Over the weekend I did a lot of sewing by hand–eight hours worth to be exact! Now I’m not normally a television kind of person (especially now that White Collar and Downton Abbey have completed their seasons), but twice a year I love being a couch potato and watching the inspirational messages from my church’s General Conference.
Getting ready for eight hours of hand sewing takes some preparation. I spent a little while with my iron and spray starch prepping applique’ pieces to finish up 3 more Tessie Flower blocks. Now that I’ve finished four I just have 36 more to go…this might be a year-long project!
I noticed while taking these pictures that each block has at least one polka dot print.
This block has three polka dot prints…not sure that the patern will continue in every block, but there will definitely be plenty of polka dots in this quilt.
I was also able to baste seven hexie flowers. Most of the hexagons for these were already basted–I just needed to sew them together.
So of course I had to take a picture of my collection; I now have 19 flowers.
This might be a multi-year project. I really should start basting some of the white connecting hexies so I can start setting some of these together, but making white hexies just never seems to be that appealing. I’d much rather play with color!
I also worked on binding for a work in progress from at least 6 years ago (the work in progress is pictured above…I’ll blog about it later this week). And I made over 550 inches of scrappy binding. I had no idea how much I was making; I just kept sewing, and this is what I ended up with. I may use it to bind my scrappy trip around the world quilt, or I may save it for another scrappy project. At least these scrappy fabrics are now usable! I have saved all of my left-over binding pieces for years, and even after sewing up this 550 inches, the binding scrap box is still quite full. I noticed quite a few Christmas themed binding left-overs, so I’ll sew them together and use them to bind my next scrappy Christmas quilt.
And now for a couple of winners–the winner of the S is for Stitch book is Melissa and the winner of the Locally Grown fabric giveaway is Maxwells. Congratulations to both of you–I will be contacting you by e-mail.
Carol says
Love your flowers! You made very good use of your couch time…fantastic!
elena piña garcia says
Amazing work! Lovely color as always, it is a pleasure to follow you!
Kisses from Spain,
Elena
Kate says
I never know what to do with my leftover binding; quite a bit made it into my Scrappy trip though. Love your flowers!
Stephanie says
Purdy polka dot flowers! :o)
Mary says
I just LOVE those tessie flowers. I think they would look so cute mixed with some of the pretty tulip blocks you made during the row along. Man, it is so easy to get a project list together for other people LOL
Little Lady Patchwork says
I love all of your projects! Your flowers make me want to branch out and try applique….Great idea to premake your scrappy binding.
Have a good week Sherri,
Stefanie
Thimbleanna says
Ohmygosh — I just LOVE LOVE LOVE those little tessie flowers. Your fabric selections are wonderful too!
Nedra says
I absolutely love your Tessie Flower blocks! Your fabric choices are just perfect, and look like Spring. Wasn't General Conference wonderful? I have my machine set up right by the TV so I got a little sewing done, too.
•stephanie• says
is there someone we can contact about having general conference every weekend? i just love it! {elder holland is always my favorite.} and your conference projects are lovely. you can never have too many polkadots!
Darlene says
Love your Tessie Flowers – adorable! I want a box of your scraps – LOL
Michelle Huddleston says
Progress! One step at a time… Love the colors, as usual!
Elise Lea says
Love the hexies and the binding! Hexies are just so fun to make and I love what you have done with yours color wise.
tink's mom says
Love this flower block. Whose the pattern designer and do you know if I can find it on line. Yours are great. I love polka dots, it is amazing how they pop up.
Thanks for your help.
Jean(ie) says
Congrats to the winners!
You've been a busy lady! I love those applique flowers! So happy!
Deb says
Sherrie, What size are your hexies? I might have to give that a try!
pandchintz says
Such sweet flowers and hexies. Gotta love a scrappy binding! My favourite kind!!
Nita says
A very colourful post today!
Sandy says
Love all the handwork you got done. The Tessie flower is so simple and yet so cute…my kind of applique. Where did you get the pattern?
jojo says
splendide biz a toi jojo
Karen says
My favorite block is the one that looks like newsprint or a page from a dictionary.
Melissa at My Fabric Relish says
I'm so stinking excited to win something!!! Thanks so much ladies! 🙂
Melissa at My Fabric Relish says
I was so excited to comment about winning, I forgot to say anything else about your post. I love the flowers! The news print one is my favorite. Such an unexpected combo but very eye catchiing! Might need to keep that idea in my pocket. 😉
Ruth says
I really want to make hexies like you do. I have never done it before. Do you have any good tutorials you can recommend to get started? Any supplies that I should get? I need something to work on in the car while we drive several hours and this seems to be the right fit.
Jenny says
Oh my! I absolutely LOVE your hexies. The bright colors and prints are so fun. And I totally agree – it's so much more fun to sew with colors instead of white!
Suze says
You did an amazing job on your hand stitching. I love polka dots and have started a Churn Dash with polka dots in each block. I'm actually trying to use polka dots and then a white background. I need more variety of prints containing polka dots for this quilt. I have several polka dot quilts planned – collecting I found it was as expensive to buy a yard as a half yard in some cases and some vendors have a minimum yardage for sale, too. Did I miss the name of the pattern for the flower blocks? They are adorable and I like your choice of fabrics.
Donna says
I love your flowers. Where can I find the pattern for Tessies Flowers?
trish says
Oh my. 550 inches of scrappy binding! That is amazing! :o) And so cute! I love scrappy binding.
Your flower blocks are gorgeous! :o)
Mama Pea says
Sigh. Again, the hexies. Love.
OPQuilt says
Everything on this post is wonderful, Sherri. I love the idea of scrappy bindings from other quilts (I've been saving mine, too) and love that you have something to show for your listening to Conference. A new YW presidency! I was traveling to my parents on Sunday, so still need to listen to those, but I did catch a couple of the talks in the pm after I arrived.
Love the flowers. I have to say my Lollypop Tree quilt took about two years, and I love that slow pace on some quilts. Enjoy!
Elizabeth E.
opquilt.com
PamKittyMorning says
I just got my Tessie pattern in the mail! I can't wait to get started on it!