I Was Bitten by a Hexie Bug! - Sort Of

I've been viewing a lot of blogs lately where the gals are doing little itty bitty hexagons using the English Paper Piecing method (click to see a tutorial).  Siobhan's doing it and so is Texas Freckles who has a whole lotta people corralled into a hexagon by now.  Check them all out.  In fact, Sunshine has come up with a cool yo yo crochet method and is doing a giveaway of her book.  Me, I am sorely tempted - and probably will break down and do SOME teeny tiny hexies; but, for now, this is what I've had going on . . .

One day I was serching for pincushions and came upon the Kootoyou blog.  If you follow the link you'll scroll down until you see the pincushion.  She's got a slideshow presentation with instructions PLUS a downloadable PDF file complete with templates.

I cut out the templates, got out my scrap box and as you can see, ended up with quite a few hexagonal shaped pincushions.  My friend and I have been picking up button collections lately.  She found the bag at the hospice thrift store that had the ceramic birdie button (and quite a few other birdhouse buttons).  Isn't it Tweet?  Sorry, just could not resist the bad pun. I thought it looked adorable on the red, white and blue pincushion.

Kootoyou's instructions are for hand-piecing.  While I admire the diligence of hand-piecing, I just haven't got the time.  So, I cut the pieces out and chain stitched them on the sewing machine so that I ended up with two halves that got sewn together to form the top which was then united with the bottom, the whole was stuffed and then whip-stitched into shape.  One thing I really liked about this shape was that the straight edge of the whip-stitch closure was supposed to be straight.  What I mean is that when I do a circular pincushion, invariably the hole, when closed, looks more straight than curved like the rest of the cushion.  I usually do a lot of massaging to get that little half inch to match the rest of the circle's curve.  That wasn't a problem here.  Even less time spent; YAY!

I've made quite a few pincushions lately, trying different shapes and sizes.  They're quick to make and can be done mostly with scraps.  Although, I suspect I'll begin to run out of scraps soon!  But, anything that I can do with a more bang for your buck sort of zest to it is great!  I've gotten several books with cute pincushions in them too.  A review and listing of them will have to wait for another entry.

Finally, I shop at Nancy's Notions often and got a sale catalog this weekend.  One thing I noticed is that they have 14-count Aida available by the yard for $8.99.  I think that's a pretty reasonable price.  If anyone out there uses Aida, this might be for you!

First Full Day of Summer

Although yesterday was the Summer Solstice, today is the first full day of summer.  It will be really hot and humid here; about 97 degrees with oppressive humidity.  Hope the power doesn't go out.  This is what I found on the window overlooking the deck this morning when I put the dog out.  A Luna Moth taking it easy on the morning of the first full day of summer.  Ahhhhh.

Something I Found Amongst the Hydrangeas

I went and picked some blossoms today from the Hydrangea bush.  Something was on my wrist and when I looked I realized I'd disturbed a very special nursery.  Took the baby that I'd "snatched" back and looked for more.  These babies will grow many times their current size and then eat all kinds of bugs in my garden.  YAY!  It seems they hatch every year around the summer solstice.

When looking at the picture, see the top center flower in the group?  Just to the right of that, on the edge of the next flower cup is the "baby" I'm talking about.

Hey Alice!

I went to go to your blog to post a response to your comment on my needlepoint scissors case; only to find out that you don't have a blog :-(

So, about the needlepoint - I think you should try it.  It is no harder than cross stitch, just uses different stuff.  And, it's HALF a cross stitch, instead of a whole one!  That means it takes HALF the time, right?  I will say, that if using scroll rods or stretcher bars, it IS harder to put the needle through - it's more like poke and pull stitching than sewing stitching like we do on linen.  But using that method saves on stretching the canvas out of shape and it doesn't have to be blocked before framing or finishing.  You CAN hold the canvas in your hand and "sew" the stitches, but the canvas will work itself out of shape. They have some really wonderful fibers that can be used in needlepoint that you can't use in cross stitch unless you go up to like the size of Tula (which I have done, but don't want to do all the time).

Also, there's this blog I'm following and they just did this Alice in Wonderland Tea Party and I thought of you - if you haven't already found this spot, you might want to check out A Note of Friendship.  They have entries on their tea party as well as downloads so you can have your own.  I thought that the name connection - Alice - might interest you.

And about not having a blog - you gotta girl!  You need to start showing us all that terrific stuff you're working on!  I promise, if you let me know, I'll be your first follower.  You leave such nice comments on the blogs, we'd like to return the favor.  I can't tell you how much it means that someone actually reads what I blather on about - and comments on it.  Thank you so much!

Scissors and Case

This is the scissors case that I've been stitching on for the last two months or so.  The canvas was small, so it was difficult to get the needle and thread through.  It was also the first time I'd tried stitching needlepoint on my scroll bars.  The fella at the shop told me that if you put your needlepoint on scroll bars or stretcher bars, the canvas won't get all stretched out of shape while you stitch.  This is particularly important if you want to save thread by using the Continental Stitch rather than the Basketweave Stitch.   Since I was stitching with Silk & Ivory (part silk, part wool) I wanted to save on thread.  However, I was also trying to teach myself the Basketweave Stitch.  So, I did most of the stitching in Basketweave and still didn't run out of thread!  Yay!

Now I need to finish it.  Unfortunately, it's going into the pile of unfinished stuff that I have to do for myself, because I'm loaded up with other work to do.  Maybe I'll be done with it by Christmas-time and put it in my stocking.  Yeah, right!

I found a really nice looking pair of scissors on the web today - they're black and made in Italy.  And available through this online needlepoint store.

The scissors I really, really want are OUT of THIS WORLD expensive (only $144 plus shipping!), so I will continue to dream - and hope that someone somewhere eventually puts them in a yard sale for 5 bucks!  The Tartan Sewing Set is from Sajou and if you haven't visited their site, you're in for a treat.