Block 3 - The Honey Patch - is the next installment of the mystery quilt George and the Donkey, designed by Lynette Anderson Designs. The pattern had arrived in the post from Poppy Patch at the beginning of December, but I was busy with other projects, so I'm still trying to catch up! First of all, I prepared some pretty bee hives which have a tiny bee-sized door on the front...
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...the bee haves were appliqued in place, and some bees were hand mbroidered around the hives. I'm using a selection of variegated Valdani stranded embroidery threads for this project. If you don't have any variegated threads, my top tip is to use a couple of solid embroidery threads, in similar colours, and thread a needle with one strand of each colour. This gives a softer effect than using just one colour...
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...I'm using the Apliquick method of applique for this project, as I seem to be all fingers and thumbs with traditional needleturn applique. Once the hives and birds were stitched in place (I've been using Bottomline 60wt thread for this along with a Clover Black Gold applique needle) I could concentrate on the hand embroidery...
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...these four blocks will be the cornerstones for parts 4,5,6 and 7 so they'll be put in a safe place while those parts are being worked on...
...next it was time to make a huge pile of 1/2" hexagons, ready for the border around the centrpiece. These pre-cut hexagon papers are really useful, and so much quicker and easier to use than trying to cut my own papers! These ones are by Sew & Quilt and were purchased online from Coast and Country Crafts and Quilts. A total of 140 hexagons were prepared, ready to make a bouquet of twenty hexagon flowers...
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...as you can see, I used the same red hearts print for the centre hexagon, with an assortment of 20 different fabrics for the flowers. Lots of tiny squares were cut from my stash of "Lynette" prints and were added to the corners of larger squares which had been cut in an assortment of neutral fabrics...
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...the hexagon flowers were then stitched in place onto the background squares, making sure they were different to the prints used on the corners of the squares. Once the hexie flowers were all stitched in place, the mini blocks were stitched together in two rows of four, two rows of six, and then joined together around the centrpiece. This was then carefully pressed on a wool pressing mat using a cool iron...
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...finally, the narrow borders of 3/8" hexagons were stiched in place. A final press on my wool pressing mat, and I could breathe a sigh of relief after making all those hexies!
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