Insane Hexagon update

If you had thought that I'd forgotten about this project you could be forgiven as I've not worked on it or updated any progress for over 18 months. I did pick it back up again in May when I was given new meds that made concentrating on anything complicated almost impossible. I have since completed all 3 reds that I could made from the fabric I had.

  

Next up: cutting the yellows.

These are (from top to bottom) the 33rd, 34th and 35th blocks in this project.

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Borders update

 

Not much to say here at this point - this is how far I am with the borders so far, still only using one of each colour as mentioned in my previous post about the borders Borders.... already?  I have done as much border as I can for each colour I used in the quilt so far and will be doing the orange, yellow and red as soon as I have finished making the blocks for each colour. I have found that I rather enjoy sewing these little hexagons together and then when I go back to the 1" ones the seem so very large lol.

Screaming Oranges

I don't know if there is a better way to describe how loud these oranges are but they are anything but shy and retiring. They are so bright they make the white background look bluish. They are however perfect as a colour to be sewing with during the dark days of January just after all the Christmas stuff has been cleared up and put away and things are seeming more than a bit dull.

I'm not really sure what's next - the reddish oranges require me to cut a load of red fabrics as well to see what suits and I don't think I have enough salmon to make a full block yet.. so there too more cutting will be required.
 
I won't be adding the link to the Imgur gallery view this time - I find it really ugly and you can see it better if you go to that site itself.


This is the 32nd block and the 2nd orange one.


For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Summer Sunset.

Just when you thought I'd forgotten all about my hexagons here I am back with a new block that I finished a few hours ago. Things had gone a bit more slowly due to me being busy with other projects and because I had some troubles getting the colours decided for this block and the block that is next.  This block is orangey yellows and I'm putting it with the oranges as it feels more orange than yellow to me.

This is the 31st block and the 1st orange one.
Next up: the second orange one - Screaming Orange

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt 
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Borders.... already?

 
Usually one waits with the borders till the main part of the quilt is finished. However I was tired of cutting orange fabrics and wanted to sew something so I got out the box of green 1 1/2 inch squares and decided to see how far I got with them before I ran out with the only rule being that I could only use one of each and no more than one. When I started with the greens I had a small bit that was about 30 cm / 12 inches long and now I have 2 lengths.

The green length is 45 inches / 114 cm and is made up of 147 units
The blue length is 46 inches / 119 cm and is made up of 153 units
So the total length made so far is 91 inches / 233 cm which is about enough for one side. The angled edges are to make joining the sections easier later on.

Does it make sense to make the borders already?
Well yes and no:

• Yes it makes sense as it spreads the work of sewing the fiddly bits together so I don't have to spend weeks *just* sewing 1/2 inch sided hexagons together. 
• No it doesn't make sense because I have no idea how big the border needs to be, however because I am sewing it in sections and am only using one of each scrap I have, I can always make them longer if I need it.

For now I'm continuing with this a bit longer and am in the middle of preparing the browns which will be about as long as the green length I made.

Light Army Greens...

Done at last! I was starting to get pretty bored of green after about the 7th block - I wanted a change but that wasn't to be. Finishing the greens is a milestone in itself but on top of that it's also the 3/4 mark for me - only another 10 blocks are needed for the project HOWEVER I will be seeing how many blocks I get from all the colours I want to use for this as then I can play around with the blocks and see what I like best.

Still left to go are the reds, yellows and oranges. I'm doing orange next as oldest wanted to choose which ones I did and he likes orange a lot (youngest choose the greens)


This is the 30th block and the 10th green one.
Next up: Cutting oranges!

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Dark Army Greens...

Since I had basted all the remaining greens already (See Making snakes... ) and didn't know which one to do first I asked I one of the IRC channels I lurk in which I should do: "light: or "dark" without telling them what the choice was about. Everyone that voted said "dark" so I did this one first. It would have been done sooner but I had to fix Dilly first and got side tracked by making a necklace as well.

This is the 29th block and the 9th green one.
Next up: the tenth (and last) green one - light army greens

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Darkest greens...

As I mentioned a few days ago I'd had a severe case of butter fingers and dropped all the fabrics for the last 3 blocks. This is the first of those 3 that I'd mass basted and prepared at the time. In the photo's it doesn't look much darker than the last block but when looking at them next to each other there is a clear difference.

This is the 28th block and the 8th green one.
Next up: the ninth green one - dark army greens (by popular vote of an IRC channel I lurk in)

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Making Snakes...

When I'm preparing the hexagons for the next block I start by basting (see image above on how I do that) them around a hexagon paper and then laying them out on top of another block so I can see what they will look like when completed. This gives me the chance to make sure that the fabrics chosen work together and that the overall look of the block is what I want. When I was getting out the fabrics for the next block I accidentally dropped the fabrics for 3 blocks (don't ask *wink*) and since I had to sort the fabrics again and didn't have space on the dining room table for this I decided to baste the hexagons and sort them straight into the hexagons as if I was doing one block but then with 3 blocks. I ended up doing 300 hexagons to get the 270 I needed for the blocks as I'm pretty fussy about how the colours go together.

Having sorted them I then carefully strung them onto a thread so as to keep the order I'd laid them out into - since I always sew in the same way I can go "backwards' and thread them onto the thread in the reverse order that I sew them and then I can just take them off the thread one by one as I sew them into a block and it will be exactly the same as when I laid it out. I call these threads with hexagons "Snakes" In the picture above you can see the 3 "Snakes" I made. I put the two I'm not working on into a box to keep them safe till I need them.

It probably sounds very complicated but for me it's as simple as making a cup of tea

The first year...

This time last year I started sewing the hexagons for my Insane Hexagon Quilt now one year on I'm 27 blocks, 2457 units and 6 colours down the road on my way to completing the quilt. I still have 3 green blocks and an unknown number of red, orange and yellow blocks to go before I'm finished with the central area of the quilt. If you right click the picture and choose "view picture" you will see a high resolution image of the blocks. They are laid out on a double bed comforter cover in order of being made - starting at the top white one and then going right to left on each row - and pinned in place as I had to make the photo on the road in my street as my garden is too small for it to be completely photographed in the sun and I didn't want to have to spend ages laying out the blocks while a car could come driving up any second.  The spaces you see between the blocks are intentional as I plan on sewing the blocks together with a diamond spacer between the blocks. I'll be using a lovely black fabric for it which is a really dark grey leaf print on black which, once cut up, looks more like a marble than anything.

I also have plans for an equally insane border made up of 1/2 inch hexagons - I haven't worked out how many I need yet and I don't think I want to know *wink* the spaces between the border and the blocks will be filled with equally insane small diamonds (boy will I be cursing when I have to do this bit lol)

The strip you can see here is 30 cm - 12 inches long and made up of  35 hexagons of 1/2 inch sides. Making the border will probably take me longer than making the central part.

Emeralds come in many colours

Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to complete any more before the end of my first year working on this and I go and finish another lol  There isn't much to say at this point so I'll let the picture do the talking :-)

This is the 27th block and the 7th green one.
Next up: the eighth green one - dark greens

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Greens of the Ocean Deep.

It's been a while since I have managed to do so many blocks in a single month. I have now completed 26 blocks for the project and still have another 4 greens to go and then the reds, yellows and oranges. I have been working on this project for almost a year now and am amazed that I managed to sew so much in such a short time. When I started I thought it would take me about 5 years to complete, now I'm pretty sure it's going to be a LOT less - how much less really depends on how the joining of the blocks goes.


This is the 26th block and the 6th green one.
Next up: the seventh green one - medium dark greens

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Grassy Greens...

I'm had fun making this one as well - it too has travelled around the country on trains and in museums while I made it  causing more than a few people to wonder what on earth I was doing on the train and what I was making. Always good for a nice chat in a train to pass the time and people never cease to be amazed that I'd undertake such a large project by hand.

This is the 25th block and the 5th green one.
Next up: the sixth green one - Dark teals

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

Luscious limes...

It's the first week of the month and another block is done! Lime is a colour that is really in your face bright and cheerful and speaks of springtime and good days ahead, so it was really fun to be sewing these while out and about taking my kids to museums the past few weeks.

This is the 24th block and the 4th green one.
Next up: the fifth green one - Grassy greens

For more information see:  The insane hexagon quilt
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project

The insane hexagon quilt

To help with understanding of what I'm talking about with the hexagon quilt here is the background story:

Some years ago in a bout of total insanity I decided I wanted to make a huge king sized hexagon quilt for my bed - insane as I'm doing this all by hand and wanted to have as many fabrics in this as was physically possible. So I went to my usual quilting communities and asked for help - which resulted in many envelopes arriving with 2 1/2 inch squares and larger scraps from all over the world.

Since some fabrics were washed and others not I decided to just wash them all and so make sure that they had all been pre-shrunk before use (and that also washed out some fabric softener/starches some people had used which were setting off my allergies) This was pretty time consuming as the squares are too small for the dryer and if dried in a net they came out creased so I ended up having to press a couple of thousand squares/scraps of fabric. then came the process of making sure that they were indeed large enough and if required trimming down to a 2 1/2 inch square, sorting to colour and bagging it all up. This was a pretty boring process so a couple of times it just got put aside for more fun things. This summer (2010) I finally finished washing & pressing the fabrics and could get cutting and sewing 

Cutting of the whites and browns started in the first week of September 2010 with me basting as I cut then playing with the layout till I was happy with the result

The plan: make a king sized quilt
The Units: hexagons basted around a paper form (known as paper piece patchwork or English paper piecing)
The blocks: 91 units of a similar shade hand sewn together
Size Units: 1 inch sides
Size blocks: 14 1/2 inch sides | 19 inches corner to corner | 16 inches side to side
Required blocks: 56 as whole, half and corner blocks
Border: a gazillion 1/2 " hexagons and 1/2 " 60 degree diamonds.
Required units: approx 5096 <gulp>
Insanity level for this project: Off the scale
Expected time line: 5 years (leaving time for a life, kids and other projects )

 At the time of writing I'm basting the units for block #23 - sea green.
To see all the quilt blocks together look here:  Insane Hexagon Project