Hexagami Handiwork

The Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild's current challenge is hand work (MMQG Take it with You.)  Besides embroidery and finishing projects -- stitching up stuffing holes and quilt binding backs -- I don't usually tote around my needlebook and thread but I think I'm up for it.

On Saturday a few of us got together for a Sew-B-Q (a sewing barbeque! Get it?)   Lisa of Pixie Spit played an excellent hostess and we had a lot of fun stitching in the sunshine, getting to know each other, and learning to spray baste with 505 (it's a miracle!)

iHeart Cutebots! and Kaffe Flame Stitch

Then as it got cloudy, we piled into her studio's beautiful stash lair to touch everything!  It was awesome.  She has great taste; she literally doesn't have a single bolt, bundle, or ribbon I don't covet...and that has never happened to me in a LQS. (Take a look at her Etsy shop, Fresh Stash, to see what I mean.)

I did not come home with the Heather Ross -gasp!- but I did pick up a nifty half-yard bundle of Rashida Coleman-Hale's iHeart linen blend and Kaffe Fassett ribbon. (Did you know his name rhymes with "safe assett"?)

Anywho, back to the Q.

Each member received a neat little package of notions from the guild, including punch-cut hexagons in three sizes for English paper piecing, fancy threads (Aurifil 50 weight cotton and Bottom Line 60 weight polyester),  Milliner needles (John James Gold'n Glide sizes 10 & 11), a washable glue stick, Clover Wonder Clips, and a mini charm pack to play with!

Neat-oh!

This alone makes joining a guild worthwhile because not only do we get free stuff, and support, and advice, and organization... but then we get to see what everyone makes with it (and there are geniuses in this group!)  The challenge reveal isn't until September but in between chewing cookies and sipping beer, I did sew up my very first hexies.  I went with the 3/4 inchers:

Cute, huh?

So I'll admit, since then, I've been working on other things such as the Zakka 2.0 sew along.

But I did get out my trusty sewing kit this morning for a little project I found at Quiltscapes.  The tutorial for Hexagami is here at Riley Blake Designs and the project is very easy; I made mine in about 20 minutes (it really takes less time but I had to pick out fabric, starch it, choose a button, find my hexagon template, etc., etc.)

I started with a 3.25 inch (one short edge) hexagon and it folded down to a 1.5 inch.  Then I added a pin to the back.  I've never tried a method like this but it was just as easy as folding a paper airplane and sewing a button.

If you pressed/starched/cut your hexies ahead of time, these would make a great "Take it with You" project for the summer.

Talk atcha later.

- Kristin

Try and Try Again

This month I signed up for my first swap ever.  This is in keeping with some of the advice I received during my giveaway in order to get more out of blogging.  So when I stumbled across the Rapid and Tiny Zakka Swap group on Flickr during the sign-up period for July, I recognized the opportunity and immediately joined up.

After filling out a little questionnaire about my likes and dislikes (I found this difficult) I received one from my swap partner at the beginning of July.  She basically likes a ton of cool things (retro, 80s, pop culture, color, woodland whimsy, adorableness, felt, etc...I mean, too many to mention but awesome ones) but I was stumped anyway.  Eventually I came up with this:

Needlebook #1, cover

Needlebook #1, inside

 I used a couple of patterns/tuorials for this one.  First, the overall quilt/page/pocket design is from here (although I deviated in size) and the embroidered sewing machine detail is from Makoto's Cross-Stitch Super Collection. Finally, the spool and sewing machine blocks are a free pattern from here.  This was my first paper-pieced block ever and it was fun!  The thing was, although I learned a ton doing it, I really didn't think it ended up A) Tiny or B) Rapid; it's actually kind of bulky and loose.  Also it's GIANT.  Almost 7 inches square.  It's cute, but it wouldn't be very practical for on-the-go projects...



So I started over.

Needlebook #2

If you've wandered around the blog, you might have seen another one of these hexagon needlebooks.  This is the kind I made for my mom on Mother's Day and the kind I use myself, all of the time.  It's compact, portable and gets the job done.  This is what I'm sending to my swap partner.  I hope she wouldn't rather have the giant one.

In any case, I'm mailing it out tomorrow.

Edit: If you'd like to see the needle book I received, it's on Flickr here.

And I signed up today for the August RATZ swap: Name Tags.