The Perfect Portable Project

Just as I suspected (because everyone in blogland has said it for years)- hexies are the perfect portable project!  I took my hexie supplies (in my new pouch, of course!) down to South Florida for the weekend.

I would say that must have been inspired by the Fourth of July holiday because my hexies were all patriotic red/white/blue, but in all fairness I always like those colors.  Nautical colors and prints get me every time!

 

As I was finishing up, hubby decided he wanted to try one- and couldn't believe it when I agreed to give him a turn :)

 

He did very well for his first ever hand sewing project!  A few extra threads, but a he produced a very nice hexie!

Now I'm working on making these hexies into a pillow cover.  Probably going to be a bit of a long process, but I'm hoping to finish it before the summer is up and the coordinating quilt moves off the back of my couch for the fall.  With all the travel I do though, it shouldn't be an issue.  I always get so antsy when I am out of town and away from my sewing machine.  Glad to finally have some handwork to keep me occupied. 



Cause and Effect

I finished my first hexie project- a zip pouch to put my hexies in.  Amazing how one thing leads to another :)

 



I have tried zip pouches in the past, but not with very much luck. This one came out cute, but I think there is still room for improvement. I wish the zipper was straight across the top and the corners up there didn't turn in, especially since that happened after I followed a tutorial I found on Pinterest telling me how to avoid it. #pinterestfail

 

On the bottom of the bag I use a contrasting fabric- kind of on purpose and kind of not.  I wasn't thinking about needing extra fabric to box the bottom so I had not cut the right size pieces of the green (and had already sewn on the hexies, so I needed to use that piece).  So I grabbed the gray polka dot fabric and planned on having some of it show on the sides, but after I boxes the bottom it exactly covered the bottom.  Couldn't do that again if I tried, and I think it ended up being even cuter that way.

 

 

 

And in another great cause-and-effect example, I made a matching needlebook to put in the hexie pouch. 

 

So the way it went- hexies -> zip pouch -> needlebook.  Story of my life!  Same thing happens when I do chores or run errands, and people wonder what I do during the day.  One simple task always leads to 7 more!





Stars and Hexies

New projects have been started!

Project #1
Lucky Stars Quilt-a-long with Quilt Story

 

Here are my first six blocks for the Lucky Stars QAL.  I think the actual pattern calls for 9 stars, but I want this to be a baby quilt so I only made six (well, that and maybe I bought a jellyroll with only 18 strips vs. 30-something, so I needed to adjust for that).  My points turned out really well on these stars- turns out pressing and trimming really do help with sewing accuracy!  Who would have thunk it :)

 

Project #2.

Hexies!

 

 

I got it in my head a few weeks ago that I wanted to make hexies, they just seem like the perfect portable, stuck in an airplane/airport project.  Of course, I decided this less than 24 hours before having to get on said airplane so I didn't have a chance to get everything I needed to be able to take this project with me.  Instead hexies turned into my Wimbledon project!  I get obsessed with the tournament every year (seriously, at work the last three years I did a split screen on my computer and had it on all.day.long... yeah, not much real work got accomplished during those weeks).  I'm so happy to be home now and able to really watch and enjoy it!  I knew I couldn't just sit on the couch all day without getting a little antsy though, so on Middle Sunday (aka no tennis matches being played) I ran out to JoAnns and picked up some hexie templates and spent Manic Monday (aka all 16 of the players remaining play!) making hexies and cheering for my favorite players. 

 





Now that I have hexie supplies though, I clearly need something cute to put them in.  Started working on a zip pouch for them last night!