May 2015: my current Forever Project™

I always have a Forever Project going.  I coined the term "Forever Project" literally forever ago when it took me 10 years to finish an embroidered throw pillow.  :-) 

For me, a "Forever Project" is always a handwork project.  It is portable so that I can take it with me when I was at Little League games, doctor appointments but mostly when I was in the car on road trips or vacations.  I absolutely need something to keep my hands busy and I decided long ago that although I love to read books, I wanted something to show for all that time besides having finished Yet Another Book.

I've had many Forever Projects over the years.  Some take longer than others.  Some surprise me by being completed relatively quickly.  But they never have deadlines; they get done when they get done .. hence the name "Forever Project".  :-)

I recently finished my (former) latest Forever Project, which was a hand-stitched hexie 104"x116" quilt top (which you can read about here but you'll need to scroll to get to the February 2015 paragraph). 

leftover hexies

When I completed that project, I had a bunch of the small hexies leftover, such as these.  I had been using them to make flower units for my (former) Forever Project, so I just kept making flower units without thinking about what I was going to use them for.  It occurred to me that I *really* ought to have A Plan otherwise it was just pretty silly to be making all these cute little flower units that weren't going to be used in anything.

"Reaching Out" by Edyta Sitar

Right about then, I came across the pattern "Reaching Out", an applique quilt pattern design by Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts).  As you can see, there are columns of on-point 9-patches, which separate gorgeous columns of appliqued flowers.  I thought that I would substitute my leftover hexie flower units for the on-point 9-patches and use the same fabric for the applique columns and the setting triangles in the hexie columns.

After doing some rough calculations, I determined that my hexie flowers were about twice as large as the 9-patches, so I'd need half as many units to make up the narrow columns. 

I do hope the change in scale works out well because that's the size the hexie flowers are going to be!  :-)

a flower unit

So, from about March 2015 onwards, I've been making lots of little hexies ....  putting the little hexies into flower units .... 

A flower unit with green "leaves" and black side diamonds

putting green hexie "leaves" on the flower units ... and finishing them off with black diamond side pieces.

That's what I'm working on right now:  sewing the 4 little black diamond pieces onto the sides of the hexie flower units. 

A column

All the these hexie flowers will stack on top of each other to form the narrow columns that will separate the wider applique columns.  Once all of flower units have their black diamonds, then I will work on constructing the columns of hexie flowers, trying to nicely distribute the colors.  That's going to be the hardest part (for me): randomizing the hexie flower colors so it looks nice.

Via the "magic" of some VERY basic photo editing, I've created a VERY rough idea of what the hexie flower column is going to look like.

I've already obtained the white-on-white fabric that will be the background fabric for the applique columns.  I can see that pretty soon, I'm going to be working those applique columns!  I'm looking forward to that part of the quilt process!  :-)