teal and grey hexie love

one thing about going away is that i get more handwork done than usual, since i rarely take my sewing machine with me. i'm still working on the project i started during this last trip, but it occurred to me that i never got around to blogging about the project i did on the LAST trip!

i posted an in progress picture last november.....




wanna see what they turned into?



a long long time ago, before Christmas last winter, i participated in a swap between the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild and the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild. since i'm a member of both guilds, i said that they should just put me in wherever they needed to even out the numbers, and i ended up sewing potholders for Heather, one of my fellow exec members at VMQG. this was handy, cause Heather's not super active on teh internetz, making her harder to stalk for inspiration, but since i've been to her house plenty of times for meetings, i knew what her kitchen looks like!




i knew that Heather likes greys and teals, hexies and polka dots, and i decided to combine all of those for her potholders.


no flash

i also knew that she loves 60s style, so i decided to incorporate that into the coasters by adding an embroidered mod girl to one of the potholders. i'm not super happy with how it turned out - i used more strands than i normally would, because i thought it would read better on the grey background, but i think it ended up looking a bit sloppy because of that. it might be just in my head though, because i HATE using more than two strands of embroidery floss!



the embroidery really didn't photograph that well, but Heather's pic portrays it a bit better.



it was funny, because as i was sewing the hexies together, i was frustrated because they didn't feel as modern and streamlined as i'd pictured them. once i had them all sewn together and the sides trimmed straight, it changed the look so much!


no flash

on both potholders, i machine quilted (since i had taken my machine out for that trip, i refused to be without it for as long as i was out there!) straight lines through the solid portions, and echoed the some of the hexies in the pieced portions.



i improv pieced the backs of the potholders using strips of the fabrics that i used for the hexies, and i loved how the quilting looked.




since i was late sending out the potholders, i decided to make something else to go along with them. coasters!!



look familiar? yes, these were the first hexie coasters! you saw the xmas ones that i wrote the tutorial for and gave away, and then the third set that i gave away in my birthday giveaway, finally i'm blogging the originals!



i pieced the fabric that i used for the backs, just to add little pops of colour.




i have to tell you guys, it was SO HARD to mail these off to Heather! i was so glad that they were going to someone who i was sure would like them, and also that i mailed them before Holly's potholders were lost.... i don't know that i'd have trusted them to the post office if i'd known that they'd lost hers! and i love that we use the coasters whenever Heather hosts our VMQG executive meetings!





i'm going to link this up with a few different linkies, now that i'm back, am slowly getting caught up, and have INTERNET again! i missed out on Sew modern Mondays at Canoe Ridge Creations, damn being on the west coast!

but i am linking up with SewHappyGeek's Manic Monday!


i'm also going to link up with Fabric Tuesdays over at Quilt Story , because this is a recent post, if not a recent project..... (because really, since when do i blog ANYTHING right after i make it? i'm not that organized folks!)