Hex city

I realized I didn't report back on some of the big flowers that appeared in progress in the first hexagon blogs, so here is a photo with those, a newly finished orange half, and the ones currently under construction.

I also finally finished cutting the last two hexagons - I had thought I didn't need these little scraps of yellow fabric, so put them in the trash. Of course I then realized I did need them, and that I actually needed to get two hexagons out of them, which was a stretch! I'd put them through the laundry, not knowing what they encountered in the trash, and today I finally converted them into hexagons. One is definitely a bit skinny, but is only one piece of fabric, while the other (see photo) will be a poor Frankenstein piece. Fortunately, the pattern is fairly chaotic and this will be at the edge of the quilt, so I don't think it will attract a lot of attention. 

I have an hour-long webinar on Tuesday that I just need to listen to, so should be able to finish the pink half and work on the yellow half while I still remember the unique challenges of the tiny piece. I will also need to switch over to other projects that I can only do at home while I'm home, so the next post may not have many hexagon updates!

Full flowers: 4/64 done

Half flowers: 2/8 done (plus 2 started)

- Catherine

Planes as plant food

This is a silly title, but my flowers are growing at a terrific rate thanks to all my plane time. I started and finished the half flower in the bottom right of the photo, finished assembling the rows of the blue one and started sewing those up, started and nearly finished the orange half flower, and I've created the rows for the green half flower! I would have made more progress on the green one but it needs ironing - somehow the hexagons got all mushed up and it is annoying. 

I realized I didn't make a note last week that I spent a bunch of time cutting the rest of the hexagons (with the exception of two, where I need to sew some fabric together to make a piece big enough). So now all I have to do is sew sew sew!! Until I get done with the flowers, and then I will have to cut a billion white hexagons as the in-between sections. For now, it's so fun to have all the colors to choose from and really start to imagine what the quilt will look like. 

Another fun fact, that came up in my conversations at home this morning: I so far have not had to buy any fabric - this is all coming from my stash plus the two collections I received from my fabulous neighbors. It was a fun logic problem to look at what I had and try to pair them up individually and then think about how they'd all fit together - there were definitely some fun fabrics that would have ruined the overall mood so got set aside. I'll have to find another use for them!

The only challenge for my continued progress is that I have just gotten home from my last trip for a while, so I will have to be patient (yet not lose focus!) as I wait for a lot of flights that are on the horizon, and work on other things that are less suitable for planes in the meantime. 

I did have one other achievement this week - I was reminded that John's birthday is coming up soon, and we were so close to finishing the bugs! I just needed to put sparkly thread in the scarab's border. But I just really hated that border, both by itself and in combination with the other two. After consultation with Margie, we agreed that I should make a new border to match the others. Ta da!! It is done. Today I will wash/prep them and tomorrow I'll take them to the framer in the hopes of having them done in time.

Full flowers: 3/64 done (plus 1 started)

Half flowers: 1/8 done (plus 2 started)

- Catherine

Growing gardens

14 years! I can't believe it. 

I am so pleased that I decided the grandmother's garden quilt could be a good project for planes - it definitely is, and I am making good progress! I also figured out a better way to construct the flowers, so that is speeding things up as well. Specifically: For the first two flowers, I started with the middle yellow hexagon and built out from there. However, it meant that there were a lot of inefficient seams (joining a couple of hexagons but creating a new interface in need of sewing). I tried in a couple of cases to go up and back along these orphan interfaces, but it wasn't very aesthetically pleasing. So! For the third flower, I tried sewing each hexagon into a pair, then building up pairs (or triplets, as needed) into strips, then sewing the strips together. It was much less fussing with changing angles, much more secure (as each of the pairs was better fastened together), and much faster! I went from starting the pink to finishing the pink entirely and finishing all of the blue pairs in one session with my mom and two flights. See? In the first photo, you can also see how convenient of a project this is on a plane. :)

I think I'll start a counter to motivate further progress:

Full flowers: 3/64 done (plus 1 started)

Half flowers: 0/8 done

- Catherine

Year 14!

 Look at us!  The blog is 14 years old!

Your heart quilt is lovely.  The little quilted hearts are a nice touch.  I agree that it counts as finishing in 2023.  And now you're done!  Hooray!

The hexagon piecing looks great too!  You can do all the things.  Very impressive.

An update on my things...

I finished the cardigan and after blocking the size is better.  I decided to change the bottom edge from an i-cord bind off to the same band of lace that runs along the center of the sweater.  It makes it a little longer and I think, once it's blocked, it will look like it belongs.  It mostly does now, but I had to pick up stitches at the bottom, so it's clearly an addition.  Perhaps I will get it in the bath tonight?  I have three of Jeff's sweaters to wash also, and very little wool wash solution.  That reminds me that I think I remember seeing either Euclan or Soak at the grocery...

The socks are out of time out and I am working on them in earnest again.  Lots of little cables, so we'll see how quickly I can make progress.

Sarah said no to a new hat.  I still might make one.

The insulation is wonderful.  The bedroom in question is definitely warmer.  They were great and got us on the schedule before Middle got home.  Yay!

I'm still trying to figure out what to do next.  I'm making some little notions bags that I saw on Instagram. (they are here: Sew Together Bag) I finished one for me that I made first to make all the mistakes so that when I make one for Middle and Smallest, it will go more smoothly.  I'm sure glad I did, because I made a big measuring mistake which resulted in piecing the outside piece of fabric.  Glad it was on mine.

Other than that, I am in need of a project!  Perhaps it's time to make Catherine's sweater?  I did swatch for it, so I know what needle size is needed, I have all the yarn...

Queen of the quilts

Well, I didn't quite finish on Sunday, but I was done before noon today, including some surprise hand-stitching where I hadn't folded over the extra fabric properly. I'm counting it as a 2023 success. :D

Here is the finished product! 

    I'm so happy I redid the heart colors. The original was really so awful. The back is dark purple. I got a photo of that, but it's hard to see what's going on, so I didn't include it.

    Each of the 17 squares in the middle of the green/yellow & purple/pink checkerboards has a heart quilted in (see photo 2). I was able to use the machine for the straight sections and then left a long tail of thread which I used to complete the heart. I was originally thinking about doing something more organic feeling (like hearts bursting out of the big heart?) but this was simple and effective at holding the quilt together. Yay!

    I even remembered to sign the quilt (photo 3) before I stitched everything up (which I forgot last time, good grief).

An auspicious start to the year/end of last year!

- Catherine

 

Secret sewing

Hello! I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted. Congrats on all your progress, Margie!

Since July, I have:

- Finished two squares of the flower cross-stitch and made a bit of progress on others (photo below; compare the last time I posted a photo of the whole thing, in June)

- Cut up MANY (though not all) of the hexagons I'll need to make the flowers in a Grandmother's Garden quilt for my brother-in-law & his family (see initial sewing below). I realized these would be perfect for all the travel I've got planned, so prioritized them ahead of other things. And I just bought a little book light so that I don't have to turn on the overhead light (very bright and annoying to others) on planes. 

- Not made any progress on the heart quilt. HOWEVER, it was my New Year's Resolution to finish this quilt, and I have three days to knock it out. Hopefully before the end of Sunday, I'll have another post about that. :D

- Catherine

Swatching

 Well...

Where do the previous projects stand?

The hat was tried on and approved.  It looks great.

The socks for Smallest are complete.

I decided to go with the bigger needles for the armhole, but I haven't finished that, even though it would take less than an hour, I bet.

If you look at the post from earlier in October, there are two sashiko coasters.  There's a line omitted in one, and I've fixed that.

New stuff - I started some socks to give away.  They are toe up socks.  I followed the directions and they are too short in the foot.  I got frustrated (and I broke a needle while trying them on) so I have put them in time out.  Instead, I started a Savage Heart cardigan while in Colorado for our visit and the funeral.  I am mostly finished.  I sewed one of the seams last night, which allowed me to properly try on a sleeve and it seems too small.  There is some acrylic in this yarn, so I'm not sure how it will do with blocking, but I've decided to _try_ blocking it before I unravel it and start again with bigger needles.  The gauge was definitely different than my original swatch, which is frustrating and would also explain why one of the other sweaters I've made for myself turned out too small.  Swatches lie!

I noticed that when we were in Colorado, Sarah's hat (that I knit last year) was leaving marks on her head, so it's probably too small.  Perhaps I will make her a bigger one.

Other than that, I was looking at a prayer shawl that Jeff's mom had started probably early in her dementia and it's looking more like a parallelogram than a rectangle, so I need to undo it and redo it.  I really don't like working with this yarn, so maybe I'll pass it along to someone who would want it?  

I'm not sure what the next project will be.  I need to make another Darjeeling top for Smallest, so perhaps that will come after the Savage Heart re-do (if needed)?  I should finish the Lantana sweater for sure.  It wouldn't take any time at all!

Other random things - I made the neopolitan checkerboard cookies for a cookie exchange party.  They were easier than I expected and very tasty!  I tried making peanut brittle to send to my parents because Gaga used to send it to my dad every year.  Attempt #1 was a failure.  It didn't get that nice brown color and it was not brittle.  I'll try again later.  We're putting insulation up in a space above our balcony ceiling, which is part of the floor in Middle's room.  It always gets cold in their room in the winter and I suspected the problem was no insulation.  Sure enough, that space is totally empty.  Middle comes home on Wednesday, and I'm hoping we can have it fixed before they leave in January.

Look!  No insulation!

I think that's what I know!

Margie