Update on Paper Piecing

English paper piecing, which I have started recently as something to do while wasting away in front of watching television, has been pretty darn successful so far! I've decided that the first thing I'm going to turn my hexies into is a pretty cover for my sewing machine (I currently use the hard shell case it came in).

I've started piecing them together, mostly hoping that I've done it right because I lost interest in reading / following the directions (which really ends up being the problem with most of my sewing projects-gone-awry).

First they turned into this clump. As usual, Molly MUST be involved with every project I take on. (Side note, I'm currently reading Jeanne Walls's Half-Broke Horses and it is just as good as The Glass Castle was!)

And then they turned into this! I've added a bunch more since I took this photo, so imagine it a little bigger, but I'm really enjoying it! I love having something simple to work on while sitting around with hubs, and I look forward to making myself a cute little pouch so that I can take them with me! Hooray!

Have you tried English Paper Piecing? What did you make with yours? It seems like they'd also make good coasters... Hmm....

WIP - Crosshatches

So I LOVE the jelly roll race style of quilts - they're super quick and easy, and if you check out my finished projects page, well, you'll see that I've made a jillion of them.

This time, though, I've decided to do something different. I sewed the strips end-to-end, as per usual, and started the "race," so to speak, but stopped after the piece was eight strips wide. I then cut it into (rough) squares, so that they currently look like this:

Wrench helped me lay out bits this time!

 Here's a close-up of one of the blocks.

Because my math is STILL rubbish, having not improved at all from the "Oops I bought enough for two whole quilt tops" debacle, I ended up with eight bits of the one set of squares instead of nine.** Not sure what to do with them, now - maybe a square of another coordinating material in the middle? I really like the way you can make it look by rotating the blocks - the word "Crosshatch" came to mind. So that's what I'm calling them. I have two more color combinations:

Second set - yay, I have nine! :) 

Closeup - love the stripes and butterflies together.

I'm calling this one Raspberries and Cream. LOVE that deep pink color! I've also decided to finish this one up for a good friend's daughter.

See, while I've been gone, I've been at least getting SOMETHING done!

** Note - yes, I totally failed on math on the other quilt...but on these, I just didn't bother doing any at all. ;)