Patchwork Death Star Pattern

I was hoping to post this a couple of days ago, but it turns out that I'm not very tech savvy.  Thank goodness I finally pulled it together.  Here is the link for the pdf file for the free pattern and some instructions.

I have a couple of pictures that I took along the way that I'll post here.  If you do make a patchwork Death Star please please please post a link for me to see.  If you are on IG, please tag it #patchworkdeathstar.  Thanks!  I can't wait to see different versions.  I originally dreamed of this all in tiny Libery florals.  Wouldn't that be cool?

Well anyway, here is a shot of a few of my pieces after glue basting.



And here is a picture of the top half pieced and sitting on top of my first drawing of it. 


The final pattern will make an 11x12" block.  The perimeter fabric can easily be made larger by extending the paper pattern.  The Death Star itself could be made bigger by bringing the pdf printouts to a copy store and enlarging them.

May the force be with you. 

Speaking of Samplers

I've been hand quilting my Farmer's Wife blocks this month. 

I'm varying the color of the perle cotton (size 8) and varying the width of the seam allowance to match the fabric patterns and block design.  It is s-l-o-w going, but it is so beautiful, and cozy, that I think I may work on it for a few more weeks before I need a break from it.

Have you ever done hand quilting before? What is the biggest quilt you've ever hand quilted? Do you feel comfortable with your technique?

The State of the Hexies

I worked on my blue hexies while on vacation. 

And then I ran across this picture from two years ago and I thought it might be useful to see an update of all of my colors of hexies.

My red, pink, purple, orange and yellow hexies went into the hexie quilt. But the cool and neutral ones are still in progress.

 

Hand stitching can be too slow for blogging sometimes, but doing an update every year or two makes it look like I'm getting somewhere.

Do you have any hand stitching projects that you've been plugging away at for a year or more?  Do you have a harder time sharing them on your blog because they are so slow moving?

Nearly wordless

I love this bag, but I have to run out to the car to leave town on vacation.  It is by Sew Demented and it is the Sew Together bag pattern on etsy Craftsy. (Sorry about the mistake. I wrote this post on less than four hours sleep.)

It is packed to the brim with hand sewing projects for the week!

Blogger's Quilt Festival--Spring 2013

If you are new to my little corner of the blog universe, welcome.  I'm thrilled to share one of very favorite quilts with the Blogger's Quilt Festival--Warm

This quilt measures roughly 32 x 28 inches, and is made of 258 different 1" hexies of my favorite  stash fabrics.  It is hand basted, hand pieced, hand quilted, and hand bound with an extra 76 hexies, just to finish the uneven edge.  I used a unique method from Amy of badskirt. 

 

This quilt was a labor of so much fabric and stitchy love that I'm so so proud to have it hanging on my wall in my sewing room.

Now go check out some of the other amazing submissions to the festival!

I submitted my quilt in the Wall hanging Quilts Category.

Flitting like a butterfly

Henry has recently fallen in love with The Very Hungry Caterpillar all over again.  And now we play "cocoon" twenty times a day.  I ask him to "lay down like a caterpillar" on the couch, cover him completely in a quilt and then flip the quilt back as we declare the he is a "beautiful butterfly!!"  We are still working on the graceful sweep of the arms to mimic wings flapping.  I think (at nearly four years old) that this is his first pretend play and I am so proud.

Anyway, I was thinking about that as I flitted between sewing projects today.  I was trying to decide what I should work on next.  I could continue my progress on my rose star blocks.

Or I could finish Charise's Paris-themed bee block for the Ringo Pie Bee (those darned y-seams have me procrastinating).

Or I could decide what solid to use to put a border on this long-overdue quilt top.  (You'd think I could be bothered to iron this quilt top before taking a picture and sharing it here, but no.) 

Or I could work on piecing some blocks for my husband's quilt.  (It sure was fun to come up with the new fabric combinations.)

Well, this butterfly will settle on something soon. Maybe some more hand piecing tonight and continue to procrastinate on the bee block? Hmmm...

 How do you decide what to work on next?

Catching up to the curve

I was sick most of last week and then I was just behind the curve of life for a few days after that.  But I'm finally feeling better and ready to share a few photos here.

This is a block I made over a week ago for Cynthia in the Pastiche Bee.  She asked for old school graphic design art supplies.  I fear there isn't enough contrast between the prints for the background and the arms of the compass, but I think some targeted quilting could take care of that.  

I made this Farmer's Wife block over a week ago, too.  It is a remake of this block.  Just four more blocks to go!

I've been working on the quilting for my Mommy Neighborhood quilt for a few weeks now.  It will take a l-o-n-g time to put all of the quilting in that I want.

And, lastly, when I was feeling too crummy to sit at the machine or to wrestle with perle cotton, I've been working on expanding my green hexies.  I cut out another 100 hexies for this project.  I think I may have too many green fabrics....

So what's new with you? It has been too long since we chatted.  :)

Yes, I am crazy.

 After I finished my hexie quilt, I thought it would be a cold day in heck before I'd pick some up again.  But they are so comforting on a smaller scale.  And I have so many of them ready in cool colors and in neutrals.  I'd hate for them to feel lonely in their bin in my craft room....

I have been busy with some bee blocks, too.

I have a few other bee blocks in the works, too.  But those cute green hexies keep distracting me.

Done!

Thank you to all that supported and encouraged me along the way with this labor of love.  There are 258 one inch hexies in this quilt top--hand stitched, hand quilted, hand bound and loved, loved, loved.  This quilt measures roughly 32" wide and 28" high.  And it is going on the wall in my sewing room right above my cutting and project table.  I already have some hexie sections in greens, blues and neutrals, but those will have to wait for quite awhile, I'm afraid.  I have a few other projects to work on in the months ahead. 


As a special bonus for your patience with posting the finished quilt photos, I thought I'd show you all this lion on my patio.  I have two of these guys out there.  They crack me up every single time I go outside.  If we bought this house, I might feel differently about them.  But, since we are renting, I think I adore them.  And I think they need names.  And maybe scarves, or hats...or Halloween costumes.  Suggestions welcome.

Hexie Quilt Process

If you never ever ever want to make a hexie quilt with uneven edges, please pardon this photo heavy post.  I took pictures of each step for those that might be curious.  I used the tutorial by Amy badskirt.  I am so grateful that Amy blogged about the steps she took and that one of my dear quilting friends (I can't remember which one. Please let me know if it was you.) pointed me to the tutorial.  I love the shape of this quilt exactly as is and I really, really didn't want to make it into a rectangle.

So, instead, I tortured myself with sewing more hexies.

Here is the top, sandwiched, quilted and the batting trimmed.

Then I made another 76 hexies for the border on the back.

I whipstiched them together to mirror the edge of my quilt...

...and then whipstitched the edge hexies to the quilt top hexies all around the border.

The next step is important: I heavily starched and ironed all of the border hexies.  And then I took out the threads and papers and flipped the border over to the back. 

I carefully poked out all of corners and ironed it again and then pinned the edge hexies to the back of the quilt.

And, lastly I stitched the other edge of the hexies down. 

Here is a sneak peek at the front of the quilt with the uneven edge.  The quilt is drying now (after I washed all of that starch out).  I'll put a finished photo up soon.

Hand stitching away...

I feel very close to finishing this hexie wall quilt.  English paper piecing, thread basted, hand quilted and now hand stitching a row of orange hexies as an edge treatment before I flip them to the back of the quilt.  I'm watching seasons one and two of Downton Abbey again to keep my stitching time pleasant. 

Are you stitching anything by hand these days?  I'd love to hear about it.

Our House

We are (somewhat) settled into our new home in Maryland.  We are renting a lovely place on a culdesac with a playground next door.  The neighborhood seems very friendly.  Henry will start school after the new year and we are looking forward to seeing what the programs here can offer him.  We finally got our moving truck three days ago and we just got internet yesterday.

We put our Wisconsin house on the market the same week we moved out.  In fact, we didn’t allow it to be shown until the day after we left.  As we drove through Pennsylvania, we got a call from our realtor that the very first person that saw the house put an offer on it.  The past three weeks have been busy with negotiating and banking and paperwork, but we just closed on that house yesterday.

I have a special relationship with our house after all of the renovation I did on it.  A few of the posts about home renovation are here, here and here.  I loved our yard and garden, too, (with posts here, here and here).  I didn’t blog about the weeks of work I put in at the end.  Things just got too busy.  Anyway, I’m glad our house will have another family to love it now. 

I made this ornament of our Wisconsin home.  I think it still needs a little more embroidery before it goes on the tree, but I'm a little too schmoopy to work on it now. 

I feel grateful for the six plus years we had in our Wisconsin home and I look forward to the good things to come here.
Wishing you all a cozy place to celebrate the holidays with loved ones.