My Lotta Hexies Olympic challenge

I am a sporting tragic. There. I said it. If a football game is on the TV - AFL or Rugby League - I will watch it. Basketball - I'm there. Tennis. Hello?

Olympics? Oh, now you're talking.

I took long service leave during the 2000 Sydney Olympics so I could go to the occasional event in Canberra and Sydney, and sit and watch the coverage on TV all the other times. I can't remember if I was sewing anything at the time - perhaps a redwork quilt, as I was very into stitchery at the time. But for the 2012 London Olympics I wanted to sew something to commemorate it.

Enter Lotta Jansdotter, and her superb range "Echo" which was released last October just a few days before I turned up Purl Soho in New York and purchased multiple half yard lengths of most of the range.

This is Purl Soho.



And this is me outside Purl Soho, and I can't quite believe that someone who doesn't even pay attention to the selvedge of fabrics has just purchased a sizable amount of the ONE RANGE. This is not something I ever do, unless it's Kaffe.



Lotta (because I'm on first name terms with that part of my stash) sat around for a few months after we came home while I worked out what I wanted to do with it. The prints are quite large, so a big block was the way to go. One day I saw a photo of a quilt with gigantic hexagons and that gave me the idea of a big block hexagon and diamond quilt.



I'm using three inch papers. The grey fabric was already in my stash - I'd been busting to use it for ages but it was never suitable, but this time it is.

I started sewing on Day 1 of the Olympics, and by the end of the day I had this. I'm not a fast stitcher, but the gigantic shapes make everything so much quicker. I won't lie - it's satisfying.



And by the end of day 2 I had this.



I'm not sure how much progress I'm going to make over the next week - I'm at choir two nights and quilt group one. Then there's that pesky daytime job that gets in my way.



I love the fabric so much. Possibly more than I love Kaffe fabrics. Lotta has a new range coming out in a couple of weeks called Bella, and I will definitely be getting some of this too. Apparently Bella matches well with Echo, so I'm hoping I'll have room in this quilt to incorporate them.

Are you making anything while you're watching the Olympics coverage?