Feline Friday - 6/28/13

hi it's finally raining i'm sitting on one of momma's little quilts and an afaghan to keep my belly warm my brown sissy is whining for more treats and i'm ignoring my white sissy who is always mean to me and has the sniffies again ok i'm gonna go take another nap cuz it's hard being the man of the house cya

Progress everywhere and nowhere

Look! I made progress on my tumbler quilt!
You're probably thinking "Sarah - that's not much progress - just 2 skinny inner borders."

Well, yeah, you're right, it's not a lot of progress but that's because I've also been fussy cutting...and heaven knows, that's a slow and tedious project.

In just about 2 week's I'm going camping and need some hexies to work on :) I've trimmed a few more batiks for my twisted hexies but mostly I've been fussy cutting rosestar blocks for my owl project. Yes, a project that I haven't worked on since last year's camping trips. Hardly any progress on that project :(

But at least my hexie project boxes are filling up for my trip!

The problem is, the papers I need to work on the owl blocks have been used in my hexie puzzle blocks. I refuse to buy more papers so I will need to make some progress on that project so I can pull out papers to reuse.

There is progress everywhere. LOL!

Squishies!

I've got some squishies to share and some are way overdue thanks to (delayed) sick leave.
I'm sorry :(

Some time back Nines had a giveaway of 6 crocheted doilies. The rules said you had to specify which doily you would like in the comments if you were to win. It just so happened that 6 people entered and they each wanted a different doily. How perfect is that?! Thanks Nines!!!!

Of course I picked the hexie shaped doily :)

I'm a lurker of the smallquilttalk group at yahoo.com and we recently did a swap where I was partnered with Ines in Scottsdale, AZ. She wrote about some pretty hot temps - Yikes - it hasn't been that long since I lived in Miami but those temps sounded stifling. On the other hand she spoke of the beautiful scenery colors! Ines made this very pretty and festive doll quilt using 3D bowties. I haven't quite figured out how they are made but I'm still on it. It was quite the coincidence that the package arrived with the strawberry FQ on the day of our local Strawberry Shortcake Social (a fundraiser to restore our Doughboy statue). The leather covered measuring tape will be put to use in my travelling sewing box as I often forget to take one with me to the LQS.

Last but not least would be my latest gift from my guild Secret Sister. Everything was gently wrapped in the green fabric which matched the green gift bag - we were off to a fun start. The luggage tag also holds a tiny sewing kit - there has got to be a way I can convert it to a hexie kit somehow! BTW - The tag was purchased from a vendor who was at the last/local quilt show. Is that a clue to my sister's identity?! The mouse pin cushion is adorable but I hate to stick pins in him! I don't seem to have the same problem with my chicken pincushion. Weird.

That's it for now...I'm waiting on one more squishy in the mail...

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I SWEAR the 20 gallon crock is
not completely full of scraps!



It's lunchtime and I'm sitting here eating a pb&j with *fresh* homemade strawberry jam! What could be better?! The only thing I could come up with would have been homemade bread and since I just got a bread machine cookbook at the library so that might could be on tonight's short list!!

At the end of last week I was in the mood to sew on my machine (I know, weird!, tired of hexies??). I've had this fabric since it first hit the shelves in my LQS and I had wanted to make a tumbler quilt but just never seemed to get to it. Then I saw a Missouri Star Quilt Company youtube video on tumblers made to look like honeycombs and I knew it was the project for me...ASAP! LOL! 

I plotted the project in EQ but it still came out a bit long for me. Never fear, I've decided to only put the striped border on the 2 sides with the "horizontal" stripe to trick the eye in to thinking the quilt is wider, even if it's still a bit long. I didn't have enough of a dark green for an inner border but I found this olive green (I swear it matches in person) over the weekend  :^)

It feels good to make progress on a project!

Design Wall Monday - 6/24/13

It feels good to get back to a routine...except I forgot part of it! I forgot to take pictures to post today. I also forgot to make a lunch. Double oops! Sadly I'll have to share pictures taken with my "stupid" phone...

While I was out sick for almost 2 weeks I worked on a lot of hexies. It doesn't look like much but I completed 5 of these rosettes for my twisted hexies quilt. The center is always a monochromatic twisted hex and the other 6 are random batiks. I used all my half hex papers so I just picked up some more and this project is already boxed to be ready for my summer camping trip.

I also started another hexie project (I know you are snickering!) and it's pieced hexies to boot. The project is kinda under wraps for a little while but I love it so far...

Maybe I can really get myself back in to a proper routine for tomorrow...

Feline Friday - 6/21/13

OK - Momma thinks life (and the blog) should be back to normal now...until she goes on vacation in 20 days, 12 hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds!

The weather has been a little off lately...

Some days we are chilly and require cuddling under one of Momma's fav quilts...



 And some days it's warm enough to open the windows and we work on our tans.

Today, being the summer solstice and supposed to be quite warm, will be another tanning day!

What are you kitties up to?

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - June 2013

Howdy and welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party**!!

Squeaky and her fav toy - the purple fishy.
She carries it around the house and even talks to it!

First - please know that I've been recovering quite nicely from my surgery last Monday. I guess this is my reward for being delayed?! I'm still not sure when I'll be back to work/blogging but I have a followup visit tomorrow and will figure it out then...

This is the piecedHexie pansy pillow that I finally finished last weekend. Ain't it gorgeous? I don't seem to have a good connection or laptop charge today so I'll need to save the other pictures on the quilting, etc and my next piecedHexie project for another day. I hope y'all will come back and check them out.

I'm looking forward to seeing your projects so bring them on!!

Please remember the following:

•  **HeLP is open to any kind of English Paper Piecing of any shape and size!
• You must link to a specific hexie related post and not your blog in general. Let me know if you need help doing so.  Links not to specific blog posts will be deleted. Sorry, but them's the rules...

I've left the linky party open longer since I won't have ready access to the internet until who knows when...

PS - I almost forgot - I am hoping to have a tutorial for next month's HeLP. I was planning on a basic how to do EPP type  tute but I can add others as well. Is there anything you wish to learn? Other shapes, maybe?

Feline Friday - 6/7/13

Squeaky here with a PSA for all you parents with kits young and old...

Furr-iends don't let furr-einds do 'Nip!

It does NOT do a body good!

Any other tips you Felines can offer this week?

PS - Don't forget Momma goes on another blogging break starting next Monday, 6/10 thru at least 6/19. The only exception is that HeLP For Hexie-aholics is a go on 6/17/13. I've seen what she is gonna post but I haven't figured out how to make it mine yet - give me time. Cya then!

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Genesee Valley Quilt Show - Part #3

Here's my final selections from last weekend's quilt show...

This quilt was the result of a swap the quilter participated in. Wish I had been in the swap!

They are feathered stars - what else is there to say? Only that I really liked how the star tips met.

Such pretty baskets. I liked the 2 backgrounds used and the flowers in the corners.

I hope you enjoyed my peek into the quilt show!

Tomorrow is Feline Friday and then I'm back on blog break until 6/19 or so. Surgery is re-scheduled for Monday, 6/10 so we'll see if it happens this time.  Don't worry tho...by hook or by crook, HeLP is still on for 6/17!!

Genesee Valley Quilt Show - Part #2

Today's photos features "pairs." Enjoy!

The first 2 quilts are from a Ricky Tims kaleidoscope pattern that I am determined to try. I've watched a quick video online (I hope I can find it again) but I also know you can buy the DVD or book too. The fabrics were fab in both quilts.

This Hawaiian quilt was huge - I dream of making one for my own bed but don't know that I could do that much applique w/out seriously aggravating my carpel tunnel/tendinitis/thoracic outlet syndrome :^( As a general rule I don't do much handwork, hexies being the only exception and, yes, some days I pay for it.

Mom and Dad went to Hawaii last summer and brought me back several patterns and books I hope to use some day. I thought the unusual fabric colors in this sampler were actually quite stunning, not the batiks and brights we expect in Hawaiian quilts...

There were good half dozen of the next pattern - each with a different color scheme. I think I read that they came  from a class offered locally.

I think this was my favorite of the grouping with the bold quilting patterns and the yellow/gray opposites in the borders and diamonds. At most quilt shows I take lots of photos of stunning quilting designs. Not so this time, there were a few novelty type designs but also lots of meandering, which I am no good at.

Look for a final quilt show report tomorrow :)

Genesee Valley Quilt Show - Part #1

This past weekend I attended the Genesee Valley Quilt Show, held at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The show had 600+ quilts and 50+ vendors, including some that I've seen at Houston or on Youtube! I spent a few bucks with the venders and took a few pictures :) I was a little surprised with the lack of hexie quilts...

Cat quilts are first!


Gorgeous thread painting!



The card said the women was terrified to tear the fabric, giving the quilt it's name,
but she made several of them for local nursing homes as a converstaion starter.



I think I'll need to add this to my bucket list!



Ok, not a great photo but the red is all Japanese fabrics with cats!
There was a vendor with Asian fabrics but nothing like this one :(



The color and detail was stunning in this applique



I LOVE this color combination!



Look familiar? It's amazing how big a difference fabric choices make.



Design Wall Monday - 6/3/13

I wasn't home much this weekend. When I was in my studio I was working on a small swap quilt and while I don't know if Ines reads my blog, I can't be giving away any secrets now can I???

The rest of my time was spent working on ...wait for it ... hexies!!!! You were surprised, weren't you? LOL!

I've put together some twisted hexes with random batiks around the outside edge and some with monochromatic batiks. Since I only have so many papers, I am stitching random hexes around the monochromatic ones so I can reuse some of the papers.

I'm not yet sure if I'll nest these larger hexes together or add some kind of filler. I'm just making it up as I go along...