Fun with fussy-cutting

So, Sunday afternoon I wanted to do some handsewing, so I started the one-patch hexagon quilt.



The beauty of these kind of things is their modularity - you can make patches for a while until you get bored of that, then you can sew patches together until you're ready to make more, and you can keep growing the thing until it's "big enough," whatever that might be. (Right now I am planning on "napping quilt" size - about as wide as a twin bed size but longer - but I may run out of steam sooner).

I'm using 2" pre-cut hexagon papers for these - they are precision-cut and are nicer than the kind I can make (also, it saves time from a "boring" process to be applied to a fun process). I am cutting the fabrics myself; they are all from the scrap bag (well, there are one or two - like that red one with the deer and trees - that I bought small bits for specifically to use in this quilt, and I reserve the right to do that again, but mostly, it will be scraps. And I don't think I'm going to do it as a true charm quilt - I'm going to repeat some of the fabrics, especially the ones I particularly like and have larger scraps of.)

I added more to it last night. Another part of the fun of these is digging in my scrap boxes for bits of fabric that were too small for some other uses, but too big (or too good) to pitch. And because these are pretty much all scraps - or at least, pieces not designated to have every last bit used in another quilt - I can fussy-cut a bit, selecting what motifs I want to show up in the patch.

I think the color scheme there is pretty much what it's going to be - predominantly red, gray, blue-green, and gold. I may add in some yellow-green later if it seems to go, or even some pink. I'm pretty good at holding a fabric up to the ones I already have and saying "yes" or "it doesn't go," so I'm just going to trust my gut on adding other colors.

I had forgotten how soothing something like this is to work on - it's quiet, it's fairly portable, there are the little successes along the way of getting another patch basted and ready to go in, or adding in a patch to fill a hole. (Kind of like bees building honeycombs...in a way).