Sunday's Some of This; Some of That

First the destash - bound a quilt, so there goes .25 yard of fabric out.  Also used 4 fat quarters for a new quilt. It's only the start of this quilt.  So out goes another yard.  Fabric wise, that's it because I've spent most of my time quilting two quilts this past week except for some hand stitching.  YTD total now 28.40 yards.

Here's the quilt I bound today. I showed the whole quilt in my previous post.

Showing the back and binding.

Ready for St. Anne's this Thursday

Here's the new quilt units for my first block of that new quilt:

Not squared up yet. The pattern says to wait till all block units are made.  Will be around 15 1/2" square. 

Here's where I'm at on that UFO I"m quilting. What should I put in that outside border of the one partly done?

Really liking the whole cloth look on the back:

I've started the next round on my Bliss project - the two with green stripes. Hope to do more this week starting tonight during TV time.

Lastly for stitching time:

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days

15 minutes stitching days/Feb = 9/9 days

15 minutes stitching days/2019 =  39/40 days

Success Rate = 97.50%

That's it for this report. How are you doing. Have any quilty plans for this week?  I'm linking to Oh, Scrap!, Sunday Stash Report, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2019 and Design Wall Monday.  There are more linky parties under my tab Linky Parties.  Blessings, and I leave you with this thought:

Some of This; Some of That

The first stash report for 2018.  What with working on two baby tops, the next hexies for Bliss, some secret blocks, a sampler block, a small pillowcase and the last of my log cabins, I used up 2.03 yds last week.  My new YTD use is therefore 2.03 yards out. I've set an arbitrary goal of 2 yards a week out - that way I'll make my 100+ yards in a year. A tad over this week. I hope to continue that performance in the coming weeks.  How did you do?

For Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch report, I sewed at least 15 every day of the week, so my total is 6 days (since the year started on a Monday) out of 365 so far.

For Slow Sunday Stitching, I've cut the first group of four hexies for the next round (it took me hours to decide what fabrics to use), and now I'll be dissecting three of them to add design elements.

That ruler is what I use to cut the curvy bits.  I want to thank all of you for your suggestions in my last post of what fabric to use next .  I auditioned all of them, but they weren't just what I was looking for. I should mention that this is a large quilt  (around 58" x 72") so have a ways to go. And I'm still enjoying the challenge of making these unique hexies.  Once I finish prepping them, I'll hand stitch them while I watch another episode of The Crown.

I'm linking to Oh, Scrap and Sunday Stash - as well as Slow Sunday Stitching.  Hope you get to quilt today.

Some of This; Some of That.

Put a back to one of my WIPs - so pulled 2.5 yards for that.  Made two Splendid Sampler blocks means I used another fat 8th, plus the one from last week. So my new YTD total de-stashing is 15.96 yds.

My arthritic hands are a lot better, but I still can't hand sew more than 15 - 20 minutes before they start stinging. So not much progress on my hand quilting my oldest WIP.  I'm sure glad I finished this hexie center while I convalesced and before the hand issue.  I got it done and then didn't like it - the flowers didn't show up with those light teal hexies below them.  Here's the before:

So I ripped them out, added some darker ones and moved some gray ones and got this:

I think this works better.  What do you think?  Don't worry - you won't hurt my feelings.

Leave a comment and I'll go by and see what you're up to.  There are so many of you and one of me - I can't always find you all and thus I miss your eye candy, so you have to remind me - and the giveaway is still on - see previous post.  Blessings during this ongoing Easter season.

Tut - Continuously Sewing A Hexie Flower

I recently figured out  how I can continuously sew my hexies when making a flower..  This saves me time as I don't have to stop and start with each hexagon I add.

Here's a few set out to use for this tutorial.

Layering my first two hexagons, right sides together, I first bury the thread knot under the seam allowance at the point where I am starting.. I'll be using red thread so you can see it better. Pardon the blurry photo - forgot to use the macro feature.  At the end of the first seam I make a loop and put the needle through it to form a knot in the two hexagons.  I do this twice. Now I bury the thread under the seam allowance where I finished.

Now I place it back in the donut shape facing up.  

I fold over the next loose hexagon on top of hexie #2  that I sewed together. (disregard the arrows on the paper - that was from another use.

I place an applique pin in the seam allowance of the side I am going to sew. Believe me, I can get easily confused as to which seam to sew.

Going under the right corner seam allowance of the wrong side, I position my needle in the corner. I pull the thread all the way from the old seam to the new one. It will form a triangle with two sides (as seen below). I do two knots here and sew the seam. At the end I do two knots.

 Again,  I bury the thread at the end of this seam, lay open next to my remaining hexagon, placing  it on top of the last one. I clasp the pair in my left hand (as in 5th photo) and go under the seam allowance to come up at the right corner to start the next seam and then do two knots and sew the seam. I always finish with two knots.

 Once I'm all done the back of the hexagon flower will look like this - with thread crossing from one side to the other.

Now I clip those threads right at the seam allowance - that way the tails are hidden.

The back shows no threads. And it was much faster to assemble.  Hope this was clear enough.  It's really just remembering to knot at the start and end of seams to use one thread  to join your hexagons.
Thank you to Karen at Faeries and Fibres for sparking my thinking on this.  You can see how she puts the center in.  Click here to go to her site. 

Stash Report and Octopus!

First, if you're here for the giveaways for my 5th Blog Year Annivesary, go here.  Five great giveaways end Thursday, midnight.

Octopus?  Octopus agave that is.  Coming home a recent Sunday from mass, my DH and I noticed that the   octopus agave planted stree side was sending out a stalk.

We were both quite surprised because his older brother isn't showing any signs of doing so.

This one really looks like an octopus. He's twice the size of the other.

I've been inside the better part of the last two weeks. Imagine my astonishment this morning again coming home from church, I see it's grown to near 12 feet.  We believe it will have yellow flowers and then maybe bulbils (small plantlets). Then DH will dig it out as that's the end of them, once they bloom.
And here's a bouquet from my poor neglected garden:

Maybe next week when it's suppose to warm up and this cough is gone, I'll be able to go out there and do something.

Now for my stash report.  Used a fat quarter for that napkin you saw in the Applique Tuesday Post, and another for this month's Block Lotto block (that's really a dark green in the center). 

 I also used 2 1/4 yards for that receiving blanket and a 1/2 yard for the background of the hexie piece I'm working on  for a total of 3.25 yards out.  I'm linking to Judy's Stash Reports on Patchwork Times.  See you there.  Oh and new numbers on right sidebar. Not bad for week 9 of 2014.