half hexi smokey cat baby quilt

this poor little quilt got formulated, shopped for and prewashed back in the summer time, and then craziness hit.  jacob & sarah moved their wedding date, so that quilt had to be finished, and then i decided to make my pumpkin quilt in october (which didn't get finished until december) and so it sat.  my dear friend jessica had her second baby girl last year, and i decided she needed a kitty themed quilt.  growing up, she had a black cat named smokey, so when i found this adorable kitty fabric, i knew it was mean to be.   after months of sitting and waiting, these fabrics finally became a top in january at maker monday and got finished up just last month.  the inspiration for this quilt pattern came from one angelina showed us a few maker mondays prior, using hexagons & triangles in various ways to create different shapes and designs.  i had used triangles time and time again, so now it was time to give hexis a go, and i love it!
i may be in the midst of a fussy cut kick, but that peeking kitty was totally a happy accident!
i love that i was able to find this fabric in both colorways - the blue was perfect all alone, but the white just helped lighten things up a little bit with still having some crazy kitties in there.
i got about a yard and a half for the backing of this quilt, because these kitties were too cute to not have everywhere! i really want to buy some more just for myself to hoard. not sure the red will blend with my fussy cut sampler though... ha! i wanted the hexagons to be framed up, which looks awesome on the back as well. some portions also look a little lava lamp-esque... if that's a thing!
with this quilt officially posted, that makes it the first finish of 2018!
i had to go back and check my quilt count, because it had been that long... but this is the first out of (maybe) 20 quilts for the year.  random number goal, don't worry.  i don't actually have 20 quilts currently planned...  more like 10.  ha!
total quilts number: 107 quilts

sewvivor sewalong - hexing around

a day later than desired, but hey... better now than never!
still made it in time for the #sewvivorsewalong entry on instagram, so that's a plus, right?
when doing my project research for this sewvivor cycle, i stumbled across this hexing around block by freshly pieced, and knew it was what i wanted to do.  this was actually the first project i had decided on WELL before auditions even happened.  even better was i knew what fabric i wanted to do it with.  remember catvent 2013?  yep.  same fabric!  i was working through more of the batik fabric i inherited from my grandma, and all i had to purchase for this project was the gray used for the front and the back.  before i chatter more about this, take a look at the full quilt!
pretty stoked about this one.
the blocks pieced together easily, it was just SUPER time consuming.
sew two sides, iron, trim to the right angle, repeat 3 times for each color round. once i hit the green round, my pieces started to be too short and i had to connect pieced together just to be long enough, and then make sure i had enough just to get around.  once i got to the orange ring, i completely ran out, and pulled some yellow left over from baby mark's petite trellis just to complete that round.  i pulled in some red from that project as well, but was able to finish the blocks off and have enough to create the binding.  woo hoo!
i really like the purple parts, just like in catvent, but there just wasn't enough to make them the bigger ring to the quilt. oh well. i like the lack of scrappy purple on each one, and that it is a center point
more close ups. this is my top center block, and i like it quite a bit.
haha. i did such a awful job sewing on this tag. i literally finished sewing it, threw it over the cat and left for work yesterday. it's a little wonky, but that makes it unique, right?
the quilting was an absolute breeze to do.  i did it in two sittings, probably because i had somewhere to be (this week was chaotic, let me tell you what) but it was just around and around the hexagons.  easy peasy.  just time consuming.  and i really like how it looks on the back.  so glad i went with the solid gray fabric with gray thread instead of anything with a print or color.
i would absolutely love to do this quilt in a larger scale and see how it turns out.
i am out of batik remainders (finally?  is this true?  maybe almost...)  but i would love to see this done in different color schemes, and a different aspect ratio of blocks.  i didn't have much of an option since i only pulled off 12 blocks, but i would have loved to see this a little bit bigger with at least a 4 block across width.  something about 3 just doesn't do it for me... haha.
i'm quite pleased with how this turned out (i think i say that about all my quilts lately) and think it looks just like i imagined it in my head.  i love how all the same colors mixed around on different blocks make each one unique and so different from the others.
there you have it folks!  sew-vivor challenge 3: finished!