Monday Morning Star Count 2014/45

Life has been so crazy...again...whose idea was graduate school?  All I keep thinking about is all the stitching I am missing!  :)  I have found myself posting to Instagram much more than my blog, but I am going to try to do better.

The awesome news is that I have completed all the flowers for my Grandmother's Flower Garden!  Woo hoo!  Here is the very last one I stitched:

And here is what I have to work with:

And I have basted another 50 background hexies:

So you may be wondering what all my counts are :) I have stitched together 925 - 1 1/2" hexagons.  Just totally amazing!  I started this project 4th of July weekend in 2013.  I am starting to see the end in sight.

I want to end this blog post with a personal endeavor.  I have received my Grandmother's 1924 Singer 66 Treadle machine.  I am going to refurbish it so that I can use it.  It has a lot of sentimental value and there is something so cool about getting back to basics.  No electricity...just good old foot power.  I thought I would share a picture of the sewing machine and of course included my GFG project!

I feel so thankful for all of you and for Jessica's effort to keep the Monday Morning Star Count alive!  I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts and all the wonderful people I have met that are so encouraging!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/40

Feeling pretty good that I at least managed to stitch up two flowers this week!  I tried timing myself and it takes me nearly an hour to stitch one full flower.  These are 1 1/2" hexies.  I don't know if that is slow or fast, but I guess it is what it is :)  I don't want to rush and I actually enjoy taking my time stitching.  The rest of my life is so much of a rush that I look forward to stitching and I don't want to ruin it!  EPP is the best stress therapy ever!

So here are my flowers for this week:

This week I want to measure the quilt, figure out how many more flowers and background hexagons I need to complete the queen size quilt.  I would also love to get three flowers done :)

Feeling fortunate to be linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts.  What a wonderful group and so inspiring to see all your projects!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/27

I really think that this has been my most productive week to date and it is so rewarding!  I stitched several flowers into a section and then began to join two sections together.  It is really starting to look like a quilt :)  It currently measures 52" at its widest point and has convinced me that I can do this!

Because I keep going between our summer place and home, I decided to keep large piece and all the flower sections  at our summer place.  I seem to have more time there to focus and design.  And I find the ocean so inspiring!  In the picture below, the flower sections that still need to be attached are stacked and sorted by color value.  I have 39 to join at this point.

Also in the picture below is a Ziploc bag of my remaining hexagons that need to be stitched into flowers and have background hexies attached.  I will keep this baggie at home where my time is more constrained.

I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts for Monday Morning Star Count.  Stop by and check out the wonderful progress or join us and get your own dose of inspiration and encouragement!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/26

Wow!  Are we really half-way through the 2014 MMSC?  Time does fly!  Two of my grandchildren spent the week with us at the beach so I didn't get as much stitching in as I would have liked, but really enjoyed the time with them :)  Although Gracie was a little upset I forgot her EPP kit, she did help me with mine by going through my hexie box and arranging flowers and threading my needle.  Here they are on the beach.

So here is what I was able to get done.  I completed this full section:

I have about 26 more sections to create and here is my stack of 41 sections ready to be stitched:

This is the first section I created along with this one:

At this point I am thinking I may have too many sections, but only time will tell.  I am at my 1 year anniversary of starting this quilt this weekend.  This is my very first project and although I am anxious to see it completed, I am so enjoying the process.  So thankful to Jessica for her knowledge, book, blog, and Monday Morning Star Count.  Come visit her at Life Under Quilts and join the MMSC!  It is a great group of people and if it weren't for the encouragement, I don't know if I would be making so much progress!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/21

Another busy week and lots of family time, which is always awesome!  I played around with placement for my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  So many choices!  One part of me just wants to plan as I go and the oh so very analytical side of me wants to plan it out!  Decisons, decisions, decisions :)

Had my Mother's Day Gift setup.  Here is my new HandiQuilter Avante (gosh I have a wonderful husband!).  I am calling her Lady A; My Grandmother's name was Alma and she sure was a wonderful grandmother :)  I figure "Lady A" could stand for Alma, Allison, or Avante :)

And my daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren spent the weekend with us camping in Maine.  Although it was hectic I still managed to stitch 4 new hexagon flowers for the GFG quilt.

I am linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts for the Monday Morning Star Count!

Monday Morning Star Count 2014/20

The weather finally has turned beautiful and everything is starting to bloom.  It certainly had me full of energy and anxious to make more progress on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

I was able to add the border hexies to 9 sections and basted 30 ivory border hexies.  I have enough color variation to really start playing with additional layout options.  Here are the 9 sections for this week.

This week I will focus on stitching a section together and possibly connecting to the first section I completed (below):

So grateful for the enthusiasm and support of the wonderful people who are linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts.  You are a talented bunch :) and every week I learn something new!  Thank you Jessica for bringing all of us together and sharing your passion with us!

Sunday Morning Designs

I tend to want all of my hexagons to look "put together" and yet I love the look of less organized or planned designs. My grandchildren were spending time with us at the beach and they absolutely love hexagons, especially Gracie. 

Gracie is an early riser (like me) so I gave her the early morning, quiet task of designing a couple of hexagon flowers for me. What better way to learn to relax and enjoy random placement :-)

Gracie planning her first design. 

Gracie is so proud of her work and I absolutely love them! 

Then Carter woke up and he definitely wanted in on the fun!

Gracie is so good about teaching her little brother.

Carter's contribution is just beautiful. 

Now I have to get to work sewing their hexie flowers together. Gracie is turning 7 next week and has learned how to baste hexies and is of course anxious to be able to piece so we will work on that over the winter. I am very excited to have my grandchildren contribute to the design it will have a lot of memories sewn in!  

My Hexie Obsession

I have fallen in love with English Paper Piecing!  I had no idea it could be so relaxing, portable, and addictive.  I became intrigued with hexagons when I signed up for Mickey Depres'  Craftsy Class - Pieced Hexies and that was the beginning of my obsession.  I figured I would start with just a few 'plain' hexies, which really meant I didn't have time to cut and piece :)

I chose fabric - Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille and the first flower worked up so quickly that I just kept going.  I still plan to piece some hexies in this quilt, but need time to get to my sewing machine for that.  I love all the options available and look forward to stitching....even if for 10 minutes at 4am before I get ready for work.  Hand stitching goes great with a cup of coffee :)

Here is my box of hexies just waiting to be sewn together.

And here are a few of my "flowers".