A Finish, Flirt Hexie Bag

     Yeah it's all done, my hand pieced Hexie bag made with a Flirt charm pack.  This is my first of many hexagon projects done with EPP.  I say many because I love this process and I joined a Flickr Sewing Bee group, Get Your Hex On.  I am really looking forward to seeing what each month brings from around the world!  There is a third group starting so if your interested go here.

Happy Hexing, Kristin

Linking up with Plum and June.

Friday Fun Day

          It's been a busy week around here!  I have been cutting up bits of paper, coloring bits of paper and more cutting of bits of fabric....  This is what I've been up to.  Trying to figure out my blocks for the "Get Your Hex On" Bee Quilt.

  My inspiration is the fabulous quilt by  Broderie   called "Candied hexagons",  I Love, Love, Love this look.  Check out her blog, her work is AMAZING!!!

          I am using fabrics designed by Lori Holt for Riley Blake called Polk A Dot Stitches.   Sew cute!    I picked it up on line from Crazy Quilt Girl Fabrics. Great service and same day shipping, Wow!

          In my first attempt I cut out pieces from freezer paper that I had run through the printer.  As it turned out some of the pieces were off by a millimeter which made the corners not match up in the end.  Lots of ripping of those teeny hand stitches which is really quite a bummer, but I got it together in the end.

           Had to remake a few pieces.  I love how the first block turned out.  I probably should have started with an easy one first.  : )

These are about 3 inches wide.   

Each triangle is 1 inch.....

What do you think??  Still looking for more hexagon ideas!

Happy sewing, K

Great Tip

This is my Hexie pile up, in the progress off getting them sew together and quilted!  

While doing a bit of browsing I came across this great tip.  GREAT TIP.

As a blog follower I love to write a quick note to show appreciation of other's quilts and projects, however, after I have got my text in, spelled correctly( most of the time : )), I get the word verification box.  Most the time I can not see it well enough to get it right and can't leave the message.  VERY frustrating!  Then I realized I had it too!  It was an auto function on blogger.  So I promptly turned it off and I NEVER get spam mail.    Any one else have this problem?  If so there is a great tip with step by step instructions to turn it off.

Happy Blogging, K

Zentangle Heart

Still under the needle. Design from my new book, you can see the heart design on the cover. I am using a signature variegated thread and have had to travel stitch over several times to build up color. It is a really good way to practice my FMQ skills. The fabric is canvas as I wanted a rough texture as the background. Once done I might add some beading or maybe bleed some textile ink into some of the sections to add interest. It's still kinda plain looking right now.

Would love some ideas??

Sunday Project

          Beautiful day in sunny California!!! I spent a nice hour in the sun doing my first Zentangle. I picked up 2 books at the Road to Ca Quilt show and had some time to try it out.

           Here is a pick of my first attempt. I am using a little spiral note pad with kinda think paper but you are really supposed to use 3.5" square tiles, a thick high quality paper with a velum like finish.

The second book is for sewing Zentangles on fabric, which I thought would be really a great way to practice FMQ and end up with a cool project. The book has some great canvas bags and with the black thread it really looks quite nice.

Gonna go play with some thread......Happy Sewing, K

Update- I spent the day sewing the heart on the cover of the book, it's still under the needle!!! I will show it off later this week......

Friday Fun Day

          Yeah it's Friday, I have a day off and I'm gonna get the yucky chores out of the way, (smog check on the car, but I  HAVE to wash it first), work on my Underground Railroad mini, some FMQ and enjoy some sunshine. In that order!





          I decided there is not enough contrast in my fabric so I changed over to this

          Some of the prints are unusual and I would never pick them but in the mini they will look good and since there is no repeats it will, be very scrappy.  

           Now I need to figure out what to do with the blocks I made in the 1930's print.  Any suggestions?  They are 3.5" square and are supposed to have sashing and corner stones in between.   I still have a bunch prepped so I can make more and there was 4 pieces of each color in the charm pack so I have some options...Just don't know what they are at the moment.

   Back to the machine....Happy Sewing, K

New Laptop Sleeve, a Finish

One more off my to list.....laptop sleeve , check!

I used my Joel Dewberry fabrics from Intrepid Thread and cut up some random strips. Pieced them together with some leftovers from my mini Scrappy Trip Along and quilted with straight lines.

  I cut it to size, added a flap, then lined it with  flannel.

The back with straight line quilting.

Boxing the corners, I used sharpie to mark it...

I had 1 strip at the bottom that I wanted to ensure it landed at the fold, so I marked it with my new Bohin, ceramic chalk pencil.

 Ta Da!!!!

 The finished sleeve!!!   I love how it looks with it's boxed corners, snug fit (on the verge of too snug, but it's gonna stretch, I keep telling myself!) and a very cheery look to brighten my day at work!!

 Here is a picture of Tyson my daughters cat cozying up to the improv rug I made for Christmas. I love his fuzzy belly!!  Yes same fabric....that fat quarter bundle goes a long way and I'm STILL in love with it.

Off to sew a bit, took a vacation day! Yeah, happy sewing, K

Road to California Quilt Show

This weekend I was able to go to the quilt show and do a bit of shopping. I try to go every year at least to shop and see the quilts on display. There is every category of quilts on display, I have a couple shown here. I was amazed at he number of 3/4 inch hexagons it took to make this quilt. The horses were hand painted and then stitched, it was one of the winners. The sea tunnel was spectacular in person and looked just like a painting, it has over 250 different fabrics in it.

I tried to behave myself with the shopping and only got a couple zen tangle books, a charm pack of 50 lights and 50 darks all one of a kind with some extra light for sashing, a new 1/4 edge stitching foot (I am in LOVE) and a few other gadgets. I did get to see Eleanor Burns in person which was cool. I don't really go for that kind if quilting but she has really good tips and techniques. She was very nice and quite funny!

I wrote this on my iPad so my pictures are going to be out of line.....sorry.

I did get some sewing done today and finished my laptop sleeve, it's drying now so no picture and some piecing with my new foot. How did I ever live without it I don't know?!

Now I gotta get some laundry done, starting a new job assignment tomorrow! Need clean clothes!
Happy Sewing, K

Linking up with Plum and June

Design wall & Free HST Paper

      This is the cutest idea. Lori Holt's mini design boards.  I made a couple this week with leftover school  project foam board.  I used some of my sweetest thing fabric for the binding and the zig zag detail is pretty cute. (You can not see it here but on Lori's you can.)
   
       I'm calling this project a UFO since I bought the pattern a year ago and am just now starting it.  Underground Railroad by Lisa Bongean@Primitive Gatherings click here to see the pattern.


  I picked up a charm pack of 1930's fabric on etsy that is vintage looking but not quite the traditional 1930's look.  At this point I am a little uncertain on the contrast of the lights and darks, I will keep going and see what happens.  I may give up and turn it into a pillow or table topper and get the real 30's fabrics.  The original is in more of a civil war fabric line.

My first block not quite all together, it's 3.5 inches unfinished.  I do like the tiny piecing but it is so hard to get the 4 patches perfectly square.  I have the center seams matched pretty good if I do say so.  That is always a challenge for me....

    

. You can go here to my post on free HST paper to print from home.

Free HST Paper

Check out this site for free HALF SQUARE TRIANGE pattern paper.   I have been buying these for my projects and during a late night sewing fest I realized I didn't have the right size for my project.  Ahhhh what am I going to do???!   Search the intranet and this is what I found.

...
You can print out any size you need and it even has a key to measure so you know your triangles are going to come out the right size!!  Thanks so much quilting and whatnot for making my sewing fest a success!