One degree of separation

I presented this hexagon magic quilt called "One Degree of Separation" to our friend Dan when he was installed as pastor of a church in my city. Sometimes I think there's no degrees of separation between quilters though -- take a look at what's behind Dan's head -- a strip-pieced wall hanging with a leafy applique. The light from the centre of the quilt was created by bleaching out the colours after it was pieced. How do I know this? Because the quiltmaker, Mary F., came up to admire my quilt and then I asked her about the one on the wall. See, we find each other with no trouble!

One degree of separation

I've finally finished the hexagon magic quilt I made last spring and quilted on Joyce's mid-arm machine on a frame in June. On Sunday I was invited to a quilt retreat, and I accomplished what I set out to do. I finished the binding on the hexagon quilt, and I basted my Words Fail Me quilt, which will be my fall and winter hand quilting project.
This hexagon quilt, named "One Degree of Separation" is going to a friend (who may lurk here) but the reason for the name is how each hexagon relates to six others and they relate to six others and so it goes. Just like people -- I know someone who knows someone who knows.... You get the idea. This quilt was made entirely from scraps from my mother -- very 80s and 90s, but I like the effect anyway. The quilters this weekend all had different favourites in the prints.

I was a beginner on the machine, but as I got more confident, I did quilt the word "Love" in several places. You can see the O and V in the light hexagon in the middle.
Here it is relaxing on my porch rocker. The back is a dark green check in flannel, which hides my quilting mistakes nicely. The binding is the same black print in the inner border. It measures 55 by 60 and has a bamboo batting.

Machine quilting neophyte

A great big thank you to Joyce who patiently coached me on her mid-arm machine on a frame. I was a nervous driver, and I created many lumps, bumps and thread knots, but the overall effect is fine. I've trimmed the quilt, which is backed with quilting flannel and batted with bamboo, and I will bind it in the same black that's in the inner border. I took whatever hexagon halves were left and sewed them together according to value and colour and sort of floated them in the border with some neutrals. This is a lap sized quilt (about 54 by 60) made in the magic hexagons that someone on the web has organized a quilt-along for.

New hexagons, old fabric

My magic hexagon project has grown, and I'm getting the hang of it. I'm doing this completely scrappy, choosing colours as I go and trying to distribute the lights and darks and colours. I'm hoping to get this a bit wider and then I'm going to put on light borders with hexagons floating in them.

What I've been busy with this week is cutting that box of scraps from my mother into usable bits. Here's a "jelly roll" of 2.5 inch strips for a strippy charity quilt and another set of 3.5 inch strips for another charity quilt. There's quite the variety of 80s stuff in here.

This one has a retro/contemporary feel to it. It's a patchwork paisley Cranston-VIP print with a small selvage, and it has to be at least 30 years old, but it's not that different from what's out there now. The biggest difference is in the quality -- quilting cottons are certainly heavier and have a nicer hand now.

Lunch time hexagons

I spent my lunch hour in my sewing room (which is the opposite end of my home office) and sewed some hexagons together from the pattern Hexagon Magic, kindly shared by Peg. It's an easy machine piecing method using half hexagons cut from 2 3/4 inch strips. I've been digging through the box of scraps from my mom (see two posts down) and cut strips for this project from this big pile of oldies and some uglies. Definitely a tribute to the 80s! I've admired other people's hexagon quilts, but the thought of all the English paper piecing and whip-stitching tiny hexagons makes me faint. I know, I know there are hexagon addicts out there, but not me, right now. (I'd rather play with 3/4 inch strips and make fiddly letters!). I only have about half of the 400 half hexagons I need, and this is turning out slightly wonky (yes, I see that blue hexagon with half turned to the wrong side, but I'm not going to unpick it), but I like how its turning out. I'm aiming for a child's blanket or a small throw, bordered by other scraps or maybe some unbleached muslin. right now it's about 40 inches long and 15 inches wide. These are big hexagons, after all.