Still no finished third row, but here’s what I’ve done this week on my old background fabric, the tan crosshatch:

I’m really glad I decided to go with the lighter, non-liney background.  The little dots are far softer and they fit in better with the other fabrics and the flower motifs.

I got the green “leaf” hexagons sewn to the first row.  All except that dang green gingham.  I’m really not sure about that one, but I think I need to look for something to replace it.  I also have the third flower on the third row almost surrounded by background hexes, but it was in my travel sewing kit and I didn’t want to dig it out for the photo.

With the Prim and Sec back in school this week, I should be able to get the rest of the row done.

I think I jinxed myself when I talked about all of the steady progress I was making.  It’s been a busy week.  Well, I did manage to get the background on one flower from the third row.

And the back:

Not much, but better than nothing.

Seeing the back remind me that I like a slightly bigger than 1/4″ seam allowance, which I think will make buying a die cutter (and die, obviously) difficult.  None of them (that I’ve seen) are going to give me the 3/8″ seam allowance I’m more comfortable with.

If you know of a die cutter with suitable dies, please let me know in the comments!  Thanks in advance.

No exclamation point this week, but I have the second row sewn together.

And the first and second rows as they nest together:

Sorry about the shadows.  I definitely need better lighting.

This project is still very portable (remember that these hexagons measure 1/2″ on a side).  I didn’t attach the single hexagon green “leaves” because I have them all oriented a certain way and it would be a pain to mark them and bring green thread.  I’ll do them all at the end.  And I haven’t decided about that green gingham one yet.

I’m making slow and steady progress, which is great.  I’m not looking forward to doing the applique to the borders, though.

Over the past couple of weekends, we spent a lot of time in the car.  I didn’t have to drive, so I spent the time sewing background hexagons to flowers and joining the first row of Tiny Flower Garden (sans green “leaf” hexagons, hence the “almost” in the post title).  I’m so excited!

It’s actually starting to come together and the more time I spend with it, the more I like it.  I wonder if that’s because of the work I’m putting into it–or maybe it’s just that I didn’t expect much from this project, but I’m learning a lot.

I actually got halfway on joining the second row, but I’ll save photos of that until it’s done.  Soon, I hope.

To facilitate the “sewing while traveling” thing, I got a thread cutter pendant like I’d made fun of in the past.  I’m officially an old lady!  Joking aside, it worked really well.  I’m not used to wearing necklaces (and I had to wear a necklace of braided threads since I forgot to order a metal chain), but it was much less of a pain to wear it and use it than to unsheathe my tiny sharp scissors every time I needed them.  Because I was sewing instead of basting, I didn’t need them too often.