Hexies, hexies on my mind

It's been over two months since my last hexagon quilt post! To hold myself accountable (and make sure the hexies won't languish indefinitely in my cupboards in favor of some instant-gratification-type project) I thought I would post periodic updates - so here's what's going on in hexie land (a.k.a my living room floor - the only surface in our apartment that is big enough to lay all these out) these days!

I have made a total of 405 hexies so far - that translates to about 2/3 of what I need for the backgound and about 40% of the total hexies needed for the entire quilt. Slow but steady progress! I'm still focusing on getting the background hexies done first. The other day,  decided to lay out the first three lines of letters, just to get an idea of what the background will look like and what the ratio of white to patterned hexies should be. I want the background to be interesting, but it can't be TOO interesting or I risk taking the focus away from the letters. This is what it looks like so far:

And yes, I am fully aware that in these pictures the alphabet actually says A, B, C, D, E, K, L, M, N, F, G, H, I J. But don't worry, the final quilt won't! :-) As I was laying out the hexies on the floor I realized too late that I had gotten the lines mixed up, but since the point  of the exercise was mostly to determine the ratio of white to patterned pieces I didn't bother rearranging them.

Even though cutting out hexies is quite meditative, I have to admit that cutting hundreds of off-wite solids isn't that exciting. Can't wait to start on the actual letters. And now I really need to decide on colors for the letters - I have been thinking about this for months and I still can't decide! Oh well, I still have over 200 background pieces left to make before I REALLY have to make the decision...

That's my progress so far! If you feel like making your own hexagon quilt, check out this post.

Simple sewing for Stella!

I have some sewing to show you - about time isn't it! Last month I received some lovely fabric charm squares in a a swap, and I knew at once what they would become. Here are the squares, along with some very pretty buttons:

Here's an in progress shot. As you can see, my kitchen table is where I do most of my crafting! :-)

And here is the result - a doll quilt for my niece! Stella turns one in a couple of days, and she had her birthday and namegiving party last weekend. My mom bought her a really cute little dolls bed, so I made this little quilt to match.

I matched the charms with some fabric in my stash, and I think it turned out quilt nice. I really like this color combo!

Crafty 2008 (part 1)

I've been cleaning up the photo folders on our computer today. Guess what I found? Tons of "must-blog-about-this-soon" photos, all forgotten an un-blogged! Well, better late then never I suppose, so here are a couple of things I made last year that I really like:

Pink elephant cookies! This photo was taken back in October. I made pink sugar for the first time - super simple; just puree a couple of raspberries, mix them with regular sugar and dry in the oven on low heat. Pretty, tasty and a lot cheaper than sprinkles!

More pink! This is the baby quilt I made for little Stella this Christmas. It's very simple, but I like the colors a lot. I really need to learn proper binding though! What do you think?

Christmas is coming!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, I had a lovely day! This weekend I went home to visit my parents and sister (and little niece Stella, of course!) and got lots of presents and my mom's excellent lasagna. This is one of the birthday presents I got, a brilliant book by Patti Digh - check out her blog, too!

This is a little yarn wreath I made for our front door. Still needs some embellishment though... What do you think? I'm only just realizing how little time I have left before Christmas - and I still have lots of gifts to make!

And I almost forgot, my Harry Potter swap package was received! If you want to see everything I made you can see it here, but I just have to show off the Hermione-themed wall quilt I made for my swap partner - I'm really pleased with it!

My partner's favorite Harry Potter character was Hermione, her favorite colors were brown and burgundy, and she liked owls, so this is what I came up with to incorporate all those things. What do you think? Any Hermione fans out there? :-)

Fabric collage

I was at home alone on Sunday evening, and suddenly felt an urge to sew something... I didn't plan ahead at all, I just sort of went with the flow. Here's what happened:

A little fabric collage entitled Nature. It's just a basic log cabin design, embellished with all sorts of notions, vintage lace, and a bit of embroidery. I had lots of fun making it!

A close-up of the center. The tree is printed with a hand-carved stamp I received in a Craftster swap. I made a bunch of fabric patches this summer (read more here) and this is one of them. The stamp itself was carved by the talented Craftster knitting_nyxxie. The birdie is an inkjet transfer.

The finished piece is about 16" square. It's a bit wonky since I didn't measure anything, but I like it that way. Here it is hanging on our living room wall: