progress on Hexies

I've been working on this project on and off for a year or two.  It is done with English paper piecing.  

lots of bright colors set of with black and white

And having just spent a few days up at the lake with no Wi-Fi, I finished piecing the central unit. Hurray,  i even had some prepared hexies to use for something else...

I'd initially planned for the diamond shapes to run vertically, and to add a pieced panel above and below them. However I'm not that excited about the project to commit to all that work

Instead I've decided that the big diamonds will go from side to side

So I appliquéd the whole thing down onto some black borders. I suppose I have to figure out what to do next whether to add some bright borders or to quilt it as is,   

 Any ideas?

Bloc Loc Rulers

we have a new ruler available called the Bloc-Loc Ruler.  

it is used to square up half square triangle units. 

the special part about it is that it has a recessed channel that locks over the seam, holding it in place while you trim.

this picture shows the wring side of the unit, so you can see how the seam just nestles into the groove:

it doesnt matter whether the unit is right side up, or right side down, 

the 3-1/2" ruler will trim units up to that size, so for example i could use the ruler for smaller pieces, like 2-1/2" square ones, 

right now we just have the 3-1/2" size, although we have orders in for larger ones which will probably arrive later in August.  

however, we also have them for Flying Geese units, and Half -square Rectangle units,( which actually have two rulers in the package,)

I really like the ruler, although it is a bit pricy at 18.50, but it sure does work well, 

A pencil case

Well it's pretty warm out today so this afternoon I am going to spend some time in my  sewing room before working in the garden later this afternoon. (by working in my garden I mean that I wander  around with a glass of something cold and water the plants.)

Anyway, I picked up some hand stitching the other day

I started this project last January I think. It is sort of like doodling on fabric.

It's totally inspired by a Japanese woman who has some gorgeous embroidery.  Yumiko Higuchi, (I blogged about her here

http://periwinklequiltingandbeyond.blogspot.ca/2014/01/milagros-embroidery-and-new-classes.html

After I finished that piece shown above I was still in the mood to stitch so I sketched out a simple row of flowers on the piece of linen.

They were pretty quick to embroider and as I was stitching I thought about  a project i had been wanting to make from a  book I have called Zakka Style, 

It features  little stitched on corners at the bottom and its made out of wool. I decided to just put wool on the back and use my stitching for the front of the pencil case.

I had an orange zipper on hand so I decided to make the lining orange.

I'm pretty happy with it, and I'm really happy to have a pencil case. It's a bit deeper than normal so I'm sure it will be handy for other things too. Now I think I'll try to find Something brown to add for a zipper pull....details, details....

Val's Quilt

One of my favorite patterns of the past couple years is Jelly Belly, by Zen Chic:

I've made it twice, and today I have photos of another version, sewn; up by Val,

 She sewed the full size version, and maybe added another row or two to the center, which makes it a bit more rectangular,

Jelly Belly quilt

 It uses a Jelly roll from Westminster fabrics featureing Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and she paired it with a gorgeous dark blue shot cotton,

I love how it turned out!  It is so much fun to see this quilt sewn up in different fabrics,