Feline Friday - 11/30/12

What is that I see? Can it possibly be December on the horizon already?
Of course, y'all know that means the Christmas tree will be coming soon and then I can hide underneath it! Woot Woot!

What are all you frisky felines looking forward to?

Easy guessing game

I know I still owe a little gifty in the mail for someone but I thought today's photo might be fun for another guessing game... I have blogged about this technique before but it's been a while and I did add a new little twist recently.

Last night while watching Bonnie's Quilt Cam, I worked on cutting twosies and making more strip sets.

Can you guess, from the photo, how many twosies I have cut already? Game ends Monday, 12/3/12.

Closest guesser gets 5 FQ length strips of black on white fabric.
A perfect guess will get 10 FQ length black on white strips.
Good Luck!

Starting down Easy Street

While I wait for my favorite piecing thread to arrive in the mail I decided to cut strips for Bonnie's 2012 mystery quilt - Easy Street.

My grey is a bit on the green side but I love it anyway.

And it appears I have plenty of black on white prints. I haven't used these (or the other box of white on black) in years and years so I don't know why I have so many. Let's just say I am thrilled at the prospect of using up a few of them.

Hexie ornaments

We have a monthly hexie night at the LQS. Generally we bring show-n-tell, a snack or drink to share and our own project to work on. For our December meeting, I suggested that we have some kits to make Christmas ornaments, based on the papers only kits that paperpieces.com sells.

These are the four ornaments we decided to run with. These are all made from my scraps and were shapes I already had. See...it's nice to have a paper shape stash too! I'm still playing with backings since I would like to take the papers out and I'm open to any suggestions.

I think the star in the upper right is my favorite because of the cardinal fussy cut for the center. My least favorite in this shot is the white star but if you go turn off your lights you'll see why I tried this fabric*.

Have you tried making ornaments yet, all y'all hexie-aholics? Would love to see your designs. We'll be doing hearts in a couple months...



*LOL - it's glow in the dark Fairy Frost ;^)

Design Wall Monday - 11/26/12

I was so excited for the sun to come out and get some pictures this morning but then I had to create some shadows so it wasn't all washed out (and that made the chickadee fabric upside down - sorry). I know, I ask too much. And now I suffer as we are back to grey skies. At least we got a little snow over the weekend!!!

I picked up the black batik on Black Friday as well as a dark grey batik I'll be using for the outer border. I think 1 more strip set and I should be able to get this center part finished. Then there will be a narrow black border of the same black (which incorporates all the other batik colors - a great find) and then a grey border with black cornerstones. It's not a real big quilt but I hope to make it my camping quilt so it's big enough.

I had this quilt on the floor over night and maybe a couple pieces were moved from 12 little feet walking over them but then I took my shower this morning and came downstairs to this:

I am 99.9% sure it's from Squeaky as she loves to take a running leap with a twist - I guess you could call it her signature move.

Did you notice????

I now have a yardsale tab on my blog - I'm trying to move out some things that I mostly have never used. Rulers are posted and I have started on books. Patterns will be next. Who knows what will come after that...

Feline Friday - 11/23/12

Uhhh...it's empty...where are the treats?

Santa has been asked for a proper cat tower cuz this little girl loves her stacked boxes...if you can't find her, look in the boxes!

More treats please!! I did pose for your picture for 1.5 seconds...


TGIF - Momma and Grandmomma are off to the Black Friday Sale at the notsoLQS. What have all you pussy cats been up to lately?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

No matter what you eat or drink today,

I hope my American friends enjoy your time with family or friends!

Happy Thanksgiving from Sarah, Pepper, Squeaky and Midgie

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I hope it looks as good in fabric as it does on paper/in my mind...

Darting Cardinals

Twice in the last week or so I saw quilts made with the darting bird block and that reminded me I had recently bought "Civil War Legacies-Quilt Patterns for Reproduction Fabrics."  The book is full of great patterns but my fav was the darting bird block and the universe was hinting it was time to get on to this project!

As I was reading the directions, I noticed that it suggested making all red birds for cardinals or all blue birds for bluebirds of happiness. I barely registered the bluebird bit as I adore cardinals and began pulling out my red scraps.

And that's really all you need to make these blocks since they are 3.5" unfinished and about 6" of each 1.5" strip is all that's needed. I must say that they are not as intuitive as my basket blocks to layout when I am chain piecing or leader/ender-ing (new word!!). I'm sure I'll get used to it and I would also guess that if you used more contrasting fabric it would be easier too. I'll also be making some female cardinals - maybe those will be easier...

Design Wall Monday - 11/19/12

I've been playing with mugrugs lately - they are quick, can be made of scraps and I've even been sewing down bindings with some of the fancy stitches on my machine.

I've also got a few more that weren't finished before the bazaar this past weekend.

I am thinking mug rugs and a new mug might make nice gifts this year!!!

Hey did you link up to HeLP for Hexie-aholics yet? There is still time...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 11/17/12

Welcome Hexie-aholics!!!!

Ya know...I'm sitting here without anything clever to write so lets just get to the picture.

I love how the 4 outer "cog" hexies kinda square off the piece so I am thinking of making this into more of a rectangular quilt from this point. I am working with only 1 FQ of each batik so I am trying to distribute colors and I think the next row will have lots of the sunny yellow :^) Now I just need to decide which pieced hexie shape to use...

Ok - my friends - share your hexie projects! I don't care if you pulled it out of storage or it's a brand new project or half a dozen projects! We hexie-aholics need your HeLP. LOL! Just remember to link to a specific post and not your blog as a whole. I can help if you need...

Feline Friday - 11/16/12

We are the resident QCO's (quality control officers) here at Casa Grande...

Yesterday we had to test out the catnip Momma had to buy from another Castile lady since Grandmomma's harvest was nonexistent. After roll-testing the nip - Squeaky gave it four paws up!

This morning we got to test the toys Momma made for tomorrow's bazaar. What fun to test 17 new 'nip toys all at once! You know if Midgie plays with a toy it's got her approval!

And now we would like to ask y'all to keep your paws crossed for our little friend CC who doesn't feel good and has had to make several trips in the PTU to the V.E.T. Poor thing!

Ok, our fellow felines, let's see what you have been up to!



PS - Momma asked us to remind you that tomorrow is HeLP for Hexie-aholics and she is uber excited. Silly Momma!

Hexie sneak peek

As I was working on my hexagon puzzles yesterday at lunch I realized that I really should have been working on something to share Saturday for HeLP for Hexie-aholics. Oops.

I had planned to share my card trick blocks started last month because I would be making one a week and think of the progress. Yeah...didn’t happen :(

Instead I was going to show you my pieced hexie project that I am designing as I go along. I did buy the pieced hexie software package from myeqboutique.com but so far I can’t get it to cooperate in the design process. I would love to hear from anyone who has gotten it to work with one patch quilts in EQ!

Any way, I needed to piece the next batch of hexie fabrics this morning and got so into the project that I forgot to photograph the mug rugs I had intended to share. Instead, I hope you enjoyed the sneak peaks of what I’ll have for you on Saturday. And can I just add…people with white cats shouldn’t do macro shots! LOL!

I hope y’all are getting your hexie projects ready to share – I can’t wait to see them!!!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I am sewwwwwwwwwwwwww enjoying having my lunches back at my desk :)

Grandmother's Choice

I played a little catch-up recently on my Grandmother's Choice blocks....

I'm still making them at 4" and converting some of the blocks to this size without Blockbase is a bugger but I am learning more EQ in the process.

I am currently working on converting another three blocks to 4" and hope to share them next week.



Yup - those are 3/4" diamonds to make the star. Fun to include hexies but they were tiny...



Design Wall Monday - 11/12/12

I need your opinion...sew what else is new, right!?

This little cat panel was gifted to me so long ago I can't even really remember where I got it. Around the center is a braid and then some white with tiny flowers. The white is not cut even and if I was to have a proper seam allowance, would only leave 1/4".

My question for y'all is would you add something to the middle to separate the braid of the panel from the braid I have sewn together? I am thinking yes but I haven't decided what it should be since I don't think I can find the same white with tiny flowers fabric. I am happy to piece something or just a plain fabric border. I suppose I could even cut off the braid of the panel and just add my pieced panel.

Help me out...Pretty Please with sugar on top!!


PS - Don't forget HeLP for Hexie-aholics is this Saturday, 11/17/12!!!

Feline Friday - 11/9/12

I'm sure one or two of you might have thought I dropped off the planet but I just haven't had time to clear up much photo space yet (it's the end of school tax season, job #2, and I can't wait to have my time back!). I figured out how to make the space I need for more photos and hope to get to it this weekend. It was nice not to have to worry over what to blog about but I've missed y'all!

In the meantime...the kids finally found an activity they can all do together! It was hard for all 3 to see the one feeder so I added another to the other side of the shepards hook as well. Now the four of us can hunker at the window to watch the chickadees, goldfinches and tufted titmice. We hope some of the other birds start coming as well...

Looking forward to seeing what all y'all pussy cats have been up to!

Oops - almost forgot to remind you that HeLP for Hexie-aholics is next Saturday, 11/17/12. I'm saving my pieced hexie project to share!!!

Feline Friday - 11/2/12

I helped Momma hand out candy to the munchkins this week.

You should have seen the one little boy all excited to see me in my costume. He was a can of Mt Dew - very clever. I wasn't even scared.

Your turn - what did you do this week? Did you get to wear a costume?

Are you the 25,000th person to check my blog? Send us proof and Momma will pop something into the mail for you...