#the100dayproject

I joined this challenge on Instagram last year and it encouraged me to work on abandoned projects. This year I am using it as a way to make progress on Tula Pink's Hex on the Beach project. I bought the fabrics from Sew Hot and collected them at the 2018 Festival of Quilts in August.

I had only sewn a few hexagons together and they are in a large messy block. Since starting the 100 day project, I have cut more hexagons and papers and started top left, having divided the pattern into blocks of 10 to 12 hexagons.

I have called this block A and my current thinking is to try and sew one complete block each day and stitch one hexagon a day to block  A when time permits.

I have cut the plain hexagons using a Sizzix die, again a little haphazard so I have some of all of the plain colours cut. I cut the papers from freezer paper in a smaller size and use a Sewline glue pen to glue baste the edges down, having first ironed the papers to the fabric. The spotted fabric takes a little longer to prep and involves an acrylic template that I designed for my own use which has a circle of the correct size in the entre of the template to enable a fairly accurate centering of the dot in the middle of the hexagon.

I then found an old Tupperware box which is the perfect depth to store my prepped hexagons. 

Last week we had a three day trip to London to apply for visas for China. I am so relieved that our passports arrived back yesterday as we are having a few days in France after Easter for which we need our passports. I digress! I packed ten blocks into a paper sweetie bag each and popped them into this pouch by Sarah Ashford along with the necessary tools to sew whilst travelling. Ten blocks was a bit ambitious to say the least. I completed the last of three blocks on my return home on Tuesday.

Now that I am home I have refined my process a little as follows:
Every evening I take out the following days block from my Tupperware box and pin it on my June Tailor cut and press board so I can pick up the pieces in the correct order.
Then I renumber the paper bag and refill it with another block. Noting down any hexagons that I need to cut.
Each morning I start sewing my block together which takes about two hours
Then I take out any papers where the hexagon is completely surrounded by other hexagons and put the papers in the Tupperware ready to reuse.

Instead of the pouch I have found this useful tin and added a needle threader, my sewing glasses and a needle minder with a magnet which was a present from my friend Pippa.

Now I need to work out what to do next. I will continue with my aim to sew one block a day, but with any spare time do I:
1. Start another block
2. Sew some blocks together and release more papers to reuse
3. Sew some hexagons onto block A.

I am torn. Tonight is Saturday Night Craftalong and I think I will do an extra block and if there is time, sew some blocks together. During the week if time permits, I will add to block A whilst not abandoning all of my other projects in progress.