April Quilts

  

It's been a busy month for me. I've accomplished a lot on my goals list and still have things "to do". The list never ends. I spent several days at my dad's house quilting this month. I had 4 teacher quilts to do before this week. I have a graduation quilt coming up and I have 3 quilts that I've done for others. 

This quilt is for Karen and her family. It's an antique quilt and I quilted and am working on the binding. I should be able to finish it this month. 

Last night as I was in between projects, I sewed up 4 more of the side blocks for Rhododendron Trail mystery. I'm getting closer to being ready to put this top together. 

I finished sewing this mini Trip Around the World top together. This one is about 13" square, so it's pretty tiny, but I love how it turned out. 

I pieced Dapper as a leader/ender this month and quilted it on Saturday at Dad's house. The fabric is Nova and it's a challenge pattern for our online sewing group with The Sewing Center. 

My co-worker had a baby last week, so I quickly pieced this baby quilt from Amelia fabric I've had in my stash. I put a purple minkee on the back. It turned out to be super cute and I think I can have it done before I meet up with another co-worker to exchange and have her take back. 

Teacher appreciation is this week, so last weekend (when we had a blizzard cancel our plans) I was able to make labels. This is for Mikaela's writing teacher. 

I made her Bookends, another quick pattern from our monthly pattern challenge at The Sewing Center. I used Glamping Gypsies fabric. I am getting close to the end of my fabric from this line. This is quilt number 15 or 16 from that line!

Another teacher is an SDSU graduate, so I'm gifting her the Yellow/Blue Trip Around the World. I used a navy minkee on the back. 

My Glamping Gypsies Hey June was finished in March. This is for Mikaela's main homeroom teacher.  

I added a label to the back of it. It was too big to get a piece of minkee without piecing it, so I used a wide back in red. 

Mathew's teacher loves owls, so hers has pieced minkee on the back with 2 colors of teal (her favorite color) and a piece of owl minkee (that is also on the quilt she received when she was Mikaela's teacher). 

Mathew picked this owl pattern for her quilt. It's a pixiated quilt. I bought a pattern, but ened up changing it a lot because it was really poorly written (as in here's a picture and the shapes, figure out how to make it). It was really long and narrow, so I took out a bit to make it more proportional. 

Religion teachers each got a wall hanging or mug rug. I quilted these on Soft and Stable, so they are a bit puffy. 

My 3rd cousin's wife is gifting me a sewing machine, so I am giving her a quilt. I finishe piecing the top last week and then quilted it this weekend. This is before it was quilted. I didn't know what size it was, but bought 2.25 yards of minkee, only Michelle was talking and cut 2.5". It ended up being 80"x90" and wouldn't fit across it, but because of the mistake, I was able to make it work, just barely! I laid it out to make sure it would fit before I put it on the frame. I used a black flannel so it wouldn't be so heavy. 

A friend referred me to her cousin to quilt a couple quilts, so I have 2 of these to quilt. I ended up quilting the first one. It's really big and it took a lot of effort, but it's done. The 2nd one is loaded, but I ran out of time Saturday to quilt it.  

My friend Jennifer had a benefit and she asked me to quilt and bind these for her. I was able to get both of them done before the benefit. 

It was a busy month, but I feel like it was really productive. 

Design Wall Monday

 Last night, in an attempt to meet my February goal for the APQ challenge, I pieced my block 4 of the Threadology quilt along. I was trying to get it done quickly and missed that I sewed one wrong, so I'll be fixing it tonight.

Saturday night I stayed up way too late finishing my February Hillside Charm quilt for The Sewing Center support group challenge. It's going to one of the kids teachers. 

I picked up this thread cutter with birthday money and it is awesome! It cuts right through the thread on the first cut. I'm in love with it!

What is on your design wall today?  Linking up for Design Wall Monday.

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Prouty Pottery Mugs

Prouty Pottery is our local pottery shop makes the most beautiful mugs. I love Hester's work, but I have plenty of mugs she made, so I had her make a couple for my bosses/friends at the Sewing Center. I gave her their business card and she created the logo on the front. 

She added their names on the back. 

She used the maroon color of the store logo. 

I am thoroughly impressed by how wonderful the logo is on the mug. www.proutypottery.com and www.rapidcitysewing.com

 

OMG April Goal - Success!

My OMG goal for April popped up in an odd way. I was in the store, looking for something else on Tuesday, when my boss asked if I'd make a store sample Sew Together bag, before Saturday. I said sure and got to work. I cut it out on my afternoon break, started sewing that night and by the next morning was putting it together. I had a little boy with an earache, so I stayed home from work with him and it was done by early afternoon.  It turned out pretty cool and I have enough to make a mini one as well, which is cut out already.

Inside of the bag.

I also made myself a mini of the Sew Together bag. I just need to shorten the handles because they are a bit too long.

In other sewing this month, I have been very successful... Maybe not a lot of stash usage, but I've gotten a lot accomplished. I am traveling a lot for work next month and wanted a new bag, so I made an SDSU bag. It's a bit bigger than the Fuji Tote - 2" bigger each way, so my computer will fit and yet it still small enough to be a bag.

I've been using already and I love it.

One of the former students in our program had twin girls, so I whipped up these minkee tag blankets before graduation to give them to her. They are made of 2 fat quarters. Super cute and super quick and fun to make.

I also finished up this minkee/jelly roll quilt for the store. It's a sample and turned out super cute and so snuggly.

I made Mikaela a Dr. jacket and scrub pants to go with it. She's convinced she's going to be a Dr.

My biggest achievement was making my duffle bag from a ByAnnie pattern. I love the look, but not the way they are put together. Too much soft and stable to make it easy to sew. It turned out really well and I know I'll love travelling with it next month. I hope to teach a class on this bag in the fall.

I had lots of the accent fabric, so I bought other fabric to use with it.

Yesterday I finally got 1/4 of my table runner hexie project sewn together. It's turning out cool, but boy it takes a lot of work. I'm hoping this will keep my motivated to work on it. Don't you love the carpet at work... not.

In my quest to make a miniature for the quilt show, I decided to make a scrappy granny square project. It's made from 1.5" squares and the blocks are 4" finished. I have 16 finished and now I am trying to decide to sash or not to sash them.

Mikaela is getting so big and is at such a fun age. Kindergarten screening coming up next week.

Mathew just isn't in to having his picture taken on this morning.

December Sewing in Review

I started out December strong, well the first hour of it! I finished this purse in the wee hours of December 1. It's the Barbados bag and I'll be teaching it in February. I have one started for me, but just didn't find the time to get it made.

Then the month went rather south and I didn't get a whole lot accomplished. We were gone, working our 3rd job, and sick for most of the month. I did finish this Day Break Sample for a class I plan to teach in January. It's a fun little block to make and the class will be a starting point for the whole quilt if anyone is interested. I'm teaching a series of classes this year using the Hex And More Ruler and the Sidekick Ruler. This uses both.

I've always wanted to do a Swoon class, so I finally decided to do it as a one block class. That way people can make a wall hanging or table topper, before committing to the whole quilt. Since the class is during Stock Show I made a western fabric sample, but I also have modern fabric blocks done as well. I still love this block and now that I've made several I've gotten it figured out how to press to make them easier.

I also made this hexie ornament for an exchange with friends. It didn't turn out how I expected, but it was okay.

I worked a lot on my Buggy Barn hexies during work breaks and have almost all the sashing done. Now I need to figure out how I will finish it.

For our niece and nephews this year I made embroidered towels with the kids names. I think they turned out pretty cool. Mikaela helped pick the colors and she has decided she wants one too, so I'll have to get on that. They are quick and easy to do once I make up my mind to set up the embroidery machine.

I was playing with the V5 software when I was making the towels and designed this sweatshirt for Grandma Leslie.

Then I screwed up and forgot to change the design, so I made a second one for Grandma Ann.

Then I made the one I had originally intended for Grandma Ann. It has all 5 grandkids on it. Ed and Steph are expecting in March and I'll try to add the new baby's name, if it will fit. Someone said they just need to plan to only use either the G or D. Grandma Ann loves to accessorize, so hers have some jewelry she plans to wear with them. The 3 sweatshirts are all from my mom's "stash" of embroidery items, so I just went with the sizes that fit.

One of the quilt shops in town is closing and last week I went for their 50% off stuff. I picked up a new stashbuster ruler, a wall hanging hanger, and some yellow batik that will match some horse batik I already have.

For Christmas I received awesome gifts from my little bro and his fiance. Two rulers, a seam ripper and nippers. It was so exciting to get quilty gifts.

I needed a quick gift, so I made up a fleece blanket with embroidery on it. I plan to give it later this week and then will share the embroidery. I didn't have time to commit to a quilt, so a blanket will do for now.

This year I won the staff UFO finish competition. Per capita we beat the customers and Tammy gave me this great box. It already has my mini professional tote in it. It's a WIP that will turn into a UFO tomorrow unless I get some major sewing time tonight. I have the front and back made. The pattern is quite a bit different than the full size professional tote, so I am learning a lot and ripping a lot when I don't read the directions quite right. It's definitely a pattern where people will want to take a class to make it.


With only 40 hours in so far this month, I just haven't gotten a lot accomplished. Looking back I didn't do too bad though. I have a quilt retreat coming up in January and then sewing with friends in February, so I hope to get more accomplished. I have 40+ UFO's on my list for this year, so I hope to get it down to under 10.

Be A Hexie Queen Blog Hop

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

Sew Peace to Peace

Quilt Crossing 

sarah did it!

Jane’s Quilting 

Life in the Scrapatch

Lixie Makes It 

Livinbluequilter  

Creative Notions 

Modern Handcraft 

Feathered Nest Studio 

Moneik Quilts - You're Here!