Friday 17 June 2016

Honeycomb spin and flying geese all made with batiks!

Several months ago the lovely people at RJR Fabrics sent me some Jinny Beyer Malam batiks to play with.  I made two quilts from these batiks - Honeycomb spin and a flying geese table runner.



Firstly - Honeycomb spin.
I learnt to made this quilt in a class at Nancy's Stitch Studio in Wellington, New Zealand.  Anna Hicks was the tutor, and we had a great time using the modern hexies technique of wrapping fabric around paper templates to form the shape, and then removing the papers and gluing the hexies to the background fabric.  The spiral quilting was the final step and it secured the hexies to the background.


I deliberately staggered my hexies from dark to light to get the shading effect. The batiks worked really well for this.



the background fabric is Radiant Gradients by Hoffman



If it looks like a lot of hexies, you'd be right. I must have used about 350.


I used King Tut variegated thread for the spiral quilting and love the circles it created.


The back looks pretty good too:


This is an out of print piece by Amelia Caruso - the same artist who designed the border fabric I'm using on my la passacaglia. We turned the edges back and made facings rather than doing a normal binding.

The finished size is 25" x 40".  I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out, and will hang it on the wall in my house.


Secondly, I made a table runner with some of the leftovers:
I've always loved blues and greens, so I decided to make a blue and green table runner for my hall table.  I didn't really have a pattern, but I knew I wanted to use flying geese.  I only have 2 Bloc-loc flying geese tools - the 1.5" x 3" finished, and the 2" x 4" finished, and I used both of them.



I did a bit of algebra, and worked out that 3 of the big flying geese would be 12" finished, and 4 of the small flying geese would be 12" finished, so I made sets of various colour combinations.


Once the mat was the right size I hand quilted it with Aurifil 28wt and big stitches.


I used some of the leftover pieces on the back, and gave it a random binding, because by then I was running out of blues and greens.



The finished size is 11.5" x 36" and it fits perfectly on my hall table.

RFR Fabrics have kindly agreed to let me give away some Malam batiks to one lucky person on Instagram.  So if you're on Instagram and follow both me and RJR Fabrics, you can enter the competition on Instagram.

I realise not everyone is on Instagram, so I'm going to do a separate giveaway just for blog readers next week.











30 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

beautiful fabric and beautiful quilt - thanks for thinking of us blog readers next week - one day I must get on instagram - I was going to but then thought I would be connected too much!

donna said...

Wendy, I don't have instagram, but would sure love to enter your giveaway here.Donna DeMotte

Websterquilt said...

Absolutely stunning hexagons....now I want to go make one!

Ali Honey said...

Both your projects turned out very well. I love batiks.
What did you make with the red/orange fabrics?

allthingzsewn said...

Beautiful quilt

Havplenty said...

Beautiful projects. I love batiks.

tushay3 (at) yahoo (dot) com

Susan said...

Oh ,my goodness , I love that hexagon quilt! I had seen it on IG but now the bigger photo on my laptop does it justice!!! I now see the variegation of not just the hexies but the background also! A super quilt Wendy!

quiltingtaylormade said...

Hi Wendy -- What is the fabric you used underneath the hexies?? Or as a background?? Some type of ombre fabric?? This is just beautiful !!

quiltingtaylormade said...

Hi Wendy -- What is the fabric you used underneath the hexies?? Or as a background?? Some type of ombre fabric?? This is just beautiful !!

margaret said...

2 wonderful projects what beautiful batiks, need to get a collection myself looks like these are calling me. Have not glued hexies before usually sew mine by hand loving both these projects and all those wonderful fabrics certainly a great bundle they sent you

Unknown said...

Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! 😍😍😍😍

Serena @ Sewgiving said...

If your name wasn't attached to these two lovely projects I would say "these are very Wendy!" ... is spiral quilting your new favourite?

GranChris said...

I really like the hexagons but the flying geese is great too. What did you do with the scraps? These fabrics are outstanding.

Manuela said...

Both project are wonderful.
Have a nice weekend.
Manuela

Oops-Lah said...

I really like the quilted circles on your hexie quilt. Do you have a special machine foot for for that? If not, how did you get it so even.

D1-D2 said...

I'm in love with that quilt. When I saw you were doing a giveaway on Instagram I though you were giving away the quilt. I would have jumped on board if you were ;)

Anonymous said...

I absolutely LOVE the Honeycomb Spin quilt... wonderful job!!
No Instagram here... just can't do another social media LOL

Her Indoors said...

Your honeycomb quilt is a stunner. Batiks are my favourite.

Alison said...

Just so lovely Wendy, spiral quilting is such fun - unless you start off in the wrong direction like i did once!

Anja said...

You are a creative genius. Such a great hexagon quilt.

Heide said...

Two amazing projects! Love the hexie and how you place each one of the 350 hexies! The quilting is super too. TFS.

Live a Colorful Life said...

What beautiful projects. At first glance, I thought you had added borders to each of those hexies. The quilting on your table runner is really lovely.

Jenny said...

Oh Wendy, your hexagon quilt is just fabulous!! You say they are glued down then quilted in place? Is the glue water resistant or will it disappear when it is washed? The spiral quilting really is so wonderful on this design, you are very talented indeed.

Sandi said...

Lovely projects Wendy, congratulations on the finishes.

Granny Maud's Girl said...

I love the hexie project.
I wish I could learn to love batiks and use them, but even when doing an art quilting workshop (and batiks really do suit art quilts beautifully) over the weekend I had to switch to floral fabrics that make me happy.

Raewyn said...

I love both your finishes, Wendy. And the circular quilting really finishes your hexie-quilt off well.

NickiJ said...

All I can say is WOW! You continue to amaze me. You must really love hexies and have lots of patience!

Linda H said...

Wendy, I love Love LOVE these modern hexie projects!! I dont know where I've been, to not have seen this technique before now. Perhaps I've seen it (Pinterest likely) but just didn't realize what it was or how it is done. I so want to give this a try. I'm going to email you...

BΓ©a said...

Your modern hexies quilt is absolutely amazing . I love, congrats !

Unknown said...

I love your Honeycomb Spin quilt. I was wondering whether the quilt is washable. The Modern Hexie quilt uses permanent glue and quilts through each point so that the hexagons' seam allowance should stay put. This technique leaves one (or more) sides of each hexagon unquilted. Your quilt is probably not intended to be washed but I thought I would ask. I wish Anna Hix was teaching in Canada!