Sexie Hexies

I've taken up a new project...you know...because I don't already have a ton of things that I'm dabbling in. I was lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in July up at Huntington Lake at the Lakeview Cottages with Mom. While we were there, she was intermittently working on a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. Although she was not doing a lot of quilting because there were lots of other responsibilities, she did have a lot of fabric choices for future flowers. One thing I have learned about myself is that I really, really like finding colors and textures and patterns of fabrics that coordinate or complement each other(and I've been told I'm good at it). Since she wasn't sure of which fabrics she wanted to pair together for flowers, I asked if I could play around with her fabrics. (Come on, you know you also like to play with fabric!) Some of the combinations I found, she liked and she started one of the flowers from that combination while we were up there. As the flower grew, I fell more and more in love with it.


Seriously! How could you not fall in love with those TEXTURES! The colors? The complementary patterns? Oh sweet love! So, for the August week at Lakeview Cottages, I decided I would 'let' Mom teach me about making a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I, of course, started with the same fabric combination that I fell in love with.

I gotta tell ya--these sexy little hexies are addictive!!!

In my blog following, I have noticed a Hexie trend going on that, while fun and modern, is not really my style. Althought I can appreciate it from an artistic standpoint, it doesn't reach out, grab me by the throat and say "MAKE ME!"...so for now, I will stick with the more traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden. Who knows...with my luck, I will probably decide in 5 years, just as this new trend is on its way out, that I desperately need a "modern" hexie quilt.


And just for your linking pleasure, here are some of my favorite "sexie hexie" projects:


Lovely Little Handmades


another Lovely Little Handmades (this lady is seriously crafty! and...based on her playlist, I think we could be good friends)


Live a Colorful Life (a Hexi swap! How fun!!! Just think of the possibilities)


Urban Patchwork (bright fun colors!)


Sew Take A Hike


SewMamaSew


SimplySandy (check out her blog header...beautiful Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt)

Knotty but nice

I've been doing a bit of knitting lately. Since I've been making many smaller items (hats, scarves, handwarmer mitts, etc., and giving them away to others, and Erika at the office has graciously looked at all of them and admired (either genuine or courtesy admiration...I can never tell), I decided to make her a knit hat of her very own. I REALLY like how it turned out and I plan to use this pattern again.

Pattern is Knotty but Nice from Knitty

And Erika likes it too!

1st Day of Kinder

Today was Tyler's first day of Kindergarten at his new school, The Learning Tree. He was very excited to be starting, but a little apprehensive because he didn't really know any of the kids there except for his friend Jersie from his preschool. As a mother, I had certain expectations of "traditional" first day of school activities...Namely of the, leg hugging, "Don't leave me!" screaming variety. As a mother, I had to come to terms with the fact that my son doesn't do traditional. Doug met us there so that Tyler would have both of his parents there to see his first day of Kindergarten. We walked through the gate and we met up with the rest of the Kindergarteners as they headed out of the cafeteria towards the outside playground. At the back of the line we saw his friend Jersie. Tyler dropped my hand and Doug's hand and scurried over to get into line behind Jersie. No Hug...No Leg clasping...I don't think we even got a "Bye Mom, Bye Dad". I did get to snap a picture:

See how nervous and withdrawn he looks??? Yeah...me neither.

On the one hand I'm excited that he was so excited and independent because it makes me feel like I'm going about this whole parenting thing the right way...on the other hand, it makes me sad that my baby is growing up.

When I picked him up from school he was chattering away about all the new friends he made, the activities they did and the fact that he fell asleep during homework time. He had a BLAST! And the thing that was fun to hear was that periodically, out of the blue, he would say (with a bit of amazement), "I'm a Kindergartener." He did this several times...like he was still trying to convince himself that this day was NOT a dream. Love it!