The Pink Hexie Quilt, an update.

Hello peeps,

It is about time I had an update on my Pink Hexie Quilt.

In early April I laid out all my completed hexie flowers, I had 61 completed.  This is how they looked all together:

I honestly have no idea how many more I will make.  This is my "take away" craft.  I take it with me everywhere. It is small and portable.

I feel it is now time to be thinking about the edge of this quilt.  I want the edge to be straight, that is all I know.

I still can't decide if I will put a border on it or not.  Any suggestions?

I'll just keep hand sewing my hexie flowers for a little longer, and see where I end up. Who knows where, or when, that will be.

Have a great week.

Cat xox

I made my very first quilt (photographic evidence I did it)

Hey peeps,

I made a quilt!  From start to finish, I made it.  My mum helped a little too with piecing the top.  It was gifted to my Grandma on her recent 90th birthday.

I first talked about it here.  Here are the photos documenting the making of this quilt.

The backing, stuck to the floor with tape.  We had to move our couch to have enough room, we do live in a very cosy tiny apartment. 

   

 Pin basting, making a quilt sandwich with the backing, batting and quilt top.  

All pinned together, ready to quilt.  

Oh my gosh, I am quilting this!

 

 Quilting complete, removing the pins.  

 The backing, quilted.

   

 Beautiful binding, ready to attach.  

 Quilt top all trimmed and squared up, ready for binding.  

 Hand sewing on the binding.

   

 Finished. The front.

   

 My mum holding up the quilt.

   

The back.

   

 Oh my gosh, I really made this!  

 The label. 

 

I can honestly say the internet help make this quilt.  There are so many great tutorials and so much information on the web now about quilting.  So thank you, interwebs.

The good news is my Grandma loves her new quilt.  It makes her nursing home room so much brighter.  I feel better, knowing she has a hand made, with love, quilt to keep her warm and remind her she is so dear to us, even if we live in another country now. 

I faced my fears, and I finished this quilt on time.  I can honestly say I loved making this quilt.  I want to make more.  I now have 2 more quilts on the go and fabric collections to make another two.  I want to sleep under my own hand made quilt one day (soon).  I want my girls to sleep under a mumma made quilt.  You could say I am a "wanna be" quilter now.  That is fine with me.

Have you made a quilt?  Did you enjoy it?

Happy day to you.  Cat xox

My (pink hexie) Creative Space

Hi peeps,

I post lots of photos to my Instagram feed and to my Facebook page.  If you follow me there, you may already know about my hand sewing project: hexies. I can't believe I have not mentioned this on my blog before now. Naughty me.

Way back in June of last year, I started to notice on Instagram that a few people were participating in this sew-along.  I was loving the photos, watching for a few weeks when I decided I wanted to join in the fun.  Right away I knew I had to use fabric from my stash.  After sorting my fabric, it became very clear to me how many pink fabrics I had, so, pink this quilt would be.

Early in July I started to cut up my fabric and on 5th July I basted my very first hexagon.  Only a few days later I had made my very first hexie flower.  I was hooked.  This hexie caper is very addictive.

I now take my hand sewing with me everywhere. I use the gorgeous Raspberry rainbow zippered pouch that Jennie from My Little Vintage made me.  I have made hexies in Hong Kong, Paris, all over Denmark, in London and Shropshire, in Melbourne and even while flying (I don't take scissors, just one sewing needle and many pre-cut threads).

After a few months of making hexies, I realised I did not want to make the quilt featured in the quilt-along.  I was feeling a bit despondent and not sewing many hexies.  Then on Instagram I saw another hexagon quilt, and knew immediately this was how I wanted mine to look (also shown on Carols blog here).   I arranged my pink hexie flowers out on the floor, and knew this was it.  This was how my pink hexie quilt was going to look.   My pink hexie quilt needs white hexies to make all the pink flowers "pop".

I still do not know how big it will be be, every few months I lay out all my flowers, and see how much it has grown. I am going to finish this project.  It will be a quilt for us.

In January 2013, I had 39 hexie flowers and it looked like this:

Today, I have 55 finished hexie flowers (yes, another photo is needed).  I am still making more.  I am still loving this project.  There is no hurry to finish it, it will come together in time.

If you would like to know more about sewing your own hexies, I have a board on pinterest here, with links to lots of different information.

Happy Creative Space day to you.

Cat xox

Dolls, scooting around and unidentified flowers

Hi peeps,

I was walking home from kinder drop off this morning and remembered that Zoe needed to take a teddy or doll.  Today is pajama day at kinder, we at least remembered the pajamas.

I rushed home and grabbed the two dolls in her bed, Dotty Doll and a cute felt bunny made by one of my dear friends (Hi Paige).  The quickest way to get back to kinder is via scooter, so I borrowed the big girls, and headed off as quick as I could.

I made it just in time too, phew.

I came home the long way, via the walking and bike paths. These are the paths I have been shuffling running along twice a week (some times even thrice!)

I usually run at night.  It is so beautiful to walk (or scoot) along during the day to appreciate these pretty pink flowers.  I have no idea what they are, except lovely. There was a poor lady there today trying to clean up all the fallen flowers.  Now that job will take her a long time I am sure.

If you want to buy any Christmas presents from my shop, hop to it as the international post cutoff is 10th December.

Have a great weekend.

Cat xox

Pretty in Pink

Hi Peeps,

I hope you are all well.  Zoe and I have runny noses, so we are taking it easy today.

Here are some pretty flowers for you, from us.

Have a lovely day.

Cat.

Paper Punch Fun

Hi peeps,

Yesterday, I set out to post a few parcels that are (unfortunately) long overdue to be sent.  I wanted to make my own cards to go with these parcels and presents so I got out all my paper punches and paper and got rather distracted creating.  This is what I got up to.

This one was my favourite of the day, spots and stripes together.  So happy. 

 

Now, I really better get these parcels in the post.

Have a great evening.

Cat xox

After the rain

Hi peeps,

We had some rain yesterday morning and this morning.  I was hoping the rain would make it feel cooler, but alas, no.

 It is still so hot. Stinking hot and humid.

The heat is exhausting and draining, most days last week were around 30 degrees Celsius.  The temperature at night only goes down a few degrees. There is no evening cool change.

The whole Hong Kong summer is ahead of us, with months of this hot weather.    I hope I can survive my first full Hong Kong summer.

After the rain yesterday and today, I found these lovelies on the ground.  All so pretty.  They took my mind off the heat, and reminded me why I am loving living here - small wonders are always close by, ready to be found (and photographed)

Have a great week.

Cat.

Hoops for a Nan and a Granny

Hi lovelies,

I was so happy with my Christmas hoops that I decided to make a few more.  One for my Grandma and one for the Shropshire boys Nan.  I know they will both love this fabric.

Yay, two more hand made Christmas presents finished.  I still have some more to complete, so I better be off.  Are you busy making any Christmas presents?

Have a great day.

Cat.

Virtual flowers for a friend

 

Dear Nell,

Happy Birthday to you!  Here is a virtual bunch of flowers for you.  I am thinking of you on your birthday and wish I was there to help you celebrate.

Thank goodness for modern technology, I am loving seeing you on skype every week - even when our kids still interrupt our conversations.  Some things never change.

Moving so far away from you has made me really appreciate how wonderful our friendship is.  I feel so blessed to have you in my life.  You are an amazing person, one of the the best cooks I know and a fabulous friend.

See you in December!

Love from Cat xox