Out of the Blue

Sometimes you get lucky.  That was what happened recently.  I met a woman who mentioned that her grandmother left her a quilt that her mother had made for her.  That is, she was in possession of a quilt made by her great grandmother.  A little persuasion was all she needed to show off her quilt.


No-one else in the family wanted it.  Really?!!

Imagine the work that went into this beautiful quilt.  Hand quilted.  Heavily.  And well.

And then to see the quilt signed and dated.  I always do that now.  If you don't, you should.  It was wonderful to see evidence on the quilt of when it was made and by whom.

The label was embroidered by hand.

The colours are not accurate.  The red is fairly stable, although there is evidence that the quit has been washed - a small bit of red has crept into the white.  The tan was originally a green but the dye was a "fugitive".

As I said, you can get lucky.

Holy Fabric

No, that isn't Batman's Robin making a statement.  It is the fabric I used to make lots of fussy cut 5/8th" hexagons.

The repeat is less than 14" across and 6" wide so that only 20cm (8") fabric has produced eight different fussy cut flowers.  Yippee.  Much better than some fabric where a hexagon can be cut every 60cm due to the pattern repeat.

 I don't do that.

 Any more.

A 5/8th" hexagon cut from template plastic is useful to try to cut the exact same piece of pattern 6 times.  A permanent marker guides me to place the plastic so a pencil line can be drawn on the reverse of the fabric.  After a while the black lines get confusing so I have to wash them off.

I have discovered that ethyl acetate (nail polish remover without the acetone) does a great job of removing the permanent black marker.  Next problem: how to remove black marker without also removing nail polish!

Since I have a basket full of white gloves, I have been using them.  You could just as easily wear washing up gloves I suppose.

It is hoped that the  fussy cut flowers will appear somewhere in "Hexagonia" .  Yes, It has been in the dark recesses of the quilterie cupboard, but recently it has seen the light of day while I have been travelling.