Category: Hexagons

Big Update!

I’ve been busy!  I finished another hexagon diamond last night, and I have the next 3 ready to be basted.  This one is using just Equinox fabric, I have a couple like this – I have lots of scraps!

Yesterday I took one of my new stencils and made my own pantagraph.  I took some of Alex’s drawing paper, cut it in half and taped enough together to get the width I need for the scrappy car quilt.  I’m hoping to get it quilted in the next day or so, I’d like to take it to guild this week.

I’ve also been working on Month by Month from Sunflower Seed. I’m now halfway done, and still have no clue where it’s going to go!  I’m debating taking down a collage frame in the hallway and putting cross stitch up.  But I also have a spot upstairs in the hallway I could put stuff.  I just don’t know what to do!  I finally put up Dream, Hope, Believe, and Imagine in my office along with the Blessed are the Piece Makers one.

Yesterday I also decided to work on my Quilt Show 2010 BOM.  I got the next row of borders put together and I’m planning on working on it today.  Hoping to make some progress today, then I’m thinking tomorrow I can work on quilting the scrappy car quilt.  I doubt it’ll take long to quilt it, it’s only 36″ x 36″!

Please don’t forget to vote for my quilt Patriotic Lone Star over at Quilting Gallery!

Vote and Hexi Update

I submitted one of my quilts into this week’s contest at Quilting Gallery.  Please go over and vote for me, it’s the red, white and blue Lone Star Quilt!

I made a purse for my sister this week (forgot to get a picture) and I will not make another one of these ever again.  The instructions SUCKED!  I had to get hubby to help me figure out what I was supposed to be doing, I just could not understand what they wanted me to do.  At least it’s done and she said she liked it.

I’ve managed to complete 2 diamonds for my new hexagon quilt, slow going because there are more pieces in each diamond, but I think it’ll look really cool when it’s all done.  I’ve already started working on the 3rd one.

I got my stencils yesterday, now I’m going to see if I can figure out a way to make them into pantographs so I can use them on my frame upstairs.  I have a few quilts to get quilted, my sister is getting antsy for hers!

Off to take a nap, Alex was up at 4:15 this morning and I didn’t get enough sleep!

New Quilt/Learnings

Well, I’ve been busy this week!  I posted on Monday that I started a new quilt, it’s now done!  Here’s my question though, does it need another border?  It’s about 36″ x 36″ and I’m only planning on using it as a quilt in the car, for Alex or if we go on a picnic or something.  I won’t be quilting it until I get my new stencils – and I don’t know when that will be since my order says Pending on the site!  It went together very quickly and I love that I used fabrics from the stash, NOTHING new was bought!

I’ve been thinking about my next hexagon quilt this week and I think I’ve got it designed the way I want it.  The example I found on PaperPieces.com has the diamonds vertically, but I think I like them on their sides.  None of the colors in the EQ version match what I’m actually going to use, since I’ll be pulling from the 2.5″ square bin to make all the diamonds.  I think I’ll do all the diamonds and then put them together with the white, or at least I’ll see how far I get with the hexi papers I already have printed out!  I’ve figured I need 59 full diamonds and 12  half diamonds and this one will finish at 79″ x 85″.  Huge for me!  I just checked sizes and it looks like that might be large enough to fit our king size bed!  I’d have to put big enough borders to hang down the sides, although I might put it on the bed in the guest room.  It’ll be awhile before it’s finished, so I guess it doesn’t matter right now!

I was playing with EQ today while Alex played and hubby was busy on his laptop and learned some new things.  I didn’t realize that you could create a quilt layout from a block!  Here’s the caveat though, the block can only have horizontal and vertical lines – no diagonals or it won’t work. I also figured out how to break blocks apart in Word so that you can show how to make a block, that’s cool!  I did find something I’m disappointed in though, I created the new hexagon quilt in EQ on my mac (using software called VirtualBox to run windows) and created it in a new project.  I can move blocks, layouts (uncolored), photos, fabrics into another project but not colored quilts!  I wanted to move the new quilt into my hexagon project, that sucker took a long time to color in!  Oh well, maybe in the next version?

Well, I’m off to start working on the new hexagon quilt, I think I’ll print out some more papers, I think I’ll need them!

Top is finished!

I did it!  I finished my hexagon quilt last night!  There are 1,033 1″ hexagons in this quilt.  Now I just need to learn how to hand quilt it!  I’m waiting to see if the quilt shop closest to the house is going to offer the hand quilting class any time soon.  The owner was the speaker at guild last week and I asked about it, she said possibly, so I’ll have to wait and see what she decides.  I started this on February 7th, so it only took 5 months to complete, while also working on cross stitch projects.  Tonight I get to start working on galaga again, hopefully it won’t take too long before I can finish it and work on something new.

Design Wall Monday – 061112

Well, I haven’t been working on the galaga cross stitch lately, thanks to the awkwardness of the frame my shoulder was hurting and I needed to let it rest.  However, this has given me time to work on the hexagon quilt.  I have started working on the third border.  I’m really liking how it’s looking now that more borders are on.  I can’t wait to see it with the fourth border!  I already have the thread for quilting it, I just don’t know how to hand quilt yet!  Still hoping to find a class in the area so I can learn to do it right, but if I can’t find anything I’ll just do my best!


I decided a couple of weeks ago to create a hexagon flower using 4.5″ squares and quilt it by hand to see how easy it is.  Problem is that I need the frame that galaga is on!  So the plan is to work on the large quilt and get the borders finished, then work on galaga and hopefully finish it (only about 4 pages left!).  Then I can quilt the hexagon flower and then hopefully do the quilt itself.  Basketball season is almost over, hubby’s team is in the finals so we’ll be watching them, and that gives me time to work on projects.  I also need to start thinking about backing fabric, I don’t know if I should use something I have at home or buy something, I’m going to have to ponder it 🙂

Galaga Update

I’ve been working hard on Galaga and making lots of progress.  You can’t tell, but I messed up counting on the left and threw stuff off, but it’s really not noticeable.  I’ll just have to keep it in mind when I start working on that side!  This is the first time I’ve used Q-snaps on a project and boy does it take some getting used to!  I’ve used 5-7″ hoops for 30+ years!

I finished putting on the first border last night, spent a good 90 minutes working on it at the car dealership while I waited for the truck to be worked on yesterday and decided to just finish it up last night.  Now I can start prepping more hexis and start the next border.  I’ve also decided on how I’m going to test hand quilt this quilt.  I printed off some 4″ hexi’s from EQ and I’m using 4.5″ squares cut with my Go to make the hexi’s.  I’m just going to do a flower and then I’ll quilt it.  That should give me an idea of how easy/hard doing the whole quilt will be.  I hope!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial Day!  Thank you to all those that have served, past and present!

Framed Cross Stitch

 Yesterday I stopped at Catan’s and bought frames for a bunch of finished cross stitch.  Darth Vader only took me about 10 days (on and off) .  Hubby is taking it to work for his desk.  This was a very easy, quick stitch.

The heart piece was started many, many years ago.  I think it only took an afternoon to finish it up.  I may have started it right after my grandfather died, but that was back in 1998!

Blessed is the Piecemakers was finished last year and has been sitting on my sewing table waiting to be framed.

The Love Is piece is a free chart from DMC using color variations thread.  I couldn’t find a couple of them at the time, so I substituted other colors.  This one will go with all the other Love Is framed pieces in the hallway.  I still have 4 pieces left to frame, the Dream, Believe, Hope and Imagine ones.  I have 2 frames that will each hold 2 of the pieces.  Hope to get that done this weekend too and figure out where everything is going to be hung! I am hoping to start working on Galaga tonight while we watch tv.

 

Yesterday I worked on putting together the first border on the hexagon quilt. I’ll work on this on and off while I work on Galaga, I already have the thread for quilting, but the borders are going to take me awhile I think.

Another Cross Stitch Finish

I’ve put the hexagon quilt on hold for a little while.  I started working on the border and was causing some wrist pain while I was holding the pieces together for stitching.  So I’ve decided to work on some of my huge backlog of cross stitch projects.

I don’t even remember when I started this one, probably some time after my grandfather died in 1998.  I know how I’d like to frame it, with a heart shaped mat, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to find one.  Getting one custom cut will most likely be expensive.  I’ll have to see what I find.  Next I’ve decided to work on one for my husband for his office at work.  It’s Darth Vader from Dork Stitch.  It looks like it will be a nice quick stitch.  Not 100% sure how much time I’ll have to work on it in the next few days, our favorite baker is coming to spend a couple of days with us.  We are hoping to go to the zoo while she’s here.

Hopefully I’ll have a new update soon!!

Design Wall Monday

Well, I’m making progress!  I’m now working on the final row before adding the scrappy border.  I have the 6 remaining flowers done, I’m prepping the rest of the white I need to finish the row.  I’m hoping to start on the border by the end of the week.

I’ve been asked to teach EQ7 at Amherst library again, this time instead of doing 2 classes (beginner and advanced) we are just doing 1 class.  I need to start looking at the manual and learning all the new stuff!  I haven’t had time to do much with it lately, but I have it on my mac using a free virtual software, so I can start working on the lessons while Alex plays!

Head on over to Judy’s to see what everyone else is up to!

Design Wall Monday

Well, I actually got the next row attached on the Hexagon quilt last night!  I have 2 rows left to do and I already have the flowers ready, just need white hexis!  I mentioned here that I wasn’t sure if I should do a scrappy border or solid colors.  I’ve decided that I’m going to do scrappy.  Especially now that I have all my 2.5″ strips cut up into squares!  I love my Accuquilt Go!  I mentioned in February that I got the 2.5″ squares die that has 9 squares on it.  It was so easy to line up the strips and just keep running it through the machine.  I even found a stack of fabric I didn’t realize was there and cut it with the chisel die.  Not that I have a plan for a project, the strips were just the right size!  Alex and I are going to Joann’s today after his Dr’s appt, I need a different container for these beads, a different pen/marker for the Dear Jane Siggie blocks, and maybe some more fabric, we’ll see what I find.

Head over to see what everyone else is up to over at Judy’s.