Monday Morning Star Count 2014/38

Just a few more plum blossom hexies this week..  Savor each stitch.

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/37

Look what arrived in my inbox this week..
These hexagons were stitched by my Grandma's close friend, Mary Jane.  (the same MJ who helped chase after me when I was a baby and who came to my wedding in Greece). 

I love her mix of fabrics and radiating design.  Can't wait to see it again when it's finished.

I only basted a handful of templates this week, but at least it's something.

12 Hexies Blog Hop!!

Hexies!  Hexies!  Hexies!

What's not to love?  Even though I fell in love with EPP through 60 degree diamonds, once I started to hex seriously, I found that they're so soothing.  When basted to templates, they are perfectly contained little morsels of my favorite fabrics, portable, pleasing, playful..

Today is my day on the 12 Hexies Blog Hop and I've got a little tutorial for how to make a pin cushion with just 8 hexagons.  Though this is my tutorial, I can't take credit for coming up with the shape/pattern of the pin cushion.  I actually saw it on flickr ages ago, and in the comments of that pic, the poster referenced another blog post that she was inspired by.  Really folks, it's 8 hexies joined together.. there are only so many ways to do it.  But they go together so nicely and you can turn them into a really substantial pin cushion, so let's have a go at it--

First cut and baste your hexies.  I'm using 3 5/8" squares on 1 1/2" paper hexagon templates.  There are lots of great places to learn how to baste, if you don't have my book, check out this online tutorial.

Join the first 7 hexies into a rosette.  I tend to go around adding one "petal" at a time, then backtracking through the seam allowance to get back to the corner so I can join the new petal to the center.

I travel through the seam allowance on the back to get to another corner so I can continue sewing without cutting my thread.

Next start sewing the petals to each other, making the whole piece curve into a bowl.

Then add the last hexie to the "bottom".   When you're down to the last two seams, remove the last of the templates and whipstitch carefully along the edge.  Before you get all the way around, you'll need to flip the piece right side out.

Before you complete that last seam, insert a funnel in the hole and fill the pin cushion with crushed walnut shells.  You can get them at some quilt shops and most large pet supply stores (they are sold as reptile bedding).

Carefully stitch up the last part of the seam and smoosh it around until the corners have popped out and the filling is evenly distributed.  Then find two nice buttons and some thick thread.

 Tie a knot in the thread and push it through the center of the pin cushion and up through the first button.  Come back down and catch the second button, covering up the knot on the bottom.  Go through each button a few more times (3? 4?) then make a knot and bury it.

Thanks for stopping by my post on the blog hop!  If you make one of these pin cushions, I'd love to see it!  And don't forget to visit the rest of the blogs on the 12 Hexie Hop!

CraftyPod

InLinkz.com

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/20

As I type this (late Sunday night, NY time), the 7 Sisters hexagon piece is almost done.

It probably needs about 30-45 more minutes of stitching, but I don't think I'll stay up and do it tonight.  Tomorrow maybe?

Still haven't made any decisions on what exactly will become of it, so once the last seams are sewn I think I'll let it sit for a while and work on something else.  We've got one heck of a road trip coming up later this week and it should be quite productive on the quilt-front.  Follow me on Instagram for up to the minute EPP progress, hehe.

Have you counted your stars this week?  New players are always welcome, there really aren't many rules to join our weekly linky party-- just stitch some EPP, take pictures, and show us what you've got!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/19

Here are my hexie stars.. pretty soon they'll all be together (I hope).

This week I worked on joining the units and chunks.  There's a nice shady spot right outside the sewing room door and I spent a few minutes on Mother's Day stitching outside while the boys got dirty in the yard (note the grubby hand touching my quilt, argh.  But it's washable, no worries).  It was awesome to free up so many templates (some which had only been used once!) and of course looking at a pile of paper templates makes me want to start a new quilt, but....

I've been thinking about doing a post about my many many UFOs to see if I can get any of them finished.  They keep staring at me, you know?  Does anyone have a secret for keeping track of UFOs?  I have a quilting to do list on my wall, but so many projects never even make it on there.  April's is still up by the door, I should re-write one for May I guess.

Well, now's the time.  Please link up and show off your work!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/18

Is it just me, or do these weeks just fly by?  I'm organizing our family calendar for the month and then poof~  all the sudden we're going to Greece just a few weeks from now.  It's hard to believe that I'll be sitting at the beach in a sundress in 45 days when right now I'm typing this post in my fleece pajamas.  How many Hexi-diamonds did I say I'd have done before then again??
Well.. let's just keep recording progress as it happens and before you know it, we'll all have finished quilts to celebrate.

This week I managed to baste and piece 3 more background units for the 7 Sisters hexie thingy (not really a quilt yet because it isn't going to get much bigger than this..its future is still uncertain).  Not bad.

Stitching in the car in the rain..

 Honestly, I had some setbacks this week.  First, I've been having pain in my right wrist.. it's not from hand piecing, that pain is different, but sewing seems to bother it too.  It's more than likely from using my phone (damn Juice Cubes and 2048!), but I'm trying to cut down and rest it so it doesn't get worse.  Subsequently, I've been working on some machine pieced projects which I hope to be able to share soon.  Stay tuned for that.  The second set back is that Netflix has taken Mad Men off the streaming list, and now I have to request and wait for the individual DVDs.  (!!!!)  What are we, in the stone age?  This is a huge inconvenience and a first-world problem that I shouldn't whine about, but come on!  I need my Netflix when I'm piecing while Jack's napping or while I'm waiting for C to get home.  Once I get into a show, I look forward to having it on as part of my stitching routine.. if it isn't available I get stuck and don't turn anything on, just stitching in a silent house.  Hopefully I can get hooked on something else soon.  Suggestions welcome. 

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/17

After last week's post I was excited to choose some new fabrics for more diamonds, but then I lost my motivation to stitch them together.  I can't explain it really, it just happens.  I started to feel a bit meh about the project so I repacked my sewing kit and then shelved it for a while. 
Instead, I took out a WIP from last summer, 3/4" hexies in scrappy stars:

I need 11 more background diamonds so that's what I've been focused on this past week.

It's fun collecting bits of neutrals, I don't have a lot of neutral scraps so I'm actually cutting from larger pieces of fabric, just 3 or 4 squares of each, and I like how it's coming along.

 

If you've got EPP progress to share, please link up~

Hexagons from Denmark

I got the most wonderful email from Maria and Heidi in Ølstykke, Denmark this week.
They are teachers and have been using Quilting on the Go with a group of 50 students to teach them to sew hexagons.  They used larger templates (looks like 1.5") and made versions of the Tiny Sewing Kit pattern in the book.  Here are some of the photos they sent along of the students working and their projects:

If you have made anything from my book, I'd love to see it!  Feel free to email me at jessunderquilts at gmail dot com.  Be sure to tell me where you're from and if I can share your photos here on the blog. 
Thanks Maria & Heidi!! Your email totally made my day.

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/10

With the enthusiasm that I baste and  piece hexies, I can hardly imagine that there once was a time I didn't like the shape, or the idea of making a quilt with them.  I guess we all learn and grow with age, huh?
This past week I had a wonderful lecture and trunk show with the guild in Huntington, NY.  I taught the pillow workshop to a small group of their members last month and several of my students brought in progress to share.  One even completed the entire pillow!  The group was lively and welcoming, and I had a great time.  We have scheduled a few more workshops as well, and I am steadily working towards my goal of getting all of Long Island English paper piecing.. (well, almost).

(I always feel a little guilty when the volunteers have to hold up my quilts.. these suckers are HEAVY.)
I am making slow and steady progress on TQ#5, with the fifth diamond nearly complete.

Yesterday I was piecing after the kids went to bed and decided to time myself with the stopwatch on my phone.  Turns out I can stitch a 1" seam in just about a minute.  That's pretty cool.  Takes me a minute and a half to baste though.  Have you ever timed yourself?  I'm not trying to speed up this "slow sewing", but I was curious and it's kind of fun to see the block materialize from your fingers in just a few minutes..

 (the 1:10 was the end of the thread where I took extra stitches to bury it in my seam allowance..)

Who wants to link up this week?

And the Rain Hexies go to..

Thanks for your patience, I finally found time to write this post and congratulate the winners!
The four packs (two each) of Rain hexies go to..

Hilachas
and
A at Keeping me Happy

I have emailed you both!

A big Thank you to Timeless Treasures for sharing their beautiful fabric, and another thank you to everyone who linked up last week.  This week we've got 10 so far, isn't anyone else stitching?

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/8

The highlight of my quilting week? (after Skyping my way into a Japanese quilting class, of course) Basting hexies in the car as Jack napped, parked at the beach.

We had beautiful weather this weekend and I really wanted to get out and run around with George and Costas, but the little guy was sleeping.  I got a few more in the pile and when he woke up, we went on a beach adventure.    We had to climb over a pile of snow to get there and once we were in the sand,  Jack didn't really know what to make of the place.

We had fun though, and now we're all anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring. 

Even though I basted a nice stack, I didn't manage to add anything to the finished pile this week.  I have several non-epp projects going, including the binding on Travel Quilt #2, which I hope to be able to show off in a few days.  The thing is mammoth though, don't know who I can bribe to help with a decent photo shoot.. 

So, for this week's Star Count, I have nothing new to show.. 3 down and 17 more to go til summer.  We had a great turn out for last week's linky party, so the giveaway will go off as promised.   I'll do a separate post congratulating the winners, hopefully later today.   A big thanks to all who linked up, especially friends of Ailyn (whose post on EPP was amazing!  If you missed it, go check it out!) I was surprised and happy to find so many German speaking quilters into EPP, and I'm excited to share that Quilting on the Go has been translated into German and will be published by Frechverlag this spring.  More details as soon as I get them.  

So now on to this week's link up!  Show us what you've got!

Hokkaido sewing class

I love Skype.
My first quilting mentor, Mrs. Kubota in Hokkaido, teaches patchwork classes out of her home.  She recently got a tablet and we have started skyping once a week.  Tonight she called me during her class and I got to meet two of her students (Hi Noriko! Hi Chiharu!) and see what they are working on.
They both made pincushions from Quilting on the Go with adorable hedgehog buttons (how did I not get a screen shot of that?), and Chiharu is working on a sewing kit (Mrs. K's pattern), with an EPP hexie front.  Isn't it cute?

I made my first sewing kit when I started visiting Mrs. K in 2002  (have I really known her for 12 years?!  Man, I miss Japan.), I should pull that out and blog about it some time.  Anyway, I've been admiring several sewing kits both in real life and on Instagram lately, and I hope to find time to make a new one for myself soon.  If you've made one or have seen a cute one online,  I'd love to see it.  Please send me links.

It would be so fun to join in their sewing group every week, at least for a little show and tell.   I'll try to be more prepared next week, and remember to take more pictures!