lovely little hexies

Happy Friday! As I mentioned Monday, I am totally cleaning it out and getting it done over here so I have another finish to show today! I know, it's pretty shocking, but it's true! Today, my hexie pillow is all finished and has joined the pile on the couch.

I am a little ashamed of how long ago I started these hexies. Make that very ashamed. I had them all basted over a year ago....last February instagram tells me....and I have a picture of basting them from November before that....so um wow. As it turns out, I hate epp. I mean, I love it in theory and the results are amazing, but I personally hate all that hand stitching. It makes my hands sore and I just... don't like it. So lesson learned. Not so much hand sewing in my future.

Back to this pillow case. I went in to high gear and got the entire thing sewn together in less than a week. Which seems incredible after how long I avoided it. They are 1" hexies and I used a charm pack of lucy's crab shack (love that fabric!) that I cut into 2.5" squares. I ended up using mostly low volume on the front because that's what I basted first and realized I had enough. I used the remaining pieces on the back to do some simple patchwork with a bit of gray mixed in so that I would have enough. It is between 15-16" when all is said and done.

I may or may not have quilted this thing to within an inch of its life. I did an x and then echoed it on the front and I love it. I am never patient enough to do this on a big quilt so a nice little pillow is perfect. The back pieces just have some straight lines. For the binding, I was working with what I had and used some gray I had leftover. I am always worried about it not being strong enough for my *ahem* firmly stuffed pillows, so I used a decorative stitch to put the binding on and it looks pretty sweet. I opted for binding mostly so it will be totally washable without having to worry about seams inside. I admit it is a bit thick with the entire thing being so heavily quilted, but it does look pretty nice.

It feels so good to have that one off the list and out of the cabinet. Which means I get to spend some time just working on pony club blocks and my DWR quilt :) Soon, I'll have a new knitting project to start and I can't wait. I also have some pretty ambitious plans to make myself some new clothes, in addition to the dress I need some pictures of. In fact, I think I even have a pair of pj pants that I was planning to make at sew south last year....hm, I should dig those out and see what I can figure out. Have a good weekend everyone!

Knit Week: Results

So for the past week or so, I have been sewing only with knit fabrics. Mostly this was to get a fall wardrobe ready for my little love bug, but also to tie up a few other things I have had laying around approximately forever. So this is going to be a pretty picture-heavy post because I made a lot of things this past week. I suppose that is the advantage of them all being small :)

flashback skinny tees

I made 4 of these in the end from Rae's pattern. I kind of love them all and the pattern is really great. After the first one (the floral one) I did make the neckband a bit bigger since it was hard to get over her head and puckered a bit, but the instructions to do that were in the pattern. I made two of them with the 2" cuffs, one with 1" and one with no cuffs. I even managed to line up the stripes on the striped one!


crossover tee and sleeping johns

From the book Growing Up Sew Liberated (which I love by the way). These are her new fall pjs and they came out well. The shirt is definitely big. I made her the 3T because that is what we are starting to move her into, length wise, and it is just big. It was fine in the skinny tee where I made the same size, based on the same measurements. Not that it really matters since it is just for sleeping. And the pants were pretty simple and seem to fit her well.


sweatpants

I am not sure these will ever get worn. The fabric is leftover from a sweatshirt I made her last year and they are a bit busy and don't fit great. I used the sleeping johns pattern again but made it a bit wider since there is very little stretch to this fabric. And they fit well enough, but I don't love them....and she has no shirts to go with them anyway

bed sheet

So easy and soft and I love them.

towel robe

I used the pattern from MADE and it came out pretty well. I really had to fight with the bias tape on the tie, but I was using a tie I already had so it had bulky seems I was trying to work over. The whole thing is made from a bathrobe that I was done using for myself. I barely had enough fabric and as you can see there are pockets on both front sides, but it will work and it is cute.


In addition, I did finish the t-shirt for myself but I don't have a picture yet so I'll get to that later, and I finished the froggy hoodie that I had been planning. It is so cute. Made out of an old pair of my sweat pants, it is a 6-12 month size, so that will be hanging around waiting for a sweet baby to give it to. It just needs snaps.

So that's that. I was crazy busy getting all this done, and I am finishing up my tova. I just need to get buttons for the fall jacket and then finish that up. And I think today or tomorrow I am going to start working on a quilt. At a nice leisurely pace. Maybe I'll plan out more than one! I don't mind sewing with knit fabric, but I'm pretty glad I am done this round and my little love has some sweet hand made clothes to wear this fall, which appears to be here already. Definitely time to slow down a bit for a few weeks before I start ramping it up for the holidays. I guess I'm just making up for my leisurely summer :) I'll be back Wednesday with the full progress report!

Cathedral Windows

As you may or may not have seen yesterday, my cathedral windows couch pillow is done! It was a much longer project than I intended. I didn't take into account how much longer it would take me to sew through so many layers.

Cathedral windows are something I had been wanting to try for ages. I didn't want to commit to a whole quilt though, and as it turns out, that was a good plan since I probably would never have finished a quilt. I used this tutorial and ended up with an 18" square pillow (more like 17.5", but that's okay). Since the pillow form I was putting it on, the ugly one that came with the couch, was more like 20" I decided that instead of a border, I would add a strip and make the back the same size as the front panel. It worked out surprisingly well.

I didn't really like making the cathedral windows although they sure do look cool. I think the big problem is really that my points sucked so things are not as crisp as they should be so it looks kinda messy. And my hand sewing leaves something to be desired....I just keep telling myself that it is quirky and quirky is cool. In any case, I am happy to have it done and on the couch :) Eventually maybe I'll make a new cover for the other pillow....I'm thinking maybe something a bit different.

hexies :)

So here it is, finally. The real start of project hexie. By way of description, this project is at least starting as a travel project for me. I want something I can do in the car (I tried knitting but my elbows kept hitting the door) and when we are away from home to keep my hands busy. I have recently fallen in love with some hexagon blankets and decided to try some english paper piecing. I am feeling pretty good about it so far, but we'll see how it goes once I am really into it



I didn't want to end up killing myself or having a never ending project so I am doing pretty large hexagons. The finished sides are 2.33" and I am using the It's a Hoot line by Momo for Moda (which I love) and started with a layer cake cut into quarters so basically charm packs, or 5" squares. Once I sat down and figured out the blanket size I determined I needed one more charm pack and will end up with 210 hexies (some of them halved) doing 14 rows of 15 hexies and I am planning on two borders, one small one larger.



The hexagon pieces are a very custom size that I made myself in photoshop and then printed on my Silhouette machine (something else I love, more on that another time) so I didn't have to cut them out and they all came out the same. They fit perfectly on my charm squares with minimal waste. So far I have cut 45 of them so I have enough for 3 rows, but I'll probably have to cut more at some point. We'll see how long this keeps me busy.

I am planning on going through one charm pack at a time and putting them together in clusters of 9 (3 rows of 3) and then arranging them when I am done since I think that will be easier than long rows and I'll have more control over the colors and arrangement of fabrics.



So there you have it. I have my little travel box all ready to go on Tuesday when we start our holiday travels and I am super excited. I did two test hexies to make sure I knew what I was doing and they came out great. Who knows how long this project will take, but I'm not in much of a hurry. I will probably end up working on them at home too after the holidays since it gives me something to do while I'm sitting around on the couch relaxing but for now it is a travel project. I'll keep updating my progress as I go.