Monday 4 January 2016

Happy Hexie New Year!

Happy New Year everybody!

Before Christmas, the design wall looked like this image on the left and now it's full of hexie flowers!

You would have thought I'd have had enough of hexagon projects at this stage but nope, still hand sewing hexies right into the New Year!

A lot of the predictions for this year included more slow stitching, hand sewing projects like the New Hexagon & Millefiori/La Passacaglia projects that were very popular last year.  I have loved following everyone's projects on these, particularly Wendy's that she has shared on her blog Wendy's Quilts and more!  Though not a deliberate decision on my part to do so much hand sewing, it has been a blessing.  My poor Janome, (less than a year old), has given up sewing!  She is going back to the shop this week for repair.

Resting in the spare bedroom over Christmas taking a break!
I started hearing clunking noises in the bobbin during free motion quilting and it got worse and worse until eventually the bobbin case jammed up completely.  So while that's been out of action, I dusted off my small Pfaff and finished up a table runner for Mum.  This was a super quick project.  Some layer cake squares cut into 5" x 10" bricks with some 5"x5" in between and quilted with a wiggly circle pattern. 

She likes it a lot and I have to keep reminding myself sometimes simple is the best way to go!  I have a habit of gravitating towards complex designs and forget that simple can be pretty and effective too!

So while my main machine is resting at the repair shop, it's hand stitching for me.  Last year (weird to be typing that still!) our branch of the Irish Patchwork Society swapped 2 1/2" squares, about 400 of them!  We were challenged to make a quilt using the squares and trying to do something different I decided to make hexagons out of them!

During one of the nights Mum stayed over in our house, we spent a few hours sorting the squares into colours (while watching Foyle's War on the telly!)  Before Christmas, I arranged them into flowers and stacked them all on the lid of an Ikea box.
This meant I could sit on the sofa and sew away to my hearts content while watching more TV.  All 4 Indiana Jones, Kelly's Heroes, Back to the Future, Santa Paws, and of course my favourite: Doctor Who!

I thought I was on to a winning plan here but I underestimated how long it takes to hand sew 400+152 more I added to the pile to make up my design!

And there was Wilbur!  The dogs loved the fact that we were around so much and took up residence on the sofa beside me.  Wilbur got it into his head that my colourful hexies must be sweets and tried a few times to eat them!

Guess who the culprit was!
Thankfully he didn't mange to tip the whole lot off of my lap but he did succeed in knocking over the Christmas tree 5 times!

Being a Basset Hound, Wilbur has long ears and you have to clean them for him every few weeks.  He hates this and hid under the tree when he saw G reaching for the ear cleaning bottle.  #1.

#2 & #3 happened at night.  No idea what happened.  Woke up to find tree tipped over twice.

#4 I'm blaming G for not putting the tree back properly as it didn't last long this time at all and broke the lights.

#5 My fault!  I left a box of Cadbury's biscuits in a Christmas present bag under the tree and big nosed Basset must've been having a sniff as we found teeth marks in the tin and the tree on the floor.  Thankfully the new lights still work!  At this stage, I was nearly tempted to give up on the tree but I took a deep breath and made a cup of tea and put it back up again!


Beginnings of a design - more on this later!

That's kind of how I feel about these hexies at this stage.  Take a deep breath, make a cup of tea and get on with it.  The challenge deadline is this Friday at our first meeting of 2016!  A busy start to the new year, even without my big sewing machine.  How was your  holiday break?  Hope all had a lovely time and here's to a slow stitching, handmade new year!

9 comments:

  1. I admire you for finding something to do with your poor Janome out of service. I hope you can get them all done in time for the challenge deadline. Good luck!

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  2. I admire anyone willing to do that much hand sewing. I love the idea of hexagons, the thought of hand sewing them all gives me shivers.

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  3. Oh no your machine is out of action. Hope it gets better soon. Love to start millefiori but I have no patience for fussy cuts and hand sewing. For now anyway. Love your tree!!

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  4. You have so much patience Ruth! Both with bassets and with hand sewing. I love the little hexie flowers on your design wall and laying on the printed background fabrics!

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  5. That's a lot of hexies. But they look great!! I'm sure it wasn't funny in the moment, but I had a good chuckle about the poor Christmas tree.

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  6. Whoa, this is the perfect project for an out of commission sewing machine. Those hexis look great so far!

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  7. Happy new year. Those dogs are very inquisitive!, love all your hexie flowers. It's going to be a beauty. I really want to find a hand sewing project for the year ahead.

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  8. I love hand stitching and have to have a stern talking to myself now and then about how much I think I can do in a certain period. As I read this, it is already Saturday here. Did you make it in time?
    Pets and Christmas tress do not go well together. Pets and food presents under the tree! Yikes!

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  9. Love your hexies!! I know, they're addictive, when you start making them you just can't stop. :-)

    What a story!! This took me back to memory lane ... Something similar happened to me, but fortunately, there was no dog involved. It was one of my first Christmas tree, twelve feet, I spent that day shopping for new glass ornaments, and I couldn't wait to come back home and decorate the tree. I remember that night, I was laying in bed and heard that loud swoosh sound ... The tree falling on the floor. Since then, we always tied the top of the tree to the ceiling ... Just to be safe. :-)

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