Flamboyant Flamingos

 The flamingo hexagon quilt is finally finished!

It currently has pride of place on the quilt hanger in my dining room.  I think I need a life-size wire flamingo sculpture to go with it - right?!

I was originally inspired by Barb Vedder's Hex Vex quilt.

At the time, Barb sold a pattern that included instructions and starter paper pieces for the different shapes needed for the quilt.  

As much as I loved Barb's Halloween theme, I already had a stash of fabrics that I thought would make a great interpretation: flamingos!  I pieced my first blocks in April of 2017.

Barb's Hex Vex description mentioned being inspired by Kim McLean's hexagon quilt from Quilter's Newletter Magazine, March 2005.  As luck would have it, I still had a copy of that very issue.  I immediately made a copy of the cover and consulted it repeatedly for inspiration.

It took several years to accumulate enough pieced hexies for a quilt.  The finished quilt has over 100 pieced blocks, as well as plain blocks.  It measures 60 inches by 52 inches.

I had a blast fussy-cutting all the different print fabrics I picked for the quilt!  I cut several "viewing windows" from card stock to help me visualize how different motifs would look as part of a block.  Later, I bought acrylic templates from Paper Pieces so I could cut block pieces using my 18 mm rotary cutter.

After experimenting with different fabric prep methods, I settled on using pre-cut card stock shapes from Paper Pieces.  The purchased shapes were much more accurate than shapes I could make on my own.  I also used a fabric glue stick to attach the fabric to the card stock shapes.

Once the quilt top was assembled, I sent it to Diane Knott of Butterfly Threads for quilting.  
The simple swirl design of the quilting was a good compliment to all the movement in the quilt top!

I had a big piece of flamingo fabric that didn't make it into the quilt top, but looked great on the back.  The yellow stripe in the sleeve matched the yellow in the flamingo print, so that was an easy choice.

And what does one call a group of flamingos?  

A flamboyance, of course!

Many thanks to Barb for the inspiration and Diane for the quilting!

I think I will be entering Flamboyant Flamingos in my local quilt show next year!

October Potpourri (No Pumpkin Spice!)

When your current goal is to finish a bunch of outstanding projects, it's hard to come up with compelling blog topics.  Right now I'm in the process of hand-stitching the binding on a queen-size quilt.  I'm not one of those people who can stitch down a binding in one long session (carpal tunnel issues), so I try to do a little bit of stitching every day.  I'll get this one finished eventually, but there are three more waiting in the binding queue!

This is the quilt being bound:  Austen Family Album - a BOW by Barbara Brackman.  I divided up my completed blocks and made two quilts with them.  The colors are a little washed out here, but I love the soft look of the pink, yellow, and turquoise fabrics.

The first Austen Family Album quilt contained orange, green and brown fabrics.  I gifted the finished quilt to my sister.

We're finally getting some cooler fall weather here in South Louisiana.  I was inspired to do a little decorating.  I purchased the turkey platter on the left at an antique mall almost exactly 4 years ago.  After that first purchase, my Dear Hubby and I seemed to stumble across vintage turkey platters every time we went antiquing.  Pretty soon we had a collection.  My favorites are the ones with advertising for local furniture stores.  They must have been premiums for folks who purchased furniture around the holidays.

We couldn't stop with just turkey platters, we had to start adding turkey figures, too.  

My Halloween decorating is minimal compared to what I did when my kids were small.  There's a closet full of Halloween decorations, waiting for grandkids or a garage sale, whichever comes first!  I made this little quilt from brown and orange scraps and a great jack-o-lantern fabric.  It's perfect for displaying some Halloween push puppets and wind-up toys.

And now it's time to go stitch some more binding!  I hope everyone has a great week!

Mardi Gras Birds - Just in Time for Spring

I finally finished all the hand stitching on my Mardi Gras birds applique project.  Mardi Gras has come and gone, but I still finished in time for Spring!

Whenever I think of birds and Spring, I am reminded of a ditty I learned in childhood:

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where dem boidies is?
Dem little boids is on da wing...
Ain't dat absoid?  Da wings is on da boid!

  I haven't done much hand quilting lately, so this project was a good exercise.  I didn't do anything fancy, just cross-hatch and outline quilting.  In the border, I just followed the design lines of the border fabric.  As I was stitching the border, it occurred to me I use this lazy pattern of border quilting on a regular basis, so I plan to use a fancy border stencil or pattern on my next hand quilting project!

 

 

Here's my "lazy" border quilting from the back. 

 

I just need to add some picture hanging strips to the back.  I learned this technique for hanging small quilts years ago from somewhere in blogland, but I couldn't tell you where.  The Command Picture Hanging Strips are a little like Velcro - you can feel when the two strips have made solid contact because they click together.  One set of strips is stitched to the quilt and one set applied to the wall.  The strips on the wall can theoretically be removed - your mileage may vary.  

Sunday at the Camp with Birds and Beach Music

 

Dear Hubby and I retreated to our camp this weekend.  We were both in need of some R & R and the weather was some of the best we've had in months.  We spent most of the day out on our deck, watching the birds scarf down at the birdie buffet!  You can't really see them in this cell phone picture, but we had flocks of finches as well as our resident cardinals and blue jays.  A pair of bluebirds even stopped by to check out the bird house.  

 

We didn't exactly have a bright, sunny day, but the natural daylight was better for hand stitching than sitting in the house under the Ott light!  

 

I basted the head and wings for the first block of my 4 block eagle quilt.  After basting, I appliqued the head and most of one wing.  A little more stitching time this evening should result in two appliqued wings.

We also had a lovely Beach Music concert while we enjoyed our time on the deck.  Our oldest son turned us on to a music app (for smartphones, iPads and all computers) called Songza.  It has an amazing selection of music - for free!  We dialed in a "channel" called Under the Boardwalk and listened to hours of golden oldie R&B music.  All in all, a wonderfully relaxing day!

I'm linking up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  I'm so happy to have had a hand stitching day today!

 

 

Grandmother's Flower Garden: Still Stitching Vintage Hexies

I inherited an unfinished Grandmother's Flower Garden project several years ago.  I have worked on it off and on for years but have yet to get anywhere close to completing it.  I see it has been just over a year since I last brought it out to play!

 

Today was dreary and rainy, and Dear Husband wanted company while he watched football (American football/NFL) and tracked the progress of his fantasy football team.  A perfect excuse for relaxing with some hand stitching!

 

I'm at the point where the hexie flowers need to be joined together.  I've been experimenting with different approaches for streamlining the process, but I'm not sure I've discovered the best method yet.   That's OK, I'm enjoying the relaxation that is inherent in hand stitching!

I'm glad to have the opportunity for some Slow Sunday Stitching again, and linking up with others who appreciate this tradition over at Kathy's Quilts!

 

A Different Kind of Hand Sewing

One of my priority projects for this weekend was to work on hand-piecing the Sunflower block for Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOW.  I picked my fabrics and had my templates ready for some fussy cutting.  But as I played with the fabrics I realized my choices just weren't working.  No problem - I moved on to piecing two other Grandmother's Choice blocks.

The two blocks I needed to make had already been cut for machine piecing, but in the spirit of hand sewing, I got out my trusty Singer Model 99 hand crank.  I've bragged about this machine before - it's hard to beat a hand crank sewing machine for piecing accuracy.

Easy peasy - the New Jersey block was done - and had nice accurate points.

Next up:  Aunt Eliza's Star.  Very happy with the result here!

OK, it's taken me way too long to finish this entry.  I'm watching the Saints on Sunday Night Football (it's kind of a special game tonight!) and have every intention of working on the binding on this quilt.  Since I've had a day of hand sewing, I'll link up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching to share some hand stitching inspiration.  

Go Saints!

Addendum:  Saints win and I finished binding the quilt - I'm a happy camper!

Sunday Night Wrap Up

Random thoughts at the end of the week:

My day started at 5 AM when all the dogs decided it was time to get up.  Being kind to DH, I got up and took care of everyone's needs (we currently have 2 dogs, one puppy and one cat).  At that point, returning to sleep was out of the question, so I switched on the Olympics and finished the binding on the cow quilt.  It was kind of appropriate that I was watching the Women's Marathon as I finished stitching down the binding on that huge quilt!

Next on the agenda was assembling the binding for another quilt.  I have been making memory quilts from my father's shirts and two of them are sitting in the binding queue.  I didn't have big enough pieces of fabric to create continuous bias binding and I don't like cutting bias strips and sewing them together.  So, I (gasp!) just cut lengthwise strips and sewed them together for the binding.  The Quilt Police might be rolling over in their graves, but I'm not worried about it.  This quilt will be more decorative than utilitarian, so I don't think the binding is in danger of wearing out before the quilt.

My local longarm quilter Cindy Braiwick did the quilting on this one.  My dad was an amateur musician, and this quilt honors that memory.  You can read more about this quilt here - scroll down to the second featured quilt.

Connie and I enjoyed several email conversations about sewing on vintage Singer sewing machines this week.  That inspired me to put one of my favorite vintage machines in the sewing cabinet yesterday.  This is a Singer Model 201K.  The K indicates the machine was made in Great Britain (Scotland to be exact) and the serial number dates it to around 1957.  The Model 201 was considered Singer's finest sewing machine for many years.  I love sewing with it because it's so quiet!

I did one more setting variation with the Greek Square blocks from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I think this may be my final choice.  I need to finish the aqua blocks in the top row, and add at least another set of 4 blocks on the left.  I'll use the off-white blocks as shown - making a few more to properly round out the setting.  That will leave side and end triangles;  I'm thinking of using Laura Gunn Painter's Canvas or Moda Grunge in a variety of white for these.  

And now to work on stitching down that newly made binding while I flip between the Olympics and the New Orleans Saints pre-season game.  I'm sharing with Kathy's hand stitching link-up - go check out all the slow stitching everyone else is enjoying this evening!

Slow Weekend Stitching

I am almost embarrassed to tell you all that I am STILL stitching down the binding on my huge cow quilt.  I haven't made many opportunities for hand stitching in the last week and I have missed it!  My job required me to do copious traveling last week, and in the evenings I was just too tired for much of anything.

So after errands and chores yesterday morning, I settled on the couch with plans to hand stitch.  As I watched the Olympics, inch by inch the binding was stitched.  I'm almost three-fourths of the way around - I feel like I'm working on a marathon!

I did take the quilt up to the camp last weekend so I could hang it from the deck and get a full-size picture.  It's so large it doesn't even fit on the top railing - I had to wrap about 5 inches around the corner support post!

As soon as I finish this post and link up with Kathy's hand-stitching linky party, I'm going back to the sofa for some more binding stitching.  I'm ready to have this finished so I can move on to something else!

For those who are still reading, here's an updated picture of McKenzie.  She wanted to help me in my sewing room today, but there's just too much mischief for her to get into there.  I think I'll have to do some puppy play with her before I go sit 'n stitch - then maybe she'll nap a little while I'm sewing!

The Cow Jumped Onto the Quilt!

Sunday morning is fast becoming my hand stitching time.  The dogs always seem to wake up around 5 AM and I get up to let them out so DH can sleep in.  It's nice to have the house to myself and I invariably wind up on the couch watching reruns of "Law and Order" and working on the current hand stitching project.

I'm still working on stitching down the binding on the ginormous quilt I mentioned last week.  This is a scrappy, scrappy quilt that was meant to use up a huge stash of cow novelty fabrics I accumulated back in the early 1990s.  I turned to the queen of use-it-up scrap quilts - Bonnie Hunter - for block inspiration, although my layout is different from hers.

I worked on piecing all the blocks during weekends at our camp;  I really had that treadle sewing machine humming!  Eventually I took a stack of blocks home and arranged them on the design wall.  Holy cow - it was one of the biggest quilts I'd ever created!  After adding the sashing, it came out to be almost 100" by 100"!  

I took the finished top to Cindy Braiwick, my local longarm quilter.  I told her I had no specific ideas for quilting and to let her imagination roam.  She quilted a whole 'nother menagerie onto the quilt.  Above:  flying pigs

Cats in the moonlight

Dancing cows

I managed to get a little over a quarter of the binding stitched down this morning.  I'm hoping I'll get some more hand stitching time later today.

If you enjoy hand stitching, be sure to stop by Kathy's Quilts to see what other hand stitchers are working on today!

Sunday Night Hand Stitching

I procrastinated for quite some time when it came to binding this quilt.  It measures almost 100" x 100", so that was a lot of bias binding to make and stitch in place.  I finally tackled it this week; now I just need to hand-stitch the binding to the back.  I started on Wednesday evening, while we watched A Capitol Fourth on PBS.  I'm hopeful I'll get some quiet time to stitch tonight as well.  My guys are watching the Yankees v Red Sox on TV though - not exactly my favorite hand stitching fare!

There's another distraction tonight as well - a new family member!  McKenzie joined us this past Tuesday; she's half English Lab, half Golden Retriever.  We've had a few rough nights as she adjusts to her new home, but she's a sweetie and loves to snuggle, so I guess we'll keep her!

Sharing my hand sewing and linking up to Kathy's Hand Stitching party...hope you all have the opportunity to do some hand stitching this week!