Wow, it’s been more than a month since I posted! I don’t think I took my sewing out even once while we were camping. I know that the week we were gone I spent a lot of time swimming with the kids, and reading. In the last month I’ve gotten 3 blocks completed, I think I need one more block and I can put the next row together. I need to start pulling fabrics for the rest of the year, hopefully I can do that once school starts and the kids are both at school.
I really want to get back to working on hexie insanity and Dear Jane EPP. But I need to get something finished!
Linking up to Sarah Did It.
I did it! After almost exactly 5 years I have finished hexagon diamonds. I started piecing the diamonds 
This is the first quilt that I’ve pretty much done all free motion quilting. It’s not all perfect, there’s some eyelashing on the back and some skips in places. There’s some puckering here and there (border, backing, etc). And you know what? I don’t care! I am happy that it’s done, and that I did it all myself on my domestic machine. The quilt doesn’t 100% fit on our bed, I should have made the borders wider and didn’t. I’m happy with the finished product and that’s all that matters right?
I love the patterns that resulted on the back from the light colored thread (click on the picture to see it bigger!) I wasn’t sure what color thread to use, I didn’t want all the messed up quilting to show up on the back. BUT since the back is on the bed, who cares what the back looks like? 🙂 I was more concerned what the front would look like and for the most part most of the quilting blends in on the front. 
I wasn’t really sure when I set my goal for the month that I’d be able to finish it. I’m beyond thrilled to say I made it! We will be leaving this weekend for a week long trip to my father-in-laws – which is why I didn’t think I’d make this goal. Now the hard part, I think I know how I want to quilt the diamonds but I don’t know what color to use for the quilting. Gray, black, clear, smoke? Luckily it will wait for when we get back from vacation. I’m hoping I’ll have a decision made by then and I can get to work finishing the quilting – I want this quilt on my bed by the end of June!!!
Yeah I know, I drank the Kool Aid again. I mentioned last post that I joined #EPPParty, block 2 is finished and I just got all of block 1 hexies basted so I can figure out layout for those. The next block is released when we are on vacation, so I’ll have to try and catch up when we get back.
I know I mentioned in the last post that I didn’t have time for another hexie project. Yet I caved and started the temperature hexie quilt! I have week 1’s rosette ready to applique down and I’m working on finishing up week 2’s rosette. As I have time I’ll pull the fabrics and work on these, maybe with summer break starting on Friday (!) I’ll have a little more time for sewing, Alex and Cassie can play together and won’t need me (yeah right!). I will be ONLY pulling from the 2.5″ scrap bin for these rosettes, so the colors might change from block to block. I’m using a little bit of a different color scheme from 
In other news, we now have a Kindergarten graduate! His official last day of school is tomorrow, but there was a little ceremony at school Monday and we are just SO proud of him and all he has accomplished in the last year! Cassie wouldn’t stay out of the picture, I actually wanted one with just Alex and I, but that’s the life of a mom! 🙂
OMG it’s been awhile since I’ve done any kind of update on all my hexies! I’ve spent some time in the last week to do a whole bunch of prepping of hexie insanity. I have a bag full of snack sized bags, and each one contains either all the pieces for a flower or a diamond. Everything is in the bag, hole punched hexie papers and the fabrics for each diamond/flower. Based on my spreadsheet I still have more to prep, but it will take me awhile to get through all of these! I just got a new shipment of 3/4″ hexies, needed another bag since I still have all the papers in all the diamonds. I’m waiting until they are all done before I start putting them together and pulling papers out.
As my OMG (One Monthly Goal) I said I wanted to get all the black pathways quilted – I’m not so sure I’m going to make it! I haven’t been able to spend ANY time working on it this month! I’m hoping I’ll have free time this weekend and I can get it done, because we’ll be heading out the following weekend for a vacation! I have some started, but I can’t even tell how much is completed, I know it’s not halfway, I didn’t spend that much time working on it in April before I had to switch and make the quilt for Alex’s teacher. I’m still trying to decide how I’m going to quilt the diamonds, any one have an idea?? There’s also some half diamonds on the sides that will need to be figured out too!
Ok, I needed ANOTHER EPP project like I need a hole in my head, BUT I decided to participate in the #EPPParty on Instagram. Blocks are posted every 2 weeks on 
Did I really need to cut 2.5″ squares today for a new project? Heck no! *sigh* Alex said I should start another new project – and why did I listen to my 6 year old son? Because it’s hexies (at least this block) and it’s EPP. I couldn’t decide what fabric to use, I was thinking about just using my 2.5″ scrap bin, then I saw a jelly roll set I bought awhile ago at a guild meeting from a vendor. I haven’t used many batiks in the past, so hopefully this will be easy to use with EPP.
I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, but I did manage to finish both of my OMG items this month. We did have a really busy month, so much going on! I was planning on basting my hexagon diamonds quilt during the day at our guild meeting location, however I spend the entire morning at the hospital having a pulmonary function test done – turns out I have asthema! *sigh* Anyway, this past weekend I decided to bite the bullet and get out my old hand quilting PVC frame and start basting. It took 3 episodes of The Quilt Show and a trip to Joann’s for another box of pins, but it is now basted and I can start quilting it.
While I was working on piecing 2 commission quilts, I worked on the border blocks for Good Night Irene. I’m happy to say that it is now 100% put together and ready for quilting! Not the best picture, but I can’t lay this out in the kitchen or the dog will be all over it! Linking up to 
*sigh* This is not my year. I’ve been sick since the beginning of the year and as soon as I think I’m starting to get better I get worse again. I’m almost at the end of another bout of bronchitis and after a pulmonary function test my doctor told me I have asthma. Most likely it was brought on by all the bronchitis episodes this year! Needless to say, since I’ve been sick the last week or 2 I haven’t worked on too much. PLUS we had a birthday to celebrate this last week. My little princess is now 3 years old and I can’t believe how quickly the last year has passed. My sister and I took her for her first hair cut and then took her 3-year-old pictures. This is one of my favorites, although there aren’t that many bad pictures of her (yeah I know I’m biased)! We had a wonderful party and she gets upset when I start to take the decorations down now that celebrations are over.
I’ve been doing hexie swaps for the last few months and I’ve finally decided what I am going to do with mine. Each swap will be made into a block, about 60 hexies makes a 12.5″ square block. Once I have enough blocks sewn together I’ll sash them and put them together. All of the swap information will be put on the label so I’ll remember where the hexies came from. I just finished the first block last night, these are from the #xoxohexieswap. There weren’t enough to do the whole block, as we only swapped 30, so I pulled from my Valentine’s bag of squares to get enough to finish it. I have the next block planned and ready to start, but I wanted to work on Dear Jane a little before I started putting the next one together. I’m waiting on more hexies to arrive, but some of the swaps aren’t finished yet – I got mine sent in right away and now I have to wait for everyone else to finish and send theirs in. I’m pretty sure I can make 2 blocks from the typography hexies, at least one with the St. Patrick’s Day hexies and I have a few signature hexie flowers that I think I’ll figure out how to put into a block. PLENTY of work to do around here!