I hope this month finds you well and enjoying your stitching. I've got my kids home on school holidays and, as usual, have a completely unrealistic sewing to-do list, as if I'm going to have more time while they're home rather than less! I have managed to get a morning chore chart up on the fridge, and I've told the kids ‘no screen time’ till jobs are done, so hopefully I've created a good little self-supporting system there that doesn't require any extra reminding or nagging, and keeps the washing up to date! I'll let you know! ;P
I'm getting excited about my Hexie Harvest Quilt! Sometimes when I choose a single fabric line to make a quilt, I get bored of it, or I get worried about the finished product. And both have happened here, but the more my blocks grow, the more I'm sure my quilt is going to look great!
There's a reason I left these blocks till now. They are just so fun scrappy! And, if you're anything like me, you've created some great 1 ½" strip scraps while making lots of the other blocks. Dig through them now and make a bunch of diamonds, and have a play!
I basted most of my diamonds for Winter Jasmine and Juniper in one go, and then played with different layouts.
You can make your blocks:
2 contrasting colours
scrappy colours with a low volume contrast
fussy cut
a mix of all three!
Value Check in.
With only 2 months left of blocks left (5 different designs), now, and again in a month, is a good time to check in with all your blocks laid out. The small diamonds in this month's blocks can either look busy or calm depending on how many colours and prints you use, and what kind of contrast you achieve. What does your quilt need?
Contrast is achieved by understanding value - the lights and darks. An easy trick for checking value is editing your photo on your phone and turning the saturation right down. Contrast helps create rest and interest.
Can you see the star poking out from behind the bottom right one? In the original photo at the top of the email, it's made of aqua and red. You can see in the greyscale photo that both prints are similar in intensity. If I had a whole quilt made of blocks like this, it would start to feel too messy (or loud? or clashy? or intense?). Using colours at each end of the spectrum in the mix also, and letting some blocks be ‘support’ blocks rather than stand out block, makes your quilt interesting and beautiful.
More tips for using these blocks create more variety and interest in your quilt:
Take a photo of the prints you want to use before cutting into them to check the contrast.
Bring in more low volume (white prints). It's easy to just grab colours when planning your blocks.
Fussy cut. I don't often do this, because I love scrappy quilting, but the occasional fussy cut block if you haven't done much already, really draws the eye. Fussy cut blocks are generally more orderly than scrappy blocks, so if your quilt is feeling busy, give it a try!
You can see in the photo below, that I've used light coloured prints in almost every block!
June Faves!
Check out these beautiful blocks found in the #hexieharvestquilt hashtag!
Look at this beautiful, primary colour layout by Krista! She's made the quilt for her son, and it's chock full of beautiful things to look at. I'm sure this quilt will be treasured for a long time!
I'm a sucker for pretty blocks and a pretty dog! The mix of fussy cut motifs, ginghams, and Liberty is lovely here by Wendy!
Speaking of beautiful contrast, Michelle was making low volume blocks and got bored. Now she's adding more medium and high volume blocks and the effect is beautiful! It just shows that if you're not happy with where a quilt is heading, and you tune in to what's not working for you, you can steer it to something wonderful.
You get a sweet EPP needlebook by me, some Sohmo clips, Victorinox scissors, a sweet quilty tin, and a small sampling of pins and needles. Reply to this email with your address to claim your prize!
(winners are chosen each month at random from the HexieHarvestQuilt hashtag.)
Helpful Links
My Secret Garden Hexie Quilt Pattern is full of very, very beginner-friendly instructions, pictures, and videos of the whole EPP quilt process.
Wish me luck in the school holidays! With a boy who just turned 15, I'm becoming seriously aware that I don't have many school holidays left with him. So I'm trying to strike a good balance of getting him to help around the house, modelling working hard on something that means a lot to me, and spending quality time together. As mothers we can feel a lot of pressure to mostly achieve the latter (while magically getting everything else done too), so I'm also trying to trust that even though I won't always get it right, he's going to turn out just fine!
Thank goodness that EPP allows me to sew in the lounge room where the kids do most of their hanging out!
