Smitten Update

The pile is growing bigger. I think I have broken the back of this project. Very, very slowly. A great deal of this has been achieved by watching Love Island. I really want to finish them before we move house. The race is on!


I am now onto the last small blocks which come together pretty quickly. It's a nice change of pace.

  Then I just need to do the side bits and sew it all together. I hope it doesn't look like a hot mess.


I like how they've got easier not harder as you progress.
     But is it a hot mess?

2019 here we come

So there is no last year round up this year. Last year was a sad year in all, but it's over now and I am keen to get back to some sewing tings. I feel that there is a little more time in life these days so I should make the most of it. In honour of this, I bought myself some fabric in the Boxing Day Sales from Sew Hot Fabrics. It's a new shop for me. I was really sad to see that Simply Solids stopped trading this Christmas. What with Strawberry Fayre closing last year, I feel that the retail decline is hitting the quilting industry and this makes me sad.


But the 20% off sale at Sew Hot made me happy! Check out my haul! I follow Laura Cunningham on Instagram and I always love her mix of subtle pink and apricot solids. I have been worrying that my Swoon was just too pattern heavy so I decided to mix it up a bit. Above (top to bottom) you have Kona solids in the following shades mostly influenced by Laura's great haul here:

• Valentine
• Punch
• Woodrose
• Candy Pink
• Baby Pink
• Pale Flesh (previously Shell)
• Pink
• Bellini (previously Flesh)
• Petal
• Bubblegum
• Dusty Peach

The first five fabrics are part of a pink fat eight bundle



I also bought a few solids to pad out the Swoon. I really like the Panorama Sunrise Drops in Lipstick on the left and the Hand Picked Triangles in pink. The last one is Dashwood Ditsies Little Trees in Punch which I am not 100% sure about.


I try to keep a reference in my scraggy notebook of the Kona colours I buy. I have a swatch card but they are all so tiny and so many of the fabrics outdate my colour card. Cutting a bit of the salve edge and noting the shade seems to work for me. I also keep salve edges here so I can remember the fabrics.


As for Smitten progress, I have managed to crack on with Small Hexagon Two. I've tried to start using solids more but I soon realised that I didn't have that many to choose from, hence my Xmas purchase.



As a group, I think they are looking better for having some solids in there. I am excited about using the new ones. Hopefully, this year will be better for sewing. I have no real goals apart from finishing the usual backlog. I would like to make one of Laura's bags out of the teatowel Rachel bought me from H&M. More about that later. And I would like to make some economy blocks with my Smitten leftovers. I also think this year might be the year for my Liberty fabric scrap quilt but I always say that! Just doing anything would be a good goal for this year. We'll see. We are undertaking a big house renovation project this year so all my sewing crap might well go into storage for half the year!

Smitten Hexagon Three

Block three at last. I did these two just before Christmas. They were easier than the previous ones. I am not sure about my fabric choices but I knew that I wanted the stripe effect and I knew that I wanted to use the one fabric range I had bought for the quilt.



I keep forgetting that this range really needs a solid with it. It's a bit of a train crash.


I really like my stripes here.

So now onto block four!

Smitten block two progress

So here is my progress with block two of Smitten. It's slow work but the blocks are coming together nicely. I am pleased with my random flowers so far.


The flowery outsides are a bit full on but I really love this fabric. I think at the end when I lay out all the blocks I might choose to redo a few of them so we'll see if it makes the final edit. I love the stripy point though.


You can see on the left edge where I am getting some misalignment. I am not sure why. Maybe that's just life.


I am really pleased with this block. I love the yellow spots. I think it has good contrast.


My alignment is not as bad with this one so maybe I am getting better, who knows.


Here's the back. You can see my tiny stitches. That Superior Thread Bottom Line is so thin and strong, it's like fairy hair or something. There's no going back from it now, I even used it to bind a border the other day, it's just so invisible! I think my stitches would not look so neat without it. I recommend it 100%


Are the blocks all starting to go together? not really. I am playing the long game though. We'll see as I go along.

Smitten Hexagon Two

So here we are on block two! I had a little think about this block. Do you make the flower all one fabric or two fabrics or six? I pulled out some fabric and had a look at the Pinterest board. In the end I decided to try out a bit of both and see what I like. I felt my last set of hexes weren't very harmonious so I want to ensure these blocks are so that they help pull everything together.



Hopefully all these fabrics will go together. I don't want to overly repeat fabrics but I do want them to be a bit tighter; to have similar colour values.



I really like this block I did for my EPP case. I like the pinks and peaches with the citrus yellow/green. So I think something like this will be my first attempt. I also have a few blues which I might make into their own block. Then I might sit back and see what I think of them. Time to get started!

Smitten Block One Finished

Finally, my last block one! This took longer as I went away in the middle and then I started a completely new project - like you do. It was nice to have a little break. I do keep looking at all my block ones together... they don't really gel together which worries me! I definitely need to get some stripes into the next set of blocks.


So here is another Heather Ross print. I do love the unicorns. I was going to have yellow diamonds which matched those little yellow flowers in the middle but then I decided that I needed to be more adventurous... yeah, well I am not so sure about that now.


And here is the back. Look at all those tiny stitches. My system is that I start off whip stitching for about 5-10 stitches, then I tie a knot, open out the two shapes and do the rest is what I call a flat whip stitch – I made that up.

So here are all my block ones. Do they go? Do the repeated fabrics help? IS it a mess? You can tell me!


5th Block in Heather Ross' Far Far Away and Lizze House's The Lovely Hunt


4th block in Heather Ross' Tiger Lily and Cotton & Steel


3rd Block in Lizze House's Catnap and Cotton & Steel


2nd block in Heather Ross' Mendocino and Lizzie House's Constellations


First block in Heather Ross' Nursery Versery and the raindrop fabric which I can't recall right now.

So there you have it! Has anyone else even started? I might start thinking about the next set of blacks but it's half term next week so I am taking it easy.

Smitten block one progress

So two weeks in and I have completed my first two blocks. I am not sure if they really go together but I am just ploughing onwards. I swapped out a few fabrics as I came to do each hexagon. I just felt that I needed a more subtle colour to go on the outer ring.


I laid out all my bright colours and went a bit blind. Really? That bright? Hmmm. I kept laying them out in different combos then finally opted for a grey low volume to go with it all to bring the brightness down a bit.

Block one

Was it a good idea? not sure, but it does frame the cog shape quite well.

I decided to experiment with some different techniques. I sew basted each element first which takes a bit longer than gluing but allows for a bit more manipulation when sewing them together. However, I found that it was quite hard lining the elements up. I made a bit of a dog's dinner of some bits.


Pink and yellow give it a real pop. Too bright? perhaps. We'll see how it comes together. Overall, it all came together in the end and I love the rainy theme of the fabrics. But can you see how my section on the left doesn't line up? Was that because of my loose sew basting? Perhaps. I have no idea.


Block two
I glue basted this time using my Roxanne glue. It's pretty great! A bit messier than the sewline glue pen but still easy to use. I just hope it comes off at the end! I also swapped out my needle. Hirosihima for block one, Black gold for block two. I do think that the black gold needles go through my finger pad quite easily which is annoying, but overall they just glide through like butter and are my preference.


The Superior thread is brilliant. There's no turning back from that. I think I will be buying more of that. On reflection I probably only need an off white neutral thread for it all in future.


On the whole I was a lot more accurate with my piecing but I still fudged some bits. Look at that fumble above. Cripes. Oh well, I am sure I will get better with practice. Overall, I am a bit worried that the grey outer section is a little dull and will stand out too much. We shall see.

I am just starting block three! I have decided to ditch the less saturated outer ring rule and am just going for it. I had to buy a new angle poise light from Ikea specially so I can piece in front of the telly. It's just a bit too dark otherwise.

That's all for now. Back to watching the Bake Off...

Smitten Hexagon One

Let the Smitten commence! Here I am being very organised as usual. I have sifted and sifted through my stash, thinking about the first block. You have to make five of these. I spent ages choosing. I sort of chose everything in the end. Another technicolor train crash coming up! I am filled with doubt over my choices so they might well change but you have to start somewhere. I have tried to choose colours from the main pattern fabric where possible. I found @Laura_Zuckerkuss instagram feed very inspirational. Her latest colour palette of pink and peach is so great! She labels all her fabrics so i bought some of the Cotton & Steel fabrics she is currently using. Maybe it will inject me with some subtelty and taste?


Choice 1 – Itsy Bitsy Spider by Heather Ross
These were my Birmingham choices. I really like how bright and sunny they are. I might need a darker purple in there, we'll see. But this is how I plan to start.


Choice 2 – Tigerlily by Heather Ross
I am not sure if the yellow flowers will work well in the small diamond shapes but it is quite nice to keep to the fabric range.



Choice 3 – Catnap by Lizzy House
I picked up this catnap fabric in the bargain bin at Empress Mills, along with the lovely purple grey solid. I think this combo will make a very tasteful block as it is all colours from the main Catnap fabric.



Choice 4 – Medocino by Heather Ross
I've been hoarding this fabric, waiting for the perfect time to use it.

Choice 5 – Unicorn Far Far Away by Heather Ross
I am not totally sure about the pink on the end. I think a plain might go well in here. Maybe a yellow. We'll see.

So those are my fabrics for block 1! There's a bit of a Heather Ross bias going on I know.




I made a colouring in diagram in the hope that it might help me plan out my fabrics better. Already I can see that to achieve that darker frame I might have to rethink some of my choices. It also is good to look at when you are mindlessly sewing the units together.

Here is a link to Sew Lux' sew-a-long. I think the error she is talking about has been corrected, plus she is machine sewing whereas I think we are all not, but it's always good to see what other people have been doing.

I have decided to aim for creating one block a week and see how I go. I have no idea how long they really take. But a slow, easy pace works best for me. I found the Farmer's Wife pace quite gruelling!

So five blocks over the next five weeks. I'll probably change my mind about my fabrics completely as all I seem to do is sift through the Smitten Pinterest board changing my mind! Also there is a Flickr group.

Now I just need to dig out my Marti Mitchell templates and start cutting into my precious fabric! It's birthday weekend here for Penelope so I doubt I will start until that is over as I have to make cake and wrap presents in the evening. Roll on Monday!