Quick Hello

Just popping in to say hello!  There has not been much sewing around here as life has been busy with stuff.  Nothing exciting.  Just that stuff that has to be done.

Last week was spent travelling for work, too, which took me away from my sewing machine.  I took my Super Tote as my carry on and it absolutely fit the bill.  I am delighted with how the Soft and Stable held it upright, making it easy to pack and find stuff.  It was still soft enough that it fit comfortably on my shoulder and against my side.  To my delight, it also fit under the air plane seat perfectly.  Happy happy happy.

Since I was travelling quite a distance, I brought with me my basted hexies to piece a bit of the tree skirt on the plane.  I did not make as much progress as I imagined I would, but still it was nice to have something to do with my hands.

I also brought with me a Craftsy class on knitting socks, my DPNs and 4 skeins of self striping wool.  I quickly learned that knitting socks was not for me, so I returned home with the same 4 skeins of wool and empty needles. Defeated.  Live and learn.

Off to sew, ladies.  There's a bit of time left in the day and everyone else in the house is asleep.  Can not wait to finish off my paper pieced quilt top!  

Hexie Tree Skirt

I do not know if I am late for 2014 or early for 2015.  Either way, I will just keep sewing.

In a delusional state in November, I decided I wanted to make a hexie tree skirt to give to my brother and sister in law for Christmas.  I was travelling over Thanksgiving, so I figured I could sew on the flight and in the car to/from Thanksgiving dinner and in no time I would have a top done and dusted.  I sketched out a plan, cut my Kona solids, printed my templates and was ready to sew.  

I basted hexies on the flight....where an air hostess asked me if I was going to color in the pieces covered in white fabric when I was done.  (What!?!?)

I set up a little station in the back seat of the family car when we were travelling....

I was happy as a clam.  While I was in Pennsylvania, I picked up a glue basting pen thinking I'd like that a bit more.  I'm absolutely not sold on it and may return to hand basting.  Still, when I pulled out the glue pen I had a little volunteer who wanted to baste with me.

Given the flight to/from the states, all of the car travel that comes along with Thanksgiving and even a few weeks in December I still had basting to do.  I was going to miss Christmas 2014.  

I have the pile of basted hexies here next to my seat on the couch, which has been working a treat.

Some nights it is nice to have something to keep your hands occupied.  So I have started stitching together strands of white and clusters of red.  

I am not going anywhere fast, but I like that this project is portable and mindless.  Let's be honest, I am in no hurry seeing as this is now a Christmas 2015 project.  I will just keep stitching.

Secret Sewing

Now, it's not often that I have a super top secret project on the go.  I am more likely to show you everything in no less than 5 photos from each and every angle.  This time, though, I will play my cards close to my chest for another few weeks and then show you all...in 5+ photos from every angle :)

I was at a music festival last weekend and needed a hand stitching project for the drive down and for lazy mornings over coffee.  I packed up my gorgeous hexie bag (made by Ali as part of the Big Stitch Swap) with pre-basted hexies and hit the road.

To see more of this amazingly beautiful bag, hop over to Ali's blog post. She has lovely photos!  I am so very lucky to have it in my home.  It sits right next to my spot on the couch filled with hand sewing needles, hexie papers and a few spools of thread.  Happy happy happy.

From Ali's blog - it pretty much holds exactly what she guessed it would!
Well done, Ali!

So, over the four day weekend I patiently pieced together hexies using Vintage Happy fabrics.  I have tried to piece hexies in the past and was not incredibly successful.  It honestly frustrated me to the point of anger, then I wondered why I am torturing myself.  However, this time around the hexies are much larger and less fiddly (easier to hold) AND I'm using coordinating thread so I am not as concerned about my novice stitches showing through.  

With my photo assistant, of course.

As I have no idea what I am doing, I pieced three long rows, then stitched them together.  I think for the rest I will instead piece small clusters and then piece together, in maybe two individual "flowers" with a connecting "apple core" of hexies in the center.  

In the end, though, piecing these hexies made me happy!  I could piece sitting in my camping chair waiting for the festival to wake up, I pieced when driving home and I had a quiet few stitches on my couch after my de-mud-ifying shower.  (Gross!)  Loved it.  

That's all you will see of this project for a while.  Check back in another few weeks for the great reveal!

Messing Around with Honeycombs

Seeing as they are new in the shop, I wanted to give the Simply Style precut Honeycomb hexies a try.  I have never made a hexagon quilt...or cushion cover...or even zippy pouch, so I was starting at the very beginning.

First, I downloaded the handy-dandy PDF piecing guide by Moda and gave it a quick read.  Steps 1 and 2 made sense to me, but I had a hard time envisioning Step 4.  Thinking that might be because Step 3 is missing in the guide and I really needed it, I had a peek at the Moda YouTube video on piecing Honeycombs.  Although they give a nice description of the piecing and show interesting variations on how you could use the precuts, they didn't actually show you how to piece the hexies.  I had to just dive in and give it a try.  I learn better by doing than reading anyway.

I unpacked my Honeycombs and brought them down to the TV with a little clipboard and my marking pen.  Included in the Honeycomb pack is a little plastic guide with six holes punched 1/4 inch from each corner.

When aligned, you can easily then mark a little dot in each corner.  I'd suggest you use a finer tip pen than I did.  My marking pen is a little fuzzy and mal-aligned now.  I should also say that the brown edge you see on the hexie is from the laser used to cut the piece.  This should either A) be lost in your seam allowance or B) wash out.  Either way, while your piecing its a blessing as it stops the edges from stretching or fraying.

Last night I got as far as piecing five basic rows of 8 hexies each.  To this point it's been incredibly easy to chain piece them together, so this took very little time.  

I'm now starting to join the rows together into a top.  This is a bit more tricky as you have more "bulk" to work with, but the concept remains the same.  Using the little premarked dots, creating the Y-seams is very easy to do on your sewing machine.

The pieces hanging out over the edge of the top will be cut off of one side and added to the other to both increase the size of the quilt and reduce the amount of waste from the precut pack.  If I stick with just the hexies, the top will be relatively small.  I am thinking of adding on a border of Simply Style to bulk it up a bit, but now I am getting ahead of myself.  For now, I am just happy that this little experiment is going swimmingly.  As I grow in confidence I can indeed see how these little Honeycomb pre-cuts can be used in all sorts of projects like here and here.  Gorgeous!

Playin' With Hexies

I've been diligently stitching little hexies this week to make a super top secret goodie for someone special.  I made 8 little monochromatic "flowers"...

that will then be stitched together into sets of 4.  I really like the design in the middle that is created.  Won't that look nice with a little solid background fabric peeking through?  I hope so, at least!

With any luck, next week you'll see a finished pretty with these hexies stitched down.  I'm a bit nervous about that part, but it's time to put on my big girl pants and give it a try!  Wish me luck :)

Sew & Bee Happy: March Block

Whew!  Just in the last second I pull through with my Sew & Bee Happy block.  This month as been so full of travel, it has been difficult for me keeping up with the 4 bees I am in.  Still, here in the last day of March, I can say I did indeed make them all during the assigned month.

March's block in Sew & Bee Happy was a log cabin-style scrappy hexagon block made with this tutorial by Lee of Freshly Pieced.  This is a great block for scraps.

It looks a little wonky here, but it's honestly not.  Or at least that wasn't my intention...

When finished this quilt will be a baby quilt, so the bright, happy colors are just perfect.

Off to start in on April's blocks!

(PS: Hadley, I know what you're thinking...here's Cindy posting on a weekend.  Not any weekend, but the last weekend with the last day of the month.  She must be boosting her Blogger stats.  Honestly, it's not true!    Just trying to get my bee blocks done as I promised in my Winter Stitching Goals! xx)

Happy Little Hexies

I am new to making hexagons, but I can already see how we will become fast friends.  I do not have a plan for these little guys.  I only started making them because it was high time that I learned how.

I have a little pouch of scraps, thread, needles and paper templates next to the couch, so when we are watching TV or I just have a quiet minute, I start stitching hexies.  It took a while to get the hang of the first two or three, but after 10 I was hooked.

These are little 1.5 inch hexies, so I can not imagine making enough for a quilt.  Maybe for a pouch or a notebook cover?  I don't know.  I am open to suggestions if you have an idea to share.  For now, I think I'll just keep adding to the collection....