Thursday, July 6, 2017

"Hexagons in Retreat"

Every year my PTA group - Professional Textile Artsist formally known as Piecers, Talkers, Appliquers attend a retreat for 3 days....It is the most wonderful time for talking, eating, drinking champagne and Yes...most certainly - sewing! With all we have on the agenda, it wouldn't seem likely that we could get much sewing done...but we do. This year, I tried something a bit more ambitious.
Working with Accu Quilt and a hexagon die cut, I was able to make many hexagons the perfect size. Since I'm not a good piecer, using a cutting machine assured me greater accuracy.
I made a little dent in my project at retreat and finally finished it up at home...I really liked using this color palette and found working with all the different fabrics the most fun...very different from the way I usually work.
I pieced together several fabrics for a backing...
Some of the fabrics were quite pale and I thought they might need some interest which I created through printing. I used the same color paint as the medium value fabric and a silkscreen with words to create more visual texture. I also wanted to highlight some groupings of hexagons so I did some color switching to make them more obvious.
 
I had a mix of fabrics including some silk noil which provides such a fun nubby texture. I used the silkscreens of my grandmother's recipe book written in her hand making it more personal.


I also highlighted some of the hexagons by stitching 1/4" in from the seam using a glitzy thread - featured here - Sliver by Sulky.
And it's done - I'm still working on a name. My daughter says it reminds her of some underwater theme...actually with the browns and blues, she suggested some kind of old ship wreck...interesting thought.....for now Hexagons in Retreat will have to do.

8 comments:

  1. Oh this is so beautiful--I just love the colors you chose--did you hand sew the hexies or by machine? I like all the
    embellishing you did--and that glitzy thread adds so much--very nice work...hugs, Julierose

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  2. You know my love of hexies!!! This is wonderful...love the colors!!!!

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  3. Judy….this is awesome….can’t wait to see it in person. Love how you added screen printing in some areas and of course the Sulky Sliver highlights…… What great piece!

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  4. Beautiful piece, love the color placement.

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  5. It's beautiful! I don't piece very well either and am very impressed at your workmanship. Your daughter is right. An under water ship wreck. Or Atlantis?

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  6. It makes me think of a forest waterfall. Love all the tricks you used to make it unique.

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