Hexagon travel kit

10 hours on the plane...what would you do ??

Sleeping, eating, reading, watching movies or just starring at the people next to you ?!

In my case I'm the movie watching kind of girl.

I traveled with finnair for most of my long flights and I always liked their movie selection.

They had the typical blockboster but also some nonfamous (at least for me) movies from different countries.

I never had any problems to fill my flight with tons of movies.

Due to a strike from finnair last year I had to fly with lufthansa.

I was really dissapointed when I saw there movie selection. They had only a few blockbuster which I already watched at home.

Since I'm flying with lufthansa this year again I will prepared to have nothing to watch. Since I won't feel comfortable starring at the people next to me or eating tons of food (I'm tall so my body and stomach is already completly crushed already due to the small seats which means I have no place  for lots of food ) I had to look for sth. to entertain me.

Making Hexagons entertained me a lot in the past months so why not making hexagons durring the flight ?!

Normally I would travel like this with my hexagon sewing stuff but for a long flight I really needed something more tidy.

So I jumped on bandwaggon and drafted a little pattern for a hexagon sewing kit kind of bag.

( I can make a tutorial when I'm back if anyone is interesseted)

I wanted to use some scraps so I tryed the bow tie pattern.

I started to quilt the white pieces by hand but found out that the pattern will loose all the prettiness once you fold it.

So I stoped on the project and put it aside for a fresh start.

This time I kept it really simple.

Just some 1 inch colorfull squares framed in black Kona and with a letter printed fabric background.

I hand quilted around the square with embroidery thread and I hand quilted some circles all over the the whole piece.

The lining really caused my headaches.

I had to decide how many pockets or other stuff need to be added.

I decided for 4 pocket to hold the precut fabrics and one pocket for the templates.

Sadly I made a little mistake with the measurements so one of the pocket on the far right is a little bit to small to hold my 2,5 inch fabric precuts.

I added a little piece of felt for the needles.

I just need one needle to sew the hexagons but the pins looked so nice so I added these as well.

BTW ...does anyone know if I'm allowed to bring needles on the plane ? Is it allowed ???

I added a little string made from some kona solid to hold my thread. You can easily change the thread color because you can open and close it with a snap fastener.

The little scissor is my fave item.

I bought in in the museum of history in Hong Kong last year.

I was looking for some scissores because I was working on a travel book durring the trip and needed something to cut all the stuff I wanted to glue in the book.

I hope this little sewing kit will keep my busy durring the flight and with some luck I will be able to finish some hexagons flowers for my second hexagon quilt.

So much to "sew"

My sewing list is growing every day.

Every time I think that I can skip something from my list I have to add another sewing project.

Last week I tryed the block Love in the mist. It's a really lovely block and I knew from the beginning that I would cut in my nicey jane fabric to try it.

I used kona espresso for the background and I really like the result. The nicey jane fabric really pop out.

Do you remember this project. There was no progress for a while so made another block with the Love in the mist   pattern.

Now I only need to make one block and I can finish the quilt top.

Sadly I already know that the last block has to wait for alittle while because there are so many things which need to be done before I leave for the vacation.

Some sad new from my new ironing board cover. After only a few month of nearly daily use I found a little hole.

How long does your ironing board cover last since you changed it ?

I really didn't want to waste more fabric so I used a little trick to cover it.

I'm not the only one who is hard working.

Today I found Mie like this in living room.

Do you need a professional confetti maker ?

She does a really good job !

gifts and crafts

It's been a while since I finished a little doll quilt for the lovely Amy.

Finally I'm able to show the quilt on my blog too.

I can't remember when I started this quilt. It must be in in june this year.

I stared to paperpiece the stars with no idea in mind what to make out of these.

The idea came into my mind while looking at old children books.

I added a few Hoppel's to make the quilt even more fun.

The stars all all appliqued by hand (and the Hoppel's too).

I think I worked 2 month (with breaks of course) on this quilt and when I finished it I wasn't sure if it's good enough to send it away.

Do you know the feeling after working on a project for such a long time and starting to dislike it ?

Because I wasn't sure about sending this doll quilt away (because I didn't like it anymore) I started to make a few things for Amy.

I wanted the package to be fun and usefull too.

I decided to add a little iphone case because everybody needs a fun case to keep the phone safe and warm.

I really love Amy's work. Her sense of fabric and colours is awesome. I think I've never seen anything on Amy's blog which I didn't like at all <3

Her work is adorable !!

Because Amy is such a lovely girl she couldn't resist and already sent me again sth. in return.

I sent Amy a few little pieces (with some other fabric scraps) from my fave lecien collection (which Amy really loved) and she turned it immediately in a super cute needle case for me.

She used the left overs from making hexagons. I can't describe how much I love this cute needle book.

Amy must be able to read my mind because I really needed a needle book for my travel crafting kit.

It's really hard to resist Amy's cute work. My little niece was in love too.

Dear Amy,

thank you for making such super things. You are AWESOME !!!!

week 40: Things I love

It's wednesday so time to speak about things I love.

Every wednesday I TRY to post about things I love today (or last week).

This week I'm loving:

seeing the hexagon quilt grow

I was abvle to add a few flowers and some grey sashing last weekend. We had a long weekend (thanks public holiday) so my hubby (it's still sounds weird to me calling mr. artistic my hub) and I spent our entire weekend at inlaws home.

I don't have a sewing machine at there home so I always bring some hand sewing.

But back to quilt.

I was hoping to add one flower each day but life is busy so I'm glad that I work on this project at least once a month for a few hours.

So you can see at least 20 % are done.

Mie

She is an all time fave.

Mr. artistic will be at his parents home for the entire week.

We will see each other tomorrow again. Since I'm working every day our little Mie stayed with him.

I really miss her but at least I can still enjoy her pics.

A little bit of sewing

When I think about the past weekend it felt like I was only sewing.

I was working on so many projects that the weekend passed by so quickly.

I was able to finish some long overdue quilt projects and prepare stuff for my next weekend.

Do you remember this little plus quilt ?!

I planed to turn it into a doll quilt for my wall (in my sewing area) but since I already have a vintage quilt on my wall I turned it into a pillow cover.

Since the mini quilt has unusual pillow size I had to make the pillow foam myself.

It was really easy and I was able to use some left over stuffing from making dolls and soft toys.

I'm very happy that I finally found a good use for this mini quilt. It looks so darling with my plus quilt.

I totally love seeing these together .

In my last post I mentioned that I'm working on some placemats for my SIL.

She will turn 37 this saturday so I had to work quickly.

Her dinning area is mostly black, red and white. Gladly I found some fabrics in my stash wehich goes really nice together.

I used the pillow tuorial from Elisabeth Hartmann.

It's a really nice and easy to follow tutorial.

I quilted each placemat in a different way. I had really fun trying out something new and I have to admit that I start to like free motion quilting.

My quilting is far away from being perfect but at least the stitches look really nice. They are all nearly the same length.

It's really hard to pick a fave but I think I love the "crazy lines"one most.

Mr. artistic told me that he really likes the geometric placemat.

Wavy lines are easy and fun and always turn out really nice.

I'm pretty sure my SIL will like these because I really do love these.

I really need some placemats for myself.

Did I ever mentioned that I still don't have a quilted placemat for myself ?!

Right now I'm working on a few comission orders.

I'm making another cloth doll and a tiny Hoppel to match this one.

I'm also preparing some dolls and tiny Hoppel's for the shop. The Hoppel's will be available as boys (with moustache) and as girls.

I nearly finished all the machine sewing parts and I will take the  Hoppel pieces with me for a long weekend at mr. artistics parents home.

Can you imagine to finish 48 Hoppel arms and legs (turning, stuffing and closing the seams) ?

 I must be crazy !

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts

The titel says it all. My last weekend was dedicated to quilts.

I have a few quilts in progress (and even more ideas in my mind) so I was super happy to finish the next quilt top.

A few weeks ago I started with my "Little apple" quilt.

I fall in love with the prints from Aneela Hoey since a very long time. I missed her first line "sherbert pips" because I wasn't much in sewing and quilting at this time.

So I was quit happy when she announced her new collection "Little apple".

The prints are super adorable and I had really hard times to wait for the release.

I was happy when I snatched an early release charm pack from etsy and started cutting right away.

But I lost track after a short while because I had a few other projects which had to be finished first. So I didn't touch the quilt for a while.

Friday I finally kicked my ass and finished the quilt top in a very short time.

I wanted a quilt pattern which shows every lovely print of the collection so I went with the Marshmallow Brochette from Threaded Mess.

It's a very lovely quilt pattern to showcase all the lovely prints from Aneela Hoey.

 Since it was a really crafty weekend I spent a few hours working on my Hexagon quilt. I was a able to add a bunch of new flowers but there are still lots of flowers left.

Mie was always by my side. She was testing a new pillow which I was working on as weel. It's not finished yet but Mie already loves it.

Hexagon project

I have always many sewing projects in progress.

One of my fave projects is the hexagon quilt.

I started to cut the 2 x 2 inch squares in may 2011 when I was on a trip with dad & sis.

Since may I worked nearly every week on this project. I cut templates & fabrics, sewed templates and finally put the hexagons together.

Last week I finished 127 hexagon flowers in different colours and fabrics.

(hexagon flower tower - 127 flowers)

I used all my quilting weight fabrics (no linen or medium weight fabrics) except for the grey and the black ones.

(hexagon quilt - planing)

Last week I took another big step. I draw the pattern for the quilt.

When I draw the pattern I planed to use 130 hexagons. But after some calculating I thought it might be better to add 13 hexagon flowers to make the quilt wide enough to use it as a blanket.



(time to start putting the quilt together)



So here are the plans for quilt:

- 143 hexagon flowers made from 1001 coloured hexagons

   I finished the first 127 flowers so I already used 889 hexagons.

- sash the flowers in ash kona

  I have no idea how many grey hexagons I need to make. Must be something around 1500+

- quilt size: around 112 cm x 182 cm

   I might add another row with 13 hexagon flowers when the quilt turned out to be to small.

(ash sashing)

Last weekend I finally start putting the first flowers together. I have to admit that I used every free minute to work on this project (which wasn't a lot since we visited mr. artistics parents) but the result is already breathtaking.

(first 10 flowers sashed in kona ash)

If I add one flower to the blanket each day this project should be finished in 143 days.

But since I'm working on a few projects it might take a little longer.

I'm not sure if anyone is reading my blog but I'm looking for someone who likes to swap 18 little fabric squares (2 x 2 inch) with me.

I'm looking for 6 purple, 6 dark pink and 6 orange squares for my hexagon project.

I run out of different fabrics and I don't want to buy any fabrics just for some tiny squares.

So if anyone wants to swap some little squares with me feel free to contact me .

vintage plus

I can't remember the day when I started to work on the plus quilt.

It must be early may when I ordered some vintage sheets and scraps from Jeni's shop.

(first order)

At that time I didn't know anything about kona solids so I went to my local fabric shop and picked up some coloured cotton fabric.

The quality is nice but not so soft like the kona solids.

(may 2011: first 211 squares)

Gladly a friend of my dad gave me a box with left over fabrics with some lovely solids inside.

I have no idea where they are from or if they are 100 % cotton but I liked the colours.

(june 2011 - lying out the fabrics)

Now 3 month later my first big quilt for myself is done . It's made from vintage sheets, vintage fabrics from my personal collection and some unkown solids.

(mr. artistic hiding behind my quilt - still wearing his sport outfit because we took this pic after jogging)

I'm so proud that I finished this baby. I made lots of mistakes and I learned a lot this time.

1. Order the backing early

(at least 2 month before starting the project because shipping to germany is slow)

2. Buy the right batting.

(I ordered my batting 3 time because I always bought the wrong one)

3. Don't use a cross for the backing if you want to quilt straight lines

(when you are not able to place the backing correctly)

4. Use batting spray.

(I will never use safety pins again. I looove batting spray)

(back of the quilt - made vintage scraps and kona espresso)

I'm so happy that my first quilt is done. Sometimes it really drovse me nuts but I'm glad that I finished it.

I'm a bit sad about the quilting. The stitches really came out nice but I really wanted to quilt straight lines next to the seams.

Sadly I had to change my mind because I wasn't able to place the backing perfect to match the quilt top.

The diagonal lines are nice but I think the plus pattern looks much nicer with straight lines.

Today we have the stupid cold german weather and I can snuggle under my new quilt.

(label for my second quilt)