WIP Wednesday: August 10

It's Wednesday! Time for me to link up again with Lee at Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

Though I have done a lot of work this past week, I still don't have much to show for it as I've been quilting my butt off in between complaints about the heat here in DFW.

Arcadia Quilt
There are times when I think I'm never going to get this quilt finished.



The squares with cross-hatching are taking a lot of time to execute each and everyone. I noticed earlier this week, that the only way I can tell how much progress I've honestly made (which doesn't feel like much) is to look at the back to see that I'm now 75% done.

Though this picture doesn't tell you that.



To be the frustration I have been feeling as of late, I've taken to looking at the back every time I reset the frame which is more often then I would like. Over the past week, I had to switch from my normal 20in x 20in frame to a smaller 10inx20in frame due to some pulling issues on the back. The change doesn't appear to have slow me down, it just feels like it.

Grandma Sue's Garden
For the first time in weeks, okay maybe months, and if I want to be honest closer to two years, our major house remodel has gotten to the point, that I have been able to free my large frame from it's prospective cover and squeeze back there to actually work on this project that I hand pieced and finished during my last job.



No fancy quilting job here. Just the tedious work of echo quilting each individual hexagon with no. 8 perle cotton in an ecru.

But because we know there's always a story behind the choices we make in our quilts here are some interesting tidbits:

* None of the colourful fabric is from my stash. I snagged the fabric from my mum's hexagon bin when she was visiting me. Some of the fabric, my sister and I had dresses made out of when we were younger; others, I remember from other projects over the years including pin pillows I made my sorority sisters during university.

* The pattern used to cut each individual hexagon comes from maternal great-grandmother (actually unless I say otherwise, all my hexagons come from the same source) - Grandma Sue. It was the only pattern my mum was able to get her hands on when her grandmother passed away. When I look at it, I always have a smile on my face because of the sentimentality attached to a piece of cardboard.

* The simple quilting choice was made because that's how both Grandma Sue quilted and my mum quilts all hexagon quilts they have made.

* I actually have plans to make three more hexagon quilts like this -- I think of this one as winter -- by varying up the fabric choices and the way the flowers are to suggest a garden. Do I ever think I will finish and keep are four? Not really but stranger things have happened :)

Overall though, this quilt was always considered to be a small and subtle tribute to where I came from. And it's fun to look at it and think about where I have come and where I am going :)