Hexie update and more

Wow, I can't believe it has been a week since I posted, but as you can see I'm still working away on my hexie medallion quilt.  The applique center is all finished and I am happy with my first foray into Broderie Perse.

Here are more hexagons sewn together. Still a few more to go but I have so many hexie flowers sewn together and cut out that I'm thinking that I may have to use them in a border too.

 For 3 days last week my sister-in-law and brother-in-law from Texas were here for a visit. She is also a quilter so we had fun shopping the local quilt stores and making these cute little butterflies for their new baby grandchild who is due to be born any time now.  It is to be a girl and we had fun making these to hang in her room.  Since I have no little girls in my life, I sent the pattern home with her and can't remember the pattern name.

I was delighted with this Dutch fabric that my SIL brought for me.  She lives near the quilt store "Happiness is Quilting" in McKinney, TX which, I believe, is the only American shop that carries this fabric.  I'm thinking that I need to order the panel now that I have seen this in person. 
Happy Stitching to all.

My favorite sewing bag

 Since I am still working away on my hexies and appliquing the medallion I thought I would share my favorite sewing bag.  This is the "Victoria" bag by Sue Spargo.  The center front is done in wool applique, but I must admit I did change a few of the applique shapes from the original.  I love this bag cause it seems to go with everything that I wear and is a perfect size. I often take it to quilt guild and I swear people recognize this bag more than they do me!  Kinda like how my husband knows our neighbors by their cars.

These are some of the sewing accessories that I use with the bag.  My DS sent me the little pincushion and the nametag is actually a pin-on needlecase that I made at an applique retreat.  That polka dot thing is a thread catcher that folds up and the flower covered thing is a wool appliqued sewing case.  And I love having a matching zippered pouch to hold threads and misc. stuff and this one was just whipped up with leftovers from the bag.  I've been using this bag for about a year now and I'm starting to get the itch to make something new, but I don't know, I still LOVE this bag!

Back to Applique

 I've been out of town for a few days and was able to spend lots of time with my hexies but yesterday I was itching to get the appliqued medallion prepped for stitching.  Picking out the fabrics and watching an applique piece come together is probably my favorite part of quilting and I can really lose myself.  I finally decided to use these 3/4" flowers in a variation of the "Aunt Sarah" quilt in the Quilt Mania magazine No. 82.  I did change the medallion slightly and decided to try Broiderie perse (now I just know I spelled that wrong) with the flowers.  I love how it looks and can't wait to see it all appliqued.  As you can see I have glued up the whole block and have started stitching using the needleturn method.  I know it is a bit unconventional to glue everything down first, but it works for me!

Here is an idea of how it will look with the hexagons added.  Again I changed this from the pattern, eliminating the bottom row of hexagons to keep it more square. Yay, its half done.

Just for fun I put some half square triangles on the design wall to help me get thinking about some borders.  The pattern just has a straight border to finish off the quilt but I want to add a little more interest.  These triangles are left overs from another project, actually throw aways, and I am excited to think that I can use them for this project. I have about 300 of these and I am liking this so far.

Finally, here is the little pin cushion I made to go in my hexie sewing basket.  It is made with 1/2" hexies and was a fun little experiment.  I just love having my sewing accessories look as pretty as the project I am working on!
Happy Stitching 

Hexies coming together

I just set my hexies on my bed and aren't they looking pretty.  I've decided that this quilt is going to hang on the wall behind this bed so I can enjoy it everyday.  I had no idea how time consuming these little things were going to be when I started this project so I don't want it to end up folded up in a pile and besides if it is for the wall it won't have to be so big!  I'm definitely planning an appliqued medallion center surrounded by these hexagons and perhaps something extra in the borders. 

Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post.  I didn't know about "refreshing" a page so that info helped and I think I have solved a few other problems on my own.  This blogging can be frustrating but I am learning lots, both about computers and quilting!

Off to make more hexies!

A blog win and a plea for "Follower" help

What a great way to brighten up a dreary day.  Yesterday these fun things arrived in the mail thanks to a generous giveaway from Kelly at Pinkadots Quilts.  I have a link to her blog on my sidebar so you can go check out the fun things she is working on.  I love her fun use of bright fabrics.  Thanks Kelly, I can't wait to figure out what to do with the Christmas charm packs and the little pumpkin will now go up on the wall in my kitchen!
 On a totally different note, I have been having trouble with my "Followers"  on my sidebar.  Sometimes they are there sometimes not.  Yesterday I spent some time searching Google and blogger for a solution and thought that I had it all figured out but then today I went in and they were gone again.  I am usually able to retrieve them by clearing history and I think perhaps yesterday's fix (which I can't explain cause I didn't really understand) did solve some of the problems but I would love to hear from anyone who reads my blog.  Mainly can you see my followers in my sidebar or is this disappearance now just happening on my computer?  For a while you could only see followers if you came direct, not from someone else's blog but that hopefully is OK now. I know that this is a problem that others are experiencing as I sometimes can't see the followers and the button doesn't work on other blogs.  Thanks to everyone who responds, I will be so grateful as this is really driving me nuts!  Thank goodness for my hexie distraction and a big thank you again to Kelly for the delightful giveaway.

The frenzy continues

I've been a bit slack on my posting lately because I have been in a bit of a hexie frenzy.  My papers arrived last week and I have been working steadily on this pile of hexagons.  I did try printing out some of the hexagons on card stock and cutting them out but frankly that was rather time consuming and no fun at all, so I was thrilled when the papers I ordered arrived.  The company was very quick to reship them to the correct address and their prompt and considerate customer service means that I will be happy to order from them in the future.  So nice when a company does everything they can to fix a mistake rather than argue about it!
 My biggest problem with these little beauties is that they are so addictive I haven't done any other sewing in the past week, but they will be super travel companions when I go out of town later this week.  I'm still not positive how I am going to use them but I think that a medallion with some applique may be involved.  Such fun!!!

Birds of a Feather

Since I don't have much to show for the last few days work I thought I would instead show you what is currently hanging over my fireplace.  This is from the book "Birds of a Feather" by Blackbird designs.  When I took down my quilt to hang in our guild's recent show I looked for something else to take its place.  Since this looks sorta autumnish to me and more important, fit the area, it will hang here til the Christmas decorations go up.  I love having this space to highlight some of my quilts,  it is amazing how just changing the quilt and a few accessories really changes the room.  Don't know why the color is so off in the photo, it is much brighter in person and the wall behind it is yellow not beige.
Sadly I have run out of my precut hexagon papers and the company that I ordered them from shipped them to my billing address rather than my shipping address.  They have promised to reship the order to the correct address but I am starting to have hexie withdrawal.  Hope they get here soon and in the meantime I have a quilt to bind and applique to keep me busy.

My new addiction

For years I have heard mutterings among quilters about the thrill of hexagons but I have never been too tempted.  Frankly, the typical Grandmother's Flower Garden never spoke to me and English Paper Piecing just seemed like it would be too much work.  But then I started seeing all the wonderful things being done with hexagons in some of the Australian blogs that I read and I became intrigued.  I have loved Australian quilts for years and have many magazines but blogland really opened up a whole new world of inspiration.  I had some of the paper hexagons sitting around ,you know those things you buy thinking someday maybe I'll try this.  And after checking out several different tutorials I made my first one with some scraps that were already cut in the right size.  Wow, what fun!!  A new addiction is born.  As you can see I found a perfect little basket sitting around the house and have already filled it with cut fabric and I ordered more of those little papers. My DH says that I am so obsessed with the "papers" that it sounds like I'm addicted to something else, but no its just these little hexagon beauties.

So thanks to all you bloggers using hexagons in beautiful ways, especially those in Australia, you have a fan and convert.