Friday Flaunt - More Candied Hexagons

It's a good thing I had lots of time for handwork during my flights to Australia! Family has captured all my attention since I arrived in Oz last Friday morning. But certainly traveling is the best for handwork! Just pop in iPod earbuds for a listen to a good book and pick up your hand project. Hand sewing while waiting at airport gates and sitting through interminably-long flights... a bit of heaven.

One of these row pairs came with me to Aus, already joined. The other two joined pairs of rows were stitched over US western skies and the Pacific Ocean! Interestingly, Kerry Dear, whose Candied Hexagons pattern instructions I'm following, has you sew together a row of hexies, then join a second row of hexies to the first. Makes complete sense.
Then, she says to put down those two rows and pick up another row of hexies to join and add a second row to. So it's pairs of rows for now. After row pairs are made, they're stitched to one another.

Perhaps Kerry was also traveling when she decided to assemble the quilt top this way. It's lap size hand-piecing - just the right size.
Please pop by the Stitchin' Mission blog for a look at my Thursday afternoon activity. It was wonderful. I am blessed to have such very special friends in Australia.

Cake, a Quilt, and Candied Hexagons

This weekend we celebrated our Dad's 80th birthday. Strawberries were the dessert theme with my sister making a strawberry silk pie, and me making a strawberry Jello poke cake. That's our smiling brother with the camera.Since nephew Adam attended the get-together, I had the occasion to give him this string-pieced quilt. I blogged about the quilt here. He's the last of four nephew to receive one of my quilts. I've given a quilt to each of them on a "no occasion day." That's kept the pressure off me to make a quilt for a special occasion - a real set-up for failure in my book!
Since we celebrated Dad's birthday in Kansas City and had a three hour drive each way, I pulled out my traveling hexies (Candied Hexagon quilt) for hand-piecing during car time. (Loz I took your advice to have my husband "...drive you up and back the freeway whilst you sew.")

If I'd taken along a third row of hexies, I could have gotten those sewn together too.

My travel hexies will fly with me to Australia later this week.

Ach, those pre-trip collywobbles are coming on with a vengeance.

Friday Flaunt - Candied Hexagons

This is an unfinished flaunt, but a milestone nonetheless. All the hexies for my traveling Candied Hexagon quilt (from an out-of-print 2005 issue of Australian Quilters Companion, designed by Kerry Dear) are pieced... by hand, I might add. Mind you, they're not yet sewn to one another, but this is the intended layout, following the pattern diagram.

I'm not sure I like it very much. But I'm hopeful that after adding the small inset pieces that fit along the edge, and a restful border, its appearance will improve.

So it's much more hand piecing, and much more traveling before there's much more progress!

In the meantime, to keep the rows in the arrangement I settled on, I needed something to separate the rows. I came across an old Quilt Art calendar that I thought to throw away, but decided to put the pages to use.

I labeled each row of hexies, layering them between calendar pages, and stacked all 11 rows in a shoebox...

...with clearly marked instructions for the next step.

So, the traveling hexies are at a rest stop for now..

Photo taken in Victoria, Australia, 2009

...until my next trip, wherever that may be.

Each Friday, bloggers who belong to Quilting Down Under chat group post a flaunt of their productivity. Visit Cinzia's blog to find links to all 24 Friday Flaunt-ers.

Friday Flaunt - Pressies and Hexies

This week I enjoyed nearly two whole days spent with new quilting friends. More about those days later!

But do let me tell you how blessed I am to have met such lovely people while here in Australia. Everyone I've met has been kind and so welcoming. Our conversations about quilting styles and techniques, favorite magazines, how we raise our children, teen proms, houses we live in, grandchildren, and faith, have been just a few of our numerous topics of conversation. It feels just like home!

I have Di, Di, Loz, Wendi and Gail to thank for these thoughtful pressies (presents): a 35-piece jelly roll of Aussie prints, a book of stitchery blocks of Sydney sites, a pin and Christmas stocking kit, a beaded cheetah key chain, and an Aborigine dreamtime handkerchief. Thank you very much for these gifts!

I managed to hand-piece a dozen more hexagons this week while gadding about town. These blocks are all pieced differently than those I've previously made. And thanks to "The English Group" whose sewing day I attended Thursday, I had the opportunity to see two more hexie-pieced WIPs. Great inspiration for me! Pictures of those soon.

Friday Flaunt - Traveling Hexagon Quilt

It's official. My Candied Hexagons project is now a traveling hexagon project.

Over our long Labor Day weekend, DH and I took four days away and drove to Oklahoma - the cities of Tulsa, Stillwater, and Oklahoma City. During the eight hour drive between Des Moines and Tulsa, some of which I drove each way, I hand-pieced hexagon blocks (but not while driving!) I have 11 hexies to show for my time in the car.

I am very pleased with the precision points I'm able to achieve by hand-piecing.

Since coming home, here's how I've pressed them.

My question for you experienced hexie quilters: Is this the proper direction to press these seams? Being right-handed, I thought it seemed best to press in a clockwise direction. I like the cute little "blossom" in the center. But, is this the best way to distribute the bulk? (You can click on the photo to enlarge it.)

The hexie below was easier to make because it has fewer pieces.

This one is also pressed clockwise to make a center blossom.

Odd colors I know...

...but when I put them on the design wall with the focus print hexies, they look a little better.

I have many more combinations of hexie shapes to hand-piece, so I hope it will progressively look better. However, if anyone has some advice to impart - especially if you're familiar with the Candied Hexagons pattern - please speak up! I'm at a point where I can still make changes, even with my print choices.

As for being in Oklahoma... we spent two days in Stillwater for the dedication and season-opening football game at the newly renovated (at the cost of $4 million) Boone Pickens Stadium at Oklahoma State University (OSU). We're very proud of our son who was a structural engineer on this three-year remodeling/expansion project.

We were given favored treatment and enjoyed a tour of the facility that included seeing the OSU Cowboys' locker room, training room, team meeting rooms, coaching offices (with Barry Sanders' Heisman trophy on display), private suites, and the Posse Club. It's a spectacular stadium, inside and out, that seats 60,000 fans. An unexpected bonus is that we had the honor of meeting Mr. T. Boone Pickens himself. He's a gracious and personable man with a vision for harnessing wind energy to achieve American energy independence.

Happily, the Oklahoma State University Cowboys beat Georgia, 24-10.

As you can see, you weren't in the "in" crowd unless you were wearing orange.

Guess who wore orange.

P.S. This is my 100th post!

Friday Flaunt - Hopping

If you say that I'm flighty when it comes to quilt-y things, I would probably agree with you! For some odd reason - which I long ago quit trying to figure out - I'm at my best when I have several projects going simultaneously. I simply enjoy that I can, and do, hop from project to project, sometimes several of them in one day!

This week has been such an effort, without much to show for it.

Continuing to work on "Snowflake Medallion," I've been gathering small fabric circles around 1 mm sequins and appliqueing them to eight flower blocks. I can't take credit for this ingenious idea for making tiny applique circles. It comes from my friend Di at Snippets 'n Scraps.

A couple months ago, when I saw the Candied Hexagons quilt Janet had made, and posted to her blog Quiltsalott, I knew I'd found my next hand-pieced, "traveling quilt" project. This one will travel with me pretty much wherever I go.

The pattern was first made in the late 1800s in Sydney, Australia by Frederica Josephson, later adapted and made by Kim McLean, and then made by Kerry Dear whose 2006 version appeared in issue #18 of Australian Quilter's Companion (out of print) using Marti Michell hexagon templates.

I selected a rich-looking Jason Yenter print as my focus fabric. It's a piece in his "Floragraphix IV" collection from In the Beginning.

I've been using my templates to cut the various shapes for my scrappy version of the traveling Candied Hexagons quilt.

I also cut plastic templates the finished size of each shape. I'm using them to draw the seam line on the back of each fabric piece.

I've free-motion quilted (saw this as "FMQ" on another blog) most of Baby Bub's Aussie Animal quilt. Quilted leaves are around the koalas.

Scrubby brush is quilted around the roo.

And a tortoise and croc are surrounded by quilted water.

So you can see I've been busy, but getting no where fast. Sorta like Hogan in this picture. He isn't getting anywhere "running" across the bottom of the sofa! But he looks pretty content, and that's exactly how I'm feeling.

Americans have a long weekend ahead, celebrating Labor Day on Monday. Guess that means we're to take a break from our labors. I hope you do! Take time to enjoy and do what you like to do!

Friday Flaunt

Since completing the quilting on my friend's quilt (see Tuesday), I haven't spent time sewing. I'm helping with VBS (vacation Bible school) at my church, and have found it to be the most amazing, fun, and tiring activity I've done in a long time.

Another adult "shepherd" and I have 19 kids going into sixth grade. We're just one of five sections of sixth graders. And overall, the sixth grade class has the fewest number of kids of all grade levels! At least 700 kids are attending every morning. And unbelievably, the pastors, staff, song leaders and more volunteers will repeat the whole thing next week - in both a morning session, and an evening session! By the end of the two weeks, more than 2,000 kids will have participated. Every one of those kids is learning about God's desires for us: "obedience, trust, courage, love, and strength." The message is coming through loud and clear through prayer, skits, catchy songs and motions - oh my, lots of energetic, bouncy-hoppy-jumpy dancing motions - with tunes and words such as "Macho, macho, man. David is a macho man," singing the Old T and the New T books in order, and short memory phrases - with motions - like "My God is bigger than your giant." As a born and raised Lutheran, it's been a real eye-opening experience to see how VBS has changed from the felt board stories I saw a kid!

But some things never change... what kids like to do during outdoor play time. That's what I have to share in the way of sewing. I sewed together three-yard pieces of elastic to make several Chinese jump ropes.

How many of you remember jumping over these elastic bands on the playground?

Two kids stand opposite from one another with the elastic band looped around their ankles, while the jumper hops in and out of the elastic, chanting "In, out, in, side out, side out, in, out." Remember catching the elastic with your toes and jumping over the other side of the elastic to make "scissors"? Then, the elastic is raised to calvsies and kneesies, and the jumping patterns are repeated.

I've been gratified to see how much my VBS kids are enjoying it.

I'm also flaunting an Ebay purchase. These Marti Michell templates arrived so I can start selecting and cutting fabrics for "Candied Hexagons" - the neatest pattern ever, from a 2005 issue of Australia Quilters Companion made by Kerry Dear. You can see a lovely bit of this quilt on the header of Janet's blog. Hers is beautifully made.

This will be a great take-along, hand-piecing project when traveling to Australia. Or, when just sitting down for a breather after a morning of "aerobics" at VBS.