Easter Chocolate Containers

With Easter just around the corner I thought I would mention something about those little plastic chocolate containers you might receive this Sunday. The two containers pictured above were from chocolates such as Lindt and Fererro Roche that are sometimes gifted at Easter and Christmas. If you're lucky enough to get a deep container like these they're perfect for your sewing supplies!

I use one for my safety pins (I leave them all open so I can just pin them straight in so sticking your hand in there is usually an adventure!) and one for my binding clips. I have another which had a broken lid so I use that to throw in small items such as a pen, thread I use all the time, a few needles and anything else I'm using that I dont' want to roll off the table.

They're really handy containers so make sure you save a few because you never know what kind of sewing trinkets you might need to store!

Little Hexagons

Now an update on the one inch hexagons! Last time we really talked about these was December 20... Three months later and I've completed 3 more diamonds, taking my total up to 6 diamond blocks completed.

I've taken a picture here with them placed so they're touching to get an idea of the overall look and with one a little seperate so you can see the individual block as well. The white threads you can see are my basting stitches which hold the paper templates in place. These will be removed eventually.

I really enjoy making these when I want something mindless to do. I have a heap of hexagons already basted, so I baste a few triangles, then sew them to the hexagons on two sides to form diamonds, then sew 9 of these together to make the larger 3x3 diamond blocks. Being a 1" hexagon means that not only is the flat of the hexagon 1 inches long, but the equilateral triangle also has 1 inch sides as well. They're quite tiny!

I'm aiming for this to be a true charm quilt with every hexagon fabric being different. Once I get to the end I plan to slip in one duplicate (if I don't accidentally do this in the mean time...) just like I've read should be done on charm quilts so it makes it like a hide and seek game. Here is a little history about charm quilts.

I started this quilt on August 31 2011... this is going to take a while to finish!!

Top Done!

I got there in the end! The quilt top is together and is an almost square of approximately 47"x49". As you can see, I went with the decision to make it a square quilt instead of a rectangle like the pattern. I put the hexagons together without too much trouble though there is a little bit of a ripple in it which I am hoping will not be noticable after quilting. To bring it all together and balance the colours as well as increase the size I added strips of colour as a border using some of the left over fabric. Here it is:

Problem after problem...

I've had multiple troubles up to this point and just when I thought I was on track another issue. I said last time I was disappointed by the lack of instructions, well it has pulled me up again and perhaps it is partly my fault for not studying the photo and perhaps drawing my own block diagram... not that it should be necessary to do this with instructions from a book!

The first picture is the placement the blocks should have according to the book. Can you see my issue? I sewed my traingles together to form half hexagons along the flat, not the point. The entirity of the instructions you get for this part is "pin and sew the centre seam of the triangles together in spot/stripe pairs and then in sets to form six full hexagons and four half hexagons"... I guess I choose a different "centre seam" to what they did since I paired them on the upright edge, not the diagonal edge, and therefore as you can see from my half hexagons... they're not the right shape.

In addition to this I redid my blue block so that all my centre small hexagons were going the same way, with flat sides lined up to flats. Now after examining the quilt picture again I can see why I made an error on my blue block because they made the same error themselves and didn't fix it! Most of their blocks are matched flat side to flat, but the top left block which you tend to look at first is not, and they made the same mistake in the corners too where one is on point and the rest show flats. Have a look at the photo and see for yourself!! What I should have done is fussy cut my blocks so the points would be up, not the flat...

So what I have now are 6 blocks, with the central hexagon lined up so that everything is right way up only if they're positioned as per the second picture at the top there. If I line them up as per the book then the central blocks are slightly skewed... and I know it is a baby quilt, but my OCD streak still wants it to be perfect!!

At this point I'm tempted to make it square and align it so my blocks are the right way up and not like the book because I'm just not liking how it looks in my picture 2 up there with all the colour very central. That means it would end up being about 110cm square (43") and something like this...

I've been contemplating this for about an hour now (or really since last night when I discovered the issue) so I think it is time to take myself for a walk and try and decide what to do so I can get this project moving again. What would you do??

Tricia's Discount Fabrics

I get a lot of visits for those of you looking for Tricia's Discount Fabrics from a previous post back in 2009 so I thought I'd do an update since she doesn't have a website for this wonderful store. PS. If you're listening Tricia and want to take the plunge into the web my offer to help is still open. Give me a buzz at Happy Bobbin.

This is definitely a store you want to check out! She has an absolutely jam packed store which is a true delight, but sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by the choices. I keep forgetting to photograph the store itself, but In My Neck of the Woods blog has done just that and if you want to see any of these larger, head over to her blog.

This is only a fraction of what is to offer. The warehouse style building has two huge rooms and a smaller side room filled with fabric. It is literally wall to wall and organised not only by colour, but there are seperate sections for novelty, asian inspired, historic reproductions and a full wall of batiks. Tricia is always friendly and happy to help you find what you're after if you need help. She also has many local groups and teachers using the other rooms there for classes and workshops, so ask her about that if you're interested.

Her prices range from around $16-30/m but most fabric you will find is around the $20/m mark. I've found this is generally cheaper than other quilting stores and she has such an amazing range!

Find her opposite Castle Plaza, just off South Road in Adelaide, South Australia. Her address is: Tricias Discount Fabrics, 11-13 Price St, Melrose Park, SA 5039. She is also just around the corner from a Spotlight if you wanted to kill two birds with one stone!

Her opening hours are currently mon-fri 9-5, sat 9-3, sun 11-2.

Just about every project since I found this shop in 2009 has fabric purchased from her in it. I recently purchased the gorgeous Australian animals fabric for my latest project and I'm sure a few of the other fabrics I pulled out of my stash for it came from her shop too.

You won't be disappointed by her range or her prices and it is definately worth the trip even if you are a bit further away. I have to drive about 40 minutes to get to her store, but I never come away empty handed!

Different Hexagons

I'm glad I've been having so much practice with basting and sewing tiny hexagons because it is making this project a lot easier. These are two blocks from a new quilt I've just started which I hope to get done fairly quickly for my husbands boss who is due to have a baby any time now.

The pattern is from the book Material Obsession by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke and is called Three Ring Circus. The one thing I didn't like about this book is that it says it is an easy to cut pattern with a 60 degree ruler, but the method wastes a LOT of material and didn't seem very accurate at all to me. I had sewing issues and had to rejig my first hexagon to make it lie flat and on top of that the rest of the instructions are quite lacking as well.

For the second hexagon I gave up on their method and cut three 8.5x5" rectangles which I then cut in half diagonally to create my 6 triangles of each colour and these went together easily and lay nicely flat when ironed out. The great thing about the central featured hexagon is that it hides any little alignment errors you might have had with that bulky centre!! If you're wondering, the featured fabric is of Australian animals.

So while the designs in the Material Obsessions books might be nice, the instructions are lacking and cutting methods are wasteful, so have a think before you start and you can probably come up with a better way to achieve the overal look of the design in an easy manner. They're not the cheapest books either, so I'm glad I got them on sale - I bought Material Obsession and Material Obsession Two and this is the first quilt I've made from the books.

I'll show you how this one turns out when its done, or maybe give you another progress photo soon!

Hexagon Storage

Since I made things easier to access I've been getting a little done each week on my hexagon project. This little box generally sits on the couch, kitchen table or computer desk where I can pop it open and make a couple of triangles or sew a few pieces together. I've also started numbering my current set of 9 so that I know how I was going to put together the diamond if I want to pack it all in the box and throw the whole lot in my bag.

The container is old tupperware that I found in the second hand sewing cabinet I bought in 2010 (so long ago?!) It was empty and sitting on a shelf of my desk and I'd been considering buying a small fishing tackle box for the hexegons, but then I realised this box is perfect... and free! It has a total of 7 areas with the tray only covering the bottom 3 compartments so the side one is taller and fits my small scissors.

I've made 4 diamond blocks of 9 joined hexagons each now. You can see the 5th laid out and ready to go here. Slow going, but this is going to look amazing when it is bigger!!

Kindle Cover

In addition to playing around with my blog layout to freshen things up for 2012 I've also completed a couple of small projects. I got a Kindle for Christmas and I absolutely love it. When the case I bought took weeks to arrive I ended up making myself one and decided I like the one I made better anyway.

The Kindle case is a little pouch with quilt batting to make it nicely padded. I made a second one for my Mum when she bought herself a Kindle soon after seeing mine. They're quite simple with a little half circle closure that fastens with velcro. If you'd like to know what I did to make one let me know in the comments!

I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year. (I should update more frequently!)

Hexagons... where are they now?

My poor neglected little blog!! I have been sewing, but it is slow going and I haven't had regular time to spend.

So this is my hexagon progress up to now... The first of these was finished in November, the last was finished this week. I decided to make my hexagons into "blocks" of 3x3. I think the longest part is that I need to baste all those little triangles as I go and I'm stitching it together by hand. I think it will be worth it though.

As I sew I select 9 hexagons that are reasonably complimentary and pleasing. I'm hoping that from that I can then match them together as blocks to form a larger quilt top that will be "random" and yet have enough organisation of colours to be pleasing. The black triangles are my crazy idea to let each colour have room to speak for itself. Look at the little stars that are starting to appear in the centre of the triangle!! I love it!

I haven't seen anyone do anything with little triangles on a hexagon quilt. Please share a link if you've seen something like this before.

Making Diamonds from Hexagons

As I'm making tiny triangles I am sewing 2 to each hexagon on opposite ends. This should hopefully speed up the joining process as I should be able to start joining them in rows.

My plan at the moment is to make 3x3 diamonds and then join those together and fill in the edges. The pattern will be selectively random, but as you can hopefully see, the black is setting off the colour so each hexagon will stand on its own merit and not fade into the other fabrics.

Those triangles are so tiny! Only just bigger than my thumb nail. I've found that I have to be more accurate on the triangles, but sewing them together does leave a little wiggle room and pulls it all back together again if I'm a tiny amount off. Hopefully I can maintain a good level of accuracy.

A big bowl of colourful hexagons! I've made 150 of these at last count. There are a couple of very light tan hexagons that I might not use now that I'm starting to sew them together though.

Hexagons... Meet Triangles

I've basted 150 hexagons now and as I've been sewing I've been putting a lot of thought into what I'm going to do with them. One thing I've been disappointed in is that I don't like how they look when they're laid out next to each other. The colours start to run into each other and it becomes harder to pick out the individual fabrics.

I may have found a pleasing solution which is even more insane than creating 1 inch hexagons.... and that is creating 1 inch triangles.

Those tiny things are 1 inch tirangles. They are created in the same method as the hexagons - by basting around a paper base. I can't fold the corners in as I have seen instructions show as the pieces become too bulky to achieve sharp corners. However folding in each side and basting seems to be working well and I am achieving the result I am after, even though they are a lot harder to make as they are so small.

I'll take a photo of a few pieces sewn together soon so you can see how my idea is panning out.

More Hexagons

This is what hexagon madness looks like. I've cut the paper templates myself from normal printer paper using a fantastic template sheet which makes this step so easy and kind of relaxing. It was a perfect thing to occupy my hands on a day when all I wanted to do was sit and soak up the first bit of sun this spring.

The easiest way to baste 1 inch hexagons is to start with a 2.5" square of fabric and then fold and finger press the fabric along the paper, taking a stitch at each corner to hold the fabric in place. Once you do the first couple you can easily get into a rhythm and I have been finding this quite relaxing. If you need some help with basting basics here is a fantastic video tutorial on how to baste a hexagon using this method.

Now I admit that when I was more of a novice to quilting it was hard for me to fathom why anyone would want to hand sew these little babies when it is easy enough to cut a hexagon and sew it on a machine. I have sewn larger hexagons together with a machine with quite good accuracy which you can see below, but I can not imagine achieving this accuracy with these tiny pieces.

Back to my tiny inchies... Next is deciding what to do with them. The plan is to make a charm quilt - which means only one piece of each fabric with no duplicates - but I am not sure whether to do a random pattern or organise it into a colour spectrum. I'll deliberate while I make more hexagons.

If you'd like to jump in and make some hexagons of your own please explore the links above. Remember you don't have to do things exactly the same as I am, or the same as Texas Freckles whose pages I have been referencing because I'm sure there are many ways to achieve the same results.

Beginning of Hexagons

May was the last time I posted?! Well hasn't it been a while dear followers. I hope you are all well.

I'm not really sure what happened there. A little bit of lost mojo and a little bit of other creativity taking time, like drawing... but I can safely say I have done a fair bit of sewing the last couple of weeks and it is all hand sewing too!

I've been bitten by the hexagon bug. I tried to ignore it and work on other projects, but the call was too strong. Eventually I just cut the hexagon templates and they sat in a draw for a week, but again the pull was too strong and suddenly I had 50 hexagons basted.

I'll post some more progress over the coming weeks. These little babies are 1 inch hexagons and I'm starting off going through my stash and creating one of each fabric.

Textile Mail Art Project

I've had so much fun making ATCs recently and through the connections I’ve made with people overseas I’ve discovered a beautiful idea called the Textile Mail Art Project. The idea is to have artists from all around the world submit a piece of original artwork based on the theme of textiles. This has got me a little excited at the limitless possibilities for having a real play around with the materials we all use in quilting and extending the experimentation I am doing with ATCs into a slightly larger format.

The deadline for this project has been extended to October 31, 2011 so there is still time to join in if you would like to make something for this project.

Go check it out and have a look at some of the gorgeous projects that have been submitted so far!

http://textile-mail-art-project.blogspot.com

Give Away!

I've just finished off the pattern for the steampunk filigree butterfly for Happy Bobbin and thought it might be time for a give away since I've reached my first dozen patterns.

If you'd like a chance to win a free pattern of your choice - perhaps the chicken purse or the owl applique? - there are 5 ways to enter, so please head over to the Happy Bobbin Blog to learn more!!

While we're at it, there is a 20% off sale until June 5th too!