I feel I’m making reasonable progress now with my Owl and Hare Hollow quilt, it’s the embroidered blocks which are taking the time, so rather than trying to do those first, they have become my ‘handbag’ stitching, so I stitch these at work in my lunchbreak, waiting for appointments or buses, sitting in cafes, they are getting done slowly. At home I have a box for all the EPP blocks stuff which I can do in front of the TV.

Last time I shared my progress I was half way through a couple of blocks…

I stitched all the wedges together for the Dresden plate and added a pink circle in the middle before stitching it onto the background.This is the fourth and final Dresden plate square I need for the quilt…

I made the EPP border round the hare together with the mini hexagon blocks. I was a bit concerned about the arcs making the circle becoming distorted, but I took Kate chiconi’s advice and starched it to death before I took the papers out and it held it’s shape on the whole. Thanks Kate 🙂

The mini hexies were pretty fiddly as they’re 3/8″ hexies, that’s the measurement of each side, so they’re fairly small! I decided when choosing the fabrics for this block to have green folliage ones towards the top of the circle and pink flowers at the bottom, so it’s like the hare is running across the flowers, hence the very pink hexie choice.

I finished the Queen Bee embroidered block and added the circle of hexies round it, these are 1/2″ hexies, so not quite so fiddly! I positioned them so there’s a bee block at the bottom centre, I’m meant to have 20 hexies round each block but so far I’ve only managed 19. The instructions say they should all fit within the 7″ circle, but a comment on facebook suggested that the photos look like hers are a fraction outside the circle, which might explain why she can get them all in!

I’ve also made a start on the next embroidered block which has more bees and flowers…

I’ve now made eleven blocks so I put them all on my design wall to see what they look like and I’m pretty pleased with them all! I like the way the colours are working too, especially since this is a scrap quilt, I’ve bought some background fabrics and a couple of fat quarters, but it is mainly otherwise fabric from my stash. There’s 48 blocks altogether in the quilt, so I’m nearly a quarter of the way through.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Connie

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for more hand stitching and quilting.

By the way, complete change of topic…did you see the final of the Great British Sewing Bee, the finalists had to make a dress that transformed into another, like the stars do on the red carpet. Asmaa’s dress was absolutely amazing, stunning! You knew she would win as soon as you saw it, the way it unfurls is just beautiful! The video clip of it has now gone viral, here’s a link on YouTube. Watch and enjoy!