Sashiko Class Projects Finished

 Hi all -

The weather up here remains beautiful! The temperatures remain mild and we've been getting some good rain. You can feel autumn coming, but I'm sure there'll be more hints of summer along the way!

The sashiko class projects were moving along swiftly so I decided to finish them:

Sashiko class project #1

Sashiko class project #2

I'll put these pieces aside until I figure out what I want to do with them. My feeling is that these will end up in a quilt. I have more shot cotton in my stash, I bought some more sashiko thread and I have lots of stemcils in my stash so there's plenty that I could add to this in the future!

I'm continuing to enjoy handwork so I've made more progress on my hexagon charm quilt. I finished three more of the larger hexagon units:

New hexagon units

That brings my total to 26 of these units. I laid them out to see how far along I'm getting:

All of the hexagon units

It seems like a lot of units in the box, but I still have a long way to go! Since I'm going to end up making a rectangular quilt, I think I'm going to add some hexagons to my units and make them into "squares." I think that'll be easier to put together and visualize.

Finally, I started working on a baby quilt. My nephew and his wife are expecting a little girl in November and they are having a shower in mid-September. I looked through my baby quilt books and found a little quilt in my "Quick Quilts for Kids" book by Elizabeth Keevill. This is a very tiny quilt, only 16.5"x20" finished. It's designed for using in a car seat or carrier, which I thought was a great idea, especially as an early gift so it could be used when taking the baby home from the hospital. And as she gets older, if she is into dolls them it will make a good doll quilt. Here is my version of the "Baby's Love Blanket" from the book:

Baby's Love Blanket

I used the same colors as the example in the book since I really like these colors and I had everything I needed in my stash. Now I just have to decide on the backing. A flannel backing would be nice for comfort, but I don't have much flannel in my stash so it's unlikely I have something that would go with this quilt. I'll look today. A little pieced backing would be pretty and I have an extra heart applique that was too big for the front that would be cute on the back. The book said to enlarge the applique pattern by 200%, but that was too large for the blocks. I didn't notice that until I prepared the first applique and then found that it didn't fit on the block. For this quilt, the applique should really only have been enlarged 150%. Once the backing is prepared, I'll have to figure out the quilting. I know I'll be quilting hearts in the empty green squares, but need to deicde on the rest of the quilting. The quilting will be simple to keep the quilt soft.

Nancy