A Sticky Situation

Believe it or not, I'm actually ahead of the game!  I may have learned my lesson after getting three months behind on my Technicolor Galaxy block of the month. This was my last post,  In A Galaxy Far, Far Away,  which shows just how grueling it was! 

We are on Block #7 ~ Hexie Flowers.  Little 5/8" hexies, stabilizer templates and glue.  Glue. I have used glue to stick a template to fabric and hand stitch around the edges, but I have not glued the edges before.  There sure is a lot of gluing in this BOM!  

The first problem I encountered were the templates.  I bought the pre-cut stabilizer templates, and it turns out I didn't read the fine print.  This block needs 84 hexagons, clearly you can see the bag contains 60.  I didn't think it was a HUGE deal, until I tried to find a template online for 5/8" hexagons.  It is a weird size?  I found every other size except what I needed.  At the end of my rope I came across this site:  Incometech,  You can print graph paper shapes in squares, hexies, octagons ~ just about anything and you can make them any size you need. Really very cool!  I printed a copy on a stabilizer sheet (after making sure they were the exact size and the pre-cuts), cut them out and was ready to roll.

     

Fabric was the next step, one I thought would be easy.  I won't go in to detail, just know that I didn't like it not one little bit!!  But I played along. I picked. I cut. I counted. I searched. I did it.

I grabbed the glue stick, snatched the templates out of the bag (plus the ones I laboriously cut), and started gluing one template to each little square and you know what?  This blew my mind, there were not 60 templates in that bag.  Nope.  Not 60 at all.  There were actually enough for all my 84 hexies and then some!!!  Crazy talk!  I may have said a few 'swears', more than a few...but dang!

Putting that behind me, it was time to get crackin'!  This would be my night time entertainment! I'm so out of control, a wild party girl, stop me now!!

It was slow going.  Trim the fabric, glue the edges.  Sticky fingers.  Like really sticky!  I may be doing it wrong, but the glue stick wasn't really that cooperative.  I felt like a hot mess. With a few flowers finished, I called it a night.  

   

...and picked it up the next night...

...until I ended up with...

84 of the cutest little glue filled, hexagons!  

...put them all together and you have 12 colorful flowers...

There is still work to be done in the form of hand stitching.  

Marked and ready.  One, two, three...

Quilt Porn Picture of the Month

Progress.  And ahead of time for a change!  Block #7...you are soon to be history! 

My first ever hand stitched hexies completed!  I was hoping a rhythm would come to me once I started, and it did.  I've always admired people who do English Paper Piecing.  Now I see why they love it so much.  There may be more of this in my future!  

I used a whip stitch to join the hexies.  I think I did it right! 

For those who are participating in this Skill Builder BOM, Jenn @ A Quarter Inch From The Edge will be hosting a progress link up on the 12th of each month starting in September and going through December.  A fun way to share our progress no matter how much or how little you have done.

Who out there uses glue in their quilting?  What are your thoughts on this technique?  I see the benefit in a dab of glue for hexies or for that first piece of fabric in paper piecing.  I'm not sure anything beyond that is for me.  We'll see!

Dance Of The Honey Bee

Gotta love a good challenge, right?  I can now say I finished the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge ~ WHEW!!

Thank you Play Crafts and On The Windy Side for hosting and giving me a run for my money!  Marsala stretched my creativity, tested my patience, but eventually I came around to not hating it so much!!

Dance Of The Honey Bee
17" x 18"

I guess I like chaos in my life.  Starting this project I didn't have a clear idea where I would go with it.  It wasn't until I brought in the Tawny Olive that I started to have a direction to follow. You can see the WIP here:  'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' WIP 

Once the honeycombs appeared, I had a plan.  A story.  A direction.  You might think that the olive color represents honey.  Nope!  You can't have honey without pollen ~ sweet, wonderful (aw-choo) pollen!

A worker bee visits 50 to 100 flowers each trip for that pollen.  You go girl!  (worker bee's are all females too)  All that work for 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their life!  

I think of honey bee's as frantic, agitate or strung out as they fly around. And to think what goes on inside of a hive...it has to be chaotic.  

I would be wrong!  Each bee has its place, its job.  Finely tuned with a mission.  Bee's have a dance.  The Dance Of The Honey Bee!  Once a bee finds that sweet, sweet nectar they fly back to the hive, shake and vibrate their little bodies and in the process give directions to that very source.  

All the different colors pieced together are the neurotic goings on inside the hive.  I machine quilted rather neurotically as well!  Except inside the honeycombs!

Those I kept calm, clean and peaceful.  Not once ounce of pandemonium or turmoil!

This is my favorite part!  I was so excited when I decided to use a bright yellow thread for quilting this little section.  I almost decided to do the whole piece with yellow, but thankfully I didn't.  It would have been too much!

When you think that a colony of bees consists of 20,000 to 60,000 bees, there wold have to be order.  It amazes me when I see a honeycomb with honey gushing out.  Did you know that bees are the only insect that produces food eaten by man?!  

Finished and ready to hang!

Size:  17" x 18"

Solids: Shot Cotton, Kona and scraps

Bee Fabric:  Emma's Garden by Patty Sloniger

Check out all the other wonderful entries in the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge!

LINKING:

WIP Wednesday

Let's Bee Social

Can I get A Whoop Whoop

TGIFF

Cheerful Spring

We recently had a good taste of spring ~ sunny, warm and steady humming of lawn mowers.  The windows were opened for some much need fresh air, sandals were dusted off and then Mother Nature decided...not yet you foolish little girl!!!  A couple days of cold and frost. Awww...soon grasshopper, soon! 

Since the weather isn't working right (it's broken), here's a finished project that I hope will brighten your day and give you a good taste of the Spring to come!

18" x 18"

At our last Music City Modern Quilt Guild meeting, we had hexie workshop!  It was super fun!  We weren't able to finish the project at our meeting that day, but as soon as I got home I went to work!

I decided polka dots would make for some happy hexies!  The hexagon templates are 1 1/2" and the fabric squares are 3 3/4".  

I tried hard to make everything line up using 1/4" spacing.  I may have went a little overboard on marking, and to be honest it wasn't that much help!

I just kept going.  Glue, mark, glue again!

Yes indeed...glue!  Fabric fusion was used to glue each and every hexagon down!  

Once they were all secure, the quilting fun began!  Don't you love the triangle pattern?  It looks even better on the front! 

Sneak peak from the outside looking in!  I was happy I got to try the hidden zipper back again.  Love it!

Here's a link to a fabulous tutorial at Modern Handcraft ~ Modern Hexagon Tutorial.

I hope to make a couple more one day soon!  

LINKING:

Sew Cute Tuesday
Let's Bee Social
WIP Wednesday
Needle & Thread Thursday
TGIFF

Another Pre-Cut Solution

I cannot say exactly how long I have had this Moda Honeycomb stack. They quietly take up a tiny little piece of space in the closet.  Not really in the way and certainly not hurting a thing.  I would pull it out and look at it, admire the colors and wonder what it will one day become.  

While I'm working my way through a creative block, I thought I just need to do...sew, make something!  I'm running around like a crazy lady!  My daughter keeps saying "Mom, you need to make something"...

I didn't want to put too much thought into whatever it is I was going to make.  Mostly it was a way to stay productive.  Stay out of trouble!  Even to stay warm!

These are what I had to work with.  Looking for an easy fix (and I do mean easy) I began the search.  From this stack of hexies... 

28" x 33"

...to this little quilt!  I used a variety of low volume, neutral solids between the rows (my new friends).  From white to putty!  Does it look difficult?  It was a breeze!  When I see hexies I imagine they must be hard to work with.

I found this great idea and tutorial by Amanda on her blog A Crafty Fox. Most of you know her as the owner of Westwood Acres, the fabulous and wonderful fabric shop!  A fun fact about that little honeycomb stack:  I won them in a giveaway that Amanda was running...crazy!

For this size quilt, I had to cut 4 of the 40 hexies in half because the rows are staggered and you need them on the top and bottom.  That left me with 36 left and I only needed 33 for this quilt.  I was also able to use up some neutral scraps too!

The tutorial requires four - 4 1/2" x 2 1/4" strips for each block.  

After sewing each strip and pressing the seams, you trim each side.

And the top and bottom.  Make sure to allow for 1/4" seam from the points!

They end up looking just like this.  Making the hexagon's into squares is so much easier for me!

Sew your rows together alternating each row with a half hexie row.  I tried to be careful to match the seams in the rows.  I didn't want the zig-zags to get funky!

Since this is a pretty small quilt, I added a Kona Cayenne Red border.  It turned out to be a perfect match with the Moda orange/red.  

I got it pinned and started quilting.  Simple 1/4" zig-zag lines between the rows and 1/4" on either side of the hexie rows.  To finish it off, I used my Hera Marker and created a diamond vertically through each from of color.  

 I really like the subtle changes of the neutrals in the zig-zag!

I decided to name this quilting my 'HexArgyle' design!  The back is the same as the border from the front.  Cayenne.  I went with Kona Yarrow (which is also a great match to the Moda) for the binding.  

I kinda dig this little mini, baby, hexie, zig-zag quilt!

I hope you get a chance to try this easy and brilliant tutorial!  I enjoyed making it and maybe one day will try it again!

  

LINKING:

Sew Cute Tuesday
Let's Bee Social
WIP Wednesday
Needle & Thread Thursday