Hexy Stars - Putting My Needles To Work

Upside Down Hexy Stars

This is my Hexy Stars Quilt.
Inspired by Frederica Josephson's 1850 Quilt

I drafted the templates and went to work sorting through my stash looking for stripes, small motifs, toile and a large variety of color.

I don't think I used any duplicate fabrics in the 7 inch blocks.  It is machine pieced and I did the hand quilting.

I just realized this photo is the quilt upside down - can you see not only the 'creatures' in the quilt are upside down, but also the 'lights' in the cubes are all down!  Rather than delete it, I'll post a right side up!

It was a fun quilt to make and now that is is finished I'd like to do another with smaller blocks.  Not sure yet how small, maybe half this size?

Hexy Stars Right Side Up

OK, much better, here we go right side up....


Almost an I-Spy...elephants, a variety of birds, is it a harpsichord or a piano?  a couple of dogs, fish and sheep.  My motto is the more scrappy and mixed up prints the better!


I enjoyed mixing the prints and colors on the design wall.  I took a few pictures as I went and pinned them up at work for a glance now and again with fresh eyes.  Of course as I look at it today I wonder why I made some of the placements I did.  On the next one I'll,,,,

 Digging through my stash I 'saw' various fabrics differently as I viewed them for star points, vs block pieces.

Some are precisely fussy cut - like this blue star, others are more random like the pink cream plume print.

The little pin roll is a linen embroidery with small glass seed beads.  The needle case is red leather and the thimble is marked 'England'.

There are medium and dark stars with light background, and light stars with dark or medium backgrounds.

All of my reproduction fabric was fair game - I didn't try to stick to any specific era, it more about the variety and color for me.

The three diamond blocks were interesting to do in stripes.  By fussy cutting the stripe you get an illusion of a waves.

This is another linen pin roll, I've done a half dozen or so - the rest will make their way into future posts..  The scissors have a pretty pattern on the handles.  The box, I thought was a powder box, but the inside of the cover is marked for the thread contents it used to hold.



Thank you for your inquiry.
More detail on the thread box...

Inside Lid Label

This one doesn't have the holes to feed the thread ends through - the reason I initially passed it by.  DH opened the lid and brought the label to my attention.  What a guy!

Here's another one - with the holes, no label and the cover looks more like a ladies dresser powder box with the romantic (very worn) lid:

Thread Opening on Box #2

Thank you for stopping by today!  Thanks you for your comments and questions!
Dawn