The Kingfisher Stitch-Along

I’m helping promote the Kingfisher Stitch Along hosted by Rachel of Stitched in Color and Jodi of Tales of Cloth, two AMAZING quilt makers.

If you’ve been following me in my Instagram stories, this is the project I’ve been working on secretly that got me hooked on these hexie flowers and made me want to keep making them.

I love how portable and slow this work is.  Every time I lounge about outside, I’m working on my EPP, on car rides I’m working on my EPP.  You get the picture.  It’s addicting!  Why haven’t I finished my Gypsy Skies quilt and pattern?  I’m working on my EPP.  It’s everything in my head right now.

Come on!  Admit you get obsessed with skills too and feel the need to go nuts with them.

This stitch along is exactly what that is for.

Here’s a little sneaky picture and button to give you a bit of a view of the project, but go and visit Rachel’s blog to see the whole quilt and get a coloring sheet too.  Find all the info here.

 

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I know I’ve said this over and over again, but my early quilt making years were very anti-hand sewing.  It was too hard, it was too slow, I had plenty of excuses.  Several years ago that all changed and now I love hand sewing just as much as I love sitting at my sewing machine.

Making these little hexie flowers is my new favorite thing!  And it’s WAY, way easier than I had once thought.

The Kingfisher Stitch Along will have lessons for the complete newbie and prizes along the way.  Yes, prizes!

I thought I’d give you a rundown of my favorite supplies that will get you started.  You will need:

• 1″ hexagon paper pieces – Jodi has a kit available for you to purchase right here that has all the pieces you need for the quilt.  I also found these paper pieces on Amazon.  I personally made all of my hexagon pieces on a Silhouette Cameo machine.  I’m going to have a tutorial for that very soon!
• small scissors or snips – I am in love with the Snip-eze scissors from Havel’s.  If you purchase anything from Havel’s don’t forget to use my coupon code:  southerncharm7, to receive $7 off any order of $25 or more.
• cotton thread for basting – I’m using Sulky 30 wt for this.
• polyester thread for sewing hexagons together – I like polyester for this kind of work because I break cotton thread constantly trying to pull my thread so tightly and polyester has a bounce to it that just works perfectly.  I’ve been using a polyester metallic thread because the stitches are almost invisible, but Superior Threads is sending me over a special EPP thread to try out.  It’s called The Bottom Line 60 wt. in silver.  I’m really excited about this.
• hand sewing needle – I’ve been using a basic sharps needle from this pack by Dritz.  I like the ones with the tiny eyes for my metallic thread because it slips out of the bigger eye needles.  I also don’t care for very small needles.
• thimble – I bought this thimble recently.  I love this one so much that I doubt I’ll ever swap thimbles.  I like rubber thimbles, because they will fit your finger and not slip off, and this one has a metal tip which is good for pushing a needle through.

 

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Product Spotlight

Purchase here.

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Kingfisher Stitch Along Schedule

Prelude

• May 16 – Supplies List at Stitched in Color and Printable Papers at Tales of Cloth
• May 28 – Color Scheme Ideas at Stitched in Color and Kingfisher Prizes at Tales of Cloth

Stitching
8 Hexagon flowers per week

• June 4 – EPP Basting Methods at A Little Patchwork and EPP Joining Stitches at Tales of Cloth
• June 11 – Fussy Cutting at Ava & Neve
• June 18 – Cutting Diamonds at Stitched in Color
• June 25 – Keeping Momentum at Tales of Cloth
• July 2 – Hand Applique at Charm About You and Machine Applique at Bonjour Quilts
• July 9 –  Joining Diamonds at Stitched in Color

Finishing Up

• July 16 –  Kingfisher Border at Stitched in Color
• July 23 –  Hexie Flower Play at Southern Charm Quilts

 

That’s me at the very bottom.  I got some fun ideas ahead, so be sure to make a few extra hexie flowers this summer for some special side projects.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.  I love it when I hear from y’all!  Hugs!