UFO Week, Day 4.

     I am making some progress on the blue and orange Perfect Tilt quilt on my longarm.  One thing I have learned this week is that custom quilting with the computer is not my "thing".  I love the results, but I am just too impatient to dedicate that much time to a UFO quilt.  Much like machine embroidery, 10% of the time you are actually doing something the other 90% you are watching the machine run.  I much prefer to use the ProStitcher to quilt edge-to-edge designs.  

    While the longarm was doing its thing, I kept my fingers busy by embroidering the stem on my scribble flower.  I know this project doesn't qualify as a UFO, but it did allow me to accomplish something while I was watching the machine run.  Almost.  I stitched the entire stem, took a look at my handwork and decided that the stem stitch looked too wimpy to hold the flower up!  After removing the stem stitches, I decided to couch a piece of 1/8" green ribbon in place to make the stem look sturdier.  I happen to have an acceptable shade of green in my ribbon bin.  If you look closely, you can see that spool is from "Woolworths, America's Craft Store".  Any guesses how long that spool has been in that bin? (Hint, the U.S. company ceased operations in 1997!)

    

    Itching to sew something, I decided to add backing and batting to this project and do a little echo quilting around the flower on my domestic machine.  "Domestic" is a fancy word for my regular sewing machine.  I haven't done much hand guided machine quilting since having access to a longarm.  I thought I should brush up on those skills.  They did indeed need some brushing up!  

    After echo quilting the center, I decided to pull out my collection of hand quilting stencils and mark those dark, pieced borders.  I used the hand quilting stencils even though I would be doing the stitching by machine.  I made sure I selected a continuous line design.  Finding a marking device that will show on all of those shades was a challenge.  I finally decided on a white chalk pencil.  Making a stencil fit and wrap around a corner can be a challenge.  I made it happen, it is not perfect, but I can live with it.  Black binding and I can call this WIP complete.

    I did promise that I would dig deeper into my UFO pile for the next project.  To live up to my promise, I decided that today would be Small Project Day.  The piece on the right is one of the oldest UFO's I own.  I'm sure it dates to the mid 1990's!  Imperfectly perfect, the color balance is off, the quilting is.... pretty bad.  That is probably why it ended up in the UFO pile.  There was still some reason that I have never tossed it.  Maybe it is to remind me of how my skills have improved?  I finished it off by adding some additional quilting so that it would lay flat and then added a ridiculous green ticking stripe binding that is almost as old as the top.

    I had time for one more small project.  The small piece with the multicolor squares is probably 15 years old.  I originally made it as an example of how seams should be pressed.  I was told by another reputable quilter that pressing all the seams in one row in the same direction is not a good idea.  I had to test the theory, and this is that sample.  For years this small project had a different black border.  It ended up in the UFO pile because that border fabric was just not black enough.  I removed the old border and replaced it with a black with tiny dots and finished it off with some straight-line machine quilting.

    The center of the quilt is quilted from corner to corner in magenta colored thread.   The black border is quilted in black and the quilting lines are random widths apart.  The white chalk line helps me know where to pivot on the corner.

A quick machine binding with magenta fabric and this project is finally finished.

    Working on these small projects reminded me of a woman that worked for me years ago.  She saw me making a small quilt and remarked "You know, if you make those seams a little longer, that will fit a bed".  I had to laugh.  Small quilts really are the same amount of work, can have the same number of pieces and are usually made in the same patterns as larger quilts.  There is just something fun about seeing the smaller version.

    

    I will get to enjoy these small quilts for (hopefully) years to come.  Now that they are finished, I have added them to the wall in my sewing room.  The wall behind my longarm holds the sign from the shop I owned in Pennsylvania, an old Mountain Mist batting wrapper, a watercolor by Diana Phalen and some cross stitch pieces that I designed years ago.  Now I have added these three quilts to the collection, and I still have plenty of space to fill. 

    Notice that the longarm is empty.  I forced myself to finish that blue and orange quilt before I hung the small quilts for this photo.  Even with all the complaining, I do have to say that I am happy with the way the quilting turned out.  Maybe it was worth all that effort.  I am off to make and then sew the binding on the Perfect Tilt project before I start on anything else!  I won't be able to call that project finished for a while.  The small quilts got the machine binding treatment.  The Perfect Tilt project is a larger quilt and I will be stitching that binding by hand.

BTW I LOVE that you are sharing the projects you are finishing on Facebook.  Keep up the good work!

Day #3 of UFO Week

     It is Day #3 and I'm feeling pretty confident about my machine quilting skills now that I have completed the sacrificial table runner from Day 2.  Some might say overconfident, but what have I got to lose?  I have plenty of UFOs to practice on!  I went searching for a larger project.

    This quilt top has these great diamond shapes that are begging for custom quilting.  The top is in the ballpark of a twin size quilt, without borders.  The lack of borers is the problem with this quilt.  This top was made many years ago, and now the navy batik fabric is impossible to match.  Dye lots change.  Batiks are hand dyed so even bolts from the same manufacturer can vary in shade from shipment to shipment.   Normally I would have set aside fabric for the borders from the same bolt of fabric.  Maybe I did?  If I did, it was in the ballpark of 8 - 10 years ago.  All I know is that I don't have that shade of navy in my sewing room now.  If you look closely, you can see the threads where I ripped a border length off that I thought would be a "good enough" match.  It wasn't good enough.  This quilt deserves better.  I pulled this top from that pile of tops that "need something".  It is going right back in that pile, because it still needs something - a border! 

    Meanwhile, in my search for the elusive border batik, I came across a good size piece of navy print batik backing fabric.  It is a fun print, but definitely not right for the striped quilt above.  The navy is a good shade, but the print is directional.  There are birds that all face the same way so in my mind it has a definite top and bottom.  

    I tossed the backing fabric to the side and it landed next to this navy and orange quilt.  I didn't like that backing for the multi color batik quilt, but it looked pretty cool with this navy and orange sample of the Perfect Tilt.  If I were shopping for backing for this project, I may not have selected this one, but the more I look at it, the more I like it!  I love a quilt with an interesting backing fabric.  Off to the quilting machine!

      One thing I have learned is that I think longarm machine quilting looks best when the areas are outlined and/or stitched in the ditch.  In the Nine Patch a Day Group on Facebook, we have discussed that pressing your seams open (and leaving them pressed open) can be an issue if you plan to stitch in the ditch.  The quilting machine can pop those stitches and create problems in your patchwork.  YOU may not plan to stitch in the ditch, but believe me, your professional quilter probably does.  That is the way they travel from place to place without having a zillion ends to tie off.  Luckily, I had followed my own advice and pressed these seams properly.

    Step one after loading the quilt and making sure it is perfectly square is to stitch in the ditch or 1/4" in around all of those orange print sashing areas.  I chose an orange top thread to blend in.  Orange and blue are complimentary colors.  That means that orange thread will REALLY stand out on blue fabric and the reverse.  With a navy and white backing, I chose white bobbin thread to help hide my not so perfect quilting skills.  I could have chosen navy, but I had 2 white bobbins wound and ready to go.  Decision made. 

    The next step was to stitch in the ditch around all of those large orange squares and just outside those navy tilted squares.  

    All of that stitching - very little of it actually shows - took FOREVER.  Slow and steady wins the race in this case.  This UFO is going to be a multi-day project.  I simply don't have the energy or brain power to choose designs, position and crop them to fit into the background areas of the blocks.  Whew, that took far longer than I expected.  Tomorrow is another day. 

    This orange and blue quilt is also a relatively new UFO.  It is only about 2 years old.  I don't want to give you the impression that ALL of my UFO's are recent, so I will take a deeper dive to the bottom of the pile for the next one! 

UFO Week, Day #2

 

    Busy day today.  In order to stay on track in my quest to finish UFOs this week, I chose an easy one.  Many of you saw this quilt top on my design wall a few weeks ago in the Nine Patch A Day Group on Facebook.  The top was made in March of 2020.  The pattern is Any Twelve Will Do featuring the Perfect Rectangle Ruler that I design for Creative Grids.  At the time I offered a free handout for the pattern.  Since that time it has been published as a Cut Loose Press pattern and is available to purchase here: Any 12 Will Do Runner PDF Pattern – CutLoosePress™

UFO Week, Project #2:  Any Twelve Will Do Runner.

Requires: Quilting and binding.

The Reason this project is a UFO: I'm going to be honest and say the real reason is sloppy pressing and dirty marks.  Sometimes I don't practice what I preach.  In a perfect world I would always press my seams open, and then press them to one side.  Many people don't think that will make a difference, but if you are really picky about the way your finished projects look, I promise you it does.  

    This runner top was tossed to the side because I was unhappy with the way the seams were laying.  Having just rolled them to the side, I could easily see which direction the seams were pressed. Normally that isn't a problem, especially if they are in some symmetrical pattern. In this case the seams were going every which way and it was OBVIOUS.  I knew that pressing them open and then to one side would fix the problem, but I kept telling myself it didn't matter.  

    There are areas in this quilt top where lots of seams come together.  In my effort to finish quickly, I didn't check the bottom of my iron.  Running the iron over the lump where seams came together created a dirty spot on the white fabric.  Always on the white fabric.  More irritated at myself than anything else, I tossed it into the UFO pile.

Progress:  Some projects were meant to be a learning experience.  I decided to sacrifice this one to my learning curve on the longarm machine.  I did take the time to repress the most offensive of the seams before loading the backing, batting and runner into my Handi Quilter.  It is important for you to know that I only quilt my own projects.  99% of them are quilted using the computerized ProStitcher and an all over pattern.  I don't do "show-off" quilting.  The machine does have amazing features that I rarely use.  I also own several of those fancy quilting rulers, many of which are still in the package.  No time like the present to play around a little and see what I can do with the right tools.

    First of all, custom quilting is worth every single penny.  You have no idea how involved it is until you have tried it yourself.  I have walked a mile (or stitched a few thousand yards of thread) in those shoes, and I am here to tell you that it isn't as easy as they make it look!  For allover designs you set the design and let the machine do its job.  To custom quilt you have to create designs, resize, define then crop either inside or outside of an area, reposition start and stop places and use other features that I haven't even attempted.  I wouldn't say it is difficult, but it is technically precise and challenging.  The learning curve is steep.  Especially if you take my route and experiment rather than watching the educational videos.  Skipping that important information was probably a mistake!

    For example, when you crop a design, the machine stitches straight, along the invisible line you created when you established the crop.  As you can imagine, it is difficult to establish the position of an invisible line.  Now that I have done it 24 times, I am beginning to get the hang of my machine.  I wanted those stitch-in-the-ditch lines IN the ditch.  Now I'm not so sure that is a reasonable expectation.  What I should have done is to make sure that the blue thread would be stitching on the blue fabric.

    I did learn to crop, center, use rulers to stitch in the ditch, invert and mirror image designs.  The dirty, lumpy runner was the perfect project to experiment on.  There were no "What if I screw up" moments of panic.  I wasn't worried about making this project worse. The fact is, the imperfect quilting actually made it better. 

  When it came off the quilting machine, I pressed, trimmed and stitched the binding in place.  This project got the fused in place and stitched in the ditch by machine binding treatment.  It is done.  Finished.  Officially graduated from the UFO pile.

    Naturally I see every mistake and there are plenty to see.  I tossed it on the kitchen table for the photo shown above.  My husband came in, took one look and said, did you quilt that?  I confirmed that I did.  His response was "That's impressive".  Proof that you are always your own worst critic.  Let others enjoy your work without burdening them with your own disappointment.   

    

    

    

Welcome to UFO Week!

 

    Last week, the addition of new shelves in my wholesale department required moving, sorting and finding another home for several items. (The "wholesale department" is the closet where I store the patterns that I sell to quilt shops, who eventually sell those patterns to you.)  When I move one thing in my sewing area it sets off an avalanche of other moves.  The result was the unearthing of several more projects that were added to my UFO pile.  I decided that something had to be done and the time is now.  I have officially deemed this week as UFO Week.

    I began sifting through the pile, sorting the tops that need to be quilted from those that need borders and the quilted pieces that only need bindings.   I ended up with another pile that needs something... I'm not sure what it is that they need, but something has prevented me from thinking that the top is finished. That something is the reason the project landed in the UFO pile.

    I started to wonder.  What is the difference between a UFO and WIP?  Quilters like to use cute terms and abbreviations to label their work.  WIP stands for Work In Progress.  Aren't all unfinished projects works in progress?  Admittedly some progress is slow... very slow, but when do you decide there will be no more progress?  Why is it that some unfinished projects have hope as a WIP and others are banished to the corner or back of the closet as a UFO?  WIP projects are like those leftovers that you wrap and place in the frig with good intensions of using them for something tasty.  Then they get moved to the back, behind the things you use daily.  The next thing you know they are a UFO weeks old and headed for the trash.  What happened to the potential they had?  What keeps a WIP from being banished to the bottom of the UFO bin?

    With my Handi Quilter cleared of the latest project and not yet piled with stacks of deadline projects, I have decided to dedicate at least a part of each day toward making a dent in that UFO pile.  The tops that are simply waiting to be quilted is the easiest place to start.  

UFO Week, Project #1:

Project: Easy Street Quilt

Requires: To be quilted and bound.

The reason it is a UFO: This one is more of a WIP.  It is not quite 2 years old.  It is the sample featured on my Easy Street pattern that features the Straight Out Of Line ruler by Karla Alexander for Creative Grids.  Once the project photo is taken, I don't need to finish the project unless I want to show it off.  I will be vending at the quilt show in Jacksonville, Florida in September, so now is the perfect time to finish this project.      The REAL reason it is a UFO is that after assembling the blocks and taking the photo I noticed that the random arrangement of the blocks, wasn't as random as I originally thought.  Two blocks featuring the monkey print are facing the same way in the top row.  I set the quilt top aside, intending to take one of those blocks out and rotate it 90 degrees and put it back in before quilting the quilt.  Months later, those two blocks don't bother me anymore.  This is a baby quilt.  Will the baby that uses this quilt care about those monkeys that face the same way?  I doubt it.  Will that child not get into Harvard because their baby quilt had a block that may have looked better facing a different direction.  I think not.  I know for a fact that no baby will every enjoy using this quilt if it stays in my UFO pile.  Done is better than perfect.

Progress:  I have lots and lots of fabric in my sewing room so finding a backing for this project was easy.  It is not the perfect shade of green, but in my effort to save the life of a UFO, a fun backing is better than none.  I loaded it onto my Handy Quilter Amara.

    Next, I had to choose a thread color and quilting pattern.  I normally quilt with 50 wt. embroidery thread for one single reason.  I own a TON of it.  I have almost every color imaginable, so why not use it?  For this project I had the skimpy spool of the perfect color or the much larger spool of the "ok color".  I decided to play it safe and go with the ok color!  Running out of thread would certainly dampen my enthusiasm for finishing this project.

    My longarm is computerized so quilting is as simple as selecting the design you want and telling the machine the size of your quilt.  The computer makes the magic happen.  For this project I chose a curved design that looks like a monkey wrench to me.  There are monkeys on the fabric, so it seemed like a good choice.  While the Amara was doing its thing, I searched out a length of the border fabric that was cut from the edge of another quilt long ago.  It was more than enough to make the binding for this project.  (Side note: That border and binding fabric are a texture print that I designed many years ago for Timeless Treasures Fabrics.  I created the texture by doing a layered Crayola rubbing on the front of my refrigerator!)

    When the quilting machine was finished stitching the allover design, I trimmed and then stitched the binding in place.  I like to finish bindings by hand stitching the binding on the back of the quilt, but this quilt got the stitch in the ditch by machine finish.  FINISHED - that feels good!

Day one of UFO week was very productive!

Why don't you join me and celebrate UFO Week by finishing up a few of your own UFO's?

Pixies & Petals

 

    This post is going to be out of line.  Straight Out of Line.  That is the name of the ruler, designed by Karla Alexander, that I used for my latest Jaftex challenge.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that as a Brand Ambassador for Jaftex, I receive a mystery bag of fabric about every other month.  My job is to make something wonderful.  I love the challenge!  It is a lot like the TV program Chopped, but with fabric and a month-long time limit.

    The FedEx bundle was waiting for me when I arrived home from Sewposium.  It took a few days to recover from an exhausting week of wrangling 60 quilt shop owners, tossing around ideas and making plans with them for the upcoming year.  Once I caught up on lost sleep, I opened the package to find Pixies and Petals by Salt Meadown Designs for Henry Glass Fabrics.  These cuties brightened my sewing room and reminded me of our granddaughter Madeline.

    Thinking of her reminded me of the stop motion software that she received for Christmas and had downloaded on to my iPad.  A quick trip to Target to buy a doll to star in my show and some training from Madeline and I created this unboxing video.  TOO much fun!

    Now to make the quilt!  As soon as I saw the fabric, I knew that the Straight Out of Line Ruler would be the perfect size for these prints.  Random cutting has the pixies peeking out of the seam lines and
flying across the blocks.  I chose to make the center of the quilt in a checkerboard pattern, alternating the assorted fabrics from the collection with a white-on-white print.  

    I know this looks like one of those "why would I need that?" rulers.  I get that.  All I can say is that I own this ruler, and this is the FOURTH quilt I have made using it!  That is rare for someone that really doesn't like making the same thing twice.  The reason is that the quilts all look very different!

    The ruler is simple and easy to use.  It makes a four patch with "personality".  It also has the added bonus of allowing you to square up each block before sewing them together, so they go together like butter.  

    Once I had the center section together, I decided that this project really needed a border to finish it off.  With minimal yardage to work with, pieced borders are the only option.  I chose to continue the pattern in a row of blocks around the outside edge, eliminating the white.  That created what I think of as a virtual border, and it worked especially well for this project.

    Time for the big finish.  Batting, backing, binding and the photo shoot.  The only problem is that I have very little pink, lavender and light blue in my fabric stash.  Certainly nothing large enough to use for backing this 53" by 60" quilt.  Then I remembered a large piece of Shannon Cuddle that was stashed somewhere in my sewing room.  After searching a few nooks and crannies, I uncovered the lavender plush fabric that was exactly the size I needed.  It was like winning the lottery!

    Finishing a project with Cuddle or Minky type fabric has its own set of issues that need to be considered.  I added a layer of white pre-washed flannel as the batting.  You don't really need a batting layer when using plush fabric on the back.  I used the flannel to keep the purple backing from shadowing through the white-on-white fabrics on the front of the quilt.  All three layers were loaded on the quilting machine and lavender dragonflies joined the pixie party.

    I have to admit that applying binding to a quilt with plush backing is one of my very least favorite sewing chores.  It isn't difficult, just more labor than I think it should be.  It is possible to trim the plush, wrap it to the front and stitch it down by machine, and skip binding all together.  I'm not a fan of how that looks on the back.  I prefer a cotton binding.  That is more easily accomplished by stitching the binding to the plush side then wrapping it to the front to be stitched in place by hand or machine.  The problem is, plush is slippery. 

    Stitching the cotton binding in place is a slow process and requires far more pins than I like to use.  Once the binding has been stitched on the back, I have a trick I use to keep it in place while I top stitch it by machine.  Pellon EZ-Steam in the 1/4" width.  I fuse this tape to the seam allowance.  When you remove the paper backing, the surface is sticky.  You can finger press your binding in place, and it will stick.  The fusible isn't permanent until you iron the binding.  After everything is tacked down and my mitered corners are perfect, I machine stitch, very close to the edge of the binding.  This trick also works if you like to wrap your binding to the back and stitch in-the-ditch on the front of the quilt.

    Now my pixie doll has a snuggly quilt ready and waiting for Madeline's next visit!

FULL DISCLOSURE:

     The light turquoise I used for the binding isn't part of the fabric collection.  I had to go shopping for that piece.  I needed a 1/2 yard, but I bought a yard.... and a few other yards.... to match the 1/2 yard of turquoise that I will have leftover..... some might be two yards..... and some pink.... because as I said, I don't have much pink.... It is entirely possible that pixie is a bad influence. 😉

BITS & VERY SMALL PIECES

     I have never been very good at "crumb quilting".  It has been suggested that I should just do it and see how freeing that process can be. I disagree.  In my mind, you have to consider size, scale of print, color, style and proportion to create something that is pleasing to the eye.  I have also been told that I am bossy and a control freak.  

     Creative, Designer/Bossy, Control Freak.  It is a mess inside my brain.  I am a living breathing oxymoron.  I design the Scrap Crazy Template Sets for Creative Grids, but I like my scrap quilts organized and easy on the eye.  There is nothing wrong with piecing quilts with every fabric under the sun.  I am amazed at the wild and crazy work of others, but I can't duplicate that kind of freedom in my own sewing.  

     That brings us to this piece of work.  Those are the trimmed bits from the scrappy version of my Partial Credit pattern.  Those scrap units were within reach as I was piecing a totally different project.  I used them as "thread bunnies" or small scraps to stitch on so that something was always under my needle.  When I completed a section of the quilt, I stitched two random pieces together and left them under my needle while I pressed the pieces for the main quilt.  One thing led to another, and I started trimming the units and piecing the pieces.  I have no idea what this will eventually become, but I do know I will love it when it is finished.  I realized that I could crumb quilt with pleasing results if I organize my crumbs the way I organize the fabrics for my quilts.  They were right, the process is extremely fun.

     Then I happened to come across a Facebook post by Pat Sloan.  Pat saved all the scraps and trimmed pieces from every project she made in 2021.  She wanted to see if she could use those scraps and how much fabric was actually left from projects.  I am sure that Pat sews as much, if not more, than I do.  The scraps that are generated from a year of sewing are equal to several large quilts!  The control freak side of my brain would never allow me to create the wonky blocks that Pat generated, but I will say I was inspired!  I found that red/white block in the photo above very intriguing. I gave myself the afternoon off to experiment.

     We have talked about this bin before.  It contains all of what I call my Kim Diel style fabrics.  Both of the quilts shown were made with the fabric from that bin.  Several table runners and a few placemats came from there too. The bin is still full, but many of the pieces were slivers, chunks and leftover 2.5" squares that needed to go either into the trash or into a treasure.  I decided to try for treasure.  

     I sorted and pressed and made a general plan.  Instead of a scrappy center, I knew that I would want a focal point.  I drew a quick "scribble" flower and a few leaves on a sheet of paper.  Whatever I end up making should probably be a rectangle, so starting with a rectangle center made sense.  I did some quick machine applique and made a promise to myself that I would hand stitch the stem using 12wt. Spaghetti Thread sometime in the future.

     Part of the "plan" was to make the pieced part of the project mindless. To do that I knew I would need to set-up some "rules".  The darker pieced strips would be cut 2.5" wide.  The lighter pieces strips would be cut 1.5" wide.  The longest scrap I would allow in the light area would be 6.5" long.  The dark pieces would be much smaller.  These rules were determined by the 2.5" by 6.5" ruler I decided to use for this project.  It works as both a ruler and a template.  Put the scrap down and trim.  No reconsidering, no decision making, simply cut everything to a standard width. 

     I have work to do on other projects that have deadlines looming.  These bits and pieces will serve as my thread bunnies as I assemble those quilts.  Creating small sections of strips allows me to insert new colors into the assortment as I come across new scraps that work in this style/color.  With everything trimmed to the same width, random piecing really is mindless.  Some of those bits were former 4 Patch blocks, others were leftover Dresden Plate wedges.  The piece in the bottom row was a larger quarter square triangle.  The one on the end has yet to be trimmed.

     Once I had plenty of pieced sections I began adding them as borders to the center panel.  You can add, top & bottom then left & right or work your way around like a log cabin block.  Trim the pieces to the size needed as you go.

   

     The random piecing makes my creative brain happy.  The standard size of the wonky piecing makes the control freak in me accept the wonky-ness.  

     I'm not sure where this project is headed or how large it will become.  I do know that I have truly enjoyed the process of making it to this point.  I also have enough scraps to make it much larger!  For the time being I have put the bits, pieces and other supplies in one of my famous "bins".  I have added that bin to the table of scrappy projects that holds my "just for fun-no deadlines" projects.  When I have a few minutes or need some thread bunnies, those bins are in easy reach.
     

     I hope you are inspired to do a little crumb quilting of your own.  Fabric is expensive.  You pay for every bit of fabric that goes into your quilt.  You pay the same amount for all of the fabric that is leftover.  Make those leftovers into a treasure!  Have some fun!
   

BEE Finished!

     Dare I say that I have been "busy as a bee"?  I have finished the lap quilt from the Bee You line from Henry Glass & Co fabrics.  It was so much fun to work on these cute little prints.  

    I am very happy with the black background floral print as my setting triangles.  It is a nice contrast to the other softer color prints.  It also allowed me to "extend" the black into the border so that I could make a larger quilt.  I did sneak in that darker shade of yellow that is not part of the fabric line, to add a bit of variety and coordinate with the darker yellow in the background print.  I always think that adding another fabric adds a bit of "life" to the project and makes the fabric group shine.

    This project really spoke to my mantra "It is all in having the right tools".  I used the Creative Grids Hexagon Trim Tool to cut the hexi and half hexi shapes.  You need to partner that with the 60 degree triangle for the background triangles.  In place of the triangle ruler, I used the "A" template from the 6" Scrap Crazy Template Set.  It is also a sixty degree triangle and it is the perfect size to work with the 8" finished hexagons.  Clipping all three corners on those setting triangles made the pieces go together perfectly.  I was concerned about the rows matching up, but a generous spray of sizing before I cut and the geometry built into the rulers, and those points are perfect!  I do mean perfect!  There are a few hundred points in that quilt and there are only a few that are off by a single stitch.  As my Grandmother would say "A blind man would be glad to see those"!

    I will admit that the differential feed on my BERNINA 770 was extremely helpful in bringing those points together.  Once again, it is all about having the right tools.

    I chose a simple butterfly design for the all-over quilting pattern.  That was stitched with a soft yellow thread.  Yellow enough to be interesting, but not so bright that you see the thread before you see the fabrics and design.

   There were several fabric prints that I didn't use in this quilt.  One is the border print and another was the tossed hexagon print.  Both are very cute, but not suitable for the quilt project.  While my Handi Quilter was stitching away, I put together a quick table runner.  

    I cut two identical pieces of border print, about 18" long.  Between those I stitched what would be the equivalent of a fat quarter of the tossed hexagon print.  Press the seams and you are done!  I added the runner to the Handi Quilter to use up the extra backing fabric.  I reduced the scale of the butterfly quilting design and let the Handi Quilter do its thing.  A little black binding on both pieces closed the book on these projects.

    But wait... there is more!  The hexi block print fabric was just begging to be a matching tea towel.  I just happened to have a black tea towel from Studio e, so I trimmed, folded, stitched and added a bit of ribbon trim to the towel.  Just for fun, I ran a straight stitch about 1 1/2" above the bottom hem.  Then I cut the bottom hem off and fringed the bottom of the towel to create a decorative edge.  I think this set is going to "bee" an extra holiday gift for one of my girls.  I guess I was doing holiday sewing after all!