Stashbusters, Day 3

I started Wondermommy’s stash buster on Feb. 1. So tell me WHY OH WHY have I spent the last hour looking at fabric online, placing and then removing it from shopping carts? Why am I watching 20 items in my eBay, 3 of which are munki  munki prints? Do vintage sheets count as fabric? Because I’m also watching some of those on eBay.

half yard bundle

Good news? I’ve made no purchases. Bad news, there are some fabrics I’d really like to buy today. Like Kauffman’s Monaluna Mingle squares in aqua and red (like the bundle seen here from sewdeerlyloved’s etsy shop) or Lizzy House’s Red Letter Day ugly duckling? Which is adorable and has been available for some time…does that mean that I won’t be able to find it once the stash busters is over?

More good news, I have a big sewing day coming up – my first weekend sew with the LA Modern Quilt Guild. 11 am to 7 pm! Woo hoo! That is some serious sewing time! I should be able to do some serious busting.

Anyone else struggling with the shopping? My craft table is such a mess of un-binned fabric that I can’t even sew. It’s an embarrassment of riches around here.

GET TO WORK, BLABBY!

Hand-Sewn Hexagon Tutorial

Here’s my little tutorial for hand-sewing hexagons together without using paper templates inside the hexagon.

First, download the hexagon template you want to use. Cut out your shape – you really only need one or two. (I made the template sheets for people who need lots for English paper-piecing). You can pre-cut your fabric into squares a little larger than your template (at least a 1/2″ on all sides), or just keep your fabric whole. Trace your shape. A lot!

Cut out your hexagons, leaving a good 1/4″ seam allowance all the way around.

Place two trimmed hexagons right sides together and stick pins through two corners. Don’t worry about your outer edges lining up, just get your pencil lines to match. Two pins – one at each end of one side of the hexes – is the easiest way to get a good match.

Stick your pins in along the lines away from where you’re going to sew so they’re out of your way. Thread your needle, and put a knot in one end. Use the knot to anchor one more corner together – this will be your starting point. I like to start and stop with a tiny back stitch at each corner when sewing these hexes together, just to make the intersections stronger.

Pushing your needle up and down in a running stitch, sew right along your pencil lines.

As you get to the end of your side, remove the pin to get it out of your way. Sew your running stitch all the way to the next corner. Once there, sew a small back stitch to secure the corner. Be careful not to pull your thread tight – it will gather your hexes. You’ll have to continually loosen the fabric back to a nice flat seam.

Now you’re ready for a third hexagon. You can add it anywhere, but for this tutorial, I just kept moving to the right. Open your first two hexes and line your third hex up right sides together with your second hex. Use a pin in the corner to keep them lined up.

After a quick back stitch through the second and third hex, to both join them and secure the intersection, continue your running stitch to the next corner.

Now you’re at the far right side, and you need to get back to sew hexes one and three together. You can do a back stitch and tie a small knot and cut your thread, or you can do a back stitch and sew a few stitches to run the thread back to the center. I do the latter…it may be laziness, but I try to see how far I can get without ever cutting the thread.

Use the same method of lining up hex one and three, right sides together, and securing the outside corners with a pin. Sew with a running stitch toward your pin.

I’ve stopped at three here, but you can just keep adding more and more around, choosing where to place the next one based on where your thread left off. Here’s the back – I’ve finger pressed the seams.

Here’s the front. Once I’ve got all the hexagons I want, I use spray starch to flatten out the seams. Eventually, I’ll also use spray starch to turn the outside edges under, and I applique my hexes down to a foundation. I guess you could just keep going and going until you make a whole quilt, but that is a little ambitious for me.

So that’s it! I hope it helps someone. Sewing these goes super fast – it took ten times as long to write this tutorial as it did to sew those hexes together. I hope you’ll link back to me with pictures of your completed projects!

revisiting hexagons

After seeing this super cute picture on flickr and reading her comment about her whip stitches showing, it reminded me that I wanted to revisit the topic of english paper piecing verses simply sewing your hexagons together.

I’ve had hexagon templates available for download on here for a while now. I recently added a couple more sizes. I also added some triangles, but then realized that someone had requested diamonds, not triangles, so I’ll be redoing those :) But the triangles might be fun too – who knows?

ANYWHOO…here’s what I wanted to talk about. After I went through all the trouble (actually, not much trouble at all) of making those templates, printing them, cutting them all out, sewing a bunch into fabric squares using Sunshine Creation’s awesome tutorial, I found that although it was very neat (as in precise, not neat-o), it was too double-the-work for my taste. And when I went to sew together my perfectly neat little hexes with their papers inside, I could not hide the joining stitches, no matter how small my stitch, no matter what thread.

Finally, I ended up just tracing the hexes onto the wrong side of my fabric. I pin them together and and sew along my pencil lines using a running stitch. Super fast and easy. I think I’ll do a tutorial of my own. Maybe tomorrow…with pictures!

The back is a lot messier, but if you use a little Best Press or something, they’ll press right down.

Hexagons are so fun and come out so cute, but the papers inside is so much EXTRA work (to me.) Once it’s all said and done, I don’t think you can tell the difference. The picture at the top has one english paper-pieced flower – you can tell because it’s edges are turned under (bottom right corner). Here it is below and I think you can really see the stitches, which is annoying. The last picture shows the differences in the backs before pressing. But again, I used a little Best Press, and had no trouble getting those seams to lay flat.

Portland or bust!

Okay, I’m going crazy! I registered for that class! I’m enrolled in Heather Ross’ Fabric Design workshop at PNCA’s Summer of Making. “But you live in CA…that’s crazy”, you say! Yes, well, my husband said, “let’s make a road trip out of it!” And that was all I needed. There were only 15 spots in that class, and they’re almost all gone. You only live once, right? When do you get a chance to go and learn from the best? It’s like someone saying, “Hey, Blabby, want to go take a three-day song-writing workshop with the Indigo Girls for the bargain basement price of $400?” HELL YES! I would have signed up for that too.

I wish I could go to PNCA for real. I’d use up my GI Bill there in a second. I was browsing through the courses and it’s super awesome.

One small intimidating point is that the description says “bring your own creative ideas to life”…wait, I need my OWN ideas? I like Heather’s ideas! I’ll need to work on that between now and July :) Good thing I have some time!

I’m BURSTING with excitement!

Far Far Away II

Via True Up, I heard about Heather Ross’ second Far Far Away line. Let’s discuss this. I truly love those unicorns and snails from the first line. I even love the frogs. In fact, I just bought a little more yardage from Jenny at Home Ec. BUT, I’m the littlest bit stumped by the double gauze…I mean, I’m feeling scissor shy with my other FFA prints. It’s so nice, but it intimidates me. Anyone else? I’m going to end up just mixing it in with regular old cotton prints and feeling like a horrible sinner the whole time. But then, I’ll still love them, so it won’t matter. Right? Any thoughts on this double gauze business? But I love those colors so much…especially the oranges and greys. She is the best.

And read this! What I wouldn’t give…I mean, really. I just told my husband about this little class and he said, “did you sign up?” That is 1) why I love him and 2) why we’re in debt. It’s actually not too crazy…I mean, I have some family in Portland (that I haven’t seen in 20 years…) and I could drive there (in 20+ hours). Oh, that class is a dream. But the thing is, even if I went to that class, I wouldn’t learn to draw like Heather Ross. And that’s what I want to learn. I want to learn how she creates these witty little creatures and people and settings and puts them in perfect but totally unique colors. I don’t think that’s what she’ll be teaching. But I STILL WANT TO GO!

are you a joiner?

That’s my nametag in the most recent issue of Quilter’s Home. Cool, right? Even though they spell my name wrong and have me listed as being from the wrong guild, I still love it.

In all my excitement over finding the Modern Quilt Guild, I’ve been feeling a little guilty about my other guild, Valley of the Mist Quilters. About a year ago, my husband’s work schedule changed, and I had to kind of give up the guild because I just couldn’t make any of it work, and I couldn’t really rationalize a babysitter to go to guild meetings.

When I joined, I dove in. I took on a lot of jobs, volunteered for a lot of stuff, really wanted to get involved and meet people. I’m glad I did. I don’t think I would have met half has many women or participated half as much during my involvement if I hadn’t.

I’m really off topic here.

I don’t think I ever really found any kindred spirits as far as fabric or pattern were concerned, but I made LOTS of friends and learned tons of techniques. Things like the importance of color value, creating my own patterns from drawings using drafting tools, needle-turn applique (which I stink at), freezer paper/starch applique…who knows what else. Lots of good stuff. I think there’s room for all of it.

I always kind of thought of it like church. You listen to the speaker, and maybe they’re going on and on about something you’re not down with…fire and brimstone or women as the weaker sex. You tune out. THEN there’s a gem of truth that helps you in life, like Prov. 13:3 – which I struggle with :) But you know what I mean. And I’m really not just talking about the speakers that come to the meetings. I’m talking about the members of the guilds that have been making quilts for 40 years. Those girls have skills.

So, modern is awesome. I want to make those quilts. But I want to join all the guilds and meet all the quilters and take all the classes and soak it all up!

The fact is I probably won’t get to go to this new guild much more than the old guild, BUT I’m excited about the possibilities. That’s the important thing today.

serendipity

I’ve been overusing that word in the last few days, and hearing a lot of John Cusack references in answer, but there’s no other word for it. I’m feeling good about things…so good, I went out and bought a few quick pick lotto tickets! But that’s not what we’re here to talk about.

I got hired by my company! So now, instead of being a consultant, I’m an official employee on the payroll. Still part-time, which is perfect. I truly have THE BEST JOB EVER.

Then, my kid finally got into a preschool! I was about to give up – I’m on waiting lists all over town with no nibbles, and I called the top of my list in hopes that there had been a little movement. School #2 said, “Oh! I was just going to call you today! I have one spot for you!” Whew! That is a big relief…I hope this works out!

I was doing my normal eye-candy-foraging on ohfransson.com, and read her post about the Portland branch of the Modern Quilt Guild. I followed the link and found the national page, which led me to the LA branch. So I joined! I lucked out, and was able to make it to a meeting and met a bunch of cool girls, saw a bunch of awesome quilts, and am really looking forward to getting to know everyone better. Then I found out there is a little local guild forming! So exciting. I’ll probably hardly ever get to go to the meetings, but they have a weekend sew once a month, and I think I can swing some of those.

I just wanted to mention this quickly. These girls are doing something awesome. Pioneers! Bringing together modern quilters who have already been grouping informally online for a long time…sharing ideas, forming bees, etc. This is happening because there is a real gap in the industry where modern quilters are concerned!

I recently went to the Road 2 CA quilt show and not one vendor had any Denyse Schmidt fabric for sale. I don’t know how many vendors were in the vendor mall, but there are over 100 listed on the site. Not all of them sell fabric, of course, but still. Not one had Denyse Schmidt, and I’d say she’s easily one of the most popular fabric and quilt designers of the modern quilt movement. Another popular designer who was nowhere to be found was Heather Ross. I did see a couple Mendocino prints, but only one vendor. CRAZY. I saw about a billion reproduction prints from every time period…except my own! So that’s a bummer. The industry is not keeping up with the whole audience. And what’s happening is that the fabric manufacturers and the book publishers see the writing on the wall – or internet – but the trade shows and traditional shops seem to be a few steps behind.

One thing I did see was some of the Gees Bend solids and the kits. Now, how can you make a pattern for a Gees Bend quilt? I mean, doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose? Watch it…or we’ll take the magic right out of those beautiful quilts.

Alright, that’s enough of that.

One last good fortune… our family in the Dominican Republic is safe and sound, which is awesome.

I hope to do some sewing this week. I hope you and yours are doing great. I wish all the babies in Haiti were wrapped in quilts right now.

Costume Love is here!

My first official fabric design is here! I’m calling it Costume Love – in honor of Valentine’s Day. I started with a pencil drawing of my little dudes, scanned it in, turned it into a live trace in Illustrator and added color and set the love scene. I think it came out pretty cool. I’ve ordered a yard for myself, and made it available for sale on Spoonflower. I think that site is a marvel. Super fun! What are you going to make?

I’ve got some more costume dudes in the works…I just have to figure out what kind of scenes they’re going to be in. They’re already scanned in and colored…but they’re just standing around all alone. They need some fun to get into. :)

Biting the bullet

Okay, that’s it. Enough is enough. I was wandering around the Sew Mama Sew forum and found this stash buster challenge on WonderMommy’s blog. I’m going to do it. You heard it here. As I’m typing this, I’m watching horrible images of the earthquake in Haiti, worrying about our family and friends in the Dominican Republic and feeling guilty about my crazy fabric greed in the first place. So, I’m doing stash busters. And I’m making a peace quilt. I’m not sure for who yet, but I’m making a peace quilt as part of the stash buster plan.

The plan – just to say it out loud. No new fabric purchases between Feb. 1 and Apr. 1, 2010. Easy enough, right? Also, post pictures of completed projects on wondermommy’s flickr group. My additional plan – make a peace quilt – probably for the local women’s shelter.

Good plan! Break!

official madness

Well, I’ll spare you the picture of the pajama pile that rises almost as high as my sewing table, but I’ve been maniacally visiting Marshalls and TJ Maxxes all over Southern California, hunting down any Munki Munki product I could find. Well, that’s not exactly true. I did choose to not buy a few pieces that I saw because I already had so many…like the shoes robe…which I already have five of. I mean – now I have to figure out how to unload all of this stuff on eBay or whatever. I know I’ll make my money back and get to keep all that I want for my stash, but I’m regretting getting so much. I just don’t have the room! And now I want to start sewing, but I have to get all this craziness organized and put away before I can do anything!

Here’s what I’ve found. I’ve entered into the fabric swapping world on Flickr – it’s going well so far. No creeps yet. Fingers crossed! So far, I’ve been able to swap for four more prints…very exciting!

Anyway, I think I’ve found the perfect pattern to bring them all together. Elizabeth over at Oh, Fransson! has come up with a Map of the States! block that I just love. She’s written a tutorial. I’m going to mostly follow it, but instead of cutting apart all the block pieces, I’m going to use paper piecing. Looking forward to it.

* Update – Just when I thought I had things all figured out, I ran across this awesome munki quilt tutorial…too many ideas. SOMEONE PLEASE CLEAN UP MY SEWING ROOM!