Friday, April 18, 2014

Hexagon round up and an awesome new find

Look at this awesome little score of mine! can you believe it was given to me! GIVEN I tell you. Such a sweet little piece of retro heaven. I quite literally got goosebumps when I found out it would be mine and I knew straight away what was going to live in there.


 Sewing things of course, this way I get to disappoint a whole new generation of kiddies who will be expecting baked goodies.

 A closer look at my many many hundreds of squares cut and ready to fold.

 The bottom container all full of bits and pieces. Including this huge stack of papers...


 So picture this, its a rare, rare moment, the kids are clearly settled in well to playing lego, or colouring in or otherwise engaged. Your heart is racing - its time to actually sit down and relax, pick up the sewing and find some peace... you are stitching away, one hexie, two, then three... by George you have your groove on, this quilt is going to be yours in no time! Then.. then... you go to reach for another hexie, none there... none! that can't be, off to the main stash, none there. Sigh! off to cut paper hexies, fabric squares and get out the bostic. Then it goes VERY wrong, the kids notice your increased movement. Clearly if you have the inclination to move from one room to another, you also want to read a book, get a milk, play a guessing game, and watch a rendition of 'Old MacDonald'... Sigh, moment gone.

This really happens to us Mumma quilters, and happened to me too many times, this quilt was never going to get done, so I put my foot down... sweet talked my own mother to help (oh the irony there) me. She is doing some very cute things with paper over at Huckleberry Blue. I enlisted her machine to cease cutting pretties and to cut some boring plain white hexagons for me... ohhh so much quicker than cutting them out one at a time, but hand, for hours, like I was. I also cut out every square needed to complete to quilt ( I think) and have begun a massively, insanely, exhausting (and not to mention boring) quest of gluing 500+ hexagons.


Thought I might share my 'to go' bag for this quilt.

The bag was gifted to me some time ago. I still love it. Perfect size and so beautifully made - from Buttontree Lane
The thread is never a particular brand, just what ever suits me on the day I am at the fabric store. I do however always go with a cream, almost pale yellow colour.

The needle always changes too, sometimes I prefer bigger, other times smaller, so I carry a mixture. I keep them in a little container that came inside a kiddie chocolate with a toy in it - works perfect!
The scissors are old as the hills and were a hand-me-down from god knows who
The thimble was made by my dear friend Carly (from over at Dreaming of a Garden Utopia) other half.
The wax is not proper thread wax, just a candle. Really, I prefer this, its nice and soft this wax, and smells like tangerine, YUMMO.
The project is mostly kept in my  pastry tin, but I count out just what I need for each block and put it into my to go bag, sometimes 2 or 3 blocks - depending on the time I will be away for.