Work in Progress Wednesday: Thank You.

Although I live in Canada, it is Thankgiving south of the border this week, so I think it is a great time to say some thanks for a few things.

Thank you for all the fantastic and encouraging comments on my last 2 posts. I feel overwhelmed and excited that so many of you are inspired and appreciated what I have been doing.

Thank you for those that have decided to follow my blog. While for the most part I write to document my own progress, it is nice to have people to show things to, ask for opinions and to share tips and tricks with.

Thank you to my coworkers at my LQS who are always ready to give me a hand picking fabric

Thank you to my family and friends who started reading at the beginning of my blogging.

Thank you to GeoDad, he has been supportive, and allowed me to duck downstairs to sew instead hanging with him every evening. He has helped pick fabric, and held finished quilts up for photos.

Thank you to my Grandma, who has let me use her old sewing machine (the Elna) all year, as well as her newer Husqvarna a bunch. (I currently have her serger at my house). Without my Grandma, I doubt that I would have taken up quilting. I love spending time with her and she is the quilter who inspired me to start.

And now for the WIP report for the week.
On the sewing machine, I did my first bit of free motion quilting on the Oink-a-Doodle Moo Quilt in the sashing. Only 16 inches of sashing done so far. And I made my binding for the quilt.

I have also basted another 140 white hexies. 

Linking up with Freshly Pieced today. 

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy Thanksgiving everyone who will be doing that tomorrow. 

GeoMama

Blogathon Canada

Hello Everyone stopping in from the Blogathon Canada blog tour and Freshly Pieced's Work in Progress Wednesday.

My name is Leatina and I live in Calgary with my fiancé GeoDad, and kids Monkey (2 and half years old) and (LB 14 months old). I started quilting when I was pregnant with Monkey, prior to that I had been super busy working in camp situations and found that I was suddenly at home ALL the time with not much going on. Since having the kids we have moved from Whitehorse down to Calgary to be closer to family, after moving to Calgary I found a job working part time at a local quilt shop, which is pretty fun.

Over the summer I made a large throw quilt as a wedding gift for my brother, it took a ton of time and it is the quilt I the most proud of. All the background is heavily quilted with organic straight lines to give it a woodgrain vibe (my brother lays hardwood for a living) and the circles are definitely my sister-in-law's style. The pattern is from Cynthia at Ahhh Quilting.

My taste in quilts is definitely leaning towards the modern, but I love the complexity of some traditional blocks. Which brings me to my current WIPs:

Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt:
I have been stalled on this for over month while I have been working on baby quilt in super slow motion, but I really do plan to get back to soon. I am loving working with the yellow-pink-orange color scheme and I think this is destined to be a twin size quilt for Monkey.

EPP Hexagon Project: 

I won't elaborate on this today, as I did a big post on it last week. But here are the quick stats and a few photos. 364 colored hexagons, basted and sewn into flowers. 1100 white-on-white hexagons basted. 3 rows sewn together, and a layout that is totally not a traditional Grandmother's Garden.

Some have called me crazy, I call it persistent and determined (~1000 white-on-white hexies in  storage). 

My Oink-a-Doodle Moo baby quilt:

I am making this for my best friend who is expecting her first child in January, the fabric was passed along to me from a co-worker who had already made 3 quilts with it. I added a bit, in the way of sashing and a little extra of some of the fabrics. Right now I am quilting it, but its not going very quick. Monkey doesn't mind hanging out while I piece quilts because she can sit next to me at my desk, but once I'm quilting there isn't room for her.

Just stitching in the ditch so far. Not sure what else I might add to it.

Other odds and ends: 

I have small problem, I have too many ideas and not enough time to figure them out. I have been doing a bit of pattern drafting in AutoCad360 (which is free online autocad and I am a big fan so far). It doesn't have all the functions that a full version of AutoCad does, but it is working for me right now. I have visions of a math quilt with blocks like this:

My first attempt at paper piecing, and I did it all with random bits of jelly roll strips. 

So maybe once I get done the baby quilt, and finish Christmas presents for my niece and kids, and hem some curtain panels (ugh, hemming is no fun, but my living room would look so much better). Maybe then I will get back to the Farmer's Wife Quilt and continue doing drafting... maybe I will get organized and make my first pattern to share with others in the new year. 

Feel free to poke around my blog to see what else I have done. Thanks so much for stopping by on the Alberta portion of the blog tour. 

Happy Wednesday! 

GeoMama

Hexagons: Not Your Grandma's Garden

I would to welcome everyone visiting from Splish Splash Stash's In Hand EPP Link Party (and everyone else who may be reading this). Because I haven't posted anything for the party before I am going to do a complete summary of my English Paper Piecing project.

Once upon a time I was sewing away on my Grandma's 57 year old Elna. It was a fantastic machine until I broke a gear under the bobbin. I was lost. No sewing to be had. I searched the internet for ideas and found some English Paper Piecing tutorials (can't remember where). I figured it was worth a shot...

I started with a jelly roll of batiks, and found some easy to print/cut out papers from Texas Freckles. 1 inch hexagons started to be formed very very slowing from 2.5 inch squares cut from the jelly roll. Some days only 3 or 4 would get basted. Let's just say between February and June I managed to basted roughly 300 hexies in assorted colors from the jelly roll. 

Then in june I started making flowers. Also a slow process to start with. I have sped up alot since the first couple. So here is the recap in photos (way more fun than reading what I might have to say)

52 flowers complete and on the design wall ~ August

Once I had all the flowers done it was time for decisions. Would I applique the flowers onto a background or keep going doing EPP. I have a bit of a 'Go Big or Go Home' attitude so basting ~1500 white-on-white hexies seemed like a good idea. I basted and basted and basted. Then I went away for a weekend and had no papers cut and ready to go, so I decided it was time to start stitching some together. I made strips of 10, then joined them into rows. When I got back I was having so much fun that I kept going and put the first 3 rows together. Inserting the first flower along the way.

End of September

Then it was time to fix what I had thought was a problem with the design on wall for 2 months. When I pictured the layout, I pictured the flowers falling towards the lower left corner, and with the original layout they would have been falling to the lower right. (Silly right, but I had to fix it, it was driving me crazy). 

Since I was happy with the layout on the design wall, I thought I should probably finish basting the white hexies. I am using so many different white prints that I didn't think it would be wise to get too eager sewing them together before I had enough and risk having a whole section with the same 2 or 3 prints when I reach the end of the supply. 

So this is where I am at now. 2 trays of white on white hexies basted for a total of 1034. Add in the 364 colored ones, brings it is nice big total of 1398. I think I need 1850 plus some ~100 half hexies.  All of the these numbers seem totally attainable, and not in the far far away future. Thanks for stopping in.

GeoMama