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- 

Quilty Goals for July

The Chookshed Challenge number for July is 9 and that for me is to do some hand applique. I added a few stitches to this Ella block that has been languishing for several years awaiting completion. My goal will be to simply complete it. That should take about 15 minutes if I hurry.

There are a few other half done blocks nearby that I can progress also. The right hand is beginning to hurt a bit again. Wonder how long the cortisone will last this time? Last year, it lasted about 2 months.

One sister is visiting for the month on her school vacation time. Another sister will be coming over to visit and work on one of her projects. She lives in a tiny 2 room apartment and does not have the luxury of space like I do. 

Twelve year old Devan will be starting her Jelly Roll Race quilt this week. And all that means that I have to clear away my Stonefields bits and peices.

I did complete my June OMG and now for July, I want to complete the next 7 star blocks for Stonefields. I have a good start on them so far. But we also have houseguests for the entire month.

Blessings,

Chris

Linking with wednesday-wait-loss-439

finished or not friday 

Gone Stitchin' FNWF

quiltingpatch.

Slow Sunday Sitching 

Progress on Stonefields

My Chookshed Challenge project for June was permission to start a new project. I started Stonefields. 

My OMG goal was to complete 1 block. So I did. That is not all I did. I pulled out lots of fabrics. Checked out what I had in the project box. Much of the fabric was already prewashed. Some was not so I pre washed those.  I cut out lots and lots of bars and squares in preparation for making a lot of flying geese units for one of the borders. 

There are 8 of these star blocks in the quilt. Four are made in month 1 and another 4 in month 8. These also have circles appliqued on. That can be my goal for July. 

I was reading Angela from Soscrappy the other day and she mentioned cutting hexies with her Go cutter. Duh! I have a GO cutter and I have a hexie die. Wonder what size it is? My thoughts for the Stonefields hexies was fussy cutting some of them and random for others. It turns out that I do have the right size  so Devan helped me cut out a whole bunch. I am glue basting them.

The plan for now, is to machine applique them in place but that will not be till closer to the end when I have the outside borders figured out and prepped. I want to make the whole thing smaller than the original, so do not have the final count. 

Blessings,

Chris

15 Minutes

What can I do in just 15 minutes? That's just 900 seconds. I have a note on the wall in the Blue Room. It was a challenge to myself some years ago to spend just 15 minutes doing something - anything. 

I am really good at making a mess and creating clutter. Its okay at first as I am gathering and organizing for a specific project. But, I walk away to do something else like show up at the dinner table when called. I do not, after all, do the cooking in this house. I wash dishes. When I walk away, and no longer see what I am doing, it no longer exists in my head until I walk back into the room. Then I sigh and turn and walk out of the room because the clutter is too noisy and draining. 

I have spent the better part of the last 6 months not stitching, not writing, not exercising, not a lot of things around the house. Okay. I had a lot of Christmas houseguests, was away for a couple of weeks twice and sidelined with the breast reduction surgery for 3 months. So here I am. I am back. A shot of cortizone in my right hand a few weeks ago has given me a new lease on doing. I can pull weeks. So I have. I can type. So I am. I can wield a rotary cutter. So I have. And I can water the outside flower pots. 

Its only 15 minutes. I finally decided to stop thinking about what I can do and just do something - anything. So I started clearing a small space in the Blue Room. This is where I have relocated most of my quilting things. Until I hosted a retreat here last month and brought down a machine and a "few" quilty gadgets. But they piled up a lot. 

So back to the 15 minutes in the Blue Room. I cleared a few square feet of floor space and vacuumed the rug. I put things away. I even, horrors, threw stuff out. I bought one of those small rechargeable vacuum cleaners just for this room. I have used it a lot. Just 15 minutes at a time. I bought another storage shelving unit to organize the many project boxes.  

Does anyone else have a room they put stuff into to get it out of the way and out of sight? It has been a way of life for me. I learned from the best. My unorganized hoarder mother and my organized hoarder mother-in-law who washed the dishes after every meal for 72 years. I have had a lot of clutter. 

I finally have permission to sit in the hot tub. But only for 15 minutes. 

Blessings,

Chris

And Sew it Begins - Stonefields

Today I made the first cut on Stonefields. I have a huge pile of fabric set aside for this project. Maybe too much. Do I want it to be matchy-matchy or all out scrappy? No. Definetly not scrappy. I over think things and end up hesitating for years before beginning. I trimmed the pattern sheets to fit into our north american letter sized binder and punched holes. 

I read through the directions again. Did that back in early May when Rebecca said she was planning to start. This pattern is not for beginners as a lot of the techniques are assumed. Just the way I like it. This way I can figure things out for myself. 

My palette is soft florals and perhaps some solids. I have several in the bin of endless options. I decided to start by cutting out a lot of 3/4 inch hexies for the rosettes that frame the quilt with an incredible border. I figure that I can make some every month so not to have them all to do at the end. And there will be an end. I am planning to work on this for a year. At least that is what I am telling myself this month. 

I have a whole week with just me and my Sweetie before grand children and houseguest start arriving for the summer. I wonder what mischeif I can get into? Linking with Finished or Not Friday and Off the Wall Friday and Quilting Patchwork Applique and Design Wall Monday 

Blessings,

Chris