Just for fun- 1/4" hexies

 When I was looking around at all the hexie projects and such popping up I saw 1/4" hexies. They were adorable and I thought whoever made them was insane.

Then I was thinking I'd like to do a smaller hexie then the 1" ones I've been doing for my other hexie projects, so I went looking for papers to buy because I'm not hand cutting hexagons and the dies I have are 1", 1.25", 1.5" and 2.5" or something like that.
I saw 1/4" hexies. I thought they were again adorable. But this time I forgot the insane part.

Luckily I decided to make a quick practice hexie flower using them before buying a ton of the papers because, yes you really do have to be insane, or have much smaller and more nimble fingers then I do to enjoy making a gazillion of these!!

But they sure are cute!

MFHexy quilt along

 I've been plugging away at my MFHexy quilt. I have almost all the flowers done. And now have to sew them in rows. Which I may not do. I have an idea but will have to see if it would work before I share it.

I did get the border fabric, I'm using Moda Crossweave in Apple. It matches the light green that is in a few of the prints, and I think it will help lighten up the quilt since I'm using the darker of the colourways from Lilly Belle.
Which I'm loving more and more.

There is so many little details I only notice while I'm working with such small pieces. And because I'm hand sewing them, I can look closer then when they're zooming past when machine sewing.

This has been a great project to have on the go this summer. I can take it anywhere and work on it when Little Bit is playing.

Just for Fun! Hexie bag!

 Lately I've not had a lot of time to sew just for fun. But one of the things I decided I did want to do was Katy's MF Hexie quilt in the fabulous Bari J's Lilly Belle. (check out her blog to see 14 days of Lilly Belle, where she's doing a new project EACH day!)

I've been plugging away at basting and sewing hexies, in the end we need 666 (no I'm not making that up) petals and 74 centers. That's a whole lotta hexies. To keep myself a tiny bit organized I've been using a big ziploc bag to keep all my stuff together.

 But ziplocs while handy, aren't very pretty. And they don't have a handle.
So I decided to make a bag for my hexies.
And then decided it should be made out of hexies. I think I was insane at the time. Maybe from the crazy heat or the super bad sunburn I got last week.

Well whatever the reason I decided to make the hexie bag. I use the AccuQuilt 1.5" die, the 2.5" I thought was too big and the 1" way to small. I really wish there was a 2" on the die, I think it would have been better but whatever.


I had some left over Fandango by Kate Spain from when I made the filing cabinet cover for Moda Bake Shop and I found it when cleaning my sewing room to get it ready for painting so I decided to use it.


So here is my hexie bag for hexies!

 You can see how I've even tried to organize the inside! A pocket for my thread, of course using some Aurifil!, scissors, needle jar, and a pocket for the hexies waiting to be basted. I use a dab of glue to hold the papers to the hexies so they're in the pocket to keep the papers from being torn off. I use the bright pink thread to baste, so much easier to see when it's time to pull it out, and the grey and taupe to stitch the hexagons together.

 

 I even put a zipper on it! Just for you Bari! I hadn't originally planned on the zipper so I made the strap go through to make the bag draw up when hung. I'll fix that later when I find something to put on the ends of the strap because I used 1" grommets.

Have you ever made a bag just to hold a project? What do you think? Smart or crazy?

FNSI results, some more QAL blocks and news

hehehe I flaked on posting my sewing from the Friday Night Sew In. Mostly I had a Friday Night Cut Up. I used the Big Shot to cut a whole lot of 1.5" hexagons from Bari J's Lilly Belle fabrics. This stuff makes me so happy. As I was playing with it I noticed the feel is different then most quilt fabrics. It's closer to a batik feel and I asked Bari about it and she said that Art Gallery fabrics are a higher thread count then most of the industry, which you can very much feel.
The Big Shot makes cutting super fast. I can cut 24 hexies at a time! The die has 4 and I can do up to 6 layers at a time accurately. 

     I also made two more blocks for my Fig Tree Farmer's Mistress Quilt, but only one of them is actually from the books. I made a granny square block, which seems to be all the rage right now around blog world, and a a lightening bolt block.

 I love making these smaller blocks, I normally make 12" blocks but these are only 6 so they seem so cute. For those who are wondering you need 1.5" (unfinished) squares to get a 6" (finished) granny square block.

And for the news! Starting July 31st  there will be a daytime Talkin Tuesday! Now there are TWO chats! One starts at 1pm ET and the other at 9pm ET. I've had a lot of requests from the Europeans and some others who can't join in the evening chat so I'm adding a daytime one. The earlier chat will be #talknt2 and the evening the original #talknt.
I'm going to run the daytime chat on a trial basis for about 4 or 6 weeks to see how it takes before committing to making it permanent.

Book Review - Hexa Go-Go

  I'm super lucky to have the opportunity to do some book reviews for C&T Publishing, including Stash Books.
One of the books is Hexa Go-Go by Tacha Bruecher, one of the geniuses behind Fat Quarterly.

Since I'm doing the MFHexie Quilt Along with Katy, also behind Fat Quarterly, this book is perfect timing!

Hexa Go-Go is all about English Paper Piecing (EPP) and has 16 different patterns that use hexagons, in all different settings.


Tacha does a really good job explaining how to make hexies, and gives different methods, for making, basting and stitching together the hexies, depending on the project and your personal preference.

One of the things I really have found in quilting in general is that there are a lot of "right" ways of doing things. Which one is right for you depends on a lot of different variables. Tacha understands that and gives instructions that everyone should be able to understand and work into their own style.



Not surprisingly the book has some serious eye candy! Both Fat Quarterly and Stash Books have a real flair for capturing the feel of quilts and projects and not just the physical dimensions.

  Tacha does a great job taking what is a very traditional shape and making it into very modern designs.
This isn't Grandmother's Flower Garden!
Between the fabrics, the arrangement of the hexagons, and the addition of other elements, hexagons leave the 1930s and come blasting into the 21st century!

  Hexies are a great stash buster and all of the projects in Hexa-Go-Go can be made mostly from scraps, or from precuts or yardage. Whatever the look you prefer you can make it with these projects. From placemats to full bed quilts there is something for everyone, whether you just want to dip your toe into the EPP pond or if you're a full blown hexie addict.

   With this book available there is no reason for anyone to say they can't make a hexie project, on the "go-go"!