Hexie Weekend is Morphing

I've had to face a sad truth that my hexies are being so ignored, one would think I have abandoned them. Not so, but they may get relegated to UFOs at the speed I'm not going. And as we're coming to the busiest time of the year, I may not even do as much blogging.  What a dilemma.  So what did I do last week?

Yesterday I handed out my leaf mug rugs to the winners of the table decorating contest at the Friends of the Library meeting.  Then I had a brainstorming session with the President of said group for our fundraising page at an upcoming online fundraiser - all that took 5 1/2 hours.

Monday thru Wednesday had the grandchildren over.  Lots of driving around, but it's fun to talk to them and interact. In between I fitted in cooking, cleaning, volunteer work, and some quilting.

My finished baby quilt:
I took a bunch of scraps left over from another baby quilt we had made at St. Anne's and put this one together.  It's made with a QAYG method where you sew the blocks back to back and the seam allowance (in this case 1") to the front.  You fold over the seams and stitch to make faux sashing.  Goes together easily.  Measures 27 x 34 - just right for newborn, use in car seat or stroller.

Today's linky party is anything you want to share from your week - quilting (of course hexies if you have them), cooking, traveling, reading, family, etc. I'm always happy to read about you.


An InLinkz Link-up

While I wait for your eye-candy or story, I'll be over at Amanda's Finish it up Friday and Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?  

Design Wall Monday

I've been playing with blocks and finished another baby quilt.  I'll show that one Friday.  Used up about a half yard in those blocks.
On the upper right of the DW are two new blocks for our Guild's BOM.  I really need to get a bigger design wall - 36 by 44 just doesn't do it.  On the bottom left are two blocks I'm trying out for a new VA quilt I want to make.  If it works out, I'll make a bigger one for QOV.  Hope to use up two big bag os scraps on that one.  Now tell me  - how do you count your yardage when you are using scraps?  Do you measure what is made and turn that into yardage?  For instance - the two VA blocks measure 12 1/2 inches square or 156 square inches.  A yard (assuming it is 36 by 42) has 1512 square inches. So that one block used up 10% of a yard - made 2 - so that's 20%, but I used a lot up in cutting mistakes, changes made to the blocks, etc - so say 40%.  Then 10 for the small ones - a half yard. Gessh - all that work and used only a half yard.  I'd like to hear how you calculate it.

I'm linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday and Lyn's BOMs Away. See you there.

A BQF Entry for Fall, 2014

Time for one of the best quilt shows around - an online show that all can visit.  I enter not in hopes of winning, but to participate and share in the experience.  Here's my entry in the small quilts category - measures 27" square for Amy's Blogger's  Quilt Festival, 2014.
I used several techniques in this quilt.  First, the hexagon flowers on green top was given to me by a friend who got it from another friend.  After languishing in my UFO pile I decided it needed to be finished.  So I machine appliqued it to the background with a straight stitch and a walking foot.  I then decided the flowers needed leaves so I raw edge appliqued the leaves onto the top.   I hadn't a clue how to approach quilting hexagons, but after reading Karen's posts on quilting hexagons at Faeries and Fibres  I jumped into quilting it.  You know that old adage:  fools rush in.....  It's not near as good as Karen, but if I don't practice, no progress will be made is my philosophy.
Here's the back before I bound it:

And a closer look at the front:



Have you entered a quilt?  Would love to see what you've done this year. Thank you Amy and Karen for enriching my quilting endeavors.

Hexie Weekend

I've just run out of energy.  Was at the library for 4 hours volunteering and am just tired.  There hasn't been any time for slow stitching on hexies, so I'm just going to share with you an email from C&T publishing - you'll understand why when you read it.  No linky this week.



Tutorial: HexEssentials with Kathy Doughty
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Kathy Doughty is sharing one of her favorite quilting methods: paper piecing with hexagons! Check out our newest video, where Kathy shows you everything you'll need to create fabric hexies, pro-tips, and how she plays up a fabric's design when using HexEssentials. Happy hexie making! 
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Applique Tuesday

I finished my six mug rugs. Again I had to take
a photo at night and I didn't compensate for the conditions, so what should be green shows as blue in this photo.  Maybe tomorrow morning I'll try to take a better photo.  However Alan is here for the day and we're going to get the car lubed.

These leaves were made using the freezer paper and starch method.  I removed the freezer paper once the starch was dry, so I didn't have to cut the background fabric away.  I used a varigated thread in fall colors to machine applique them to the background using a zig-zag stitch. Then I stitched around the shapes and stitched leaf lines up the spine and out to the areas to make them look more like leaves all with my walking foot. It was easier than I thought.  The front is 5 1/2" square and the background was is a 7 1/2" square.  I brought the background fabric to the front to make the binding.  These were quick and easy doing by assembly line.

What are you up to?  I'd love to see your eye candy.  Leave me a comment and I'll come over and see what you've been working on.

Blessings!

Design Wall/Floor Monday

Back from the retreat - what a great time we had - again!  This time we didn't have a mystery quilt, but lots of make and takes.  I chose not to do all of them and instead concentrated on working on some UFOs I brought along to finish or get further along with. The first project consisted of my leaf mug rugs - I'll show those tomorrow in Applique Tuesday.  I then did:
 This was a panel I was given at the last St. Anne's meeting.  I just needed to bind it.  Er, that's what I thought as it was pre-quilted. But!  The panel sides had to be evened up.  You can see how that went. I'm sure baby won't mind.  Then I had to make the binding from assorted reds. Had just enough. Used a new method to attach the binding using an s-curve stitch.  It went great.  I'll demo that in another post. Then after a good look at the quilting, discovered that it's coming undone at two ends so that needed to be fixed, too.
 Next UFO was an 8 year old one for which my niece chose the fabric, laid out the order of the blocks, then left for me to put together.  Well, it is now done.  I call it Medallion Cherries.
 I then tackled the hardest - yes, the hardest UFO.  This was a bag of blocks, fabric and batting and backing squares from an estate sale.  The project dates from the 50s. At least that's what I think because of all the polyester and cotton fabrics and the prints. The quilter had made 6 blocks plus the makings for 4 more plus a ton of cut strips for many more.  I measured and they ranged from 14.5 to 13".  Of course I cut them down to 13.  She had made the blocks for a QAYG quilt.  This would usually be easy peasy for me, BUT she use a very high loft polyester batting - typical of the 50s.  After making 3 more blocks, I started to put them together.   Ugh, first  attempt using the no front sashing method did not work. The seam was a mess because of the batting and trying to sew through so many layers.  After some thought, I decided to use the sashing on both sides method and baste the individual parts together - ie sashing strip and left block, then sashing back strip and next block.  Then I sewed the blocks together with a larger stitch - 3 instead of my normal 2.2   You can see the first row at the top of the photo.  Will be 39" square when done.
 I did make this Make and Take.  Just couldn't resist.  Went together so neatly and I love my little box.  This starts as two 8 1/2" squares of fabric.  The ladies were told to use 10" squares, but I only had enough to make the smaller one.
As I make the other Make and Takes I'll share them with you.  Even though this was only my second one, my conclusion:  I love going on retreats!

I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away as I did deal with blocks.
Blessings as you start this new week.

Hexie Weekend

The kids are here for an overnight. I'll be taking them to school next AM. So I'm posting early as I'm going to a quilt retreat at 10AM tomorrow. Here's an awesome quilt I found while surfing the Net.
Photo by ACC Fibers Dept
Click on the caption to read all about it.

And here is another way to put those hexagons together.  Go Here. All new to me.

What are you working on?  I'd love to see your eye candy, hexie or otherwise - new post or old.  Linky button below. Ends Monday, midnight.

I'm linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it up Fridays and Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop? because I did finish two charity tops.  The focus fabric was given to me in pieces and this is what I came up with.  I call these finishes even though they are only flimsies because different members of the St. Anne's Sewdality group will finish them as they pray while they work on them. My part is done.

Off to find some projects to work on at the retreat. Bye for now!


Applique Tuesday

A little bit of applique to show this time.  Not the projects I hope to get back to, but made by me with the freezer paper and starch method.
One done - 5 more to go.  These will be prizes for our Friends of the Library meeting at the end of the month. I found the template at Craftsy free from Buttons and Butterflies.  It's really for potholders, but I'm making 5" mug rugs by reducing the template size to 8o%. Check it out!

What are you doing?  Would love to come and see your eye candy.  Leave me a comment and I'll come on by.

Off to wake up Alan from his nap.

This N That

Was so tired yesterday after the marathon day from 6:30 - 3PM yard sale/booksale (2 different events) plus dropping off some e-waste. So came home, ate lunch, and went to bed for an hour nap.
Today I'm still a little punchy. But on to other things.

Destashing:  Recieved the kit I bought from Hancock's, but since that's for a specific quilt I'm not counting it as stash.  So nothing in.  Quite a bit of sewing done in the last week, but most was with St. Anne's fabric. I did manage to finally paper piece the three blocks I was behind on for the Block Lotto sampler. That used 1/4th of a yard because there is so much waste (at least for me) with paper piecing.  I'll talk more about them on Friday. So my numbers almost stay the same and  I will be changing the total on the sidebar.

New on my Design Wall are two blocks for the next charity quilt I'm making:

I'm calling these blocks bordered log cabins. We have so many scraps from making St. Anne's quilts that I brought some home to make a quilt with them.  I'm going to make them as a leader and enders quilt a la Bonnie Hunter.  I'll be constructing two blocks at a time to always have something to end with on my machine and not have thread tails to cut off, and therefore save thread.  These blocks finish as 9 1/2" unfinished blocks using 2 1/2" strips and 1"strips for the borders.  These two are similar. However I've run out of the yellow and the solid blue, so the others will be different.

I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away.  Lots of eye candy there. Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see yours.

Blessings as we start this new week.

Busy this Hexie Weekend

Super busy this hexie weekend with a yard sale and a booksale, so Billie at Billiebee's is handling the linky.  Thank you, Billie for agreeing to gather eye candy for us.  We love eye candy of any kind.

I did finish a quilt this week.  Go here to see it.  Also I was sorting and found this flimsie again.
I've finally decided to deconstruct these hexie blocks and machine applique them onto a new background.  The muslin is the weakest part of this top and hope to salvage the top that way.  I may put the little green diamonds also.  What would you do?

A friend asked how I use freezer paper to quilt around a motif.  Here are a few photos to illustrate what I do:
First I trace the pattern onto a piece of freezer paper.  I then cut between the feathers of the circle almost to the center circle.
Once I have cut it all out, I iron the shiny side to the top of my quilt where I am going to place that element.
Then I machine quilt the motif by starting at the circle, traveling up a feather and then down the spine of the next feather to the circle again. Repeat all the way around.  Since I have already cut the paper for the feathers, it's easy peasy removing the paper.
And here's what it looks like once it's done.
Go on over to Billie's  and share a link.  I'll pick one of those who link to get 100 one inch hexagon templates to try your hand at hexies.  Wish me luck in the next two days.

I'm linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it Friday and Sarah's Can I have a Whoop, Whoop?  Do stop by.

Applique Tuesday

Again, no applique progress on my projects, but finding applique everywhere.  Here is some I found on a panel gifted to St. Anne's:
Cutest little panel in flannel.  I made it using the envelope method of putting the three layers together.
I just outlined the larger elements in this as the quilting for this batting can be 10" apart.  I used Superior Bottom Line in Silver for the bobbin work and you can hardly see it on the back:
The color is off because it was the only way some of the quilting would show up in the photo.
I'll be turning it in at Thursday's St. Anne's meeting.

What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come over to see your eye candy.  Are you staying up for the solar eclipse?  I'm off to bed after I link this post to Esther's WOW, Connie's Linky Tuesday, and publish.

Some of This, Some of That

The destashing:  Used a fat 16th's worth of scrap pieces for a Block Lotto block; a FQ for a 12" scrap block. And 1/2 yard for the four blocks I talk about below. I donated a yard to the Thrifty Corner and used a yard to back my latest charity quilt.  Numbers on the right sidebar.

Coming off my design wall is my block lotto block and four log cabinish blocks for a special project.
The Block Lotto block - woven bars

Made 4 of these. Why is the ruler on them?  I wanted to share with you how I try to do all my swap blocks.  These were to be 12" finished blocks.  What with cutting, piecing and pressing, they don't always come out the size I started to make them.  Usually if they are up to a 1/4" off I can join them to be correct.  But for swap blocks I want them to be the size they are suppose to be so the recipient won't go crazy dealing with all these blocks that are a tad off.  So if I can,  I add a 1/4" to the last piece that makes up the block.

For instance this sorta log cabin has strips 3" wide with the outer border 1 1/2" to make a 12 1/2" unfinished block.  So I made the last strips 1 3/4" wide by the required lengths.  Then I assemble my block and give it a good pressing.  I then lay each block on the cutting mat and center my 12 1/2" ruler on top so that the diagonal marks on the ruler go through the opposite corners of the block and the extra outer border is the same all around (or close to).  I then trim the block on the right and top sides, turn the block 180 degrees and center my ruler again to be right on the edge on the left and bottom sides.  Now I trim the last two sides. Result:  an exact 12 1/2" unfinished block to send off for the swap.

I'm linking to Judy's Stash Report and Design Wall Monday.  Also Lyn's BOMs Away. Blessings.
Make time to do a little sewing.  It's therapeutic and soothing.

Hexie Weekend in the Afternoon

Grandson here and worked on commission quilt- enough said.  So how about what my hexies look like so far.
I've only gotten nine done!  Geesh - must pick up the pace.  Need 27 more.

I spent most my time since Tuesday with the commission quilt.
Four rows done - three to go.  Wish now I had used a more tan background for the blocks with symbols, but I'm not doing it over.  What do you think?

And also, what are you up to?  I'm going to a Greek Festival in a few minutes and know I'll have fun. I had such a good time when I was in Greece. The food was divine, the people so friendly. Would love to see what you will work on this weekend.  Linky below.

I'm linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday as I finished some more rows, and with Sarah at Can I have a Whoop, Whoop?  Have a great weekend!


SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...