A Hexie Star Quilt . . .

A few weeks ago, my pal Victoria Findlay Wolfe,

gave me her new templates to play around with.

Last week I pulled them out and starting cutting!

I had some Jennifer Paganelli fabric I was hording,

and I thought this would be the perfect way to show case her fabrics.

A great combo right?  Victoria and Jennifer!

I started kinda fussing cutting the Hexie's and Triangles

so the fabric pattern would look like one big start.

I used the same green fabric to set the stars.

Really makes them pop right?

I was getting so impatient because

 I didn't have much time this week to play.

Hehe, I came home for lunch everyday and tried to cut some more.

The templates are very easy to use!

My day job just gets in the way of all my fun.

Finally last night, I had the whole thing cut and up on the wall.

Yahoo!

 

This morning I decided I needed to make hay 

and get this baby all pieced together. 

My design wall is in my kitchen, and my sewing machine 

is in the living room.  Not a far distance, but I had no time for 

all the up and down and back and forth!

So I set up my little Bernina on the kitchen counter

and put my ironing board right next to it.

Hehe.

I must say sewing standing up was fun,

kept me on task too.  I get distracted so easily.

 

Now here is the GREAT thing about these templates

and the layout I chose . . . . 

It sews together in a flash and very quickly!

Sew the diamonds first.

Then sew the diamonds into rows.

 

I pinned at the intersections and got perfect points!

The templates have notched tips

 and it makes the piecing together a dream.

Here I am multi-tasking!

I'm piecing on my sewing machine.

The dishwasher is humming away.

And I'm getting a steamy facial as I stand over it sewing.

Haha.

Here are my rows coming  together.

I used the triangle template to make some diamonds

to fill in on the sides.

 TADA!  Four hours of stand up piecing (with breaks of course)

And I have a beautiful quilt top!

I really love those sides and am going to do tricky binding

on those edges.

Here are the templates.  A 10" hexie with a triangle that fits.

You can order them right here.

Thank Victoria!!

Now I have about 8 more ideas for quilts using these.

Hehehe  #youaretheculprit

A Quilty Weekend . . . .

Even though the temperatures here have been mighty chilly,

I ventured into the city both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend.

First up, Our Metro Mod Guild Meeting.

Always tons of fun to see all my quilting buddies!

Three of our group quilts were on display.

So great to see them up close again.

This quilt was based on Stripes.

This quilt is our Cheddar quilt.

(Sorry the colors are so wacky in my photos)

This was our first group quilt,

Everyone brought a strip and we pieced them together.

Looks like the Princess and the Pea bed!

We also had our Kandinsky challenge up,

Just a couple more blocks to add.

For this challenge, Michelle cut up a color copy of the painting,

and each participant took a part and interpreted it in their own style.

It really looks remarkable in person.

Can't wait to see it all finished.

This is one of my faves from the show and tell.

Really cool.

You will be able to see all the show and tell 

on the Mod Blog in a few days.

As I was walking back to the train Saturday,

I saw this bar decorated for Mardi Gras.

Is it that time of year already??

Then onto Sunday's adventures.

David, Earamichia and I met to discuss ideas for

a challenge quilt we are collarborating on.

Many ideas flying and giggles thrown around 

and I think we have a great idea.  No pictures of any of that until June!

But . . . as we were lying around the floor contemplating, 

Earamicha jumped up and said,

"Okay we are going to make quick improve blocks showing who we are.

We will just cut and glue and see where this goes."

In about two minutes she set up a table and chairs,

whipped out a box a great fabric and three pairs of scissors.

It was tremendous fun!

Everyone got pretty quiet really fast.

Below is David's.

This one is Earamichia's.

And of course, you would know this is mine! 

Hehe.

So not a lot of "sewing" going on this weekend.

I did work on my hexies a bit.  

I really need to finish this one, it's getting too big to call

"my take with me" project.

As I walked back to the train on 125th street,

I spied this fabulous mosaic.

You know I can't pass up drinking in all that color!

Did you do something fun this weekend?

I hope so!

Three Days at the Cape

My dear friend Anne invited me to the Cape for a few days.

To relax, rest and replenish.

I must say they were the best days I've had in a while.

We sat in her garden.

We walked on the beach every day.

Collecting treasures from the sea.

We walked in the evening . . .

This is the path from her house to the beach.

These seagulls were not happy we were walking by the

rather large fish they were eating.

Don't you just love this green?

It was soft and rubbery too.  Pretty cool.

 This photo is for my BIL Jamie.

He teases my sister and I about what we collect on the beach.

This is a very light load for me after four beautiful walks on the beach.

The shells with the purple are wampum.

Anne says they are very good luck.  The darker the purple the better.

So I have wampum, sea glass, some rocks,

shells and two tiny horseshoe crabs.

Here we are at Captain Kidd's in Woods Hole

having fish and chips.

There is always sewing wherever I go.

I brought my hexies to work on.

Sitting under an umbrella of course!

We has so much fun watching all the wild life in the backyard.

This bird bath was very active all day long.

We were visited by many bunnies and chipmunks too.

It was delightful to sit quietly and see how close they would

venture up to us.

My hexies needed a spin on the clothes line after the

water feature shot.  Haha.

Drying out on the wall further.

This is just a small piece.  I have to drag out the larger piece

and see how I will put them together.

Of course it wouldn't be a beach post 

without the sunset picture!

A wonderful few days to be sure!

What to you do to recharge your batteries?

Mojo Monday

Well, and Sunday too . . .

Did you have a nice holiday weekend?

I had a nice quiet weekend filled with friends and sewing.

I made another of Victoria's stars . . .

inspired by her Color Challenge at 15 mins play.

Victoria challenged us to use mauve, and while I'm not a total fan of mauve,

I have warmed up to the color.

The block on the right is my challenge block.

Once a week for twelve weeks, Victoria will post another color

for us to play with and explore.

I also did some more of these little filler blocks for my flying geese quilt.

Theses guys are only 4.5" so they use up lots of scraps,

not that you would notice, my scrap bin is overflowing again!

The hexies got a re-load too.

I think as I cut new fabric, I'll just snatch a piece for a hexie.

This is supposed to be a charm quilt, but I may break down 

and repeat of few of these fabrics.

And lastly, my friend Sally is quite the artist!

She is making paper these days and wanted some tiny pieces

to put in her mix.

I scrounged through the waste basket, and I also took some

scraps and chopped them up with my rotary cutter.

That provided some mindless therapy!

Can't wait to see what she makes with all of this.

So my Mojo is coming back slowly.

How's your Mojo these days?? hehehe

Back Again!

I was away from home again last week, so that

meant being away from my sewing machine :(

Luckily I thought to bring along my hexies.

They have grown a lot in a week! 

I actually ran out of hexies patches to sew together,

so now I am back digging through my scraps

to make more.

Can I just say I love my scrap bin?

It gets bigger and bigger,

and it is like a treasure hunt when I dive in there.

Before I left the penthouse last week,

I did try one of Victoria's stars.

I loved making this one.

It does take a little bit of time tracing the pattern onto tracing paper,

but it is totally worth it.  I have already gotten the next ready to go,

now to pick the fabric!

I also got this lovely little package of fabric this week

from a good friend of mine.

She just knew I would be gaga for this lovely set of Kaffe!

I see a blue and white quilt in my future!

Or maybe blue and yellow?

Or maybe blue and magenta?

Or maybe blue and everything!

Can't wait to cut into these babies and see the fabric start flying.

So thoughtful of my friend to inspire me!

It's good to be home and near my sewing machine again,

sleeping in my own bed . . . .

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful spring day!

I think my hexies are calling me . . . 

Bits and Pieces . . .

Did you miss me?

Not a lot of sewing going on here these days.

I've been dealing with the subtle and not so subtle

curve balls life throws at you.

Getting back on track now,

and hoping my little sweat shop will start turning out

pretty things again soon.

In the meantime, I have been making these cute little caps.

I whipped up the pattern with a plate 

and measuring the circumference of my head.

Thankfully it was easier than I thought!

 Next up I made a couple of BOM blocks for Jan-Maree's

Aussie Hero Quilts.  She is collecting March now if you would like to

contribute.  Click here for instructions.

 I have also been making good progress on my hexies!

So fun!  I like hand sewing more than I thought.  Haha!

 And lastly a bee block for Carole.  This is part of our Metro Mod Bee,

and Carole asked for wonky stars; she sent the white background.

I can't wait to see how she puts this one together!

So that's what I've been up to.

Think I'll drag out my flying geese tomorrow and work on that for a bit.

Have a great weekend and don't drink too much green beer!

hehehehehehe