The days are slipping by

I can't believe we are in April and that Easter is just about upon us. We spent a leisurely weekend at home catching up on chores and starting to get things organised for winter. There is still more to do but we have made an honest start. 

Hubby planted these Cherry Pie Heliotropes last weekend in pots by the front door under my sewing room window and boy do they smell good. I adore scented plants and we try and fill the gardens with them as much as possible.

Some produce picked from the garden today, yummy sweet capsicums. I have quinces waiting to be made into chutney, a job for tomorrow as I ran out of time today.

I have been making slow progress on my hexie project, I have been enjoying working on this in the evenings after dinner.

I have been making good progress on another project but there isn't much to see at this stage as it has all been prep work, however a project that is wanting to come out to play is Milliefiori and I shall start working on that one this week. Nothing like putting it out there for accountability. 

Alas this is the second time I have written this post, unfortunately for some reason it didn't publish and I have had to recreate it, funny how the words don't work quite the same second time round. Well it is time to move on, so until next time, happy stitching everyone.

Donna-Maree

Update for April 2016

Wow, April is done and dusted and May is under way. I thought I would just have a recap on what I achieved in April as my focus this year is on being productive and moving some projects along.

The final block for Home Coming Lane was completed which felt absolutely amazing. These blocks are a combination of piecing and Applique and even though there are only four blocks, there is a lot of work in each of them. Having these finally completed is definitely an achievement in my book. They are half quilted but have been put aside for some other things to be worked on.

The Home Coming Lane blocks being quilted

The hexies are coming along and my little side projects are nearly complete. Two little hexie bags, one for me and one for a friend although there just might be a few more of these in my future as they are so easy and fun to do.

These just need the tops sorted and linings fixed in. The one of the left is having a hexie lining and the one on the right is having a round one piece fabric lining. Will post photo when completed.

At club we had a UFO weekend and that was incredibly productive for me with quite a few 'quilt as you go' 'string' blocks made. Once home I continued with making these blocks and before I knew it a quilt was completed. All that is left to do now is a label and to gift it to the recipient.

I quite like the blue grey traming on this and I think it has come out well.

Overall I am very pleased with what I achieved in April and am looking forward to achieving more in May. There is going to be no let up this year, 2016 is a very busy year indeed.

Just before I sign off, this weekend is the Great New Zealand Quilt Show in Rotorua by Aotearoa Quilters which is the main guild here in New Zealand. Rotorua is about an hours drive from Tauranga and there are a few car loads going from Tauranga this morning and I can't wait to see all of the quilts hanging in this exhibition. One of the displays is the Sewezi Flight Challenge quilts and it will be awesome seeing these quilts hanging together. Two quilts were chosen in the selection process from five for our region to get through for this exhibition. I will have more on all of that later in the next post as I have to get moving to be ready on time.

Until next time, happy stitching everyone.

Donna-Maree

Hexie progress

There are more hexies in this little project than what I had expected however it is very addictive!

This is the lining for my little bag although I have to say looking at it like this, it is looking bigger than I thought it would. I have checked with a completed bag and it is the right size. I am on the last row of hexies and the tips that I learnt at club last week are definitely helping. 

I have the hexies for the outside base done and just need to start sewing the rounds of hexies together for the outside and then the bag will be ready for putting together and finishing off. 

As much as I love summer, now that daylight saving has finished it is quite nice sharing the evenings with family and doing stitching by the light of the lamp and seeing some progress being made on some projects.

Until next time, happy stitching everyone.

Donna-Maree

Some hexies are going on...

I am taking a break from my regular hexie project for the moment and are making these hexies.

I made these hexies at club yesterday and continued last night for a little project, I have more to make today until I have what I need. These little cuties are 1 inch while the hexies I am creating for my insanity quilt are 3/4 inch. 

This is how you measure hexies, across one edge

Paper piecing has become very popular at the moment amongst my quilting circles. Like a lot of things it started off with one or two people doing it and now we have a very big following in our local club.  After the official part of our meeting everyone sits around chatting while stitching which makes for a very pleasant day. It is very interesting seeing the variations that everyone is doing, the different sizes, different shapes and while some fussy cut their fabrics others are happy to just cut and sew to get the best economy out of their fabrics. 

I will try and remember to gets some photos at the next meeting to show you the variations.  We had two ladies sit with us yesterday learning the ropes and while a more experienced quilter talked them through the process, the rest of us at the table picked up a tip or two and I love how quilting gives you the opportunity to share and grow while spending quality time with our friends.

I have some more hexies to create if I am going to get this little project completed, so until next time happy stitching everyone.

Donna-Maree

The hexies continue...

With spring cleaning  and preparation for Christmas underway I haven't got as much sewing done as I thought I would. However I try to sit and stitch for at least half an hour a day and it is working, even these little snippets of time accumulate into results.

Here is my hexie progress to date, in terms of pieces being sewn together. I have chosen to use all different colours of fabrics, I considered using just one fabric line but I can't do it. I am a scrappy, throw it all together kind of gal. 

It is surprising just how many hexies you can get out of some scraps of fabric. Maybe this quilt will be the quilt that shows my history - the fabrics through my quilting journey, scraps from special fabrics evoking special memories. 

I really enjoy sitting and stitching the hexies, I find it incredibly calming but incredibly addictive!

I am very grateful to have the scraps of fabric to enable the variety that I hope will be in this quilt, I am also very grateful for the time that I can just sit and stitch these small pieces of fabric together. Funny that as we sit and make sense of the fabric pieces we also take time to sift through our thoughts and make sense of the pieces of our lives.

I have much to be grateful for especially coming up to Christmas which is such a special time giving us the opportunity to spend special quality time with those that are closest to us, our friends and family. 

Some stitching time is waiting for me - so until next time, happy stitching everyone.

Donna-Maree

Yay for a finish!

I couldn't leave the Christmas trees alone and found myself sitting and sewing the binding on yesterday afternoon while watching Masterchef on tv on demand just to get it finished.

So last night I sewed a few hexies, just a couple.

The hexies are sitting on the next project which is waiting for completion, but more on that tomorrow. I am not sure how much I will get done today as we are going out of town today but I will keep you posted.

Check us out tomorrow to see how much progress has been made. Until then happy stitching everyone.

Donna-Maree

November is moving on

I don't know where the last few weeks have gone. I have spent some time away with mum to get the results from some tests. We are just waiting now to hear when her treatment starts.

We spent some time with mums brother and his wife along with their grown daughters calling in to catch up with us too. It is really nice being so welcomed and having the support from extended family especially through these stressful times. My sister who lives in Australia was here for several days which was nice and my sister who lives in Auckland managed to get some time off which allowed us to spend an afternoon and evening all together with mum. It has been a very long time since mum has had her three daughters all together like that, special quality time. The time spent with mum, my sisters and my relatives made me appreciate anew the support of people who care about each other. 

I worked on my hexies a little while I was away and it was very special sitting with my Aunty Bev and us both working on our hexies together while visiting with each other. My hexie collection is growing, I will have to start sewing some together soon.

I have spent some time doing more organising in the sewing room and have now completed sorting all fabrics into bins by colour. This took longer than I thought it would and I now have better knowledge of my stash. I don't think it matters how large or small your stash is, I do think we all have more fabric than we remember and I do have more than I thought I did.

This afternoon I watched some videos on machine quilting by Leah Day and then had a bit of a practice session, trying out a couple of the design ideas I had seen on the videos. The first one was a meandering ribbon type design, this was more difficult than I thought it would be. The scale I was doing this on was a little small and I will try it again on a bigger scale. 

The second pattern I did was a curved line pattern which I really enjoyed doing and love how it looks. I think this one will appear on some quilts in the near future. 

The biggest thing that I got from watching the videos of Leah's today was to give myself permission to play and explore and that practice will develop my repertoire of designs while developing my self confidence in using them. Yes, I knew this already but sometimes it is good to have a reminder.

I also spent some time de boning some of my husbands shirts that were worn around the collar. The shirts were still in good condition other than the collars and will make a good contribution to my strip drawers and scrap bins.

That is all for today, so until next time happy stitching everyone.

The hexies have begun

I am loving the look of my hexies all ready in a container  - they look quite different when looking from another perspective, this way you just see the colour leaving any design as secondary interest.

I haven't sewn any together yet as I needed a project quickly and didn't have time to sort what colours I wanted with each other so I decided to just start making hexies and make those decisions later.

I have decided to bite the bullet and do the insanity quilt, although mine is my 'sanity quilt'. My mum has recently been diagnosed with cancer and having this project to do helps keep me calm and keep my fingers busy especially when waiting at appointments etc. I find that when life gives me curve balls that I tend to become more creative or simply having to keep my fingers and mind as busy as I can. Sometimes the simple act of stitching can help me sort out in my head what is going on in my heart and accept the path we now find ourselves on.

I love the way that hexies are so transportable and I have removed the tacked hexies to the above container from my little bag, making room for more supplies.

A special friend made and gifted me this gorgeous little bag for my birthday last month and this is what I keep my 'to go' project in. It is small enough to go in my handbag and therefore I am never without something to do when I need it. 

I think I will continue to tack hexies and get a variety of colours before I start sewing some of them together. As I was tidying a little in the sewing room yesterday some fabrics were cut and put straight into the hexie bag. I was quite surprised at how far a piece of scrap fabric can go when converted to hexies. 

That is all for now, happy stitching everyone and hope to see you back here soon to check out what I am doing next.

Donna-Maree

The hexie bug has hit!

More and more people are sewing hexies at club - I have heard the phrase 'insanity quilt' mentioned a few times too. Not sure if I will go that far, but I do have several hexie projects on the go at the moment.

This one is supposed to be just a quick little project to fit in amongst everything else. I thought it would be a good little project to have for when I need hand work, like at club meetings. This project has somehow become the main project at the moment and has superseded everything else!

3/4 inch hexies - the beginning

Ready for the next step

These beauties are going to be appliquéd onto a square which will be part of a pillow.

This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern 'A little bit hexie' which is a kit that Bonnie has put together for her Peru cruise participants, but she has made the pattern available free through her website. You can check it out here.

I really like the pattern and I don't need a wallhanging but could do with some new cushion covers. Nearly there, just have to sort the background fabric and the hourglass fabrics and then just put it all together and it will be nearly done.

Please do check back to see my progress.

Happy stitching

Donna-Maree