A little bit of time.....And an old lady project

A funny thing happens when everyone starts school.

My food bill has dramatically dropped.

My house stays cleaner longer.

I don't have 500 cups laying in my sink from every thirsty kid in the neighborhood.

AND I've had a few minutes in my sewing rooms.  Refreshing!

Last year during swimming lessons, I saw a woman sewing little fabric hexagons onto paper pieces.  This  greatly sparked an interest and I sat by the swim mom all week asking questions about her hexies.

I looked for an online tutorial on making a hexagon quilt.  I was instantly hooked.  So back in May I started my "old lady" project.

I ordered 1 1/2" hexagon squares online.  I soon realized that one package of 50 hexagons was not nearly enough (I needed more like 300!!!).

Then I started hand basting the cut out hexagons I had cut.

 I wanted my "flowers" to have a black center and yellow or green petals.  Then I outlined the lines with red hexagons.

 All of the hexies are hand stitched together with a whip stitch.  Once a hexagon is completely surrounded, I remove the basting stitch and pull out the cardboard.

 I quickly realized when I stitched the hexies together, I needed a filler color.  I didn't want to take away from the flowers, so I thought white would be a nice contrast.  I am making the quilt 5 flowers by 7 flowers and have about 3.5 rows completed. 

 I take my basket with me where ever I go.  Swimming lessons, basketball games, football games, waiting to pick up kids from school, driving on road trips, etc.  It is totally an old lady project.  And I'm not ashamed.

 All of those little hexies are hand stitched together.  As I get closer to finishing the quilt top, I've been contemplating how to put the quilt together.  Do I want a border?  Should I hand quilt it or have it machine quilted?  (As much as I would love to hand quilt it, I've already spent A LOT OF TIME putting together the top.)  Lots of GOOD options available.

Thank you swimming lessons lady for the inspiration!

THEN (as if I already don't have enough going on), I pulled out a Christmas quilt kit I bought 4 years.  Sadly, it has been sitting in my closet for way to long.  Though I sew A LOT, I mostly sew children's clothing.  Pieced quilts are quite foreign to me.  So cutting all these teeny, tiny pieces and sewing them back together....well....it is a lot of work!!!!


Here is my kit fabric.  Nicely piled on the floor!

 All my cut pieces for each block.  (Yes....that is my Aiwa stereo from 9th grade.  Yes....I still use it.  No...I'm not getting rid of it because it still works.)

 My first official pieced quilt block.  Gotta love the blurry Iphone pictures.