Class Hexies

 I have just realized I have never shared my class hexies.

 As many of you may or may not know, I ran a crazy quilting and embroidery class at Gathering Fabrics Quilt shop in Woodinville  Washington, at least I did in the before times.

And if you didn't know already I like color.

The back

 

                                   Lots of it!

    I try to teach the intimidated to love their colors! 

     This is the little bit of CQ I use to demonstrate.

  Every Hexie is self contained and different

 

 

So here is a simple one of mostly pinks, 

which I tried to balance through out the block

Especially tamping down the impact of that bright saturated pink on the right, by making a lot of light blue strait stitch stars

And making a spray of pink vines in the lower quadrant and a big pink flower opposite

Here is another big balancing act

I used a lot of dark blue accents and spread them around to balance the dark blue patch on the right.

The flowers on the yellow patch are beaded

And the spray of leaves are silk ribbon on fly stitch

Here again, I balance the the patch 

By sewing a motif or seam opposite or tangential to the color of the main patches in the block 

Going in a clockwise direction around the block, to keep the eye moving around the block

 

So keeping the first few patches in mind 

 

I repeat this concept through out all the blocks on this quilt

 

 

 

I Teach out of Jennifer Clouston's Foolproof Crazy Quilting book

And I try to follow the patterns she shows in her book

So I can demonstrate them to my students in class 

 

I also tried to use as many readily available items on the quilts as possible to take the 

"It's too expensive" quotient out of it.

All the threads are DMC size 8 twist and the sequins are a plastic set I got at joannes

Many of the buttons are those from off coats or the extras you get with a new blouse

 

or plain ones I have in my stash

Which I glamour up with beads

Like the bug I made here in the upper green patch,

with layered buttons and beads to hold them together.

Notice also the plastic flower beads in the bottom patch, where no two are alike.

 

I have found you can do this when the pieces are of a like enough color, 

They don't have to be matchie-matchie to work together

It's also a good place to use a bunch of "Leftover" or extra beads.

 

As long as the beads are of like color or hue they all play nice together on the block

I have used a lot of my leftover bits and pieces on this quilt, 

To show you can make something beautiful no matter what you have to hand.

 

More button stacking and saturated color balancing here

 

The three big white buttons are of the same color and size but are different patterns to one another

 

The beads anchoring the big pearls at the bottom 

and the beaded butterflies at the top 

are from my "It fell on the floor" box and are all different

 

I have also used about 180 different fabrics 

230 beads, buttons, sequins, lace, 

                                  ribbon bits and doo-dahs

 And 30 different stitches in DMC and Silk ribbon embroidery

On this little quilt so far, I had been keeping a record

 but I lost track somewhere around the penguins.

I have a few more blocks, leftover from classes, that I haven't quite finished yet.

I was hoping to get back to them but got sidetracked by the plague.