Up to my old tricks...

I finished putting these four card trick blocks together at guild last night!!

The needle busted through my callous mid-way through the meeting and almost said a naughty word but I was able to hold my tongue. Now if only I could find my itsy bitsy teeny weeny sheet of stick on thimble pads. Couldn't they make the sheet a little bit bigger than 1x2"? If I can't find it by this weekend (I've been kind of looking for it for 2+ months) I just might have to hit up one of the not-so-LQSs to buy another sheet. Maybe I'll attach it to a large sheet of paper!

Can you see that the purple parts form an X and
the teal parts form an O?

My original plan had been to have a purple O and a teal X but when I put it on the design wall it just felt more balanced this way. I should have taken photos of the 2 options but I didn't think of it until now...

Several people at guild were interested in the back side. 

Next up? I need to decide on borders...my arch nemesis...

Design Wall Monday - 4/11/16

Salt & Pepper blocks completed in MD

I'm baaaaaacccckkkkk!

Twisted hexie blocks and extra black centers completed in MD

Didja miss me?

"house" blocks completed in MD for hexie club birthday swap

As you may recall, I disappeared from the blog for a week of laziness after a long Easter weekend to visit my uncle in Baltimore and then for a 2nd week after being sick. I may have disappeared from the blog but I was still working on projects in the background.

pieced hexie blocks for Mickey Depre's 2016-17 sampler.
These were machine sewn before the trip. During the trip I trimmed seam allowances and basted them.

I suppose your first question is what happened to my March quilt lab clean up project. Since I was out of town, sick and I'm now getting ready to go out of town not just once but three times, it's been placed on hold or maybe delayed is a better word.

I've been trying to catch up on my i-spy blocks since vacation.
This pile of 30 blocks has the wonky black-on-black borders attached.
They were later trimmed down to 6.75" square - a boring job if ever there was one :(

 Let's just say that I'm still working on cleaning the lab but it's taking longer than expected since life has gotten in the way. I'm not surprised. Are you? I highly doubt that it will be finished in the next month or 2 due to a big project so lets just call it a longer term (summer?) project.

more twisted and pieced blocks completed at home

I expect there will be hexie finishes in the next month and there are also new projects so there will be plenty to entertain you in my ongoing hexie UFO saga....

All but 4 of the I-spy blocks are completed. I've got them layed out sorted by left
 /right angles and by which BOB fabric so I can keep it balanced.
I know - it's a little OCD.
I'll be at several quilt stores this weekend to look for more hexie fabrics and then
I'll start to sew them together. I have 90 hexie fabrics as of today!!!
Some are the same pattern but in different colors - there are prob 80 different patterns.

Back to the Design Wall...

I sell name badge holders at one of my conferences -- this is batch #1.
This is a new (requested!) pattern since the girls wanted zippered compartments.
I hope they like them...

We traveled to Baltimore, Maryland for a long Easter weekend and then stopped in Intercourse, PA on the way home. That meant that I had 10 hours travel time for stitching as well as tv time at my uncle's house. I was quite productive, if I say so myself. Of course, I still packed 3 times too much (this is what happens when the supplies take up so little space) but it was nice to switch projects now and then.

I've started to make some of the blue pieced hexies for Mickey's pieced sampler

Since returning home, I've finished some of the projects started on the road trip and worked on others as well. I have not one but 2 conferences this weekend so there will be plenty of stitching time - I just need to pack enough to keep my fingers busy which helps me concentrate in the classes better.

I finished the left card trick block and made a second.
I will make at least 2 more and then assess what to add for the proper doll quilt size.

I had originally intended to lay them out with the teal always in the upper left but I layed one of them
 down backwards and I'm kinda liking what will become a teal 'X' and a purple 'O''. 

Design Wall Monday - 3/21/16

Ohhhh it was such a good weekend - blue skies, sunshine, good food and lotsa time in my quilt lab!!!! I actually sat on the living room floor on Saturday just so I could sit in the sun.

My first chore for the weekend was packing my little blue suitcase with hexie projects for an upcoming trip. Yeah, it's early to pack but I see it as setting my honey-do or priority list until repacking for the next trip in mid-April. Any way...the suitcase worked cuz I was pretty productive.

Second chore was cleaning up a bookcase - tune in tomorrow for those pictures.

Having done my "chores", it was time to play so I alternated back and forth between hexies and machine work.

I like the sparkle the teal flange adds

One of my easiest finishes was the binding on this doll quilt. It was already sewn onto the front of the quilt, I just had to machine sew it to the back with my flat fell foot. Easy peasy.

I think the Quality Control Officer was pleased.

Not the world's best photo but I really liked the texture as I was turning off the room lights.

I also worked on a section of the quilting on this (unnamed) doll quilt. I had quilted orange peels in the hexie off-center strip but wasn't sure about the other strips. After some encouragement from Janet I went ahead with my idea for a grid (matching the hexie edges/angles) on the larger strip. The remaining smaller strip (at bottom of photo) will have feathers.

I'm not the only one taking advantage of the table!

I also got a real good start on name badge holders for my upcoming conference. I took advantage of the 8 foot table still up from the party last week and spread out each "kit" so I work on it assembly style.

The colored squares were purchased at a quilt show. The vendor sold hand dyes and had a cute little box of 6 gradients of each of her colors. They were 2" squares and perfect for 3/4" hexies. Unfortunately, the burnt orange set to the left is short one piece - I am hoping to find a suitable replacement so I can include that rosette too.

On Saturday afternoon I peaked into my little blue suitcase for a project to work on while I watched one episode of Grey's Anatomy. I decided to work on the ombre rosettes since I thought it would be easy to finish one rosette.

Of course, as the weekend progressed, I kept going back to the ombre project.
After all, there were only 6 rosettes left to finish...

You know that I finished all the rosettes by last night, right? There is one more at work that I will take home to finish tonight and then I'll find a piece to sub in the burnt orange gradient. I think that will make 21 rosettes.

Am I crazy enough to cut fabric for the diamonds before my trip?

I've even worked out a setting. I'll be using these 3/4" diamonds. Please know that *IF* I ever post a picture of myself I will be bald from making tiny diamonds...

And after the rosettes were done? I pulled out my card trick blocks and got a good start on this too.

Yeah - I might have to repack the suitcase before my trip...and I'm ok with that...

Quilt Lab clean up post #4

Project background: I'm spending the month of March cleaning up my quilt lab and blogging about all my hexie UFOs along the way...

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And we continue today with the curio cabinet - storage central for most of my hexie UFOs.

First thing I did this morning was put those ferris wheel fabrics into the put-away pile. Having freed up a large box I moved the tree skirt project from 2 small boxes into the empty box which then gave me 2 small boxes for some of the projects I found today.

I bought a new big box for the top of the curio and moved the bits of my The New Hexagon Millifiori into it - emptying a basket from the cutting table. I've got the monthly papers in here as well as some fabrics I mean to use for a couple of the monthly blocks. I also need to print out all the monthly directions since I don't know how long Katja will leave them on her website.

 This is a new project - I'm calling it Pyramids since it reminds me of my 1,000 pyramids machine sewn quilt. I've cut out some fabric squares to take to conference and made 2 demo triangles to make sure it will work. The papers in the layout  represent the neutral fabrics that will alternate with the colors. Baggie on the right is punched 1/2" hexies from the magazine subscription inserts (I think I showed that pile of inserts back on post #1).

This is Opposites - another new project in dark purple and light gray.  I have a bunch of the fabrics cut and stored in the tin for conference.

This was a basket of a lot of little project bits or dreams. See below - I've pretty much worked them into the general stash or other storage bins.

This is actually a fab orange dark gray batiks. I cut out more diamonds and clearly had a plan for them but never wrote down the plan so I guess I'll make something up. I did find a bit more of the fabrics in a pile so I've put this all together so I can formulate a plan.

Most of these fabrics are from the scrap bag called "Pop Rocks" (from one of the quilt stores). It was easy to name this one! I couldn't find the picture of this project right off but it looks like a field of tulips to me. I've had these cut for a long time but no stitching yet - seems like another good/easy project for travelling.

This project was really to show that you can use EPP to do standard machine style blocks. The plan was to make 4 card trick blocks and border it with the tea post fabric. Of course I started this before I really got into making hexies so my seam allowance is rather small and I've been having trouble keeping the papers in while I work. The work looks fine, I just need to deal with the small pieces, which is annoying.

These green 1" hexies are from a fabric swap we did in our hexie club. I (re)designed a Christmas tree banner that we could all make. I think only one person has finished hers. I brought the small bag with the last dozen fabric squares to work and I got started basting them during lunch.

This was a project I designed for our hexie club. I stitched the 6 jewels together into a rosette and after sandwiching them together, embroidered candy heart phrases on them for a mug rug. I've had the other fabrics cut to make more but never got to it cuz I have this thing against pink. Don't ask! I've now put the fabrics back into the stash and moved the cut pieces into a smaller bag so that I might forget them again or just get them make into something...

My office building was built in the early 1900s and still has the original hexie tile floor in the bathroom. I am replicating the tile pattern in nice bright colors! Again, I have a diagram so I can track what else needs to be done. It looks like I need to finish 2 diamonds and then the background to square it all off. I don't appear to have much more of the orange or the purple so I'll need to find some other fabrics for the tile border.

This project started with 4 fat quarters and a desire to see just what I could do with it. I was very much into pieced hexies at the time but stalled out cuz this has no finished purpose. Well, lo and behold, it will fit the doll cat bed so now that it has a purpose I best get back to it since I won't need many more hexies to complete it.

And lastly for today is a pic of the bottom shelf of the curio cabinet. There are a few non-hexie items in the baskets and the pile of fabric on the left is "bundles" that I thought would work nice together for future hexie projects. Enough! I never start by looking at the pile when I am thinking new projects so I am going to make 90% of the pile disappear. Not sure what I'll put on this shelf instead but I **DO** know it will be hexie related. When I am done, I want this entire cabinet just for hexies.

 You'll be happy to know that this concludes the vast majority of my hexie projects since they were mostly in the cabinet. I still have a lot to clean in the rest of the room, where I'll find stray projects or project parts. There is also my collection of hexie papers and books. In other words, don't worry as there is plenty for me to do the rest of this month...and maybe beyond...

I just got a coupon for Dollar General that I can use for storage boxes this Saturday if I decide to go that route...

See ya tomorrow for Feline Friday - I don't think I'll show a single hexie to give ya'll a break!