Meadowlark Blog Hop: Making "Melly's Garden"

I am so thrilled for my friend Melanie Testa.  She is a wonderful artist, excellent human, and I am happy to call her my friend.  When she came to Quilt Market in the fall of 2013 with her samples for a new fabric line everyone was thrilled when Windham Fabrics fell in love with them.  It seems like a perfect match, and I am even more excited about the fact that each of these designs was created using Procion MX dye and multiple processes with stamp printing.  The process gives the fabric line a very handmade, organic appearance that is beautifully appealing.

Melly asked if I would consider making a sample using her new fabric for the Windham booth at Spring Quilt Market 2014 and I jumped at the opportunity to work with it.  Seeing the collection made me want to create a very scrappy-looking quilt because it all works so well together.

I decided to work with my large hexagon die (5" on each side!) and cutter from Sizzix.  I wanted this quilt to be very lightweight so I opted for a layer of diaper gauze as the batting.  All pieces, including the batting, were cut on the Sizzix.

Here is the fabric cut with the hexi die, to give a sense of scale.

Working in pairs the pieces were placed, right sides together with a layer of diaper gauze on top.

Using 1/4 inch seams five of the six sides were stitched together on the machine, leaving one side open.

Points were clipped to facilitate a crisp finished angle when turned right side out.

Turn the hexi right sides out.  Now the batting is already in place!

Press each side until crisp.

The open end is folded inward and pressed...

Like this.

Now it is ready to be stitched.

I used Superior MonoPoly to close each hexi.

Simple!

After deciding the placement of the colors I joined the hexies together using a zigzag stitch with MonoPoly thread.

Because the batting was so thin I opted to do the quilting after the entire quilt was joined.

Switching to colored thread I opted to echo the shapes inside the hexies

and finish with free-motion quilted flowers.

I love this quilt!  I made a generous sized crib quilt. 

The beauty of it is that if I ever choose to I could easily increase the size of it by 

adding more hexies using this technique.  Also, I like the angular edge.

If you are interested in more ideas about using hexagons in your work I would recommend Jen Eskridge's new book, "Hexagons Made Easy".  

To be eligible for a "fat stack" of 10" squares of each fabric(!) in Melly's new Meadowlark line please leave a comment here before midnight on June 10th.  I would love to have each of you as a regular visitor!  I will draw the lucky winner with my "randomizer" after the deadline and announce the winner.  Melly is also giving away three copies of her book, "Dreaming From The Journal Page".  One will be given away on her blog and the other two will be chosen from the blogs with the most comments at the end of the hop, so keep those comments coming all the way through June 10th to be eligible.

For more ideas about how to use Melly's new "Meadowlark" fabrics please continue on all the blog hop stops.  You will be glad you did!  

Melly – June 2 

Vivien Zepf – June 2 
Chrissie D – June 3 
Sue Bleiweiss – June 4  
You Are Here!  June 5 
Jamie Fingal – June 6 
Lyric Kinard – June 7 
Jen Eskridge – June 8 
Jacqui Holmes Calhoun – June 8  <——-Jacqui will be guest posting here!
Stephanie Forsyth – June 9 
Victoria Findlay Wolfe – June 10 
Teri Lucas – June 11 Blog-TBD
Scott Hansen June 12
Helen Eckard – June 12 <——-CHelen will be guest posting on Melly's blog

And the winner is.....Tawney!  Please contact me with your email address and I will pass it along to Melly.  Thank you, everyone, for stopping by and leaving a comment!  xoxo Leslie