GO! Mini Half-Hexagons

Well, given the status of the sewing room (or more precisely, the amount of time I've been dedicating to the sewing room -- moving stuff out, painting, moving stuff back in, sorting and sorting and sorting some more), there's not been a lot of time or space for actual sewing. But hey, I finally got the sewing machine back in this past weekend and finished up the half-hexagon mini quilt!

I do love the way some of the GO! dies work together. So here's a half-hexagon and a equilateral triangle lined up and ready to sew:

So easy! And here it is sewn and pressed open:

Now, the half-hexagon mini quilt is all done . . . and Lulubelle likes it!

Who is Lulubelle? Well, years ago I made a cloth doll and brought it over to my mom's house to show it to her. We laid it on her couch.

Mom: Hmmmmm.

Me: Wow. She really matches the color of your couch and chairs, doesn't she?

Mom: Hmmmmm.

(Pause)

Me: I suppose she ought to just stay here, huh?

Mom: I think so.

So, that was that. A week later Mom told me the doll was named Lulubelle. Now Lulubelle reigns over the sewing room and reminds me how lucky I was to have a mother who taught me to sew.

As I finish putting the sewing room back together, I have so many ideas!

For one, all the quilts that had been up on the wall came down. I'm thinking it's time to put up some different ones. Which reminds me of all the little quilts I have in process that I still need to finish. Here's a handful:

I think I'm going to do a little more hand quilting in the near future!

Meanwhile, I'm still on my GO! Sew challenge. So, for this coming week, it's getting patches ready for signatures and well wishes!

GO! Minis and More Christmas

Well, my swap mini quilt made it to its destination. Whew! I was worried there for a few days. This quilt used the Equilateral Triangles (which I've noted before serendipitously fits the Pyramid Triangle foundation from Miniatures in Minutes). So, first, little triangles:

The challenge was to create a monochromatic quilt. My partner said she liked orange, triangles, and a light touch on the quilting. So, here it is:

The pieced center section measures 7" by 8" finished. I do love minis!

And in order to keep up with doing something each week using the GO! (though I was sick, sick, sick, this last week), I pulled out a pretty Christmas charm pack.

And ran it through the AccuQuilt GO! 3 1/2" finished Drunkard's Path die -- because look at how well the charm fits the die!

Just a wee bit of fabric waste.

It's a start.

Christmas decorations are, bit by bit, making an appearance -- which always baffles Cooper.

But we did get our lovely wooded tree from Festive Tree put up. We just LOVE this tree. Our living room is small -- avoiding the space hogging of a real tree is great. Plus this speaks to my own true love's Scandinavian roots.  It is much prettier than this picture does justice!

 Meanwhile, is it white enough out there?

GO! All Together Now

Sometimes I hate having bits and pieces left over from a charm pack. I feel like I need (NEED) to get it all used up.  I didn't quite meet that goal with these, but I came darn close!

Just because I have better pictures now, I'll start from the beginning. First came the GO! tablemat for my office.

Then came using the leftovers and the GO! equilateral triangles die along with the Pyramid Triangle Foundation from Miniatures in Minutes to make a miniature quilt (11 1/2" by 12 1/2").

But after that I still had both a handful of little triangles and a few left over charms. I ran a few more bits through the GO! Equilateral Triangles die and then ran some other little leftovers through with the GO! 1" strip cutter. (Run them through twice and the result is 1" squares, easy peasy.)

So I used the 13-Square foundation from Miniatures in Minutes to make a 7 by 7 Trip Around the World -- that became a little zipper pouch.  Because you can never have too many little zipper bags, right?

Next came a 5 by 5 squares block and the Pyramid Triangle foundation.  Those two became pincushions. (For any interested, you can find a pdf on how I use the 13-Square foundation to make smaller blocks here and here).

So, there it is, two charm packs done! (Almost) no little bits leftover. I'll admit to a couple surviving charms, but I can live with that. I have a little private challenge going with myself: can I work on a AccuQuilt GO! related project every week? How long before the semester swamps me and I'm out of my sewing room for a while? Hard to say, but for now, I'm good.

GO! Triangles

When it was Christmas of last year, I just couldn't think of anything I wanted, so I set aside some fun money and waited to be inspired. Come August I was still waiting. I realized that as next Christmas appears on the horizon, this might be a "Use it or Lose it!" proposition. That's all it took -- I decided there were some Accuquilt GO! dies with my name on them. The dies arrived on my doorstep and I headed down to my sewing room.

I began with a very pretty charm pack that I thought would sew up into a lovely table topper in my office.

I ran the charms through the GO! and thought surely I could do something with the little waste triangles on the side.

Sure enough. I realized I could run them through another GO! triangle die that has three sizes, one of which fits the foundation from Miniatures in Minutes.

Soon I had a stack of little triangles. (Yeah!)

But first up was the original triangles. I'm loving the way this looks in my office! All those soft colors just blend so beautifully.

Then it was time to think about those wee triangles. It had been so long since I made one of the triangle foundations, I actually had to look at the book to remember how to do it! Sheesh. Here's the foundation, marked and ready to start adding fabric.

Here are the triangles laid out and ready to sew.

And after the foundation was sewn up and the paper removed -- with a close-up to remind me of why I still love this technique. The odds that I'd get all those points to match when the patches are so small (1" top to bottom, finished)? Uh, let's just say, not good.

And here it is, up on my kitchen wall.

Of course, when it's me behind the camera, the photo is awful. The colors are really much prettier in life, a bit of teal, very soft. Still, you get the idea -- it's just a pretty soft blend of color.

I love actually finishing something. And, hey, a twofer -- two somethings!

Since there's some other new dies on my sewing room table, I'm hoping I can stay motivated and get some more projects done. (Odds?) My goal is to have something to show by the end of next week. We'll see . . .