Sewing Machine Away From Home

Here's my sewing machine away from home, Riccar 8500, in the Bernina family. I don't really know when it's made, maybe the 70's?

It's a great little machine straight stitching, and the first project this vacation was a bunch of folded hexagon coasters.

The next project is foundation paper piecing of HappySewLucky's MEGA tattooquilt center block.

Playful Pillows with Island Batik

The May challenge in the Island Batik Ambassador program was to create a Playful Pillow.

When I received my Ambassador Box earlier this year I received this colorful fat eight bundle of Southern Blooms, there were 30 different fabrics in the bundle, including yardage of Grass-Light Lagoon.

This color combination reminded me of a meadow filled with wildflowers. In order to get all the fabrics into one pillow, I decided to make my first ever Modern Hexies project.

Here are a few of the fabrics laid out. There are a lot of flowers, butterflies, vegetation, together with blenders in this beautiful batik.

I was on vacation most of May, and needed to work on my project to make the deadline. The first step was to thread baste 2" hexagons. There are hexagons made of all the 30 different fabrics in this picture, but that was not enough. I ended up making nine more when I had decided on the final layout.

In order to make the pillow even more playful I decided to make a colorful, scrappy binding from a selection of the fabrics.

Since I didn't have a walking foot for my traveling sewing machine, this was as far I could get in my Modern Hexies project. I took a lot of pictures so I could recreate the design when I got home.

This is the stage where the hexies are glued down, ready for quilting. I used Hobbs Thermore batting and Aurifil 50wt thread for the quilting, variegated green/neutral 4653 on top and white 2024 in the bobbin.

A detailed picture of the quilting.

Here is the finished product, my Butterflies Among Wildflowers pillow. I love how the sunlight in the late afternoon highlights the Modern Hexies!

I took another picture this morning in overcast weather, and that gave me a completely different result, very flat and hardly any structure at all.

The back of the pillow with a hidden zipper. I used this tutorial for inserting the zipper, with a few modifications. I used a 20" pillow insert, but I wanted an extra puffy pillow so the pillow cover was cut to 19" square. Two pieces of butterfly fabric were sewn together to form the zip flap.

This is how the zipper is installed, completely hidden by the flap.

The new Modern Hexies pillow for my sofa is looking good!

The fabrics, thread and batting that was used for making this project was given to me by Island Batik. One of the biggest joys of being an Island Batik Ambassador is to get to play with the fabrics they send me.

Hexie Tote for Spring

During the last few months I have taken a hand-sewing project with me to quilt guild meetings. I have only sewn on this English Paper Piecing hexagon project during these meetings.

These 2 inch hexies are made from leftover strips of fabric. I didn't have a specific plan when I started, but when five were done I decided to make a spring bag out of them. I appliqued the hexies on linen and started looking for a bag pattern. I chose a tutorial from Jedi Craft Girl, and modified it a little bit.

Folded Hexagon Coasters

The folded hexagon coasters have been popping up in blogs and on Instagram lately. With Christmas approaching I figured out I had to use my semi-Christmas fabrics to make these.

I started with strips of the different fabrics, and cut 4 1/2" hexagons using the Hex N More ruler.

First I made a test coaster to see if I was satisfied with the color combination and size. Six hexagons for the top were folded and "puzzled" together, with one hexagon for the back. The tiny gingerbread men are especially cute!

Wonder Clips were perfect to hold the fabrics together, and then there were only one seam to be sewn; super simple!

Turning them inside out and pushing out the corners and then giving them a good press, resulted in eight new perfect sized folded hexagon coasters! The fact that there is no batting in these coasters makes them usable for both an ordinary drinking glass and to put wine glasses on.

That gave me eight new Christmas coasters , now the holidays can begin!

First hexies assembled

I couldn't wait, just had to start sewing my hexies together last night.

Here is my first block, I think this is a nice design. Now I have to start prepping a lot of new ones, because this is addicting!

Prepping hexies

I am getting ready for summer vacation, and preparing some hand-sewing work for my flights.

I have jumped on the hexie train, and will enjoy putting these together to start forming a new quilt project. This will not be my first priority in quilting, but an enjoyment sitting together with my family watching a movie, or, when traveling.

3/4" hexies will not make a very big quilt, for me, anyway, but maybe a cute table runner!