A Hexie Finish

In June of 2018, I joined a sew along using EPP hexagons. I had never don English Paper Piecing before, and had never wanted to. When I finished my Kingfisher quilt, I missed sewing those cute hexies. So I decided to start making more hexies to use in a future project. I kept them grouped in a box by color. When the box was pretty full, I decided I needed to quit making them and start using them. I used a few here and there in applique projects, but finally started sewing them to each other.

I pulled out this dotted fabric to use as borders/sashing and made some more hexies. Then, I began making hexie flowers. I just made them randomly, and began joining them together with the dotted fabric. Once I had a few together, I decided that a table runner was a good idea. It wasn't too big, but it was big enough.

 I would make a few and them join them together, just trying to find pleasing arrangements as I went along. I have seen many Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts, so I knew it really didn't matter if some colors were too close together.

I decided to leave the edges of the runner irregular and I began quilting it, dividing each hexagon into 6 pie slice pieces. It took me three days to get this small runner quilted like that, but I am very happy I chose this way to quilt it.

 I knew there was no way I would be able to bind the edges of this thing, so I opted to cut it close to the edges and zigzag over the edges. It won't get washed as much as a quilt might, so I think it  will be fine.

And here it is, in all its glory. It sits on the glass coffee table in the living room. And yes, there is usually stuff sitting on top of it, but I wanted to show you the whole thing. So that is one more project checked off my list for 2020. I am just rolling along here.
Have a great weekend.

Low Volume Table Runner

Remember last week when I showed you some pictures of a low volume table runner I was making? Well I got the whole thing quilted and bound the next day. Pictures? Of course.

 This is the runner, spread out on the glass topped coffee table in our living room. I love having a runner on that table and I need to make a few more. Maybe a Christmas one?

 After I got all the strip sets put together as one, and pin basted, I began to do some straight line quilting. I did some random width lines. Thick and thin.

 Then, of course the binding had to be neutral too, so as to blend in with the top.

But the back is much more colorful. And of course, there is my label. I am really loving the look of this. I will see you soon.

Christmas Crafting

Hello there. I know it's been awhile. Some secret sewing going on, plus, just a bit of laziness on my part. When you get out of the habit of blogging, even for a few weeks, it's hard to get going again. Right now I am working on some Christmas stuff. What I have to show you today is not gifts, so no big secret.

Remember this fabric from 2016? Cotton and Steel? Well  bought some because it was so cute. And then I didn't use it. Until now.

 Well I carefully fussy cut these cuties out, and stitched them together and stuffed them.

 And then I bought some small wooden letters at Michael's. I drilled the holes and painted on the year to make them into ornaments for the grand kids. I just strung the Santas together and tied them to the bottom.

 As I was stitching and stuffing the Santas, I was keeping them in an Altoids tin. I love how cute they are all together in here.

One more for J. I also had some tiny jingle bells left from another project a few years back and put them on the bottom. Can't have Christmas without jingle bells.

 My other project is a table runner for my oldest daughter. We will be there for Christmas this year, so I wanted to make a new festive runner. I bought some yardage of Swell Christmas with her in mind. She loves vintage looking things like this.

 It took me awhile to come up with something that would really show off the vintage look. I drew this out and ended up paper piecing it to make it work.

 Then I found this red in my stash that had the perfect color and the perfect vibe to be the border.

Some more Christmas fabric from a few years ago for the back, a label and it's done and ready to go.

Kinda hard to photograph since it's 84 inches long. But I am happy with the result. I know she will be too.
Until next time, happy Friday.

Christmas is Coming

It's just next week, as a matter of fact. So much still to do. If life was a little less chaotic, I would have more posts and more to show you. It is hard to find sewing time right now. On top of working 40 hours a week, I am babysitting one day a week after work, which cuts out any sewing time that day and one of my days off each of these last two weeks is for Christmas shopping with my hubby.  And yesterday was our Cookie Sunday for the grandsons.

 I buy ingredients when they are on sale for about 2 months ahead of time. We need to bake lots of cookies and biscotti.

And I dress the part for this one day, with my Christmas clothes and baking apron. Just waiting for my kiddos to show up.  It was a good day. The older boys got to help with many parts, and then just enjoyed being together and playing. Little B, at 18 months loved having so many grown ups to pay attention to him, and tried to keep up with the big kids.

In other news, I was able to finish my first ever holiday table runner.  I have wanted to make one, but never have gotten around to it until now.

 I had purchased two of the prints from Hip Holiday when it first came out, not knowing what I would do with it, but knowing I would make something once inspiration struck.

 I used the triangle part of my Tri-Recs tool to cut the triangles for the runner, adding a green that I had and a pale blue from the Noteworthy line. It looks grey here, sorry.

 I quilted it with a spiraling triangle in each one, using different color threads. I used dark pink on the blue, pale blue in the green and a lime green in the big print diamonds.

The back is half cars and trees and half mod trees, so it can be used both ways. This one went home with the oldest daughter. She can't have a table cloth right now, because Little B will pull it off the table.  Next year I will make one for the next daughter and one for myself. I still have lots of Christmas fabric to use up.  Have a great week and talk to you soon.