Thread for sale and Hexies!

 Happy Mother's Day to all of you!  This was a good day for me to enjoy and get some things done.  The day is nearly done, and I am not finished with my list, but good progress was made, and it was relatively relaxing.  The important things like helping Sophie do the quilting on her quilt due to VQF in 4 weeks are done.  I need ideas on how an 8yr old can bind a quilt without tears (from her or me!).

I am also cleaning out getting ready for a big garage sale.  I have these to offer to whoever wants them.  They are Coats and Clark all cotton 35wt, machine quilting thread (sold by Joanns for $3.49 per spool).  I will sell the entire lot of threads here for $25 and I will eat the domestic shipping cost. That is $1.50 per full spool and $1 for the mostly full/partial spools. There are 11 full spools and 9 mostly full spools.  Please email or post if you want this.

 Here's a couple pics from our family's annual homage to the Portland tulip gardens.  It often coincides with Mother's Day, because that is when they tend to be blooming.  This is something we have done every year except for only a couple since my oldest was born.  Now, he's the most likely one to protest and not want to smile.  The way I see it, I will likely have 5-6 years of pictures where there are grumpy looks.

 Thankfully my daughter still enjoys the trip.

The Hexies...This is my current hand piecing project.  I have a massive bag of large-scale, mostly modern prints that I am cutting these from.  It started as a project borne solely from my stash fabrics, but then I went to Paducah and completely fell off the wagon.  

The quilt layout is up in the air still, but I think it will require 16-20 pieced units similar to these... 

These hexagon blocks are about 12"x12", and have 37 pieces.  They have 90 hand pieced seams, and take about 5 hours to stitch, and another hour or so to design and cut out.  If I am lucky.

The color palate is my favorite - aqua, bright greens, a little pink and yes, orange.  I seem to be hooked on the hexies and orange.  I plan to get the rest of the ones I have cut out stitched and then I will settle in on the setting for them.  Part of me wants to introduce the silk again as a background, but I have no idea of the color yet.

Heck, just designing each block is challenging.  I have a couple that I sort of hate.  They seemed like a good idea until I stitched them.  Here are two more that have been laying on the rug for 3 weeks waiting for that OK...

 I thought I wanted that soft pink outer row, but maybe the deep pink flames will be better?!

 Or this one...Pink lollipop trees...

 or not?...

 I think that this is the layout I will go with, but until it is stitched into a quilt top, it is anybody's guess.

This week has brought another wonderful thing...and this is along the topic of this post, Hexies (this was made from the elongated Patchwork of the Crosses hexagons).  My quilt Bouquet Royale (Hexie experiment #1) won Best of Show at HMQS...the Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City this week.  I was shocked and elated - this is a big show, over 300 entrants.

The show kind of gave it away the day before when they insisted that we figure out how to face-time me in during the awards ceremony.  They said that I was receiving a "nice award".  I figured it was either this or the Solitaire award.  Sure wish I was there in person to receive that jumbo-sized check!!

Have a fun week!