So many new projects

So few words to write

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.

Cast on Marathon

 What does one do the  week after finishing Uni (FOREVER) cast on of course.



I managed to find some really nice Noro equivalent  (well close enough to it) and decided to make another Lizzy. I just love this pattern, it is just lovely to knit, and a smidge bit addictive, that and my original Lizzy (here) seems to have been taken over by the rest of the family :P almost 1 strip down, and I should be able to make 6... should....

 Also cast on a cardi for me. Sorry for the dodgy photo, photos taken by monitor light only do tend have a bit of noise :P this is being knitted from some yarn I scored really cheap at my local spotlight, no idea what it is, but it seems to be nice enough.....

I am knitting top down, raglan style, with really big sleeves and a nice big wrap around cardi. There isn't a lot to share at the moment. I have knitted down to the arms, knitted one arm and half way though the second.

Wordless Wednesday

4 Squares In...

I am really liking how this scrappy blanket is looking, I tried it as stockinette and then garter, and garter was a winner because it looked more scrappy with the variegated yarns. Although it has meant the blanket is a lot thicker than expected, and  probably smaller...

 

 At this stage I am not going to stitch them together as I knit (as I usually do) in case I decide to add to it at the end using a new/additional scrappy ball. I worry that it might be obvious where one collection ended and the other start (if that makes sense).

 I must say, 4 and a bit squares down and the ball doesn't seem to be shrinking any!

And a little bit of cuteness because I always have a cute audience when I go outside for photos :D

Feathers!

I just love drawing feathers, I just wish I could sew them as nice.

When sitting around a table with half a dozen 'doodling' kindergarteners... A quilter will do the same... Now I need to apologize for the crappy photo image, because they didn't stay this way long enough for a photo. Within minutes the sheets were swarmed with little hands holding little markers and they became very bright!

Wordless Wednesday

1.355kg

This is years worth of There is a little bit left over-s, may as well keep that bit-s, hmm that dye job did not work out-s

1.355 kgs worth of them in fact. all wound into a pretty little (well not so little)
 ball. I have plans..... big plans.... for this baby

Fifty Flower Friday

So I haven't partaken in the OFW that so many are, that's because I am just too unreliable, so here is fifty instead! This is a total of 350 hexies sewn together. At first I felt I had made HUGE progress, that's over half of the 80 centre flowers done! woot!... wait, I calculated how many hexies all up will be in this quilt.... over 2500. Perhaps 350 isn't impressive after all. I really cant wait to finish the last 30 though, they are all basted ready to go, then it is on to 12 around the outside in a solid colour, and then 8 white ones so they are ready to join together. after finishing a flower with 7 hexies, 20 will feel like slow going. I am hoping my motivation to slog through this will be because at this stage I will be able to lay the pieces out and begin to see my quilt !!

So I begin my hexie journey

Remember HERE when I share with you all one lonesome little Hexie?
Remember when I said I wasn't sure if I would make any more??
Obviously I decided I would :)
I bought up a layer cake of Moda Summer House from Need it, Want it, Quilt (Totally recommend Them btw) and plan to make 80 flowers from it, I will surround each of those flowers with a coordinating solid, then white between them all before I assemble it and each flower has a soft yellow centre.

That said I have no intention of rushing this. This is a 'when I feel like it' project. Not being known for my love of hand stitching I don't want to push myself, and yunno.... without the pressure, I think I actually might like this hand piecing gig.... stay tuned, but not too closely, this may take a while...