Feline Friday - 2/28/14

Good Morning Momma - hold on while I work on my tan.

Does this window box make me look fat? Don't answer that!

Momma! You do nice work! Such pretty colors! How come they aren't done yet??

Ok Momma, here I am. How 'bout you stopping aiming that silly "smart" phone at me and get some hexies done!

I'm not talking to you! -
A. The Introoder is still here and he was mean to me yesterday and the day before and the day before and even the day before that.
B. I'm watching Breaking Bad Season 4 final episode and I don't wanna miss a thing.
C. The Introoder is still here and he keeps eating my kibbies
D. I will remind the other peeps that the Bibliophile Files is coming up Tuesday - don't forget to check in and let us know what you're reading - novel, magazine or cereal box. I like cheerios the best but I can't read...
E. The Introoder is still here...I don't understand why he can't go outside just cuz the windchill is -30F

A new hobby?

Why yes ... it IS snowing again but see the Arts Council (ACWC) there across the street from my office? On the 4th Monday of the month they offer art classes for a small fee. Often they are painting or drawing which I have a severe lack of skills for. Last night it was Zentangle!!

For just $5 we got this great kit! Cloth bag, 01 pigma pen, pencil, blender, 5 tiles and acrylic case and several handouts. I ate the choco already. Sorry! Ok, not really...

For another $5 I bought 10 more tiles in a case. Chris, the teacher, said that good quality water color paper would also work but I liked the acrylic cases to carry/store them in and I thought $5 was a cheap treat for myself. Any excuse, right?!

For the class we started  by learning these 4 tangles. The shading really changes them. I did discover that less lead was better than more when it came to shading.

Horribly out of focus but here are the tiles the entire class made - amazing how me made the same tangles but the tiles are all so different.

Chris went on to teach us some of her favorite tangles.

During break Chris had supplied lavender shortbread topped with lemon salt and the ACWC provided several tea flavors. Yummo! She had also put out these spectacular napkins. She washed the muslin, hemmed and tangled them and then heat set the ink. I am sewwwwww making some of these for my next tea party. Wouldn't they make great gifts? I also need to get a signature shortbread recipe since I really could have gone for another piece last night... Suggestions?

I've been looking at tangles as machine quilting opportunities and now I am even more excited! I know it's hard to see in some of the pictures but I have already stitched pebbles (ZT calls them perfs) and the spiral design called Rick's Paradox is essentially what I used on my Walkabout quilt which I just discovered I either never photographed or didn't label  properly. Oops.

Now before certain people get worried about my hexies...
A - Yes, I will at some time tangle a hexie something or other.
B - They asked me to teach one of these monthly classes on hexies. whoo hoo! New converts!!

I think my zentangle pin board is going to be expanding soon...

Baskets Galore!

Look Ma - no hexies!
Janet - you're gonna like this one!

This is probably the last sorta-retreat related post. One of the projects I continued to work on was my 4" basket blocks. Some were made as leader-enders and some were just an easy sewing fix to keep me sane. I'm so easy to please.

You can see the blue unfinished block is on my little design board. It's just a small clip board with  a piece of batting that has been attached at the bottom with that elastic stuff that ties new shoes together. High class!

When the blue one is finished I will have 59 baskets.

Maybe this view is a little more impressive? I now need a bigger box to store them in!

Ok - here is where I need your help...
(1) My goal with the baskets has always been to make a bed quilt in either of these styles. But do you like the vertical or horizontal zigzags better? Try to discount the pink and green alternating zigzags cuz mine will just be one color.
(2) A lot of you know that I can't stand pink - what color should I use for my zigzags? Solid or patterned? I have really used *every* color of the rainbow in the blocks so any color would really work, it's just that I tend towards the same colors given the choice.  You probably do the same. I'm just looking for random suggestions. I thought about using a neutral for the zigzags but I don't think they would show up since the blocks are neutrals as well.
(3) Anyone have a good way to draw this up in EQ7? I have tried an onpoint setting but it just doesn't look quite right yet and I have yet to get the zig zag sections drawn the way they will be sewn (they draw as half triangles instead of full triangles. I'm sorry I left that graphic at home...

As always - your thoughts and opinions are appreciated :)

Retreat digs

At long last, some pictures from retreat. After the fact, I should have taken pictures of the bedrooms, dining hall and the grounds so maybe after October's retreat I can share those...

Camp Asbury consists of 3 main buildings. At the top of the hill is the building that we sleep and sew in - great for late night sewing sessions where we can change in to our jammies at any hour. At the bottom of the hill is the dining hall with a work room down stairs and another building with bedrooms. We walk or drive to the dining hall for 3 squares a day and while the hill was a little icy this time, it was also gorgeous and a good way to work off those cookies!

Actual picture

Somehow this snowy version showed up in Picasa - wish I knew how to do this on purpose.

Obviously there are lots of trees on the grounds that can block views, but being on a hill the view across Silver Lake also allows for very pretty sunsets.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to stay up late sewing. A lot of the girls were making disappearing pinwheel blocks and some where having more trouble than others!

Even worse, when you frog out the wrong seam, it's time for bed...

Luckily the block fairy came after everyone went to bed and fixed this poor block before sunrise. Surprise!!

Technology was a given all weekend: ipads were used to take pictures, look up patterns online or give lessons on The Evil Website. Phones were used to catch up with family or check email.

And on Sunday mornings we have show & tell. There are 2 sewing rooms in our building so we take turns going to each other's room to see how much has been accomplished. As you can see there is a lot of sewing space for each person along with separate ironing and cutting stations. There are leather sofas to relax or do some handwork and if you are a bit chilly go visit the other room which has a gas fireplace! The kitchenettes are stocked with coffee, tea and snacks!

I hope you enjoyed this little slice of retreat and if you are local, please consider joining us in October. It would be fun to meet some of my readers!

Design Wall Monday

It was a hexie weekend!!
I spent Saturday teaching a quilting 101 class and half of Sunday rearranging boxes and stuff to fit in my brother's old bedroom set but he got called in to work because of the weather. Oh well. I spent the rest of Sunday watching Firefly on DVD and working on various hexie projects :)

I am finally working on my February hexie BOM (1") project and with just a few days to spare. Yikes. This pink fabric has chocolates on it. I will need twice as many hexies to finish the heart.

I was also gifted some of the purple fabric towards the denim pillow I am making with my birthday hexies (.75") from hexie club. I need to lay out the purple hexies I have so I can decide how many more to make.

I also finished these twisted hexies over the last week.

This morning I had some company to work on them as well!! Within touching distance and no growling. Whoo Hoo!  =^..^=

For all I've talked about not starting something new before the twisted hexies are done, class samples don't count. That's what this next bundle is - a project for hexie club. I'm thinking I'll use 1.5" hexies (can you see the clear template?) but haven't really decided just yet. I only know it will be a small project, just a table runner or topper.

Feline Friday - 2/21/14

Momma had Monday off from work ... so she stayed home and worked. Go figure!!

Uncle Tommy remodeled his bedroom and got new furrrrrrniture. He's giving Momma the old furrrrrniture so that she can have a proper guest room. On the one paw that means that random people might come sleep in my house but on the other paw there is more furrrrrniture for me to sleep on. Momma says she is going to lay all her quilts on the guest bed for storage. I think the bed will be nice and comfy even tho something was said about a sheet going over the quilts to keep the fur off the furrrrrniture.

In order to ready the guest room, Momma had to put the stuff back in the office/library which had become a bit of a dumping ground since painting the walls. See!!

I like her new desk made out of this old door. She really likes that the desk is under her map that Grandpoppa mounted on the wall. If you can see the little black pins, those are the places that Momma has visited. Someday, Momma wants to visit all 50 states!! She also wants to get another kind of pin to mark where her bloggy friends live. She'll have to get a world map to mark her other travels and bloggy friends.

There was lots of sunshine Monday and Momma laid out all the empty boxes for us to play in. There were 8 empty boxes!! Momma didn't get the camera fast enough when Midgie was playing tho.

This was the view out the window. Sadly all the icicles are gone now cuz it's raining :(

This is the library when Momma called it quits for the day. Obviously there are more boxes to empty and frames to hang on the walls. Momma also says the corner to the right will have a reading chair and lamp. Every cat needs a reading chair, right??!!

What has your Momma been up to lately? Did she make you a box fort when she did it?

Feline Thursday

No time for a long post today - the guys invited me out to the toolhouse for chili. I brought cheesy cornbread and honey lime butter. Everything was delish!

On days like yesterday and today, Zorro likes to spend his days outside. Ok with me but he has to deal with the late afternoon snow (yesterday) and 2" of rain (today). Whomever he hung out with yesterday must have fed him cuz he wasn't starving at dinner time.

Anyways, often when he has been outside and I get home, Zorro wants in and Squeaky wants out. She has been known to jump over him coming in the door just to get outside as fast as possible.

This photo was one of the rare times when they wanted to hang out on the porch at the same time.

Stupid setting triangles!

Who picked this design anyway??!!

This setting triangle and the center/similarly pieced square were the bane of my existence at retreat last weekend (pictures next week!).

I double checked the math and used my companion and easy angle rulers to cut the bits but the pieced sections are too long for the center purple on both the triangle and the square. I measured all the bits again and again, tweaking seams but I still couldn't get them to fit.

I finally threw the whole project into my bin and started working on my Celtic Solstice borders. The only part I didn't remeasure was the purple triangles/square - I'm saving that for another day. You know, whereas that was where most people would have started when having trouble with this block. Oh well!

HeLP for Hexie-aholics

Hmm - I didn't make lots of progress this week but I have 2 more done than last week. :)

I am determined to make lots of progress (finish?!) on this project before putting much effort into other EPP projects so I hope you aren't getting bored with it as you are unlikely to see much of anything else in the near future. I was even thinking of skipping the annual owl Rose Star project for camping (in 142 days/10 hours/44 minutes/12 seconds, in case you were wondering) if it would mean making lots of progress. Come on, you know you wanna see me make these rosettes on mountain tops!

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Alright all you hexiologists - link up and share your hexie project. It can be any paper shape or vintage project but you must link to an actual post and not your blog in general. Links to blogs-in-general will be deleted. Let me know if you need help linking correctly and Happy Hexing!

Guess what?
I was at a weekend retreat and have today off and didnt schedule a post cuz I didnt have anything to share yet.

What i didnt realize was that today is the SEVENTEENTH day of the month and someone, altho Denise will remain nameless, just texted to ask If HeLP for Hexiaholics would be posting even tho I had the day off. Ackckck.

Come back tomorrow and we'll pretend I planned to have HeLP in 2/18 this time...

Sorry 😢

Feline Friday - 2/14/14

Happy Valentines Day!!

Not quite V-Day yet...

Ok, so I'm not fond of Black Friday - other than the choco of course. And yes, I know you've seen this already but it bears repeating!!!


Tomorrow is the annual Chocolate in the Stacks fundraiser at my local library. Chocolate themed snacks and drinks are scattered around the library and tickets are drawn for a fabulous Chinese basket auction. Several of the baskets contain tea, quilting, cooking or wine items and gain the majority of my tickets. There are always lots of snacks leftover so we get to take them home. Want to talk about a choco overload!!!

And since there is no one to send me flowers or singing telegrams tomorrow, I bought my own flowers at the local grocery store. LOL. In real life the purple is so dark it's almost black. Gorgeous!

Happy Chocolate Day tomorrow!!

If it's almost V-Day then there's choco!!

My car said it was -8F!!

Monthly Board meetings for work are on the 2nd Wednesday of the month and I typically bring a snack. It was late when I got home from fire meeting last night and I was cold and hungry so I decided to make the mousse bars this morning.

There was a little panic this morning because I thought I had bakers choco but I only had candy choco wafers. I had no idea if that would work so I made brownies instead. Then I read that it had to cool completely. Why do I leave these things until the morning??

That was about the time the news came on the radio and they mentioned how cold it was outside. I honestly had no idea it was that cold since it was blue skies and sunny but I decided to take advantage.

After the brownies cooled lickitey split, I made the choco mousse and drizzled dark choco. I hope the board members like it but I'll be happy to take any leftovers home ;^)

Tuesday Treasure

Last week Missy posted about a cat project she was working on and asked if anyone had ever made a cat quilt. I spoke up to say that I had and as soon as my bedroom is remodeled, I would be hanging mine over the headboard. I thought y'all might like to see as well!

The phrase was stolen and bastardized from a page-a-day cat calendar I once had. The letters were free pieced and, while not a particularly hard process, not my favorite either. I'm glad I tried them at least once. The border was pieced with leftovers from the 8 cats.

The number of cats in the project  was based on the (~2006) magazine project where I saw the cat blocks connected with snail trails rather than the number of actual cats in my life. I've only had 7 cats (so far?!):

Fluffy, Marbles, Tula, Pepper, Midige, Squeaky, Zorro

If I recall correctly, I won a blue ribbon at the county fair when this was finished several years ago...

Design Wall Monday

Sew...retreat #1 is over. Sadly, I neglected to take any pictures of the weekend - maybe this coming weekend when I help out again. I was able to spend a couple hours there Thursday after work and then late Saturday morning, overnight to late Sunday! Did I finish everything I brought with me or even work on everything? No but I think I made quite a bit of progress.

Over the course of the last week, I've finished 4 of these rosettes.

I made 8 more of these birthday blocks...I'm waiting on 1 more from a friend and then I have all 16 of these done.

I made 8 of these connector blocks. They probably look a little dull but I am going to put pieced hexie rosettes in the center. Next weekend I'll start work on the pieced setting triangles, center block and finish the pieced borders.

I also finally got back in to my leaderEnder basket blocks. Hard to get many done when everything can be chain pieced so I admit to cheating a little and just out and out piecing two of these. Promise not to tell!

And someone, altho Zorro shall remain nameless, was a little unhappy at my absence. I cringed Sunday morning when I remembered I hadn't locked up the box. It wasn't a lack of food issue as I had left out enough for 2 days (I was gone a whole 26 hours!) plus more "hidden" about the house that could be hunted down. The regular bowls were empty but the extra was barely eaten. I don't think any of this pile was even eaten so I'll go with Claudia's conclusion that he just needed the challenge. Someone is just too smart for his own britches!! Silly Dude....

Feline Friday - 2/7/14

Did you Wear Red today? Momma did!!

Don't 'cha love a man who is strong enough to wear PINK flip flops??!!
We can't believe Momma even owns these but she does...

Momma has a non-digital photo of Pepper when he was a couple months old in Momma's shoes.
Maybe it's a guy thing cuz the girls never wear her shoes...

Do you wear your Momma's shoes?

Thursday mashup

It's a mish mash of photos today...

Have you ever eaten Monk's Bread? Well, this is the Abbey of the Genesee where it's made. The facility is in Piffard and can sometimes be woven into my errand route as it was last weekend. The store is to the right - they sell bread, jams, cookbooks, notecards, pottery and fudge. The church is on the left in what Denise calls the ski resort. I popped inside to see if I could get a better photo of the stained glass windows but it was rather dark inside and out. The church is open from 2am to 7pm if you are ever in the area and need some solitude. There is also a retreat house on the grounds but I haven't been there since 12th grade. BTW - I got the sunflower bread and the cinnamon bread was BOGO. Not bad: 3 loaves for $4.20!! At least half the price found in the local stores.

I also stopped at a not-so-LQS for their 25% off sale. I think I was a pretty good girl to only get 10 FQs and 3 remnants. The oranges are for my Salt&Pepper project, some of the fabrics are "fussable" for the Patchwork of the Crosses I want to make and the others are just for stash re-building.

And this is the twisted hexie I finished at lunch today. I also finished one at home this morning but forgot to take a photo. I tell ya - having a separate hexie project bag at work is so much easier than carting stuff back and forth every day. Retreat #1 is this weekend so I hope to get a few more finished...