Hexies

The Random Hexie has about 30 more to go and the top is done! 

I did a lot last week whilst watching the snooker. 

I haven't counted yet, but I recon there are about 4000 hexies. 

Finished pic soon! 

The Insomniacs Guide to Staying Awake

10pm. Browsing quilt pics on Flickr. Hm, I have enough pre-cuts for one of those for Project Linus.....................out come the strips, blocks and bricks. 2am, still not tired, but have to force a shut down as up early to take the cat for her operation. 

This should take my mind of her for the rest of the morning........then on to that baby quilt layering.

Another re-think

I tried some variations for cotton reel blocks and didn't like any of them!

They are already in the scrap bin, I couldn't get the proportions right with the size blocks that I had to hand in the log cabin format.  Looks like that's not a good idea for a leaders and enders project.  Rethink time.

I had cutting to do today for the green and blue four-patches for Moth in the Window, I just wasn't in the mood for cutting.

I finished the purple blocks, ironed the four colours I have done, then sorted out the hand stitched greens for the next project-I have to name it for the blog-ermm-'The Big Green One'  will do for now!

There are hundreds of hand pieced greens.  I need 4 x 244 for the four-patch element-so I just sewed up a few more of the colours I didn't have from the cut blocks. 

I think I will have enough. 

Then I got out the green triangles and picked a bunch of every colour, I need 488.....

And the creams......all cut and ready.....

I am LOVING having all the cutting done!  After today  it *will* go away until Moth in the Window is done!

Seeing red

I have made up the 16 red blocks.

I am going to use grey sashings to join them into the overall quilt. May put  little moths in the joining squares of the sashings.

I really never thought I would find a use for these ugly grey triangles. 

All but 20 of the moths are squashed (ironed!) now.  I have become a committed presser with this project, I didn't bother  much before. This has been a blessing to sew, I needed something to stop my recent bout of over-thinking, it moved so fast it has really caught my attention.   Now THIS is all I think about!

Sewing the yellows next. 

 

Manic

I made it sewing through until 10.45 last night, after staying up 'till 1am the night before, amazing!  Most of the cutting is done-I did it in batches between bouts of sewing-all I need are some 1 1/2 " purple strips to make the cornerstones.   

Today, progress.............I have done about 8 hours!

I wasn't sure I had cut enough of these.............turned out fine..........

Love that basil fabric

Matched sets of reds

Matching the oranges. Peachy.

Blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, green sets for the 'window' sashings all stitched up now.  I won't have to iron these, finger pressing will be fine. Also sewed up the scraps for the cornerstones today.  If I do another one of these I think I will vary the 'moth' colour, not the cornerstones, it will be much quicker!

I lost my glasses for 10 minutes, even the picture is fuzzy without them, couldn't see them for looking!  Doh. There they are.  I need one of those chains that go round your neck.  And a leash.  And behavior classes!!!  Forget the agility though.

The 'oil' reminder came up on the Bernina today, so I took the plate off, brushed it all out, then spent 10 minutes looking for the sole plate.  I had put it away it the box with the brush and the oil. I had just found my glasses then, I think I had a caffine dip, or some such!

Yesterday night I chain pieced stitching the squares to a set of triangles.  I think I have done WAY more than 100 sets!  Tomorrows task is stitching these into pairs to complete the moth blocks.  (Happy to say that my hand piecing has proved to be accurate, that I had done on the triangles, you can see it in this pic. Smirk). Breaks will be ironing and cutting the stitched scraps that I did yesterday into 1 1/2" chunks for the cornerstone.  Love the salad fabric too!

I have done a few dozen of these already to try it out.  This will be the        l   o   n   g   e   s   t        job, I think! I will be able to finger press them, no ironing, the centre seams flatten out OK

Another hour at the machine, then off to bed with The Great Gatsby 

 (;@}

Night night!

Bank Holiday Retreat

We have a long weekend, yay!  The clouds are accumulating, not so good, but with 33 projects to choose from I'm happy.

My son is off at a festival so it's a silent weekend, much needed after a stressy week or two (not that he is a problem to  have around!).  I that's why the paper piecing has come out in the last two weeks, I need to meditate with something in front of the TV for a bit.

I will get one long walk in between showers, today will be the best day as the forecast is cool and windy, my perfect day. I can hear the wind in the trees at the end of the garden now.  Love that sound, and the way my weeping birch moves in the breeze.

The workroom (lounge!) needs a serious tidy before I work on the 'orange and blue'............ how does shoe polish, two boxes of matches, a voucher for a pack of tea and a packet of plasters end up on my work table???  Er, that would be the party boy preparing for his festival.

That unsightly pile of fabric is the mending pile, that must be tackled before anything else!

I will piece the remaining sets for project 29, clear up, work on orange and blue and maybe do some cutting-papers and the crumb scraps for 1/2" diamonds.  And lots of papers in hexies.  Oh, and the mending!

A friend at work gave me a bunch of dried sage a while ago when I was stressed-she is into alternative healing.  You light it, it smokes rather than burns, you walk round the house with it to banish negativity.  For me it worked as a reminder, not because it had mystical properties: every time I caught a whiff of the burnt sage, for the day I was able to pull myself up by my intellectual bootstraps and think positive about everything. Those matches are about to come in useful!  Only thing is I have to walk round the house again after I have done it, not to sniff, but to check if burning embers have flaked off and set fire to the house!  The convoluted lengths I go to to find peace!  Have to laugh at myself sometimes ~{:¬?

I have a new book to start a Bookcrossing ring, looking forward to this....I am the last of 9 readers, the book has been to continental North America, Australia and is back home in the UK now.

Home Retreat: 5/36 and 6/36

It looks like I have the day to myself. 

I'm listening to radio 4 and sewing, practising my piecing skills on wibbly 'made' blue fabric.

Large blocks are giving me a feeling of speedy progress. 

I have seen rainbow potential in this block: flushing diagonally over the quilt, large blocks from orange, green and purple, small ones in blue, red and yellow to link the rainbow. 

Oh no!! Another idea!  It will use up all the pre-cut squares I have.  I guess I should add it to the list.

So, with THIS one, that's.....



32!