March Recap

Two posts in two days may sound a little too crazy, but here goes nothin'...

In March:

I KNIT A SWEATER!  I don't mean to holler but I LOVE it.  I really really really do.  It isn't finished in this picture but you have to believe me that it is done, ends weaved in, blocked, and I wear it in all of its squishy, yummy, colorful glory.  I have a big crush...on my own sweater.  (Now I just need to gather the courage to take a picture of me wearing it.)  The pattern is Practically and is available on ravelry. 




I finished my last bee block for the Ringo Pie Bee and this one was for Penny (sewtakeahike) who was the one that taught me how to design my own bee blocks in the first place.   No pressure or anything.  I am very happy with how this one turned out.  I used a crapton of different techniques on it.  That seems to be my thing.  My little odd person niche in the world is to use a crazy number of techniques in order to realize the vision of the block in my head.  And that works for me.




We've been working a lot in our new community garden plot on warm days

and then we get a few more snow days.




I'm trying out sewing hexies by machine.  There is a big plan in the works for this piece!




And I've had a few secret gift projects up my sleeve this month.  My first gift reveal gets it own post...very, very soon. 

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?

Inspiration

As you know from my last post, my Hexie quilt is in Blogger's Quilt Festival  (in the Wall Hanging category).  

But I'm also delighted that two(!!) of my other blocks ended up in some really, really amazing group quilts quilts in the Festival.

I was asked to add a block to the Baby Pink Penguin Quilt organized, sashed and quilted by Krista of Poppyprint.  Most participants made two blocks, but I just made one since the blocks were due during my move.  The finished quilt is here (Ayumi's photo).  And Krista's Festival post is here.

And my potter's studio block was part of Amy's (of During Quiet Time) fabulous, fantastic Artist Studio quilt.  Amy's Festival post is here (seriously, my favorite quilt of the year by far--go click NOW!)

I'm so proud to be a part of both of these amazing finished quilts. In recent days I've been saddened by some of the, in my opinion, hideous changes to flickr. But these finished group quilts help me to remember why the flickr community has been so great.  The inspiration that I get from working with uber talented people and building off of their ideas is invaluable.

So, with that said, if you haven't had inspiration overload already, go check out more of the entries in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

I'm off to do some quilting, quilt back sewing and more basting.  I'm working on three quilts right now and I just finished my first sewn shirt for me!  When I get a minute to take some pictures, I swear that there will be a lot of posts happening here.

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.

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.

Stop the presses!

Whoa!  Can it be the first of the month and I haven't missed it?!  Shocking.  For those that don't know, the 1st of every month is Fresh Sewing Day over at Lily's Quilts.  And I have quite a bit of September sewing to display.

There are so many favorites in there.  Even the batik quilt, which was sorely neglected for 4 years is now on my list of favorites because my mom will love it and I'm so happy to get it out of my sewing space.  I'd like to get back to the Farmer's Wife project in October, but the siren song of the hexies is still calling me.  We'll see.  And we'll see when I next remember to participate in Fresh Sewing Day.  Now click on over and check out all of the other yummy sewing that has been done in September!

If you are up for a little more trivia about me, check out my 50 Questions photo over on flickr today. I was tagged by a friend to answer the questions and then tagged another batch of friends. 

Color studies

First off, I want to say thank you for the extra patience that was sent this way the past few days.  Ben gets home tomorrow night.  I think there are 30-ish hours left.

I still don't have a lot to say, but I've been stitching one inch hexies to keep my sanity.  I thought I'd share some color shots with you.

Orange

Pinky-purple

Red

Gotta run. I think there is a dinosaur roaring in the next room, but I'll be stitching again after his bedtime.

Trying my best to finish some UFO's

I've been working for hours every single day this week to finish some old UnFinshed Objects. 

I finally have some ideas for how to finish the edges on my 1" hexies quilt.

I'm excited to pass this on to one special girl with the biggest smile in the universe.

And my mom saw this on her last visit and now the batiks will have a home instead of gathering dust in the back of my craft closet. 

I'm so excited to finish all three of these that I'm flitting from one to the other very happily.  My house is a disaster with piles of supplies for three projects spread out everywhere, but I'm a happy, happy crafter.

Hexie-aholic

My name is Melinda, and I might have a problem...

...but gosh they are pretty.  I'm getting really excited about the back of my Farmer's Wife quilt.