21 cards - #13

Hello friends.  I'm still working on the monthly challenge at Motley Soul Mixed-Media Art.

Please refer to this post to see how I made the base for my cards.

Since it's been working so well, I used my Inspiration Jar again.  My words this time: hexagons, birds, and fabric.  All things I love, so I didn't think I have too much trouble with this one.  I started by grabbing the first fabric I saw.  I glued some to a piece of cereal box chipboard with matte Mod Podge and let it dry.  Then I die cut a couple of hexagons with a Sizzix die.  I cut two different sizes and decided the smaller one would be better.  I also punched out a circle from the chipboard, glued on the fabric and then trimmed around the circle.  My punch won't punch through the fabric, but it was the size I wanted.  The tail feathers and beak are cut from some extra pieces of the fabric covered chipboard.  The legs and feet are black card stock.

So now that I had all the pieces of the bird, I needed a background.  And... I was stuck!  What to do?  I finally decided to use some acrylic paint.  I painted part of the background an olive green, but wasn't happy with that, so I added some blue - still not happy.  I went through a transition with yellow, peach and red, with some of the earlier colors showing through.  I liked how the red brightened up the background, but it was really too bright for the bird to stand out.  So... I grabbed my jar of watered down Gesso and brushed it over the entire background.  It was better immediately.  I like how the coating of Gesso brought out the texture from the coffee filter. 

So I let that dry, attached the bird (since I didn't want to lose any of the pieces), and guess what?  I was stuck... again!

Since I was teaching a couple of classes today, I had to let it sit and get all set up for those.  By the time I finished, I was ready for bed, so I didn't get to work on this again until late in the afternoon after my classes were all finished.  Eventually, I decided to stamp some Tim Holtz stamps from Nature's Moments in jet black archival ink.  I realized that I really should have done the stamping before I attached the bird, but it was too late, so this was just going to have to work.  Do you like my attitude?

I went searching my files for a saying to put on.  When I came across this one, I knew it was what I wanted to use, so I printed it, cut it apart and glued it on.  Done!  I like it.

Thank you so much for spending time with me today. 

trends

Hi there, my friends.  So I was doing some blog reading this morning and came across some challenges in the Classroom for world card making day, which was yesterday.  The best thing about these challenges is that some lucky participant is going to win a shopping spree.  Now that is pretty hard to resist.  So I decided to participate. 

This card was made for challenge #5 - trend watch by Julia Stainton.  One of the current trends I love is hexagons, so that's what I used on my card. 

I started with a Spellbinders hexagon die and made a hexagon opening in a piece of clear acetate.  I then placed it on my card stock and sponged faded jeans, mustard seed and picked raspberry distress inks through the opening and repeated that a number of times to make a background. 

I used a Spellbinders ric rac edge die to trim one edge and backed the piece with navy and used a pink passion card base. 

The feather (Stampendous) was stamped once each in the same colors and cut out.  The one in front is popped up. 

I added a Hero Arts sentiment in one of the hexagon sections. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have you participated in any word card making day challenges?

Hexagons

Hello, my friends.  It's been a long time since I've shown you anything on my hexagon quilt, which I started two years ago.  To see some previous blog posts showing some of my progress, click here, here, and here.  Some time ago, I sewed the blocks into strips, but they've just been sitting waiting for me to press the seams and sew the strips together.  Well last night, I finally decided to jump in and do it.  Today, I finished sewing the strips together and pressed all the seams.

Looking back on my first post about this, I see that my original plan was to add sashing between the blocks.  But when I sewed them together, I changed my mind and didn't do that.  So, when I spread it out on a bed to take a picture, I realized that I had seriously misjudged how many hexagons I'd need to make a bed sized quilt.  It doesn't quite cover the bed from head to foot.  I'm about four rows too short, or 36 more hexagon blocks.  Oops!  That means I have two options.  I can either make more hexagons... or I can make a lap/snuggle quilt instead.  I'm leaning toward adding on.

So... I guess that means I'm going to have to dig into my fabric stash and make more hexagons.  And I thought my next step was determining what fabric to use as backing.  I guess not.  Hmmmm.... I wonder where I put that pattern. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

hexagon progress

Hey, everyone. Happy hump day! I'm not sure where my mind has been, but this morning, it suddenly dawned on me that it is already Wednesday. I think I lost a day somewhere.

Anyway, I thought I share my progress that I've made on my hexagon quilt. Here's a picture of all the blocks I have finished. Well, minus the one I finished today. I now have a total of 32 blocks finished. It's exciting to find how quickly they go together.

And the second picture is a stack of the flowers ready to be put on the muslin blocks. Don't you love all those blues? I add the center as part of the applique.

I still need to cut enough hexagons for about 15 more blocks, but I've had enough cut to keep me busy, so I haven't done that yet.

I plan to make a scrappy sashing to put between the blocks, so I think it'll be a very colorful quilt.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonder-filled evening.

more hexagons

My, but it was hot today - yesterday, too. After running the air conditioning all day yesterday, by the end of the day, we realized that it wasn't working properly. The air coming out of the vents wasn't all that cold and it certainly wasn't cooling off the house. So today, I opened doors & windows. There was a little bit of a breeze, but 90 is still hot. And upstairs, of course, was worse, so I spent most of the day sitting in front of a fan downstairs working on my hexagons. How wonderful the way God provides. A card came in the mail today with a special on AC tuneups. This is a from company we've worked with before, so we'll be taking advantage of their special pricing.

I put dinner in the slow cooker this morning (made some yummy Swiss steak) and then finished appliqueing 4 more hexagon blocks. I just didn't have enough energy to do anything more strenuous. Of course, when the rest of the family came home after their volleyball league, my daughter convinced me that we should go out for a walk. Since we were already sweaty, it seemed like a good idea.

I took the pictures and transferred them onto my computer, but didn't have time to do a blog post before dinner. The first picture is the 3 blocks that were previous done, plus the 4 that I finished today.



The second picture is a stack of about 20 more blocks that are glue-basted ready to applique. I know that you can't see them all, since they are stacked on top of each other.

After dinner, I finished the block that is on the right in that picture. So I actually finished 5 blocks today.

I have been trying to work on these about an hour each day. Some days get more, some less, but I'm having fun with them.

I have a lot more of the hexagons ready to sew into the little flowers, but I think I need 90 blocks, so I still need to cut more of the hexagons.

Today I noticed that Sizzix is coming out with 4 hexagon dies. I don't think they are available yet, but I'm sure they'll be a big help for making this type of quilt. I don't know if any of the sizes would work for this one I'm doing now, because I made up my own pattern, but it sure would be great if I didn't have to cut them all by hand.

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.

and then there were 3

Hey, bloggers. I'm still waiting for a correct guess on my age. You've all been very kind. Here's another clue: I'm well rounded. You can put your guess on any post starting with this one and following. I'll be generous and allow another guess even though you may have already guessed. I have some crochet flowers and edgings for the winner.

My man and I went out to eat last night with some good friends at my favorite Indian restaurant (the Taj Mahal in Hales Corners, WI) -- just extending the celebration. I had mullgatawny soup and coconut chicken as well as several types of naan. We always order 3 different ones and share. Good eating. Of course, I can never eat it all, so I'll have it for lunch one day this week.

I'm having so much fun with the hexagons. This morning I sewed another block together. I have another one glued and ready to stitch and a couple more rings done, but those need to be pressed and have the papers removed.

Have a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by.

The start of something new

Hey, everyone! How's your Saturday? I had a great birthday yesterday. I got to have lunch with my family and then I spent some time working on a quilt.

I slept in a bit this morning, but only because I didn't go to bed until 2:00 a.m. Yup! I just couldn't put it down. I was working on a new quilt. And just in case you're asking, no, I haven't finished quilting the last one yet. But the most fun for me is the creative process of designing and piecing one together, so I have... uhh, at least 4 or 5 (maybe more) in progress. Now, don't get me wrong. I do finish them. In fact, I gave one to some special friends of ours last week.

Anyway, to get back to my new one. I've been seeing these on blogs recently - they call it one flower Wednesday. And the flowers that are referred to are flowers from Grandmother's Flower Garden. They are all made from hexagons and hand pieced. I thought it would be a nice portable project and there is no time limit. I haven't decided yet if I'll join the blogger group, but I did start my own.

The first thing I needed to do was make a hexagon pattern. I really had to stretch on this one. This would be really great to have a die to cut all these, but as far as I could find, the only one available is Accuquilt and it's too big to fit in my cuttlebug or big shot. One lady had her husband saw off about 1/4" and then file off the rough edges, but I don't know that I want to go that route. So, I copied the picture of the die into a word document and adjusted the size until I was satisfied, then printed it, cut it out and transferred it to template plastic. After all that, I don't think it's a perfect, perfect hexagon, but good enough. I'm actually using two sizes, because I'm doing English paper piecing, so the smaller one needs to be more accurate than the larger one. I'm cutting the pieces as much as possible with my rotary cutter to speed up the process.

I started this all about a week or so ago. I cut lots and lots and lots of paper hexagons and fabric hexagons. The paper ones can be used more than once, so I don't think I need to cut any more of those, but I still need to cut a lot more fabric ones. Each flower consists of 7 hexagons - 6 petals and 1 center. I won't go into all the detail of piecing them together. If you'd like that information, I can direct you to that. Just ask.

So, I've pieced 4 flowers together minus the center so far. I decided to applique each flower on a muslin background and putting the center in is part of that process. And last night I was appliqueing the first one. I did another one this morning. I almost forgot to pull the papers out of that one. I had it half stitched down, when I realized that and had to pull it up where it was glued to get the papers out.

Here's a picture. These haven't been pressed yet, so that's why you are seeing a lot of wrinkles. The muslin blocks are 7-1/2" square and will be 7" when finished. At this point, my plan is to put a scrappy sashing in between the blocks. I think that'll be fun to make.

*****Please note****

No one has guessed correctly yet on my blog candy post here. So keep on guessing on that post and if you already guessed there, take another guess on this post!

You've all been very generous in your guesses. A hint: I am part of the baby boom generation.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.