Hexie Progress

With numerous blogging commitments lately, I'm finally able to share about our long, 18 hour plane rides, perfect for making some progress on those hexies. Certainly that's enough time for a lot of hexie basting, but I only got through 9 flowers worth. Eating, sleeping, and movie watching occupied most of my time. 

Notice in the picture above the orderly storage after basting, the hotel sewing kit for using up thread in basting, and the dental floss container for cutting thread cause I didn't want to risk losing scissors to airport security again. And sandwiched in between two cardboard pieces are the fabric squares to prevent wrinkling.

My original hexie flower idea has two values, but my fabric choices may be too far apart in value. They look a bit dotted.

Hubby suggested this version, which is quite nice. Notice no yellow centers. Combined with a darker yellow, I'd have  another flower color to use in the quilt.  

Which flower idea do you prefer? I guess I'll decide once I come up with an actual setting for these flowers, ie, a quilt plan. Nothing like starting a project without a plan!

So, where did we go on such a long flight? Chiang Mai, Thailand, braving the coronavirus outbreak with masks, hand sanitizer, and anti-bacterial wipes. Days before, we were on the fence as to whether to cancel or not, mostly over concerns of getting back, as neither of us wanted a quarantine. 

But there were no issues at all, we're both fine, and had a wonderful time! The crowds were low, and I'm not sure how anyone could be sick in 95 degree heat, but I guess it's possible. Here's highlights from our trip:

the Flower Festival, full of beautiful floats,

the parade queen and her court,

beautiful costumes,

especially these flowers.

And believe it or not, these are carved watermelons found on one of the floats. Just amazing!

Here's the scooter we rented

to get out of town for a hike,

and to play in the limestone created Sticky Waterfalls.

We also checked out a butterfly house,

and an orchid farm.

Then spent 6 hours touring around the lovely Royal Park Rajapruek,

where they had a greenhouse full of orchids!

We also saw some traditional Thai dancing, especially the Fingernail Dance,

and took two Thai cooking classes, Tom Yum Thai, and Thai Akha. Both were excellent and delicious!

Then we collapsed each night at our hotel, Yaang Come Village, a jungle oasis in the heart of a big city - heaven!

So for now, those hexies are on hold till the next trip in a few months - still more to come.
Happy Quilting!

February 2020 Book of the Month

This month, I'm choosing a book that's a bit out of my comfort zone - English Paper Piecing II (affiliate link) by Vicki Bellino.

I rarely stitch anything by hand anymore, so why English paper piecing? Well, I've got some upcoming vacations that have really long (almost painful) plane flights, and would like something other than a book or a movie to occupy my time.

It's also high time I opened up the pack of hexie papers I bought years ago from Paper Pieces, and maybe try out some diamond shape templates from Tales of Cloth.

This might be a good opportunity to use up some of those scraps too. Just need to sort through them, and come up with a plan.

Now, as for the book, there are a lot of very, very nice projects to make, more up to date than what the book cover conveys. The publisher could probably have a successful relaunch of this book if they reprinted it with a different cover. Yes, it's a beautiful quilt, but it makes the book look dated (published in 2014). 

Here's a couple projects that caught my eye:

Little Dresden Patch
I love the rounded edges on the hexies!

Simple Splendor
a more traditional quilt 

and Summer Garden
a flower filled bed runner - how cute is that?

Though I'll just be working with traditional shapes this time, the book covers all the basics, from cutting, to basting, to joining for any shape - enough to get me started!

And if you're an Electric Quilt user, one of their recent blog posts featured designing with the one-patch setting, which includes hexies and more - check it out here. Just some more inspiration for those hexies!

Now don't expect a finished project any time soon, unless I'm super motivated or bored to tears on those flights! Remember the last hand project (Mediterranean Rose) took 1.5 years for block completion, and another 5.5 for a final quilt. Let's hope for a better outcome - I'm looking forward to getting started!

Happy Quilting!

Thanks for following!

February 2019 Book of the Month

I've got a new Book of the Month feature, something of a departure from the quilts I've been making lately - it's time for Modern Art Quilts (affiliate link)!

Yes, I'm going to make an art quilt, something I haven't done in many months, and I'm pretty excited about it!

When I first saw this book, the element that jumped out at me was the black outline around the greys on the cover quilt, along with that little bit of overlap on each corner. That little bit really adds a special little spark. Who knew that something so simple could make such an impact?

Leafing though the book, several more quilts caught my eye, and set my mind whirling with creative ideas - here's some small snippets of a few of the other quilts in this book:

Hexi Network

Flower Power

Going in Circles

Waves

Fascinating, aren't they? Which would you choose? I think I'll start with a project from the book, maybe one of those above, then go on to create one of my own.

What's even more fun is that I won't be doing this alone - there will be a Modern Art Quilt blog hop of other creative quilters later in the month, with the schedule yet to be announced. I'll definitely keep you posted on both my progress and the hop schedule - I hope you become inspired to make your own art quilt too!

Happy Quilting!

Block 7 of the Growing Up QAL

Block 7 of Alida's Growing Up QAL, over at Alida Tweloq Designs, is a wrap! 

Continued in my color scheme of red, white, and blue, this design uses the English paper piecing technique, something I've not tried before. Would I do more of this type of piecing? Only if I were travelling and didn't have a sewing machine around!

But it was good to learn a new skill, which is what the Growing Up QAL is all about. If you want to try new sewing skills, join in!

Have a great weekend!

Saw Tooth Flowers

Still having a blast with applique, this time with flowers!

Originally jewel shapes, leftover from Jeweled Flower Garden, they could have easily made flowers.

But no, I decided to cut the tips off, making hexagons, and adding yellow centers, just like the two almost complete flowers. As for the green for the leaves, too bright. Fortunately, stored with the flower pieces were triangles of another green for the leaves. Though I had plenty of those, I wanted to be different and went with one leaf, not two. Therefore, Saw Tooth Flowers.

Stitching these to interfacing for applique was easy, 

as  I left 1/4" open at seams between the petals (hexagons), where the leaf joins. Keeping the fabric out of the way, 

and clipping the interfacing,

made for nice inside points. The flower below just got fused, and the one to the left is still free.

I also got lucky that there were seven flowers, which made for a nice arrangement on the batik background.
The flowers are lined up in an orderly fashion, though I didn't get the measuring tape out for preciseness. Just eyeballed it.

Quilting is full of freehand leaves, in a medium green thread.

And the flowers all have purple veining and centers.

A fun, different project and so happy to use up flower parts and some yardage. As for the triangles I cut off the jewels - a project for next month!

Happy Quilting!