Thanks for stopping by my corner of the world for the Be a Hexie Queen blog hop. It's been fun collecting my hexie projects to share with everyone. Welcome to those visiting for the first time. Thanks to
Madam Samm and
Debby for hosting this great blog hop. Thanks also to
Connecting Threads for sponsoring this blog hop.
Here's a little about my crazy life, to introduce everyone to my love of hexie's. I started quilting in 1998, started blogging in 2004, met my husband Paul in 2005, met my best blogging friend the
Cre8tive Quilter Jen in 2006, married in 2008, met the Prolific Online quilters at a blog retreat in 2009, and started hexieing in 2010. I work full time as an Assistant Registrar at a college, work on my masters degree (only 2 classes left!), and teach one night a week at
The Sewing Center/Fabric City. We live just outside of Rapid City, SD and have a 2.5 year old Mikaela and an 8 month old Mathew.
My mom and best friend Delia was my sewing partner in crime. We taught, sewed, shop hopped, and quilted together. Her breast cancer came back in 2009 as brain cancer and my amazing friend Jen sent me a hexie travel bag, a Valentine's Charm pack cut into 2.5" squares, and 100 1" hexie papers. I had never hand sewn anything except binding, but I quickly learned to love basting and sewing hexie's. I worked on them off and on throughout all of 2010 while my mom was taking chemo treatments. I was attending all her appointments and I worked on them while we waited. I got pregnant during that year, so on top of her appointments, I had my own Dr. appointments to hexie at as well. I finished the Valentine Hexie Diamond on 1/15/11, just days before our daughter Mikaela was born. Mom got to see it before she passed away in February. This was the first quilt I won a ribbon for at the Central States Fair in 2011.
In December 2012 we welcomed a son Mathew. I knew I had to have a hospital quilt, so I used a Blush Jelly Roll I had won on a blog giveaway several years ago and created this Hexie quilt to take to the hospital with me. I didn't use a pattern, just a jelly roll and my 60* ruler.
In 2013 I knew I needed something to keep me busy while I pumped at work. As a nursing mom I spend 2 half hour breaks a day pumping, so I wanted some hand work. Jen was finishing up a very large English paper pieced hexie quilt and starting a new one. She formed a hexie group and encouraged us to baste 16 hexies a week. I have mine basted so I don't keep up with the basting goal, but I do work on my hexies every single week. The group has been amazing and keeping me motivated to work on my hexie projects. I'm so lucky that Regina (1I), Patti, Linda, and Jen from the Prolific Online quilters are part of the group as well as my local quilt friends Heather and Nicole H. The encouragement from the other gals is amazing. I can't have just one project, I must have multiple WIP hexie projects.
Jen introduced me to
Hillbilly Handiworks and her
Ahhhh's. I quickly joined the block of the month for beginners. In the first month I created them all and they were super easy, so I started ordering from the Gotta Have them all club. I can't quite keep up with them, but I have been working on the beginner and intermediate ones. I have several prepped at a time and keep them in a travel bag so I can hexie when I get a chance. I do a lot of prep work during my lunch hour. My favorite place to hexie is the car wash. I have to sit in line and wait and the kids are almost always asleep!
This is one of my favorite ahhhh's.
I can hexie just about any place as my hubby can attest, even in the ice house. I won't let him go ice fishing by himself, so a couple Saturday's this winter grandma watched the kids and we went fishing. I got over 75 hexie's basted in just 6 hours.
I also was able to finish 2 ahhhh's during our fishing trip.
This is how far I have gotten with the ahhhh's. I'm excited to get more done, but I try to balance these with my other hand sewing projects.
I recently taught a class on how to make hexies. I created this snowflake as a sample. These are 3/4" paper pieces, so it's a bit big for an ornament. Jen was my inspiration for this cute snowflake and it is made from just 2 charm squares.
I also taught a class on how to make this hexie table topper from Gudrun Erla's Table topper book. It's done with the quilt as you go method and I have another one in progress.
I love the 60* ruler, I think I have 6 or 7 of them in different sizes. One of my favorite projects are table toppers made from border fabrics. This farm friends one is the border off of my sons baby quilt. I also made a table runner to match for his bedroom. With the 60* ruler, it's the perfect hexie every time.
Another inspiration I took from Jen was to make needlebooks for my travel hand sewing bags. We both love the winding ways fabric so I made a couple from it.
I also made these hexie needlebooks from English paper piecing hexies for all my friends when we went to retreat this year.
I made travel bags for hexie projects as well.
I have several hexie English paper piecing projects that I am working on right now. This one is made from Buggy Barn scraps and I keep it in a fishing tackle box. These are 3/4" hexies. I typically baste them all, put them in the box and take what I need in my travel bag.
I am making a small table topper with 9 pink flowers and a cream sashing. I have all the flowers made, just have to put them together now. This project stays at work for the days I might forget my other projects.
I am also working on this sewing motif hexie project. It is going to be a tablerunner when it is finished. I make them in rows now and then put them together. It makes it easier to travel with them. Again these are in my fishing tackle box. I bought quite a few on clearance at Cabelas because they are the same size as the Art Bin one I bought, but much cheaper.
This project was brought on by my love of hexie English paper piecing and I made a complete 6 point star with EPP. I love how it turned out, but wish my diamonds were a bit more pronounced on the ends. I made this during the month of May, so my hand piecing is getting much quicker. I plan to make a lone/radiant star next, but am currently working on an Amish Rubic Star, so I want to finish it first.
Now for my Hexie Blog Hop Project - I started this as a way to use up scraps from my winding ways quilt. I saw something on the hexie group I belong to using these small 4 piece diamond hexies and thought it would be a quick way to use up some scraps. The diamonds are all made using 1/2" English papers. I hand sewed them as diamonds. These are the ones I completed during the World of Outlaws race. Paul can't believe some of the places I find to hexie.
Then I made them into rows. I had this background fabric from another project and it just seemed to work for this project.
Each row then became part of the diamond. I appliqued it to the black background and added borders. I quilted it with the walking foot, only on the background and borders. It does have steam a seam to hold down the hexie diamonds.
The final piece, a small wall hanging approximately 24"x 27"
I entered it at the Central States Fair this week and won a first place ribbon.
I couldn't do a blog hop without a giveaway, so I've decided to give away this hexie fabric with matching coordinates. There are 5 fat quarters total. I will also add a travel kit for English Paper Piecing hexies.
To enter the giveaway please leave a comment and tell me what your favorite thing to do in South Dakota would be if you have or would travel here.
Join the other blog hoppers today as they share their love of hexies as well!
Friday, August 23
