Hexie Harvest Quilt

This is the story of my Hexie Harvest Quilt - which was finished mid June 2023, almost 12 months ago. I was delighted when Jodi of Tales of Cloth invited me in September 2022 to be one of her volunteers to share about this beautiful sampler quilt for her 2023 quilt-along.

The pattern (one of many from Jodi's Hexie Handbook) calls for seven each of 15 different block designs, although I must admit I included more of my favourite blocks and fewer of others. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring all the different block options and seeing how well they played together. 

Work in progress, I found the templates very useful too

So many beautiful block designs to stitch

Experimenting with colour placement in my Lilly Pilly blocks

Plenty of opportunity for fussy cutting in the Rosemallow design

As the design is somewhat busy, I opted for the version which incorporated joining triangles, allowing some space between each block, as well as selecting mostly light-mid saturated fabrics, including many solids. Each block finishes as a 3" hexagon.

The Hexie Harvest Quilt proved to be a fun quilt to make with lots of opportunity for exploration and plenty of variety to maintain interest. I let myself stitch blocks randomly, rather than completing all seven of each design together, making the experience more playful and all around enjoyable.

When it came time to quilt, I chose to hand quilt, using DMC Perle 8 thread in white. Initially I outline quilted inside each triangle only, however after binding and washing I decided it needed to little more to so I hand quilted a little circle in the middle of each block, using a small lid as a template.

After much deliberation, I decided to use the same fun eucalyptus print for the binding as I had for the backing. I didn't want to choose just one colour for the binding as I felt it may set the tone of the quilt.

I finished my Hexie Harvest Quilt at 11 rows of nine blocks each, slightly smaller than Jodi's 11 rows of 10 blocks each. Measuring 55" x 57.5" (140cm x 146cm), it's a very useful lap size quilt, one to brighten any day.

The Hexie Harvest papers, templates, triangles and pattern are all still available in Jodi's shop as I write this.

Gradient Baby Quilt #1

2023 saw our family enter a wonderful new season with the safe arrival of our first grandchild. With our five oldest 'children' now married (2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and  2022) it came as very welcome news that a grandchild was to be expected in May 2023.

Baby quilts are an inviting size to make - not too big, not too small. After much consideration I settled on making a gradient I spy quilt, inspired by the amazing quilts of House of Taiga. This quilt would be both machine sewn and quilted with the intention that it would be heavily used and frequently machine washed. In addition I hoped it would be of ongoing use and interest (tummy-time fun) to the baby/child while also being pleasant to look at. The plan was to choose a design which can be used as a base idea for a quilt for each future grandchild - yet also allow for adjustment according to baby's gender and each new family's uniqueness of lifestyle and passions.

Soon after a gender reveal on Christmas Day 2022, I began searching through my current fabrics, our local Spotlight (fabric and homewares shop) and various online shops for suitable 'boy fabrics'. I was soon busy cutting 5" squares, and I thought I may as well cut four squares while each fabric was on the cutting mat, simultaneously creating a little stack of squares for next time. Over the course of several weeks, I reached my goal of a minimum of 99 different fabrics.

With ironing board butted up against our dining table, the layout was fine-tuned, producing the desired gradient effect. Eleven rows of nine squares. Each row was carefully sewn together, then the rows into pairs, then pairs together etc, until the quilt top was complete. The actual construction was very quick at this stage - compared to my recent quilts which were all larger and completely hand sewn.

For extra security I machine quilted along each seam as well as diagonally each way. I must admit I was somewhat fussy with thread colours, switching threads several times to blend with the fabric squares, even it meant changing threads midway through a quilting line. It just added that little bit of extra love into an otherwise rather simple quilt design.

The quilt was finished in time to gift on the day of our daughter's baby shower in early March - and has been well loved by the new parents as well as Baby B, which makes me a very happy quilting Nana 😊