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!

The 10 year Hexie Project - Major Update

The first mention of the hexies I could find on the blog was *here* in May 2012

I have been carting these babies all over the place.  To many states, in trains, planes and automobiles.  Swim lessons, violin lessons, piano lessons, cello lessons, ballet class and many sporting events.

They are now all together.  Still basted to papers.  Ready for some kind of a border.  Perhaps a thin strip of yellow and a large of blue?

I even know how I'll quilt it.  

More to come.

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. 

Hexies in the Snow - Crayon Challenge White

 I never can resist a good challenge!  So when it was announced at the guild that there was a crayon challenge again this year, I stepped up and grabbed a baggie.  And got white.  The rules state you only need to use your color 50% of the piece, so everyone told me to just use it as background.  Where is the challenge in that??

 So I quickly put together a pile of white fabrics, various textures and shades of white.

 Laid out a 12"x12" plan.

 And started basting.  Let me tell you, this will be the last thing I glue baste.  The quickness of the beginning is not worth the trouble at the end.

I had originally thought this would be a good hand project before we left for our two week vacation out East.  But, I got the whole top put together before we even packed!

 Quilting and finishing didn't take long either.   A layer of heavy interfacing and a layer of thin batting.  Wiggle quilting along the seam lines.  It is a stitch setting on my machine.

 Et Voila, a finish.  I turned it in last month at our guild meeting.  It will be up for Silent Auction starting in September (I think)

 I took the quilt outside for photos, against my garden.  It is quite over taken by Evening Primrose.

 Shockingly white, here.

 I also spent some time trying to capture a good photo of a native bee visiting the flowers.

 She was much more interested in nectar than posing!

Crayon Challenge: White

 I've got a new Hexie project in the works.  All in white. 

 Or at least various shades and textures of white.  It is for the 2016 Crayon Challenge. I drew a white crayon this time around.  We only have to do 50% of our color, but I'm going all the way.  The hexies are 1.25" per side.  I am on the hunt and collecting various whites.  I'm trying to get it prepped before our family vacation.  Hand work is great for the car, and the beach.

Hexie Update 4.8.16

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I've been steadily working on basting and piecing hexagons, epp style.  I call it my 10 Year Project.  Today I am going to do a complete update on how things are going.

 This box contains the 1,672 hexies that I pieced into Eights by last April.  Then I found out I needed to make more, because about 400 of the hexies I had finished were the wrong size.  I pieced them into this small quilt *here*.

 Monday, I finished piecing the hexies into fours.

 This is sort of a magic moment, when you piece Fours into Eights, it takes exactly the same time as Twos into Fours. 

 But you have less pieces, so are done twice as fast!
I did a quick count and have 121 Fours ready to piece.  I will probably only do the 100 - then do Sixteens, then check my layout.

 Once these are all into Eights, I will piece into Sixteens, along the sawtooth edge this time.  Also, when the Eights are done, all will be caught up.

 I've kept out a small handful of Ones, Twos, in case I need to add them somewhere for the layout. 

In other news, the bees come tomorrow.  Today it is snowing.  Not cool.

Hexie Baby Finished

 It has just been ages since I've managed to sit down and write a blog post.  I tried to see if I could do them from my phone, but I couldn't find an app that would let me add pictures, and what's a blog without pictures? 
The good news is that I am forcing myself to sit and write this one because I have a finish!  Hurrah!

 Hexie Baby is all done.  Completely hand pieced with the English Paper Piecing method, then machine quilted and finished with a faced binding.

 Our swing is slowly sinking into the ground, and no one dares sit on it, but its great for pictures.  And cat scratching.

 The back, where you can see the really great quilting texture, and my faced binding.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.  It was really a test run for when the 10 Year EPP project is ready to be finished.

 It is not truly a charm quilt, in that there are some repeat fabrics, but there are certainly a lot of fabrics.  From the 80's to the present. 

 There are approximately 400 1 inch hexagons that make up this quilt.  It isn't really very large.  Not even sure if it qualifies as a baby quilt.

 The Precious Moments backing fabric came from my stash that I inherited from my Mom.

 The facing is from a baby quilt from a couple of years ago.

 The Details:
Fabric: Yes. Scrappy.
Batting: Pellon Thin Cotton
Backing: Precious Moments Novelty
Thread: Aurifil #2026
Size: 29" x 34"
I have a super epic WIP list right now, so I'll try to get that written up soon, too.
TTFN