Addicted to Hexies

I’ve been feeling a little under the weather the last couple of weeks. Mainly due to tummy troubles. A head cold is making it’s way through the family. I felt like I was coming down with it, but I seem to have escaped. Keeping my fingers crossed. My sewing machine hasn’t seen much action. I seem to have enough energy for these hexies though. I’m very happy with how they are turning out and I’m pretty sure I’m going with the double hexie path. Here is a photo of an antique quilt (mid-19th century English, if I remember correctly) that finally got me started on another hexie project. This quilt was shared at the Vintage Fabric Dating Club meeting in March. I talked to it's owner and she said it was okay to share it with you.

I could have looked at this quilt all afternoon. It just had so much charm – the hexies, use of stripes and the soft colors with a dash of blue and cheddar. Isn’t that swag border with the striped fabric and heart bows so sweet. I don’t think I’ll include those in my quilt, but I do plan on the hexagon border. Here are a few more photos-

I just love looking at old quilts. I’m thinking about going to the American Quilt Study Group (check out their wallpaper) seminar in October. It’s in Lincoln Nebraska. It includes activities at the International Quilt Study Center andMuseum. I think this is a great opportunity.

It’s Spring Break here so I’m looking forward to a quiet week of quilting, reading and a little spring cleaning.

Which Would You Use?

I’m selecting the “path” fabric for my new hexie project. I think I know which one I’m going with, but wonder what you think. The fabrics are Primitive Muslin for moda.

Pie Crust

Time Worn

Paper Bag

Treenware

I ordered these half-yard cuts from the Fat Quarter Shop Friday morning. They arrived this afternoon. I couldn’t have expected them any sooner.

Here are two more Primitive Muslins along with the other four. I picked up these fat quarters at the Mid-Atlantic show. They are called Honey and Brown Sugar. They are darker than they look in this photo and I'm not considering them. The honey is too golden and the Brown Sugar too dark. I have to admit I’m swayed by these names. They also come in Walnut and Raven.

I want to select the “path” fabric early in the project. I tend to get bored working with one fabric and since I will need a lot of these hexies to make the path I want to work on them as I work on the flowers. That was where my grandmother’s flower garden in the 30’s repros went awry. I had done most of the flowers and then started the green path (zzzzzzzz....) and didn’t get far before I decided to applique the flowers to a background fabric.

libbyQ and I have been discussing our hexie projects. I’m so glad she told me about using the ladder stitch instead of a whipstitch. The ladder stitches are almost invisible. It's a new stitch to me so I'm hoping my stitches will become totally invisible with more practice. Thanks, libbyQ!

I just posted on The Jubilee Quilt Project blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lancaster Show

Thursday was a long, but oh so fun day! I got up at 4:30 so I could be in McLean, Virginia by 6:30. I need 1 1/2 hours to get ready before leaving the house. I like to start the day with my cup of tea rather than hopping in the shower straight from bed. The bus departed at 6:45 and we arrived at the AQS Lancaster Quilt Show a little after their opening time of 9:00. Lancaster isn't that far from me. I don't know why I don't go up more often.

The show was absolutely fabulous. I was blown away by the workmanship. I felt like I was taking photos of all the quilts - there were so many lovelies. I know I missed some beauties.

I didn't get photos of all the winners. You can view the them here.

Update: I just read on Fun with Barb blog that it is the policy of AQS not to allow photos of the show to appear on the Internet. Oops! I looked at my program and sure enough, it's there in black in white. So, sadly, I've removed photos from the show. My apologies.

 Here are a few photos of Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

 There are power lines in this photo, but many of the farms were not hooked on.

The fabrics were purchased at Zooks in Intercourse, everything else at the show. I paid between $4 and $8.50 a yard. Nice when fabrics at the LQS are over $10 now. I did go with a list and mostly kept to it. My plaid stash was running dangerously low so I was glad to find those. I didn't purchase anything at The Old Country Store because it was so crowded. I hope to go back to the area soon and go to Burkholders and the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum. In getting the link for this museum I see the Esprit Collection exhibit was limited to the show days. Darn! I'll have to keep an eye on this and see if they do it again.

Enjoy your National Quilting Day and Happy St. Patricks Day!

Free Episodes of The Quilt Show

Just a quick post to remind you that Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims open up their show - The Quilt Show - from the first 9 series (episodes 100-913) from March 16-18 in honor of National Quilting Day. I'm not a member and have only watched a couple shows (I get antsy), but just like a quilt class there are nuggets within each episode.

I think I successfully turned off the comments for this post. I still haven't answered all from my last post! I just didn't want anyone to miss out on the free Quilt Show offer.

The Lancaster show was fabulous and I'll post photos soon.

Happy Quilting Day!

Update: My bad! I just finished the episode with Edyta Sitar and tried to view another but couldn't. It appears this is the only one available to non-members. Apparently, there are different levels of membership and there are other free episodes for basic members. I just turned the comments back on so anyone with better information can leave a comment. Sorry about that - hope you didn't spend too much time clicking around like I did! By the way, I enjoyed the Edyta Sitar episode. Her quilts are beautiful and I love that she encourages block exchanges among quilters.

What Was I Thinking?

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is the first time I’ve given this title to a post. I completed this top last year. It’s about a twin size. I had a big piece of the sashing fabric, but not enough for the entire back.  I also have a lot of 7 ½” strips cut of the background fabrics so I decided to piece the back. I got far enough to cut pieces of 10” squares from the sashing fabric. Okay, what did I think I was going to do with 7 ½” strips and 10” squares? I’ve thought a little about it and have no idea what I was thinking. However, I have decided to cut the 7 1/2” strips into 10” segments and go from there. Maybe this was my plan all along. I do remember putting this away last November with a sigh. I really wanted to work on it, but other projects were taking priority. Now I really want to finish this quilt so I don’t feel so guilty for starting this one.

I needed (yes, needed) something very portable for my bus trip to the AQS Lancaster Quilt Show tomorrow. These are old fabrics from the 90's (English Oak and Versailles - both by moda - forget what the brown and pink was called, don't have enough of those left to look at the selvages). I still love them.

I hope I have some photos of the quilt show to share this weekend.

It’s 83 degrees here in northern Virginia. We didn’t have a winter this year. Most people are happy about that – not me. Just sayin’.

Two Finishes

Well, almost two finishes. While work commenced in my sewing room, I was doing a lot of hand quilting upstairs. I bound this small quilt last night and washed it this morning. It measures 38"x 48". Just the right lap size for me and it sure is warm. I used Quilters Dream Wool. I love this stuff. It's easy to quilt and gives it just enough loft to show my stitches.

This is the third quilt I've used this little toile as the backing. Would you call that a toile? It's Halcyon Days created by Kathy Hall for Andover Fabrics.

As you can see from the first photo, my sewing room is almost complete. That's the second finish. Go to this post to see what it looked like a year ago. Here are a few shots I took this morning.

I've set up a cutting station on the buffet. We moved this down from the dining room because there really isn't enough space in that room for it. This is part of the set I want to paint - a big job so I'm dragging my feet.

I'm so, so happy with how it looks. My DH did most of the painting (with a little help from DS1 and me) and laid down the new floor. Just vinyl tiles, but I think they look real. He still needs to do a little work around one wall and put the tile in the closet under the stairs. The closet is behind the design wall. He plans to do that this weekend.

You can see the old (1970's?) vinyl tile in this photo. It had actually grown on me, but there were places with stains and others where it was coming off.

To do the flooring we had to move EVERYTHING out of the room. Wasn't that embarrassing! As I moved all the quilting stuff back in I filled 2 shopping bags full of stuff for the guild yard sale. I have to be honest and say not everything went back into this room. I still have scrapbooking stuff to look through, but I have room in the cabinet to the left of the design wall for that stuff. Some stuff I had already gotten rid of and a couple bins of jeans are in my daughter's room. I wonder if she will move back home after graduation. She wants to travel so I'm thinking not. But that also means her stuff needs to go somewhere. Yikes! I hope she isn't planning to bring it here. We may need to get a storage unit. I hate the idea of that, but maybe just for a few years as my kids move into adulthood.

Not much on the calendar this weekend - I'm free to putter and stitch! How about you?

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

I had a lovely day last Friday. I drove down to Hampton, Virginia (about a 3 hour drive) to go to the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. It was good to see my friend, Alice. She is doing well and it was fun to see a show with her – just like old times!

If you are ever in the southern U.S. and looking for a quick bite to eat, stop at a Chick-fil-A. I had a yummy chicken biscuit sandwich around 9:00 am and it held me until I ate dinner at 5:00 pm. The service at Chick-fil-A is the best. It is fast food, but they often stop at your table to offer extra napkins or to get you a refill on your drink. On Friday the gal didn’t just hand me my tray of food – she walked it over to a table for me. Be forewarned – they are closed on Sundays.

But I digress. Here are some photos of my favorite quilts from the show.

Unfortunately, I missed getting the maker of the above quilt.

The above quilt got my vote for “viewers choice”. Feathered stars! Am I just noticing these more because I want to make one? If you’ve been reading The Jubilee Quilt Project blog, you know I plan to make a feathered star as the medallion for my jubilee quilt. I wish I had taken more photos of this quilt.

Hope you enjoyed the show. It was a good day even though I drove through a thunderstorm on my way home (in February?!!!). There were more art quilts than I expected and I think more floor space was allotted to vendors than to quilts. Not complaining! Here is what I purchased – 

a wool pincushion kit, marking tools, hand quilting thread and needles, honeycomb papers and just 7 fat quarters (I didn’t even look at bundles or yardage) and a book. The book is Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses by Linda Franz of inklingo. I didn’t even know I wanted this book! I’ve visited the inklingo website before and found it a little confusing. I’ll have to give it another try. Lucy Boston was a novelist, first published when she was in her sixties. She sewed and gardened into her nineties. What an inspiration! I haven’t finished going through the whole book, but from what I can tell it gives instructions for making Lucy’s Patchwork of the Crosses quilt using three different methods and how to design your own quilt using the two shapes – the honeycomb and a square. To find out more about Lucy Boston go to www.greenknowe.co.uk

I’m interested in the English paper piecing because I think it is the most portable quilting project I’ve ever done. What is your opinion on this?