Hexie Love!

My father had a short stay in Intensive Care a couple of months ago, just before he passed away.  We spent long days and evenings at the hospital.  I know I got a few funny looks while I sat in the family room with my little Bionic Gear Bag full of fabric scraps and hexie templates but I've said over and over again for the past 3 years that my sewing keeps me sane at times....... and while my hands and brain were busy, I was able to be there for hours on end.....and it served its' purpose, it kept me sane and one lovely thing I discovered during that tough time is that I love my newest portable sewing project - hexagons!! 


  





Recently, I won a little prize from colourmehappy2 on instagram.  I showed you the picture of my prize in my last blog post but this is it again.........

                               


I made a tumbling block using English Paper Piecing way back when I made my Sampler Quilt but hadn't tried it since.  In my head, I had convinced myself that I couldn't make the points match.  How daft, the papers take all that effort away! 

After a few long days in the hospital, I grabbed my bionic gear bag on the way out the door and got through basting most of a pack of deliciously pretty Moda Mini Charms from the Best Day Ever Range.  How could anyone not be distracted by the beautiful bright colours? 

I tried two methods of basting - firstly, I was using a tacking stitch.  It's easy, it makes the paper or card templates secure but obviously you have to pull all those tacking stitches out later.  And next I decided to use the Sewline Glue Pen from The Quilt Shop (where I work, for those of you who didn't know) and see how that went.  I have had this in my sewing kit for well over a year and never used it.  I thought it was a glorified pritt stick and I just couldn't imagine it holding the fabric securely or for any length!  Well.......... I was wrong!  It was fast, super easy and way more secure than I could have imagined!  I have one less step to deal with when pulling out all the templates too!  Consider me converted! 

When I started, I honestly thought I would string a few together and make a notebook cover or a pencil case but I'm in love with these colours, so I'm going to make a lapquilt.  They're deliciously scrappy together and so bright and beautiful. As time has gone on, I've added quite a few extra colours from Moda's Daysail and another range called Just My Type (thank you to The Fat Quarter Shop for that mega sale) and some random scraps! 

This quilt will be totally different from ANYTHING in my house.  I have 3 sons and a husband, so my house is not what you'd call girlie.  However, check this picture out....... my husband bought me 2 of these footstools as part of my anniversary present recently.  How well does it match?  Now, I'll admit, I'm a bad wife, I took his gift back to the shop and exchanged them for 2 more sedate versions.  They actually have similar colours but aren't so ultra-violet-hi-viz-like......... and they still work great with the quilt!  If he was trying to match something though - he did well!!! 

I'm just about finished piecing the quilt top.  I'll shop it off properly once it's been quilted and bound.   I'd say it's about 45" x 55" roughly.  A nice lap quilt size and I'm seriously thinking about redecorating my livingroom to give this a proper home (alongside my new footstools)!

It's nice to slowly get my motivation back for sewing, it feels like I was off-track for the past while (understandably) but I feel like I'm getting somewhere again and it feels good!

A little something different - for me!

This week I got to do something a little different.  Along with one of my buddies in our sewing class, we made fabric covered boxes.  We used kits available at The Quilt Shop, it came with pre-cut sturdy card, box corners and precise instructions.  All we needed to add was our choice of fabric and some pva glue!

I've been dying to use this funky range of fabric for AGES but couldn't decide what to make with it.  Well, this was the perfect chance and I chose to use the umbrella design.  It has lots of colours in it and there are some beautiful co-ordinates in the range but I picked the red spots to co-ordinate with it........because it's a little more girlie!

 If you like getting crafty, this is a super project,  you get to mess around with glue and for a change it's a no-sew project!

And we got to bash around with a hammer............ great for working out the frustrations of the day! ;)

This box is about 13.5" square.  It's called a block box because it's useful for storing your 12.5" patchwork blocks flat. 

 

I know this box is going to get great use......... I have been putting in the blocks I'm currently working on, they're not 12.5" but it's the perfect spot to keep them until they're ready to be stitched together!

 

 

It was easy to make but it does take a little time - all in all, I would say about 3 hours but in that, as this was my first time making one, some of that time was spent checking and double checking that we were doing it correctly.

I think you end up with something a little funky for your efforts! 










 

Bowtie, Dickie Bows, neckties.......whatever ya call 'em!

These are definitely a few of my favourite things right now!

So recently I finally made my first dickie bow! 


You know how there are certain things you want to try but just never get round to it..... well, a friend posted on facebook looking for one.  Her super stylish son needed a red spotty one to finish off his outfit for a wedding. 

Now this lad is one seriously funky little boy and I hated to think of him heading out without his accessory of choice so I took the opportunity to finally try a bowtie and help him sort out his outfit!  It worked out grand........ a bit rough around the edges as "firsts" usually are but he fairly ROCKED it judging by the pictures I saw.


I got an opportunity to fine tune my method however as having seen Jacks one my twins decided they loved bowties all of a sudden!

They've always loved accessories - hats and shoes are big items in our house but now it was...
"I want a green bowtie"
"I want a red bowtie"

Since I have nothing to do all day, every day (tongue in cheek, I promise) I went for it and indulged them!  They were thrilled, especially when everyone told them how smart they looked in them.  In fact, a couple of grown men were a little jealous of the red car fabric and the green animal fabric.    There is definitely something fun about bow-ties, even though they are mostly seen with formal tuxes, they someone seem a little less formal than ties and allow your inner child to pop out!


As we had a weekend coming up where they got to dress-up nice and smart each day, it meant that I got a good bit of practice in but it was well worth it as they were nicely turned out and looked darn cute alongside their buddies in Dublin!  I'm not done yet though........ I picked up a few orders from other little boys while we were away so it's back to the sewing machine for me.  Next time the boys meet their friends, they'll have even more in common!



I've just realised that these two are like little Ant & Dec, they always seem to stand to the same side of each other!  I still don't know which is which though.......... Ant and/or Dec, I mean......... I know these two, obviously!

Whooooooosh.............. that's the sound of tumbleweed.....

My poor blog, I feel like I haven't visited it, much less posted in ages!  The problem, if you'd call it that, has been that I've been working on gifts and when you work on gifts, you can only post about them so much because you don't want the receiver to know they are for them before they get them! 

So, I just finished three different quilts this week.  Hooray!  I will hopefully get them wrapped and gifted in the next few days and then I can show them properly!

In the meantime, I finally got to make some bunting!  I was assured it was the "easiest thing in the world" (Roisin from The Quilt Shops favourite line) but I'm always afraid of cutting up fabric for something I've never made before!  So Roisin made me delve in one day in the shop.  She needed some bunting to advertise the letters that can be bought for personalised projects and I learned that yes, it is rather easy.  Now I'm addicted! 

So I stocked up on more bias binding. I love to make my own for quilts but at 80c per yard, this stuff is brilliant.  My favourite is the candy stripe red, you can't see it in the picture above but it looks fab with the navy flags!

Then, after making a set of wedding bunting in the shop, I wondered why I wasn't making any for my own house?  Then my 10 year old asked could he help me with anything and so I gave him the lovely job of picking out some nice solid colours, some funky robot fabric and I got making!  I got my letters cut, of course, at the Quilt Shop and my big boy picked the right letters for the flags and Wow, but my small boys are so happy with their new "flags". 

Check out little Levi's proud face........he loves his side because it has a green flag, his favourite colour.  I must thank my 10 yr old for reminding me to put green in his name!!

So that's me and my new favourite thing............bunting!  The husband wants me to make some now for outside before bbq season ends and who am I to complain when I get to put something pretty swinging from the trees without the men-folk (of which I'm surrounded here) giving out about the girliness?