Friday, September 13, 2013

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another . . . ?

New Mexico is in a drought for the past few years.  So, we pray for rain. And boy have we gotten rain!!

The governor has declared the State of New Mexico a disaster. It hasn't stopped raining for several days. Several counties have severe flooding and people's homes have been damaged.  Interstate highway 40 has been flooded so severely that there is a sink hole in the middle of the highway.

It is hard to talk about quilting when all these disasters are going on around me.

I just noticed that the neighbor's wood stove chimney is oozing smoke.  That is a sure sign that summer is over.  She is always the first to fire up her stove. She lives in a 2 bedroom adobe house that her husband built. In case you have never lived in, read, or heard about adobe houses, they always retain the heat/cold for 12 hours. Adobe is a great insulator against the heat/cold. It is always cool in the summer because it retains the cool from the night. And, it is always warm in the winter with minimum effort and wood because it retains the heat from the stove. I love it! I wish my cabin was adobe!

Yesterday I got my latest order of fabric. Part of the order was for my daughter. She has a small business that she is trying to get off the ground.  She sells cookie bouquets . . . Carmela's Cookies.  She wanted specific fabrics for her bouquet baskets. 

I love getting fabric delivered! It's just like Christmas!  I know the fabric is what I will be selling, but still.  I get to open the package . . .(Christmas). I get to play with the new fabric (new Christmas toy). And last but not least, I get to keep the scraps (Christmas Present).  YAY!

I have always saved all my scraps from making clothes for myself and my family andI have always used them in my quilts.  But now, I have an abundance of scraps from cutting all the different shapes for my customers.  I am in heaven!  Just thinking about the scraps puts me in a great mood and with that thought I will close for tonight.

Meanwhile . . .keep on quilting!
Aveli


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Just Beautiful!

This is the view from my sewing room during a short break from the rain!  This is why I love it so much living here!

It's raining . . . I'm Quilting!

Last night, we were expecting rain because it was predicted. It rained all night and is expected to rain all day today and tomorrow!  I have no problem with it because we need the rain. New Mexico has been experiencing a severe drought and our local lake is getting mighty low.  It is kind of cool and cloudy because of the rain.  After the heat we experienced around Labor Day, this coolness is welcomed.

Since it is raining and we can't be outside, I will be quilting or sewing that is.  I am still working on my string scrap basket weave quilt.

For the most part, I have finished the top except for the borders.  Because the quilt is set on point, it has zig zagging endings on each side.  I finally, after much debating with myself, decided to square off the sides.

So, I proceeded to take the 4 1/2 inch blocks that I have been working with to make the top and cut them in half to fill in the zig zag parts.  Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the quarter inch seam allowance . . .I guess I had a senior moment.  All the blocks that I had cut in half were wasted!  I went back to the cutting board and cut a sample with the quarter inch seam allowance. Then I sewed that sample onto the quilt and it worked perfectly!  YAY!

But, since I was so ambitious cutting the blocks in half without the seam allowance, I am now short a few blocks to use in the zig zags . . .back to the sewing machine!

That is what I will be doing today! Next time, I promised myself, I will only cut a couple of blocks and test sew before I cut a bunch! You would think I wouldn't make such a "beginner's" error, but like I said I had a "Senior Moment"  LOL!!!

Now I have to figure out what to do with all those blocks that are cut in half???

In the meantime, everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

National Quilting Month -- ooops! "National Sewing Month" and Rain!

Looks like there are more clouds and rain in our future!


Today starts "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"!  YAY!  Of course, being a quilter, we are always sewing . . . right?

I have been doing my part since last week when my daughter left.  I got back to sewing on my basket weave scrappy string quilt. It was originally going to be a lap quilt, but I really liked it and decided to enlarge it.  It is now up to a queen size quilt and has the overlap on the length to cover the pillows. Today I have been finishing up adding the blocks to make it queen size.  So I greeted "National Quilting (Sewing) Month" at 5 a.m. this morning with my project on the machine . . . see picture below.

Sorry about the quality, this was taken with my phone! 
That's the phone book pages you see on the back of the quilt. I used my old phone book pages for foundation piecing. Our local phone book is the size of half of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  I cut the blocks to 4 1/2 inches square.  That way I can get 2 blocks out of each half sheet.  One of our phone books is enough, with some left over for the next project, to make this queen size quilt.

What are you working on during this "National Quilting (Sewing) Month"?  Is it something you have been working on for awhile or did you just start it within the past few weeks?  I would love to hear about it or see pictures of your projects!

Meanwhile . . .everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

Lots of Unexpected Rain!

We didn't get a forecast for rain, but here it is! Although it wasn't expected, it was very much welcome. Since we have been in a severe drought in New Mexico, this little bit yesterday was welcomed with open arms.
 This is a view toward our hills from my sewing room.
 

And here is another view from the other window.  As you can see whichever window I chose to look out of, I have great scenery to look at while I sip my coffee, tea, soda or water while I sew!
  


In the meantime, everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli




Thursday, August 29, 2013

Busy Weekend and Labor Day

The family barbecue was a huge success!  I am so glad that everyone showed up, enjoyed the food and stayed late!  My sister in law and hubby and his sister were the last to leave. They seemed like they really didnt want to leave.  I told them to spend the night. . .we have the extra room! I think they would have stayed but they already had another barbecue to go to the next day and they were leaving today for Albuquerque and then for California.  They did promise to come and spend a couple of nights with us next time.  They totally fell in love with the beauty of the area . . .everyone does.

Friday we are going to "Bean Day" at Wagon Mound.  Wagon Mound is a small town just Northeast of Las Vegas, New Mexico.  They have a big celebration for Labor Day and call it Bean Day.

Saturday, we are off to the flea market again in the morning.  Then, we are going to a local fund raiser dance in the evening.  I expect to dance a lot with my husband. We love to dance! This fund raiser is for the local school.

Sunday, the is the annual Cleveland Mill Fest.  This is a big local event every Labor Day weekend. It is another small town but this time just past the town of Mora.  It has tours of the water wheel powered flour mill that used to operate in the area. It has been restored and is operational, but is not used for grinding flour any more. There are lots of vendors of all types -- food, candy, crafts of all sorts, music and performers of various talents.  Lots of fun for three days! No entrance fee!

Monday, back to Wagon Mound for the barbecue and Rodeo!

So you see, We are going to be pretty busy this weekend!  Very little time for sewing or quilting, darn!  But!!! I will be working on my string basket weave quilt in the early morning hours before we leave for all this activity, LOL!

Hope you all have a safe Labor Day Holiday and maybe get in some quilting!

Aveli



Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Family Barbecue

My Sister-in-Law and her husband and her husband's sister are coming over today.  They are visiting from California.  They come every year around this time for the chili and the chicos.

In New Mexico, the green chili crop is harvested around this time and continues through September.  New Mexico green chili is some of the tastiest, hottest chili pepper around . . .so I've heard!  I have never cared for the green variety. I really like the red.

My sister-in-law and my husband were born and raised in New Mexico with all the typical hispanic foods. Green and Red chili is part of that food tradition.  So, every year, they come to buy and dry or freeze green chili pods and take back to California. Usually they take enough for the whole year.

Today, they are coming for 2 reasons, to visit the grave of a brother and to visit us. We are planning to have a barbecue.  Nothing fancy, just hamburgers, hot dogs, macaroni salad, watermelon, ice tea and cokes. Oh, my husband has invited his cousin and wife to also attend and she is bringing a chocolate cake! YUM! YUM!  I invited the two neighbor ladies and they are coming also.

It seems like we will be having a pretty good group. I really enjoy having company here in Guadalupita, especially for a barbecue in the summer!  Even if it means I can't sew today, LOL!

I have been cutting an order for 3 inch fabric circles. So, I haven't done much sewing the past couple of days. Tomorrow I will finish the order and ship it out in the morning mail on Friday.  Saturday we are going to a local benefit dance and dinner and Sunday is the Cleveland Mill Fest, which occurs every Labor Day weekend.  I am not participating this year but we are going to go and check out the other craft vendors.

It seems the next 4 or 5 days are going to be pretty busy.  Hopefully I will be able to get some sewing done!
Maybe if I get up at 4 A.m.!!! LOL!

Meanwhile, everyone keep on quilting!

Aveli

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Back to School Time!

Here in New Mexico, it is back to school time. I still can't get used to the idea of kids starting school in August.  In California, when my kids were in school, they started in September.

Either way, it is a signpost for Fall!  Get ready here it comes!

It seems just yesterday that we were celebrating Spring. Now the days seem just a bit shorter and the sun comes up just a bit later.  Before you know it we will be in full swing for the holidays.

The stores have already put up halloween decorations and Christmas decorations are starting to pop up here and there. I am still thinking of summer and "what else can we do this summer?" LOL!  It seems that I never seem to catch up with the seasons. I always seem to still be thinking of the previous season when the next season is creeping up.

This year I want to make some type of  "Christmas Quilt".  But, I am having difficulty starting.  The problem is that I can't make up my mind which "Christmas Quilt" to make. Do I make placemats or a table topper?  Either of these would be great because they are fast and will probably be finished in time for THIS Christmas!  Or, do I do a wall hanging? This would also be great because it would decorate the cabin for Chritstmas .. . I was thinking a wall hanging of a Christmas tree would be good.  That way, I really don't have to put a real tree in the cabin.  My cabin is only 14 feet by 24 feet and has a lot of furniture in it.  But then again, I really want a full sized bed quilt in christmas colors. . . can you see my dilemma?

Any suggestions? What did you do when you wanted a "Christmas Quilt"?

Aveli


Monday, August 19, 2013

Time To Sew!!

Now that my daughter has gone home, its time for me to get back to work on my basket weave string quilt!
Here is my container full of strips ready to be sewn.

 

This a.m. I had my tea ready and started bright and early!


  My cabin feels so lonely and too quiet without my granddaughter running around!  I texted my daughter this a.m. when I awoke to see how far they had gotten during the night. They should have reached Los Angeles Union station around 7 a.m. 

I received the most awful news about their trip. They were not even to Kingman, Arizona yet at 7 a.m.!  Apparently the train experienced some kind of mechanical difficulties during the night and they were stopped for 2 hours in the desert. She said the worst part was that the air conditioning was not working in their coach so it was very warm and stuffy! She carried my granddaughter to the lounge/observation car where the air was working and it was cool.  Thankfully my granddaughter slept through the night, even though she was sweating most of the time.

Amtrak was not forthcoming with any information and did not offer any comfort about the inconvenience.  She said the passengers were kept in the dark, literally, no lights! Conductors and porters were nowhere to be found to be questioned about the status of the train.

When my daughter caught the train in Las Vegas, NM they must have been experiencing problems already because they were over an hour late getting to Las Vegas.  They will be over 6 hours late getting to L.A. Union Station.  

I guess you get what you pay for!  Even though the train is cheaper than airlines, they are also starting to charge extra for everything!  My son-in-law said they no longer hand out free pillows!!  They offer an $8.00 package of a tiny pillow and a small blanket. . . . WOW!

Well, back to quilting . . . 

Aveli

Sunday, August 18, 2013

She's Gone!

My daugthter left for California today!  I am so sad! I miss them already and I miss the squeeky laughter of my little granddaughter!

I guess all I can do is get back to quilting . . . but not tonight.  We went to Las Vegas and dropped off my daughter and her family at the train station, left and went to a baby shower in Mora.  Then we came home. I am exhausted! I don't know if its from emotional goodbyes or just from a long day.

Tomorrow I will get back to my basket weave string quilt and probably sew all day, but not tonight!

Aveli

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Baby Quilt is Finished, Part 2

Here it is the day before the baby shower and I am waiting on the pink baby quilt to finish drying!  I don't like to dry new quilts in the dryer, especially a gift quilt. For that matter, I don't dry any of my hand made quilts in the dryer, it wears them out quicker.  I thought I had finished the baby quilt but then noticed that the border was kind of wavy. I thought that a little quilting would straighten it out. Here is the border with the quilting. I added a little cable stitch. Hope you can see it.




Here is a picture that is closer on the cable stitch in case the above picture doesn't show well.

 

I was starting to panic a little because it was Thursday and I hadn't finished the cable on the borders, but my daughter offered to help with the quilting on the borders. So with her help, I calmed down and we finished in time!  Now the only thing left is for it to dry and I will wrap it later today. . .the party is tomorrow!


Do you think the borders look wavy now?


My daughter and her family are leaving tomorrow! :( I have had so much fun while they were here.  Yesterday we went to the Pecos Indian Ruins National Park. My husband and I have been there before, but it is a very enjoyable place to visit and see all the history behind that area.  We then went to Santa Fe, ate some Chinese food and went shopping at my favorite hobbies and crafts store!  When we got home, we were all exhausted! It was a full day starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m.

After my daughter leaves I will set up my sewing again and continue with my string basket weave quilt.  I will let you know how that goes.  I am almost ready to put it on the quilting frame to hand quilt it and start another one.  All in all, I will be making 3 of the string basket weave quilts for my kids. I have 4 kids, but I have already made my youngest son a quilt. So, I only need 3 more!  

Of course, that's only my children.  I still need to make quilts for all the grandchildren!  Oh my goodness!

Meanwhile . . .keep on quilting everyone!

Aveli

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Having a Great Time with my Daughter!

My daughter, her husband, her little girl arrived and have been here since last Friday!  YAY!

We went to Santa Fe on Saturday to meet up with the younger daughter and her family.  All total, we were eleven!  We had so much fun!  We went to lunch and then went craft shopping.  The only problem was that my son's truck would not start!!  So, we moved all his stuff to our car and parked the truck in the parking lot.  Left a note that said we would be back to haul it home on Sunday.

When we got home, it was late so we called it a night.  Early Sunday morning, I got up to make breakfast for everyone. Bacon, potatoes, bacon and fresh coffee!  My workers -- my son and my son-in-law -- went to work on the roof of our new storage shed.  They tore off the old roofing paper, took out all the nails and put on new self-stick roofing paper.  The hail storm 2 weeks ago had torn up the roofing paper that we had just laid the week before and we had to replace it.  They worked so quickly that they got half the "Pro-panel" aluminum roofing put on.

At dinner time, we ate the barbecue ribs that my son had prepared in the early morning hours and had cooked all day while I supervised.  We invited the two neighbor ladies and my husband's cousin came by so we asked him to stay for dinner also!  The dinner menu, besides the ribs, had macaroni salad that I made and corn on the cob cooked on the grill. The whole dinner was just great and the ribs were scrumptious!  Early Monday morning, the workers started on the other half of the roof and finished just as the rain started coming down.  As soon as the work was done, my son got his things and left for his 3 hour trip back to Albuquerque and to work that evening!

All in all, it was a pretty successful weekend!

Today, my daughter is horseback riding with my husband's cousin in the mountains. They will be here until Sunday.  Thank goodness she is helping me with the border on the pink baby quilt!  I have to have it ready for Sunday . . .the party is on Sunday! I promise to post pictures of the completely finished baby quilt.

In the meantime. . .keep on quilting!
Aveli

Monday, August 5, 2013

The Count Down has started!

D-Day is 4 1/2 days away!

Daughter Day that is!  She, hubby and my precious granddaughter will be here on Friday, the 9th at 3:30p.m. in Las Vegas, New Mexico on the train!

I am so excited! I still have a million things to do to baby proof this cabin. I have just finished taking out all my sewing fabrics, tools and knick knacks. Next comes installing the new rugs. Then changing the beds and washing all the linens!  Whew! I am tired just writing about it.

I have also decided to quilt on the pink baby quilt. I will put a cable pattern on the white border around the quilt.  Hopefully that will disguise the wrinkles that showed up after I put the binding in.


I am also going to make a little mattress and pillow for the baby doll cradle for my granddaughter.  Hope I get everything done in time because I would like to make a cake to surprise them with when they get here. I guess I can make that on Friday morning!

O.K. gotta go!

Keep on Quilting. . .

Aveli

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Customer's Picture of Hexie Box

Linda requested the hexie box pattern, which is free.  She made the following boxes with the free pattern.


The purple and the printed box are made out of cardstock. The plain white was made out of a cereal box.  Great for recycling!

Here is what she said:

"Dear Aveli,  I am sending pix of my attempts at making hexagon boxes.  The cereal box boxes were fine and I, like you, go for function vs. pretty :). It helped to score with the retracted end of a pen on the wrong side  to make fold lines.  Out of curiosity I did buy a couple sheets of scrapbook paper.  Being less stiff, it made sharper folds. I hope that you can see the differences."

As a thank you gift, I am sending her a packet of Hexie Freezer Shapes. Thank You Linda!

You too can get a free packet of Precut Hexagon Freezer Paper Shapes.  Anytime you use one of our products, take a picture and include a short comment or tip and email it to us.

When we use your picture and comment, we will mail you a free packet of precut hexagon Freezer Paper shapes.

Meanwhile. . .
Keep on Quilting!

Aveli

Finally Pink Baby Quilt is Done!

 I haven't been posting the past few days because I have been diligently frantically working on getting this pink baby quilt finished!

Well, Here it is!  I just finished the binding and took some pictures to post.  I didn't put any quilting on the border.  But now that I look at these pictures, I see that the border is still crooked!!!  I guess that I will have to add some kind of quilting in the border to "hide" the crooked wrinkles that I see in the left lower corner and the upper right corner.  I have no idea how that happened! Maybe because I was in a rush to finish before my daughter comes next week.

 

 This is a close up of the hand quilting that I did. It doesn't look too bad! Does it?
 

 There is not much else I can do to improve it, now that it is finished.  I will add a little quilting in the border during this week.  It shouldn't take too long.  Plus, I have to wash it and wrap it in a box.

Now since that is finished, I can get back to my string quilt!  Oh, wait, I have to wait until my daughter leaves from her stay here with us!  

I can't possibly be sewing on the sewing machine because it is in the cabin where they will be staying.  I can't move it because all my sewing supplies are in there too!  Oh well, I guess it's time to get back to my hexagon "insanity" quilt while she is here!

I love my hexagon project! It is still a long ways away from being put together, but I love the hand work.  I am still forming the individual hexies and then forming the individual flowers for the center.

I will post pictures of my progress later this week.

Meanwhile . . .
Keep on Quilting!

Aveli

 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Well Almost Done!

I thought for sure I would finish the pink Irish chain baby quilt for the neighbors great grandbaby today!

But, it seems that although I have finished my hand quilting on the blocks, I can not mark the border for quilting because it is slightly askew!!!

I can't believe that I missed that when mounting the quilt on the frame!  Anyway, I have to fix that before I can finish the binding and I am reconsidering putting any kind of quilting on the border. I so hate ripping things out that I thought were done.  So maybe I can finish tomorrow!  Tonight I am physically finished!  I quilted like a madwoman for the last week and half to get this done and the baby doll quilt too.

I am coming down to the wire to get this done before my daughter arrives next week.  Why do I have to finish it now? Because once my daughter and granddaughter are here we are going to party!  No time for quilting!! Unfortunately!  But she is only going to be here for a week, so I have to make sure every minute is spent with them and enjoying their presence!

Soooo, tomorrow is another great day to quilt!

In the meantime, everyone keep on quilting,

Aveli

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Quilting Away on a Baby Quilt Gift

This is the baby quilt I am working on. My dear neighbor's granddaughter-in-law is expecting a girl in September.  She has been so kind and helpful to us since we moved here that I felt compelled to make this baby quilt for the new baby.

 

Here you can see a close up of the hand quilting that I am doing. I am almost done with it.  I will post a picture of it when it is finished.

I have to work on this to get it done before my daughter comes on the 9th so I can fold it up and put it away.  Don't want my little granddaughter getting into it.  But, I also still have to make that little mattress and pillow for the Baby Doll Cradle for my granddaughter.  Hope it all gets done in time.

Meanwhile any other projects or UFO's that I have, including the string basket weave quilt, is on the sideline until after my daughter leaves.

I just heard from my youngest son and he said he will be here when the oldest daughter comes from California!  YAY! Now, if we could only get the youngest daughter to bring her little family also, then we could almost have a complete family reunion.  What fun! 

My youngest son wants to rework the roof on the new storage shed we are building.  We had a severe hailstorm and it ripped up the roofing paper that had just been laid the week before.  That has to be replaced before we can put the propanel aluminum shingles.  Maybe my son-in-law will help a little while they are here.  My husband is not physically able to help anymore since his stroke.

Meanwhile, Keep on Quilting!

Aveli


Friday, July 26, 2013

Baby Doll Cradle and Finished Quilt

This is the baby doll cradle that we bought at the flea market. I thought it was a good deal because it is all wood and it was only $12!  You can tell it has been used a lot because it has a few "dirty" little fingerprints on it!  It just needs a good washing and that should take off the fingerprints.

I have put the actual baby doll and the little quilt that I made for it in the cradle so you can see how it will look all together.




It has curved pedestals so it can rock very easily.

 
 Now what I have to do is make a little mattress and pillow so the doll won't be uncomfortable, LOL!

I thought a couple of layers of batting inserted into a pillow type casing should do for the mattress and another couple of small layers for the pillow would be perfect! I think that I will actually attach the little pillow to the mattress so it won't get lost.  Anyway, if it needs washing, I can throw the whole thing in the washing machine!

I was also thinking of adding a few hexagons to the pillow cover.  A while back I made some 1/2" hexagons to see if I was interested in doing that size.  Since then, I have decided that they are too small for me and just put them away.  Those are just the right size for this project!

I will post more photos as I finish the mattress and pillow for the cradle.

Keep on quilting!

Aveli










Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Baby Doll Quilt Finished!

So Yesterday I finished the baby doll quilt! YAY!

I sewed the backing, which is purple and pink hearts, to the quilt top on the machine. You can see the backing in the picture below. I decided on sewing on the machine because I didn't think I had enough time to hand quilt. After I finished sewing the two layers together I needed to bind it and decided to use the border for binding.

First I trimmed the backing close to the quilt top edge as seen below in the picture.


 Next, I rolled the border back onto the backing and tucked it under itself and pinned. See picture below.
 

Here you can see the rolled border from the front -- before and after rolling and pinning.  


I hand stitched the binding in the back and that was it! I loved making this little quilt from all my scrap crumbs.(tiny pieces) It really did save a lot of fabric and makes a very nice little quilt for a baby doll for granddaughter! Now that I saw how cute this came out, I think I will use my other scrap strips to make a table topper for the cabin. Although, I wont use white for the sashing, maybe a wine.

Now to get back to the baby quilt that I am hand quilting for my neighbor's granddaughter who is expecting in September. I will post pictures of that quilt some time later this week when I am finished.

Keep on Quilting!
Aveli

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Hexagon Adventure, Chapter 2

Well as mentioned before I had cut my plastic hexagon template from a 1 gallon plastic milk jug.  Great! Now I am ready to cut the hexagons and start sewing. . .wrong!

What on earth will I use to mark the hexagons?? In my sewing experience I have used chalk, chalk markers and #2 pencil.  But this is quilting! There are so many types of markers out there. I guess the only way to find out which is best is to try them out.

I had heard that you can print on the back of the fabric and then cut shapes out for your quilting. I did that but when I test washed the fabric the ink bled into the rest of the fabric.  I guess that's out. On to markers, I tried regular markers from the dollar store.  First, the tip was too big and chunky and second, they went through the material to the front of the fabric. Then I tried fabric markers, same as the dollar store variety. Then I bought this really expensive pen made for marking on fabric. I got the white one.  It was really neat and was a fine tip and showed up really well and didn't go through the fabric and didn't bleed when washed. So, what was the problem? For some reason, when I was writing on the fabric, the ink didn't show up for a good 30 seconds later. So, for each line I drew I had to wait 30 seconds to make sure the line wasn't crooked or that it had drawn with enough ink. With hexagons having 6 sides, that came out to 3 minutes to draw each hexie!! I had to draw hundreds of these . . .that was not going to work out. I thought I was doing something wrong so I did some research and found out that other quilters were having the same problem as I was with the delay in showing up.

So now I went to pencils.  Regular colored pencils were no good because they need a heavy pressure in order to draw on fabric and that pressure would stretch the fabric. The last resort was my trusty #2 pencil.  Very thin line when sharp, does not need a lot of pressure, washes out and is pretty cheap!  Later I tried a #1 pencil.  Do you know how difficult it is to get a #1 pencil in the mountains?  Practically impossible! I ordered a box of #1 pencils online and used it very successfully.  It is a very soft lead so very little pressure is needed for marking and like #2, washes out completely. Then I discovered that I could get a #1 lead in a mechanical pencil --- I was in heaven.

So here I am merrily drawing and cutting and forming my little hexies.  YAY! I went from wanting a dresser scarf to wanting a bed cover.  So I started looking for a workable pattern where I could use the rows that I had already sewn.  Then I discovered the "Insanity Quilt" made in 1/2" hexies!!!

Oh my word was it beautiful! I was in love! I immediately decided that the hexies I was making were too large . . .LOL! I decided to use my one inch freezer paper foundations that I sell on my website and start all over! OH NO, Really???

Stay tuned for Chapter 3 in my ongoing Hexagon Adventure . . . .

Everyone, keep on quilting!
Aveli