Friday, February 19, 2016

Changing Gears

 Here's another recent finish that made its debut this week. I'm calling it Changing Gears because it was not what I had originally envisioned when I started this project. And because the hexie rings look like gears.


 I started English Paper Piecing the fussy cut hexies in July of 2014. It was fun going through my more modern scraps to select motifs. 


It didn't take long to get this far. Then the project stalled. The rings were stashed in a pretty zipper pouch and there they waited. 


 I dug them out in mid-January and played with a couple of different background fabrics. I love how this deep teal Kaffe print shows off the other colors. 


After the hand applique was done, it was time for quilting. I started with hand quilting with pearl cotton inside the gears. 


I marked some ghost hexies in the negative space and hand quilted inside those.


Then it was time for free motion machine quilting. The background was quilted with a pretty teal rayon thread. Before diving in, I had to practice that combo fill with swirls and pebbles inspired by Angela Walters. 


I quilted the hexies in matching thread color, following the motifs. This one is my favorite! You can see the crazy backing here. I couldn't find a fabric in my stash that I liked for binding, so I used a facing.
 

I brought it with me on retreat a couple of weeks ago for photos. The Hampton Inn has elongated hexie wallpaper in the gym!


Changing Gears
 26" X 30"
Started 7/15/14
Completed 1/28/16

3 comments:

WoolenSails said...

Those are fun and makes me thing that shaped blocks would be fun to build designs from.

Debbie

margaret said...

this is such a good way to use hexies, have lots as I make them from scraps so think I will dig them out today and have a play yours is lovely and so good to read it has been accepted to MQX so lots of people will see and enjoy it.

Mary W Quilts said...

I love it. Hexagons are the best and so is your quilting!