Hexie Flowers

So what's with blogger these days? Suddenly I have hundreds of page views and many going back several months. Got 400 on the 20th then another 1000 just yesterday. 

My plan for Stonefields is to make a 9 x 9 setting of 6 inch blocks, I am thinking about putting a larger medallion block in the center. I had this idea 8 years ago when I did several workshops with Di Ford-Hall at one of the Shipshewana quilt retreats. These are some of the blocks I have done so far. I put them up on the small design wall to see how a 12 inch border will look with all those hexie flowers. I plan to space them further apart than the pattern. Not sure yet how many will be needed.

I have been prepping a lot of the blocks and of course, a lot of hexies. Just need to cut a few more larger scale florals after I get the block prepping done. Devan has been working on her Jelly Roll Race quilt. It is suposed to take about an hour if you know what you are doing. We do not. So she has been at it for a couple of days and has almost half the strips sewn together. One delay was stitching her finger right through from top to bottom. A lot of noise happened and we found the broken needle tip, and bandaged the finger. My goodness! She has such skinny little fingers. She is taller than my Sweetie now. So about 5'6"? Ellyse is over 5'10". When did all this happen?

Another delay was the machine jamming every few flying geese I was chain piecing together. So, today Devan and I took the machine back to get it looked at. And of course, it ran perfectly. So, I brought it home, set it up and sewed a few geese together and it jammed again. Twice. Sigh. I think I am lifting the presser foot up too quickly and my left foot is hovering over the foot pedal and possibly adding just enough tiny pressure to bring the needle up and it jams. So, I started doing everything slower. No more jamming. 

The girls start back to school next week and I plan to turn my focus and time on writing. This past week I have been reading back over the Morning Pages I hade been writing for the past 4 1/2 years. I have focused on the books through 2022. A lot happened that year. I turned 70 and had many unexpected, age related health issues. No wonder I did not make much progress on writing and sewing.

blessings,

Chris 

Stonefields Update

I have been home all alone for a few days without any other humans around. People will show up tomorrow. In the meantime, I have been a busy girl. I can eat what I want when I want where I want. But I still have to do dishes. But not many. I did some laundry and, get this, I even ran the machine through a clean cycle since there were no other humans standing in line to do their own wash. I did stay out of the hot tub since I do not go in there when I am home alone. 

I am starting with the borders for Stonefields. And why not? I am loving doing the flying geese units. Partly because that is all I am doing with them. Earlier, I made flying geese for the star blocks and that is that. I am doing the method that gives me a gzillion bonus triangles. I am planning to make something very tiny with them. Not sure what just yet. I have another 50 to make.

And you would think that with all the many different hexies I have prepped so far, how did I manage to make these first 2 flowers, that are not going into the border, the same sprigged floral? 

I tried hand stitching the yellow one together. That took me nearly an hour while watching Miss Marple. The pink one was a lot faster. I machined stitched it. First I stitched 2 hexies together from the back. One using a tiny zigzag then another seam using a blanket stitch. Both show from the front. Then I machine appliqued them both onto the background square using a tiny narrow zig-zag. I did leave the papers in. Oops. Well, maybe not. I cut away the back and pulled out the papers. I am using a neutral colour bottom line thread that I was hoping would disappear. Almost and that is good enough. Only 168 more flowers to go.

Check out what Gretchen is doing here , here , here and here. Rebecca here and here. I am so inspired! 

Blessings,

Chris

lonking with: ninamariesayre. at off-wall-friday. 

quiltery put-your-foot-down-300/ 

inquiringquilter.wednesday-wait-loss-445

quiltingpatch.blogspot

smallquiltsanddollquilts.design-wall-monday- 

melvalovesscraps.

Stonefields & August Challenges

My OMG goal last month was to make 7 more of these star blocks for Stonefields. 

My OMG for August will be to make several more of the 6 inch blocks. There are 3 or 4 with hexies. I will start there.

I am really enjoying this journey so far. Four of these stars still need some tiny circles appliqued on but I will wait until I am doing more circle blocks. I took time to look through the pattern pages and listed blocks with circles. If I have the circle making stuff out, I might as well make a lot. That was my thinking with the hexies and the flying geese. 

There are 121 six inch blocks in the middle of the quilt then a flying geese border then a wider hexagon border. I am still of the mind to make only 72 blocks.  

For this project, I am working on the outside borders right at the beginning. Here is the logic. As I sorted through all the soft floral prints for the first star blocks, I took the time to cut a multitude of strips of the same fabrics to cut and prep the flying geese and the hexagon units. There will be a lot of each. Why wait until the end?  I layed out several layers of the fabrics and cut, cut cut. Devan helped me cut out hexies with the Go Baby. I will now cut a few more strips for her. She is at camp again this week loving it. I really like the colours so far that I have used. I think I will keep to this pallet. No reds or orange or really dark fabrics. 

The Chookshed Challenge number is 7. I again tweaked my original list and will assemble a flimsy. I have several almost ready to sew up. You will have to wait until the end of the month to see which one(s) I get done. 

Our summer Houseguests have all returned to their respective homes. I see a few weeks of empty spaces on my calendar. My plan for now is to sew, sew, sew and write, write, write. 

The summer days here continue to be nice and hot but the evenings have cooled down to a nice 15C or 60F. Perfect for sleeping. 

Blessings,

Chris

Linking with smallquiltsanddollquilts.design-wall-monday-