My New Hexagon

Wow. Three years I've been working on my New Hexagon quilt (pattern by Katja Marek). A lot of memories in this one, a lot of hospital rooms stitched in, and crafty Tuesdays. Finally it's finished!

The fabric is all Sun Prints by Alison Glass The entire quilt is English Paper Pieced, 52 different hexagon patterns. Quilting was done by my awesome friend Diann. 

It was fun to take it out on a little photo shoot today.

I'm so happy to have this one finished! And I absolutely love the way it turned out.

EPP Lion

When I first saw Violet Craft's english paper pieced lion pattern I knew I had to make one for my oldest, Leigh Anne. She's the one I plan to go to Africa with... and she loves warm oranges & pinks... perfect!

I have to tell you how very impressed I was with Violet Craft's pattern. It's so well laid out, the epp pieces are sturdy and well labeled. It was a delight to make. It took me quite a while to make, working in spurts, and I love the results! At 20" square, it was perfect for a pillow for Leigh Anne's New York apartment.

I used an orange grunge for the envelope back, and a ric rac accent...

It was easy to mail to NYC in a padded envelope, and send a pillow form via amazon. I couldn't wait until she received it so I could share it with you. The pieces held up so well, I could easily use them again. Maybe a lion for me too? We'll see.

finish-a-long Q3 goals

I love linking up with the finish-a-long each quarter! It really nudges me to get things done. This quarter I'm going to start off with something that has needed to happen for a while now. My ironing surface is a mess! I need to make a new cover for it...

I bought this bright & pretty fabric yesterday and this WILL get done pronto!

I have two baby quilts that need making. Here's my fabric pull for Fancy Fox, which has been in my pattern stack for ages...

And these charms cut from my stash for another baby quilt...

Every quarter I debate whether to add this next WIP to my list. Well I'm going for it! I've been working on the New Hexagon quilt for more than 2 years and I need motivation to get this done! Thanks to encouragement from my friend Chantal, I have all of the hexies made and the joining process is well under way...

Good thing I laid them all out today, seems I made a mistake on that last row I joined! I need to remove the triangles on the left end and add another hexie to the right. Easily fixed...

So that's it. Four projects for Q3. I think I can, I think I can.....

Linking up here

Liberty Dainty Tote

I'm still working my way through the glorious bundle of Liberty I bought last year. After piecing a quilt top, I had little pieces left over, just big enough for 1/2" hexies. I combined them with a solid aqua and soon I had this pretty panel...

in my usual fashion, I had no plan for it! Then I realized it was the perfect size to incorporate into a dainty tote. I hadn't made one of these in ages and it's my favorite little bag to make. I ended up cutting the panel in half so I could feature it on both sides of my tote. I lined the cut edge up with the top edges of the background panel and hand appliquéd all the way around the hexies.

I used a dark, denim blue grunge for the background and a blue & white check for the binding.

More Liberty Lawn for the handles, side gussets and top zipper placket. 

I'm so in love with this little tote! Oh, and this is finish #2 in the second quarter of the 2017 finish-along!

2017 Finish-along second quarter goals

I love participating in the Finish-along! It forces encourages me to finish up projects that might otherwise go undone! I have four for the second quarter this year....

First up, these placemats, which just need to be quilted and bound.....

Second, this completed top using some of my Liberty Lawn and low volume stash, also needs to be quilted and bound...

Speaking of Liberty, I've been English paper piecing some of the smaller bits into 1/2" hexies and this needs to be squared up and sewn into a cute bag....

Last but not least, the fabrics I hand dyed back in October are crying out to become a quilt! I have decided to make a hashtag quilt, featuring these fabrics. I need to get my hands on a background fabric and get to it!

So that's my plan! Are you participating in the Finish-along? I'm linking up here.

Finish Along first quarter finishes

I'm so happy I have been playing along with the 2017 Finish-along! It really motivates me to get things done. This quarter I challenged myself to complete five specific items.

And I finished all five! Yay me! 

First up, my word of the year quilt (which still isn't hanging on the wall but it is FINISHED!)

My Liberty EPP Plus project became a beautiful pillow which I love to look at every day...

And another pillow finish! Our scrap swap project for the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild that now lives with Chris...

I love the way my Modern  Mystery Block of the Month quilt turned out!

And this shirt is too comfy! I'm almost sad it is quickly getting too warm to wear it here in Texas...

So that's it for the first quarter! I'm linking up at Rhonda's Ramblings.

Off I go to make a list for the second quarter!

sidetracked....

Last week, Tisha, the owner of Not Your Mama's Quilt Store posted a video of a new product they had gotten in. 1/4 inch hexie papers! Yes you read that right. Not one to avoid a challenge, I ran right over there and bought a package. By the end of the day I had made a hexie flower....

Seriously, those hexies are SMALL! I searched my stash to find something small enough to fussy cut and these little mice fit the bill. Aren't they adorable?

I kept adding solid hexies until I had this....

At first I thought I'd make it into a bookmark, but it really wanted to become a pin cushion. Who am I to argue? I added some borders and a backing, filled it up with walnut shells....

so much fun! and totally not on my (long) to-do list, but oh well!

Ok, time to get back to that list...... until something else distracts me!

Liberty EPP plus pillow

One of my first quarter goals for the finish-along was to take strips of this beautiful stack of Liberty:

make them into plus blocks:

And make it into "something" which quickly became a pillow:

there's something about Liberty prints that's just so yummy, isn't there? And English Paper Piecing with Liberty Lawn? Oh man! they stitch so beautifully. I really enjoyed this project.

I used a pretty pink grunge from my stash for the back, and bound the edges in one of the Liberty prints that was just too big for the EPP piecing:

This is my fourth finish for the first quarter in the Finish-along. One more to go!

pillow swap

One of my favorite swaps we do occaisionally at the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild is the scrap swap. We each bring a big bag of our own scraps, swap them at the meeting, then make something for the original scrap owner. Last month we swapped bags to make pillow covers. I came home with this yummy bag of scraps from my friend Chris....

Chris loves all things scrappy, and stars, so I set to work to make a scrappy star pillow for her. I really love the way it turned out...

Honestly, it was hard to give this one back to her last night! I even had some fun with the back...

see that little English Paper Pieced star at the bottom? It's a label!

I can't really help but include a little EPP in just about everything I do. 

Checking this fun project off of my 2017 Finish-along first quarter list!

see how pretty it looks on my front porch? sigh....

fourth quarter of the finish along

Well, despite setting low goals for the fourth quarter finish along, knowing I was having surgery and all, I only finished two of the three items on my list. The third one is, however, well under way! I'll just add it to my first quarter goals for 2017 and be happy with that.

My first finish this quarter was my wonky dresden neighborhood quilt. I had so much fun with this one!

My second finish is my most recent bee quilt which has already been put to good use.

My Liberty plus quilt is still a work in progress.... although I am nearing the end of the piecing! I am thinking now that it may become a pretty pillow. We will know soon. This is the only goal I didn't reach in the finish along for the whole year. Pretty proud of myself for that.

How did you do with your quilty goals this year?

I'm linking up over at A Quilter's Table