I’d love your thoughts!

Here is just a small sampling of what I’ve been working on lately, and what I’ve been posting on InstaGram. I am itching to finish most of these projects and I can’t wait to share them with you all here!

Check out their blog to see the finished design along with a full, step by step, photo tutorial.

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!

Well, as you can see, it came out beautifully! So much so, I have been obsessed with sewing curves ever since. (Check back tomorrow and I’ll show you another curved piecing project).

The top is all fabric I had on hand. I love just picking from my Stash for projects like this. It gives it a more homey, scrappy feel. Also, as you can see, I have a thing for buying black and gray fabric, so it was neat seeing them all next to each other.

I quilted the top in the way I normally do, in a 45 degree angle. However this time I only did the corners and let the lines overlap. So there’s lines and squares. To stabilize the middle I also quilted around the middle circle and stitched in the ditch of the middle seams.

The back is Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Black and is quilted with quick wavy lines. I added a (mostly) invisible zipper as the closure. I’m still getting the hang of zippers.

I also stepped outside my comfort zone and bound the edges instead of having inside seams. I think this may be one of my new favorite ways to finish a pillow! Also, its great for gifts because the recipient can take out the pillow form and just be left with a mini quilt to hang on the wall or something.

Now here’s where I will sound like the biggest jerk. I was planning on giving it to my friend in person soon after her birthday, but then I got super sick (pneumonia) and have been playing catch up since. She should be receiving the pillow in the mail TOMORROW! (oooh, now my friends reading this have to figure out which of them is receiving this pillow!! hahaha. I have a few gifts that just got mailed out, so really it could be any one of you.) I really hope she likes it.

I seriously can not wait until after the holidays, when I have more free time to mess around with this die. There are so many possibilities for these little quarter circles, and I feel like I’m just getting started.

Unlike the swaps I’ve done in the past, this one was done in such a way where you and your partner had similar taste. I was asked lots of questions when I signed up to make sure of this. Another cool part is the person you send a mini quilt to is not the person who sends you one. It’s all super secretive and makes for a great surprise when you open your package.

Oh and you are probably wonder what makes a quilt “mini”. Well, its kinda self explanatory, it’s a miniature quilt! Ranging from 8″ to 24″ square (or rectangular, or any other shape a quilt can be).

Mine ended up being 13.5″ square. Which makes each of those little squares 1.5″ finished. The tiniest I’ve ever done. I had some leftover squares so I also whipped up a little zipper pouch to match.

It’s doubled sided, so I took a photo of the front and back.

My partner said she really loved Heather Ross fabric, and I just happen to have a lot of her fabrics from over the years. I “fussy cut” most of the pieces, which means you cut the fabric in such a way that it showcases a design in the center. I do it alot with my hexie quilt but this was the first time I tried it with machine quilting. I LOVE the outcome, so you’ll probably see more projects including it.

I also included a quilt inspired necklace I made as a little gift. I wanted to send candy and treats but my partner lives in Canada and I didnt want anything to get held up in customs. (sorry partnet) She probably won’t receive this for about a week or two. I feel fine sharing it though since she has no clue that shes my partner! I can’t wait to see if she likes it or not. (I realllllllly hope she does)

I’ll also make sure to share the quilt I receive! I can’t wait to hang it up in my sewing room.

Today I had enough strength to whip up a potholder (which I’ll share tomorrow, along with a link to a pattern) and get the two pillow tops shown above ready to quilt. I would have completely finished them if it weren’t for the fact that I ran out of dark gray thread, and would love some matching teal thread for the geometric one. So these won’t be finished until I make a trip out for supplies, but I still wanted to share them in their half finished state!!

I can’t wait until I can cuddle with them on the couch!!

From top left…

• a doctor who pouch for my friend Molly
• a Pyrex inspired pouch for my friend Tasha
• the Modern Maples quilt I mentioned earlier this week for my sister Ashley
• a hedgehog pillow for my sister Cori (using the paper piecing pattern I found here. Oh and this was my first time trying paper piecing! I’m in love!)
• a pillow for my grandmother using the Modern Maples blocks.
• a hedgehog pouch for my sister Cori (as you can see, she loves hedgehogs, she even has one)
• two Tangled inspired dresses for nieces.

I actually made a few other things too, but they haven’t been gifted yet.

It was all a lot of fun to make, but I am beyond exhausted. New rule: Start sewing gifts in the summer!!!!!

I went through the list of what I wanted to finish and picked out one quilt to do, the Modern Maples quilt by Amanda of Hey Porkchop! that can be found in Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays. (the book has a lot of great patterns, not just this one. I highly recommend it). It’s something different than what I normally sew, and it’s just soo pretty! My sister Ashley really likes fall colors and such, so I thought it would be perfect for her.

It’s now three days after Christmas, and I wish I could say I finished this project!! Ha. I was able to piece the front completely, all 18 leaf blocks and 12 solid blocks. I was also able to piece together the back.

Just so my sister  and brother-in-law didn’t think they were getting nothing this year, I wrapped the half finished quilt with a note saying I would quilt it and return it to them very soon. I’m hoping to have it finished by this weekend, as long as we don’t all get sick…

As for everyone else, I decided to make smaller sewn gifts, which I’m going to share on Monday!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!