A Little More Flamingo Hexie Playtime

I've had a lot of fun playing with my Post Card quilt scraps this week.  I've been cutting and stitching different hexagon shapes, inspired by Barb Vedder's Hex Vex quilt pattern.

I think this will be my go-to travel project for the next several months, so I'm trying to get plenty of blocks prepped.  Barb's Hex Vex pattern/kit included a number of pre-cut shapes from Paper Pieces.  The pre-cut shapes require basting stitches to hold the fabric in place for stitching.  I've been experimenting with that EPP technique, as well as a few others.

 

Another EPP technique is using freezer paper shapes and fabric glue instead of basting stitches.  These diamonds were cut using freezer paper.  Fabric glue will hold the seam allowances in place while the diamonds are stitched together.

I haven't decided if I like one technique better than the other.  I think it's always useful to have a repertoire of stitching techniques, so you can use the one that works best in a given situation.

I went ahead and cut some large, un-pieced hexagons while I still had large chunks of fabric available.  Fussy cutting all those different diamonds makes holey fabric pretty quickly.  Not to mention, fat quarters are not very useful for fussy cutting - at least not at this size (the hexagon sides are 3 inches).  I quickly found I needed a trip to the "modern" LQS in town (Mes Amis Quilt Shop) for more fabric!

And wouldn't you know I found a few new fabrics - completely unrelated to flamingos - that I NEEDED?  These two Robert Kaufman prints were too cute to pass up!  

Or how about this retro-style cocktail recipe fabric?  

 

And a new text fabric - this might even become the backing for my flamingo Hex Vex! 

A few weeks ago, I mentioned my Dear Husband was cooking Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk for dinner.  I don't have a picture of our finished chicken, but you can check out the one in the link.  The resulting chicken was delicious - and even better the next day in sandwiches.  We liked it so much we're having it again this evening - and serving it to guests!

If you're looking for more scrappy inspiration, check out the links at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Flamingo-Inspired Multi-Color Fun

Keeping up the multi-color fabric theme for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I pulled out a pile of flamingo fabrics I started cutting last year with the intention of making a Postcard Quilt.

These flamingos were my first postcard inspiration.  The remaining postcards came from the stash or from stash-enhancement.

At first, I wasn't going to use the flamingo print on the bottom left, but the more I played with it, the more I was entranced by the colors.  After arranging and re-arranging all the different postcard fabric possibilities multiple times I came up with my final arrangement. 

I finished assembling all the blocks last night.  The finished size is approximately 30 inches by 30 inches, so it will be easy enough to machine quilt.

 

I even had a piece of striped fabric in the stash that turned out to be perfect for the binding! 

Of course, cutting all those postcards created a pile of scraps.  Not to mention all the fabrics that got pulled but not used.  The more I looked at everything, the more I realized I wasn't finished playing with these fabrics and colors.  It dawned on me I had a great start on fabrics for a flamingo-inspired version of Barb Vedder's Hex Vex pattern.  

 

I've only got one hexie partially pieced, but I've got lots of inspiration for block combos! 

Looking for more multi-color scrap inspiration?  Check out the Rainbow Scrap Challenge linky party for today!

 

 

Multi-color Moves

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month is to use up multi-colored scraps.  Multi-color scraps can be difficult to use in "rainbow" projects, because they don't always have one prominent color.  I've made multi-color blocks for some of my past RSC projects, but this year's blocks don't really lend themselves to the multi-color theme.  No worries, I've got several ideas for finishing multi-color projects that are already underway.

There was not much time for sewing this week, but I was able to get in some fabric therapy last night.  I pulled some multi-color brights from the selvage box and made Rail Fence blocks.  I had to add one not-bright block to make my design wall layout work...

Today we're hanging at our camp.  It's been a perfect spring day - probably one of the last days of wonderful weather before we start with the high temps and high humidity of summer.  All these great multi-color strips were also hanging out at the camp, so I assembled some more lego quilt blocks.  

Tonight my Dear Husband is making Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk for dinner.  It's a new recipe for us - I'll report back.  A little Radio Margaritaville and a bottle of bubbly - celebrating the first week of April is a long-standing tradition!

While dinner is cooking I'll be reviewing all the multi-color inspiration at Angela's Soscrappy link-up.