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  • Love this book!

    Quilting On The Go is an awesome book!  Jessica Alexandrakis offers the basics along with great ways to ‘travel’ with your quilting obsession.  I love her travel quilt and although I have not finished by hexagon quilt, I bought 1-1/2″ diamonds from Paper Pieces and jelly roll of Bonnie and Camille’s Happy Go Lucky and I can’t wait to get started on my diamond stars! 

    I purchased the kindle version of her book as it sort of falls in line with my ‘on the go’ English paper piecing habit :).

    Check out Jessica’s blog to see her work or even join her Diamond EPP quilt along! I hope to post some progress later this week.

    Enjoy!

  • My Favorite Supplies

    Since I first tried paper piecing hexagons, I tried many needles and threads. I finally settled on Milliners Needles (size 10) made by Richard Hemming & Son, which I use for basting and whip stitching.

    For basting I use all of my old thread since it gets removed any way.

    For whip stitching thread I tried Superior Bottom Line, Essentials (100% cotton), YLI Silk, and Superior So Fine (#59/3 ply). While I love the way the Bottom Line disappeared, it was tricky to thread and slippery to work with. My favorite to work with is Superior So Fine. 
    I get all my paper templates (hexagons, diamonds, etc.) from Paper Pieces. It saves a lot of time and I find the quality to be very good. I use the 1 1/2″ hexagons.  If you choose to use the 2″ hexagons, then you could use a 5″ charm pack for fabric.
    My favorite online fabric store is Missouri Star Quilt Co.

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  • Sunday Morning Design Results!

    Here are Gracie and Carter’s designs…..Finally stitched 🙂

  • Sunday Morning Designs

    I tend to want all of my hexagons to look “put together” and yet I love the look of less organized or planned designs. My grandchildren were spending time with us at the beach and they absolutely love hexagons, especially Gracie. 

    Gracie is an early riser (like me) so I gave her the early morning, quiet task of designing a couple of hexagon flowers for me. What better way to learn to relax and enjoy random placement 🙂
    Gracie planning her first design. 

    Gracie is so proud of her work and I absolutely love them! 

    Then Carter woke up and he definitely wanted in on the fun!

    Gracie is so good about teaching her little brother.

    Carter’s contribution is just beautiful. 

    Now I have to get to work sewing their hexie flowers together. Gracie is turning 7 next week and has learned how to baste hexies and is of course anxious to be able to piece so we will work on that over the winter. I am very excited to have my grandchildren contribute to the design it will have a lot of memories sewn in!  
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  • My Hexie Obsession

    I have fallen in love with English Paper Piecing!  I had no idea it could be so relaxing, portable, and addictive.  I became intrigued with hexagons when I signed up for Mickey Depres’  Craftsy Class – Pieced Hexies and that was the beginning of my obsession.  I figured I would start with just a few ‘plain’ hexies, which really meant I didn’t have time to cut and piece 🙂

    I chose fabric – Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille and the first flower worked up so quickly that I just kept going.  I still plan to piece some hexies in this quilt, but need time to get to my sewing machine for that.  I love all the options available and look forward to stitching….even if for 10 minutes at 4am before I get ready for work.  Hand stitching goes great with a cup of coffee 🙂

    Here is my box of hexies just waiting to be sewn together.

    And here are a few of my “flowers”.

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  • Baby Tumbler Quilt

    This baby tumbler quilt was made from one charm pack of Curiosities fabric.  I used the charm pack tumbler template that is available from The Missouri Star Quilt Company. I did use some yellow fabric that I had in my stash for a few of the blocks so it would blend in with the binding and backing.

    I quilted in by stitching in the ditch on my Janome 6600P.  It was so easy!  If you are interested in Jenny’s tumbler tutorial you can check it out here on YouTube.

    I love the results!

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  • Vintage Quilt

    This vintage quilt (circa 1940s) was handmade by my grandmother for my Mom when she was a little girl.  I dragged this quilt with me to the beach many summers right through my teenage years. I find it so interesting that she made it from feed sacks, which was very common from the 1920s – 1940s.  I just love the workmanship and the memories make it even better :).

  • My Sewing Studio Configuration

    I have taken over our family room in our basement :-). I have a Janome 6600P, Brother 770e embroidery machine, and a Baby Lock Quilter’s Choice Professional sewing machine on a Gracie Queen quilting frame. My BabyLock is actually my sister’s and I love it (and her for letting me use it) so I will be purchasing the new Baby Lock Jane.

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