Brinton Hall – a Labor of Love – from a Quilting Nut!

Well, we are still in the wonderful summer time in South Texas.  The heat high will just not move….. We are experiencing 100’s by 4 PM and in the morning it is 77 with high humidity.  The pretty green grass is slowing turning to a light green and without rain will, of course die off again.  But we are lucky – at least the hot summer days did not start until the 10th or so of July rather than the 1st of June!

Brinton Hall and I have been the best of buddies since last week.  I have finished all of the “flowers” for the Medallion and am just thrilled with the outcome.  As I worked on the 7 blocks – I found that by spraying the center fabric with some sizing and pinning the “crowns” onto the fabric that it was a little easier to applique.  The fabric was easier to control (no wrinkles) by using the sizing and pressing the freezer paper to the back side of the fabric.

Here is another trick that I found to be a time saver  – mainly because the Hexies have to be in the correct placement or one may mess up (OK this step was a necessity for me once I messed up 2 and had to “rip” them out and re-sew).  Not fun with those tiny stitches!  I used the template that I made to “fussy cut” the 10 1/2″ blocks.  This worked great by placing the Hexie’s on the outside.   I used non-stick tape so the hexies would stay put.

Then I used the clips to hold each Hexie in place before sewing the crown.

Here they are – enjoy!  I know I am a tired, but happy camper this afternoon.  To be able to complete this in a week is great.  The rest of the work will be done at night and tomorrow I will be cutting out the remaining 300 + hexagons to complete the Medallion – Boy I certainly hope Quiltmania #108 doesn’t get here until August…. (LOL).  Here are the finished blocks on the design wall with a few of the “white” hexies around the Green Crown.

And here are pictures of the individual blocks.

This quilt will not be one to just “breeze” through.  It is a wonderful challenge quilt that my Carpel Tunnel and Dorsal Wrist will remember for a long time! (LOL).   It will definitely be entered into Quilt Shows starting in 2016.  Cutting the fabric was not a time consumer, but preparing and sewing the Hexagons and Hexie Crowns were slow and time-consuming — at least I thought they were until I started appliqueing the Crowns to the block!   Just to applique the Hexie Crown on to the 10 1/2″ square took 1 (one) hour per block.  I did not count all the hours, but I have not stopped working on this project since last Thursday to finish the remaining 6 blocks.

PS – Of course while looking at Karen’s blog yesterday (http://faeriesandfibres.blogspot.ca) she showed a quilt called Gardens of a King, a pattern that she tested for Missie Carpenter of Traditional Primitives. The pattern is now available from her shop.  (http://traditionalprimitives.com/).   I think I may really be nuts if I decide to order this pattern, but the quilt really caught my eye.  Missie is very easy to contact if you have any questions regarding the quilt.  So pretty!