Tiny Toffee Blog Hop

My friend Susi has been making the most unbelievable paper pieced hexagons for a while now. Some of her patterns are offered free on her blog, while others are sold in pattern sets in her Tiny Toffee Designs Etsy shop right here. She's hosting a blog hop to celebrate the release of her newest set (find all the participants on this post), and I'm so happy to be a part of it today.

The Dream Big Collection includes the adorable elephant above, a swan, a pencil, flying geese, mountains, a star, and a heart. The detail in these is absolutely incredible. I love them so much!

My assigned hexagon was this little trio of flying geese. I decided to pull out my small stash of Liberty prints for this one. Each of the triangles are made from the same floral print, though I highlighted different elements of the design in every one. Making these paper pieced hexies is both harder and easier than it looks. You have to be careful because if your fabrics shift even 1/8'', it can radically change the design, but on the other hand, it's still just standard paper piecing. And the beauty of it is, you don't need much fabric to do it!

I pulled another 6 squares of Liberty for the surrounding hexagons, creating a traditional flower pattern. Between you and me, I noticed a mistake on my center hexagon after I had sewed all these together, so I made another center and just stitched it down on top of the first one, giving the finished center an almost 3-D effect when you see it in person. The entire flower was stitched down onto a square of yarn-dyed linen. I added a crochet lace border using a treasured bit of trim that I received in a birthday package from my dear friend Annabel, and backed the mug rug in another piece of Liberty.

I love this little project. It's sweet and romantic and will look oh so pretty on my sewing table. And I enjoyed working with her pattern so much that I'm scoping out Susi's shop for another set. This one is probably going to be next on my list...just in time for spring.

Storytelling Pillow

When the amazingly talented Janice of Better Off Thread started showing peeks of her new Round the Blocks pattern on Instagram, I was excited. When she gave me the chance to pattern test the block for her, I was absolutely thrilled. This quilt block is full of possibilities, and her fantastic pattern instructions make the process of paper piecing and sewing curves completely doable. As I started rummaging through my Heather Ross scraps for the little windows, the idea suddenly came to me: a storytelling pillow!

My husband is a genius when it comes to bedtime stories. I often hear him spinning tales to our daughters in the evenings about the three little hippopotamus sisters who live in a tree house in the forest of Galamagoo -- and who (strangely enough) are usually having an adventure that coincides with whatever activity the girls are planning to do the next day. My daughters adore story time with Daddy, and they've gotten so that they love telling stories to each other too, so a pillow like this is going to get lots of use.

The process for using the pillow is simple: pick a main character from the four choices in the middle circle, add in a few details from the ring of characters, and then choose a setting from the corners. You can mix and match in so many ways that the options really are endless.

I used a cheater print by Jay-Cyn Designs from the Storyboek II collection for the back of the pillow. I figure this throws a few more characters into the mix if need be, and I love the whimsy of these designs. Click on over to Craftsy if you'd like to buy Janice's brilliant pattern for yourself. At just $3.95, how can you resist? She has some other wonderful options for this block too which you can see at the link above. I really can't wait to see what everyone else makes with this.

Meanwhile Bunny just got her first chance with the storytelling pillow on her afternoon school break. As I type this, she's over in the corner with the pillow in her lap talking softly to herself, "Once upon a time there was a Daddy Mouse, a Mommy Mouse, and a Baby Mouse, and they all lived together in the crazy pond..."

I can't wait to hear how it ends.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

Scrappy Kaleidoscope Pillow

This scrappy little pillow just makes me happy. Lots of color, bits of fabric that I adore, a dotty frame around the front edges...

...and typewriters on the back.

Happy, happy, happy.

Linking up with Needle & Thread Thursday and Finish It Up Friday.

Retro Kitchen 2

Kristy has another set of Retro Kitchen blocks almost ready to go, and they're just as fabulous as her first round. I got to test out the scale...so much fun. Paper piecing isn't everyone's cup of tea, but for me, it's therapy. I love working on these.

You can find all of Kristy's patterns here. I've already purchased her first Retro Kitchen pack, and have the pieces cut out for my next block: the coffeepot. One more and I have enough to make a table runner...

If you haven't yet, check out my Craftsy class giveaway here.

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Directions

I was pretty happy when I found out that Rachel of Stitched in Color had selected me to be one of four participants in her latest Scrap Challenge sponsored by Julie at The Intrepid Thread. The task was to make a project using only this fat eighth bundle and one extra fabric if desired. I signed up to make an EPP mini quilt using hexagons and diamonds, and though I usually head down any number of rabbit trails during the creative process, I was able to stick to my original plan for once.

I knew that I wanted to use large hexagons and pairs of diamonds that pointed in opposite directions (hence the name), but it took me a long time to decide how I wanted to place these three rows together. After much shifting and turning and flipping around, I decided on the layout you see here.

Three of the prints were featured in large hexagons -- these have two and a quarter inch sides. I always love the way that you can draw attention to patterns within a pattern through fussy cutting, and it was fun to choose the parts I wanted to highlight in those hexagons.

For some reason I had a difficult time getting all of the quilting to show up in my photographs, but you can see it best on the back of the quilt. Please pretend that you don't see the wrinkles -- my iron kept trying, but it had trouble making headway on this stubborn piece of fabric. The background and backing of this mini is Robert Kaufman's Essex linen in natural. I thought about binding the quilt in linen as well, but I went with a scrappy binding instead, and I'm so glad that I did. It's nice to have that extra pop of color around the border.

This was the first project I've made using my new EPP case, and I'm completely in love with it. Having an organized place for every step of the process makes it so much easier to pick up a project whenever I have a free moment -- definitely a helpful feature for a mommy on the run!

I made a gift of this mini quilt to my mother tonight, and I'm so happy that she loves it. She and my dad have been incredibly supportive of my sewing. They read my blog faithfully, every post and comment, and are always such an encouragement to me. And did I mention that they just bought me a new sewing machine?! I'll have a post on that soon...

My thanks to Rachel and Julie for the opportunity to play with this lovely bundle of fabric. It was a pleasure indeed.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.

Hooked

My latest pattern test for my super talented friend Kristy of Quiet Play is hot off the press. I've loved every pattern I've ever tested for her, but right now anyway, this one is my favorite. You all know I'm a sucker for anything retro, and this is right up my alley. Check out her other designs in this incredible series below:

Image courtesy of Quiet Play

Adorable, right? I had originally planned to turn this piece into a pot holder, but now I'm picturing a table runner for which I'll need a few more blocks. Maybe a lot of blocks. Stay tuned...

Polaroid Mug Rug

My brilliant friend Kristy of Quiet Play has another great pattern coming out for those of you who enjoy paper piecing. After seeing this Polaroid camera on her blog, I was absolutely charmed, and I was even more thrilled when she let me test it out for her. Discovering that I was out of black fabric didn't stop me -- I pulled out my fat eighth bundle of Architextures (which didn't include the black prints), and decided to go the navy blue route. It's a little busy, but I like it. I threw in a few blocks from the Polaroid block swap I did through Debbie's blog earlier this year, putting it all together to make a good sized mug rug.

The back uses one of the great ledger prints from Architextures. That green strip at the bottom almost makes me think of a composition book.

Add a mug of tea and a few oatmeal cookies, and I'm ready to go...

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.

Details

It sounds like Lori and I aren't the only ones who have been nervously longing to try our hand at making a Weekender Bag. Some of you even admitted that you've been sitting on the pattern for a while, too afraid to attempt it alone. I'm so excited that we'll all get the chance to finally try it out together! If you'd like to share photos and talk about the process as we go along, Lori has set up a Long Weekend group on Threadbias, and I've started a Long Weekend group on Flickr. Feel free to join either or both -- they're both great sites for building community! I just started pulling my fabric for the bag this afternoon as you can see above: lime green linen for most of the exterior accented with a red dotty print (Riley Blake, I believe) and some Nursery Versery. My version is going to be for my daughters, so I thought a little Heather Ross might be in order. I'm hoping to start cutting this weekend.

I'm also trying to finish my Modernista Swap project this week. My mini quilt is from another brilliant pattern by Kristy of Quiet Play. Does that girl know her way around paper piecing or what? Such a great design, and so perfect for embellishing with fun details.

Last night I finished the top of a table runner -- for my Modernista swap partner as well -- using a mini charm pack of Marmlade and some natural linen. This collection is just the sweetest set of prints, and I love the range of colors. I was so taken with this mini pack that I ended up going back to buy a full size charm pack of Marmalade for myself. The fabric addiction strikes again...

Hope you're all having a great week!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Sushi Plate Lunch Mat

Normally I'd be doing a Vintage Holiday Quilt post right now. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish my quilt top until after dark, and I just couldn't bear to take an indoor picture of this one. Tomorrow morning I'll get a shot of it on the back patio and have a post for you before lunch, so be sure to check back. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

The incredibly talented Kristy of Quiet Play gave me the chance to test one of her upcoming paper piecing patterns: Sushi Plate. This is my third try at paper piecing, and I love it more each time I do it. This pattern was so much fun to put together.

I used the newspaper print from Maude Asbury's Crabtastic collection for the background. I love using text prints, and this one fit the theme so well that I had to include it somewhere. The rest of the block is made from scraps by Lizzy House, Cosmo Cricket, Violet Craft, Joel Dewberry, and Michael Miller. I added a border of grey linen to make it the right size for my husband to use it as a lunch mat at work in his classroom -- large enough for a plate but narrow enough to fit on the edge of his desk below the keyboard. The back is just a single piece of the orange Jewels print by Lizzy House which I used for the fish on the front. While the mat edges look slightly wonky in the first photo, they're actually straight -- not really sure what was going on there, but it was probably the linen acting up a bit for the camera.

This project was such a delight from start to finish.  Be sure to check Kristy's blog if you'd like to snag a pattern for yourself in the weeks ahead. I've come to enjoy pattern testing so much. If any of you are ever looking for someone to test a new pattern of yours, just send me an email at hjstaples@gmail.com. I'd love to help you out!

Linking up to Manic Monday, Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up, and the return (yippee!) of Sew Modern Monday.

Check It Out

If you're interested in getting your hands on the Retro Phone paper piecing pattern that I tested for Joanna of Shape Moth last month, she has just released it in her online shop. Check out the post on her blog here. She has a whole collection of patterns available for sale, including some unbelievably adorable animals!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

Retro Phone

When the amazingly talented Joanna of Shape Moth said that she was looking for people to test a few of her new paper piecing patterns, I was more than happy to throw my name into the ring. The pattern she ended up sending me was her adorable Retro Phone -- could there be a more perfect fit for me? This was my first attempt at paper piecing, and I have to say that I enjoyed it. It takes a little time to wrap your brain around the process, and my seam ripper has never gotten so much mileage in one day, but it's a fun challenge...sort of like putting together a fabric puzzle. I highly recommend that if you're trying it for the first time, that you watch a video demonstration. I found this one to be helpful, but I know there are more out there, so look around.

There are a mix of fabrics from different lines here including Aunt Edna by Denyse Schmidt, Reunion by Sweetwater, Hometown by Sweetwater, and Flora by Lauren and Jessi Jung. After some deliberation, I densely quilted the background so that the phone would stand out. As a last touch suggested by my mother, I added the number dial in the middle of the phone. This was a great weekend project which will now make a nice little wall hanging. Thanks so much, Joanna, for giving me the chance to learn something new!

I was excited to see my Zakka pincushion on the weekly picks again on LR:Stitched. This week we get to tackle the sewing kit, demonstrated by Katy of Monkey Do. I've been looking forward to this project -- definitely an item that will get some use around here!

Hoping you're all having a great start to your week today. Linking up to Manic Monday.