Tag Archives: hexagons

Carolyn Friedlander Modern Hexies Progress

February 24, 2016 kittywilkin 17 Comments

It’s no secret that Carolyn Friedlander is one of my favorite fabric designers. Last year, I made an entire quilt featuring her Doe fabric line, with cameos from Botanics and Architextures. But as her new fabric lines come out and continue to coordinate so well with her originals, I decided I wanted a quilt that truly showcased her varied and gorgeous fabrics. What better than a Modern Hexies mini quilt using Nicole at Modern Handcraft’s fabulous method?!

Now, I’m already putting myself up against a wall a bit, since I began this project after Architextures became all but extinct. I’m hoping, though, with a bit of luck and a few insider tips, I can eventually acquire at least a 2 1/2″ square of each of the fabrics from Architextures.

Thanks to a tip from Allison at Campbell Soup Diaries, I recently picked up one of my all time favorites, plus Ledger in Ivory, from Westwood Acres.

Through the #getyourquiltywishesgranted event on Instagram a few months back, I obtained a few more archaic Architextures prints, as well as the Carkai mini charms I’ve nearly made into hexies. I’m on my way!

I already have basted hexagons from all of Botanics and most of Carkai. I have some scraps left from my Doe quilt, so I’ll see where that brings me and go from there.

backed in text from architextures — Might be a bit too busy for my aesthetic.

I think I will make a few more hexies before ultimately deciding whether to back the hexies in my favorite Essex yarn dyed linen in charcoal, or to stick with solid white. Perhaps I’ll be crazy and use one of the still easily attainable text prints from Architextures as the background. Time will tell.

If you have any tiny (2 1/2″ square at least) scraps of Carolyn’s Architextures fabric, please let me know if I can persuade you to send them my way! I will be happy to compensate with fabric, chocolate, or cash money. And of course gratitude. Lots and lots of gratitude.

I thought I would link up with Lee’s Work in Progress Wednesday, but it appears I’ve been out of the WiP loop long enough to have missed that she’s taking a (potentially permanent) break from her link up. Oops! Still check out her blog at Freshly Pieced since she’s always making something gorg! I’m also going to go wild and link up with Molli Sparkles’ Sunday Stash since I’m finally sharing my new CF acquisitions.

Quilting

Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Fall 2015 {ROYGBIV Quilt Entry: Mini Mini Modern Hexies}

October 28, 2015 kittywilkin 14 Comments

When I realized that my Unlocked quilt qualified for the Large Quilts Category in this year’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side, I knew that I also wanted to enter one of the smallest quilts I’ve made to date: the teeny tiny modern hexies mini mini quilt I made for Jennifer at Little Black Cat Quilting as part of the #miniminiquiltswap. You can see my progress post on this mini mini here, and the finish post here. I am entering this mini mini quilt into the ROYGBIV Category, since I cannot let a year go by without a rainbow entry!

This mini mini quilt makes me giggle. The English paper pieced hexies are 1/4″ each, and were hot-iron-basted in lieu of thread or glue due to their size. I then carefully removed the cardstock templates and followed this awesome tutorial by Nicole at Modern Handcraft to attach the hexies to the mini mini quilt, which finishes at 4 1/2″ square (18″ around–it would easily fit into the mini quilts category, too!).

I love how teeny tiny the hexagons are, and how well the diagonal quilting worked despite slight wonkiness due to their teeny size. I quilted with 50wt Aurifil thread in 2600-Dove, using the walking foot on my Bernina 560.

A single-fold binding with my favorite neutral from Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics line finished this quilt in a subtle way, letting the rainbow hexagons be the stars. I really love this mini mini quilt and had such a fun time shrinking the pattern as much as my adult fingers could manage.

The toothpick for scale in this process photo helps you see exactly how tiny these hexagons are!

Just one more peek with a US quarter after quilting. Such cute little hexies!

This is my first year entering the Festival, but my Unlocked quilt is entered into the Large Quilts Category (even though it’s also rainbow!), and you can see my spring entry here:

Spring 2015: Prismatic Medallion Quilt

I invite you to take a minute to browse the gorgeous quilts that have been entered into this online festival, and/or enter a quilt of your own! Here links to all of the categories included in the Festival to make browsing easy: Mini, Small, Large, Appliqué, Art, Hand Quilted, Home Machine Quilted, Modern, Original Design, ROYGBIV, Scrappy, Viewer’s Choice (If you feel so moved, you can nominate Mini Mini Modern Hexies in the Viewer’s Choice category, too!)

Here is the schedule for those of you who want to follow along, view the quilts, and vote for your favorites:

October 23-29, 2015 – Linky’s Open & Nominate for Viewer’s Choice
October 29-Novebmer 5, 2015 – Vote for favorites in each of the categories
November 6, 2015 – Winners announced

Quilting

A Modern Hexies Mini Finish

December 19, 2014 kittywilkin 10 Comments

I’m sneaking in one last post before I disappear for a few weeks on a much needed vacation & blogging break. I finished the mini quilt I’m making for my partner in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap, and I just have to share! I have loved working on this quilt, and I’m pretty certain my partner will love it, too! Nicole at Modern Handcraft has a wonderful tutorial on this short-cut hexagon quilting method. I’ve done some blogging (and a lot of Instagramming) about my progress on the quilt, which you can read here and here.

Are you ready for a total photograph color explosion? Okay, good. I took a LOT of photos of this baby, and in my usual style I can’t choose just one.

modern hexies mini quilt finish — I took the quilt to the city (Bangor, ME) to find a good brick wall on which to photograph it. I wanted to mix it up a bit from my usual shed/barn side backdrop. I love the effect!

Finished quilt stats:

Name: Modern Hexies Mini Quilt (for Schnitzel and Boo, Round 3)
Size: 24″ x 18″
Fabric: Hexies are primarily Anna Maria Horner’s True Colors collection, with supplements from my stash (including but not limited to Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics, Timeless Treasures Sketch, other Anna Maria Horner fabrics); backing Kona Snow; binding is Carolyn Friedlander’s Leaves in Charcoal from Botanics.
Quilting: Straight-line quilted through each hexagon, lines 1″ apart
Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2615 – Aluminum (light grey) and 28wt 2000 – Light Sand in the bobbin
Finished: December 2014
Related blog posts: Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap: I’m in!, A Mini Sneak Peek, Modern Hexies Mini Progress

I’m linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts’ Finish it up Friday!

Hand Stitching, Paper piecing, Quilting

A Mini Sneak Peek

November 26, 2014 kittywilkin 7 Comments

I finally chose the pattern I am going to use for my Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt swap quilt for my partner, and boy am I excited! My inspiration is a quilt I’ve been drooling over since its unveiling by Nicole at Modern Handcraft, and I’m excited to give a go at recreating it.

As much as I was tempted to use Carolyn Friedlander’s Botanics to recreate this stunning quilt exactly, I decided to be a *little* original and use a fabric line by another one of the designers listed as a favorite of my secret partner: True Colors by Anna Maria Horner. I’ve made a little bit of slow progress.

hexagon mini quilt progress anna maria horner — I took my photo shoot outside on a cutting board, since we have yet another cloudy, overcast day and a winter storm brewing. 8-14″ of snow forecast for tonight!

At first, I wasn’t sure about these fabrics and how they would work in a modern hexies mini quilt, but once I put them together and took a photo, I’m a lot more encouraged. For some reason, when looking at the fabrics in a stack, they don’t seem to flow as well as I’d like. Looking at them arranged like so and through the eye of a camera, it definitely “works”. Woo hoo!

I ordered a small pack (100 pieces) of 1″ hexagons from Paper Pieces, but I got a little antsy waiting for them to arrive, since my charm pack of Anna Maria Horner arrived first. Rather than wait, I pulled out some card stock and printed off a page of adorable Happy Hexies by Mollie Johanson of Wild Olive. I had bookmarked these a few months back, and was thrilled to finally use them. I mean, how cute are these little guys peeking out the back!?

Now that my Paper Pieces hexies have arrived, I can go to town on this project, but I’m so grateful for these cheerful little guys and Mollie’s free download since they allowed me to get a little head start on the mini. Hopefully, we will see this cute little stack of hexagons grow and grow and GROW over the next couple weeks!