Create! Days 24 & 25

A week ago Friday, my husband said he was looking forward to the three day weekend.  I just smiled and said that I was looking forward to my nine day weekend.  Yes, I've had the whole week off and tried to squeeze in as much sewing as possible. In fact, the more days off, the more time I've spent creating (at the expense of other things).  And my husband is such an enabler!  For example, early in the week I served him a lovely, home-cooked meal by candlelight.  Last night we had take out, bless his heart!  I promise when I post this I'll go do a little laundry, a little housework, and actually get that roast in the oven that I had planned on serving last night. 

We woke up to snow yesterday morning.

 

These first two photos were taken from my front door.

These last two photos were taken from the door leading to the back deck.

 

 I've always loved shots of quilts in the snow, but either we don't have any snow, I don't have a new quilt to photograph, or I just plain forget to take advantage of the photo op.  So -- I grabbed the quilt block I had finished on Tuesday, ran outside, and re-photographed it in the snow. 

 This block is a variation of a pillow made by Tacha in Issue 1 of Fat Quarterly.

 In between sewing, I can't help but fold more fabric (a la Jeni).

 Jeni even added me to her blog post showing neatly folded fabrics from reader's stashes.

 Here are a few peeks at another little project I've been working on today.

And I started making hexies for Megan's (Lucy and Norman) Bee Hexed In block.

Megan asked for jewel tones, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of these jewels in the snow.  I've been waiting all day for the sun to hit the back deck so I could take the shot, and I think it's been worth the wait.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Hexilicious!

Will I ever tire of Amy Butler?

Never.

Will I ever tire of blue and green?

Never.

How about you, Secret Hexie Partner?

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Hexie Swap 2

Look what arrived just before I left for the coast on Friday!

A package from Shelly (Pink Punk Boutique) with my hexies for the Handsome Hexie Swap!

I love this gorgeous zippered pouch for making hexies on the go!

See!  Plenty of room for hexie papers, needle, thread, fabric....

She sent a variety of basted hexies, and I don't have a single one of these fabrics!  It will be fun to slowly add to these with scraps for a true charm project -- no duplicates!

My copy of this book -- won in a Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway in April -- also arrived.

So, I packed up my hexies, book, quilting supplies, and some peonies.  

What else would I need for a great weekend at the beach!?!?

Don't forget to come back for the Charming Month of June:  a charm pack giveaway each week!

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Hexie swap

I have a new obsession: English paper piecing tiny hexagons!  I joined the Handsome Hexies Flickr group, which is a great place to go for a little hexie inspiration, and then joined a swap that is a spin-off from that group, Handsome Hexies - The Swap.  The swap involves basting 25 hexies for a swap partner, and I hope my partner likes these Anna Maria Horner Good Folks hexies.

If you look closely at the basting stitches, you can see that initially I took more and smaller stitches.  I really wanted them to be crisp and neat and not fall apart.  After making several and going back and looking at other photos online, I realized that I could take bigger stitches and still make sure my corners remained snug.  I made two stacks -- one for my partner and one for myself.  I think I have made at least 70 so far in all!  My little packet of 100 1" hexagon paper pieces from Fabric Depot seemed like so many at the time, but now I'm trying to figure out when I can make a trip back over for more, more, more.  Yes -- I definitely have a new obsession.

Coming attractions

Thank you so much for all the well wishes.  I am feeling better -- if not 100% -- and well enough to sew, which is always a good thing!  I am far from any finishes but keep plugging along on three quilts.  I finally have enough blocks today to spread them out randomly for sneak peeks into the quilt tops they will (hopefully) soon become.

Three very different quilts.  To me the hexagon quilt has lots of sass and energy, while the cross quilts are subtle and calm.  Who knows how they will evolve as I still have so many more blocks to add.

Be sure to stop by on Monday as I will be participating in Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day!

A few days after that:

And in June I hope to have another giveaway to celebrate a pretty big month for me -- my birthday, my 25th wedding anniversary, and my one year blogiversary/one year Flickr anniversary.  I'm hoping to come up with something fabulous!

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan

Mini show and tell

I thought I would finish a quilt back or two today for the Spring to Finish challenge, but that never happened.  After spending a lot of time looking for good deals on fabric online without ever actually pressing that "buy" button and then grocery shopping, I didn't find any time for sewing until late in the afternoon.

I finished this Hope Valley 36 patch for a bee,

and these gnome homes for another bee,

and I finished a few more cross blocks.  Believe it or not, I'm actually running out of fabrics for each cross quilt and need to get more.  I still just can't make myself hit that "buy" button.

You should probably know that my beautiful daughter looked at me with her big eyes and flashed her movie star smile, and she will now be the happy recipient of the Nicey Jane + Essex cotton linen cross quilt.  It was only a matter of time really.

Actually, I did buy one thing online today -- the first issue of Fat Quaterly.

Seventy-eight pages of information, inspiration, patterns, articles, and giveaways! 

On Wednesday you saw that I am joining the Pillow Talk 3 Swap, and I am very excited about it.  I love the pillows that have come out of that swap in previous rounds.  Maybe I should make a practice pillow.  The only pillows I've ever made were the ones to match Molly's half hexagon quilt from last summer.

 I recently completed my first swap in a Flickr swap group.  This is what I received from Melanie (Crandons):

The swap was for the 1/2 yard of the Amy Butler fabric and the 1/2 yard of the FMF vines, but Melanie tossed in all these precious scraps!  Opening the package felt like Christmas morning, and I am convinced that no one could love or appreciate these scraps more than I!  And -- another believe it or not moment -- my first FMF ever!  It's about time!

And last, but not least, I prepped just a few more hexagon blocks for the ORBC quiltalong.

With wishes, true and kind -- Joan