Hexie Mat

Any attempt to finish my quilt over the last week was thwarted when I ran out of the thread I'd been using on the back. It became apparent that the colour I was using was pretty obscure when it wasn't stocked in the 6 shops I visited (argh!) and so I had to order it online leaving me with some free time whilst I waited for it to show up.

Having been working on a large and time-consuming project for a while I wanted to go the opposite way and make something small and quick - and that I could try out the new free motion foot that had recently arrived for my sewing machine. I always have a vase of daffodils in the house throughout spring to cheer the place up and a small quilted mat to stand it on rather than the usual coaster seemed like an ideal project.

I love any excuse to do some English paper piecing with hexagons, using my Big Shot to cut both the papers and fabric makes it so quick and easy to get going. I used the Hexagons, 3/4in Sides die to cut the papers and then the Hexagons, 1in Sides #2 die to cut the fabric. I basted a few hexies and experimented with arrangements before settling on one and hand-sewing them together.

Once the hexie flower was pressed and the papers removed, I pinned and hand-stitched it around the outside onto an 8 inch square piece of fabric.

I then made the quilt sandwich and after a bit of practice on some scrap fabric, had my first proper attempt at some free motion quilting - you might still be able to see where I unpicked some less-than-successful stitching here and there (FMQ is fun to do but I'm going to need a lot more practice to attempt anything larger than an 8 inch square). All that was left then was to bind the edges.

All done, it's nice to get something finished!