Hexagon Tree Doll Quilt – Part IV

Habibis, I promised I’d get better about posting regularly, and then Z and I went away for a long weekend and I forgot to set up my posts in advance!   We got home too late last night for me to post, but here’s an update on my hexagon tree doll quilt: I’ve started to fill in some of the “leaves” in shades of yellow, green, and blue.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photo – I took it on my lap, on the train, after dark.

I’m not really sewing with a deadline on this one – just whenever I get a chance to pick it up I do a bit.  I have two projects I’m working on that I can’t share yet, but hopefully in August I’ll get more sewing time and have a burst of creativity!

July Bee Blocks

Time for a Stash Bee update!  Our Queen Bee for July is Mary Huey.  She chose this adorable bird block from the Block Lotto.  I was so scared when I first saw it – I thought it was paper pieced!  (Never mind that I joined Stash Bee to challenge myself and learn new quilting skills…)  Imagine my relief when I saw that it’s not paper pieced!  It’s actually a bit of improv piecing and it’s really fun.

Mary asked us to name our birds.  Here’s the Bottle-Beaked Ruby Wren:

The Royal Winged Warbler:

Last, but not least, the Spotted Lantern Marthabird (named after my grandmother, who’s quite fond of pink):

I made three just in case I messed one up!  I was upset when I measured my blocks and found them all to be slightly smaller than they were supposed to be.  Mary said that was fine.  She’d asked us not to trim them – hence the bit hanging off the side.  I used more of that Alexander Henry “Go For Baroque” fabric that I’d put on the back of the Lotus Quilt – and I sent Mary the rest of the scraps, as well.  I’d also cut a few extra pieces by accident, and I thought she might like them for more birds.  The blocks (and scraps) went in the mail yesterday afternoon!

A few scraps for Mary:

Mary asked us what our life-long passion is.  I’d have to say books.  Right now quilting is my passion, but I’ve only been quilting for eight years.  Books, however, have always been a part of my life.  I love reading.  I reread my old classics, Z’s military history books, murder mysteries (I love a good whodunit!), whatever is available.  Z teases me that I still patronize the public library – but I can’t afford to buy books to keep up with my habit!  I read on my commute and on the exercise bike.  Reading is magic!

Hexagon Tree Doll Quilt (Part III?)

Hi habibis!  I’m so pleased to say that I’ve been getting a lot of sewing done, but I’m working on two things I can’t share yet, so in the meantime I’ve got some small bits of progress to show you.  I’ve still been picking up my hexagon tree doll quilt every couple of days.   Over the weekend I added a border:

I put a lot of thought into the border.  I thought I wanted something warm – I was thinking of yellow/orange – but in the end this lovely brown with cream and blue won out.  I think the back will be orange – I’ve got three fabrics pulled for that already – and the binding will probably be a scrappy one leftover from the octopus baby quilt and/or the medallion baby quilt.  (Incidentally, I see I really need to update my Finished Quilts tab, as I just realized my last three quilts aren’t in there.)

In addition to adding the border, I’ve still been working on the leaves.  I finished all the outlines in forest green thread.  I’ve started to stitch lines across the hexagons to divide them into parts.  The goal is to then fill some of the sections in with satin stitch before I layer and quilt this.

Come back tomorrow and I’ll share my Stash Bee blocks – Mary picked such a cute block for this month!

Hexagon Tree Doll Quilt

Hello habibis!  I’ve made some more progress on the doll quilt I showed you last week, and I wanted to share.

First, I’ve finally finished attaching all the hexagons!

I think I drew too many branches for my tree, because I decided even with all the hexagons it looked a little sparse (and Z agreed).  So I decided to embroider my hexagon shapes to fill it out.  I’m using a forest green thread.  Maybe I’ll switch to a lighter green for more variety.  You can probably see here my pencil markings where I’ve traced everything out.

I’ve also embroidered the ground – rolling hills – at the bottom.

I’m going to put on some borders soon and hopefully get this sandwiched and start the quilting (after I finish with the hexagon “leaves,” of course).  My quilting plan is to do something wood grain-y in the tree trunk and branches and to do an outline of the foliage.  Beyond that I haven’t decided, although I think I’d like to sew buttons on for “fruit.”  That’s aways down the road, though.

 

Dog pillow stuffing

Dear habibis,

I finally got a little bit of sewing time this past weekend! I’m working on the June deadline I missed, but in the meantime I took apart some old clothes to stuff into a dog pillow.

I ripped apart an old bra and then I dismantled one of Z’s old shirts. I’m glad he didn’t witness the carnage. His shirt was stained beyond use and he had willingly submitted it for dog pillow stuffing, but he still might have been sad to see such a high-quality shirt torn to shreds.  (It really was high-quality!  Some of the people in my guild raved about sewing with the donated shirting fabric we’d had, which I didn’t like, but Z’s shirt really felt lovely to the touch.)

Here’s the remainder, the detritus that I didn’t use for stuffing: seams and buttons and the like.

Tune in tomorrow to see more progress on the hexagon tree piece I’m working on.

June Charity Sewing

Habibis, I have to confess that June was the first month in which I didn’t keep my resolution of dedicating one sewing day a month to charity sewing.  I was trying to meet an end-of-June deadline for something (which I missed anyway), and I had so few sewing days that I wasn’t willing to sacrifice one for charity sewing.  That being said, I did do a little bit of charity sewing.

Yes, that’s right, the Handstitched projects are back!  This one was designed to be a tote bag, but I don’t need an embroidered tote bag, so I decided to make a doll bed instead.  Months and months ago I made my little EPP hexagons, all in green/leafy prints, and cut out my light blue square to serve as the background.  Finally in June I pulled it out, embroidered the trunk with a stem stitch, and started to attach my hexagons.  I’m almost done.  I may do a little more embroidery and then I’ll add some kind of border and sandwich it to get it quilted.  I’d love to have a couple of finished doll quilts when my guild meets in September, but we’ll see how summer sewing goes.

I’ve seen other people sew their hexagons on by sewing across from corner to corner, and I love that look.  In this case, I wanted to make sure the ends of my embroidery were covered up, so I sewed around the edges.  In the Handstitched course, Rachel had suggested pre-attaching hexagons that would be adjacent, prior to sewing them down, but I didn’t bother with that and just sewed one on top of the other.

June Stash Report

Hello habibis!  I hope everyone in the US had a lovely July 4th weekend – I know I did!  (And happy belated Canada Day to our friends in the north.)

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet.  For June I had no fabric incoming and my only outgoing was my stash bee block. (I know!  As I posted last week, it was a crazy month.)  I’m not sure of the exact measurements of the fabric I used in the bee block, but it was 12.5″ square so let’s go with that.  Per my calculations, that’s .10 yards. That brings my total for the year to 116.6 yards.  Not bad!

Apologies for a crazy month

Dear habibis,

This month I’ve failed to keep to my regular posting schedule. I prided myself on not missing posts, but I’ve missed two in June. That is, in part, due to an incredibly busy couple of months. I’ve barely had time to sew lately, much less post. I’ve moved – a stressful and time-consuming undertaking in itself – as well as spent a great deal of time out of town. (I’ve been traveling – day trips, weekend trips, a week-long business trip, and a couple of out of town weddings – almost every weekend in the last two months.) I’ve also had some work changes. After July 4th things will hopefully settle down. I need a break – I feel exhausted, I’m behind on all my sewing, and the new apartment still isn’t completely “done.”  By mid-July I hope to be back on track with sewing and posting, but please bear with me and be patient in the meantime.