Opinions ??

I love English Paper Piecing and have several ( cough ) quilts in progress. I actually finished one a few months ago but haven't got round to showing that yet. Anyway this year is all about my UFO's and I have been working away on a hexie quilt. This got started maybe 3 years ago and so it was about time it received some attention. I remember cutting one hexagon from each of my fabrics and the plan originally was a grandmothers flower garden with white paths. I made lots of flowers - each flower had seven fabrics from one colour. Can't remember how many I did before I changed my mind - and unpicked the lot. Then I put them into triangles - 10 in each grouping... nope - unpicked again.

Until finally I came up with this.

Yes I'm happy with this so far. You will notice the white hexies currently being sewn around the edges. Heres where I would like your input. I have tons of hexies left and was debating whether to border it with the leftovers. Like so ?

Close-up.

The borders are not sewn on yet as I really can't make up my mind whether to do it or not. The other semi-idea I have is to finish sewing on the white hexies and applique the whole thing onto a single fabric - maybe a blue. And then sew several straight borders on each edge - something like 2 inch strips in different colours. I'm not explaining this very well - I'll see if I can find a picture of what I mean.

This is something similar I did on a quilt a while back. I'm thinking of maybe 4 or 5 borders.

Please let me know which way you would go. If I don't use the leftover hexies I will maybe use them on the back or something - or a new quilt for one of my cats - lol !

Take care xx

A little quilting therapy.

Well here I am - thanks for all your well wishes -I am so very behind on emails and comments - don't think I'll ever catch up so may not even try.  Life is settling down a little now and although normal is a long way off we are slowly getting there.  My lovely sister - aged 50 - had a massive stroke the week before Christmas - completely out of the blue.  She is still in hospital nearly 8 weeks later and is facing a long recovery. She is making progress and is gradually starting to walk etc although as yet has no movement at all in her left hand or arm.  We have spent a lot of time at the hospital. As you can imagine it has been awful although there is light at the end of the tunnel. She was not quite lucid for a few weeks but that has thankfully settled down and she is doing great. She is surprisingly cheerful and is showing sheer determination to recover as well as she can. She is awaiting a wheelchair and is having lots of intensive physio. We are taking a day at a time. Anyway as she is such a kind person she has decided she wants to give a small gift to one of the nurses who is pregnant. She asked if I had anything suitable and it just so happens I had an I-Spy baby quilt on standby. I will take this in tomorrow for her to give to the nurse.

I am also trying to catch up with some UFO's.  So far I have resisted starting anything new.  Not sure how long I can hold out though.... My Easy Street is coming along - will hopefully have pictures to show of that soon. But here are a couple of small quilts that I've been working on.

This has been hanging around for a good couple of years. It is a schnibbles pattern called X-Rated.

It was made from a charm pack I received in a swap several years ago. The sender was a lovely woman called Marlene who has sadly since passed away.  I wanted to make borders on this but had no charms left and nothing seemed to match. Anyway last week an idea popped into my head and here we are.

Close-up of spotty fabrics.

Would like to hand quilt this but will have to wait it's turn as I have another small quilt in progress. Which is this.

This is a bit of a washed out picture - the colours are much richer. This was going to be a big quilt but appliquing four blocks was enough - tried the back basting method and it worked great but just didn't want to do any more. A few hundred( or so it seemed ) paper pieced flying geese and this little quilt was born. Like I say I am hand quilting it and am pleased with how it's looking.

I have a ton of other stuff to show and will do my best to get round to it - time is against me at the moment though - need a few more hours in the day - lol.

Hope to be back sooner rather than later xx