lace motif from Cathy Kizerian, I won the Dragonfly button from Thearica Burrough's with her "Message in a Bottle challenge" and the two white Swan earrings were given to me by a friend in a box of junk jewellery.

The patch of very, very old blue Satin at the bottom stretched with the heat of the iron. At first I was going to Kantha quilt it flat but then I decided that I rather liked the puffy, watery look so I left it.

The blanks for hexies 18 and 19 have been stitched so now I will have the fun of embellishing them both and that will complete a second circle of hexies around the central hexie. ie. one in the middle, six around that and then twelve around those.  I'll take a photo of them all sewn together. The next circle after that will need twenty four hexies to complete - could take some time, lol.

Blah!!!  The close-up photo of hexie 17 shows that I will have to revamp the sequin flowers along the edge behind the two swan earrings.  I attached the large flower sequins (which are actually irridescent greeny-red, not that dark red colour) then the tiny apricot coloured sequin centres with a 3-wrap Colonial Knot. The iron has flattened the Colonial Knot and one sequin centre has popped off and a whole flower above the higher of the two swans has popped off leaving just the knot.  OK, seed beads will do the trick.  While I'm at it, I will also Kantha quilt the water.......sigh, and I thought I'd finished!! So here is the new version.  Hexie Seventeen mark 2.

Hexagon 15 and Dyed lace pieces

I have finished Hexie 15 which is a garden themed one centered around an image of a lady in a yellow dress holding a rose. The coral pink fabric is vintage from around 1910 so I hope it stands up to the test of time.  Also the same coloured Kiko's flowers are worked in Heminway Sons pure silk embroidery thread dating from 1850s......again I hope that the threads can take it but it was the perfect colour to match the vintage fabric.

 

Then I had a play with some bottles of dyes which are probably about eight years old and although the colours are not quite as bright as they were in the beginning, they worked well for crazy quilting motifs.  I spent a couple of hours sitting under the patio in the sunshine totally lost in playing and enjoying myself.  When I finished with the motifs, I tried dyeing some white satin ribbon roses and while they probably look more natural than solid colours, they didn't turn out quite how I expected them to.  However I will use them on cq blocks where hopefully they will blend in with the surrounding leaves.

I only dyed half of this length of roses, berries and leaves because I want to keep the other half natural to be included in my "Cream on Cream" crazy quilt.  It's a gorgeous edging both ways, ie. plain and dyed.

 These two photos feature some of the same motifs. In the photo on the right the heart motif is shown in the original dyed colour-way and there is also a gorgeous bunch of leaves and berries which are not included in the photo on the left. In the photo on the left, the heart motif has been redyed in the same colours to make it darker and therefore, brighter and there is also a medallion motif on the left which is not in the right hand photo and I've included some of the dyed Roses.  If the sun is shining tomorrow, I will have another playing session.

 

Hexie 14. Scotty Dog and Squirrel

This block is a bit of a button frenzy.  Flower buttons, heart buttons, a very vintage Scotty Dog button and a porcelain Bird House button.  It is a very bright block mainly because I worked with the colours in the tartan, primarily red, blue and yellow. This block took a lot longer to do that the previous ones because I have been traipsing every day by train to visit my husband in hospital and I have also been working on my nephew's twin daughters crocheted boleros.  Anyway, here is my very happy Scotty dog puppy and squirrel block which is in memory of my childhood pet Scotty dog, Mackie. Mackie was our family pet and looked just like this puppy once although we had him until he was sixteen. Whilst Mum fed him and looked after him, he was our Dad's little mate and my sister and I used to argue about whose bed Mackie would sleep on each night. 

Hexie Thirteen - The Pond

Here is Hexie Thirteen - the scene shows a water nymph either looking at his/her reflection in the pond water or maybe talking the to fish??  I haven't decided which yet.  I love the colours in this image, mostly turquoise and apricots with a dash of mauve water-lily and a bright Kingfisher looking for a meal - maybe that Dragonfly which is flying straight for it's beak. (Blame DH's sick humour for that one!)  I think the colours in this block are so cool and delicate.  I can't work out why that top edge is not straight, each of the sides measure exactly the same and yet it doesn't look it - also it fits exactly into the others so I shall put it down to another scanner quirky! Next block is entirely different.....The Scotty Dog and Squirrel cutie.

This block is one of my very favourites because of the colours.......sort of misty like the reflections in a still pond (waxing lyrical here).  I've been all afternoon at the hospital visiting DH who is in for a few days with an abscess in his jaw bone......very painful but hopefully intravenous antibiotics will do the trick and surgery won't be needed.  Fingers crossed!

Ahhh!  Sometimes photos are better than the real thing for spotting mistakes!  I never got back to finishing the Lazy Daisy leaves on the sparkly copper coloured Herringbone stitches under the the four blue glass flowers........Will do that immediately before I forget........... also that purple sequin flower is not purple, it is an irridescent pearly mauve, very pale.  The scanner once again has made it change colour.