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Friday, 22 July 2011

Steaming Ahead!

Today was (almost) bliss!

The sun was shining, and all 3 children were out of the house at the same time, for at least 2 hours!

I am fairly well caught up with work projects (starting my Beginner's group on a new project tomorrow) so thought I would treat myself to some of the many 'fun' projects I have on the go!

Firstly, I started quilting Crazy Daughter Quilt ..............

Going for diagonal lines through each block.  Not sure what I'll do in sashing yet.
......... but then ran out of chalk and thread!  

Despite eating into my precious free time to take a wasted trip to my LQS (they didn't have the thread colours I needed!), I was undetered, ordered some thread online, and hastily returned to my sewing room to start on something else.

The something else was my very neglected Kaleidoscope quilt.

I chain pieced like a demon and just to make sure the half blocks will align in the middle, I completed a block to reassure myself.


There's a heck of a lot of sewing stages to this wee gem, which is playing havoc with my indecisive creative mind, meaning I'm constantly changing designs the more I see this evolve.  


(More on that later when I finally decide on what this thing is going to look like.)

Finally, I went bin hoaking!

Just into my recycling bin to find some glossy/magazine type paper to use for my hexie papers.  I was taught to use slightly thicker/better quality paper as templates, and they are much easier to sew around.

So, cut, cut, cut, cut and I made lots of papers to stash in my vintage tin.  

When I was cutting a folded over leaflet, I had a bit of a eureka moment!

(This doesn't happen to my slow brain v.often so please humour me!)  

Let me demonstrate with this piece of A4 paper folded in half lengthways:

The fold is at the bottom, look closely at those little triangles in between the hexies.
After cutting out the hexie shapes, I noticed some other shapes appearing in between the hexies, and it turns out, when you open them out, they make great kite shaped papers. 


These can then be sewn up in fabric, to make a lovely addition to the hexies.

The design possibilities are endless!
I'm sure lots of you have already discovered this & have probably been making them since before you were weaned!  But I thought it was pretty cool.  

I don't have sophisticated design software to cleverly magic up shapes and designs, so I tend to arrive at these things 'old time'!  I would like to incorporate them someway into a hexie designed project, but it might be a bit of a stretch for my inept mathematical mind!  
Maybe I'll have another eureka moment this time next year!

Have a great weekend!

10 comments:

  1. Thats a great eureka moment! Love that cute little star!
    And you quilting on the crazy daughter quilt looks really effective!

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  2. I love it when you share eureka moments! I am so jealous of your kaleidoscopes (and the fact that they worked out). Glad you got some creative and productive time today!

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  3. Well I didn't know about hexies and diamonds, so you've taught me something....I think you should knock up a cusion cover or something, so we can all see the hexie/diamond combo! x

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  4. I love that eureka moment of yours. I wouldn't have thought of it and those kite shapes sewn in with the hexies will be gorgeous. I sit back in awe!

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  5. Eureka! I'd never have thought of that! Love your kaleidescope blocks,they are going to be stunning! :) Happy Weekend!

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  6. So pleased you got some sun at last! And boy has it done you good, Kaleidoscope is looking good, Crazy Daughter quilt is looking good, and I'm impressed with your clever hexie centre too :-)

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  7. Before the HAL started I had dug out my EPP project from way back and it was a box full of diamonds just like yours (didn't quite realise that they intersected with hexies like that tho)- I think if you put 3 together you will make a tubling block hexie. Now regretting that I didn't pay more attention to maths in school.

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  8. If you'd like a maths lesson that's fun too try this:
    http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/rr/database/rr.09.96/archamb1.html

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  9. I absolutely love your Crazy Daughter quilt and the Kaleidoscope quilt is going to be gorgeous. You are so lucky to have 3 uninterupted hours of blissful sewing!! I long for that. And you were so productive! My thumb is healing, but it is still holding me back from doing a lot of things. We're in the midst of a heat wave here, so lots of time spent at the pool club with the kids, which has been fun. Have a great weekend!

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