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!

Dawg Daze of Summer, Chapter 2020

This is the time of year I'm usually the headmistress of what I lovingly call Doggie Day Care.  

My two sons rely on me to help them care for their dogs in August, while they are traveling for work and/or recreation.  In addition to their dogs, we had two dogs of our own, so there were frequently four large dogs at my house for several weeks.

This year, there is only one dog - McKenzie, our lab/golden mix.  Covid-19 restrictions kept my sons' dogs at home with them, and my older dog, Bailey, died last December.  It's been a quiet month so far, but McKenzie does love having all the undivided attention!

After putting the final stitches in my Grandmother's Choice quilt, I found myself (temporarily) without a hand-stitching project.

Out came the flamingo hexagons!  I've been using Barb Vedder's Hex Vex pattern to make flamingo-themed hexies for a couple of years now.  I'm getting close to having enough hexies for a wall hanging, so maybe this is the year this project will get finished.

I had a half-dozen blocks already prepped for stitching, so I finished those up and cut some additional blocks.  The fun thing about making these blocks is the more you play with the fabrics, the more ideas you get for fussy-cutting and fabric placement.

Another quilt project came out to play this week:  the "Lego" quilt.  This has been an on-going project for several years - a way to use up lots and lots of 1.5 inch scraps.

I needed four more blocks to be able to construct a 7 x 7 quilt.  I already had enough strips pieced for the blocks, I just needed to assemble the strips into blocks.

Then assemble the blocks into rows, and the rows into a quilt top.  I posted a picture of my progress on Instagram, and my sister said, "That's a lot of sewing!"

The flimsy measures about 70 inches by 70 inches at this point.  One more row would make the quilt a rectangle instead of a square, but I don't have it in me right now to make seven more blocks.   Maybe I'll feel differently at some point in the future.

At the beginning of the month, I changed out the quilts on display in my house.  It's difficult to get good photographs, as the interior of my house doesn't have a lot of natural light, but I did want to show of my newest quilt hanger, built by my Dear Hubby.

This quilt is a sentimental favorite, with friendship blocks from members of my Florida quilt guild.   The blocks date to 1997, but the quilt wasn't finished until 2006.  It was the subject of my first blog post!

  

Flamingos and Football

It's football season again in the U.S.  

I was never a huge football fan, until my sons got old enough to appreciate the sport.  They both played football for a few years in school, and developed a love of the game that persists to this day.  My hubby was a life-long fan, so I had to learn to love the game in self-defense.  

Now it's a given that my family will gather together for any opportunity to watch football on television - be it college or professional.  That means I need stitching projects to keep my hands busy during the games!

Just as the season was getting started I realized I had run out of flamingo hexies to hand-stitch.

I started making these hexies about a year and a half ago, using Barb Vedder's Hex Vex pattern.  It's been a great adventure in fussy cutting!  Just when I think I've run out of ideas for fussy cut blocks, I'll get a new inspiration.

I've been taking stock of my completed blocks and thinking about what styles and colors I need to make a nicely balanced finished quilt.  These hexies are all created from three 60º diamond shapes.

Inspired by Cathy's All Creatures Great and Small, I added some hexies made from equilateral triangles.

It helps to have some plain (not pieced) hexies in the mix, too.

The hexie stars are probably the most satisfying block for fabric play.  They've got the most pieces/seams, but they're so much fun!

I've been doing a lot of cutting and playing this weekend, so now I've got a stack of block components that should keep me busy for at least part of football season!  (Haha - if I run out of hexies, I've always got quilt bindings that need to be hand-stitched!)

Are you still reading?  You must like flamingos!  I've been collecting them for many years, so I'm attuned to all things flamingo.

You can imagine how tickled I was to receive this picture from my youngest son this week.  I'm glad to see he doesn't fall far from the tree!

Flamingo Hexie Progress

On my recent trip to Florida, I procured some new flamingo fabrics for my collection.  Some of these will get used for flamingo hexies, the rest will wait for other inspiration to strike.  I have to give a shout out for one of my favorite fabric stores, A & E Pharmacy in Pensacola, Florida.  Yes, it's a real pharmacy, with a ginormous fabric store attached!  If ever a trip takes you to the general vicinity, it's worth the drive to check out the shop (hint:  it's not too far off I-10).  

I've made a little progress on my flamingo hexie project.  I'm really enjoying all the fabric play and fussy-cutting!

Fussy cutting might be my new fabric addiction.  I use templates cut from card stock to help me figure out which designs I want to feature in fussy-cut pieces.  I should probably re-cut these in template plastic, so they hold up longer.

Cathy was inspired to start her second hexie quilt:  All Creatures Great and Small.  She has lots of great fussy-cutting! 

Rainy Sunday Stitching

I've missed linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching for a few weeks.  It's not that I've not been enjoying any slow stitching, it's that I haven't been doing much of it on Sundays.  Today is a perfect slow stitching day though, it's raining and the forecast is for rain for the next two or three days.  I'm about to plant myself in front of the TV and stitch to my heart's content.

 

First up is completing the binding on this Trip Around the World quilt.  I've been hand-stitching the binding on this baby f o r e v e r - 10 yards of binding!  I'm excited about finishing this quilt, for sure.

 

Once the binding is finished, I can get back to making and stitching hexies on this quilt.   It's a great go-to project for rainy Sunday stitching.

I hope everyone else has a great Slow Sunday Stitching day!

 

Slow Stitching Football Sunday

It's that time of year:  American football season is in full swing!  That means some slow Sunday stitching as I watch football games all afternoon and into the evening.

I didn't grow up as a fan of football, but I became one in self-defense when my two sons developed an interest in the game and even played for a short time.  My youngest son went on to choose sports journalism as a career and he has covered professional football since graduating from college.  On top of that, watching New Orleans Saints games - in person or via TV - is a de rigueur community activity here!

 

These Grandmother's Flower Garden hexies have been my football Sunday stitching project for a couple of years now.  I haven't made as much progress as I'd like, so this year I'll have to stay focused and try to make more measurable progress.  Part of what slows me up is prepping the green hexies for stitching.  These aren't paper-pieced hexies, they're just marked, cut and stitched.  You can read the back story here, if you're interested.  It's good to remind myself how long I've been working on this quilt!

 

I'd like to press all the pieced hexie parts before I start sewing this afternoon, but my ironing board is out of commission for now.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I tossed my ironing board cover in the washer last night, planning to wash out all the built-up starch residue.  This is what happened - the batting attached to the cover completely shredded in the wash.  Duh - uncovered, un-quilted poly batting is not going to survive even the gentlest wash cycle!  I think I can salvage the cover by trimming off all the batting.  I have stacks of old mattress pads that I save to cut up for padding in various projects, so I should be good to go with just a little work.  If not, it's a good thing Target is open on Sunday!

I hope everyone enjoys their Slow Sunday Stitching!  I'm linking up with other slow Sunday stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

Slow Sunday: Stich 'n Knit

Last week I shared my vintage hexie trials - unstitching a hexie flower to get the seams to be more consistent.  I was a little dismayed that it took me all week to get the outermost border of hexies stitched together.  I was stitching for short periods of time every evening, but I still didn't finish until this afternoon.  That's OK, most of the other hexie flowers have been stitched with an appropriate seam allowance, so I won't have to re-stitch ALL of them!

 

Have I mentioned the hexie flowers are 12 inches in diameter? 

 

Some of my hand stitching time has also been taken up with this project:  Nae, a shawl by Anat Rodan.  I haven't done any knitting in about two years, but I saw this shawl on Pinterest and knew it was exactly the type of knitting I enjoy.  It is a simple pattern, so I can knit while watching TV or listening to an Audiobook.  I have a loooong way to go yet, but I'm very happy with the results thus far.  It doesn't hurt that I found a wonderful yarn in my favorite color - purple!

It's been a slow Sunday in many ways and I've enjoyed every minute - especially the stitching!  I'm linking up with the other slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts, and looking forward to enjoying everyone else's slow stitching as well!

A Cure for Hexie Fever?

I have been sorely tempted by all the hexie stitching to be found throughout Blogland.  So many stitchers have been sharing their hexie projects, it's been hard to resist beginning a project of my own.  But why would I want to resist, you ask?

Because I have an inherited hexie Project That Must Be Finished before I start another!

I was gifted with a bag of partially completed hexagon flowers begun by my maternal grandmother.  She made a number of Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts - I happen to have a completed one - but this one was never finished.  For some reason, she free-pieced the seams on these; no marked seam lines, no English Paper Piecing.  That made the blocks a little wonky to start, so I did some judicious ripping and re-sewing to get the flowers to lay flat.  This was a take-along project that went with me to many of my boys' sporting events, and having something to do with my hands was always a blessing!

Eventually the flower sections were done and I had to start connecting all the flowers together.  That makes the project much less portable, so it became my football (NFL/American football) watching project.  Somewhere along the line it got tidied up and put away and ignored for newer, sassier projects.  Until a recent Hexie Queen blog post inspired me to get going on this project again!

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about finishing this quilt!  I love the idea of finishing something my grandmother started AND I love the prints she was using.  It's just not at the easiest stage for stitching now.  However, football season starts tonight and runs through February, so if I persevere, maybe I'll have a finished top in time to celebrate the Superbowl!