Blocks in my mailbox.

I hadn't joined a bee until I was contacted by Rachel and invited to join her do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee}. I am honored to be a part of this wonderful effort where quilters can pool their skills to provide quilts for children in need abroad through Wrap Them With Love.

Rachel is the quilter for our first month (August) and she asked us to provide two red and aqua blocks for a sampler. The only other guidelines were that they finish at 12", that we make two of the same block, and they contain no wonky cuts or curves.

I made a couple of pinwheel blocks. I hope these are what Rachel has in mind. It's crazy that I can have so many fabrics and so few aqua prints.

My first block was an eight point star, but it finished out too big to trim down to 12", so I went with the pinwheels.

The other set of blocks I'm passing off to the postman today are headed to Lucia's house.

Lucia is a very talented fellow member of the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild. She has a 32 year-old friend, Errick, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer and has just begun chemo treatments. Lucia is a generous soul who is using her gifts to bless others. Like me, her stash was a little skimpy on masculine colors and prints, so she has called for help and I hope that these blocks will fit the bill. They are on their way, Lucia.

I am so ready for my girl to come home from camp! It's so quiet around here. I haven't gotten nearly as much work done as I had hoped, but the house is clean, organized, and ready to pack as soon as Sean gets the boxes out of the attic. I've been keeping up with my Coconut hamstersitting duties. He's so stinking cute; I can't resist playing with him. I let him explore the coffee table (under my close supervision) because he can't run away and totally avoids the edges. I stacked the books up like stairs and he climbs up and down. He climbed into my bowl of perle cotton, but then started chewing on some purple, so that didn't work out. I think he misses Shea as much as I do. I'm praying for her group to have a safe journey back to Texas tomorrow and I can't wait to see her!

Hexagon Thoughts :: Progress

I've fallen behind on my hexagon posts. I've been absorbed with a few other projects lately, along with work, preparing to move next month, and constantly driving back and forth to town. But, I thought it was time for an update, so here goes.

I've got 472 hexagons attached to another hexagon. I'm still sewing strips of 10 and 11 together into sections and planning to attach the sections once I have more completed. I'm hoping this method will distribute the fabrics from the same collections evenly throughout the quilt.

A few weeks ago, I noticed another duplicate I sewed in by accident but, I'm not going to tell you where it is, you'll have to find it later! So, I went through all my basted hexagons and pulled out a number of additional duplicates. I was surprised at how many more I found. Along with the duplicates, I pulled out a number of hexies I've decided not include, mostly because I decided that the fabrics were too light/pale or too sophisticated for me.

As of today, that makes my basted-but-not-attached hexagon count 726. The stacks above contain 25 hexies each.

I have no idea how many fabrics are in this 3.5" stack of squares. These are the fabrics I have yet to baste from swaps and new fabrics I've cut into. I still need to go through my folded stash and cut squares from those fabrics. I'm going to hold off on any more swaps until I get more of these fabrics basted.

Here's the box I'm using for hexagon storage with all the necessary supplies.

And this is an adorable little box I found in the school supply section at Target. It has a magnetic closure. This collection is so cute I couldn't resist some folders and notebooks too. 

The best part about this box is that it fits in my handbag (I usually carry a big-ish handbag) and holds everything I need to make hexies on the go. Fabric squares, papers, scissors, needle and thread.

My tip for the week: Use old bobbins of thread to baste your hexagons. The bobbins are much more portable than a spool of thread (which wouldn't fit in my new box) and in my case, I have lots of wound bobbins from old clothing projects that I'll likely never use again.

If your bobbin thread gets unruly, use some of those little stretchy, fuzzy ponytail holders to wrangle the thread. Don't overpay buying them at the sewing store, just buy them at the drugstore.

There are 175 members in the hexagon charm quilt flickr pool! I really need to spend some time over there admiring all the beautiful work everyone is sharing. If you are in need of fabrics for your quilt, there are a number of swaps going on also, so check out the discussions.

Thanks for the love on the cheater fabric. So far, I've only received the initial FQ I ordered before I entered the contest. Those poor guys must be overwhelmed with orders. I've ordered additional yardage to cut into FQs, so I'll let you know as soon as I receive the yardage. I'll get another post together, maybe for tomorrow, with my thoughts on how the fabric turned out.

So, how is your hexagon quilt coming along?

Wordless Wednesday

Just checking in.

I've been so busy this week. I finally finished up the work my client needs for a meeting next week. With that off my shoulders, we've been focused on shopping, organizing, and packing for Shea's first week at sleep away camp next week. It will be the first time she's been away from home for so long and she's even crossing state lines! I'm actually pretty jealous because she'll be in the mountains where the temperature is in the 50's at night. After getting buckets of rain last week, our daytime temperature is back over 100° and the heat index was 109° yesterday. Yuck.

I don't have much to share today, but I did re-upholster my desk chair last Saturday. I'm really enjoying that fun Ikea fabric on my chair. I have one more parsons chair and just enough fabric to re-upholster it also. I'm going to have to get a new staple gun before I do any more upholstery. I don't think I've ever had a staple gun that worked properly. Sean says he can get me one to use with the air compressor. I like that idea.

I still don't have the Spoonflower fabric yet, but I wanted to thank you all again for the kind comments. I'm working on completing the repeats of the designs I drew for the cheater fabric (not just scaling them up) so that I can do a yard of 5" charm squares. I'm anxious to get it done and uploaded!

I talked Shea into making a quilt top. I've got four cousins who are expecting, so she used some Tweet Tweet to make a little baby quilt. I didn't give her much help because it was an attempt on my part to keep her busy for a while so I could get some work done. When she finishes sewing the top, I'll do the quilting.

The house is finally coming along after some huge delays due to all the rain over the last couple of weeks. The rough-in inspections are done (framing, electrical, low-voltage, HVAC, plumbing, gas, etc.), so the insulation, sheetrock, and brick can begin next week.

Shea enjoyed climbing around in Sean's Bobcat thingy he uses to dig and tear stuff up. (I think it's actually called a skid loader. Impressed?) He was digging the trench for the new water line.

I've had a number of inquires about the progress bars I use for tracking my hexagon quilt progress. Here's the link to the progress bars I'm using over there near the top right. You have to do your own math with these, but I liked that they were small and customizable.  Have fun!

I'm hoping to head to Dallas tomorrow for another Dallas Modern Quilt Guild Saturday Sew after we see our girl off for camp tomorrow morning. I'm ready for a break and the Saturday Sew sounds like a great way to end a very busy week.

~ Thread Stash ~

This post at Sew, Mama, Sew! asks us to share our thread stashes. Since I've never really thought of my thread in "stash" terms, I found this to be an interesting exercise.

How did you select colors for your personal thread collection? I buy thread for specific projects and stock up on basic threads I use regularly for quilting. I've also acquired some threads in large assortments such as the Ebay find above.

Do you always match the color perfectly to your project? Yes, I try to match my fabric perfectly. If I can't match the fabric exactly, I go a little darker.

Do you ever use contrasting thread?  In clothing and machine quilting, usually not. In hand quilting, yes.

Do you use the same color in the bobbin as the upper thread? Almost always, yes.

What if a fabric has big areas of very different colors? I try to match the predominant or background color and don't worry about it.

Do you have any tips or suggestions about choosing thread? Purchase quality thread and if you can't match your fabric exactly, choose a thread one shade darker.

Can you show us a picture(s) of your thread collection? Yep.

Do you ever buy thread because you fall in love with the color (without a particular project in mind)? No, I don't remember ever buying thread just because I liked the color.

Do you “invest” in thread?  I don't "invest" in thread, but when it's on sale (50% off at Joann), I stock up on neutral cotton threads for machine quilting and hand quilting. I also buy YLI quilting thread when I find it since it's hard to come by and I love it.

What types of thread do you have? All purpose cotton covered polyester for clothing, machine quilting cotton thread, hand quilting glazed cotton thread, upholstery thread, button thread, elastic thread, monofilament thread, rayon decorative thread, metallic thread, topstitching thread, serger thread, cotton perle thread (sizes 5, 8, and 12), embroidery thread, craft thread, and a few spools of vintage thread that belonged to grandmother.