2012 Catch-up

I'm still here!  Making all kinds of stuff, but way too tired to actually edit and post photos of any of it.  Much to my woe, I don't have pictures of two of my finished quilts (!?!)

But here's a photo-heavy super fast summary of the last three months.

I was freezing in late October, so I made myself a SUPER soft scarf - AMH voile and flannel.  I also picked up a little knitting again, as I'm teaching a home school girl how to knit.  I used Lorana's laces worsted and made some fingerless mitts.

And you may not be able to tell from the photo, but I sure can - the reason I was totally lazy - I'm also busy making a baby!  Little one due June 22nd.  (Every one of my bathroom self-photos look a little psycho.  Not one of my skills!)



In October I finished up Bernina technical training.  I took an 830 apart into a million pieces.



And then actually got it back together and working properly!  Also did a couple other machines and a serger.  I've been having fun at the shop, cleaning and repairing both very old and current Berninas.



This is the year of the quilt for my close group of friends.  Our boys were tiger scouts in 1st grade, and we bonded over the cub scout years of crazy.  With those same boys HS sophomores at this point, the 5 of us get together for birthday breakfasts, at the least, throughout the year.  I always do something hand made, and was running out of ideas.  So I went the easy route and decided I would do a special lap quilt for each of them this year.

The first birthday is Larua's, in August.  She is a pink person, and I had a blast pulling all my pinks for a sparkle punch.  I gifted the quilt top and then took it back to finish :)  It turned out awesome, and I for some reason have only this one picture!



Maureen was next, with her December birthday.  I love this bow tie pattern and went with it in huge blocks to show off my favorite blues and greens.  She's a gnome lover, like me.  She's totally Heather Ross Gnome-worthy, and I used a big hunk of it.



All the bow tie corner extras were stitched at the same time into HSTs, and I did a random block of them on the back.  With one more little gnome in a special spot by my birthday wish for her.



Finished up my bee blocks - horribly late and some without even taking photos.

Lee's solids were wonderful.



And I loved doing my own hexagon improv, using the pink dandelion fabric as inspiration.



Finally got to see my quilt in print, after completing and sending it off a year ago November.



I'm one of the contributors in this new book, with my large lap quilt called Starflower.  I was having fun looking at the idea of negative space that we all talk about, and actually reversing it - swapping the prints/solid neutral, within modern quilt designs.  This is the one they accepted for the book.



I've made this pattern by Amy Smart three times now, and I love it every time!  This was a baby shower gift, and I actually have several more photos.  So I'll talk about it more in another post.



Same for the custom ocean quilts I did.  I so love how they turned out, but I don't have a single picture of the second one!  WTF?



Let's call it a wrap on 2012!

Hexagon Bee Block.....

A little late....as it was a September block.



But I am having the best time making this one.

Never saw that pink print before. It's a wonderful collection of dandelion puffs. I thought the hexagons could echo that feeling and move from one corner to the other.

How long do you wait for your bee-mates' fabric to speak to you before you finally get their blocks made? I'm usually on-time-to-early, but late this month! So glad I waited. This idea just struck me a few days ago.

I've been super busy - Instagram Update

Things have been nuts, with the summer wrapping up.

I only need to survive 24 more hours, only 24 more hours....the older two start school on Wednesday.




I've been waiting on this pretty little Organic bundle.

Ok, I only needed the bottom two Storyboek II prints...but I couldn't pass adding in the adorable Scamper.



I got a few blue and then green hexagons joined during the Olympics.



So Fast!

In my wait for the organic prints for my custom order, I started and finished piecing a Sparkling Cider 64x64 quilt top.



Our blackberry bush is WAY overflowing. Becket and I picked over 10 cups of berries Saturday night!!!

I made freezer jam, a cobbler, and froze the last couple cups for smoothies.



A non-instagram photo...I got the borders added to this quilt my sister in-law asked me to make.

I am super happy with how flat and square it all seems.



And finally, a fun new adventure for me. My first paying job since I left Motorola when Kenton was born in 1998.   (Not counting commission quilts I guess....I actually had to fill out a form for Homeland Security and an application.  Boy has it been a long time!)

I'm working at a super cute local quilt shop called Gentler Times Stitching in Naperville (by the Fox Valley mall for any local people). You can read a little about Brenda, the owner, if you click my link.

They have a fun collection of fabrics AND yarn, plus a good selection of other fiber crafty stuff, and they are a Bernina dealer. Right now I'm learning the store - eventually my official position will be an in-house Bernina tech.  I'll get to learn all the machines really well, along with going to an official Bernina tech training class.  Not sure how it all will go, but it's going to be fun!

Handwork

I have some bee blocks that were caught up on today.  But most of September was filled with small bits of time in which I could do some handwork.



I'm finally joining all those hexagons I made over the summer last year.



It's like visiting fun old friends.



Some of which are super tricky - not sure I would recommend making hexagons with double gauze.



I was at least wise enough to keep all of them off the edges. I think that would have made things too difficult when I sash up the blocks.



Gee - it totally seemed like I had more than four done!

.

Bee Fun

We're starting to get a routine going - hurray! It even includes exercising for myself. I'm starting to jiggle where I shouldn't. Next week Becket starts his school, so it will only get better.

For now, I wanted to make sure I finished up August's bee blocks.

Terri has us in the mood for fall with her string blocks.

And Erica had perfect timing when she asked for quilt as you go blocks. Her fabrics were so wonderful and I had been wanting to try out Penny's QAYG blocks for some time. It went quite well, but after only one block I had huge dust bunnies inside my machine.

Heather is hosting a second round quilt along for these blocks and as always, put a fun and funky twist on the whole thing. She mentioned backing each with muslin for some free motion fun. I think I'll try that if I go free motion or not, just to help keep down the crazy dust bunnies. I hate it when my machine goes cruuunch-gronck-schkkkkah.

And look at my pretty - PURPLE - flower. I can't believe I made a purple one, but it had to be done and I actually like it. That's one of the best things about quilting with friends. They make you step outside you favorite colors or blocks and try something fun!


Here's a little note for any of you out there that are pediatricians. Saying "This isn't anything to worry about, Mom. We'll just have the specialist check it out as a precaution." DOES NOT HELP. Moms will still spend all the days until said visit worrying, and perhaps an entire day before with a horrible head ache and on the verge of vomiting.

Thankfully it really was nothing, and the specialist said 'totally normal' after about two seconds.

Hexagon Swap

Not much going on with all the scout stuff. So glad Hexagons are portable, so I was able to join in the fun hexagon swap this round! I sent Mr Gnome off this morning.

And a totally random note - my old home popped into my mind while I was on the computer, and with google's yellow streets I thought I may get a chance to see it.

We moved away from Parsons Drive in Avon Lake, Ohio near the start of 5th grade, before I turned 10. I couldn't believe it when the map popped up....

I still have dreams about riding my bike around the neighborhood - to the library - and to school. In my dreams the street is u-shaped and has a little connector street that joins to a line of others.

I totally thought that was just something my brain made up. I don't remember it, but I guess my brain does! That's exactly how the map shows the streets around my old house.

Memories are amazing. Just had to share.

Doom

Let's stop and look at the lovely bowl full of my 1.25" hexagons. I have about 180 made of the 352 needed for my quilt. They sprang up during my Hawaii flights and since then during movie nights and while waiting in the car for lacrosse practice to end. I love a portable project!

When I turn around I see this stack that has bee waiting since Sunday night. I found a wonderful use for all the crazy novelty prints I bought when I first started to think about quilts. (I was never going to be a 'quilter'. I was just going to make my son a crafty i-spy blanket. Little did I know!)

These will become pillowcases for children - donated to ConKerr Cancer.

Oh dear, here's the baby quilt that I was ahead of the game on, draped over a chair waiting to be basted. The baby came early yesterday! Eeeek!

And there's the DOOM. In a crazy moment last fall I volunteered to head up organizing our troop's week at Boy Scout Camp. What was I thinking?! I made myself a list just so I could happily cross things off, as it's still a crazy long list and we leave on Sunday and I'm freakin' out a little. I ride the bus 4 hours to camp with 56 boys. I'm thinking some ear plugs and a pile of hexagons are seriously needed here.

Have your kit at the Ready!

Well, it has been an interesting week. Seems more like early spring around here with the strange weather. Luckily the travel hexagon kit has been loaded and at the ready for every time we have to dash down to the basement!

A micro burst or something came through - literally pushed over a large willow and spruce in the neighbor yards.

One of our 4x4 fence posts was sheared off at the cement base by the WIND. It's barely holding on at the bottom there!

And this one burst ended at our sunroom. My window is now...art? Poor Becket was freaked out and screaming "I don't want to die!" Amazingly in all that, none of out homes were majorly damaged and no people were injured at all.

Finally, today looks like a stable weather pattern. And I got 45 more hexagons done in the basement. So all is good!

Finding Fabric - here and Hawaii

I've found a bunch of fabric in my mail box the last few days. The stash report isn't going to be pretty on Sunday so I thought I should trickle it in over the next few days :)

Here's a bit turned into awesome hexagons from Milky Robot. We did our own little swap.
I love them!


I totally caved - pushed a button - and this showed up today.

I have a good pile of fabrics from Hawaii that also need shopping details.
On Kauai I went to three shops. I actually printed out Autumn's post and took it with me. Her directions were spot on. All three are within 10 minutes or so of Lihue. Not like anything is far on the tiny island.
Here's Autumn's Kauai fabric shop link.


Of the three, Kapaia Stitchery was my favorite, although probably the priciest. The discount warehouse was the least expensive, and if I had the luggage space I could have loaded up on Kona cottons! Most prints were 3.99 to 5.99 a yard.


I really loved all the sample quilts and wonderful Hawaiian print quilting cotton at Kapaia Stitchery. Back to standard brick and mortar fabric costs, but I could have looked for hours.

Airplane Hexagon Production

So, the important info. How many did I make?
(and I'm remodeling the blog, so ignore the crazy if you clock over from reader)

I made just over 90 - with about 75% of those on the flight there. I got lots of interest from others on the way to the bathroom and the flight attendants. They loved the cuteness.

I didn't have any trouble at all carrying these on - both long flights and the inter island flight mid week.

I used a latch-lid container. Nice and slim but room for all my stuff.

Here is my little set-up. I took on a TON of needles and pins both. No scissors, but they are allowed under a certain size.

This was my best idea. I hot glued several craft magnets to one edge. They held perfectly. When working, it was much easier to place my pin or in-work needle on the magnets than inserting into the travel case. Also I wasn't worried about them flying around with all the bumps from air and people.

I used this needle threader with the little cutter on it. One less thing being able to leave scissors at home. And after threading large tapestry needles with yarn and embroidery floss for so long, I seriously can not thread a sharp needle. It is so annoying!

This little Clover thing worked very well with, no surprise, the gold-eye sharp Clover needles. A few other types I tried didn't work at all. Even one that was labeled as "large eye". I would thread up about 7 needles at once and line them up in my case. That way I wouldn't have to stop so often.

This fun little pile is a sample of some goodies I found in my post-vacation mail!

Kauai Sunrise

{As Mark photoshops our vacation, I'll probably be posting some Hawaii faves for a while.}

Hanalei Valley Rainbow (double!)

Hexagon needle book : tutorial

{or Use some of those things, already!}
also, blogger is being strange - this posted randomly, then went away as it was scheduled for Wednesday, and now is back, let's hope it doesn't disappear again

I had some extra d-rings from the netbook project, and also needed a second needle book for summer hexagon work. I was getting ready to make a plain old rectangle then realized I should make it a cute hexagon!

It's wool felt lined and also has two pages for pins and needles. Here's how you can make one, too. Please forgive some of these grainy process shots - I made it on a whim at night.

First, select two cute prints and baste your hexagons.
I made these with 1.5" hexagons - that's the measurement along one straight edge.

Then trace your shape and cut out two wool felt pieces the same size as your hexagon.

Iron your hexagon nice and flat, remove your paper shape, and pin wrong side to the wool felt. Slowly machine stitch about an 1/8" from the edges. You want to make sure you catch all the raw edges under on your hexie, no worries on the wool. Make two like this.

Now trace your hexagon again on some more felt. This time space them about 1.25" apart. Leave 5/8" wide strip in the center and trim away the rest. This will be your hanging loop. I like having the option of attaching this to my travel sewing stuff so it doesn't get lost in the bottom of a bag.

Fold the felt in half, then roll up one hexagon and stuff it through the d-ring. Make sure you do this before you stitch it all together!

Layer a hexagon print side down, folded felt center, then hexagon print side up. Machine stitch across the whole top edge a couple of times, close to the edge, but making sure you catch all four layers.

Now you have the cutest needle book around!