I made this

Oh lordy this kid is 2. And I'm proud to say that she knows what a hexagon is. My work here is done.

So, then, it's only appropriate that I made her this little pillow. I meant it to be for her doll but she's not too into that. She wants it. Can't argue with good taste.

The hexagons were pieced together during a medical conference. I detest sitting still so I bring hand sewing to keep me calm in lecture situations. I got to use a sweet little hexagon needle book that Megan made for me. She has a rocking tutorial on how to do it yourself. This is so much better than sticking my pins in a fabric scrap.

I also turned my hexagon critters into a little doll blanket. This is by far the cutest thing I've ever made. I busted it out super quick, and the piecing is quite imprecise. I really hope she likes it though. I hope that someday she will appreciate that it was made with love.

The bunny and frog were the most recent hexagon critters.

But the hedgehog is still my favorite.

I just love those little guys. Oh....I'm having a moment: hedgehog birthday cake?! Where the candles are the quills? Not so impressive if there's only two quills, but if there were, say, thirty five, that would be something. I'll return to this subject in May, no doubt.

I'm only taking this off to shower

I think I have answered one of life's great mysteries: how can I wear a patchwork scarf while still having yummy softness around my neck?  I'm not sure there are words to describe how perfectly soft this knit is. I don't know anything about knits, or what kind of knit this is, but I wish I did. I want to live in this stuff.

Ingredients: a half yard of super soft knit from the remnant rack, 20 almost-one-inch hexagons

Recipe: fold the knit in half the long way, right sides together, stitch up the open sides, leaving a 3 inch hole in the middle of the long seam. Turn right side out, stitch hole closed by hand.  Applique hexagons. Apply to neck. Let out a deep sigh.

I had planned to applique the hexies on a skirt. Then I saw Jen making her scarves on sewing night and had to acknowledge that summer was indeed ending. I did not follow Jen's sage advice about sewing the scarf into a loop to keep the toddler from yanking on it, and so I was nearly throttled this afternoon. I then discovered the super short double loop shown above so my life is no longer in danger.

Wow

If you're just arriving, the giveaway and quilt along announcement are here.

I want to say a thank you to all my new followers, quilters who have dropped by and shared their excitement and questions about free motion quilting. Thank you especially for spreading the news on your blogs! I did not know the idea would generate this much excitement, and so quickly! How wonderful.

I am getting ready to give a little free motion quilting demo at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting this Thursday. The first quilt along post will come after that, most likely this weekend. I'll share the details of the quilt top and the supplies you'll need. Many of you let me know you are brand new to free motion quilting. I promise that when we start free motioning together, we will start simple. This free motion quilt along should not be a big time commitment. I will probably post one quilting activity per week. Since I have about 45 minutes per week for sewing, I anticipate the quilt along will request about 30-45 minutes or so of your time.

I'll just leave you with a picture of the hexagons I stitched for the PMQG hexagon swap. I basted through the paper this time, just to try it. And I used true 1" templates. Can't wait to see who goes home with these!

To work, with hexagons

This is how I get to work.

Sometimes, when I can tear myself away from all your blogs and swearing at how hard it is to comment with my iPhone, I might do some hand sewing. I took this picture admiring three flatty flat flat hexagons that I had just sewn together.

I then proceeded to document how I sew them together using a ladder stitch, which has always served me well with applique and other areas requiring an invisible stitch. I had to wait for the bus to stop to get clear pictures. Click on the pictures if you need to see them larger.

The first stitch. I erred just to the seam allowance side of the folded edges, and I did not experience any of the puckering that Christina described at the PMQG meeting using this stitch. I think that might have made the difference.

The second stitch goes in directly opposite where the first stitch came out. And so on.

When you get to the other edge, lay the hexagons flat. The stitches will be loose between them. Gently pull the thread until the stitches disappear.

One side done. But now to get over to stitch up the other side...

I just ran the needle along the seam allowance back to the starting corner. This is to save time and also use one continuous piece of thread instead of many knotted threads which could, as Christina pointed out, come undone.

Four little hexagons, snuggled up together!

Hexagon critters

Here are the straggling hexagon critters, lovingly rescued by Megan and delivered to me along with some gift hexies of her own! Thank you Megan!

All this stuff was embroidered without a pattern, as I went. I think that's pretty apparent when you look at this sheep. Ugh. What's wrong with it? Something terrible.

I have so many more of these little guys I want to make. A fish, elephant, crab, etc. If you make any of these critters yourself please let me know, I'd love to see them!

Hex-a-sketch

These little guys debuted tonight at the Portland Modern Quilt Guild meeting, where they were inadvertently left, along with some of their pals who I haven't even gotten to photograph yet! I'll post again when they make their way home.

These were the end result of asking myself, in my instant-gratification-all-the-time sort of way, "what could I do with just one hexagon?"

After toying with the idea a while I realized it was very similar in approach to a book by Ed Emberley about making thumbprint drawings that I had as a child. Oh just looking at that cover is giving me more ideas.

Hello new obsession.

The hedgehog was my first and is still my favorite. Which may have more to do with my secret hedgehog obsession than anything else.

Hexagons. They're happening.

I spent most of last weekend in my rocking chair with a sweaty, feverish toddler on me.  Oooh, my tailbone is sore! Anyway, there is a limit to how many times I can check my email on my iPhone so I eventually got a little hexagon sewing in too.

 When the Little One recovered she decided hexagons are pretty fun to crush, scatter and/or collect.

 I see how these hexagons can be addicting. Simple, mindless sewing. You get the tactile and visual rewards of stitching without having to make any actual design decisions. A long drive lays ahead of us in the near future and I'm going to make sure I have plenty little templates cut out for the journey.

 

Shopping! Hexagons!

I haven't gone fabric shopping for about a year, save a fat quarter or two. That is perfectly appropriate because I also haven't been sewing much! But I took my birthday cash and did a year's worth of retail therapy at the monthly 35% off sale at the local humongous fabric store. I flirt with online fabric shopping at least once a month but never get around to actually purchasing. It's so much easier to see the fabric in person. Also, all the websites have a minimum 1/2 yard cut and I prefer quarters.

In other news I decided to try some hexagons. I got these sewn during my one hour wait for my post-op visit with the surgeon. And a few more (not pictured) were completed during the wee morning hours after the Little One coughed herself into a barf and I couldn't get back to sleep. Hexagons are a very convenient handcraft. I have a little kit in a bag with everything I need and it is easy to grab it when I think I might have a chance to stitch.

I really don't like traditional hexagon arrangements but seeing all the modern hexie layouts has inspired me. I would like a potholder to emerge out of this experiment, like the one here. I downloaded the 1" templates here. (I also bought some 1" precut templates at the fabric store and they are NOT the same size. I haven't measured to see which one's actually 1". So I guess my advice would be, whatever template you start with, plan to stick with it!)

I sew my hexagons a little different than other people seem to. I don't sew through the paper, all my stitches therefore stay on the backside. This way I can reuse the papers and they will be easy to remove when the time comes. We'll see if there's any downside to this when I go to stitch them together.