Feline Friday - 5/31/13

TGIFF!
Thank Goodness it's Feline Friday!

It's been a lazy feline week here at Casa Grande.

White Kitty hasn't felt well but resting in her fav spot on the couch has almost relieved all sniffles.

Last Sunday was chilly but sunny and made for some great sun-tanning spots while Momma sewed!

What have you felines been up to??

Wild Kingdom

Remember all the sewing I did last weekend? Well that and a couple more hours last night and I finished a top!!! I think I'll bind it in the same black but I am not yet sure about backing fabric. I can pick up some neutral wide-backing fabric at the LQS or I might have some yardage of cat fabric. It's the back sides of cats and is a perfect backing given all the animal fabrics on the front, I'm just not sure there is enough since this is a little bigger than I was expecting.

This quilt is based on yet another youtube video from Missouri Star Quilt Company. 2.5" strips are sewn in to pairs and then subcut in to 3.5" twosies. A four patch is created and then 1.5" strips are sewn to the long sides, creating a square. Rotating every other square creates the illusion of sashing. A final black border was added to make the center "float." I LOVE giraffes and looked far and wide for the border fabric but thought it needed a little something...the square in square blocks were a last minute thought and I think they add just the punch I wanted!

You can tell both my models had other thoughts on their minds than my quilt. Midgie never goes outside as she used to try to run but she was a good girl so she might come outside again. Squeaky routinely comes outside with me but still couldn't be bothered with yet another quilt...

I've got a few leftovers but I already have a plan. The local animal shelter has an annual fundraiser and some years when I have time, I make a wall hanging for them to raffle. I'm a little short on time for the donation quilt but what else is new?!

Honeycomb Tumblers

Sooo...remember how I took a blogging break so I could have surgery last week? Well after sitting in the waiting room for almost 2 hours they cancelled it! There were technical problems in the OR so they started with the first victims patients of the day and cancelled as they needed. And I had thought being the first victim patient was a good thing since the doc wouldn't be tired yet...

Strangely enough, the 20 minute drive home took 6 hours because we had 3 rescue calls right on top of each other and that meant I was at the hospital 3 times (we didn't transport one of the patients) and all the nurses were laughing WITH me! For the patients it was a good thing surgery was cancelled but I wasn't so happy about it at first.

I had time to use up so I still took last Thursday and Friday off - I think it's the first 5 day weekend I've ever had where I didn't go somewhere. I sewed and sewed and sewed. It was nice but I finally had to get out of the house on Sunday. LOL.

I swiped this idea from a youtube video from Missouri Star Quilt Company. I've had the fabric for a while and knew I wanted a tumbler quilt but I thought this was a fun take on the standard tumblers. It's a little more red than I like but I don't want to buy more fabric in the other colors so it is what it is. I'm hoping the border and binding will balance it...

This is my border fabric. Since the quilt is a little long, I might just put borders on 2 sides. I'll decide that once I finally get the tumblers sewn together.


PS - yes, surgery has been rescheduled and there will be another blogging break - I'll let you know when as the date approaches in June.

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 5/17/13

Hello and welcome to my fellow Hexie Addicts, and by this I mean peeps who do any kind of EPP!

For anyone new to the party, HeLP stands for Hexie Linky Party and we are here to provide you with new ideas for new projects!!! I mean just today I found this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGorXpr2a8 ) which could easily be made with hexies. How many other new ideas will I find today? Heaven help me it's not too many!

Sew...I know I have been torturing a certain few people who have been waiting to see Sondra. Also, be sure to check out Mickey's latest start design, Ginger, which just might be my favorite so far. Will there be another pillow in my future? I hope so!

Obviously I still need to attach a few of the hexies to the corners. I was going to just add half hexies to top and bottom to square it off but then it would be 18x21, which is a large pillow already and that's a little strange for finding a pillow form the right size. I am going on a road trip tomorrow, including a new-to-me quilt store, so I'll keep my eyes out for more of this neutral fabric. Otherwise I'll just get creative with the greens or purples.

Looking for today's Feline Friday? Check here!

Don't forget I'll be on a blogging break until 6/3...but don't worry because I have lots of hexies prepped to entertain myself while I recuperate :^)

UPDATE - I've deleted a couple links that were not hexie or EPP related. If you would like to link to HeLP, please remember to have hexies in your post and then link to a specific post instead of your blog in general. Please let me know if you need help doing this.

Feline Friday - 5/17/13

Hi! Squeaky here...

Don't forget that Momma is taking a break until 6/3 and that means no Feline Friday for two whole weeks. And what do I say to that? Thbtbtbtbtbtbtbtbt!

Looking for today's HeLP for Hexie-aholics? Check here!







Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

Road (re)construction continues in front of Casa Grande...
They were digging on both sides of my house when I left for work this morning and I wasn't sure if I was going to get out...but I did    :^(

Same old project again...

I admit it...I was lazy again last night. I ate leftover buckwheat pancakes (yum!) for dinner and was "in my hexie place" while watching Deadliest Catch Season 7 on DVD. I certainly have been sucked into tv shows lately...

I have the star together and needed to find some filler fabric to square up the project. Strangely there are 2 pansy fabrics in this line and one has a white background and the other a cream background. I was struggling to find a white neutral fabric when I discovered I really needed a cream one. And I found the perfect one in my stash! It's cream with little blue dots that match my other fabrics. I had hoped to find something with little purple dots but this is a good match as well. Now I just hope there is enough in the FQ to finish the job...



In case you forgot what I was working on...



Design Wall Monday - 5/13/13



The model wanted a peak instead of modeling



Why does the prep for surgery feel more stressful than the actual surgery? Doc appointments galore, finding and training coverage for work when you are a one-woman office, paying doc bills, etc. I'll be happy when next Thursday has come and gone! And just so I have one less thing to worry about...The blog will be on a break from 5/20 to 6/3 and I'll post a reminder Friday. You can still email me but I won't be posting anything...

Over the weekend, I worked at the LQS on Saturday and Sunday turned in to a lazy day after going out for brunch and then spending the afternoon watching X-Files Season Two while hexing. I stitched all day and had a great time but tore a hole in my finger again. I really should use the sticky thimbles before my finger hurts :)

I don't want to give away what I'll be sharing this Friday for HeLP for Hexie-aholics so let's just say this was the last bit I added this morning! It looks awesome if I say so myself!

Feline Friday - 5/10/13

Momma has been digging in her You F Ohs.

Last night she ironed and layed this one out. Ain't it purty? I didn't even know Momma yet when she made this one. It's old! I offered to protect her You F Oh but someone messed it up while I was sleeping next to Momma last night. Oops. I'm back on the job this morning tho!

Momma thought she bought this awesome fabric as backing for the You F Oh but she found blocks from another quilt folded in the middle. She can't even find the other quilt top so she's just gonna use it   :^)

What are you kitties up to? Are there You F Ohs at your house older than you are?

Buffalo Main Lighthouse



The map shows all the lighthouses that used to be in the area.
Transparent lights no longer exist/have been moved.
Buff Main LH is in the center.
Intake Crib LH is top left.
Two Bottle lights are shown in their former locations.



Due to poor planning on my part, I was excited to have some easy photos to share yesterday for Wordless Wednesday but didn't realize until Wednesday morning that if I am at a conference all day I can't post anything! Oh well...hope you didn't miss me too much.

Before heading home from my conference last week, I visited the Buff Main Lighthouse. Despite the GPS not differentiating well between the fly over and the ground roads and then not finding the walkway around the Coast Gaurd Station for some time, I did have an excellent walkabout.



The LH ws built on this location in 1833.



Can you see the fresnel lens? I am not sure what order this is, but fairly large.
None of the signage indicated if it's the original lens.

 

The sky was true blue and sunny and I managed to get my first sunburn for the year.

 

Facing downtown Buffalo.
A relocated bottle light is on the right.



 

Buffalo Intake Crib Light.



UFO Sightings

Last night I wanted to either finish a UFO top or get a back and batting together for an already finished top so I can sandwich something at our new Sandwich Club this weekend.

I checked out my current UFOs but nothing was "finishable" with only 2 evenings to work on it this week so I pulled out the box of tops. Ok, I thought it was a box of tops. I found sandwiched table runners that needed to be quilted or finished quilted. I found some tops that still needed borders. I even found a few finished tops, some of which I even remembered making the binding for. I pulled out a couple so I could figure out what to do about backings since I just don't have a lot of yardage in my stash.

I found the binding for one of the quilts and then got stalled on the backing. Not sure why, it just happened. And when one is stalled, what does one do? Of course, you work on something else! Which is why I present to you all 37 pieced pieces I need for the hexie star I showed in yesterdays post...

The yellow is coming across a lot brighter than it was in the stack of fabric. It will only show in 12 small spaces so I'm hoping it won't over power the rest of the quilt.

Now I just need to keep this project from becoming a UFO...

Design Wall Monday - 5/6/13

I present you with my design clipboard 8^)

I bought the pansy fabrics a few weeks ago and couldn't bear to just tuck it away in the stash. I decided that it needed to be a hexie project. (imagine that?!) Mickey has been posting these star designs on her blog so I thought I would give it a shot.

I spent an evening playing with colored pencils and then raiding the stash. I only had to buy some of the dark purple so that I would have enough, and it was on sale to finish the bolt so now I have plenty! I will use a neutral to fill out the star into a square and put the pansies on the back to make a pillow.  I needed this project like a hole in the head but it's hard to resist my 3 fav colors in one project along with one of my fav flowers...

Feline Friday - 5/3/13



Can you see how green everything is?!

I am the Great White Hunter - OK, so only in my mind but Momma does call me White Kitty.

It's like this, there are 2 sunflower seed feeders on the side porch and those pesky squirrels (we call them the enemy) can climb up there, hang upside down on the feeders and make a mess, leaving nothing to watch on birdievision.

One day last summer Momma got the idea to get me all psyched up over the enemy so I would run outside when she opens the door and chase the enemy towards the big maple tree. Momma said she was hoping it would scare the enemy so they wouldn't ruin the feeders any more. And, remember, I used to be a feral feline...I used to catch lunch all the time.

We've tried it multiple times but the enemy always gets to the tree before I can. I can't figure out why cuz I know it has nothing to do with my girth - I can boogie when I need to. Just ask my brother, I catch him all the time.

OK, so chasing the enemy to scare them isn't the bestest idea, but it's still fun to chase them!!!

What do you guys like to chase?