I Spy Planet Hexy Quilt Top

This is possibly the strangest quilt I've made yet, but I think I LOVE strange.  My son Eli (he's six) and I decided together to call this quilt I Spy Planet Hexy.  Those tall pointy triangles are towers.  All the hexies are piled ever-so-carefully on top of them. (Click any photo to enlarge if you wish)

-

It is my own design.  I can't remember the thought process that led me to this, but it was a jump from idea to idea to idea before I came to Planet Hexy.

This quilt is for my son who will be finished kindergarten on June 24.  I must say I love a good milestone as an excuse to make another quilt.  *wink*

It is made all from scraps or stash.  I didn't buy any new fabric for it.  The hexies are I Spy scraps.  The towers are Kona scraps left from my I Spy mega quilt (back at my house now waiting for binding).  The sky background is fabric I had bought as a possibility for the background of The Selvage Snowman quilt, but it had been too light for that.  The grey rock fabric is some I had bought for a pillowcase but didn't use.

There are 146 one inch hexagons in it.  I'll probably add a few more to take it to 150.  I was wary of overdoing it with the hexies that are falling off the towers, but I think a few more wouldn't hurt anything, we'll see.

I am planning to quilt it myself.  I think I will do some very simple straight lines.  Unfortunately my sewing machine has had a bit of a bad attitude lately and has been throwing some thread-tangling tantrums, so it will need to go in for repair before I attempt any quilting.

You may remember that the I Spy hexies were supposed to be my summer travelling project.  Well, I'm still going to make more.  I have more ideas for them.  And my daughter Tess could always use her own hexy quilt.

Now an off topic message: Happy Birthday Dad!

And for some linky fun, I'm hanging out with other talented crafty sorts at {Sew} Modern Monday , Made by You Monday , Manic Monday ... and of course I have to party with Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.  Click any link to see piles of fabulous projects by bloggers from around the world!

-

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Quilting!

Hey There Hexy Ladies

 Last post I mentioned that a few days ago we travelled to PEI.  Well, it takes 3.5 hours to drive from our place to Charlottetown, so I needed a little something to do on the drive ...

-

Let me introduce these hexy ladies.  Those are 1 inch hexagons.

 I am making novelty I-Spy type hexies as my summer travel project.  They are just to make as we're driving somewhere.  I have an end project in mind, a hexagon I-Spy quilt.  It won't all be hexagons, but rather hexies appliqued in a pattern.  I have the idea in my head and I think it will work.  I probably need 192 hexagons for a good lap-sized quilt.

 It just takes the smallest of scraps to make these.  

Fun!  Do you have a summer travel project?

-

Happy Quilting!
-
I'm linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday and Made by You Monday
-
And since this is my summer travel work in progress, I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday.

Not a Wink Quilt for Bloggers Quilt Festival

Hi, welcome! I finished the binding on this quilt just in time for it to be my virtual exhibit in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. I've named it the Not a Wink Quilt because it is so wild, bright and crazy it just might keep you up all night -- hence Not a Wink of sleep.
It is an all-scrap quilt except for the sashing. It is almost 100 inches square, for our queen-sized bed, so it was a great scrapbuster.

When I first decided to make a scrap quilt, I thought a lot about what type of square I would like to make. I finally came up with my own design for a block which is a variation of a traditional railfence. I call it the Scrapbuster Random Railfence Block and a full tutorial to make it is here. It uses 2.5 inch strips of any length and makes 12 inch squares. I think what made me the happiest about it is that although the method is very straightforward, no two blocks turn out the same.

So after I had my block design decided, I made 36 squares and watched my scrap pile shrink, shrink, shrink.

I decided to use sashing to set the squares apart. As you can see I went with a nice subtle sashing, hee, hee. If you've been by the blog before, you know I love bright colours, but this hot pink polka dot sashing was even a little out there for me. I almost changed my mind about it, but I'm glad I didn't.

I really like the cat in this square. Because I had lots of novelty fabric scraps, the quilt has a bit on an I-Spy feature which my kids like.

The backing is a print called Heart Throb by Free Spirit. It is bound in a hot pink which matched the sashing.

Because of the massive size, I sent it out to be quilted. I tried a new long-arm quilter this time, Gilbert Crevier of 3A Quilting, and he did a great job. I chose a pantograph that says "Love" which I think was an unexpected choice, and I realised after it may have been intended more for borders than an overall pattern, but I am so happy with how it looks.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If it's your first time here, please feel free to stay a while and browse. Then when you're ready if you click here you can head over to the list of all the participants in the Bloggers Quilt Festival. There are lots and lots of fabulous quilts to see. Happy Quilting!

Love-Serendipity-Family Selvage Quilt

I've posted about this quilt several times while I was working on it, so there's not a lot left to say other than: YAY! It's done to quilt top form. (Click any photo to enlarge if you wish)

This quilt was not without its frustrations.
Let me see ... there were the two whole sections that I decided not to use, the time my daughter used the permanent laundry marker I use to mark my guide lines under the selvages to add a few doodles of her own (thankfully only on a border piece that wasn't yet sewn on), my iron water staining some of the fabric, sewing one piece of border in with the seams on the wrong side ... just trying to present an honest picture of my process here ;-)
I think I love this quilt, but I'm not 100% sure. I love all the individual elements of it, but as a whole I just don't know if I'm as convinced. The layout is very different from anything else I've done. I do absolutely, for sure, love the red with the white of the selvages.
The red is Kona Rich Red and it is fabulous.

This quilt is for the KVQG quilt show in the fall. The quilt show theme is Serendipity.
You can see my little selvage family there. That's my favourite part. And I haven't forgotten that I said I would post a tutorial for the selvage stick people ... coming soon.

I haven't decided on the quilting of this yet. I will be sending it out (it's huge, my six foot tall husband is standing on a dining room chair to hold it up). I would love to have it done in invisible thread, but that caused major problems last time, so we'll see.

My selvage fascination continues as I have a couple more selvage projects to start soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm linking up to Made by You Monday... and of course Fabric Tuesday over at Quiltstory.

Work in Progress Wednesday

So it's Wednesday again and on Wednesdays Lee at Freshly Pieced hosts a linky called WIP Wednesday. It's a neat and unique linky because it is all about what people are working on, not just what's been finished. I enjoy seeing all the other links, because it's nice to know that I'm not the only one with several half-done things going at once!

And now onto to my half-done things ... above is a border for the Love-Serendipity-Family Selvage Quilt. It is very, very close to being finished to quilt top form. I had to order more Kona Rich Red, which is the background colour, to finish the very outside of it. Once that's here, I can be done in a matter of about an hour. I should have a finished picture of the quilt top to post soon!

I am making the binding for the Not a Wink Quilt. It is back from the long-arm quilter and looks great. I have mentioned before though that I am the slowest binder in the East. I am not kidding. This one will be a while.

Last night as I watched the hockey game, I sorted my I-Spy squares.

And for future projects ... Rosa gave me these selvages! Thanks!!

And Cathy of Blueberry Patch sent me the fabulousness above. It is rare that I ever have a new fabric right when it comes out, but look, some of the new Denyse Schmidt fabric. I feel so cool. LOL. Cathy also sent me the two bonus fabric pieces, just because ... thanks Cathy!

So what are you working on? Happy Quilting!

My I-Spy Quilt Block Collection is Growing

So this all started when I decided to participate in an I-Spy swap. I haven't received my 200 different swap blocks yet, but in the meantime, I've been getting squares of my own ready -- and the pile is GROWING. At this rate I may honestly be able to make a queen-sized I-Spy quilt with no two squares alike ...

Above are some of my favourite squares which I've cut from my own stash and scraps.

And a few more from my own fabrics. I love squares that feature a single larger fussy cut like the baby or flowers, as I think they will help break up the wild busyness of the whole quilt.
And because we all know that quilters are typically generous sorts, my friend Tanya showed up at my house with the squares above ...

And these too.

And then Rachel of Not-So-Plain Jane volunteered to send me "some" charms. Little did I know she'd send 50 all different ones!

Look at all the great colour in these that she sent!

Plus I still have lots more fabric to cut -- scraps from my Mom, Tanya and from a scrap swap I was in.

This quilt is already so FUN and I haven't even sewed a stitch yet.

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday since this quilt is definitely a work in progress.

Happy Quilting!

Meet My Selvage Quilt Family

I have had this idea forever, but I finally got it transferred to fabric! This is my little selvage family for my Love-Serendipity-Family Selvage Quilt. It's my favourite use of selvages yet. It was so fun to choose the perfect selvages for each family member. My husband has "Prints Charming," "Love U," and two selvage pieces that say "Brother Sister Design Studio." We have a son and a daughter (a little brother and sister) who he helped design ... hee, hee ;-) Here are Tess and Eli. Tess is almost 4 and Eli is 6. I made them the same height. Eli is a little taller in real life of course, but Tess is gaining fast. Her selvages are "Sugar and Spice" since that's what little girls are made of, as well as "Belle" and "Growing Wild." Eli has "Growing Wild," "Geniuses Grow Up" (Like most Moms, I think my kids are smart) and "Kids." I just used "Love" for me. I tossed some pieces quickly up onto the design wall. These are all separate bits not sewn together.

This picture is a bit better and less cluttered. In the real quilt the pieces will be well spaced and alternate between selvage sections and red.

So the selvage family is what I finished up for my first time participating in the Friday Night Sew-In. It was more like a Friday Evening Sew-In for me as I was all sewed out by just after nine o'clock. Oh well. I'm just not a late night sewer. These little selvage stick people were really quite easy to do, but I definitely picked up on a couple of things I'd do differently next time. I thought I'd write up a little tutorial ... lets say within the next few weeks ... the His and Hers Quilt Pattern will be my next post.

Happy Weekend!

Easy Scrappy Strips and Bricks Block Tutorial

Guess what? I still have scraps left. Way, way, way less than what I had, but they're not quite gone. YET. I have a pile of solid scraps that need to be dealt with. So here's what I'm doing to use up more strips of patterned fabric AND my bigger solid pieces in case you want to try too ...

-

It's a super easy block that will finish at 10 inches.

First off, cut your scrappy patterned fabric strips into pieces that are 2.5 by 5.5 inches. Cut lots so you'll have a variety to choose from for each square.

-

Then cut your solid pieces into bricks that are 5.5 by 10.5 inches.

For each block you will need five little pieces and one big one. Either choose each piece carefully or just randomly grab whatever is closest. ;-) Sew your five small pieces together as shown. Use a 1/4 inch seam. Press your seams. Then sew this set of strips to the solid colour brick again using a 1/4 inch seam. All done. A 10.5 inch block that will finish in the quilt at 10 inches. See, super easy. I know you probably didn't even need the tutorial since it was so simple and straight-ahead, but it makes me feel useful to write it out. Hee, hee. Then, once you have a few, the fun of arranging begins. So many possibilities! These are just a few. A multi-colour windmill block as shown above ... Maybe this way? Or this? Or even on point?

-

Ladies and gentlemen, start your machines! May the scrapbusting commence!

-

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Quilting! And of course I'm linking here ...