A wife, a mom, a homeschooler, a crafter…
And it turns out, as I suspected, that hexagon cards are a lot easier than hexagon quilts.
It’s been years since I’ve made these fabric patchwork cards. They’re still super fun to make. Tutorial is here (from 2006 – seriously can’t believe I’ve been blogging that long!). It was a good time to make them because I still have some thank you notes to write from Christmas gifts. Shameful, I know, for having waited this long.
I’ve been seeing some hexagon quilts around lately and falling in love with them, I quickly forgot the difficulty of my last hexagon project. This baby quilt is for a little guy named Dash born on Christmas eve.
I went through my stash and pulled out everything that was bluish or greenish without flowers. Then I threw in a dash of orange (pun intended). Funny, ‘cuz looking at it here it doesn’t look particularly boyish. I built the quilt mainly around Sarah Jane’s Children at Play.
Love this line of fabric! Lots of rockets, paper airplanes, and stripes for boys and hopscotch, florals, and gingham for girls.
The back was much easier to put together. If you look closely you can see where I didn’t have the backing pulled tightly enough during quilting. But thankfully the wrinkling process is very forgiving.
I have another hexagon project in mind – one that will definitely be easier.
Today is Christmas Eve and I am grateful to have gotten some baking done. Instead of cookies for the neighbors this year it was fresh-baked bread and a jar of jam.
And each loaf needed it’s own bread wrap so a little last minute sewing was in order.
We love this bread recipe. It’s dense and heavy and makes great toast.
My favorite gift-wrapping job this year? A tomato container that held my mil’s gift of sewing accessories.
Tomorrow we celebrate with good food and good company. I wish you all blessings this Christmas!
Oh, and someone else is feeling festive over here.
Merry Christmas!
Three girls.
Three favorite colors: pink, yellow, purple.
Three quilted cushions for Christmas.
Well, three plus one, actually. I went a little overboard with the pink quilting and had enough for an extra one. It’s in the shop.
All fabric was from my stash. I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t have enough for the purple one, but I shouldn’t have been. There is still plenty of purplish fabric in the stash even though I don’t remember ever specifically shopping for purple fabric.
Before…
After…
I love the transformation of fabric.
And I love quilting.
A couple of weeks ago I came across some old skeins of wool that I had forgotten about and I turned them into felted balls. I thought they would make a great dog toy for my giant dog who loves to chew on soft things, but after about 2 minutes he had chewed through the outer felted layer and spread yarn all over the room. Fun for him, not so fun for me.
Then over Thanksgiving we dog sat a little dachshund and he didn’t have any toys, poor boy. On top of that, our dog’s toys were about the size of this little guy’s head – way too big for him. Here he is, posing with my latest project – isn’t he cute?
So I gave him a little wool ball and he loved it! The good news is that he can’t tear it apart. For the most part he just runs around with it, but catching a shot of a running dog is impossible for me so here he is mouthing it. Any loose fuzzies can be trimmed off so he doesn’t ingest any.
Around Christmas I like to give my little children’s church and Bible study kids a little something handmade. When I found these Lego molds at this Etsy shop, my love of crayon melting kicked in and I knew I had found the perfect boyish gift. The girls will be getting crayon cupcakes.
These guys are 1 1/2″ tall.
My biggest beef with melting crayons is the process of peeling the paper off. It’s a pain. It makes my hands hurt for days and it’s really not worth all the hassle. That’s why my kids help me. But I don’t feel good about making their hands work so hard either so I came up with a solution. I cut through the paper on my paper cutter…
and the boys peel the paper off.
The cutting can be a bit tricky and takes a little getting used to. In fact, I don’t let my kids do it (except for taking these pictures) because of the potential for cutting your finger. I have another paper cutter that doesn’t hold the crayon well and I’ve given myself a nice injury before using that one. If you want to try it, make sure you tape a little piece of foam or cardstock to the base to keep the crayon from sliding while cutting.
Instructions for crayon melting are here.
It was a last-minute, quickly-planned trip. Short and sweet. I think this is the way I prefer to do Quilt Market: grab Cindy, drive down in the morning, take it all in, drive home in the late afternoon.
For me, seeing the new products is just part of the fun. Here are some of the things that caught my eye.
Moda Fabrics, A Stitch in Color, by Malka Dubrawsky
Robert Kauffman Fabrics
Art Gallery Fabrics, Modernology, by Pat Bravo
Windham Fabrics, Echo, by Lotta Jansdotter
Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell
While I loved this fabric, the wooden walls on this booth made me want to put wooden walls in my own home someplace.
Anna Griffin Fabrics, Kitchy Kitchen, by Maude Asbury
I’m not a big veggie fabric person, but the veggies on the top print were done beautifully. Love the ladder. I want one for my living room.
Michael Miller Fabrics
Michael Miller’s booth display is always over-the-top fun.
Such Designs Sewing Patterns by Carrie Bloomston
Carrie Bloomston’s booth and patterns stood out to me as super creative and sweet – just my kind of projects. Check out her designs here and you’ll fall in love with them just like I did!
Cloud 9 Fabrics
No little girls in my house, but if there were, we’d have one of these. What a fun idea! Love the curtains in the windows!
Quilt Market is inspiring every year and this year did not disappoint. Hopefully a little bit of the inspiration I found can inspire you as well!
