Home Front Hexies

Here's a little update on my Home Front Hexies.  This is my first attempt at working with paper piecing but I thought I'd participate in HELP for Hexie-aholics and link up my blog with everyone else because hey .... we all like to share our addictions!!  I love being able to take these with me where ever I go.  I can usually even get a little stitching in at work on breaks and lunch.  It's a great stress release for me.  I find this really relaxing.

Here's where I'm at:

I've also noticed that I seem to do this different than everyone else.  I learned to sew through the paper pieces and it doesn't seem that anyone else does that.  Maybe I need to refine my technique, but it seems to be working for me so far.  I remove the basting stitches and paper once a piece has a hexie or two around it. 

You can see where I've taken the basting out of the red rosette.

No real plan for this other than to make rosettes until I run out of that fabric and then use the black to fill in to make whatever size I end up with.  Wall hanging?  Lap quilt?  I'm not sure yet. 

Easy Street Part 1

Amazingly, today I finished all 192 4-patches!!  Go me!!  Below I'm chaining away .... it seemed endless at the time.  But it went by pretty fast.  I see in the picture my ironing mat is getting pretty nasty looking.  I guess I'll need to cover that with some fresh muslin.

Chain Piecing

My finger got a little sore swirling the centers.  I guess I press too hard.  But it is amazing how fast things go when you get organized and do things consistently.  I think I only fed one or two through the machine the  wrong way and it made swirling much, much easier.

But here's the final results:

192 4-Patches

I hope I am able to keep up!!  I'm anxious for Part 2 so I can get cutting!! 

And since I was on a roll, I put the binding on a couple of quilts.  One that I plan to give as a Christmas present this year, but here's a peak:

Not much given away in that picture!!  Now I'm sitting with my puppy dogs, updating my blog and doing a little stitching on the Hexies.  Tomorrow ... back to work.  

Mercedes, Harley, and Toby

Home Front Hexies

Updated on 11/26/12:  You can check out everyone's progress this week on Easy Street by clicking here:  Easy Street Monday Link-Up 1! 

Home Front Hexies

After seeing Bonnie Hunter's hexie quilt that she calls "Lady in Waiting" in person, I was anxious to try English Paper piecing myself. Here's a link to the work in progress on her website: Lady in Waiting. Pictures do not do that quilt justice and I had the good fortune of seeing the finished top.  That is a BUNCH of hexies!!

 I decided I would do 1" hexies and ordered a set of 2.5" strips of the fabric line Home Front from Connecting Threads to use for my new project.  It came last week and on Friday, I quickly cut some of the strips up in to 2.5" squares.  It's bright colors so I went with a solid black to use for a background.

So far I'm addicted to making these little things! I even took them with me today to quilt class to sew a few before we got started!

I can't wait to sew some together into rosettes!!