I started this little mini quilt back in November to test out an idea I had for a larger version. I hand drew the mountain pieces on some card stock and using the English Paper Piecing method, I had stitched all those little pieces together using mostly scraps.
It only took me a few days to finish the “mountain”, but after that I was stumped on what to do next. So I taped it to my workroom wall and figured I’d finish it when I had an idea.
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Back in December I had these grand plans (like usual) to make a quilt for my little sister Cori for Xmas. She had mentioned she’d love a B&W Quilt, and I just happen to have a very large stash of B&W fabric, so I figured “why not?”
Today is THE DAY! I have checked and rechecked the PDF many times and most of the testers have sent me finished photos and/or notes. I finally feel comfortable and ready to sell this pattern!!! Oh yeah, by the way, I’ve been working on a quilt pattern…
Last week on the Silhouette America blog I shared a detailed, step by step tutorial on how you can design and paint your own fabric for quilting! This project is perfect for when you need that very specific fabric and just can’t find it anywhere.
About 10 months ago I wrote a post talking about this new obsession I had with english paper pieced hexagons. I talked about making 1″ hexies and hand stitching them all together for a lap quilt.
Well, I’m only about 1/14th of the way there! This is turning into my forever project. That project that you just keep working on until the day you die. Seriously though, If I keep going at this speed, I wont be finished for at least 5 years. YEARS! I’m ok with that though. Since it’s mostly made from my own scraps, with a few donated by friends, I will be able to look back at each hexagon and think of the project I made or the friend that gave me the fabric. It’s basically my quilting scrapbook! Maybe I should rename it?!?
I have been trying to keep this project under control by making 18″ blocks first and then piecing them all together in the end. As you can see above, I’ve finished one block and have three almost there. Each of the semi finished blocks is from a different level of the house or a different bag. I have project bags or boxes everywhere so I am never short of hexies to piece. That one on the bottom right for example, I pieced all of that in the airport this past weekend and a little on the plane. I did it in three sections to keep it manageable (and to not bring attention to myself) and then pieced the sections together at home.
This system really seems to be working for me.
Above you can see one of the storage systems I have been using. Nicole over at Modern Handcraft originally posted about these a few months back on InstaGram. They are Sterilite divided bins from Target and they can only be found in store. The little bins inside come out so you don’t have to have this huge bin on top of your table or wherever you are working. This seems to work best for me when I’m sitting on the couch actually. For any other situation I have little zipper pouches.
I’m leaving for ANOTHER trip very soon and I’m thinking a pouch or two will be stashed away in my backpack, just in case I have free time, because I would love to finish this faster. It’s going to look so neat!!!!!
Keep an eye out in the next few months for yet another update on this thing (hopefully), and in the meantime I have some other Hexagon projects in the works that I’m also excited to share with everyone!
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Here we have the last two projects I made for QuiltCon. Woohoo! A drawstring bag and a patchwork lanyard. Both were made as part of the pin swap I’m taking part in.
The bag was made to hold all of my Hexagon Pins and I used In Color Orders lined drawstring bag tutorial. I actually use this pattern quite often as reusable gift bags, project bags or toy bags for friends and family. They go together super fast and are beyond cute. The fabric I used is by two of my absolute favorite artist. The top Lllama fabric is by Meg Hunt and I bought it YEARS ago from her when she was having a destash sale. It can now be purchased from her Spoonflower shop. The bottom fabric is by Lisa Congdon from her line The Land that Never Was. I figured if I made it out of my favorite fabrics, I’d probably use it more later.
The bag doesn’t hold all of the Hexagon pins, however it does hold enough for one day. That way I don’t give away all of my pins all at once!
So this lanyard wasn’t really a necessity, since QuiltCon does provide a lanyard with your badge, but why going the boring route?
I used Procrasticraft’s lanyard tutorial and a bunch of random scraps to put this together. I lengthened it by about 1″, purely because I didn’t want to cut off one of the designs. Fashion over function anyone?!? I spent maybe a total of 30 minutes putting this together and the outcome looks like it took way longer. Those are always my favorite type of projects.
Are you guys tired of hearing about QuiltCon yet? Well don’t worry, if everything went as planned I should be on a plane en route to Austin when this blog post goes live . So all that’s left to talk about would be a recap, I think…
