Finish #3

During our retreat to the mountains over spring break, hubby and the girls went skiing one day.  That left me to amuse myself around the resort.  I went for a couple of long walks, read the paper and of course did some stitching. 

Delta Lodge @ Kanananskis

Kanananskis Country

view out our hotel room the first morning

chair in the lodge or  a quilt pattern?

project on the go (more about this in another post)

mountain hexies

The weeks are flying by….

It is getting busier and busier in our household. After our return from Florida I have been going none stop:

I finished this quilt, this was my first made to order quilt. :

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what the little girl’s mom had to say about it:

“I just wanted to say again, a huge thank you. The quilt is absolutely beautiful. I showed Megyn when I got home and she took off with it right away and just wanted to be wrapped up in it.  It looks really great in her room too. I am glad you did it a bit bigger as well, because the size works wonderfully.”

 

My DD#2 celebrated her confirmation

 

 

 

 

 

We had a lovely dinner using Great Grandma’s dishes for the special occasion.

Then we were off to Edmonton (3 hr drive north) for the weekend for a soccer tournament.   The girls placed 3rd in their group’s division.  It was a great weekend, but tiresome too. 

I did manage to squeeze in visits to two quilting stores while there; Earthly Goods Quilting and Lori’s Country Cottage both are great stores with their own personalities.  I also got two hexies completed too.  If you want to see more hexies pop over to the One Flower Wednesday group to see more.This week I hope to play a bit of catch up.  I finally sandwiched my Valentine’s quilt last night. I have also been working on these scrappy stars.  

What have you been doing?

Life’s a beach

Or a least I wish I was back on the beach

Hexagon Tuturial

(If you are visiting me from the AQS Facebook link, leave me a comment to say hi! I would love to know where you are from and what you are working on. Thanks for stopping by. )

At our last guild meeting the program director asked if I would give a demonstration on making hexagon flowers.  First I was flattered and then I was nervous.  With some encouragement of fellow bloggers I have put together a tutorial of how I make my flowers.  What I have figured out when I was learning to make them, was that there are dozens of ways to make them.  I think you just have to find out what you are comfortable with and go for it.
Here goes:

Hexies

This is a great website about the history of the hexagon flowers: http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/mosaic.htm
1. Determine the size of hexagon you would like to work with. Mine are 1.5” hexagons (measured on the outside edge). You can download templates for hexagons or buy pre-cut hexagons at your LQS. When I run out I cut my own by tracing onto card stock and cutting them out. There are also plastic templates.
2.  You need 7 hexagons to make a flower. You can use more depending on how many rounds you want your flowers to be. I am using just two fabrics, one for the center and another for the outside ‘petals’.
3. Cut your fabric into squares wide enough to have ¼” over your hexagon. For my example 3.5”squares work well. (also one of my Accuquilt Go cutter dies) You can also cut the fabric into hexagon shapes, but I find squares faster to cut.
4. Place the paper hexagon in the center of the square on the wrong side of the fabric. Some people will use a bit of glue or a pin in the center to hold in place, I just squeeze harder.
5. With an alternate colour thread (an ugly one you aren’t using) you are going to baste around the hexie. You can knot your thread or not, you decide. Holding a 1/4” fabric over the edge, I come up from the back in the middle of the straight side, through the paper and the ¼” folded over the paper. Go down at the corner which has been folded over the corner of the paper and held down by your thumb

6. Continue in this way all around the hexagon. Cut thread and continue with the next hexie. .
Once you have all your hexies basted you are ready to make them into a flower. (Oops missed taking a picture of the center hexie)

7. Take one center hexie and one petal right side together (or two petals). Using a matching thread, knot one end. Starting at a corner go through both hexies very close to the edge. This time DO NOT go through the paper. Make two close stitches together to secure corner.

The object is not to see your stitches on the front side. (After you do a hundred few you’ll get the hang of it!). So you want to take tiny stitches as close to the top edge as possible. Continue whip stitching along the top edge to the other side.
8. Stop, grab another hexie, right sides together with the center hexie and continue stitching with tiny stitches, catching just the back few threads. After that side is stitched you will have to go back and close up the side between two petals in the same manner.
9. Grab another hexie and attach it to the others until all the hexies are stitched together. When attaching the last one you may need to bend the paper in order to get the sides flat together, try not to crease the paper too much.
10. After all the hexies are together you may remove the basting stitches of the center hexie only and remove the paper. The remaining papers must stay in until they are either surrounded by other hexies or you use them.  (the papers can then be reused)
11. Since I have used squares of fabric there are some extra ‘points’ of fabric that you may choose to trim to ¼” to tidy up the back.

And Voila you have successfully made your first hexagon!

You can join your flowers together in many different patterns. Use them as an applique on bags, placemats, patches, blocks, or as a pincushion.

One pile of hexies!

It has been awhile since I joined everyone over at One Flower Wednesday.  It is not for lack of progress with my hexies, just lack of time to post about them.

Finally I gathered them all together to see how my garden is growing, of course Lily has to get in on the display too. 

 

 

 

I continue to play with the layout of this quilt top.   Random or coloured rows?  White garden path between the flowers or flowers next to each other? Help me to decide please!

there are 42 hexies here.

Happy sewing

Lee

Snow flowers

It is not everyday you see beautiful flowers in the winter snow!!!   Don’t they just pop on the bed of white snow?  You can see more lovely flowers blooming all over the world over at Karen’s One Flower Wednesday.
A special greeting to all my Nederland friends who will be celebrating the arrival of Sinterklaas soon.  He left a few snoepjes in our schoentjes this morning. Goede Sint alles!

Growing garden

Althought I have been away from blogging for quite some time, (and miss it) I have managed to get a few flowers done for my growing garden.  I should have taken a picture of them out side on Monday, because now we are under 6 " (15cm) of snow and it is not stopping.  I guess winter is here! yuck.

I will explain more about my absence tomorrow.  Now I am off to visit a few more hexagon flowers over at One Flower Wednesday. Won't you join me?

Dance and practice....

This is what I have been doing while my girls are either at dance class or soccer practice.   I have received a lot of inquires as to just what exactly I am stitching.  So now I make sure I have a finished flower in my kit to show.  This week we had many practices and classes...so I finished these two flowers.

If you want to see what others are making then stop by One Flower Wednesday to see more blossoms.

Flower power and more

I am a little behind today due to taking the van in for servicing, stopping in at work (mistake) and computer issues with Blogger .

I decided to show you all the flowers that have bloomed in my garden this summer for One Flower Wednesday hosted by Karen at Journey of a Quilter  Check out the many other growing gardens.

my flower garden is growing

I have wanted to show off the above finish for a while, but had to wait until my mother recieved it in the mail this week. I made here a little table topper and 8 serviettes for her bridge parties!  She has been playing bridge with some of the ladies for almost 40 years

Next are a few finishes from over the summer complete with bindings

I hope whereever you are that the sun is shining and it is not miserable like it is here, rainy, cloudy and only 8*C. yuck we have had the worst summer.

If you didn't see on my previous post what I received from my dear friend you MUST go check it out.  I know you all will be jealous!! 

What are you working on???

late summer flowers

 I have had some progress with my hexie flowers this week.

i am so enjoying making these flowers. 

I am having a giveaway so check out my previous post for details.

purple passion

a few more blooms from my Grandmother's Flower Garden....I wonder when the whole garden will come together!!!

a few more blossoms

these little flowers are blooming everywhere. 

 best thing about them they don't need watering!

oh and they are darn cute

p.s. 9 more followers and I start the giveaway.

are you a follower yet?