Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Best Friends Forever

I mentioned a while ago how much I loved this hexagon stitchery quilt design, Best Friends Forever, by Australian designer Rosalie Quinlan. My first instalment arrived yesterday, and I have already started it!


This project has surpassed my expectations, which is really saying something, as they were pretty high! The pattern covers are nice enough:


But I was particularly impressed with the printed linen patterns:


I was worried that the linen would be too fine and sheer, but it is actually quite solid and has a nice weight. The overall piece is a good size, 17" x 21". The individual patterns will fit exactly on my 3.5" (7" across) hexagons that I bought for this project. It was a bit of a gamble to buy them before the pattern arrived, but it worked out perfectly! The pattern calls for a quilt-as-you-go technique, but I have a fancier, English Paper Piecing design in mind. You know I can never do a project as written!

These are the stitchery colours I've chosen so far:


You can see by the revisions on the card that I've already changed my mind about a couple of the colours. It is interesting how different they look stitched versus in the skein.

I also put away the stitching instructions early on. The pattern uses chain stitch on the heavier lines, which I haven't done before but really liked. I have used it on the bird below. Most of the rest calls for back stitch, which I don't much like. I will use it on the lettering, but on the tree and leaves I used my favourite, stem stitch. The flowers were supposed to be satin stitched, but I was thinking about blanket stitch pinwheels on another project, so I decided to try them for the petals here as well. I think they worked great, so I think they will be my standard for all the flowers. The flower centres are a ring of tiny chain stitches.


Because the pattern is quilt as you go, it calls for a lightweight fusible batting to be ironed on the backs of the stitcheries before stitching. When I can, I prefer to avoid fusibles, and I think it is going well without it. You can see the linen is wrinkly because I have been embroidering in hand, but there is no problem at all with the fabric puckering or pulling. It is really very nice linen, I am so pleased with it!

After working on my Sweet Hearts redwork for so long, which is on lightweight muslin and much more detailed, this project is a breath of fresh air! I sense an obsession coming on...

With this post I am checking in again with The Needle and Thread Network, and WIP Wednesday #99. I will have to see if I can do something special for #100 next week!

8 comments:

  1. I've not seen those patterns before. They are pretty. Have fun.

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  2. Thanks, Dolores! I have a feeling they are going to become all the rage here in North America, just as they have been for a while now in Australia. :)

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  3. Yours is going to look amazing in the traditional format of EPP. I also like the changes you have made too. QAYG is ok too but love EPP and then some beautiful hand quilting.

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    1. Yes, I have been thinking about hand quilting too! But that is a long way off. Thanks, Katherine!

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  4. this looks like a lovely project, like you I am not keen on backstitch, it looks better I think if you wrap it, stem stitch has far more life to it.

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    1. Thanks, Margaret. I tend to forget about wrapped stitches, but they can look really nice too. I will have to see if I can find an appropriate place for some in this project!

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  5. The printed linen looks tempting. I like the chain stitch a lot. I also agree about back stitch. Your stem stitch is beautifully even.

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    1. Thanks very much, Jillian! Everyone here seems to agree about the back stitch. I don't know why it's become so popular these days.

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I'm told Blogger has been bouncing some comments, so if it happens to you I'm sorry! But the settings look right so I can't explain it. In any case, thanks for reading!

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