Million Hexies first project

First Swag N Seek Find

So I found something to use the hexies I've been making. I don't think this will be the only thing I do with them but it is a good start. I love going to Dragoncon on labor day weekend. It is one of my favorites conventions. In the last several years a group has gotten together and does what is dubbed Swag n Seek. It's basically making or giving small swag items away for free. The most common is to randomly hide it in the various con areas for people to find. They also do meetups during the convention to swap items.

2018 Swag Haul

Last year was my first year hearing about this and I came away with some of the best con swag ever from this. I didn't know about it ahead of time so I didn't get a chance to make anything for it but my friend who runs one of the dealer's booths is fast at making jewelry and had me run around as her swag fairy.

Swag N Seek logo

This year I'm getting prepared. I decided to do somethingI'm good at. Sew! I'm using the hexies for coasters. I'm trying to use up my scraps and I have several fandom fabrics that would work wonders with this project. I have about 9 coasters together so far and have about 7 more planned out. The best part of doing this is since the hexies are being EPP'd I can do this while I'm out with my friends. We regularly meet twice a week and I always loose sewing time. This is a good hand project that lets me keep my hands busy during our nights out.

One of my local quilt shops does a regular sit N stitch several times a week. One of those is after work on Tues so sometimes I go there. I'm enjoying the slow pace and I feel like at this point I will have something fun to share at the con this year.

Double Wedding Ring Wall Hanging

In progress photo.

A major project I have been working on was a commission from one of my co-workers. Her brother is getting married this fall and she wanted to give him a unique wedding present. We had decided a wall hanging and after some looking she wanted the double wedding ring pattern.

She loved the traditional symbolism in it and thought it would be something very special for him. She had said the wedding is in October so not to hurry but I wanted to get it done so I can work on projects planned that need to be done before September.

Finished!

This is the first time I've done anything with this pattern. Generally, I avoid curved piecing because to me it's the devil to get to lay flat. I have done it before because I made purses in bucket shapes before. I had downloaded a free pattern and went fabric shopping with her so she can get the fabrics she wanted and go ahead and pay the material costs. People have a tendency to complain less about prices when they see what material costs really amount to.

backing being created

I only needed two rings so that did cut down on the number of curves I had to do. Not that I didn't do a lot. I paper pieced the ring sections easy. I do like paper piecing. I had a few spots in my piecing where there were small gathers and puckers visible but quilting it actually smoothed those out. I used Gutermann # 327 Maize for the thread.  It's a light yellow color that blended in with the other fabric choices.

I pieced a back with the scraps and used those scraps to create two small sleeves on the back for hanging. My co-worker said they're going to buy a dowl rod to hang it from. Overall everyone was very happy with the finished results.

Shop Hop Project update and gadget find

Photo by Atomic Fibers

I have been very busy. I can always be accused of having too many things going at once. I started putting the blocks from the shop hop together almost immediately when I started picking them up because I was more worried about buying the kits and never putting them together. I took about two weeks to get the blocks completed. I roughly spent 20 hours total but the summer has been crazy busy for me. Several nights I haven't been able to work on them.

The photo I have is before I put the final border around it. I cut each block to 12 inches and put a small 1 1/2 inch border around each block in colored fabrics. I tried to use scraps for some and complementary fabrics for the rest. I also tried to pull the fabric I got from the shop hop for these borders. I think I used stash fabric for two but overall I am happy with the results. I did go to my local shop to show them what I've done. Since I haven't taken a photo of the finished top yet I'm using the photo Atomic Fibers posted on their Facebook page for now.

I did go back to the shop to get the demo ruler they had for the shop hop. It's the creative grids Straight Out of Line ruler. I also found a 25% off coupon in my pattern kit from them so I used it on the ruler and picked up some of the Mr. Domestic fabrics I love that they had on the clearance section. Overall I'm happy with what I picked up and can't wait to use my new ruler. They have a free pattern that comes with the ruler and also lots of videos on their site to use. One of the best things about their company is that they give us nice demos.




One of the saddest things I've found out since the shop hop is that Atomic Fibers is going to close. While I was hunting down the photo of the top they posted I noticed the closing announcement. The owner is going to retire to spend more time with her family. I am happy for her and hope her the best but will miss the shop.

The other thing I got recently was a gadget to use when I'm ironing. I had seen this at CVS several years ago and didn't pick it up because I didn't think I could use it until recently. My cousin bought two for cup holders on her lawn chairs. I hadn't found it since and I know a good google search would have yielded results but I wasn't in that much of a hurry to find it.

I have a problem with my fabric spray falling off my ironing board as I iron. It gets in the way and my ironing board is unstable because one of the legs is shorter than the rest. My dad bought the ironing board online for me and didn't realize the flaw until I opened it up. It still does its work. I just have to be careful not to jiggle off things. That means leaving stuff on the board is dangerous.

I found my clip-on cup holder at Bed Bath and Beyond. It was on sale at the time so I got it for about $3. When you clip the full part up it becomes a wine glass holder and turning it the other way it becomes a regular cup holder. So far it has passed the wobbly ironing board test.

Today's tea is the Ito En Koicha Tea. Ito En is a Japanese brand that is commonly imported to the US. I know if I ever get my dream trip to Japan I will not lack in things to eat or drink. I love this brand. The tea is unsweetened, which is something I need, but it is smooth. This flavor is a robust brew and has more flavor but still no bitterness. I know a lot of times unsweetened tea is bitter but they do not have that problem with this brand. They have a few different flavors but this is actually the first time I got this one.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019 Part 3

Day 3 Loot

So I managed to hit the final two shops in the hop this morning. I've been to both before. I live close to Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge but I wanted to make it my last shop so I could turn my card in there.  Plus Oak Ridge had the Lavender Festival going on so I got a chance to visit the festival after I hit the quilt shop.

I stopped at Dizzy Diva's in Knoxville first. It is not in my normal path. It's on the northeast side of town and I have a tendency to go to west Knoxville. So it's been over a year since I've been to the shop. Last time I was there I was collecting 2017's row by row pattern. Since then they have moved to a better location. It's probably a couple of blocks away from their old location but it's easier to find and had more parking. Mom got the ruler they were demoing and we'll most likely share it. It was a 60 Degree Diamond Ruler. She got two patterns that use the ruler. One was a Hot Air Balloon pattern that I want to borrow.

Since I have spent a lot at the other 10 shops I've been to I didn't buy as much at these two. I did get some nice gifts from them and I plan to go back to Atomic Fibers for the ruler they were demoing for the hop. It was the Straight Out of Line Ruler by Creative Grids. They also had some cute Cut Loose Press patterns using the tool I thought would be cute to get.

Final Shops:

• Dizzy Diva's in Knoxville - March
• Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge - January 

Overall the hop was fun. I got to see some new shops in areas I wouldn't normally go to. I got to save a life and spend way too much money. 12 shops for 3 days. I'm kinda sorry I forgot to get a picture of my punch card before I turned it in.

I did start working on putting the blocks together that I have been collecting. I have 5 of the 12 done. The current one which is September's block I just need to applique everything down. I did add extras to it because it was just a basket by itself. Little Blessings had put flowers in theirs so I found some cute oversized flowers to fussy cut and add to the block. I've very happy with it. I'm going to use the orange thread I got today to applique it down. I want the thread to stick out a little against the yellow basket.

Today's tea was a Raspberry Limeade Herbal Tea. I didn't get a photo but I got it from a vendor at the Lavender Festival. I love the stuff and have purchased it every year at the festival. It turns a dark ruby color and has such a nice fruity flavor. I normally get a bag of loose tea to take home but I didn't get one this year. I did just hit 12 quilt shops. I did get a pretty photo of some sweet peas I passed when going to the Lavender Festival.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019 Part two

Bathroom signs for quilters

Since there were so many shops and I didn't think we'd get the trip done on Saturday since they close at 3, we decided to take Tuesday off and go on the second leg of our shop hopping trip. This has been a popular hop with the locals because all of the stores have been pretty busy with other people doing the hop. It's usually funny when you see some of the same people at one store and then the next. A lot of "Hi! again," goes on with that.

Tuesday was a good day because we got lucky with local traffic levels and the shops were open till 5. We left mom's at 8 and got to our first shop in Johnson City a little after 10. During the two hour drive, we passed 5 halves of double wide mobile homes in transport. I don't think they all went together for the same building cause the last one was really old but man that would be a huge building for a mobile home.

The first shop we got to was Bernina in Stitches. It was a cute shop in the downtown business district. The building it was in was one of the older ones with a lot of fun artsy shops. There was a cool reclaimed furniture place, a vape shop some restaurants and a lawyers office called Legal Ladies.

When we were leaving the shop we didn't make it out of the parking lot before a little grey kitten crossed our path. It had just bounced across a 4 lane road into the shopping center. We don't know where it came from but the poor baby was dirty, hungry, and scared. This started the adventure of finding a humane society. Neither of us could keep a kitten. I'm not allowed a pet and the pet fees at mom's place are so exorbitantly high it's ridiculous. We did finally turn it into the Washington County Humane Society. So if you would like a new fur-baby please go over there and adopt. They're overloaded with animals right now.

Day 2 Loot

After that, we hit two more shops, The Sewing Bee and Tennessee Quilts. Both I have to say took advice from Dr. Who because they were bigger on the inside. The second shop was just rooms and rooms of fabric. It looked like it had been an office suite turned into the shop. The second was the entire two-story building near historic downtown Jonesborough. The downstairs was nothing but batiks and upstairs they had a small saleroom and a large open area for classes and more fabrics.

After that our path home took us past Sevierville and we hit the Gatlinburg shop in the area also. We got to The Cherry Pit about 3:20 and to Mountain Stitches by Susan about 4:00. There was no making it back to Knoxville before the next shop closed so we called it a day. I was pretty wiped out after that but it was a good day altogether. 

I did find this TV Spot done for the Shop Hop online. It's done from the Cherry Pit's shop and has a good introduction to the hop. It was neat to see something like this on local TV.

Our stops in order were:

• Bernina in Stitches in Johnson City, TN - February
• The Sewing Bee in Jonesborough, TN -  October
• Tennessee Quilts in Jonesborough, TN - November
• The Cherry Pit in Sevierville, TN - December
• Mountain Stitches by Susan in Gatlinburg, TN - September

Lunch had been a stop at Panera before we left the Johnson City area, so of course my go to drink there is the Iced Green Tea. It's actually a Passion Papaya Green Tea. I don't get it that often because it's got 34 grams of sugar and I need to watch that, but man do I love this stuff.

First Shop Hop - Whistlestop Shop Hop 2015

So way back machine post here. I wanted to go over my first ever shop hop. It's from the year I discovered row by row and it's the reason I discovered row by row. It was before I even started my blog.

In 2015 I had started going to Atomic Fibers as my home quilt shop. I had a friend working there and I hadn't really had a home shop before. I would stop in random shops but I never considered one a home shop. Atomic Fibers opened close to where I worked and I could stop in on my lunch break no problem. The owner introduced me to the concept of a shop hop and I was intrigued. Mom and I got our passports and decided to go for it on a Saturday.

There were 10 shops participating from the Knoxville area to Chattanooga, TN. Right now I can only find 9 of my patterns, so I think I missed one but I did enjoy going on a day trip. I had only been to one of the shops on the list. It was fun to explore new shops and see new things. I fell in love with every one of the shops I went to, even the smallest and most remote shops. I've not seen this particular shop hop repeated, and I still haven't finished the blocks I gathered.  I really need to put that in the WIP file since they are a bit of a UFO right now.

One of the more prominent memories of the trip was driving by the McKee Foods factory in Cleveland, TN. This is the company that makes Little Debbie snack cakes. We stopped by the store and got tons of snack cakes and I picked up a mini duffel in the shape of a Swiss Miss Roll.

During this trip everyone kept asking are you doing Row by Row.  Of course, my question was what is that? I got a crash course and had decided yes I'm doing this. Of course, that meant going back to all these shops the next month.

East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop 2019

Quilt Sample of blocks from Little Blessings

This is actually the first time I've participated in this particular hop. There is another one I've participated in the past with a similar name but this is a new shop hop for me. The East Tennessee Quilt Shop Hop has been going on for several years.

This year's theme was quilting throughout the year. They had 12 shops that wanted to participate so each one designed a block based on a monthly theme. They originally had 13 shops and would have done a row banner with it but one was unable to join them this year. Each shop had a demonstration and a special tool they were highlighting and a small free goody to go along with the block. I ended up getting the kits for all the blocks.

Mom and I took Saturday to travel to as many of the shops we could set out bright and early. We had planned 5 and would see if we could squeeze in more depending on the time since shops close at 3. Our path for the first day of travel took us all the way to Jamestown as the furthest shop. We started in Maryville with Twisted sisters because we were aiming to get there as the shop opened. I finished the day at 4:30 when I got home and crashed.

Loot from the first day of Hopping

Our stops in order were:

• Twisted Sister's in Maryville, TN - May
• Gina's Bernina in Farragut, TN - June
• Loose Threads in Harriman, TN - August
• Little Blessings in Crossville, TN - July
• Fabrics N Quilts in Jamestown, TN - April

After that, we had a late lunch and came home. I was hoping to squeeze in Atomic Fibers in Oak Ridge, TN but due to the time change and trying to make sure we hit the further out shops that did not happen. We're already planning on a day two of the trip this week, and we have until June 14th to finish the hop.

Old truck graveyard in Florida

One of the fun things I saw on this drive was passing a riding lawnmower graveyard in Clarkrange, TN. I did not stop to get a photo because it was on private property behind a fence, but it was a funny sight. The yard had several dozen mowers clustered together in groups of 8 to ten and it was very grown up in spots. The grass was as high as the top of the mowers. Several were very old and rusted. There was a neat path mowed in the grass around the clusters though. I have seen something like it on the side of the road in Florida before as an old pickup truck graveyard. Both locations were remote countryside areas. 

That is always the fun of shop hops like this. I get to go to areas that I've never been and see things I would not have seen anywhere else.