Tool Time Tuesday...Tea Ball Pincushion

Most weeks I already have an idea about what I'm doing for Tool Time. I even have a TTT box of things I collect. This weekend was busy and Sunday was a computer (blogger) nightmare. As you can see, I changed my header. I thought I would just remove the picture, try another and then put the original back. To make an 8 hour story (with a few tears in there) very short, this is my new header. It's temporary, because my very talented daughter Courtney designed me a new one. I won't be using it for a while...I can't take another computer adventure right now.

What does all that have to do with this week's TTT. Well, my old header had a tea for one tea pot and an antique tea ball. I was roaming around my sewing room Monday morning trying to find some inspiration when I spotted all these...my little tea ball collection.




I love tea, tea balls and tea pots. Here's a picture of my favorite tea pot. Disney is our favorite place on earth and this little Minnie teapot sits on my desk!



So, after all that blah, blah, blahing, here is my little inspiration. I wanted to make something sewy (is that even a word), because last week's was the Washer Toss Game. There's nothing sewier than a pincushion!!!

Here we go...

This is a mesh tea ball. Tea leaves go inside to infuse the water for a nice cup of tea. Yah...right, not on Tuesdays!!

Open it up and clamp it on card stock.

Trace the shape.

Cut it out and make sure it fits the circle.

Now here's the part where you're probably going to say..."she's nuts".

Take a small ball of fiber fill...

Place stuffing in one side of the tea ball.

Cover with the card stock circle.

and glue in place. I just used a little hot glue all the way around the rim and a dab in the center of stuffing.

Here you have it... A pin cushion. Woo Hoo!

Quick, easy and cute...but wait there's more! Sew Much More

See that top part? It's empty. What better place to store something for sewing.

A bobbin of thread of course.

Just pop it in...

but before you close it, thread the thread through the wire mesh from the inside to the outside.

Now it's perfect. Needles and pins on one side...thread on the other. The thread is safe and sound in there. You won't lose it and it stays nice and clean. Just pull the thread out through the wire and the bobbin spins inside the tea ball.

but wait there's more...

Take a key ring that hinges open.

Hook it to the ring on the bottom and add your favorite little scissors.

You can also add a badge clip to the bottom ring too. Just clip it any where on your clothing so that it's always where you want it when hand sewing...especially in the car. Never lose your thread or scissors again.




You can find these mesh tea balls in most kitchen sections. I did a search on Amazon under Mesh Tea Balls and a bunch came up. Prices ranges from a $1.75 on up. There were some small mesh balls that weren't the clamp style, but the ones that hang from a tea cup with a chain. Those would work great too.

Now lets go make a ...a what? What to name this. How about a "tea cushion" or a "sew ball" or how about "sew meshy".

What ever the name, make one for yourself or a friend. Great gift idea too.

Happy Tuesday Everyone. I hope you have a magnificent day! I'm going to go have a cup of tea.

~Karen~

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Machine Sewing Hexagons...Half Hexies That Is

In my last post about hexagons, I said I had "H.A."...Hexagon Addiction. Now I have H2O...Hexagon Habit Obsession!!

Here's a picture heavy tutorial on how to machine sew hexagons. This works for any size hexagon. I made a Grandmother's Flower Garden pillow in this tutorial, but you could just plan out your hexagons in any pattern and sew it into a quilt top, just need to trim the sides off.

Cut your desired size hexagons...this is the large hexagon from the accuquilt cutter die. From flat side to flat side it's about 4 1/2" wide. From point to point it's about 5" wide.




Arrange your hexies in the desired pattern. You could do an all over random pattern, a hexie charm quilt or little flowers all over. It's all up to you! This design, unsewn, is about 17" across.

This next step is crucial to the ease of machine sewing the hexies together. It gets rid of those dreaded dog ears and you don't have to guess how to match up the seams.

The first step is to trace your hexagon onto card stock or something sturdy and cut it out. You will only need one.

Now take a quilt ruler and place the edge of the card stock hexie on the 1/4" line.

Draw a pencil line.

Do this all the way around the paper hexagon.

Place your ruler, horizontally from point to point as seen below.

That's the red line below.

Cut the hexagon in half on that red line. You now have 2 templates. You only need one, so you can share the other with a friend!

See that little triangle I'm pointing to in the upper left hand corner of the half hexie?

You need to trim that off.

On both corners. This is the most important part!

The rest of the lines don't mean anything, we just marked them all to get the 1/4" ones we needed.

Now take all your fabric hexagons and rotary cut them in half, like you did for the template...

from point to point.

The half hexagons should look like boats now.

Stack and pin 6-8 half hexies together.

Place your super duper new template on there and...

see that little dog ear? Grrrrr...

snip that devil right off!

You don't know it now, but that little snip just saved you hours of ripping apart seams that didn't match.

Two corners snipped.

and many more to follow.

Now on to the layout and assembly...

Position your half hexagons in the desired pattern, making sure you have each hexagon shape back again.

This picture below shows the first 3 rows sewn together and the rest laid out in the flower shape in a ROW by ROW format. If you hand sew hexies with English paper piecing, you have to get that process out of your head for machine sewing. You will be sewing the half pieces together left to right to make a row, then sewing the rows together.

Each row consists of the boat shaped half hexagons...one long side up and one long side down.

See where I'm pointing to: the one snipped dog ear at the top of the red and white fabric...

and the other on the bottom corner of the blue fabric?

Bring the red and white fabric over to the blue and match those side seams. One snipped dog ear will match the top part of the blue...

and the flat side of the red and white fabric will match the snipped dog ear of the blue. Ok, I know this may sound confusing, but when you actually do it with fabric in hand, you will see immediately how it matches up.

Sew the seam with a 1/4" seam allowance. Sorry I used white thread...what was I thinking. You can click the image to enlarge.

Fold open and now you have perfectly lined up edges.

When sewing the half hexies in a row, you will be alternating how the pieces are placed. One will be up like this...

and the next one will be down like this. Another one of those moments when you will see it when you do it yourself.

Here is a picture of all the rows sewn together.

This is a close-up of the first 3 rows sewn together. This also shows the one up and the one down in the red polka dot row.

When all the half hexies are sewn together, you now have to sew the rows together from the top of the flower to the bottom, matching seams as you go.

This picture is of the first 4 rows sewn together. Make sure you check as you go to make sure you have the right design shaping up.

More rows added.

and now we're all done! You could easily applique this onto something, but remember that all the outside edges still have an unsewn 1/4 seam, so you'll have to turn that seam before you sew.

Here's a close up.

Here's one way to use this flower...a pillow.

Iron all your seams flat first. Then place hexagon flower right sides together on backing fabric.

Pin all the sides.

Sew with 1/4 seam allowance, pivoting with needle down at all the points.

Leave an opening for turning. I just left one edge of a hexagon open and that was too small for stuffing the pillow, so adjust for yourself.

Trim away all backing fabric.

Snip a little in the inseams.

Better results when you turn it right side out.

Turn right side out. See this is where the frustration set in for me with that too small of an opening I made. It was like...well, you fill in the blank. All I can say is that flower was beat up pretty badly!

But she turned out pretty as a picture!

and here's the back of the pillow. You could always make another flower and use that as a back too.

This is that stupid, oops sorry, that small opening I had to stuff through. I know what you are thinking...why didn't she just rip it open more? I hear ya, but I was so near the end and that smaller opening was easier to close. Crazy I know! or is that Lazy I know!

Here it is all stuffed.

and looking all pretty!!

So now that you know how to sew hexagons on the machine, there's no stopping you now. Dig into your stash and start cutting!

Do a google search or an image search of Half Hexagon Quilts and take a look around the web for inspiration.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend,
~Karen~

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