Ok, so just in case you've just dropped into this blog, I am attempting to catalogue all the quilts I have ever made by getting them out and giving them their photographic moment in the sun! At the moment I am working backwards through time, so this quilt I made last year. Now usually the actual very quilt I am working on is my all time favourite, then the next, then the next! I am fickle, or always optimistic? But as of last year this quilt has found itself at the top of the table of love. 
This quilt is an English paper pieced traditional hexagon quilt. It is made completely of scraps and from my stash and the reason I love it so is that it is the story of all of the other quilts I made in the last 3 years or so. Every fabric in this quilt top I can tell you where else it appears in my quilt gallery! Ok now I so sound like a nerd, but I love that its kind of a snapshot of my fabric tastes at that time. Perhaps I will make another one in another 4 or 5 years and see whats changed. I'm sure the fabric nerds out there can have some fun playing 'my stash eye spy' seeing what fabric we have in common! I also love that the Barbara Brackman quilt historians of the future wont break a sweat dating this one in a 150 years time, its almost a catalogue of the popular quilt fabrics of the day, Amy Butler, Cath Kidston, Liberty, Heather Ross, Denyse Schmidt, AMH, The V&A Quilt exhibition - go on, can you spot them, leave me a comment if you do - big respect and all that!
As well as the meaning of this quilt I also just love the method. I don't make my hexagons the traditional way which involves cutting card or paper templates and basting the fabric over them and then whipstitching the hexagons together. Instead I prefer to make the hexagon shapes out of freezer paper, ironing to the wrong side of the fabric then pritsticking the fabric backing around. Then I whipstich together in the traditional way in long strips, which are finally joined to make the quilt top. The reason I prefer the freezer paper method is, well i'm kind of lazy and don't like the idea of sewing that gets pulled out at the end makes me feel tired, plus the freezer paper hexagons are a bit more durable than whipstitched ones (or perhaps its just my basting!) and as this is the kind of project that gets dragged about at the bottom of my handbag for any snatched sewing opportunity in cafe or car outside school, that matters.
This quilt is the perfect summer project as you can make it totally by hand, and completely out of scraps or fabric you already own. In fact its perfectly 2012 - it's portable, frugal and fun, think of it as a summer austerity quilt! My MakeClub group are currently making this pattern as our 2012 charity quilt. Its even more fun when you get to share the scraps, rustle up your friends and have a go!