You write, You doodle, You fidget... I sew!!

Yup! I sew!  

When 2015 started and I turned back and realized that I was not very productive in the crafty sort of way, I decided to look for even the smallest of opportunities to get my hands busy...

Well, I found a perfect moment to do so... Meetings! Well, conference calls and webinars, and any other job gathering when the door to my office is closed and I get a bit of privacy. 

Meetings? Yes, meetings! Those conversations that could go on and on and on... If you look around, you may get a glimpse of someone fidgeting with their pen, doodling, counting tiles and even yawning. But not in my office! In my corner of the woods, where most meetings are conference calls, the results are a bit different...

Well, remember me starting these hexagon paper pieced units without giving too much thought to them?  It was, once more, a project born out of the curiosity of trying a new technique and experimenting that exciting and powerful moment of creating something new and different, seeing for the first time how a shape comes together and enjoying a second of satisfaction after seeing the results...

Well, little by little, over several weeks and months, I ended up covering all of the 200 paper hexies in scraps. Meetings went by, with the usual notes, ideas and commitments, but now, there is another witness to productivity:

Man! And just think of all the past meetings I could have done this... lol  Yes, to all of those you wondering out there, my boss knows I do this and she finds it fascinating that I even remember more details of the meetings I was working on those. It is actually kind of weird; I see some of the stitches, seams and turns, and I can remember what people were saying, and even the tone of their voices...

Well, I must say that if we are talking figures or any other details requiring my whole attention, the needle and thread sometimes don't even come out of the little tin box where they patiently await for the next conference call. For those, it's the color markers and mind maps that start showing up!

Hey, you can't deny that meetings have now taking a fascinating route!  :)

Stay blessed,

Yiya.

On this (almost) last day of January...

...life on the Hill goes on and the crafty bone seems to be tickled to death because it just doesn't stay still!

Even though I've made several projects using the scraps left from my in-law's washer and drier cover, I still have a lot of fabric left!  I guess it's due to my lack of experience regarding yardage-piecing ratio and my in-grained habit of getting a bit more whenever I find something at a really good price.  This gorgeous fabric has been so easy to put together and mix.  No matter what, the final result is somewhere between elegant and delicate.  At least, that's what I've told myself!

Anyway, I recently posted about my ideas going all over the place, almost as if they were bits of tiny papers flying around with the wind - just like grocery bags when they get caught in it...  It was as if I was unable to catch them; more and more kept coming from somewhere and there was just not enough solace to grasp and record each one of them.  I just keep thinking of how many more things can be made into something else - a wonderful transformation that now and then (more now than then, actually), blows my mind away, just like a new little paper thrown in the never ending stream of images that pop even in the most unexpected occasions... 

But enough with the weird process my brain gets into!  Somehow, I was able to picture paper piecing in my mind.  However, I wanted something different form a pieced strip.  Don't take me wrong, I love them, I just was searching for some variety to explore something different with all that beautiful fabric!  

After musing and pondering some more, it all started to take shape... that of hexies! 

And completely contrary to the Quilting Best Practices Manual, I got things ready to start wrapping the fabric around the 1" hexagons and, well... got started! No specific plan, no specific pattern in mind, just wrapping, stitching and stacking.  One afternoon gone by, a little family of hexies showed up on my dining room table, long taken over by crafty experiments.  

So, with experiments in mind and growing little stacks, life in the Hill keeps going.  We even have a new neighbor:

I wonder if he is a woodpecker.  We had to take some trees down because they were rottening from the inside out and we really did not want any new "windows" in the house...  People have told us that a family of woodpeckers used to live in our yard years ago, so I wonder if this little guy is a grand-kid of sorts.

I'm for sure not a bird expert, so if you happen to recognize this fellow and know if those little red bangs make him a woodpecker, please post a comment.  If he's not, please post a comment, too. :)

So, on this day of January, I'm thankful for the opportunity to create and share.  Just like the final destination of that bunch of hexies, life has unexpected things, but this little winged visitor reminds me that our lives are in the hands of our Creator!  And then, there's hope...

I just have to open my eyes and look around me; I know I can stay blessed on every day of my life!