Hexagons – Page 7 – Kelly's Kwilts

Cutting Review on Studio

I figured that since I was already going to be cutting fabric I’d do a little review on my new Studio. I love it! It cuts so much nicer than the Go, even with the Go dies! I have a bolt of Kona black that I’m using for projects that is 44″ wide. So since I want as many black squares as I can get, I cut an 8.5″ width and the length is the full 44″ (22″ since it’s folded on the bolt). I know it’s hard to see folded up on the die, but it’s folded so that there are 4 full layers and 2 layers that are partials. After I run it through, I have a stack of 48 2.5″ squares and a small pile of scraps. There’s almost NO waste! I did 3 of the 8.5″ strips to get 144 total squares. If I don’t need these for the 9-patch scrappy quilt, I know I can use them for the hexie diamond quilt. I worked on some hexies last night while we watched tv, I’m waiting for a shipment to come from 123 stitch with some Aida cloth. I’ve decided to put away my Cavs cross stitch and do my Monopoly board instead. I have almost all the floss, just needed a big enough piece of 18 count aida to work on it. When it’s finished it will be a full sized Monopoly board and we can play on it once it’s framed/mounted. I’ll post updates as I work on it. Time to get back to sewing, laundry is done for today (more for tomorrow), dinner is in the crock pot and Alex is still sleeping!

Where have I been???

Wow, it’s been a LONG time since I posted anything! I was trying hard this summer to get my hexie diamonds quilt finished for our quilt show, until they posted that quilts had to be completed by the end of September. AHHHHH! I’d never make it since I had 3 rows to finish, plus the black fill in spots at the top and bottom, PLUS quilting it? Yeah, I decided to just put it aside and work on it slow and just have it ready for the next show. Then I realized I needed to start working on a cross stitch piece for a wedding gift. Now of course it’s still not done and the wedding is next weekend! The bride works with the hubby and asked Alex to be the ring bearer! He’s going to look so cute in a tux, I just don’t know if he’s going to do what he’s asked or not!

In July the hubby went to California to see his dad for his 70th birthday. Alex and I stayed home since I don’t really want to take him on an airplane yet! (There’s another reason why we didn’t go that I’ll explain in another post.) Turns out it was a good thing we didn’t go as Alex got sick that weekend and had a 100 degree fever – only for about 24 hours though! Anyway, I found out there was a new quilt shop (The Quilt Loft) that opened within walking distance of his dad’s house. We’ve always had this deal that if one of us went out of town, the other would bring back a “prize”. So I told him where he could get my prize! So he went and picked out a jelly roll of Icicle Kisses by Kansas Troubles Quilters. I have no idea what I’ll do with it yet, but I will come up with something!

I was playing around with one of my Accuquilt Go dies and made this little table runner. I’ve had it pinned for awhile, just haven’t gotten around to sitting down at the machine to quilt it! This was a charm pack that I ran through on the triangle die (don’t remember which one off hand since we are camping while I write this post!) and just put them together into 2 rows. Haven’t decided if I will square it off once quilted or bind it with the angled corners. Once we get home from camping I will look at which die I used and also get the information for which line this was from.

Spent some time working on blocks for our Guild block exchange using the 2013 Hoffman Challenge fabric. All blocks have been exchanged and now it’s time to put it all together into a quilt. We want to have all the quilt tops completed by the December meeting so we can hopefully get more people to participate next year! I’ll do another post with those once we get home, I haven’t taken pictures of all the blocks yet!

I received an email yesterday from Accuquilt that the Studio cutter is on sale again for $399, the lowest price I’ve seen all year. I’ve been debating it for a long time, mainly because there are a few dies I’d love to have that are only made for the Studio. Plus I’ve been thinking about adding die cuts to my business, since at some point I need to get that going again. I currently only have 2 customers for embroidery work and I need to start making things I can put on etsy. Die cuts might be a good thing, quick and I could even cut customer fabrics! Plus right now is triple reward points and that will be nice, since it will give me a good way to buy more dies at limited cost to me! 🙂

Time to charge the laptop and make some lunch, I’ll be back later with more of where I’ve been!

Hexie Diamonds Update

It’s been busy around here lately, but I have managed to get all the half and full diamonds completed for the next row. I’ve started to sew them to the main piece and hope to have it done before the weekend, I don’t want to take this big thing camping! I was going to work on it last night after Alex went to bed, but my fingers got slammed in the car door and now 3 finger tips are bruised and hurt. Hoping to work on it soon! I have the next row all prepped and plan on taking them with me, I should be able to work on it at night when Alex is asleep. I’m determined to finish this quilt so I can enter it in the Guild quilt show in October, but that means I have to have it completed (together and quilted) by the end of September. If I can finish it soon, it’ll be just over a year since I started it. I posted about designing it here, and that was last June. I had a lot of start and stops last fall though since I was working on presents for people, and that was all cross stitch. I’ll probably only work on cross stitch and hand quilting when this quilt is finished, I need a break from hexagons! But if I had to guess, the break won’t last long!

Four rows to go!

I managed to get the 5 diamonds finished for the next row pretty quickly. Only took about 10 days to get the 5 diamonds put together. I love the colors in this row! I think my favorite is the rainbow stripes. The picture of the full quilt isn’t the best, we took it at night and the hubby wasn’t holding it right. I’m working on the next row and hope to have it done pretty quickly. I HAVE to have the top completed and quilted before the end of September, so I can enter it into the guild quilt show. I have 2 others I’m entering, but they are ones that have been completed for years. Hubby will be out of town next weekend, so I’ll have PLENTY of time to work on it! 🙂

Design Wall Monday

Well I was able to get 2 diamonds finished this week. I have my baggies ready for the next 3, and need to get working on basting them and putting the diamond together. I was going to work on hand quilting my first hexagon quilt so I could put it in the guild quilt show, but with everything going on this summer, I know I just don’t have the time. I’d rather concentrate on finishing hexagon diamonds and get it quilted for the show. I took a break yesterday though and decided to do something different. I pulled out my Cleveland Cavaliers cross stitch piece and worked on it for awhile. I haven’t worked on it since January, but it was quite easy to pick it back up and work on it. There’s a total of 15 pages and I had finished 1 in January. So I started working on page 7, there’s a lot of solid color so I figured it’d be easy! So when I need a break from the hexagons, I’ll work on my cross stitch. Hope to have more diamonds finished this week so I can put it all together this weekend.
Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes

Hexie Diamonds

I managed to get the 4 diamonds attached today while Alex was napping. There are now 5 rows left to add before this is completed. I am really liking how this is turning out, even though there are a few fabrics I don’t like. But since they are such small pieces of them, it doesn’t matter too much! I’m going to sort through the rest of my baggies tonight and figure out which diamonds are going in rows together. It’s also a way to make sure I have everything I need to finish this quilt. I have a LOT of black hexies to make to fill in the top and bottom, not sure if I’ll leave those for the end or do them before I finish the rest of these rows. I’ll decide later! Time to watch the Heat beat the Spurs (Game 6 of the NBA Finals) and sort through the hexie baggies.

Hexie Diamonds Update

Oh my goodness does my arm hurt! I wasn’t feeling well this weekend and decided to take it easy today. So while Alex played (and napped) I spent the day working on my hexie diamonds. I got all 4 put together that I need for the next row. I’d start working on attaching it all to the main piece tonight, but I think my right arm needs a rest – too much repetitive motion!! Hopefully tomorrow I can start putting it together. I have 5 rows after this one and then the filling in of the top and bottom with black. Then I’ll be able to baste it and quilt it. I had intended this to be done before we went camping the first time, but now my goal is to have it done and ready for the guild quilt show in October. The colors aren’t too good in this picture, I took it in the family room and it’s a little late at night for good pictures! I like almost all of the colors in this row, except for the money fabric. I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought that fat quarter, but at least I’m figuring out a way to use them!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes and HeLP for Hexies at Sarah Did It.

Design Wall Monday – June 3, 2013

I did it! I finally got the next row added on! I added the half diamonds to the next row since they were already done, now I need to get the 4 diamonds ready to finish off that row. Total of 6 rows and this will be completed, I am looking forward to being able to put it on the bed in the trailer! It’s getting harder and harder to get a good picture of this, I will most likely need to start taking multiple pictures and stitching them together in photoshop – that’s the problem with large quilts though! I am hoping to work on this solidly until it’s done, but I know that my plans always change. I will most likely rotate between this and the sampler that I’m hand quilting. I do still want to get that done and not have it sitting around collecting dust. As soon as I get the hexagon quilt done I can concentrate on hand quilting my first hexagon quilt for the quilt show. That has a deadline too!

Diamond Hexagon Quilt Update

So I’ve been working to try and get the next row of diamonds finished so I can add them to the main piece. I managed to finish the last one in the row today while Alex napped. I’m planning on starting to add them on tonight while we watch tv. The hubby had one of his friends from California come to town over the weekend and I got the 2 half diamonds put together for the next row. Hoping to add those on as well. I love how this quilt is coming along and can’t wait to see it all put together! I need to get a lot more black squares cut out so I can work on more diamonds, plus I need black for filling in at the top and bottom.

Shopping

I know I shouldn’t be spending money on fabric and notions, but sometimes you just can’t help it ya know? I needed batting for a couple of quilts so I went to Joann’s last week. I need some more pins for hexagons, so I can prep more for basting. I think I’ve figured out what blocks I want to do for the guild block exchange and I needed a 3″ finished half square triangle die. Unfortunately I’m a dope and forgot that I already had that die, now I need to take this one back. You know how when you have a 60% off coupon, you HAVE to use it? Well that’s why I bought the jelly roll, absolutely no clue what I’ll do with it, but I loved the pattern!

I’m also participating in the fat quarter exchange at guild and they are due at our next meeting. So Alex and I went the other day to Olla Mae’s, which happens to be closing by the end of June!, and I got almost all of the 26 fat quarters I need. Of course I bought a few things for myself too! The aqua-ish fabric is for the block exchange, I just need a few more fabrics and I can wash it all and start working on blocks! They aren’t due until September, but as the coordinator I want to have them done early.

I’ve spent the last few days working diligently on the final cross stitch project for my cousin’s twins. Now I need to wash them and get the sewed into wall hangings before the party on June 8th. Shouldn’t take too long, so I’m not worried. But that means I can now start working on my hexagons again. Got the first round completed last night on one of them, hopefully I can finish that diamond tonight. Then I’ve only got 1 more and I can add the next row to the mother ship.

Hopefully be back soon with an update on the hexagon diamonds quilt!