This is a Wordy Wilma Post, Hexagons Old and New, Sewing Expo Thoughts

• Post Expo thoughts:
• Garment sewing is nearly dead at this event. One lady with some Great Copy Patterns, I bought a couple because I felt sorry for her and I need a new coat and a new jacket pattern. Right. I became distracted when her fashion show was scheduled and I missed it.
• A large booth with some nice garment fabric. Advertised good prices. I know this sounds a little tacky but there was an off-odor near the fabric. Musty, not pleasant. Possibly cigarette smoke. I didn't even look.
• Another lady had samples of clothing made with her stunning batiks. Beautiful. She seemed to be alone, the booth was crowded and everyone in line was fussy. I moved on. While you need samples to make your point you also need someone to help you handle the business end and the cutting. 
• Only two major local quilt shops were represented and let me tell 'ya tootsie, this is quilt country. Cost of booth prohibitive? Too much work for a three day event? Business is so good that supporting the local quilting community to keep venue's like this coming here is just not that important? 
• Not one scissor vendor. Heard comments from several people about that one. 
• Only one major thread seller, really, with absolutely everyone looking to buy quality thread and not a spool to be found. I was not familiar with the brand and therefore abstained. More polyester than my heart could tolerate. The selection of cottons, maybe 20 spools of white, (I kid you not) was fuzzy looking. Picture that mucking up my new machine. No way. 
• If you wanted to buy a new sewing machine or a long-arm quilter you had lots of opportunity to test drive and learn all the ideas on that front. Most major brands were represented, their booths were well staffed and wanted to talk. I already have what I need. Thank you.
• Our booth for the Quilt Guild did well, we had lots of traffic in our new space, spoke to some amazing ladies and sold a few tickets as well. It was great for us. And the Fudgie-Wudgie people were on our right and they were giving samples! Chocolate and Fabric, don't get any better than that kids!
• I spent a significant amount of time in the one wool booth, more on that another time. Another booth, a quilt shop from Florida, had some great ideas. I'll share those later as well.

Like an old quilt, an old computer can be a very comfortable place to be. This quilt is Linda Sue's, from her Grandmother. Hand-made Hexi's. All good things come around, don't they?

Let me just say, I crack myself up. It's a good thing that breathing is automatic. The Autonomic nervous system is a great thing. I have fussed with this new computer since Christmas. Trying to upload pictures from 3 different cameras has been an ordeal. I have been using the old computer, hoping that the old girl didn't delete everything in the process. I would then pin them to the blog and reference that to get my photo's in place. Wilma Flintstone would have figured it out sooner.

Well, this 8.1 edition came with at least 6 different programs and editing apps for photography and film. Uh-huh. I did finally figure it out.  It makes perfect sense now. Better late than never I say. But I did have a good laugh at myself. Will this revelation will make posting so much easier? I sure hope so.  It has been a very tedious process. Quite frankly, I have been ready to throw in the quilt! (Did you catch that clever little...throw in the quilt line?) Like I said, I crack myself up sometimes.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled program, using up the stash, using up the scraps, using what you have on hand.  Susan had a brilliant idea with some left over strips. Just check out these small mats. Perfect for our side tables or as placemats she started with the now perfectly adaptable Hexi. She attached her left over strips around the hexi, building them up much like one would a log cabin block. She used the final attached strip as the binding! Can you stand it? Great idea!

Leave it to me to forget to take a picture of the backing. As you can see, prior to the last 'ring' she quilted the mat, then attached the last row which essentially became the binding. It doesn't get more purposeful than this for using up all those left over strips. Just think how one could have a strip exchange party among your group or quilting friends to add diversity to your collection of strips. A light bulb just went off in my wee head Sew and Sews.
My in-progress Hexi project, currently packed up for a while. I do tire of some
things more quickly than others.