Christmas Hexies cont'd

I have to admit, I was nervous about this step. Piecing the hexies was no problem. But I've never actually quilted anything before, and I wasn't sure I'd do it right, or that my machine would cooperate.

 

(If you're wondering why the edges look wonky, I had to open up the seams of the individual hexies to sew the sandwich together.)

 According to the instructions, I sewed a sandwich comprised of the hexie fabric face down on the red backing fabric (face-up), and the batting on the very bottom. It took a lot of stopping, turning, and re-starting, but I sewed around the edge of the entire thing, leaving one section open.

Turning the whole thing right-side-out was a bit of an adventure, but some gentle tugging and persuasion did the trick.

After hand-sewing the turning-hole closed, I placed some pins randomly and started stitching. (Note to self: slow and steady wins the race.)

These table mats are supposed to be Christmas gifts, so this was my test run. Some things to remember:

• using red thread on the back looks sharp
• go slooooooooooow
• fix the tension before using the machine again

To be perfectly honest, I have to say: I am rather chuffed. Perfect it is not, but I actually finished something! (I'll take more pics of the end result once I've figured out the 3 'things to remember'.)