Day 5 Hexie Queen Blog Hop---my day!

Well, it is my day to show what I have made up for the Hexie Queen Blog Hop, along with 10 other eager participants listed below.  As always our special thanks goes to Mdm. Samm of sewwequilt  who dreams up these wonderful themes. A big shout out of thanks goes to our head cheerleader this round, Debby who blogs at  Debby Kratovil Quilts.  THX for letting me join in the fun!  Hooray for Connecting Threads being our sponsor too!  I have to say that they are one of my favorite online vendors.  Since I blew through the small spools of looper thread playing with my new serger, I will be placing an order soon.

Monday, August 26

  

Scrapbook-ChickaDoodle
Kathys Quilts
A Quilt and a Prayer
I Piece 2 - Mary
Life, Quilts and a Cat, too  <<<<  that's me!  >>>>

Quarter Incher 

Sew Much 2 Luv  

Kwilt Krazy 

Selina Quilts 

Espritpatch 

Nunu’s Quilt World

I have made a couple of things to share this time around so I guess I'll show them in the order they were made.  That makes sense to me, anyway.

I have a thread catcher that my mom made me years ago that was looking a little dated and worn. Okay, I will confess that I "killed" it to get the tile out of there!  My girlfriend Norma had made some sewing room accessories a few years back in my beloved 30's reproductions so I think you know where I am headed?   I had admired the lovely dresden plate pincushion/thread catcher on Curry Bungalow and had gotten the pattern. The more I looked at the plate part of her design, the more I thought that perhaps I could substitute a hexagon in its place re-sizing if necessary.  Y'all know how to draw a hexagon from a circle any size you want, right?  HERE is a link if you don't and three ways to do it.

Between a run through Pinterest and Google, I found a Hexie Pincushion at Feed Dog Designs originally set up for an AccuQuilt Go die.  I tried it making the pieced block first.  It might work.  After reading the pattern directions for the thread catcher I knew it would work in the available space. Then I hand dyed some white rick rack making it a pale yellow to use instead of the pom pom thread used in their example. Here is the detachable pincushion so you can hopefully see the block a bit better.

And here we are in a posed shot with my other accessories.   I increased the size of the cuff, accented it with more hand dyed rick rack and did not use any boning using a heavier sew-in interfacing than originally called for.

And here it is, in its new home------

Next I turned my attention to making a small quilt from one of the Moda Honeycomb packs I had recently picked up from a nearby quilt shop.  I used the "Juggle" Pattern designed by Camille Roskelley for thimble blossom.   I know you have probably seen it on the Moda pages or her blog.   Well, here is my version on my kind neighbor's fencing (when I moved the water jug a little green lizard about the color of my background popped out at me!)

I used some Connecting Threads (told you I love them!) "Sapling" colored Quilter's Basic Mirage for my background fabric for a more 30-40's vintage look.  I added one more column so my resulting quilt finishes around 46 x 52 or so, not quite square.  The original calls for 45 charm piece or subbing out some pieced  blocks giving you a template for cutting more. Mine has 52 hexies in it. (The pack has only 40 in it).  Not only did I use most of the "Happy Go Lucky" charm pack but I added in some of the fabrics I had gotten with past birthday purchases from Bonnie and Camille's "Marmalade" and  "Vintage Modern" lines.

To be truthful, I struggled more with dealing with the same prints but in different shades landing in the same approximate area and trying to separate the colors. I did not think that the template was correct in my pattern printing either so I cut them over-sized and trim them down.  In the end they landed where they landed.  I was not dismantling it anymore to try to replace one here or there.  Or trying to work around the fact that I reversed a row from where I originally planned.   See, I knew there was a reason why I do not often use pre-cuts!

Originally I thought that this might be a wall hanging to go with my Farmer's Wife Sampler should I ever progress past the 30 blocks of 111 needed.  (Last seen in Sept. 2012 HERE,  HERE and HERE .  It is on my list but then blog hops happened, LOL).  Meanwhile,  Skyler has been using it as a tunnel to run through or hide under------

OR as his afternoon nap spot once the pictures were taken!  He left plenty of black hair on the back while I was trying to finish the binding last week!

I guess that you could consider making this little "Juggle" quilt practice.  I do love how hops are good for jump starting an old projects too.  I drug out a long set aside pile of finished Hexagon Stack and Whack blocks from a class taken at a Birmingham (AL) area quilt shop with several friends from my small quilt group. A friend who took the class with me said she had completed hers back in 2002 so that helps in dating it.  We used a pattern in Bethany Reynolds book though I changed the background to one color as well as the methodology for joining them too.  No pieced equilateral triangles in the background for this girl!   I blogged about having that one stuck away back in January 2013 if you want to see the blocks a little better.   Well, this puppy is completed to flimsy----not a fresh project when all but 3 blocks of it were made 10-12 years ago!!  LOL  (I did show it in progress last week on my blog.)

The leftover blocks went on the backing---I didn't order enough from Connecting Threads!.  In the end I needed the extra width another column of blocks gave.

Lastly, I made one block of the Atkinson Designs Hexie Garden in my beloved 30's prints to try out the pattern.  The same quilt shop I visited recently had the pattern in stock.  I do not own the same ruler set that she advises for cutting hexagons, 60 degree diamonds or 60 degree equilateral triangles. I used the Marti Michell set up that I do have and she measures the finished size of the hexies, not the height of the block.  That may have made a little difference.

The block sections finished about a 1/4 inch larger in height anyway and I assume, proportional point to point.  This thing looks huge to me at about 13.5 inches. I laid it out on my bed to see if I liked it any better and you see how large it looks in comparison to my standard pillow.  Maybe it will become a bed runner as I don't think I want a full bed quilt made with this big a block.  Nine inch blocks would be good maybe but I want a lighter, brighter background as well.  The center is supposed to be the same color as the background.  I just like yellow, LOL.

And there you have it.  I appreciate your stopping by and hopefully, commenting.  Enjoy the rest of the hop!