Circles of Love Quilt

Today I want to share a quilt I finished in September.  It is called Circles of Love, and I made it for my sister who was diagnosed with breast cancer and was starting chemo the beginning of September.  

 The quilt design was from the book Hand Made with Love by Sarah Fielke.  The name of the quilt in the book is Bangles.  Of course being a hexi addict means I was completely smitten when I first saw the pattern.  I started piecing the quilt according to the directions in the book.

 

The book directions say to lay out the entire quilt and then piece together 3 adjoining pentagon shapes which makes a hexagon, and then piece all of those hexagons around the light colored hexagon.  Well this was like working on a rubiks cube puzzle and quilt.  I hated piecing because I kept getting fabrics out of order which messed up the circular hexi effect.  So after piecing 5 "blocks" like this picture above I decided to try my own piecing. I kept wanting to piece each encircled hexi separately and then lay them out as the larger hexagons in rows.  So I tried it and found it so much easier!  Each of the same color pentagon shape was sewn around the off white hexagon.  Then those large hexagons were all laid out and pieced in rows.  It was all by machine, and while it was definitely fiddly to piece I really did enjoy seeing it come together.

As you can see I used lots of super cute fabrics, a lot are from Bonnie and Camille's Happy Go Lucky, and Vintage Modern.  But there are also fabrics from Amy Butler, and Flea Market Fancy, plus lots of other favorites.  I really love the color palette. 

I got the idea to contact my sister's friends and family and ask them to send me notes of encouragement for my sister, Cindy.  I then wrote all of the notes on the quilt inside each of the pieced hexi's.  I used a Pigma permanent Fabric marker in the Sepia color to do the writing.

 

 

I was in a rush to get the quilt done, as I wanted her to have it as she started chemo, so I machine quilted the quilt in an all over meander quilt design.  On two of the blocks I quilted the word Love.

I decided to bind the edge with a cute red print from the Bonnie and Camille line Vintage Modern  from Moda, that I just happened to have in my stash.

 I got the idea to round the corners of the quilt before adding the binding, after seeing one at a show that had been done that way.  It was the perfect finish for this quilt and I love the rounded corners, PLUS it was really easy to do!

 

I used a gray on white polka dot print I found at Joann Fabrics on the back.  Of course I didn't have quite enough, so I ended up filling out the edges by bordering the dot print with the red flower print I used for the binding.  I think it really sets off the grey dots.

 

 

I washed the quilt after I got it all done so it has that wonderful crinkle to the top which I love.  I got the quilt done and was able to give it to her just after her first chemo treatment in early September.  She was surprised and very touched with all of the words of encouragement, and Love and prayers that were part of the quilt. 

Quilt Stats
50" x 50"
Bangles pattern from Hand Made With Love by Sarah Fielke
batting used: Quilters Dream Request
Machine quilted with off white thread
binding: Bonnie and Camille Vintage Modern by Moda

I need to thank my daughter Kelly for the great photographs!  Thank you so much for stopping by, hope you enjoyed seeing Circles of Love, Sylvia

Hexagon quilt is basted!

My friend Rissa and I spent a few days at our lake house and each of us worked on quilt projects.  The weather was quite cold when we were there, which was frustrating since we have had such a gorgeous warm spring.  Here's a pic of the redbud overlooking the lake.  The lake (which is a flood control lake) is at winter pool, which means it is 22 feet below normal (summer) pool.

 I worked on getting borders on the hexagon quilt and making the backing and getting it basted.  It was quite a project as the quilt with the borders is now 82" x 93" .  I ended up using the white on white dots from the Bliss line of fabrics by Bonnie and Camille.  I am a lover of dots and have collected all of the dots from this line (I love all colorways of it).  But I especially loved the white on white dots, I had been stashing the white on white for a year or so, buying them every time I saw them.  So I had 3 seperate pieces of what I thought would be big enough, but because I had cut small pieces out of them I had just barely enough to do the backing with 2 full widths of the fabric Whew!  I really love it on the back. 

 

This is an Iphone pic so the white looks a bit pink! 

Rissa helped me lay it all out and I spray basted the layers together.  Even with the two of us working it was a big job.  But it is all together and ready to be quilted.  I am planning to machine quilt it with a free motion flower design.  Hopefully it will highlight the hexagon "flowers". 

We had a nice relaxing few days away and got a lot accomplished.  Rissa made a super cute contemporary quilt.  I will share that on another post.  Here is a pic of a beautiful wildflower from the woods at the lake.   I do love this time of the year with all of the beautiful flowers and trees. 

Two Years of Hexagons!

The hexagon quilt top is done!  I have been working on this hexi quilt for 2 years.  The quilt began as a much smaller project and it grew and grew.  It is now big enough for a full size bed and I really love it.  I was interested in starting a hexagon quilt after seeing some on other blogs.  The inspiration was to use some of the cute modern fabrics in this traditional flower setting of hexagons.  I began with 2 charm packs of the Verna fabrics by Kate Spain but evolved with many, many of my own scraps, and many collected from friends.  I used an off white cotton sateen to set the flower blocks.  I think it gives a nice contrast with all the fun prints in pink, aqua, yellow and a soft green.  

Now all I need is to do is get it basted (my least favorite part of the process) and figure out how I am going to quilt it.  I have a few ideas, but really not sure on the quilt design.  


Thanks for stopping by,  this is my first blogpost.  I hope to highlight some of my recent and future projects.  I am always busy with quilts, knitting, I do oil paintings and sometimes home dec sewing.  So there should be some fun posts.