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 2014/26

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 2014/24

Another good week, although very busy with work, I still was able to complete 3 flowers and teach someone how to EPP!

Here are the three flowers I completed, which leaves me with 28 left to complete.

So, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with a friend's daughter (19) and teach her how to EPP!  It was a lot of fun and I taught her on 2" hexagons so the piece will grow fast.  She did great!  She basted 19 hexagons and sewed 3 of them together.  I forgot to take a picture, but trust me, she did a wonderful job!

What I do want to share with you, is what happens when you are teaching someone and don't quite pay enough attention to what you are stitching:

Yes, that's right....the polka dot print is the center of the flower ;)  I helped Jackie with her stitching and then picked up my own stitching and didn't check the line up...just started stitching!  LOL!  At least it was only one side and was easy to rip out.

Just love linking up with Jessica at Life Under Quilts! 

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!

My Favorite Supplies

Since I first tried paper piecing hexagons, I tried many needles and threads. I finally settled on Milliners Needles (size 10) made by Richard Hemming & Son, which I use for basting and whip stitching.

For basting I use all of my old thread since it gets removed any way.

For whip stitching thread I tried Superior Bottom Line, Essentials (100% cotton), YLI Silk, and Superior So Fine (#59/3 ply). While I love the way the Bottom Line disappeared, it was tricky to thread and slippery to work with. My favorite to work with is Superior So Fine. 

I get all my paper templates (hexagons, diamonds, etc.) from Paper Pieces. It saves a lot of time and I find the quality to be very good. I use the 1 1/2" hexagons.  If you choose to use the 2" hexagons, then you could use a 5" charm pack for fabric.

My favorite online fabric store is Missouri Star Quilt Co.