Family Friday: Spirit Week

It's been Spirit Week at school.  I had to share the pictures, because they're cute, and a couple took a bit of sewing. 

Mini won on day one "Camo Day".  That dress?  I found at a thrift store.  Paid $2.50.  It was an XS women's dress by Ralph Lauren!! I took off the two bottom layers of skirt and it fit Mini perfectly!  I do think that Camo Day is probably a Wisconsin thing....

 Tacky Tourist Tuesday. 

 The fanny packs were courtesy of my MIL!

 Disney Day.  Mini is Tinkerbell.  You can't see the wings, but I made them at least 10 years ago for E.  And I had to figure out the puffballs on her shoes.  Probably Mini's favorite part.

 Thank goodness Disney owns Star Wars, so we've got Obi Wan Kenobi (I was going to put a link about the cloak, but turns out I never blogged them.  Guess I'll have to work on that)

 and A Storm Trooper.

 And Throwback Thursday.  I put together a couple hippie outfits for the boys.

 And made a poodle skirt for Mini.  Every girl needs one.  It was an easy and fast project.  Probably less than an hour.  I did reference this tutorial, however I only used it for the measurements.  As an experienced sewist, the instructions weren't great... 

A Quick Panel Quilt Finish: The Bee-Attitudes

 I quilted up a panel that I bought last year.  Are you surprised?  It's bees!  And Bible Verses!  J Wecker Frisch generally likes to put in bits of Bible verses in her designs.  This one is pretty obvious, the Beatitudes. If you want the actual list check out Matthew 5:1-12

 My biggest problem with panels is that they are never really printed straight.  To trim and bind to the printing, the quilt itself is slightly wonky.

 This is a better shot of the backing colors.  The fabric is long ago Ruby fabric from Bonnie and Camille.

 A couple close up shots of the panel.

I just did some straight line quilting and a little bit of outlining in each box with Invisafil thread.  The batting is a thin mystery polyester.

Can't wait to hang it up and celebrate spring - once St Patrick's day is done.

Updated Project List Feb 2020

I've been getting things done!  A few quilts on the finished list and some sewing for Mini!  I need to do some bee blocks and then decide on the next things to quilt. 

Finished Quilts

Blue and White Hexagon Quilt:  Blog Post *Here*

Bee-Attitudes Wall Hanging:  Need to Blog

Charm Parade:  Need to Blog

Quilts to be bound

Tops that need to be quilted:

French General Irish Chain

On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt

Baby Blue and Red Charity Quilt

Large Flower Blocks Charity Quilt

Spider Web

Blue Fairy Quilt

Star Quilt

Girl Bonnie and Camille Baby Quilt

Flower Fairy Panel

4 quilts from a friend's mom

Pixie House Quilt

Gridsterbee Christmas Blocks 

Handmaids Christmas Quilt (moved up from the TTBF)

Tops to be finished (more done than not)

10 year Hexie quilt. (I've decided to put on borders)

Another Nut House (needs more embroidery)

EPP Orbit (applique to background?)

EPP Honeycombs (applique to background?)

Blocks to be turned into tops

Eclipse (pattern by modernquiltstudio)

Sampler blocks from Gridsterbee

Blue and White Log Cabin

Ugly Quilt x 6

EPP Star Flowers (thrifted)

Stack and Whack (thrifted)

Bug Jar (thrifted)

Quilts to Start

Si Bday quilt

Possible Two Baby Quilts

Checkers Quilt Kit

Other Sewing to be done

Shorts for Mini  DONE

Pjs for Mini  DONE

Swimsuit for Mini  DONE

Curtains for Laundry Room

Hand Bell Table Covers

Quilt as You Go Hexagons - A Quick Tutorial

 Since this year's temperature quilt plan is Quilt as You Go Hexagons, I thought I'd share a quick tutorial.  I'm sure you can find others out there, and I don't claim to be an expert.  I have done 45 so far, though....

 The first thing you need is a way to cut out those hexagons.  I use a combination of the Hex N More Ruler and You Hexie Thing Ruler. 

You also need to decide on the sizes you want to end up with.  My inside hexagon is 4.5" hexagon marked on the Hex N More.  This is a nice size for me to cut the half hexies to do highs and lows for each day.

The background needs to be one inch bigger on each side, so that actually means two inches larger (it took me a while to actually get this)  So in my case I make a 4.5" inside hexagon and cut a 6.5" hexagon for the background.

My current stack of backgrounds for Winter.  With bonus triangles. 

You also need to cut batting to the inside hexagon size.  4.5" in my case. I am using Warm and Natural because its what I had.   You definitely do not want a thick batting.

 Background plus batting.

 Center batting and then front side hexagon.  I like to steam press at this point.  Helps keep it from shifting and flattens it a bit. 

 On each side fold up and press.  Do not fold the edge of fabric all the way to the batting, you want to leave a small gap to make the turning up easier.  Otherwise things get too bulky too quickly.

 Here each side is folded once, close to the edge of the batting/top hexagon.

 The next fold you take is going to come over the top hexagon, covering the raw edge of the top hexie and the batting.  Continue to press.

 Now you are folding one side at a time, press and pin.  I use glass head pins for things like this so you can press without worrying about melting things.

Make sure to miter those corners carefully.

 These corners aren't stellar, you can do better! (so can I)

 Now you are going to stitch around the edge on top of the hexagon through all the layers.  I just did a straight stitch, some like to use a decorative stitch. 

For joining hexagons together you can use a zigzag or a decorative stitch. 

 Here is a close up of my temperature quilt so far.  It is not perfect.  I'm sure it could be better, but I don't have grand plans for this one other than the fun of making it. 

The advantage of this method is you can just continue to grow the quilt. 

There is a lot more work and time up front, but when you are done putting the blocks together, they are done forever.

It does also take a lot of fabric.  Three yards of fabric yielded about 90 6.5" hexagons for the background. 

 Please let me know if you have any questions or I made any errors.

Blue and White Hexies Quilt Finish

I finished this fun little quilt just a couple weeks after Christmas.  It was a gift and I couldn't share until it had been gifted. 

The pattern was based off my friend's bathroom floor.  She has a lovely older home with hexie tiles in the downstairs bathroom. 

I've actually had the main part done, with the papers pulled for some time.  Last November I got it basted and started appliqueing down the center.

Quilting didn't happen until January, but I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

 My friend loves it as well!

 Those are 1/2" hexies if you were wondering. 
The quilt measures about  14" x 12"

I used a bright white and thin poly batting for the insides.

The blue butterfly backing fabric came from deep stash. 

As soon as my friend finished ooohing and aaahhing over it, she promptly gave it back and told me to enter it in an upcoming local show, whose theme is blue and white!

2020 Temperature Quilt: I finally have a plan

It took me a while to get going on this years temperature quilt.

First I had to commit.

Then I had to pull fabrics and assign degree ranges.

Then I had to really decide on a design.

I had originally thought of quilt as you go hexagons using the low was the backing fabric and turning it to the front. I actually still really like that idea, but it takes So Much Fabric. As in, I would have had to go shopping and I really don't want to buy more fabric. This year is all about using it up and finishing.

I'm still going with the quilt as you go hexies, but have decided that each season will have the same background. 

Why seasons? Well, I started my hexies by using three yards of Kona snow that I had as the background. Guess how far three yards gets you?  About three months!!

I've already gone ahead and bought background fabric for spring.

Kona pear shown here next to Kona snow.

I'm doing half hexies. Top is the high, bottom half the low.

I've got all the hexies cut for winter backs and about 100 batting hexagons.

I started assembly the other day with out doing the maths.

Sewing the January blocks in a row ended up 140" long. That's a bit much.

I've got it at just 24 hexies long and will grow the width as the year progresses.

Sewing Swimmies for Mini

 I did some swim suit sewing for Mini.  I've done swimsuits in the past.  It's doable, even without a serger. The above pile is the fabrics I started out with.  I bought the purple, don't know where the stripes or blue came from.

 Coincidentally those colors match the pattern.    Lots of pieces for a simple two piece, but its because of the color blocking.

 Mini chose the blue first.

 It turned out OK.

 I even emptied my first spool of thread for the year.  The seams were all double sewn, so that is a lot of thread!

 I also found an error in the pattern.  The notches do not line up.  It was much easier to sew after I figured that out.

There was just enough blue to add to the purple for a second suit.

Mix and Match!

At this point I realized that she also still had two almost brand new suits in her box, so I was done sewing!

Both Mini and her older sister rejected this fabric, so I've put it up in my Etsy shop.