Going to the Hexie Place: A Classic One Block Wonder

Charm block issues

In this world of modern quilting, it's easy to overlook some of the classic wonders. There are a number of one block patterns in the quilt world. But they hexie block is probably most familiar to everyone.

hexie made from batiks

Grandmother's Flower Garden is the classic hexie quilt. From the thirties to the 70's it may have been the most recognizable and most popular quilt pattern out there.
While you're hyperventilating, I suggest you take a deep breath. Yes those are very little pieces. But the construction of a hexie quilt is so simple. And it brings us back to hand stitching.

Hexie blocks

Again, stop hyperventilating. Deep breath. Hexies are one of the most fun take along projects ever! They're pieced over paper, to keep the edges sharp and they are a project that goes whever you are.

hexie template

The secret is the shape. This hexie template makes it possible to even fussy cut your hexies so you have perfect six sided blocks, with repeating patterns.

back of block

The edges are folded over a paper template and basted down. When you have enough hexies, you whip stitch your blocks together.

fussy cut block

How pretty is that?

Hexagon Quilt

What can you make out of hexies? Much more than flower gardens. Check out this star quilt.

Patricia Cummings Hexagon Quilt

Or this wonderful mosaic. Don't be afraid of hand stitching or the hexie place. It's a great place for a quilter to play

Open Sesame: Why Quilters Need Open Storage

Whenever I see someone's beautifully ordered sewing room, I have to ask myself. It's very pretty, but where does she really sew? She does have a small pile of fabric by the serger, but it's all folded. There's nothing on the floor. I actually wonder if she really does spend days cleaning her sewing room rather than sewing.

There are, I'm told, people who do this. There are people who run marathons too. I am amazed by them, but I don't think I'll be joining them soon.

But for many of us, if it's out of sight it's out of mind. If I can't see it, I can't find it. That's when it's wonderful to have some open storage options.

Open storage is all about pretty. If you're going to leave it out for people to see they might as well see something delightful. There's nothing as pretty as a fabric bowl for a place to put things.

Show me a sewing room with put away scissors, folded up fabric and a clean floor, and I'm looking at a room that no one is sewing in. Because you need to see things to find things. 

And in all fairness, some of our sewing things are just pretty. Those buttons are just button cute. Why not have them where you can see them, find them, and enjoy them?

So to help with that we're doing a fabric bowl class on Monday, February 17th at 11:AM. Come in, make some really pretty bowls and store your pretties where you can find them and enjoy them.

Someone Else's Quilt Top

It's always an intimate moment. You're in a rummage sale or a resale shop, looking through the piles, seeing what is there. And you see an odd little bundle. Maybe it's wrapped in brown paper. Or in a plastic bag. Or maybe it looks like a pile of scraps. But when you unwrap it, that's not what it is. It's the quilt squares left from an unfinished quilt. The moment is intimate, because the woman who made those blocks is about to show you things about her life she might never have told you if you were her best friend.

I've heard quilts described as historic documents. I believe that's fair. Both my grandmothers died before I was born. I know more about them from their quilts than from family stories.The fabrics the quilts are made of, the woman's stitches, machine or hand, her quilting stitch, the patterns she told tell you so much about her. It's a look through her eyes.

I think it's even truer with an unfinished top or squares because you can look inside. You can really see how she made that quilt.

Unfinished Pretty Lady quilt

But past a glimpse into this woman's world, it's the fulfilling of a legacy. She had so many hopes and dreams for that unfinished quilt. Was it for her grandchild? Her husband? A friend that needed comfort and her care?  This was an act of love for someone, that never quite got finished.We can only guess who. But her quilt is there, unfinished and left behind.

The odd thing about quilts is that they always are comfort of one sort or another. Whether it was made for one person's comfort or another, there's still someone else who could use that act of love. So when we take in someone's unfinished quilt and pass it on to someone else we pass on that woman's life, her work, her love. And we add a little of our own.

machine embroidered blocks

The next time you find that odd brown paper package of someone's stitched dreams, you might want to take them home. In fulfilling other people's dreams, we sometimes find our own.

Quilts to Warm the Heart

In the middle of February, it makes perfect sense to find a way to warm up. Any way. Warmer thoughts. Hot tea. Cocoa even if it spills in your lap. Pets who sit on you. Beach movies. Especially this winter.

But we forget about how strongly we respond to color.
So it's no surprise that there's a holiday that gives you the opportunity to make everything warmly, wonderfully red.
If Valentine's day hadn't been a tradition we would have had to invent it. Just to warm up. Imagine Valentine's day in July. You just can't. It's made for cold weather.

And it's made to lift us up in the dark of the winter. When we're young it's about candy and paper valentines. When we're older it's about matters of the heart. When we're a bit older than that it comes back around to candy, with or without the cards. But it's about two things, always. The promise of warmth in the middle of cold. The promise of the people we love, even in the coldest time of year.

Modern Heart Tutorial
http://blog.sewbittersweetdesigns.com/?p=1505

So get out your red fabric and make yourself warmer. Here's some modern quilts, for Valentine's Day.

Vanessa Christenson  I Heart You
http://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com/2013/01/vintage-and-modern-valentines-part-2.html

Love both of these half hearts. One appliqued, one pieced. Sometimes part images are much more striking than fully realized ones.

MICHELE BILYEU http://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/

There are a number of great pieced heart patterns. 

Pamela Lincoln, Mug Rug
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10122575@N04/5463371975/

And there are quilts that have a personal message, that's not clear, but is lovely anyway.

https://www.etsy.com/market/valentines_quilt

You can cut a heart.

Leah Day, The Free Motion Quilting Project.

Stitch hearts

Marian Howard Gallian,Pink Hippo Quilts, 

Applique them.

Or lose them. 

But no matter what, they remind you of the sweet warm things that seem to get forgotten in the snow.

http://stitchesfromthetub.blogspot.com/2013/02/studio-sunday-10-candy-kisses-quilt.html

Don't have enough red fabric? We have a sale going on right up through Valentine's Day. We can help you fill out your red stash, just to warm up.

Losing a Quilt Store

Sadly this year we've lost a local quilting store.
Needle and Thread in Valparaiso, IN suffered a terrible fire that has shut that store down.
What a loss.


It made me think: what do we lose when a quilt store shuts down?

Of course it's very sad for everyone. Every quilt store is some quilters dream she's put together bit by bit. It's terribly sad to see that end.

But there are more selfish considerations. My first thought was, where will I find cool fabric? There's a certain panic in that. What resides in the chain store is not the same quality or range of even the smallest private quilting shops. It's great for buttons or polar fleece. I wouldn't care to have that be my only source for quilting fabric. And if I can't touch it, I don't know that I want to buy it.  So online is not the same.

We also get attached to our quilting stores for much more important reason. Quilting stores make our quilting community. And they do so many things for everyone who walks through the door. Here's a short list.

• Where do you go for fabric? The quilt store.
• Where can you get advice on your quilting? The quilt store.
• Where can you learn about new techniques and fabrics?The quilt store.
• Who can you bitch and stitch with? The ladies at the quilt store.
• Your guild meets once a month. The quilt store is open 5- 6 days a week. 

Do you see a pattern here?

Your quilt store, any quilt store is your go-to place for everything you need to know about quilting in your area. It's personal, it builds friendships, it offers you a place to really be your true creative self.

We'll all miss the community that Needle and Thread built in their store. No one can replace that.  But we want to remind you that Threadbenders in Michigan City has great classes, fabulous fabric, staff that will either teach you, encourage you or laugh and cry with you, and a community of quilters where you belong.

Come wander in. You're a quilter. You're home here.

Divide and Conquer: Half Triangles and Flying Geese

 Everyone loves Flying Geese. It's a scrap friendly pattern that moves the eye and is always fun. It's not however always fun to piece. So as usual, we don't work harder. We work smarter.

http://www.blockcrazy.com/images/finished_block/
Classics/flying_geese_quilt_block_pattern.gif

If we divide the block into half triangles, it's so much easier. and easier to use up scraps as well. 









Made out of half triangles, they're a snap. 

Of course it's a very traditional block. And maybe you're not a very traditional quilter. There are so many ways to modernize a block that seems old as the hills.

Use unexpected colors. There's nothing like a burst of color to light a fire in a quilt.

http://wombatquilts.com/

Twist the layout. The same blocks look very different, at different angles.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107872754/modern-quilt-in-gray-and-white-flying?ref=market

Use the design in different ways. It's very cool to have a quilt with just a few strips of piecing and some wild quilting.

Simple traditional blocks become very exciting with some very simple new approaches.

We all sew has a great tutorial on making flying geese from triangles. Check it out!

Divide and Conquer: Simplifying Blocks with Half Triangles

Delectable Mountains

Quilting is as hard or as simple as you make it.But the great thing about quilters is that they know how to work smart instead of just working hard. And they know how to share.
New quilters are sometimes daunted by complicated quilt blocks. But experienced quilters know how to simplify those blocks by dividing and conquering. Most quilt blocks can be divided into half square triangles and squares.

Delectable Mountains

How can you tell? The best way is to put a grid over the block. Most really good patterns will show that grid. But if they don't, don't be dismayed. Get out a ruler and pencil and draw them in.

You'll see on this Delectable Mountains, which is a pretty complicated block, all you really have is 1 square and a whole lot of triangles. It gets pretty simple after that.

Let's try that with some other blocks.

Double Pinwheel

This pinwheel divides into four squares with one larger triangle and 2 smaller triangles.

Double Pinwheel

Much easier!

Some squares that seem to be made up as squares are much simpler as triangles

Hazy Daisy

Hazy Daisy

How hard  do you want to work? Silly question!

Divide your blocks into half triangles and squares and it get's much easier after that.