Say Yes To The Hex, Part Two - Staying Organized

One thing that I learned quickly when playing with hex's is that if you aren't careful (like me) you will end up with hex's and foundation paper pieces everywhere Like me). I work on my hex's in bed, which is situated right beneath a ceiling fan. I set myself up for disaster, don't I?
I had to come up with a way to keep everything together. I got sick of crawling all over the bed and floor to pick up stray paper.
Here is what I came up with for the paper:

As you can see, I skewered my hex papers. As I cut out each page of papers, I take the time to punch a small hole in the center and then push them right onto a skewer. I use a very small hole punch that I had left over from my scrapbooking days, which makes for a tighter fit so the papers don't slide back and forth on the skewer, but I would think that a regular sized hole punch would work just fine.
The skewer fits rather nicely into the open weave of my cheap, Dollar Store basket which also holds my scissors, thread, pincushion, templates and other odds and ends. I admit to cleaning out my basket before taking this picture because it had everything but the kitchen sink in it!
For every size hex I cut out of paper, I make a corresponding template, with the 1/4" allowance added, out of chipboard. This way I can just trace the template onto my fabric and have the perfect seam allowance every time. I hate to "wing it", I'm so far from being a "wing it" person. Ask anyone.
My other organizer that I've been using is made by June Tailor. I really don't know if these are made anymore because my Mom gave me this one at least 10 years ago.

This is a cutting mat on top of a wooden box with several compartments. The mat slides into a slot at the top.
Here is a messy picture of what it looks like inside (I forgot to take a full view picture after I organized it, but it looks better now, I promise!) The second picture is of one space after it was organized with some 1 1/2" hex's ready to use.


So that's what keeps me organized so far. I would love to hear from some fellow hex-lovers about how you stay organized!
Stay tuned for more hex updates in the future. I'm currently working on a placemat using 1/2 inch hex's. This is going to take awhile!
Always,
Kelly

Say Yes To The Hex

I have a new obsession. Hexagons. I'm sure I've mentioned before that my Mom's favorite quilt to make was anything with Hex's. I would guess she made at least 20 quilts (all hand quilted, mind you) out of Hex's. She did mostly Grandma's Flower Garden's but also made each of her grandchildren Hex quilts.
In fact, when she passed away, each of her five children brought their favorite quilt from Mom to the funeral home to display and I believe every one of them was a Hexagon quilt.
My all time favorite quilt was the one she made for my wedding - a Wedding Ring Quilt. (The quilt was definately made to last...the wedding, not so much!) But this quilt runs a close second:

I use to watch my Mom assemble these quilts in amazement. She didn't use a pattern, didn't preplan the layout, she just made them piece by piece.
Here is a close up of another quilt of Mom's using hex's - hand pieced and hand quilted.

I'm not sure what the pattern is called, but, as you can see, it is much-loved and used daily on my bed. This quilt was actually the quilt that my Dad used on his bed before he passed away and each night that I sleep under it, I feel close to both Mom and Dad.
I have seen a revival lately of the hex quilts using English Paper piecing and decided to try my hand. I spent most of last Sunday in my new King Size bed cutting and basting pieces.
That, I found, is the fun and easy part everyone speaks of. Assembling the hex's is another story altogether. My first attempt turned out okay, but puffy and not so great.

My second attempt came together a little easier since I had spent an hour or so scouring the internet for better instructions. Turns out, I was making extra work for myself when piecing the hex's together.

I was really insprired to make a keychain like Xperimentl made and posted on Flickr. Check out the scale on that...each hex is the size of a dime! My picture does not show scale, but each hex is also the size of dime. I used 1/2 inch hex's. I actually thought it would be a lot harder to work with the tiny hex's, but the paper foundation makes all the difference! Just like Xperimentl, I made my keychain double-sided:


I have dedicated today to hex's as well. I have come up with a great way to organize my hex's and to keep all of the foundation pieces from flying all over the place when I'm working in my bedroom with the ceiling fan on.
I will post again tomorrow with more on that.
But for now, if you have considered making the plunge into hex's, I say Go For It! I never thought I could do it, but this is definately addictive and so portable!
Always,
Kelly

Weekend Wrap-up

Yesterday, Jean and I spent the morning doing one of our shared hobbies, going to flea markets and yard sales. This was actually my first Saturday of the year that I went out to the sales. I've been trying hard not to go because I usually end up buying stuff I don't need just because it's cheap.
All in all I did pretty well though. I only ended up spending $8.50 total.
My favorite find was this vintage Sears & Robuck kitchen set:

I had picked up one small piece of this set about 6 months ago at a thrift store that I use to hold my pencils and pens in my studio. One of the yard sales we went to had 4 more pieces in a box for $3.50. The funny thing was, the very next yard sale we went to had even more pieces of it for $5.00. Jean and I split the $5.00 sale and I took the clock and the kitchen utensil holder and she kept the rest.
I think I like this so much because it reminds me of a 1970s retro kitchen.
I also picked up a dvd/vcr combo for $1 and a cat carrier that I had been looking for, also for $1.
When I came home and was trying to cool down, I glanced over at the dining room window and saw this:

Yay, the one plant I bought this year finally flowered! It was touch and go for the last week, because the poor plant was wilting in the heat, but I brought it inside and it decided to live!
J was sick all day Saturday, so I decided to make him (okay, ME) a cake. It looked yummy until I took it out of the bundt pan:

Once I flipped it, it fell apart. But it still tastes divine! It's an Angel Food cake with strawberries. I always use the Angel Food mix and add canned or frozen fruit instead of water, which keeps it lower calorie, but tastes better than plain Angel Food Cake.
Lastly, I wanted to share a better picture of the fun placemat I made for the bedroom last week. I am a sucker for novelty fabric (another trait I inherited from Mom) and this monkey fabric from Anna Griffin just makes me smile every time I see it.

So that was the highlights of my weekend. I do have a new obsession to share that took up most of my Sunday, but I will save that for my next post.
always,
Kelly

Back to Crafting

My loyal followers (all 3 of them) have complained that I haven't had an update in awhile, so here I am!
I planned on getting a lot more done this weekend than I did, to be honest. It's a long weekend, I had no plans, I was golden....then the bed broke this past week so we ended up spending most of Saturday buying a new one.
Part of Sunday was spent shopping for new linens. Some may think that wouldn't take long. Some don't know J and I very well. We have polar opposite tastes on everything. I want one thing, he wants another. Always. We often joke that we have no clue what keeps us together. We usually come up with the same answer to that question...I'm awesome. (Hey, what can I say, he isn't a stupid man and he knows when to agree with me.)
So here I am Monday afternoon with not a whole lot to show from my weekend.
My plan was to make all new pillows for the living room. The ones we have are downright embarrassing. I won't show pics, you don't want to see them.
What I ended up making was one. One pillow. Uno. But I LOVE it.

The pillow was based on a tutorial by Allison over at Cluck. Cluck. Sew. I love her work. I asked Jean yesterday if she thought Allison would become our adopted sister. We want to have a sewing day with her and pick her brain. Okay, I'll stop there, don't want to sound stalker-ish.
J and I also did our Spring cleaning this past week and we mostly organized my studio. Any, yes, by mostly organized, I mean we shoved stuff into bins and boxes to clear a path because the landlord wanted to do an inspection. This means I will share pics of my studio. Yes, I know it's not gorgeous and awe-inspiring like some other workspaces I've seen, but it's mine all mine! And I can now work in it without tripping over stuff.


Note that awesome patchwork rug in the pic of the sitting area. I bought that for $4 at my local thrift store. I adore that rug! I also scored that vintage suitcase (currently full of fabric) at a thrift store awhile ago for $3 or $4. The incomplete star quilt on the table was made by my Mom. It needs the binding finished, and although I've thought about doing it, there is a part of me that likes it the way it is. Kind of like Mom put it aside to work on it later and will come back to it.

The last thing I made today was a new placemat to go on my bedside table. The fabric doesn't match my bedroom, I've just been dying to use it! I know this isn't a great pic, but I took it with my cell phone. I couldn't find my card for my camera when I was taking the picture.



That's it for now. As always, I will try to post more often to keep the masses (all 3 of you) happy!

always,
K

P.S. Please take a moment to thank a soldier or say a prayer for our troops today. They serve our country with courage and selflessness and deserve our best wishes.

New Neighbors

Our neighbors built a bird house for their daughter a couple of months ago and look who moved in:


And of course there's always one who is still hungry after Mom feeds them:


It's been worth all of the noise they make each morning at feeding time to see a sign of spring since it's been a pretty cold spring!

always,
k

Adventures in Paper Piecing

I belong to a local quilt guild, which is awesome. I never make the classes or meetings because of my work hours, which sucks. My sister's do go, which brings me back to awesome because they keep me updated and teach me the techniques they learn.

On a recent Sister's Day at my sister Jan's house, she taught us paper piecing. Jean being a "Sew Outside of the Lines" kinda girl hated it. I loved it!

It just amazes me that all of the upside-down-backwards sewing can turn into something as cute as this:


Jan also showed us how to do these cool little coasters that will be the giveaway at the guild's upcoming Quilt Show in the fall:


So even though I don't participate in person, I was happy that I, at least, was able to contribute my coasters. We were asked to use fall/autumn colors, so that explains all of the oranges and browns, but I am going to do a set for my house, too, using my favorite fabrics.

always,
K

Peep, Peep

I'm still here! I haven't been feeling very creative lately, so I haven't had much to share.
I was determined to get my mojo back in the last two weekends and it feels good to create again.
Here's the little guy that helped me:


He was inspired by a stuffed Peep that Jean and I saw in a little oountry store on our trip to Lancaster last month for the APQ Quilt Show. I used Jean's trick of upcycling the beaded filling from a thrifted beanie baby to weight him down and now he watches over me in my studio to make sure I actually do stuff instead of just leafing through magazines thinking about doing stuff!

I was also inspired by a flat screen TV cover I found on Flickr by Modernjax that was just too cute for words. (Do you all find inspiration on Flickr too? I've never been disappointed by scrolling through my groups there!)

Apparently modernjax's TV wasn't cable ready because she got those bars that mean the station is off the air. Since I have cable and can always find something on, I tuned my version, which I'm going to use as a computer monitor cover, to "This Old House":


I'm not quite done with it yet,it needs a few little touches, but I'm happy how it turned out. This was pretty out of the box for me. I don't normally just wing it when it comes to creating, I like to follow patterns. (A+B always equals C in my house or there is hell to pay! Welcome to the world of mild to moderate OCD)
Yesterday I wanted to do something, but not get too involved, so I made a Spring-y flour sack towel for my kitchen:



I'm glad to be back in the land of crafting! I hope to spend some more time in my studio today and have another post before too long.

always,
K