Saturday, June 30, 2018

June is finished?

June is almost done and with the end of the month comes those deadlines that I may, or may not, have ignored so far 😊

Kingfisher Stitch-Along and One Monthly Goal (OMG)

My goal for June was to finish 16 hexie flowers. That's a lot less that what we need to follow the Stitch-Along but to be honest, I didn't think that I could even do 16. Thanks to Miaismine's very positive comment, I figured out that from the date she left me the comment, that if I did roughly one hexie a day, that I could easily complete all 16. So that's what I did. I even took some hexies to work and basted them on my lunch break!
First hexie flower hand-appliquéd
on the diamond

My neighbour's beautiful
clematis with my hexie flower


I also finished hand-appliquéing my first hexie to my background. I really like how it looks. This project is going to be a LOT of work. Oh well, it will get done eventually.




Pretty red hexie flower
The first 16 hexie flowers completed!
Star hexie flower














Starry Bright Night QAL

Month 6 of the Starry Bright Night QAL is all about curves - not my favourite thing, which is one of the reasons that I've procrastinated, although any excuse will do to procrastinate :-)

Block 5 - not a star. Could it be
a nebula?
I chose to make Block 2 which includes off-set curves within curves. To give it a starry look, I used an orange fabric for the centre, then bright yellow and a lighter yellow to symbolize a fiery star. Of course my son then told me that stars are only one colour because that's how they categorize them. Oh well, the artist in me doesn't care 😊, except that I messed it up, which I do care about, but at time, not enough to make another one! If you haven't figured it out, you'll have to read what I learned below.

Batik Lap Quilt

Batik Lap Quilt - feather meander

I finally got my silk thread from my supplier :-)

317 (Orenji)
345 (Kyoto)









I was doing well quilting Angela Walters' Feather Meander until I ran out of thread. So Wendy go me two spools of Kimono silk thread from Superior Threads. One spool of 345 (Kyoto) and one of 317 (Orenji). Looks like I'll be back at it. Yeah! This is my To-Do Tuesday project for the week!


What I learned
  • Although I've completed my 16 hexie flowers, I'm not going to be making the next 16 my July OMG. As much as I love making them, I would rather take my time and not have to rush. I am happiest without deadlines!
  • I also enjoyed hand-appliquĂ©ing the hexie flower onto the diamond fabric. It is a rather slow stitching Sunday type of task and is going to take a while. It will be a gorgeous quilt though.
  • I was also reminded, while I was appliquĂ©ing my hexie flower to my diamond, that I should have ironed (and possibly starched) it, before starting. 
  • I've added a few pictures of my hexie flowers to my post since it was nice enough outside to take pictures.
  • My curved starry bright night block is a bit of a mess. I learned that if you are going to cut  multiple pieces of a pattern at the same time, that all of the fabric needs to be either right-side up, or all right-side down...not folded accordion-style. I really should have known better but it's been a very long time since I've sewn with patterns. I've also been sewing a lot with batiks and solids which don't have a right and wrong side (which is one of the things I love about them!) 
  • I must admit though that sewing these curves was a lot easier than I expected. Alida suggested that we not bother pinning the pieces since they were wonky anyway. Wow, that was really wonderful and easy to do! If I end up making a new block, I'll post it here as an addendum.
Related posts
Linking parties

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish!

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    1. Thanks Patty, it's always a good feeling to be able to make my monthly OMG!

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  2. Congratulations on meeting your goal! So happy for you! Yea! You did it!

    I linked up to OMG this month, as well!

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    1. Thanks Miaismine, and good luck with your goal :-)

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  3. I love your hexies and find that sewing EPP anything is a nice relaxing process! Deadlines are far too stressful! I had to laugh at your comment about how its been a long time since you have sewn with patterns! I don't use them often and always have a hard time following them!

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    1. Thanks for your comment Jayne. I think that I'm a rebel at heart - and I have to follow enough instructions at work without doing it for fun :-)

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  4. wow, wow, wow!!
    you have accomplished quite a bit!

    thanks so much for sharing such a great post and for linking up!

    brooke@sillymamaquilts.com

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    1. Hi Brooke, thanks for hosting the WIPs linking party. I've just posted your button to my blog. I'll be coming back cause I always have WIPs!

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  5. Your hexies are gorgeous! I love that you're making them with batiks. And good for you for tackling curves! I think I need to just figure out a project and bite that bullet. It's been a fear for too long.

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    1. Thanks Bobbi, I'm really loving the batik hexies. It's been too long since I worked with batiks other than charm packs. Good luck with the curves. I guess if you want to master them, making a whole quilt would certainly do it! At least there are tons of tutorials out there for curved piecing.

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  6. I just love all those hexies! And you show them off so nicely too! Thank you for sharing on Midweek Makers

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    1. Thanks Susan, I've slowed down on the hexie pictures - I don't want people getting sick of them, but I'm sure I'll be back at photographing them when the weather cools down.

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  7. Happy to hear that you enjoyed the curved blocks and that you learned valuable lessons! Thanks for being part of the QAL!!

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    1. Thanks Alida, I hope to eventually make this one again. I don't think that I would want my present one on a quilt. It would look pretty odd with all of the stars :-)

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  8. Thanks for linking up at Clever Chameleon. You already know how much I love your hexies.... and your flower photos :) I'm glad you got them all done for the month. I hope you will enjoy sewing the next set at a slower speed.

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    1. Thanks Dione, yes, I've slowed down a bit and am keeping my hexie flowers out of deadlines. It's really wonderful appliqueing them to the diamonds. I can't believe that I'm actually enjoying it - but I am taking it slower, which helps.

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  9. Hello Andrée,

    What fun you had photographing the hexies with the flowers! That clematis is gorgeous!

    Good news that you have the thread for the batik quilt.

    Who doesn't hate deadlines?

    Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!

    Love, Muv

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    1. Thanks so much Muv. I'm finally working on FMQ my batik quilt but yesterday it was giving me grief - so I'm just going to leave for a few days. That usually does the trick! I can't wait to link up to Free Motion Mavericks with it.

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