Hexies and Bow-ties

How many times we've heard the breezy statement "just enjoy the process" when it comes to creating a quilt.  Words that are generally muttered repeatedly while in the midst of a never-ending project involving thousands of tiny multi-cornered pieces requiring set-in seams, or attempting tiny hand quilting through the multiple layers of those same tiny pieces with multiple seam joins. Now, and this is just my opinion, if we are totally honest with ourselves and each other, we'll just come out and say that sometimes the "process" is just plain T.E.D.I.O.U.S, and the mantra that might better serve is "better finished than perfect"!

Having three projects of queen and king size either in hoops or under the machine for quilting, plus another ginormous king-size bundle leering at me from the corner where I shoved it months ago, had me wanting, no, needing a small, do-able, FUN project, and quick!

I'll admit it, I've never been a fan of hexies, don't want to own a hexie quilt,  and I sure don't want to make one!  But then along came Marie of QuiltBee with these table toppers she is making for a holiday sale, and I just couldn't resist trying "just one."  After all, these hexies are huge, and woo-hoo, no inset seams! 

So, I made one

First one now quilted and ready for stitching down binding

and then another

and before you know it, the pile grew like Topsy!

And I haven't even gotten to the autumn-themed fabric or Christmas holiday bins which was what I originally intended when beginning this new project!  These toppers were made from a pile of scraps and some fat quarters and left-over-from-other projects that were easily accessible.

Then, last week I gave our quilt ministry group a demonstration of how to cut the hexies, and the piecing process.  And got several of them hooked ...  One of whom is 90 years young, and is hand quilting a king-size top she had pieced over 20 years ago in her previous quilting life.  Yes, she was getting tired of dragging that thing to our weekly meetings, and this new project is perfect for her too!

I hope to get that first binding hand stitched down later today, for gift-giving this weekend when we visit an older couple who we haven't seen in nearly a year.  Then, the others I'll work on more slowly,  attempt some more elaborate quilting on a few of them, and plan most of them for Christmas gifts.  A big thanks to Marie for her help getting started down this new avenue!

In other quilt ministry news, I finished up eleven more bow-tie blocks this morning, enough to complete a lap size nursing home quilt.  Here's a mock-up of how those blocks may end up in the finished top.

Made from donated scrap fabrics of unknown vintage, bright and cheerful, as I think they should be for a person who spends his/her days in a wheelchair.  Now I just need to find a cheerful backing fabric and get this "opportunity" quilt finished in the next couple weeks.

Heavy winds and rain last night, and some of the nearby hills are bare of leaves, though neighboring hillsides are aglow in the golds and russets of the oak forests whose fall glory just emerged in the last few days.  My favorite season of the year, and all too short it seems.