Ember Costumes and Crafts

IT IS TIMEto start sewing my giant land-hexes into a quilt! I have spent the last several months sewing a ring of water hexes around the outside of each land continent. 
Pictured here are 513 Land Hexes and 216 Water Hexes for a total of 729 hexes (so far!) Here is the diagram of how I want to sew them together. Pink outline is the lands and orange is the waters already attached to each land. I am MUCH happier with these bright blue water hexes compared the the gray-blue ones I had made previously. 

Trying to figure out the best order to sew things together...left to right or center outwards?? I've been safety pinning notes to each edge of the big hexes to remind me of which side to connect to what! Plus filling in all the little gaps. 
This project really feels like it's moving along! 
Previous Installments:
Starting My Dream Quilt
Catan Hexagon Quilt Update #1
Catan Hexagon Quilt Update #2 Catan Hexagon Quilt Update #3

I have 5 cousins expecting babies in the next 6 months! The soonest is baby Beckett, who is due in October. I let my cousin Alexa pick out the fabric from my stash, and then finished this just in time for her baby shower last weekend. 

It took me a long time to decide on a design, but ended up going with my Lori Holt Half-Hex template, then the boys helped me try out a bunch of different designs. I really liked James' idea for this gradation of blues, but I felt like it needed something more for interest. I appliqued some tiny fussy-cut hexagons onto the middle of middle hexes and echoed the hexes in the quilting. I ordered navy blue minky for the back, added a navy blue satin blanket binding, and here it is! 

Everyone needs another quarantine project, right? Because crafters live in a constant state of wanting to start another project and procrastinating on the ones that actually have due dates, right? (*cougbabyquiltgiftscough*) And even during quarantine, when my out-of-the-house responsibilities have been reduced to nothing, I crave the feeling of having too much on my plate. 

Actually, I have nothing to spend my fun money on except fabric right now. Why do I need clothes or makeup if I never go anywhere? And if I never go anywhere, I'm not using my money for movies and dates and restaurants. So instead, I'm buying ALL THE FABRIC. I am a fabric buying machine. Like, I'm scared that all the good fabric will get used up for masks and there won't be any good fabric left for crafting. And also I'm bored and I fill my boredom with online fabric shopping. Quarantine is doing strange things to my head. Today I went for a run and it was 78% humidity and I stepped (gently) o…

As a lover of fantasy, historical, and DIY, the youtube genre of Chateau bloggers is a goldmine. My favorites are The Chateau Diaries and Doing it Ourselves, which feature English families who move to France, buy a run-down Chateau, and fix it up. It is AMAZING escapism, extremely charming, and so gratifying to see these old buildings explored and renovated. They are obviously labors of love, and I love to watch them. Maybe someday I can visit one! 

I have tried a LOT of thimbles over the years, and until recently, just wished that my middle right finger would just be thick and leathery and calloused forever so I wouldn't have to deal with re-callousing it whenever I had to do a bunch of hand sewing! I hate metal thimbles because I can't feel my needle and they are slippery. I tried a leather thimble but had a similar problem--it was either too thin and didn't protect me, or it was too thick and I couldn't feel the needle. I also had a problem with sizing--even a tiny bit too tight and my finger goes numb. Too loose and it just falls off and is lost forever. 
This changed a few months ago when I went in to Honey Bee Quilt Shop in Austin to see if they had any good batiks for my Catan Quilt ocean hexes. When I was at the checkout, I saw this display and was amazed because I had never seen plastic thimbles before, nor had the ability to try on a variety of sizes. They were only 50 cents anyway, so I got bought a yell…

My friend asked if I could turn her daughter's school too-small school uniform into a uniform outfit for her doll. I was excited by the challenge and got to work! I think it looks perfect! 

I used the collar and patch from the original shirt, and a thrifted cotton jersey dress and some buttons from my stash for the rest of the shirt. I used the free Liberty Jane Polo Shirt pattern from Pixie Faire, which was excellent and super easy! 

For the skirt, I used the already pleated portions of the original skirt, trimmed down to be doll-sized. The waistband was difficult because the fabric was so bulky--not a problem in a girl's waistband, but not great in a doll waistband! It took a few tries and some finagling, but I managed to make it look nice. 

Ta-da!