I think this is the first quilt that I photographed right after it came out of the dryer.I am glad that I decided to finish it – I really like how it came out! And my kids already wanted to cuddle up with it. Nice.
I quilted this one pretty densely, free motion, your basic all over swirls. I wanted it to be densely quilted because of all the seam, a lot of which could not be pressed open. I prefer pressing my seam open because than the seams lay flat, if I press them to the side – there is always that tiny little “step” on the front, which I don’t like.
I was lucky that my machine didn’t give me any problems. The whole quilting process went pretty smoothly, with the thread breaking only once. Last quilt – the dash-dot – I just could not free motion quilt. Skipped stitches, breaking thread – you name it. It just would not work. I tried everything. This time – Not one problem.
I think my machine has a problem free motion quilting vintage sheets (dash – dot was 100% repurposed sheets) – The only place I did have a problem with this quilt was in a place where I used vintage sheets. I can’t really explain it. Is it the fact that vintage sheets are 50/50, not 100% cotton? But why would that be? (I did try different needles – no luck)
I was a little worried about using all the colors – but I think it worked out.
I don’t have a good binding picture – you can sort of see it below. It’s an orange stripey vintage sheet.
The back is another thrifted find. It’s from an Ikea comforter cover. Cotton, a little stretchy, so I had a few snags – but when I washed and dried it – you can barely see it.
I liked how it looked against light, so I had to take a picture of it…. See all the seams?
I always liked hexagons, and one of those days I will attempt to do those tiny little ones. But for now, the big hexagons will have to do. Cutting for this quilt was very easy – each of the hexagons is made out of six rectangles in different colors. Two by two rectangles are sewn together and then cut apart – same as half square triangles – except that the end result is a little kite shaped piece, not a rectangle. Then you combine those into hexagons. And the white – simply strips. So there was no triangle cutting (I am not very good at that), or sewing on a bias (even worse at that). There is a bit more trimming maybe, but for me, that beats cutting and sewing triangles any time.
I think my next quilt will be quite different but will use the same technique…
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This looks very pretty with all the different colours.
This is lovely! Nice work.
This is such a pretty quilt. Thank you for your generous description of the process. I would love to give one of these a try someday. Beautiful work!!
Thank you!
Did you use a pattern for this. If so will you share the name and/or designer? I love the sashing around the hexagons.
It is my design. I started with a hexagon (I wrote about it a little bit a previous post: http://www.flekka.com/words/uncategorized/tolva-quilt/), made a bunch of them and then added sashing… I know this is not much of an explanation, but I don;t have much more. I rarely plan out my quilts much, I usually just go from a block. But if there is more interest I will write up a tutorial. I am actually working on another one using the same method (except there will be no sashing) so I might add some pictures as I go along…
Thanks for your interest.
Hi Nina, I love your design. Thanks for posting the picture with light shining through. I think I might be able to figure it out once I’m at my cutting board and machine, but what has me scared is the white sashing. I so want to avoid Y-seams (I hate them more than triangles!). So that is my first question, and the other is what is the size of rectangle that you start with? A tutorial would be very helpful, or if you publish the pattern, you would get more credit for your design.
i love this design! what size of rectangles did you start with? would love to see a tutorial!