Wednesday 26 July 2017

Work on Wed 26th July

Hi Everyone,
Have had great couple of weeks in my sewing room as winter is really with us and days have been cold with plenty of rain so no better place to be.

D Hill went together perfectly. Think this is one of the reasons I love working with Esther's patterns, they are precise and if you follow her instructions they go together so well.


Had concerns whether my diamonds on the black border would stand out too much compared to those on the light background but I needn't have worried, they look fine and I am thrilled with how the quilt top looks now it is finished, or nearly as one border still to go so and that concerned me as well. Am using my diamond fabric for both the final border and my binding and although I know it is the right choice am unsure what it will look like (maybe too busy) only way to find out was go ahead and do it so once I got the measurements on it went.
Has to be the right choice has don't have enough of the dark fabric left and can't find any on line.


So far so good. Have cut my fabric two inches wide instead of one and a half as not sure how much fraying it will do while I am quilting it.


Not so sure now
  blends too much, too busy and looks out of balance.

But - it is wider than it will be finished and that may alter how it looks plus folded back to just binding width it looks really good so maybe that is all I am going to need. 


Leaving it how it is until quilting is done to protect the edges of the diamond border while quilting as for me quilting is a slow process.

Spent the weekend after this preparing foundations and cutting fabric for a quilt the group I belong to are making for Hospice to raffle as a fundraiser. Wanted a pattern that everyone could take part in and Esther has kindly allowed me to share Hexit with the group for this purpose.


We were going to go totally scrappy but while in Spotlight I found a good quality fabric on sale, very similar to what Glenda in Aust is using for her diamonds (little dots) so borrowed her idea for unifying the look. Thanks Glenda am also copying you and using the dots for all the points.
Had enough of a dark blue in my stash to cut strips to use for the first strips in each diamond.


Made up packs of ten diamonds plus a sample so everyone could see the look and also an untrimmed diamond so the ones new to foundation piecing could understand what they were to do and these went to our meeting last week. Next month we will trim and mix up the blocks ready to start sewing together. Can't wait to see how the diamonds look as so many different scraps will be used.

With this organised it was time to do more quilting on Hearts Desire as had one candle border to quilt and the backgrounds of all the blocks. With my beginners quilting expected this to take a couple of weeks but maybe it was the terrible weather down south with massive flooding through Canterbury and Otago spurring me on but it only took four days to complete.


Hearts Desire
Thankyou Esther for this pattern which let me express my feelings
Can only say that completing Hearts Desire gives me a real feeling of fulfilment. I always refer to HD as my Christchurch quilt and am not sure yet what name it will have. Two are in my mind at present, Remembrance and Ties that Bind as for me this quilt tells the story of Christchurch and the people who live there. A beautiful garden city destroyed by earthquake with 185 lives lost. So many broken and ruined homes and lives but also so much courage and bravery by so many people. This event has become the ties that bind the people of ChCh together during the ongoing rebuild of a beautiful city.



Linking now to Esther's WOW.

Cheers Jenny

3 comments:

  1. Your Diamond Hill is beautiful, I love how you have used two different backgrounds for you diamonds.

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  2. Another wonderful interesting blog Jenny so much to see and learn here as usual. Funny to see my scrappy triangles here LOL at first I was thinking were have I seen those before LOL so glad you managed to buy the white with black dot material it does help to keep them in a uniform look and having the ends just the same material makes it easier to sew those blocks together later. I'm also starting each triangle with a dark fabric it gives more shape to the triangles. I did find I had to start 1/4 of an inch in at the beginning and stop 1/4 shot on those joining seams and press the seams open with a very very hot steam iron to get them to sit flat and not to bulky . looking forward to seeing your come together soon, i've put mine a way again to concentrate on DH and SG LOL Your Hearts Desirer if magnificent. Hugs Glenda

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  3. Hi Jenny,
    Was thinking of you, your HD quilt and beautiful Christchurch this week when we heard it had suffered yet another setback (now Floods).
    Hugs Wendy

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