Work in Progress Wednesday

This week has seen slow progress on my cross stitch as I have tried to give some time to other long term projects. However I have completed the border on the left side and started the next picture square.

I rather like the border.

The latest square is also rather fun.

I think it is about time I did some more work on the columns and scrolls. Unfortunately this is where I lost interest in the work last time. So my plan for next week is to match the time I spend on the ship with work on the scroll. 

This week I have also spent time on my English paper pieced quilt. I am making a 'Grandmother's flower garden' quilt for my daughter Lucy. I usually work on this on my train journeys to work but as I haven't been travelling by train recently this hasn't progressed very much. I am now on holiday so no more train journeys until September so I need to include this in my stitching time at home. This week I cut out 300 more hexagon templates,

The templates stay in the work until it is complete and are then removed. I also cut out and tacked the fabric to another 40 hexagons. These now need to be stitched together. I also bought some more fat quarters of flower patterned fabric to use in the quilt. Each area of flowers will have green paths between.

If you haven't come across English Paper Piecing patchwork before have a look at the tutorial here. The whole project is really portable in the early stages.  At the request of my daughter I am just using hexagons for my quilt however you can make a good range of other shapes with this technique. You can also mix shapes within the patchwork so long as they have an edge of the same size to stitch them  together. My hexagons are 1inch. To make a double quilt (80 x 95 inches) I need 2930 hexagons and 63 half hexagons to make the edges straight. So I have a very long way to go. At the moment I haven't decided if it is going to be all hexagons or if there will be some borders (paths) within it. Obviously this would reduce the number of hexagons I will need.