Week 38 of 2025

This week I finished a little English Paper Pieced bag -

The pattern was from the October/November 2024 issue of Homespun Magazine (I see it digitally through the library). It is the Onwards Drawstring Pouch by Hatched and Patched.

It is made up of hexagons with pentagons to make the rounded base. I used the hexagon die for the GO! cutter to cut out paper hexagons, so my bag is a different size than the pattern because I used hexagons with 1" sides. For the pentagons I used a tutorial online to draft them with 1" sides too.

It makes such a nice round base. After the base is made there are just rings of hexagons to add depth to the bag.

When I stitch the hexagons (and in this case pentagons) together I stitch them side by side, not right sides together, so the stitches are less visible on the front (this is from a Craftsy class years ago).

A lining, channels and cord to finish the bag. I didn't do the stitched appliqué circle.

It made the perfect size bag for my sock take-along project.

Photos from Around -

The baby chickens (3 red ones - they still like to stick together) are almost the same size as the big hens.

Molly still likes to play with Miss Maggie, although she doesn't seem to enjoy it as much as GingerSnap!.

GingerSnap! coordinating with the fall quilt on my bed.

Beautiful fall colours outside (lots of birds on the wires, and lots of rain).

All the best!♥︎

Art Quilts of the Month

I finally got caught up with my Art Quilts of the Month!

This is the August one. We went on a road trip to Alberta at the end of August, and crossed the prairies. This little quilt was inspired by the views from the car.

This is a photo from Saskatchewan.

For September I chose an appliqué of a Gloriosa Daisy - they were blooming beautifully in the garden. It is invisible machine appliqué because I taught a class on it in September.

For October I painted a piece of fabric in fall colours, added leaves with metallic paint, and then stitched falling leaves.

Here are all ten quilts so far - the year is flying by! These are 6" x 8" mini quilts.

I was lucky enough to Skype with a friend this weekend while we sewed, and I made another hexagon.

This is a design by Mickey Depre.

Only three so far. I have no plans for these, I just wanted to try making hexagons.

I finished spinning the skein of wool that I hand dyed. It is almost 200g of fingering weight 100% wool. It is a gift for my Mom.

This was the first ply along with the fibre for the second ply - I love seeing how the dyed fibre spins into yarn.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥

72 Shades of Red

I had been wanting to try some English paper piecing - I thought it would be nice to have a hand sewing project. I helped my mother and sister make a grandmother's flower garden quilt many years ago.

I ordered the GO! Hexagon die. I thought I could use it for cutting out fabric to machine piece, or to cut out paper for hand piecing.

The same day the die arrived, I received this English Paper Piecing kit from Sew What, a new local business (I had answered a survey and this was my free gift - thank-you so much Heather and Preston! And good luck with your business).

So I tried both the card stock hexagons and small paper hexagons (1" sides) that I cut with the GO! to make the hexagons.

I decided to just make a small mug rug to see how it works. I thought I would cut out one hexagon from all the red fabrics I have - I was surprised that I had 72! Some of them were just little scraps. The mug rug ended up being 14.5" x 25".

I used a small zig-zag stitch and 100 weight fine thread to appliqué the pieced hexagons to a larger piece of fabric. I used two layers of cotton batting (because I didn't have the heat resistant, foil batting). I added the binding before quilting the feather border, so that the quilting would be even on the edge. I don't cut the extra batting and backing off before I bind a quilt, so I still have some place to hold when I am quilting.

I quilted a small meander over the hexagons, and "bump-bump" feathers in the border. The quilting is with the same 100 weight thread, and a #80 Titanium needle.

It came out to a nice size for my coffee table trunk.

It was lovely to hand sew the hexagons and I see more hexagons in my future.

Recently I was contacted by Jessi (Joy Unspeakable) because she was making my clothes pin bag pattern, and had some question. Well, she finished the bag, all stitched by hand, and did such a lovely job - she shows it here. Be sure to check out her blog - she lives in Kenya as a missionary, and has a very interesting life.

Ruth (Country Log Cabin) also sent me some pictures of her Thread Head Quilt Along quilt, her 50th Anniversary quilt shown here. She did a great job too!

It is so nice for me to see the projects that people have made with my patterns. Thanks!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Catching Up Again!

I finally took some time today to catch up on the blogging world!! It was so wonderful! Everybody has been busy too!!

I finished sewing the hexagon quilt top together.

I am pleased with how it turned out. It is about 50" square.
I think I will put it a side for a while to work on the Schnibbles Contest quilt.

Last week I mentioned that I was working on a castle for the grade 8 graduation at my youngest child's school. This is how it turned out -

Thirty-one lights in the windows to represent the children graduating. Their theme was "Princess and Princes", much to my child's dismay. Next years graduating class will have twenty boys and five girls, my son's classmate wants "monster trucks" as the theme!! LOL

My youngest child has been making bird houses, wood working is his new hobby.

This one has an old license plate for the roof.

The garden is growing well.

Morden Sunrise Rose, it smells wonderful!

Have a great day and thanks for dropping by!! ♥

Snappy Little Bag and a Challenge!

Today I made a little bag from a pattern that my Mother had.

The pattern is "Snap Happy" by Stitchin' Sisters.


At the top there are two pieces of metal tape-measure (that's what makes the bag snap!). I made the small (5" x 4½") size. The concept is pretty simple, I think I will try out other variations to use up some more of the tape-measure.

Now for the "Challenge"! Jandi has put out the challenge to show off our creative spaces (without cleaning up first!). This is mine today -

I have been sewing together the hexagons. All the rows are sewn and I am currently working on sewing the rows together.

This is the other side of the side where today I have the ironing board set up. My sewing area is in the kitchen, (where a table could be, instead we have a sewing table and a keyboard) and next to the family room. I love being with everyone when I sew, and the light is fantastic.

Today orange flowers are blooming.

This is the only tiger lily that the rabbits haven't eaten!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Beautiful Weather!

We have been having such beautiful weather, that I have been busy with other things than sitting at the computer!
I did have some time for sewing this week - sewed of few rows of the hexagons together.


I also finished a piece of tatting -

It is from a pattern by Nancy. I used Cebelia #10 by DMC, in colour # 3033. It is 12½" in diameter. I must admit that tatting is one of my favorite things to do while I am watching TV or on car trips, but I never know what to do with them when I am finished! I have a drawer full!

I also did some painting for my youngest child's school. Hopefully I will be able to post a picture next week of the completed project.

Of course I have had time to work outside!

The garden is growing beautifully! We have been eating garden fresh salads - my favorite!


Lots of pink flowers - another favorite!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! ♥

Morden Trip

I took a trip to a wonderful quilt store in Morden (an hour away) today. The Quilters' Jewel was the only place I could find fabric to go with my hexagons.

They have such a great selection of fabric and the people are so wonderful!

All the red setting triangles are now cut, I just have to sew the rows together. It should be around 50" square. I might have enough red to add a little border, I will see how it turns out.

Deanna is having a great giveaway of a Curve Master Presser Foot - it looks fantastic, definitely something I want to try out!

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!! ♥

Back to Hexagons

I finished putting all the hexagons together!

I thought this layout was too jumbled, too hard to see the individual blocks.

This is an idea of how they would look with spaces. I thought this was better.

This is what it could look like with the addition of coordinating red fabric. I tried downloading the fabric swatches from Moda to EQ6 - and I managed to figure it out!! Always good to learn something new!!
This layout would make a nice little lap quilt. I think this is the best idea for the hexagons - just have to buy some red fabric. Another trip to the quilt store! ♥

I finally finished this little free motion painted postcard. Decided just to serge the edges since the zig-zag didn't work and it was too small to bind.

I am glad I took this picture yesterday, because when I saw the nest today it was empty! Hopefully they were big enough to fly, they seemed so small (only two, I don't know what happened to the other one?).

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!! ♥