Hexies on my table

Hey, everybody!  I finished my EPP Hexies!

Hmmm, but what IS it, you say?

My new table topper, of course!  :)  
When I take the middle sections out of my kitchen table, it is a circle.  I think this new hexie shaped table topper will work great with the round table.



Once all my EPP hexies were sewn together, I wasn't sure how to finish them off into a useable object.  Finally, I decided to applique the hexies onto this piece of Kona in a forgotten color.  I didn't want to bind, so I layered batting, then more Kona for the backing, and then the upside down top.  Stitch around the edge, leave a turning opening, turn, and hey-presto!  no need to bind :)





I quilted hexie rings radiating out from the center, and I love how the back looks:



Do you see that little bit of a stitching line in the upper left hand corner?  When I removed all the basting stitches and papers from the hexies, I accidentally left one paper in and didn't notice until it was appliqued down and the layers were sewn together, so I had to rip up the stitches and sew it back down again.



If you want to read earlier posts about my hexies, click here or here or here :)
Getting this WIP done makes me feel like I'm making real progress on my WIP list {ha! there are plenty more where this came from!}

I'm linking up to Crazy Mom quilts, You Flew Tuesday, TGIFF, Quilt Story, Show and Tell Tuesday
   

get stitched

Two summers ago, I carried these hexies around everywhere I went.  I loved stitching in beautiful, happy places.  I loved the freedom of a go-anywhere project, and I loved the Hexies. 

But once they were stitched together, I didn't know how to finish them into something useful.  Uncertainty caused me to let them sit in the figurative WIP pile {I don't actually keep all my WIPs together, I prefer to be in denial about how many there are}



... until recently, when I decided to just jump in and give it a go.  I'm nearly done now, and I can't wait to show you the finished project :)

 

Say it with Flowers! {and cozy up with a pillow}

Hello everybody!
Welcome to my stop on the Say it with Flowers! blog hop with Mdm Samm @ Sew Quilt, with Carol of Just Let Me Quilt as cheerleader!  thank you ladies for another fun blog hop!

I made a new pillow, yay!  {the kids have been fighting over the Sashiko pillow I made.  3 kids : 1 pillow isn't a good ratio.  We are up to 3 : 2 now, getting better, *grin*} 



My project was inspired by Lucy @ Charm About You, who was inspired by a tutorial on Chasing Cottons.  Don't you just love the sharing of great ideas and beautiful work in blogland?  :)



This is my pillow back, I just made a simple envelope closure.  All the fabrics except the white background are DS for Joans.  That white has been in my stash for years.  {Years and Years and Years, people.  It is definitely time to put it to use}  :)



the flowers are all raw edge fusible appliqued on.  This red & white flower was stitched on mostly using my walking foot.  It didn't take long for me to remember how much I dislike machine applique {funny how Lucy's cute flowers made me completely forget that!} and I decided to stitch the rest of them with the FMQ foot during quilting.  The leaf on the left was FMQed, the leaf on the right walking foot stitched, just for comparison.  I definitely like the look of the walking foot leaf better, but it was driving me nuts.





In this picture you can sort of see the print on the white fabric.  Not quite flowers, not quite bubbles, but I think it works :)



I don't have a pillow form yet, so it is still looking a bit flat :) 
Here is the pillow posing next to a handsome bear to help show size.  Not one of my better ideas, since this only helps if you know how big the bear is!  Oh well, the pillow is about 10 inches square :)

Here is the rest of today's schedule, I'll be taking my coffee with me around to see all the pretty flowers! :)

May 30^th

A Quilt Lady

The House On The Side Of The Hill

Ella & Nesta’s Little Room

CLF by Nailaa

Atelier De Handwerktuin

Life, Quilts, and A Cat Too

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Celtic Thistle

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Dreaming In Patchwork  < That's Me!

Around The Homestead

The Hungry Caterpillar goes to Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hello!  This is my entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.  I know I'm squeaking in at the last minute, but I've actually had a hard time writting this post.  I was putting myself to sleep :)  I'll try one more time now, with a little less blah blah blah, shall I?

This is 'The Hungry Caterplillar Quilt'  {I know, I know.  I can really pick a creative title for my quilts, can't I?}  I made this quilt for Son #3 in August of 2009, and I am so glad I wasn't lazy and put a label on this quilt, because I just had to go check it for the date *grin*

The quilt measures absurdly wide x ridiculously long.  If you aren't familiar with this standard of measurement, it converts to just a tad too small for my queen sized bed, but I bet I could make it work if I could ever wrestle it away from my son :)  {I made this quilt for his twin bed}

The pattern is my own design, a bit of simple piecing and some machine applique. 

If you aren't familiar with The Hungry Caterpillar book, the caterpillar eats a different fruit each day of the week, eating one more fruit than the day before, until on Saturday he pigs out and has a stomache ache {for the longest time, my son would beg for a stomache ache when we read that part}

I appliqued all the fruit he ate, with the days of the week, on the top of the quilt.  There was a panel that I cut up and smooshed into the top where ever it would fit.  When I had the main portion of the quilt in two pieces, top and bottom, I realized one was wider than the other.  Oops.  I added bits of the dot fabric here and there until the pieces were the same size and stitched them together.  I don't even remember where the extra bits are anymore :)

My Mom quilted it on the longarm, and as you can see she did loops around many of the motifs.  {ooh, poor caterpillar has a tummy ache :)}

 bound with the dots

I backed the quilt with the repeating stripe, but I needed a little more,so I added a strip of scraps to the side to make the backing long enough.

Thank you Library Quilting Ladies, for holding up the quilt so I could get a picture.  Because around the house, it normally looks like this

Thanks for stopping by :)

how to make laundry fun OR a desperation for spring flowers and warm sunshine

Hello!
My sewing machine has been pretty quiet this week, but the washer has been humming away!  These are just some of the fabrics I've been prewashing to use in another of my UFO's.

This quilt is the second I ever started, and this is as far as I got with it. There will be 23 varieties of flowers when it is done.

Here in New Hampshire, we had a tease of beautiful spring-like weather, but now we are back to this:

I'm longing for spring's flowers, but my gardens are under snowbanks, so I'm appliqueing some fabric ones until the real deal starts popping up in the backyard :)

I love my garden flowers, they bring much needed color and happiness to my days.
These are some of my favorites:

Dandelions
Daffodils
Lilacs
pink Lady's Slippers
Violets
Chinese Lanterns
Mayflowers
Johnny-Jump-Ups
Poppies
Jonquils
pink Bee Balm
Lupin
Black Eyed Susan
Snapdragons
Queen Anne's Lace
mums
Impatients
Buttercups

And you?  What are your favorite flowers?
I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced today.  If you haven't been over there, you really should stop by.  If you are new to my blog, welcome, and I hope you enjoyed your visit :) 
Happy Stitches everybody!