Another batch of hexie backgrounds ready to go

I took a break from working on hexies last week. I'd been basting a second huge batch of background blues for what felt like eons, and got to the point where every night I'd look at it and think, "I don't feel like working on that today." I would have switched to sewing blues around the flowers, but I didn't have any ready to go. I like to pick the background hexies for a bunch of the flowers, stack the blues for each flower, and baste the pile of blues to the flower with a loop of thread. When I'm ready to sew, I snip the thread loop, and sew the hexies on, working my way down the pile. This way I can sew the background ring in place without having to turn my brain back on to make a "which blue next?" decision with each seam, which really slows things down. This is a slow-enough project already.

Selecting the blues for each flower is best done with natural light on the kitchen counter, as you see here, but day after day last week I was busy with other things and forgot to do it before evening. I finally got around to it Sunday. I've now got about 30 more flowers ready to sew blues to. That may sound like a lot, but it leaves another 30 or so to go, which means I still need to baste more (a lot more!) blues. At the moment I'm feeling inspired to keep going with the basting until all the remaining flowers are ready to have the background ring sewn on.

I may change my mind about that.

More Hexies

I've got a couple of garment-type things to photo for you, but it's been so sticky here lately I keep putting it off, just too icky to be posing in anything with sleeves. You'll see them eventually.

In the meantime, here are a few of the latest batch of hexie flowers. I'm about a third of the way through adding the various blue bits around the outside of each one.

Used up the last of the ready-to-go blue hexies about a week ago, so am now busy during TV time basting up the next huge heap of blues so I can make more of these.

Kaffe Fassett hexie flowers

I used to think I watch way too much TV, but now that I have become addicted to paper-pieced hexagons (the perfect hand-sewing project for couch potato time) there's no such thing as too much. Shown here: the product of the past couple of months.

The "petals" are all Kaffe Fassett fabrics, centers are mostly from the scrap bin. As you can see, each flower will also receive a ring of assorted watery batik blues. Once that's done, some bits of leafy greens will connect them all together.

In addition to TV time, I've also discovered that sewing up a flower or two first thing in the morning is calm and meditative, and a lovely way to start the day. And slightly more productive than reading or just staring into space for half an hour, which is what I used to do while caffeinating.

I'm proceeding at a much faster rate than expected, now that I'm keeping my fingers busy during formerly lazy time. Nevertheless, there's a long, long way to go before completion.

obsessed

They warned me. "It's addictive," they said, and "I can't seem to stop," but did I listen?

It's all American Idol's fault. And Biggest Loser. And our DVR. There's just sooo much TV to sit through on a Tuesday night, so I was poking around the sewing bloggiverse last week looking for some kind of hand-sewing project to work on while in couch-potato mode. Preferably one that would use up some if not most of the Kaffe Fassett prints in my overflowing "charms and strips" drawer. I didn't have anything specific in mind, other than no way was I ever going to make a cathedral window anything ever again. One pillow cover was enough of that for me, thank you.

So I poked around and came across a blog mention (and then another, and another) of English Paper Piecing, specifically hexagons, and specifically the "Grandmother's Flower Garden" layout, and it was exactly what I was looking for. I have fond memories of napping (decades ago, in another century, when I was a child) under a very traditional genuine-from-the-1930s GFG quilt actually made by my Great-Grandmother (surely, musthavebeen, 'cause no way did Grammy every sit down and hand sew a quilt!), which is still somewhere in my Mom's house, though now in tatters.

So I printed up some sheets of 3/4" hexies and cut them out and started turning scrap fabric into smaller scraps and basted away and then made some flowers. And a bunch of green hexies that will be leaves. The pic above is most of what I've produced since last weekend, when the obsession began. I don't know yet for sure what these will become, or whether I'll use that pink "Anemone" KF print as the background or not, but I'm very sure I'm officially hooked on making these little cuties during TV time. It's the perfect lap project, and I just can't seem to stop.

BTW: I'm also close to finishing my first garment for the Mini-Wardrobe challenge, so hope to have  a pic and post on that by the weekend.