Feline Friday - 1/29/16

I can think of nothing better than a fresh load of laundry, still warm from the dryer.
When Momma's not looking, of course...

You like the scab on my nose?
You ought to see my ear! Well maybe not.

I won't tell Momma what the other guy looks like...

Ok, well maybe it's better after Momma covers me with a warm towel.

Love you Momma!!!!

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Ta Da!!!!

Assuming my math skills are up to par...

This is hexie # 1698 out of 1698!!!!!!

And this was the very last stitch!!

Yes, there was a "little" happy dance going on!!!! I first blogged about Value Proposition on 5/5/14 so it's been nearly 2 years. Of course, given all the other projects I work on at the same time, I still think it was pretty good pace.

This was taken Monday morning followed by 2 days of over 40F/5C weather.
When I got home last night I decided I should take the same photo again today to show the
severe lack of snow, despite it being the end of January.
The joke was on me cuz I woke up to 3" of new snow!

Next step is the borders. Last night I folded and laid them out on the cutting table to see if I liked the dimension. I'm currently thinking 2" inner and 8-10" outer. The plan for tonight is to see how well the hexie portion fits on my double bed and how wide the borders would need to be for the overhang. I'll try to decide somewhere between the two sets of dimensions.

In theory, I would like to sew the 2 borders together and therefore be able to only have to wrestle with the quilt as a whole one time. I'll miter the corners, I just need to make sure I have enough fabric to do so.

I'm sorry but "figuring" borders is not on my fun list of things to do...


BTW - this is blog post # 1150!

Is it Tuesday already?

Yipper - yesterday just flew by. It makes for a nice quick day when there's so much to do that you have to work late, but it doesn't make for good blogging. I'll keep today's post short and keep my surprise for tomorrow..

This past Saturday I went to Ryan's hockey tournament. Ryan is at a level where there are 48 kids on his "team" and they picked just 12 for the tournament! Go Ryan!!!! Unfortunately, the other team creamed them. The kids didn't seem crushed by the loss as they just plain enjoy being on the ice.

When we first got back in the truck I was sitting with 2 tired puppies. That changed after lunch!

Yes - they are both crazy!! 

But wait, you say, what did you have for lunch??!! The Jimmy Panini at Dibella's. Dibella's is apparently a Rochester staple that I was completely unaware of despite having lived there for four years. I tried to say they must have come up after I moved to Miami but my favorite brother was quick to point out they were established in 1918. That's a lot of subs!!!

Just don't tell anyone it took me 10 minutes to notice the floor!

So back to what I was supposed to be posting yesterday...

My birthday giveaway closed at noon with 22 comments for random.org to choose from.

Hexie napkins, hexie papers and dark chocolate!!!

Missy Shay was the winner!!!!!

And since Missy is a frequent linker to my Feline Friday parties, I'll be including a little something for the furkids too!!

Feline Friday - 1/22/16

Hi Momma - I'm glad you're home - it's **cold** outside!

Uhhhh....your toes are on MY heating vent...

Thbtbtbtbtbtbtbtbt

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Hexathon

I've been working steadily on my Value Proposition quilt for the last week - a hexathon if you will. Well, except for Sunday which turned into a very social and food related birthday including a surprise phone call at the end of the day :) 

 If you'll remember, I only had to fill in 4 corners and  6 half diamonds to straighten off each end before adding borders. I've got one end completed and both corners and part of 1 half diamond completed on the far end. I still think I can get the top and borders completed by the end of the month!  Keep your fingers crossed!

All y'all have towels on the floor to dry off snowy paws, don't you?

Since I've been a little off my blogging for the last couple weeks, I thought I would bribe you with some extra feline pictures.

What's better than a bag of treats?
A bag just for Zorro to play in!

Tucked in and cozy.

Did the bribery make up for my absence?? I hope so. I'm beginning to feel better so hopefully I can get my act back together...


Don't forget my birthday giveaway on THIS post!!!
You have until Monday, 1/25/16 to enter...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 1/17/16

Hello and welcome to a very special edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!!
What's so special you ask?

Well...have you ever wondered why HeLP is held on the 17th of each month?
That's because it's my birth day.

BUT ... Today is not just my birth day but it's my BIRTHDAY!!!!!
It's even a birthday that ends in a 5!

I hope all y'all will be spending your Sunday working on an EPP project to help celebrate with me! Oh and don't forget to have cake - with those 5 minute mug cakes all over the internet that should be a breeze.

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I didn't get nearly as many hexies done this week as I had planned. I think a lot of our lives go that way but I think I have a pretty good excuse. 3 actually. Long Story Short - Saturday afternoon was taken with a nasty MVA. The kid made out pretty well given how bad the accident was. Sunday was taken with hockey games for both of my nephews.

Garage Fire

And last but not least was this fire at 1:15 am Monday morning.

And just so you know how close to home this was...
I looked out my upstairs bedroom window when the siren blew and saw no smoke or flames.
This photo was taken only 30 seconds later.
Yikes!

As an EMT I help distribute coffee and make sure the firemen have gloves on, etc, in the freezing temps,  Let's just say I went back to bed at 6:30 and still made it to work by 9. Barely. It took 2 days for my toes to warm up...

I spent a few nights trying to catch up on sleep but finally got my hex on again Thursday night! I had to move my project to the folding table though.

A. It's really too big to be in a lap anyway.
B. Squeaky wants to sit on half of my lap but not be under the quilt.
C. Zorro wants back in the house as soon as I have myself settled on the couch.

In case you can't tell by my horrible pictures, I am finally finishing the ends of my Value Proposition quilt - which means 4 corners and 6 half diamonds. I am half way across one end and hope to spend my birthday weekend getting as close to finished as possible.

You might be able to see that I was watching Blacklist Season 1 and I have several other TV shows on DVD to keep me going. I just realized I didn't stock up on snacks. Better do that on my way home. My ultimate goal is to have the borders on (and maybe have it spray basted??!!) by the end of the month. As long as there are no more excuses that should work out just fine...

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And here's the fun part --- What hexie project are you working on?? It can be a current project, a UFO or a dream project. Please join the linky party!

I'm in the process of putting a little prize together...you know, for my birthday! I know there will be chocolates and something hexie related but who knows what else I'll find. I'll update this post as soon as I finalize the goodies.

Leave me a comment for a chance at the prize.

Join the linky party and add another comment saying you did so for another chance.

I'll draw the winner at noon on Monday, January 25th. Good luck and Happy Hexing!

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Feline Friday - 1/15/16

Lemme in, Momma!!

Leave him out, Momma!
I'll take care of you while you're sick...

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Feline Friday - 1/8/16

My bowl is empty...
Squeaky's bowl is empty...
The food bag is empty...

Magic carpet ride?
He loves to sit on the empty bags so don't let his complaining fool you...

The food box is empty...

Oh wait - nevermind - I found some!

I'll just helpy selfy!!

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Wordless Wednesday

The Bilbiophile Files - 1/5/16

And here we are in a new year...how did your reading plans end up for last year? I was able to meet my goal of 84 books for the second year in a row and I completed a simple A to Z title challenge. I'm now choosing another reading challenge for this year. I'll share when I eventually make up my mind...

In the meantime, I'm well stocked to get right into some good books again this year and that box of UFOs should give me lots of listening time!! It's OK, tho, you can say it: "Sarah, you're a little overstocked." Don't I know it! Those books were not all supposed to come in at the same time. Oops!

Can you believe I didn't do any hexies last night or this morning? I wanna get that Delectable Mts UFO done and I've got a good book on the stereo. And that good book on my iPhone has kept me out walking in the single digit weather. The third and fourth walks were absolutely dreaded but the weather should now be warming up...

Finished Books:
V is for Vengance
X
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana
Year of Wonders
Hearts in Atlantis
The Dangerous days of Daniel X
Son of a Witch
Telegraph Days
A Bat in the Belfry

Currently:
On my home stereo: Speaking in Bones
On my nightstand: A Life in Men
On my iPhone:  NYPD Red 2

And now it's your turn!! What books/patterns/magazines/cereal boxes have you read in the last month??!!

Design Wall Monday - 1/4/16

On Thursday, Denise texted me before and after pictures of cleaning up and cleaning out her quilting nook. I told her I thought I had a couple boxes of kits (both bought and self-made) that I probably ought to just take apart and filter the fabric back into my stash. There is nothing wrong with the kits, or fabric, but I just didn't think they needed to sit another 8 years gathering dust. Yes! Most of them were from Miami when I was making kits for when I moved back to NY since I didn't know what kinds of fabric they would have here. I thought the cold, gray north would only have dark fabrics, unlike my Miami brights. I was wrong - there's LOTS of bright fabrics up here. Hence always being caught up by the new fabrics or patterns instead of digging in my boxes. I told Denise I thought I would get to a box over the long weekend.

For some reason Thursday after work I was all gung ho to work in my quilt lab. I started by putting some things away and just generally clearing surfaces of clutter.  Once I tired of that the surfaces were passable I remembered the comments about the boxes-o-kits and headed towards the first one.

Sadly, it's buried under a pile of stuff in a cupboard so I pulled some of the stuff out and filtered some new (non-kit) fabrics into the stash immediately. Why they were in the cupboard is anyone's guess. My guess is I threw them in there for a quick cleanup...

Frustrated by the time it was taking to get to that box, I headed for the other box, under my cutting table, which only had my sewing machine case on it. It didn't take long to discover that this box wasn't so much kits as UFOs. Ugh! I had completely forgotten about them. Everything was sorted into gallon size Ziplocks so I guess you can still call them kits. Some kits were actually fabric bits from finished projects. Those were emptied into the stash, right quick.

The rest of those UFO kits? I dumped them right back into the box so I could work on hexies for the rest of the night. Denial at it's best!!

Final layout...

Come Sunday, tho, I pulled out the kit on the top and decided to make some progress...

The quilt store in Miami used to have a strip club where we made a lap quilt each month using a "passport" system - each month represented a different country via fabric, pattern and or food. The first kit I chose was "Austria" and I know exactly why I quit when I did. The pattern is super easy but was not designed for using the Easy Angle to make HST and I had cut a green WOF strip 8" instead of 8 3/8". Oooofffff.

The top row was together when I found the UFO, I made the second
row yesterday and will pin the 2 together at lunch today. Each
pair of WOF strips makes 8 blocks but I only need 6 per row so
I've already got 4 ready for the next row. Me thinks I can definitely
finish that row tonight! And then only 3 more rows to go!

For now I've set the naughty strip aside and will make as many blocks as I can with the fabric that I have left. There is a possibility that I had already bought extra thinking ahead for borders but if not, I'll be creative and piece together what I need.

Actual colors...

This is such an easy pattern and it seems to be going together quick so that's promising. Tonight I'll be cutting more of the green so lets hope I don't make the same mistake again...or this project will be back at the bottom of that box...

Joining: Design Wall Monday

1/1/16 - Feline Friday !!

Happy Happy New Year!!
We couldn't think of a better way to spend the first day of the year than with our favorite readers!

Momma, on the other hand, is having a potluck party with her hexie friends...we suppose she'll be home soon enough to spend the rest of the day with her favorite felines and give us more treats!

Yes, Auntie Denise dared Momma to wrap me up ...
and then txt her pictures from the ER.
Momma didn't even try...

Auntie Olga and Uncle Rex got us our annual scratchy box that
comes with lotsa fantastic 'nip!!
Momma puts some on the floor so we can "share".

Fantastic is right, sissy. Yumm-o!

O. M. G. 
I think I had too much 'nip...

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