MMSC - Week 30

Today's update is close …

See what I mean?

I managed to add 3 more diamonds PLUS stitch together a strip of 4 diamonds. I just didn't quite have the time to add that last strip. The big diamond will be done by next week though. I promise!

Slow and steady progress as usual. :)

Linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 29

This was a week of exhaustion (from school) and a lack of crafty focus. Somehow I did a little knitting, a little cross stitch, and a little EPP. So really, not a lot got accomplished.

But, I added another 3 diamonds to my 2nd 6-point star.

I'm trying something new … instead of adding the diamonds one at a time from top to bottom, I've tried stitching diamonds into strips and then stitching the strips together. I decided to try this mid-big diamond, so it looks a little wonky, but I think I like it better as an overall process.

As always, linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 28

Two things …

1) I added a whopping 2 diamonds this week, and

2) photgraphing black dogs is ridiculously difficult.

Toka and some diamonds

Linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 27

I'm still a one-day-a-week EPPer, but this week I managed to stitch things together!

Just 4 little diamonds, but it's enough to get me back on the stitching wagon again. Hoping this becomes more of a trend for the rest of the summer.

However, the more I think about these stars (I have one completed 6-point star here and then this is the start of my second), the more I think I need more stars. Maybe 4 in total for a good sized throw quilt? The stars are roughly 24" "square" and I could work it so each of the stars is slightly different. Hrmm … that's a lot more cutting, basting, and sewing than I had originally planned.

Why do I always tend to go big?

As always, I'm linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 26

I seem to be, at best, a one-day-a-week EPPer. Usually on Sundays, when I realize I have to blog about EPP the next day and I haven't picked up a needle all week. This means my progress is often small and my posts are a little boring and repetitive. Sorry about that.

This week is no better … just 10 basted hexies for my Batik Hexie Quilt.

Lately, I've noticed that I've started to become a one-craft-a-week person. Some weeks I get into cross stitch, other weeks I get wrapped up in knitting. I don't seem to be very good at giving all my crafts equal time. Maybe I have too many hobbies? I feel like nothing really gets done this way. Hrmm.

Anyway, linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 25

So, after last week's very successful basting binge, I wasn't sure what I'd get into this week. What I should have done was start stitching together my diamonds for the 6-point star. However, what I did was cut fabric for a new project. (I know, I'm ridiculous.)

These are a selection of prints from a collection called Indigo Patchwork by Connectingthreads.com. I'm working on an arrowtail quilt with 4" 45 degree diamonds. I managed to iron and cut the fabric for 315 diamonds, which is half the quilt.

Maybe next week I'll actually stitch something together. :)

Linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 24

I went on a bit of a basting binge this past weekend. I don't know what got into me, but I was in the mood! I finished basting the last 35 diamonds for my second 6-point star.

Now I can start stitching again! Woot! I'm playing around with the layout for this star as I want it to be slightly different from the first star. We'll see what happens this week.

I think part of my motivation was that I really want to start cutting fabric for another project and I couldn't justify having 3 projects in the basting stage. Now to see how long I resist before the rotary cutter comes out …

Linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 23

Last minute EPP -- 5 little triangles. :)

Linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 22

Remember a few weeks ago, I laid out my hexies for my Batik Hexie Quilt (Grandmother's Flower Garden) and I hated it?

Yea ... I still hate it. It just is not working for me. I thought about it for weeks and every time I looked at the photo the hate rose up. I needed to do something about it, otherwise I had a few hundred hexies and several hundred 3" squares of fabric that would be shoved in the back of a closet.

The Mini Lotus quilt by Jaybird Quilts was recently added to my pinterest page, and I love it. I love the pattern, the colours … I knew this would be something I would try in the future. I started thinking about it more and more. Then it came to me. I can do a variation on it with some of the hexies from my Batik Hexie Quilt.

I knew that I still loved the blue fabric I was using as the background in that quilt. I also loved the purple vines fabric. It took a while to decide on the filler fabric colour, but I went simple and it is working for me.

What do you think?  Lots of blue flowers (88 in total) with a handful of purple flowers (13) with crisp, clean white filler pieces. The litte triangles are actually a white-on-white fabric (cute little stars) and the diamonds are just white kona cotton. This week I managed to baste 6 triangles, 5 diamonds, 5 blue hexies, and 5 purple hexies. Big progress for me! I also cut fabric for 26 more triangles and 85 diamonds. All the hexie fabric is already cut. (Hence my need to find a way to salvage this project. The other hexies have been stashed away for future projects.)

The quilt top will now be smaller than I originally planned, but if I add a 6" border I can make a decent sized throw. I've calculated how many I need of each shape (541 blue hexies, 166 purple hexies, 606 triangles, and 606 diamonds) and I have a lot of basting to do, but I am much happier with how everything goes together.

I've discovered I'm not really drawn to scrappy or multi-fabric quilts (at least not of my own making -- I have, however, seen some amazingly beautiful scrappy quilts out there). I'm not even overly drawn to patterned fabric. I'm a solids kind of girl. I think I need to rethink a lot of my future projects …

Linking up, as usual, with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

PS All of my shapes are 1.25" in size. The hexies are an almost perfect size, not too big and not too small. However, those diamonds and triangles are tiny!! The triangles in particular are a challenge to baste since a few Clover clips take up all the space and I can barely find a place to hold it as I'm basting. Challenging, but super cute!

MMSC - Week 21

I spent most of this past week travelling to and from a conference for school. As portable as EPP is, I never take it with me travelling. My little sewing kit just sits on an endtable by my couch all the time.

As a result, no stitching or basting got done.

However, I have decided to share my obsession:

I think I'm addicted to the Paperpieces.com site. Every time they have free international shipping my shopping cart fills up. I have hexies, jewels, 60 degree diamonds, equilateral triangles, half-square triangles, 45 degree diamonds, half hexies, and squares, and most in different sizes (1.25", 2", or 4").

I have plans for a zillion projects, but nowhere near enough time to work on them all. I'm doing pretty good by not starting them all right this second though. :)

As always, linking up to Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 20

Pretty little diamonds … three of them!

Last week I laid out my hexies for my Batik Hexie Blanket and I discovered that I do not like it at all. I spent all week going back and looking at the picture again. I kept hoping that I'd grow to like it, but no such luck. I've put it away for now. I need some distance from it and some time to rethink how I can make it work. :(

In the meantime, I am continuing on with the diamonds for my 2nd 6-point star and am drawing up plans for a brand new project.

As always, I'm linking up with Jessica for the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 19

Small amount of progress this week … I basted 5 diamonds.

I showed you the design sketch of my Batik Hexie Quilt (aka Grandmother's Flower Garden) two weeks ago, but it really doesn't accurately capture what happens when fabric gets involved. So I thought I'd have some fun and layout my hexies to show you what the real thing will look like.

What do you think?  Hrmm … I think I hate it. Oh dear.

Linking up with Jessica for the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 18

I see it!! I do!! It's progress! Fifteen beautiful bright blue hexies were basted.

I wouldn't call it guilt, but there was a little something in the back of my head saying "c'mon, you've done diddly for two weeks, get a move on girl" and so I got a move on. :)

In total, I've basted 249 hexies and I have 967 to go. I'm going to have to start stitching things together before then though.

Linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts as always!

MMSC - Week 17

Thanks for all the support and encouragement last week. It warms my heart!

This week I got no stitching done at all. None, nada, nil, nothing. But that's okay … maybe next week. :)

In lieu of actual progress, I thought I'd share a picture of my design plan for my Batik Hexie Blanket (aka Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt).

I have 2 teal blue batiks, 2 purple batiks, and 2 green batiks, so there will be more variety in the actual quilt than is in my sketch. The white spaces on my design won't actually be white, but will be a navy batik with a flower pattern on it. The majority of the quilt will be the bright royal blue batik hexie flowers that make up the background.

These will eventually be the hexes/fabrics in my quilt:

Just thinking about what it will look like when its finished makes me smile. I'm here for a long time and a good time. :)

Linking up with Jessica for the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 16

I think my expectations of what I could or should do in a week are too high. I've been beating myself up over not getting more than a few shapes basted every week. My dear readers have been so positive and encouraging. They reminded me that any progress is good progress. I think I need to stop feeling like I'm not a good crafter if I don't get oodles done.

So this week, I am pleased to show you the 15 items I basted -- 10 diamonds and 5 hexies.

Progress may be slow, but it is steady. :)

As always, I'm linking up to Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 15

I've been having trouble with my mojo for weeks now for almost all of my crafty interests … except for knitting, which is still a new and fresh hobby. I have been struggling to pick up a needle because I've just been to darn tired lately. Too tired to craft. Too tired to do the things that refresh my soul and make me happy. It upsets me that being tired is getting in the way.

I am trying to push on. This week was more successful, but still not up to full throttle. I managed to baste 15 more diamonds this week.

As always, I'm linking up with Jessica's Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts.

MMSC - Week 13 (a little late)

I'm a few days late for the Monday Morning Star Count over at Life Under Quilts. To be honest, I don't have much to show, just 5 basted diamonds:

Schoolwork, sleep, and knitting having been winning the fight for my time and attention. Fingers crossed I can get my EPP bug back up and running soon.

MMSC - Week 12

I made time to get it done … a big beautiful star is born!

And my points line up pretty well too. :) It was very satisfying to finally sew the two halves of my star together. I love it! I'm very glad I chose the brown star design after all.

Now I need to get back to basting diamonds again.

This week I also found a little time for my Batik Hexie Quilt and basted 15 more little hexies. This means I've exceeded my New Year's goal of basting 100 hexies this year. I think I might have to adjust my goal -- who knew I'd be so inspired by a link party?

As usual, I'm linking up to the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts and Hexie Friday at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

MMSC - Week 11

Last week was a very bad week on several fronts. So what did I do? I submersed myself in EPP. At least that was under my control and (compared to my schoolwork) I could see tangible progress. My energy only lasted a few days though, before work and apathy overtook me. By Friday I was a grumpy, irritable mess who couldn't sit still and focus long enough to work on anything crafty.

But my friends unwittingly came to my rescue! A crafty get together was planned for Friday night, a friend offered to drive, and I couldn't really get out of going. So I went. It was the exact thing I needed. I stitched, I ooh'd and aah'd over other people's work, and I laughed. Such a balm to an unhappy soul! This of course revitalized my stitchy bug and I spent much of my free time on the weekend stitching.

Ok, enough of my rambling, it's photo time! I sewed together 3 more of the big diamonds, so my big star is only 2 pieces now, and will hopefully come together this week.

I also did some basting … 18 diamonds and 5 hexies.

A plan is beginning to take shape in my mind for my big star blanket. I'm thinking of a 4 quadrant background in light and medium beige, with two big stars and a few little stars appliquéd randomly all over it. I haven't decided about a border or backing fabric yet. I think I need to learn how to use a sewing machine for that, and that won't happen any time soon. However, I have also started playing with layouts for the second big star:

Can you picture the white inner star? What do you think?

As usual, I've linked up to the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts and the Hexie Weekend at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

MMSC - Week 10

First off, how is it almost mid-March already? Craziness. Hard to believe we're 10 weeks into the New Year.

I must give the Monday Morning Star Count at Life Under Quilts a big shout out … because of the inspiration and motivation I've gained from this link party, I have done almost as much EPPing in 10 weeks as I did the entire 6 months I EPP'd last year. (I only started EPPing in June.) I am more hooked on EPP than ever! (And my lack of cross stitch progress is showing it. Teehee.)

So, on to the real business … progress photos!

Again, I found basting to be therapeutic and relaxing this week and I managed to get 20 hexies done. That's 85 hexies basted since Jan 1 (my New Year's goal was to baste 100 before Dec 31, 2014) and 204 in total.

This weekend I also plucked up the courage and stitched together 3 of the big diamonds in my 6-point star:

Taking out some more of the papers was totally satisfying, I can't wait to do it again.

Finally, I am still being tempted into a new project start by my fabrics … resistance is weakening. (Sorry for the smidgeon of blurriness.)

This post is also linked up to the Hexie Weekend at A Quilting Reader's Garden and the "in hand" epp link party at Splish Splash Stash.