Feline Friday - 3/25/16

Welcome to my 'Hood and have a Good Friday!!

Brought to you by the Neighborhood Watch Cat System!

An InLinkz Link-up

4 Word Wednesday!

It's all Mickey's Fault!!

Quilt Lab clean up post #6

Project background: I'm spending the month of March cleaning up my quilt lab and blogging about all my hexie UFOs along the way...

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Today's post is short and sweet!

This is one of 2 bookcases flanking the double windows in my quilt lab and I consider it hexie central even tho there is non-hexie stuff mixed in.

I found a few random orphan type blocks but I chose not to photograph them as a hexie here and there didn't add up to much.

I did work on updating my hexie paper inventory. A few of the un-highlighted items are in project boxes and, obviously, there are a few things that need to be added to the list.

I'm not sure I like the Ball jars here instead of the bigger biscuit jars. This might get changed again later as Dad and I are building a shelf over the windows for one set of jars or the other. 

Top shelf is antique jars of my of-used papers, tiny basket of hole punches for punching papers, biscuit jar with birthday shapes for hexie club, round purple/orange zipper bag with my pieced hexie templates and a stack of Fiskars hexie punches. The bird bath pedestal hold my collection of antique thimbles that I use to count by tens when cutting large numbers of quilt pieces.

Second shelf is mini drawers of papers and acrylic templates sorted by size, tins of projects I've already shared and hexie books.

The third shelf is my quilting book collection and several binders of print outs on various topics. I need to cull some of the books but that can wait for another day.

There are 2 more shelves to this case but they are for rubber stamping and tatting supplies and can also wait for another day...

Design Wall Monday - 3/21/16

Ohhhh it was such a good weekend - blue skies, sunshine, good food and lotsa time in my quilt lab!!!! I actually sat on the living room floor on Saturday just so I could sit in the sun.

My first chore for the weekend was packing my little blue suitcase with hexie projects for an upcoming trip. Yeah, it's early to pack but I see it as setting my honey-do or priority list until repacking for the next trip in mid-April. Any way...the suitcase worked cuz I was pretty productive.

Second chore was cleaning up a bookcase - tune in tomorrow for those pictures.

Having done my "chores", it was time to play so I alternated back and forth between hexies and machine work.

I like the sparkle the teal flange adds

One of my easiest finishes was the binding on this doll quilt. It was already sewn onto the front of the quilt, I just had to machine sew it to the back with my flat fell foot. Easy peasy.

I think the Quality Control Officer was pleased.

Not the world's best photo but I really liked the texture as I was turning off the room lights.

I also worked on a section of the quilting on this (unnamed) doll quilt. I had quilted orange peels in the hexie off-center strip but wasn't sure about the other strips. After some encouragement from Janet I went ahead with my idea for a grid (matching the hexie edges/angles) on the larger strip. The remaining smaller strip (at bottom of photo) will have feathers.

I'm not the only one taking advantage of the table!

I also got a real good start on name badge holders for my upcoming conference. I took advantage of the 8 foot table still up from the party last week and spread out each "kit" so I work on it assembly style.

The colored squares were purchased at a quilt show. The vendor sold hand dyes and had a cute little box of 6 gradients of each of her colors. They were 2" squares and perfect for 3/4" hexies. Unfortunately, the burnt orange set to the left is short one piece - I am hoping to find a suitable replacement so I can include that rosette too.

On Saturday afternoon I peaked into my little blue suitcase for a project to work on while I watched one episode of Grey's Anatomy. I decided to work on the ombre rosettes since I thought it would be easy to finish one rosette.

Of course, as the weekend progressed, I kept going back to the ombre project.
After all, there were only 6 rosettes left to finish...

You know that I finished all the rosettes by last night, right? There is one more at work that I will take home to finish tonight and then I'll find a piece to sub in the burnt orange gradient. I think that will make 21 rosettes.

Am I crazy enough to cut fabric for the diamonds before my trip?

I've even worked out a setting. I'll be using these 3/4" diamonds. Please know that *IF* I ever post a picture of myself I will be bald from making tiny diamonds...

And after the rosettes were done? I pulled out my card trick blocks and got a good start on this too.

Yeah - I might have to repack the suitcase before my trip...and I'm ok with that...

Feline Friday - 3/18/16

Woah! Zorro! Did you hear that?

Huh? The robins? Yeah - spring is coming...and they've been here for 3 days already.

No dufus - I heard a CAN OPENER!!!!!

Where? Where? Where?

Found it!!!!!
Can I have some Momma???!!!!!?!??!!?!?!?!?!??!!?!!!
Can I?
Can I?
Can I?

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 3/17/16

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!

If you don't have green on this very minute, I expect you can pinch yourselves. LOL.
Don't worry, I have on a kelly green sweater, 'Kiss me I'm Irish' pin and my Connemara marble clover earrings mom got me in Ireland a few years ago. No pinching needed here!

Any way....welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party!!!

I'm afraid I don't have much to share today, having spent the last few days cooking and cleaning for the party (15 peeps!) last night. I did stitch a small rosette during the program but as soon as everyone left, I crashed on the couch to watch Suits - no quilt lab clean up or further stitching. And who are we kidding? I didn't do dishes yet either.

These are more Cherrywood fabrics - I bought several scrap bags (top left) several years ago. I had intended to do the layout on the bottom which is similar to something I first saw at Houston but now I'm not liking it as much as the layout in the middle.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna gonna go with the second option but A.) I need to make a lot more honeycombs which will take time to trim the fabric (and I'm just itchin' to be stitchin' which is why this was already stalled) and B.) I need to decide what to put in the middle of the grid. It could be one fabric or it could be more of the scraps. What do you think?

It would be really fun to do an open grid (requiring me to stitch the front to the back with the openings) but I'm not sure how to line it or how sturdy it would be. Maybe this should be a table runner instead of a doll cat quilt? Or, there is probably enough scraps to make both...

And now it's your turn - We want to see your EPP projects! They can be dream projects, current projects or a good old fashioned UFO.

An InLinkz Link-up

Quilt Lab clean up post #5

Project background: I'm spending the month of March cleaning up my quilt lab and blogging about all my hexie UFOs along the way...

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Today's post deals with my design wall. It's meant to be a place to design quilts, of course,  but sometimes it becomes more of an inspiration board. I'm not sure which I prefer. Any really large quilt I'm working on has to be laid out on the floor but it's definitely nice to have that vertical space to "eye" my smaller projects for balance, etc.

You are probably questioning the deviled egg fabric - I guess it's my signature dish to some degree. I have several store bought books and many more recipes saved on Pinterest or in a notebook. I bet I have almost 200 recipes! It was a sure thing to buy the fabric - now I just need a pattern. I'll probably incorporate the colors more than the egg shape but I know something will come to me!

The first hexie project I put away were these 1.5" diamonds. These were from the 2014-15 birthday swap in our hexie club. I've been trying to come up with something to make them into but nothing has grabbed me yet so back into the baggie they go until inspiration hits.

These hexies are from The New Hexagon. I had picked out these solids to go with a fab border fabric but I found the solids boring (no fussy cutting) and they just hung around. I've now put these in the orphan box and I'll put the fabrics in the general stash.

Orange star was from a class I took in Houston. The pieced fabric was pressed onto freezer paper.
The rosette is supposed to have a snowman face in the center.
The diamond was an extra from "Obsession" - someday it will be the label on the back.

These are some random bits that have also been moved to the orphan box.

This was an adorable fabric that I couldn't resist because our LQS mascot is an owl. Unfortunately I didn't plan any more beyond this hexagon and I don't have much left of that purple. This has gone into the waiting for inspiration pile.

Photo taken in the dark so you can see it glow.
I often forget it glows until the lights are turned off.

The center of this star was a sample of pieced hexies for hexie club. The background fabric glows in the dark!! It's also gone into the waiting for inspiration pile - I'm sure some day it will become a doll cat bed quilt.

And here is the final design wall - I left 4 license plates from Row-by-Row hops, an adorable cat fabric and the hexie tree skirt pieces.

Unfortunately, I hate it. It's so open and WHITE. I spent 14 years in white apartments and large expanses of white drives me craycray. I prefer COLOR!!!!

The giraffe themed doll quilt has come down so I can finish it and I've put up some Seminole piecing strips but I'm sure some other projects are going to go up so I can figure out what to do with them. I just can't seem to focus with all this empty space.

Design Wall Monday - 3/14/16

I was almost able to finish my giraffe themed project this weekend!!!

Uh, Zorro, the peeps can't see Momma's dolly quilt.

I needed to cut fabric for the last 3 hexies last night but, feeling lazy, I spent my last half hour before bed on another UFO.

This morning I cut the 3 needed pieces and got the first sewn on. I still need to finish 2 more hexies, 3 green diamonds and then the triangles to square off the top and bottom.

I've got a party for ~12 at my house on Wednesday so I probably won't get much sewing done before then, given the cleaning and cooking I need to finish. Thankfully, the ladies all know that my lab is a "used" room, never to be immaculate, and they love to have a look-see at my current projects. In other words, I can't put them *all* away...

Feline Friday - 3/11/16

I'm sorry I growled when you wanted to huggle this morning...

I love you, Momma!
Can you put some more food in my bowl before you leave for work?

An InLinkz Link-up

Quilt Lab clean up post #4

Project background: I'm spending the month of March cleaning up my quilt lab and blogging about all my hexie UFOs along the way...

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And we continue today with the curio cabinet - storage central for most of my hexie UFOs.

First thing I did this morning was put those ferris wheel fabrics into the put-away pile. Having freed up a large box I moved the tree skirt project from 2 small boxes into the empty box which then gave me 2 small boxes for some of the projects I found today.

I bought a new big box for the top of the curio and moved the bits of my The New Hexagon Millifiori into it - emptying a basket from the cutting table. I've got the monthly papers in here as well as some fabrics I mean to use for a couple of the monthly blocks. I also need to print out all the monthly directions since I don't know how long Katja will leave them on her website.

 This is a new project - I'm calling it Pyramids since it reminds me of my 1,000 pyramids machine sewn quilt. I've cut out some fabric squares to take to conference and made 2 demo triangles to make sure it will work. The papers in the layout  represent the neutral fabrics that will alternate with the colors. Baggie on the right is punched 1/2" hexies from the magazine subscription inserts (I think I showed that pile of inserts back on post #1).

This is Opposites - another new project in dark purple and light gray.  I have a bunch of the fabrics cut and stored in the tin for conference.

This was a basket of a lot of little project bits or dreams. See below - I've pretty much worked them into the general stash or other storage bins.

This is actually a fab orange dark gray batiks. I cut out more diamonds and clearly had a plan for them but never wrote down the plan so I guess I'll make something up. I did find a bit more of the fabrics in a pile so I've put this all together so I can formulate a plan.

Most of these fabrics are from the scrap bag called "Pop Rocks" (from one of the quilt stores). It was easy to name this one! I couldn't find the picture of this project right off but it looks like a field of tulips to me. I've had these cut for a long time but no stitching yet - seems like another good/easy project for travelling.

This project was really to show that you can use EPP to do standard machine style blocks. The plan was to make 4 card trick blocks and border it with the tea post fabric. Of course I started this before I really got into making hexies so my seam allowance is rather small and I've been having trouble keeping the papers in while I work. The work looks fine, I just need to deal with the small pieces, which is annoying.

These green 1" hexies are from a fabric swap we did in our hexie club. I (re)designed a Christmas tree banner that we could all make. I think only one person has finished hers. I brought the small bag with the last dozen fabric squares to work and I got started basting them during lunch.

This was a project I designed for our hexie club. I stitched the 6 jewels together into a rosette and after sandwiching them together, embroidered candy heart phrases on them for a mug rug. I've had the other fabrics cut to make more but never got to it cuz I have this thing against pink. Don't ask! I've now put the fabrics back into the stash and moved the cut pieces into a smaller bag so that I might forget them again or just get them make into something...

My office building was built in the early 1900s and still has the original hexie tile floor in the bathroom. I am replicating the tile pattern in nice bright colors! Again, I have a diagram so I can track what else needs to be done. It looks like I need to finish 2 diamonds and then the background to square it all off. I don't appear to have much more of the orange or the purple so I'll need to find some other fabrics for the tile border.

This project started with 4 fat quarters and a desire to see just what I could do with it. I was very much into pieced hexies at the time but stalled out cuz this has no finished purpose. Well, lo and behold, it will fit the doll cat bed so now that it has a purpose I best get back to it since I won't need many more hexies to complete it.

And lastly for today is a pic of the bottom shelf of the curio cabinet. There are a few non-hexie items in the baskets and the pile of fabric on the left is "bundles" that I thought would work nice together for future hexie projects. Enough! I never start by looking at the pile when I am thinking new projects so I am going to make 90% of the pile disappear. Not sure what I'll put on this shelf instead but I **DO** know it will be hexie related. When I am done, I want this entire cabinet just for hexies.

 You'll be happy to know that this concludes the vast majority of my hexie projects since they were mostly in the cabinet. I still have a lot to clean in the rest of the room, where I'll find stray projects or project parts. There is also my collection of hexie papers and books. In other words, don't worry as there is plenty for me to do the rest of this month...and maybe beyond...

I just got a coupon for Dollar General that I can use for storage boxes this Saturday if I decide to go that route...

See ya tomorrow for Feline Friday - I don't think I'll show a single hexie to give ya'll a break!

Quilt Lab clean up post #3

Project background: I'm spending the month of March cleaning up my quilt lab and blogging about all my hexie UFOs along the way...

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And we continue today with the curio cabinet - home to most of my hexie UFOs.

This is my hexie puzzle project. The only fabric I purchased was the cream for the background. Everything else is scraps. Some were mine and some were from friends. Some were fussy cut and some were not. 

Nothing exciting in this box - just cream hexies...

Unfortunately I am at a serious standstill on this project. I had intended to make a circular quilt to put over the top of my great aunts small pedestal table so that the pretty feet would still show. I was having trouble getting a round shape so I was going to make it into an oval. You can see 2 opposite corners (top right/bottom left) are not the full star and that was where I had started to round it off. I became thoroughly frustrated and set it aside for something easier and here is still sits, waiting for inspiration. Ughghgh.

Hard to tell from the photo but this is probably arm's width wide.
 I just needs a new purpose so I can continue working on it.

This next box is a someday project using the Ferris Wheel pattern, shown below. I've spent so much time trying to arrange the chosen fabrics to fit the 3 shapes in this pattern that I've been thinking for the past 3 days that maybe the fabrics should just be put back into general circulation and some day the "right" fabrics will pop up in front of me and then I can start the project. I think when I get home tonight I'll be emptying this box and finding something else to put in it!!

I think this selection started with the 2 feathery FQs at the top right.
 I LIKE the fabrics, I just can't make them fit in to the 3 shapes of this pattern. 

This is called Ferris Wheel - it's just 1.5" hexies, squares and equilateral triangles.
I've seen lots of fabric placement ideas online but none of them really grab me.
Some day, I'll find the 'one' and get this project started.

This kit was purchased with several Christmas gift certificates an unspecified number of years ago. When it grows up it will be a tree skirt. I mean every hexie-ologist should have at least one hexie tree skirt, right??!!

This is the left over fabric and papers after basting all the diamonds.
I would really like to put them back in the stash to clear a box but I'm afraid
if there are extra papers that maybe I can't count...

Here you can see the box that has been in the curio,
the basket of basted diamonds that sits on my cutting table
(don't ask about the panic when those diamonds were not where I thought they were)
and the pieces that are already stitched together.

This pattern needs to have some thought put into placement so the fabric usage is balanced.
At some point I decided it had to be a stay at home project for that reason but
I'm finding that I don't work on it at home so I'll have to come up with another plan.

Whooahhhh - moved the basted diamonds into an empty box, instead of the basket = more
counter top space. But now if I empty the bigger ferris wheel box I can combine these into the
one box, making room for 2 projects.

And lastly for today is this table runner that is going to be made out of Cherrywood hand dyes. I'm flinching cuz I bought this FQ bundle in Houston in 2011. The fabrics are so soft, I just want to pet them instead of stitch them. Check this link for the rainbow runner that I am going to formulate with these hexies.

Check back tomorrow for more photos from the curio cabinet...