Week seven project

Inspired by Jess's wonderful quilt top and some fridge magnets I bought at the quilt exhibition held at the V and A a couple of years ago, I decided to make a mini quilt top as my project for week seven.

 I recently bought a charm pack based on fabric of the 1930's, it has some lovely, bright patterns. I began by drawing round one of my magnets to get a template for the paper pieces and then cut 60 paper, and 60 slightly larger fabric hexagons. Then I sewed a piece of fabric around each paper hexagon, I think this method is called paper piecing. After that it was just (!) a case of sewing all the hexagons together. This took a lot longer than I anticipated and I went a day over with this project. I've only ever done machine patchwork before but have been intending to try this method for a while.

Here it is almost finished, I'm loving the summery colours!

I have decided to leave the edges unfinished in case I want to add to it in the future as I still have lots of the fabric left. I also have some other ideas that I may add in the future, I think it would look good with Home Sweet Home appliqued on it, or maybe some buttons or mini doilies. For now though I consider it finished.

Here is the completed project

I am surprised how much I enjoyed making this, I'm not one for hand sewing usually - too impatient, I think. This is something I'm sure I'll do again, it was very relaxing sitting listening to music whilst hand sewing. In fact I'm already dreaming of sitting in the garden in the summer surrounded by scented roses and with a jug of pimms on the garden table, hand sewing in the sunshine (now that really IS a dream!)

Do you prefer hand or machine sewing? I always thought it was machine sewing for me, but now I'm not so sure.

The reality!

Thanks, as always, for visiting.