Waiting (im)patiently...

My daughter was due on June 1st with her first baby (a girl) and she might be in labour!  She had a non-stress test at the hospital today, and she was having contractions about 8 minutes apart, but she's not in any pain, so we're not sure yet.  We just got back from an hour-long walk and she had a couple of strong ones, but she is handling it so well.  I hope this is an indication how she handles the tough part.

 I remembered that I missed having some handwork during the wee hours of my first daughter's labour, when she was resting, so I dug out my hexies.  They've been put away for a few months while I worked on baby stuff.  I needed to prep some more flower groups so first I had to punch some more cardstock hexagons with my Creative Memories punch. I also punch a hole in the centre to make it easy to take out and reuse it.

  

The hexagon on the left is my cutting template.  I cut my hexies out of 2" and 2 1/2" strips, which minimizes waste.  Here is my little bin of precut strips - I've reused a veggie and dip container, the little hole for the dip is perfect for some precut hexies and my cutting template.

I'm using my collection of '30s reproductions to make the flowers and because I want each one different, I pulled out the ones I've already completed:

I have completed 59 so far.  As you can see, I've started putting the flowers together in groups.  I didn't want to use a traditional setting so I'm starting with groups of 9 flowers, one from each colour group so they will be well-distributed amongst the finished quilt. Every flower is different, if the "petals" are the same, the centre has to be different. Here's my prepped flowers ready to go for the trip to the hospital!

I'm following the Hexagon tutorial from Bonnie Hunter's blog - I've done hexies before, but the joining of so many small units bored me silly.  Now by doing a hexie and joining it to a flower right away, I have a sense of completion each time I do one. It takes me less than an hour to finish one flower.  Here is the back when it is done:

I won't remove the templates until they are joined to other flowers.  When I started making the hexies, I needed a case for my needles and pins, so I made a hexagon one using my selvages and a vintage button from my mother's collection.

When I was punching my cardstock, I looked at my smaller punch and wondered how small of a hexie I could make.  I pulled out my smaller punch (also from Creative Memories) and punched out the smallest size hexie, with a finished size of  3/4".  Each side is just 3/8".  (My regular size hexies finish at 1 1/2", with 3/4" sides.  The flower is just the cutest, but I don't know how many I would make - maybe enough for a doll house quilt.  Here it is with a spool of thread to show you how little it is:

And with one of my regular hexagons - which looks so big beside it!

Well, I'm off to bed to get some sleep. Hopefully, that little girl makes her arrival soon!