The New 10 Year Project

What?!? The NEW 10 year project?  What happened to the old one? Is what I'm sure you are asking.

Well, thanks to some prodding from my son the other evening, the hexies are entirely pieced.  Is the project done?  No.  I need to applique the hexies on to a border (I'm leaning toward yellow)  and then quilt the thing, but I've still got 1 year and 10 months to go before my 10 years is up.

I have, however, started a new project, because I needed something small to carry around with me. 

A while back my SIL picked up these vintage squares for me at a rummage sale.  I've been debating what to do with them.  They are roughly 2" square.  When I say roughly, that's because they were marked with pen and then cut.

They are therefore, not consistent enough to sew by hand. 

 After some looking around on the Paper Pieces website I decided on Dresden Plate wedges, or petals, or kites- what ever you want to call them.    Then I noticed the cost - and I'm pretty cheap thrifty- so I decided to see if I could make my own templates.

After some long time messing around, I finally got them figured out and just the right size for my patches.

I also ended up purchasing some small paper clips.  These are just 5/8".  When I basted my hexies, I had basted them right to the paper.  These templates are card stock so I didn't want to sew through that, and I am not a fan of glue basting.  It doesn't seem to want to come out cleanly for me.  Anyway, I needed a way to hold the fabric still when I started the stitches.

So, I've been making fan blades/petals/kites/whatevers.

This was the first one I made, and I realized a couple of things: Dresden Plate quilts are inherently scrappy - so you can actually see the individual pieces - and not to finish/baste the bottom of the blade - its not necessary and the extra fabric will be needed for appliqueing the center on.

I've been keeping colors together with binder clips.

A rainbow, of sorts.

A two color.

 I've been using this tin to hold the templates and binder clips.  My new watch came in it and its perfect!

 So is my new watch.  My last Baby G lasted almost 10 years.  I'm the kind of person that needs a watch - I don't rely on my phone for the time.