Six Ways to Blue, Deconstructed

This is a further discussion of the quilt I recently made for the quarterly challenge in our Four-in-Art group. I let this theme of “I’ve Got the Blues” simmer in my mind, thinking about all the blue connections, from mental health to water to ice to music and then just decided I wanted to explore that hue–just wanted to play with the shifting and changing of blues.

I went to Nicole Dacksiewicz’ site, Modern Handcraft, to catch her tutorial for how to make this.  I’d seen the original quilt at QuiltCon and always always wanted to play with this.  She even shows you how to baste your hexies, so you can’t get it wrong.

I used a 1″ hexagon, which yields a 2 1/4″ measurement across (we measure one flat side of the hexagon to get the name).  I searched for a free printing pattern, and found these tips for cutting out hexagons.  I used Geta’s hexagon sheet (had to give up my email to do it) and she was right.  Cutting out all those hexies did go quickly! (Sorry for the pink nighttime photo.)

Then I started playing by pinning them up on my design wall so I could get perspective.

I moved it to my work table and kept playing.

When I was happy with it, I glued them down, following Nicole’s hints, and later went and purchased her pattern, as I like to donate to the talented designers who share their ideas with me.  One major tip from me is not to do it on your cutting mat, or you’ll have little bits of glue that don’t really scrub off, but doesn’t impact the use of the mat.  Maybe lay it down on some wax paper?   Guess how I know this.

When the glue was dry, I layered the top up in a quilt sandwich, put a few pins here and there and drew in quilting lines with my Hera marker.  Another major tip I’ll pass along —  and why I want to re-do this — is I put the hexies too close together. I only discovered this when I started stitching. She suggests 1/4″ apart and mine are about 1/8″ apart.  Not all the hexies are perfect (because I am Not.A.Machine, she says, in her best robot voice), and by putting them so close together, and “outlining” them with stitching, it really plays up their imperfections.  I did, however, have fun stitching the straight lines, over and over, catching the corners and stitching in between all the hexagons.

I loved playing with the theme of the blues, and love my new quilt.  I made this one larger than the ones I’ve done in the past, and it measures about 21″ wide and almost 20″ high.

Our next overall yearly theme is Light, and Catherine, of Knotted Cotton came up with our first quarterly challenge of Shimmer.  I already have an idea (I’m not telling) and am excited for this new year.

Happy Quilting!

[Note: The cute clothespins are from a shop in Copenhagen, called Notre Dame.  Link to the clothespins is *here.*  I wanted to carry home buckets of these, but alas, I travel with a small suitcase these days and could only bring a few.]

˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚
My blogging software puts ads here so I can use their site for free.
I do not know about, nor choose, the content, nor do I receive any money from these ads.
˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚