Category Archives: Hexagons

The Pink that Wasn’t

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Pink was February’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge color.  At the beginning of the month, I went through my eBay scraps and dug out all of the pinks.

Pink Fabrics HP

Look how bright and cheery.  I was super-excited.  I guess pink didn’t feel as personal to me as blue, so I was less worried about messing it up.  Also, there are fewer variations in pink, so what I had seemed to work together better than the blues did.

I cut into about half of the scraps for 1/2″ and 1″ hexagons and I started basting.

Pink Hexagons Cut HP

And that was it.  Cute, but not many.  The Handstitched class and my quilt Midnight Garden took over (not to mention all of the snow days and school vacations and sickness) and that was all for the pinks.  I looked at them all month, but I didn’t get anything else done.

I doubt I’ll even pull fabrics for March’s RSC color, because I have a LOT to do for Midnight Garden, but I’m sure I’ll still enjoy seeing what other people are doing.  I linked up with the RSC at soscrappy this week, even though I don’t have much to show.

Charm Pack – Pepe in Paris

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I went back and finally finished the gluing and cutting and basting of this charm pack that Prim LOVED.  Picture time:

CP Pepe in Paris HPYou’ll see that I didn’t learn anything from last time: This “black” construction paper is a terrible background, so none of the colors are true.  It’s worse in the 1/2″ hexagon picture:

CP Pepe in Paris Small HPMy favorite has to be that tree in the upper right, which is unfortunately upside down in the picture.  My least favorite is the guy’s torso in the middle of the shot.  These prints didn’t work at all well for the 1/2″ hexagons, both since the patterns were too big and because they had too many colors in them to work with my I’m Not a Machine project.  Ah, well.  Live and learn.  Prim LOVES them.

Not pictured are the leftover 5″ x (mostly) 2.5″ strips which will eventually go into a scrappy coin quilt.  This charm pack was tied with a ribbon which went missing well before I had everything basted, let alone ready for their photos.

Did I mention that Prim LOVES this Pepe in Paris fabric?  (Yes, you did, HP, a bunch of times now.)  Well,  I got a yard each of the main print in pink and blue (I couldn’t find the white–my “local retailer” was all sold out, ages ago) for pillowcases.  He’s very excited about the idea.  I like this tutorial at Film in the Fridge for making fancy pillowcases with cuffs and NO RAW SEAMS!

I want to get started on them, but I need to finish a few other projects first, so they’ll have to wait a bit.

Charm Pack – Basics Lucky

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I got a little frustrated with mini charm (2.5″ squares) packs because the large patterns in a collection tend to be lost even on a 1″ hexagon while still not giving me much variety for my 1/2″ hexagons.  On the plus side, they’re cheap and even more so with my subscription to Fat Quarter Shop’s Moda Mini Charm Pack Club.  (And I got a bunch of them during a very good sale.)

CP Cotton Steel Basics Lucky HP

So I decided to try a charm (5″ squares) pack.  This is Basics Lucky from Cotton and Steel.  It’s a short stack (only seven designs), and the price was right when I came across it in my local quilt shop.

I realized that I could use those leftover 5″ by 2″ to 2.5″ (depending on how precisely I cut around the hexagons) rectangles for SCRAPPY COIN QUILTS!  Duh!  l love it!

It’s a little more work to cut up a charm pack like this, vs the mini charms where I only had to trim the corners off the fabric I lightly glued to the 1″ hexagons before I thread basted them.  Cutting around the 1/2″ hexagons is a bear either way.

It wasn’t too bad, but I’m still thinking about a die cutter if I’m going to make this a habit.

I also learned that “black” construction paper isn’t really black and it’s very spotty and needs lots of evening out in Photoshop.

The Hexagon Diamonds Blues

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The title is descriptive of the photo and of my mood.

Blue Hexagon Diamonds HP

The diamond on the right is pretty clearly light blue, though some hexagons are more greenish or greyish.  That just adds interest.  The one on the left is just barely darker than the “medium blue” one in the middle.

I’m not going to sew any of these up.  They’ll just go back into the “blue” container as loose, basted hexagons.

I do think that I learned I only need two shades of blue for I’m Not a Machine, though, and maybe greenish-blue, if I have enough fabrics in that shade, which I doubt.

All told, I learned a lot about color and value this month, even if I didn’t get much done besides basting.  I’m looking forward to next month’s color.  I hope it’s an easier one, like orange.

Linking to soscrappy’s RSC.

1″ Hexagon Decisions

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I’ve been basting fabrics from mini charm packs (and now charm packs, too) around 1″ hexagon papers and 1/2″ hexagon papers.

The 1/2″ hexagons are destined for my ongoing rainbow project “I’m Not a Machine“.  The ones that don’t fit into the color scheme (and duplicates of the ones that do) are going to become some general, scrappy projects, likely small ones, along the lines of notebook covers or doll quilts.

But I didn’t have a plan for the 1” hexagons.  I was worried that the fabrics from the different lines wouldn’t play well together and I didn’t have enough of any one to make a sizable project.  My sewing relative (SR) said that they’d look fine together and that the more different fabric packs I used, the better they’d all blend.

Four Charm Pack Hexagons HPShe was totally right.  Even without mixing up the different fabric lines, they look good together, though the one on the right will look best mixed in.

This simplifies my storage and construction options considerably.  I’ve decided that after I’ve taken a picture of the basted 1″ hexagons from a particular pack, I’ll store them all in a bin together.

1in Hexagon Bin HPThe bin’s pretty tall, so I can shake it around before I pick out individual hexagons to add to a project.  What am I going to make?

Pillow covers for the couch!  We’re using pillowcases now, which are easy to clean when the kids get stuff on them, but they’re ugly and it’s like we’re living in a frat house.  The pillows are 16″ squares, so I’ll need about a hundred to cover each pillow.  (CD Designs has a pretty good tool for figuring out how many of whatever-sized hexagon you’ll need to fill a specific space.)  The backs will be solid (for napping), and I’ll use an invisible zipper to close.  I’m going to machine quilt these babies, too.

I’d like to have a lot more hexagons in the bin before I finish a pillow, but I might pull some out soon and start sewing them together.  I also need to look at my scraps and see what I can fussy-cut for interest.

I love having a plan!

Blue Hexagons

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Thanks to all of the encouraging comments last week, I decided to pull two bits of every piece of blue fabric I have (even some that are clearly too greenish, too multicolored, or too greyish) and baste them up, then try to separate them into light, medium, and dark blue piles.

Blue Hexagons HPI’m actually basting with white thread.  The blue in the photo is in case I feel confident enough to sew a medium blue or dark blue diamond together.  I feel pretty confident that I can make a diamond from these hexagons that reads light blue to me, but I’m still worried about the lack of difference between dark blue and medium blue.

Well, that’s what experiments are for.  More basting!

Linking up to soscrappy’s RSC.

Mini Charm Pack – From Outside In

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MCP From Outside In Spread HPA not-great picture of another mini charm pack basted onto 1/2″ and 1″ hexagons.  This one is From Outside In for Moda.  Only three repeated fabrics(!), which is great if you were sewing something big with the collection, but my focus is on the 1/2″ hexagons more than the 1″ hexagons.  As a matter of fact, I did the 1/2″ hexagons first and debated even doing the 1″ hexagons at all.

MCP From Outside In Stack HPI like the solids in the pack and I do like the “matchstick” repeated patterns which ended up on the 1/2″ hexagons, but this basting and photographing is starting to feel like work.  I need to decide on what I’m going to make with the 1″ hexagons before I do any more of them.

Medium Blue Hexagon Diamond?

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Medium Blue Hexagon Diamond HPI’m not even sure what I think of these blues anymore.  What is “medium blue” anyway?

Argh.  Well, I THINK this hexagon diamond would work for I’m Not a Machine, but I don’t even know.  I think I need to make a yellow hexagon diamond up because the uniformity I was able to achieve on the orange one was a fluke.  I think.  I dunno.

Spare Blue Hexagons HPThese are the blue hexagons I basted that didn’t seem even close to medium blue.  Yes, one of them is green.  I do love the swirly blue in the middle on the right.  I’m looking forward to the “light blue” RSC month.

Maybe I just need to baste all of the blues and later sort them into stacks of light blue, medium blue, dark blue, and green-blue.  Or maybe just wrap dark blue into medium blue for only three stacks?

This is making me a little crazy, so I’m mostly going to let the rest of this month’s RSC pass me by, I think.

(Lots of uncertainty and “I think” in this post, I know.)

Linking to soscrappy’s Rainbow Scrap Challenge post for the week.

 

Third Row Progress

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Still no finished third row, but here’s what I’ve done this week on my old background fabric, the tan crosshatch:

Third Row on Old Backing HP

I’m really glad I decided to go with the lighter, non-liney background.  The little dots are far softer and they fit in better with the other fabrics and the flower motifs.

I got the green “leaf” hexagons sewn to the first row.  All except that dang green gingham.  I’m really not sure about that one, but I think I need to look for something to replace it.  I also have the third flower on the third row almost surrounded by background hexes, but it was in my travel sewing kit and I didn’t want to dig it out for the photo.

With the Prim and Sec back in school this week, I should be able to get the rest of the row done.

Mini Charm Pack – Fancy

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MCP Fancy Big HPI know I’ve been saying I love every mini charm pack I baste to hexagons, but I take it all back.  THIS is my favorite one so far.  Look at the 1″ hexagons all stacked up:

MCP Fancy Stack HPHow could you not love that?  And the repeated fabrics are bright and cheery and, more importantly, are tone-on-tone colors and so should fit easily into my ongoing 1/2″ hexagon project, I’m Not a Machine.  Go a load of this gorgeous rainbow of pattern:

MCP Fancy Spread HPAnd here they are basted onto 1/2″ hexagons, two from each 2.5″ square, in a shadowy nighttime picture:

MCP Fancy Small HPThat patterns look good big.  The patterns look good small.  Who could ask for anything more?