Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap: July

I recently joined an Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap online. Each month I send someone on the list two hexie flowers in the colors of they've chosen and I in turn receive one or two flowers from another person on the list. There are about 60 people participating in the swap. The members are from all over the world: USA, Australia, Canada, the UK, Croatia, Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, Iceland, and even, India!

I received the two striped hexie flowers from Karily P in Idaho and the red/gold hexie flower is from Linda McC. in Ontario, Canada (according to my list I should have received Linda's in September...she's just a little early!).

I'll be sending two hexie flowers out to Christine in New South Wales, Australia on Monday.

I think this swap is going to be a lot of fun and interesting to see the fabrics that come from around the world!

Have a great weekend!

Patti

That Doesn't Look Good . . . .

As some of you know, we are in the process of replacing our driveway. We had a crew here last Friday tearing out the old asphalt drive. It left us with a nice gravel/dirt driveway that makes me feel like I'm living out in the country.

G's cousin is doing the driveway replacement this week. He and his son came over tonight to take a look at the front left corner of the garage -- we had a couple of huge gaping holes that they wanted to check out. After digging down about 2 ft. they found this:

They will be digging out the entire front of the garage to see just how far the cinderblock failure runs. We also noticed a hole on the front left of our porch which they're also going to dig out and see what's going on.

Hopefully, by the end of this week, we'll have a beautiful cement driveway....rain, rain stay away!!!!!!

Later,

P

Repurpose......

A few years ago, I was at a garage sale when I came across what was left of a young girls bedroom set. You know the kind ... back in the 60's or 70's when every little girl wanted a big canopy bed with the matching desk, dresser and chair! I picked up the dresser, desk and chair for the bargain price of $10.00 for all three pieces. The finish looked like an antique white with these little blue and yellow flowers on the drawer fronts. Not exactly my decor style so I proceeded to paint all three pieces white. The dresser and desk were both missing knobs ... they were those white porcelain knobs with very vintage feel. I took the knobs from the desk to fill in the missing spaces on the dresser; and replaced the desk knobs with new "brushed nickle" ones.


My my recently made the decision to move from Michigan to Minnesota and will be moving in with me and hubby. As a result, I needed to empty our office/paper crafting room and guest room so they could both be painted and refinish the floors. Mom will end up in the former craft room and my craft room will move to the former guest room. (Hubby's office moved to the basement.) So, I had to figure out what to do with this little desk. I didn't really have any room for it anywhere else in the house, but I didn't want to get rid of it. What should I do? So I started thinking .......maybe I could cut off the right side of the desk and just keep the half with the drawers. So hubby and I got to work. After a little bit of wood putty, sanding, priming and painting ... then a little bit of distress work .... we came up with this little beauty!

The new "chest" now resides in our living room next to my chair where it hides my knitting projects as well as some other needlecraft handwork (embroidery and English paper piecing). I really love how it turned out.

What have you recently repurposed in your home?

Happy crafting,

Patti

Hexie Fever

My newest obsession ... 1" hexies.

If you're not familiar with English paper piecing, you start out with a cardstock shape - hexagons, triangles, diamonds, etc. Then baste fabric around the hexie paper. And finally, hand sew your hexies together to make a beautiful quilt top!

I'm starting out with Civil War reproduction fabrics for my "flower petals" with a solid black Kona cotton center. My plans are for this to be a quilt for my bed ... well, mine and hubby's! I've already calculated that I need 1,612 hexies for my quilt ... which also means I need about 230 "flowers". As you can see from my picture I've already got a start ... and I have another 23 flowers to add. So, let's see ... that means I only have another 199 flowers to put together!

I already have plans for other hexie projects using fabrics from lines like Three Sisters and French General. One day....

I recently joined an online "inchy hexagon flower" swap. A lot of the participants in the swap are from Australia and New Zealand, but there are also some from Croatia, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Denmark..to name a few. I'm really excited to be participating in the swap and look forward to all the "inchy hexagon flowers" I'll be receive in the future!

Have a great weekend!

Patti

I'm so ready for Spring!

I've been sitting here looking out my patio window, my rocking chair buried in the snow. There's an awful lot of snow out there and I know there's only more to come. February is our snowiest month here in Minnesota. But I can sit here and dream of when the snow is all gone, the grass is green and my flower beds are alive with color! I've been thinking about making some changes to my flower beds. Expanding some...getting rid of others. I'd even like to plant some vegetables this spring .... tomatoes, green peppers, maybe even some green beans. Maybe I should pull out some of my gardening books and start planning. Maybe even order some seed catalogs. There's so much possibility!

Spring must be just around the corner .... unfortunately, right now, looking at all the snow .... maybe it will get here in June!

Stay warm,
Patti