Quilt Lab clean up post #2

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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On Sunday I started cleaning up/out the Curio Cabinet. My SIL has an extensive collection of Precious Memories figurines and when she outgrew the cabinet my Dad made her a new one and I was offered the old one.

I didn't know what I was gonna do with it at first so we placed it in the quilt lab (only free corner) until I decided. I very quickly decided it could stay there to house UFOs and then it has gradually morphed into housing hexie UFOs.

Most of the projects are stored in plastic boxes. I am torn about buying more boxes since I hope to finish projects leaving empty boxes but I know myself and if there's a box I can fill it with something. With that said, I am at least buying one more box for the top of the cabinet as I have another large/long-term project I need a box for.


The top most box houses my "Salt & Pepper" project. After my cat, Pepper, died, I was moping around Pinterest and kept coming across the same pattern in different variations. I took it as a sign that I was meant to make that project. I can't quite remember how I picked the colors but it's been fun looking for just the right fabrics. Each star has a white-on-black center surrounded by black-on-white fussy cut jewels surrounded by burnt orange diamonds. The various diamonds will become 'baby blocks' when it's all stitched together. I am trying to use the black-on-white fabrics just once in the project but the others can be used more than once. I'm at a point where I have lotsa shapes cut already so I want to stitch them before I find any more fabrics or do any more fussy cutting.

fussy cut diamonds and jewels on the right
houndstooth for binding and inspiration "batik" on the left

15 finished star blocks and the Russel Stover tin they are stored in

The second box on the top is for my Patchwork of the Crosses (POTC) project. I found this fantastic red paisley that will be in every block and then I found the perfect red that will be the sashing. The cream blocks you see on each block is part of the sashing as well.

This box houses the bulk of the red and paisley fabrics, precut beige sashing pieces to stitch
 with thread ends and any other fabrics I think might work for future blocks.
You'll also see the 2 honeycombs I found on the cutting mat.

Only 4 finished blocks so far - this project isn't much of a priority at the moment altho I adore the fussy cutting.
The center will have more of the beige/red sashing fabrics and then a square of 4 fussy cut fabrics in the center.

Almost as soon as I became addicted to hexies have I wanted to make this tumbler pattern using 2 different size tumblers. I didn't have fabrics in mind - just the pattern. That was until I went to Gettysburg, PA with my family and we stopped at a "costume" shop that sold scraps of the civil war fabrics they used to make period dresses. I purchased 2 bags, at maybe $5 each, and was well on my way to another project. I purchased the purple for the large tumblers at my LQS. I started to cut some of the small tumblers cuz I wanted to get my hands into the fabrics but it's not a priority project at the moment so the fabric was just pushed into the box. I do think it will be a nice travel project since I'll need quite a variety of the small tumblers stitched before I can start stitching anything together.

Fabrics in the box haven't been pressed or fussy cut yet. Once I've used the fabric it's folded flat and placed
in the baggy. Cut pieces wait for me in the choco box and basted pieces are in the ball jar.

The colors in the picture just aren't doing this project any justice - I think there will be a nice
contrast between the purple and the other fabrics. I've started by cutting 10 of each repro fabric.
The 1" tumblers are a little fussy to stitch but I'm sure I'll get in a groove and be happy with it. This
might have been a time where I should have bought the acrylic template with a 1/4"
instead of a 3/8" seam allowance.

This next pattern is called Rose Star online but it's become my 'owl' or 'camping' project. Owl because there is a fussy cut owl in the center of each block and camping cuz I only work on it while I am camping in the ADK mountains. No reason to ONLY work on it then but it's been a fun tradition. This project started with a FQ bundle of coordinated fabrics that I added to, giving me a dozen fabrics to work with. My goal is to keep making as many blocks as I can until all of the FQ bundle is gone.

I think there are 15 blocks done already.
You can see the cream batik that will hook all the blocks together. I found the extra cream
fabric in a separate box and moved it into the box with the rest of this project.
Don't worry, I filled that box with another project already!

The stripe will be the binding and I finished the owl fabric bolt so there is plenty for a backing.
You can also see there is a decent amount of the FQ bundle left to make more blocks.

Yes, I was OCD enough to make a chart so that all the fabrics are used equally.

I bought myself the papers for George Town Circleand then my boss gifted me the acrylic set for Christmas. Woohoo! I started with fussy cutting the asian border fabric and will add in other fabrics as I get a plan for this project. I'm girding my loins for stitching curves...

I enlarged the pattern so that I could make notes on fabric, shape, etc.
Several of the shapes are similar from round to round but a slightly different size - it's gonna
take some advance planning to make sure I put the pieces together correctly and nicely fussy cut.

I'm pretty sure that's enough for today...I'm overloaded from hanging my head in UFO guilt and you from reading and laughing and reading and and and...

Check back tomorrow for more pictures of way too many UFOs...

Quilt lab cleanup post #1

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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I didn't see Janet's request to start with the curio cabinet until after I had already started on the cutting mat so I'll do the cabinet next.

I had chosen to start with the cutting mat because it's kind of grand central for my quilt lab - everything seems to start and stop here. And apparently a lot gets dumped here as well! I thought a nice/large/clean area would be very encouraging for the rest of the project.

This is what I started with. Not the worst I've ever had but not the best either considering I could only use about 11" x 20" on a 24" x 36" mat.

We have a monthly birthday swap in hexie club and Denise is our penpal member.
I finally sorted her envelope of birthday shapes into the storage bin with my prepared shapes.

This weekend I had been working on my hexie iSpy quilt by cutting more 5" squares
of hexie fabrics and black wedges. When I started cleaning I had 52 blocks made, 29 cut and 4 more to cut.

While cleaning, I cut the last 4 and put it all the parts back into it's bin.
 This will be a nice no-brainer project when I'll have an hour to sew.

Hmmm..left over fabric from Value Proposition...put this in the fabric-to-put-away- pile.

I'm working on a kind of new project and decided I would use my Fiskars cutter to cut our 1/2" hexies from all those annoying magazine inserts. I cut a page worth this morning while I was waiting for the car to warm and maybe melt some of the ice encrusting it. Not sure where to store this unless I just gitter done and put the hexies in with the project and put the Fiskars away.

The 3 shot cottons were on the cutting mat since I had cut the olive green a few weeks ago. The round tin usually contains the finished Chrysanthemums I spread out and the choco tin held the rest needing to be put together. These are the 2016 birthday swap shape and I'd like to get the background sewn together ASAP so I know how many more chrysanthemums to make but I might need to get more olive shot cotton first...

Hah! - found an empty plastic bin to store the fabric and to-be-completed chrysanthemums in.

These are from my POTC project. For a while I had some spare bits at my couch work station to use thread ends. Not sure why it was on the cutting table but I finished these up while watching TV and put them away in the POTC box.

This is new fabric for a hexie project that I haven't picked yet - I just couldn't pass on the pretty fabric.
I put it in the someday pile.

And this is what I ended with!! Woohoo!! I spent time doing tiny bits of work to finish parts of the projects so it prob took a bit longer than I had originally planned but it's nice to have those bits done.

The tin holds batik strips to trim into half hexies for my Twisted hexie project.

Lookie there - I trimmed them up this morning, set the tin aside to house another project and now
my cutting mat is 99% clean with just my rotary cutter at the ready and my hexie rock.

Yipp - that was 8 hexie UFOs/WIPs on just my cutting mat. This is gonna be a loooooooooong clean up...

One for Three

Boo!
Sadly the bazaar yesterday wasn't very profitable. I made enough to cover expenses but not enough to also cover the cute things I bought. Oh well.

My main Christmas tree will someday be all bird ornaments (right now I fill in with family ornaments, santas and cats) so I had to buy the crocheted turkey!

Sadly, there won't be time for Cookie Day this year but I am trying to get some made here and there...

I also bought this darling sign for my kitchen...it's painted on an old chunk of wood.

Boo!
After the show I ran over to the LQS in East Aurora, planning to pick up some 505 spray baste and FQs for my mystery quilt. Can you believe the 505 was $3 more than locally and they didn't have a single fabric that matched my mystery fabrics??!! I walked out with 5 zippers to make more inventory.

Yay!
On the other hand, I did have lots of time to sit and work on hexies!

I finally finished this POTC block. I don't have any more bits fussy cut yet so this will probably get set aside for a while so I can finish some more pressing projects.

I made some progress on this 1/8th section of my tree skirt. I finished basting all 288 diamonds a week or so ago. Yesterday I stitched together the 2nd row down from the top and basted the bottom 3 or 4 rows together. As soon as I finish this post I'll stitch more together before my lunch ends. I do think there is a real possibility this will be finished before Christmas 2015.

She may be tiny, but that girl can cast shadows =^..^=

And when I had finished everything else I brought with me yesterday, I returned to an old faithful - Value Proposition block #11. Yipper still behind and probably will be for a while but I am still really enjoying this project and I think I can get this done before Christmas 2015 too (ok, maybe just the top will be together and it won't be quilted...)

POTC update

Sorry - the colors are pretty washed out, but this is where I am on the latest POTC block. The next round will also use the same neutral fabric which contrasts nicely with the lighter neutral sashing fabric.

The center of this block is pretty dark or "dense" compared to my other POTC block so I'll need to remember to make more in a similar style to balance out the quilt.

Yesterday's snow storm turned out to be a big fat nothing for me here at work or home (less than an inch) but poor Buffalo has now reportedly gotten 94 inches in some of the 'burbs!!! They are due to get another 24 inches by the end of the week and then it will be up in the mid-50sF on Monday so it will all melt. I am not sure which will be worse for them - buried under 9 feet of snow or washed away by 9 feet of melted snow...

I guess the biggest impact of the storm for me is that the bazaar at Fisher Price that was scheduled for tomorrow has been moved to Monday and I'm not sure that I can get Monday off instead. If I can't get Monday off, I'll still take tomorrow since I have to use up my vacation time so I'll work on Xmas pressies and make a squash gellette recipe I found the other day.

Design Wall Monday - 7/28/14

Given the weather when I was camping this year, I think I was pretty lazy. It was either raining or could be raining and who wants to go hiking or mountain climbing when it might start raining? That afforded me lots of time around the camp site, hiding from the rain under the new canopy Santa brought me early or sitting close to the fire after the cold front came through. I may not hex as fast as some people but I think I accomplished a lot for just 10 days :-)

 

The outer row/sashing of this Value Proposition block was partly completed when I left for vacation - I think I only had to finish 2 or 3 sides.

I may have mentioned that our local Hexie Group has a birthday club. At the beginning of the summer we pick a new size/shape and colors. For the next year, in the month of each participants birth, she will receive 6 basted 1.5" diamonds from each of the other girls. I think I have all but one set done now!

I think it was Chantal who encouraged me to work on my Rose Star/Owl project even tho I was going to try to catch up on some other projects. Typically, this project is only worked on while camping - some day I'll come up with an appropriate name for the project. I think this was the first project I used fussy cutting.

Unfortunately, I ran out of the kite papers to finish the block above or the second block below but I did as much as I could. Hopefully there are more papers at the LQS when I go for Hexie Group this Friday.

Next I worked on the flower block for The Hexie Blog's BOM - I think that was the June block. I had rearranged the layout a few times before I went on vacation and then just went with it. I really like the similar blues surrounded by purple. No idea what kind of flower this is but I'm sure it would be popular at the local nursery. LOL.

Next, I finished a POTC block. Two done...who knows how many more to do...

Over the course of the week, while I was hiking, I also worked on a twisted hexie. I had been asked for a tutorial on making these and I asked if she could wait until after vacation because I thought I could make a cool tute beside lakes and on mountain tops. Lets just hope the tute I hope to post on  Wednesday is a cool as I thought it would be.

And what am I working on now that I'm back home?

This is the BOM ice cream cone that should be done today. Most of it was done at the craft bazaar on Saturday. Can you guess my flavors? Mint ting-a-ling dripping over blackberry in a sugar cone. Yummo!!

And for some reason, I have just one more hex to finish on the sashing for this block. As soon as I hit publish I'll finish it :)

Don't forget a week from tomorrow is the next Bibliophile Files - I'll have a huge stack of books to share that I finished while camping!

Hexies at home...

If you will recall, last Thursday I shared my at-work hexie kit.
Today I thought I would show you my home set up.

I bought this relish tray at a vintage store a few years ago for under $2. It sat in my china cupboard ever since, just waiting for the perfect party to use it. Ha! It works much better for hexies! It's heavy so it won't slide around my lap and the divided areas keep everything organized. I highly suggest you look for one of your own.

BTW - the melamine tray under my glass tray is so I can eat in front of the tv w/out harming Grandma Ballinger's vintage coffee table :-)

Anyways...
From left to right: my Thread Heaven and thread ends, scissors and mini binder clips, honeycomb papers for my POTC* and the ever-present Burts's Bees, precut sashing pieces for the POTC.

Across the back: needle dome, Bottom Line thread, choco, 1" hexie papers left from my last Value Proposition rosette, finished POTC sashing pieces and red fabric waiting for the square POTC papers.

In front of the tray are my extra glasses (short lenses so I can see thru them to the TV and under them for my hand work!) and the twisted hexies I am working on.

Here'e where I usually plant my tuchus to sew. Have you ever tried to take a photo of an Ott Light? I don't blame you. Nice and bright but not great for pictures. You can also see the giraffe and fish face that I brought back from Ghana many moons ago. The face has a phone number on the back - lets just say I was the only white woman for miles with long brown hair wearing Ghanian clothes and I had a blast dickering for the giraffe. It was the biggest I thought I could get back on the plane until I saw a guy with 2 of them twice as tall.

And what's a good sewing session w/out a snoopervisor!?!?




* patchwork of the crosses

HeLP for Hexie-aholics

Hello and welcome to another rousing edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!!! We're all here to check out your hexie projects. It doesn't matter if your project is vintage, a WIP or even still just a dream, we would love to see it.

My most recent finish was block #2 (on the left) for Karen's Value Proposition SAL. I told Karen this week that I had never wanted to do a Grandmother's Flower Garden because it was just too repetitive and plain for me. This project is anything but repetitive and as much as I already have a gazillion projects to work on, I am definitely glad I joined in this one..

I'm typing this post on Friday and she has just posted block #3 where I will be using one of these fabrics to keep the dark teal theme going. Only 4.5 hours left until I can go home and pick out the rest of the fabrics. And given the weather (49F and raining/flooding) it's a good night to stay inside and sew...

I also finally finished my first POTC block. The cream around the outside is part of the sashing. I found a Pinterest pin that suggested an easy way to add part of the sashing as you go along so it's not such a big deal later. As soon as the square papers arrive, I'll actually be adding the red squares to 2 sides of this block.

Ok, peeps, now it's your turn to share a hexie project - and please know that I mean any EPP project, not just actual hexagons. Please remember to link to a specific post and not your blog in general. I can help you link if you like.

Design Wall Monday - 4/21/14

Thankfully I'm not doing weekly stash reports 'cuz the last few weeks have done me in!

I realized Friday morning that I really didn't have enough vinyl in my stash to make name badges for my conference next week so I went off on a VART**. You know that I came home with some fabric as well...

These FQs are from the store with the vinyl. I've already cut into 5 of them for name badges, 3 are saved for my POTC project and the bottom right went in to my pile of fabrics with hexies on them!

Oops, almost forgot the stencil I bought - I though it would be fun for quilting mugrugs.

Then on my way home, since I was already driving by, I decided to stop at store #2. Check out their vintage purple door knob!!

I've already used 4 of the 5 FQs but the red is the perfect red for my POTC project. This will be the tiny squares in the sashing. I'm sure I bought much more than I needed but it's so hard to match reds that I would rather have extra to maybe use in the borders or something.

And then I finally got home to work on those badge holders. I work assembly line style so I cut them all out and then I sew all one step and then all of another step. Eventually I get a little sick of that so I just went ahead and finished a pile of them.

Tonight I'll go back to assembly line finishing the others...

This next pic was actually a goof - probably anyone with an iPhone has taken one of these but I just thought it was cool and didn't want to hit delete. I doubt I could have taken this if I tried.

**Vinyl Acquisition Road Trip