hexes

I have been hexing! I feel like I should follow that sentence up with "but Mom, all the other kids are doing it". 

It all started when I stumbled upon a picture Ashley had posted of her new found hexagon addiction. Up until that point, I had resisted all temptation of falling into the hexagon world. But in Ashley's pictures, she didn't just have any hexagons.....she had flea market fancy hexagons. The two of those items combined was all I needed to see to start my new found obsession. Thanxs to some amazing and gracious ladies, ebay and etsy, I finally feel like I have enough FMF to make a throw size hex quilt (I have never been one to shop ebay...but in the last month my bidding has been off the hook). 

I am pretty sure that I have every print from the fabric line accounted for, even if only by a couple of hexes. I decided to go with one inch hexagons, mainly because I think they are just soooo adorable at that size. I love the basting process and I don't even mind the hand stitching part. I find it all to be very relaxing and mobile. The mobile part is probably one of my favorite aspects of this new hobby. I can hex at the dentist, doctor, school, park....literally anywhere (although my poor knitting bag has been stuck in the corner for weeks now, totally untouched). I'd have to say the the only part of these little beauties I don't like, is seeing them all sewn together. Not because it isn't beautiful, but because of my own stitching. I have been practicing and practicing and practicing, but no matter how hard I try, I hate the way my stitching looks! I don't have any other sewers around me to ask, so I need to get some tips from all of you. My problem is that no matter what stitch I use, I can see the thread pulling on the fabric on the front. I don't know if this is normal, if I am pulling too tight, or if it has to do with something else that I am doing wrong! Here is an example:

See all those little tugs on the fabric....they are driving me CRAZY!! Is it suppose to look like that? Is there anything I can do not to get them? Any tips, suggestions or assurances that this is normal, would be greatly appreciated. I want to move past this so that I can actually feel comfortable enough to start piecing them together. 

all covered up

My ipad is all covered up and protected from little fingers!
I had so many different ideas on how to make my new cover and what I wanted it to look like, that it was really hard to decide on the final design. I tried to focus on what I wanted the cover to accomplish: keep it clean, hold in snug inside so it won't fall out into my handbag, allow me to charge it without taking it out of the case,  have a place to keep my earphones and cleaning cloth, and lastly match the sleek modern design of the ipad itself. 

With all that in mind, this is what I came up with:

I LOVE IT!! I knew I bought that Echino print the other month for a good reason (other than being too cute to resist). Its  modern, matches my ipad and......

 

has a handy pocket on the back. This is the first zipper pocket I have ever done and I love the look and functionality of it! Luckily, since I had no idea how to do this myself, I found this great tutorial here.

The inside of the cover and the pocket is lined with a black and grey dot fabric that I found at Superbuzzy (which is one of my favorite online shopping sources), that matches perfectly. 

The open top feature is easy to close and allows me to charge my ipad without removing it from the case first, so no dust settles during charging. Mission accomplished!!

far far away

My baby girl is turning three next week and outside of wanting to cry all the time over this fact, I have been trying to prepare for the big day. I had been planning on replacing her  first far far away quilt that I ended up donating to quilts for kids last year (she hadn't used it yet, and I really wanted to send as many quilts as possible) but just haven't gotten around to it. 

Her birthday was the extra encouragement I needed to get it done. This time around I did something completely different and I am loving the outcome. Now, although I resisted the temptation of putting a dresden plate on the front.....I could not resist the back!!

I think this may very well  be my favorite dresden thus far!

I completely blame my dresden addiction on Aneela...her blog was one of my first to read and where I first saw a dresden plate done in modern fabrics, I have been hooked ever since.

I have to confess something to you now (my head hung in shame) I don't label any of my quilts! I know, I know, I have been lectured more times than I can remember on this fact and I agree with all the reasons to label. Sadly for me, I have a bit of an eye distraction problem. I have tried several times to label a quilt, but end up pulling it off because it distracts my eye from the pattern of the quilt....which then drives me crazy. Outside of that, I am not good at making them. I CANNOT handle seeing my own handwriting on the label (even though I know this enhances the sentiment) and I am not a very skilled embroiderer. So I just skip it and I am fine with it. Until this quilt, I think because it is a birthday gift for Izzy I felt more pressure to label it......so I finally buckled down and made my first label! I hate it.....I think it totally takes away from the simplistic beauty of the quilt back and is a total distraction from the dresden plate. As much as I wanted to rip it off (i quilted over it on purpose to make it too hard to do) I like the fact that it tells her that I love her and when it was made. When she is my age and has a daughter of her own, she will be able to tell the story of this quilt and know exactly which birthday I made it for her. So even though I cringe every time I look at it, it stays.

I quilted it with a variegated thread and just adore the way it looks on the white sashing...I couldn't resist showing a picture of it.

happy mothers day

happy mothers day...i hope that you all have a wonderfully relaxing day with your children and/or your moms. i know that some feel that mother's day is a bit too commercialized, but i personally will take a full day of spoiling from my family, without hesitation, no matter what the reason! 

i will be spending part of my day playing with this new fun toy!

this ruler rocks

My new 60 degree ruler finally came and it ROCKS!! It makes cutting the triangles for my hex quilt a breeze. It enables me to cut 5 triangles at a time....amazing. Since this was the first time I purchased anything but a straight ruler, I didn't really know if I would like it or not....and honestly I don't like it, I LOVE it. I am in awe of how easy it makes the whole process. Now, what I am not happy with (as I mentioned before) is the jelly roll. As soon as I started cutting I knew that it was the worst purchase choice (and will not be repeated). I am going to try to increase my seam allowance to ensure that the patterns match up properly, but I am not sure that it will correct the fact that the strips were cut so poorly. I have already deemed this quilt a beach quilt and that made me feel much better about the flaws that are sure to appear. My biggest fear is that because some of the triangles are smaller than they should be, that the centers will not close properly. O'well...all it really means is that I will have to make a second one, right?!

Besides, I have this nifty new ruler that I need to keep using!

Here are the hexes that are cut and up on the design wall already. Not at all in the layout that I'm planning, but just so that I can look at them and appreciate there cuteness!