Hexagons and Flowers

Hello Lovelies,
well unfortunately the weather man was correct with his rainy forecast.We haven't seen any sun since Wednesday and today it's cold and windy too.
The only way to know it's summer is by having a wander in the garden.......I love to do this at the moment...there is always something new to delight me ( and more weeds to pull up !)
This afternoon I braved the rain and was rewarded with this beauty......


Oooooh , how wonderful. This poppy must have been from the seed swap I did with Cuckoo last summer. The seeds I sent her have grown too ........I'm so happy we both have a little bit of each others garden to enjoy :0)

Another part of my garden I'm enjoying despite the rain is our pond. I love the ripples the raindrops make on the surface. My poor solar fountain is struggling with the low light levels though......

The wind and rain had battered these carnations somewhat ,so I decided to pick them to enjoy indoors....

I love the ones with the dark pinkie purple edge........reminds me of raspberry ripple ice-cream.

Indoors I'm still finding a few moments to enjoy pins and paper and little bits of fabric.....

I've made more hexagon "flowers" and sewn some together. This means I can remove the papers from the central ones , to make more:0)

I think my stitches look pretty good even in extreme close up .......

I've changed to just tacking through the fabric only when I make these hexagons........seems to be working OK.......

This lovely fabric was given to me by  sweet Rachel at Ruby Red when I first joined blog land....I thought it had all been used up , so  was happy to find a bit at the bottom of my stash.

I haven't bought any NEW fabric for this project yet , though I did pick up this shirt from the £1 rail in the charity shop this morning.........

It's got pen on the white collar , but that's not a problem to me.

I'll finish today with another Rose photo, also rescued from the garden........

So perfectly pretty with a gorgeous scent.......It's one of my current favourites for sure .
Have a great weekend
Jacquie x

Happy Colours

Hello Lovelies,
 I love this time of year for it's long days and abundance of colour. Mother nature is at her best , despite the rain . These few Anemones , picked from the garden are just stunning with a bit of snow-in-summer. It's only a tiny posy , but what a pop of colour....just gorgeous......makes me happier than a big ,shop bought, bunch :0)

I'm also happy to see these Lupin seeds, that I only planted a week ago , are already beginning to grow. These will hopefully add lots of colour to my garden next summer......

Yesterday was Fathers Day in the U.K. and my eldest made his Dad a yummy sponge cake. He did ice and decorate it , but I just loved how it looked ,and smelt,when it came out of the oven............

Such a stunning Golden colour

 I finally got around to hanging up a Sunburst granny heart I made to test the pattern I shared with you lovelies. This one is made from cotton yarn and I chose pastel colours for a change. I love the added buttons and beads ..........

It's simply hanging from a picture hook  .

My Happy hexagons have been turning into Happy flowers.......

I'm enjoying the simple hand sewing involved and choosing nice combinations of pattern and colour.

Here they are pushed together...........

Lots of bright,happy colours 

I'm still not sure what I'm making here..I have an idea that I think is great , then I change my mind altogether. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated . One thing I'm pretty sure it wont be is a full size quilt. I'm not brave enough to try that yet and I'm not looking for something that takes months to do....I've too many other things I want to make :0)

Jacquie x

Happy Hexagons

Hello Lovelies,
I'm still patchwork addicted at the moment .I'm sure it will pass but right now it's all I'm thinking about so I'm going with the flow and enjoying this burst of patchy mojo.
I'm fortunate to have a sizable fabric stash ( nothing fancy and often recycled ) so I've been able to feed this addiction without hitting the shops. Actually I love that patchwork was developed to use up scraps and recycle fabric...that really appeals to my thrifty side. It makes me happy to be able to create something pretty from old clothes, sheets and little bits of fabric.
Over the last few days I've turned my attention to hand sewn hexagons...."English paper piecing" is a term I've learnt from the internet.

I think this simple , portable form of patchwork is a bit like the sewing equivalent to granny squares. It's very relaxing choosing lots of colours and tacking them onto the paper template. Like granny squares you don't have to commit yourself to what the finished project will become just yet...I like that :0)

Ooooooh I LOVE this image . A stack of happy Hexagons, just gorgeous in my eyes.

These are 1 1/2 inch hexagons....that is each side is 1 1/2 inches long....they are actually 3 inches across at the widest part. I found my templates to download and print at home HERE...isn't that great ...I love the internet :0)
Following the advice on that site I printed mine onto thin card . I've been tacking through the card as I always did with paper many years ago ......

The card is better for getting a nice crisp hexagon but boy it's given me sore fingers , pushing the needle through fabric AND card so many times. I think I need to have a rethink and try just tacking the fabric to its self at the back only.

The other thing I was not sure of was how good I'd be at all the tiny little hand joining stitches so yesterday I downloaded some teeny 3/4 inch hexagons , cut out seven and made this to revamp my handbag ,as the crochet flowers I added last year were looking pretty shabby........

I was relieved that my hand sewing skills ( and eyesight! ) were still good enough to join the hexagons . I decided to attach this little "flower" with a running stitch and some embroidery thread rather than attempt more tiny stitches.......

This is the third makeover this of thrifted denim bag  .This version  looks a bit seventies to me , but I think retro is good :0)

I'll leave you with some happy hexagon links to insipre you .

The talented Rachel of Ruby Red has a great pinterest board HERE
Oh and do check out THIS ,THIS, and THIS
There are so many people out there who make wonderful things from little hexagon shapes , I'm both awed and inspired , hope you are too.
On  a practical note....there is also a great "HOW TO" HERE
Jacquie x

Crochet Hexagon Tutorial ...Part 2

Hello Lovelies,
Here we go with part two of my crochet hexagon tutorial. This part follows directly on from part one HERE


Once again it is written in U.S. terms

So , to frame the cute hexagon you made in part one I designed this pattern......

It starts with a chain round as this helps maintain the shape of the, oh so pretty,  interior hexagon .

Round 5(chain round)

Attach a new colour with a slip stitch in any 2 chain space.Chain 3 .......

Slip stitch into space between 3rd D.C. and S.C............

Chain 2 and slip stitch into space after S.C...........

Continue around in same pattern ( 3 chains over 3D.C. and 2 chains over 1S.C. )

Once you get all the way around slip stitch through first chain 3

It should look like this............

Round 6
Chain 3 and make 3 D.C. all into first 3 chain loop of round 5 (counts as 4 D.C. )........

Make 3 D.C. into 2 chain loop of round 5......

Make 4 D.C. into next 3 chain loop and CHAIN 1 ( makes point of hexagon ).......

Continue around. Each of the six sides is made up of 11 D.C. ( 4/3/4 ) with 1 chain at the corner....

Once you have gone all the way around slip stitch into first D.C. and finish off..........

Hurray ! you have completed a Hexagon motif :0)......these may be sewn together when you have enough for your chosen project ....

However ..... I'm a big fan of the join as you go method . So I've taken some pictures of this method to help you give it a try . Lucy has described this beautifully HERE  but I'll try and show you on this hexagon.

So...after you have completed your first motif as described above , subsequent motifs are  joined at round 6.
In the example below I was joining to 2 hexagons so I made 4 sides as I explained then I started the 5th side like this .....

Insert hook through corner of motif you wish to join to as shown...........

Yarn over hook and pull loop to front of work.....

Slip stitch .......

Make 4 D.C. and slip stitch through joining motif in the same way . 3 D.C.. .Slip stitch through motif . 4 D.C.

At the corner slip stitch through first motif then slip stitch through second (I'm about to joint  to the  red hexagon  in this image )

Make final side in same way as 5th. and slip stitch into first D.C. to finish off....

I did find this technique rather tricky the first time I tried it but with a little patience it does get easier . The finished join should look like this .......

Here's what my blanket looks like today..........

Not a deal of progress ,I've been too busy playing with other projects :0)  You can see I have made some more hexagons ready to join and I've been very good and sewn all their ends in securely already !

Do please let me know if any of this is unclear or I have made any mistakes .

ENJOY :0)

Jacquie x

Sunny Sunday Crochet

Hello Lovelies ,

today I've been in a happy crochet place :0)........

Sitting on my bed sewing in a few ends on my latest hexagons, whilst admiring the lovely piles of grannies on my bedside table.
I didn't want to give up on the hexagon pattern as I really like it a lot . So I've made a few using the same yarn as I'm using for my granny squares....the ones you can see in my header and I've posted about here.

Ummmmm , I love these colours ..........

Here is the begining of the next few , I'm making these production line style instead of compleating one before starting on the next, it just seems easier when all the rounds differ....less mistakes ,hopefully !

So , somehow I now have two blankets , using the same colours , on the go at the same time. It'll be interesting to see which one gets finished first !!

Whilst I was working my way through a mountain of clean laundry to put away ( all line dried ..yay) the bright sun shining in on my youngests blanket made me very happy , and distracted me from one of my least favourite jobs :0)....

I made this back in 2009 using colours he chose . Since I posted this picture on Flickr I've altered it by removing the border (which tended to curl up ) and added some more rows so it fits nicely on the end of his bed. It has no border so I can easily make it bigger if I want . I really love this happy , sunny little blanket. There's something I find  brilliantly satisfying about a giant granny square ...........

well I hope you Lovelies liked this burst of colour, I'll leave you with some more  sunny goodness and wish you a happy week :0)

Jacquie x