Swap catchup

I have mastered the trick of hand-sewing hexagons while lying flat on my back with my legs in the air.

So I have been getting busy as well as getting better and have caught up on some overdue swaps.

These flowers will be posted today to my April, May and June swap partners.

 Here are some lovely flowers I received from Sandy and Robynne recently. Thanks!

 And these came all the way from Marie in Denmark. Great prints!

Lots of hexie flowers done

I have caught up on my hexie flower swaps: Bek (Feb Inchy Swap), Maggie (Mar Inchy Swap), Suzzie (Feb/Mar Forum Swap) and Jeanette (Mar/Apr Forum Swap).

Coincidentally, everyone wanted either red, aqua or lime green so I opened one of my few remaining packs of pre-cut Ruby hexagons. Such a gorgeous fabric range! I should have hoarded some more.

Sorry I didn't take any photos before I sealed the envelopes.

Hexagon Flower Swap

I calculated today that I die-cut 5,032 hexagons over my four-day long weekend. Phew! No wonder I didn't feel like doing much tonight.

I made a couple of hexagon flowers for my January swap partner though. (Just squeezed in by the end of the month again.)

Two of these were received from her last week (thanks Deb, they're great!) and two will be posted tomorrow ... also to her.  I hope she likes them.

Another productive weekend

My extra-long long weekend was super-productive. I made over 200 packs for my store! Here's a preview of some new products.

First up are some Hexagon Charm Packs in plain colours. As you can see, I made this batch from red, purple, aqua and white, and some packs have just one colour, some have two or three. All have 42 large hexs per pack.

These match the large Hexagon Charm Packs already available for both machine-sewing and hand-piecing. The red/white pack goes with A Walk in the Woods, the red/aqua pack works well with both Little Apples and Ruby, and the purple/aqua pack goes with Good Fortune.

Next up we have some packs of smaller hexagons, also made from Moda's Bella Solids range. This 1&1/2" size is to match your inchy hexagons - perfect for the centres of your hexie flowers.

These Bella Solids packs contain 20 hexagons, 2 each of 10 fabrics. Choose from a Darks pack, a Warms pack, or the pretty 1930s colours. The Neutrals pack has 4 each of 5 fabrics.

The following packs made from Marbles by Moda also have 2 each of 10 fabrics. Choose from Marble Warms or Marble Brights. And last but not least, shown here are my Bella Solids Favourites, containing 1 each of 20 different fabrics.

 

Sorry about the fuzzy photos, I'll have better images and more details when I list these in my store later this week. But now, it's time for a night off. Ciao!

Inchy Hexie Flower Swap - August and September

Here's a sneak peek of the flowers I've just made for my August partner in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap.



I know, I know, I'm always late! So this time I made my September flowers at the same time.


My partners both asked for bright colourful modern flowers. (Usually I favour quieter fabrics, but as you know I fell head over heels with the Candied Hexagon quilt so I had these gorgeous fabrics on hand.)

I hope my partners like them!

Giveaway 1 - Winner 5

I wish I could call today the 32nd of July. That way I wouldn't feel so bad about being late finishing my July swaps.

One hexie flower done and another to go. I hope my partner will like these pretty little florals.


And 5 giveaway draws are done with 5 more to go.

Tonight's winner is QuiltKitty from Perth, Australia (who must be a very busy lady if her blog is anything to go by). Congratulations QuiltKitty, would you like some paper or card hexagons for your Vignette Quilt, or something else for a new project?

Back to my stitching now, and back here tomorrow night for draw 6. Bye!

Giveaway 1 - Winner 3

It's another short post tonight. I've just come home from a lovely (but long) day giving craft lessons to friends of a friend. It's the first time I've given lessons in at least 10 years.

Some people wanted to learn how to make bottle-cap necklaces, others wanted to do dog-tag pendants, and others were keen to do patchwork. We ended up doing everything! Hence, the very long day.

It was nice to be able to provide "the students" with my die-cut paper hexagons and fabric hexagons. It meant we could get straight into stitching, and everyone went home with a completed hexagon flower. A nice accomplishment for just one lesson.

Speaking of hexagon flowers, Janet from Canada (who happens to be one of my partners in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap) has won tonight's draw, and I'll be sending her 2 packs of my die-cut paper hexagons to help her flower garden frow.

Congratulations Janet!

See you all tomorrow night for the next draw. Existing entries are still in the draw, and new entries are welcome. 7 nightly draws still to go, enter at http://pbpatch.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-first-blog-day-3-its-time-for.html.

My first blog - day 2

One thing I love about the blogosphere is that you never know where it will take you. You start off at one blog, click on another then another, and before you know it you’re trying to decipher a language you can’t read because the photos are so interesting.

Now you know what I’ve been doing all day - reading the blogs of my new online friends. Thank you all for your kind welcome messages. I feel right at home already.

I better make sure I don’t neglect my existing partners in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap. Every month I have a mad dash at the end to make my flowers for my swap-mates. I was so sure I’d meet the deadline this month as I made one flower in the first week of July … but (no surprise) I haven’t made the other yet!

I love that this is an international swap. It was started by a fellow Australian, QuiltJane (also known as the Inchy Hexagon Gal), but so far I’ve received hexagon flowers from the US and Canada, the UK and Europe, Scandinavia and Iceland, oh, and Australia of course. There are lots of hex-mad people out there!

I must tell you a little about QuiltJane as her Want It, Need It, Quilt blog was the first blog I ever started reading on a regular basis. Her designs have been featured in the Moda Bake Shop, she has written tutorials for other blogs as well as her own, and I especially like that there’s so much colour and variety in her projects.

QuiltJane introduced me to fussy-cutting and my hexagons have never been the same since. I fussy-cut the blocks in the first picture below from the same piece of fabric (from Fandango by Kate Spain for Moda). Fussy-cutting really adds an extra dimension, don't you think. (Oh dear, I really need to improve my photo-taking skills though.)

The other thing I like about QuiltJane is her Want It, Need It, Quilt store. To be specific, I like the prices in her store. I haven’t found anywhere else in Australia that sells Moda charm packs and layer cakes as cheap as she does. It’s significantly cheaper, even better than buying from overseas.

Her shop has other stuff too. My latest purchase is Frosted Donut 2, 36 new colours of Masterpiece thread (100% Egyptian cotton). As soon as I saw this I snapped it up ASAP because I knew it would go quickly. And I snapped up Frosted Donut 1 as well because I missed out last time.

It will be so great to have a whole rainbow of thread (72 colours!) to choose from for my hexagons. I can't wait!