Design Floor Wednesday - 8/31/16

So, clearly, I haven't gotten my schedule settled at the beginning of this school tax season. For anyone that doesn't remember, during my lunch hour and then again after work, I go to the school to process payments. It really puts a kink in my lunch hour walks and blog writing. On the other hand I do get to buy yummy school lunches for just $2! Let's just say that for the next 2.5 months I'll be posting pretty short posts...

Before last week, the top three rose stars were attached to each other and the bottom right 4 were attached to each other (this is the mothership)

This week the top 3 were attached to the mothership. I also attached 4 background pieces to the left most star with the light blue center and then made 4 more background bits.

I have meetings the next 2 nights where I can make more background bits. And then there is the holiday weekend...beyond the end of summer house projects, I expect to do some hexies :)

Happy Hump Day!!

Feline Friday - 8/26/16

Hi Momma - 

I always know it's tax collecting season when you cover MY table with all these boxes.

The coke bottle is Momma's stapler!!

I'll try not to knock the boxes on the floor and get the bills out of order. 

I wuv you, Momma!

It was nice of you to order us chicken finger pizza last night!

I'll keep it warm for you!

In reality, Momma told me to get my nose out of the box...so I sat on it instead!

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 8/22/16

First - I just have to get this tragically sad news off my chest - I've had a death in the family.

I was devastated when I realized last Thursday that my iron had died - the heating element had given up the ghost. I'm sure that you can guess I was in the middle of something. It was a slow death instead of the burning plastic/smoking mess the last one went out in...so that's a plus.

It's OK tho - I went to the adoption agency over the weekend. This will be my third of the same model. The first lasted less than 6 months and Walmart replaced it rather quickly after I showed them the stinky burned iron. The replacement iron lasted 4 years to the month. That's $6 a year for a decent  heavy iron and I'm ok with that...

And now you know why nothing from the last week has been ironed...

As some of you may recall, my family runs the antique division at the county fair. 2/3 of our time is supervising which means being available to answer questions of the visitors and workers. And I bet most of you know that I don't sit too well. Instead I work on hexies!!! Hence a VERY productive week.

Of course, now that the fair is over I start one of my other jobs collecting school taxes so the hexies are going to be ignored. It's feast or famine here at Casa Grande...

This is the last of my houses for our hexie club birthday swap.

This is also the last of the Cherrywood honeycombs that I prepared -
 it's time to bite the bullet and find a fabric for the center.

I am definitely getting my "curve" on.
I was trying to press and cut these pieces when the iron died Thursday.
I've only got 7 more pieces to attach...

Feline Friday - 8/19/16

Hey Momma - think I can get a modeling gig at the Chevy dealer over in Perry, NY?
I look good on your silver Cobolt!

Too bad they don't make Cobolts any more...They are just as sleek as I am and I think I could sell a lot of them!

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 8/17/16

Hello and Welcome to another monthly edition of Hexie Linky Party!!!

I think you should sit down before I begin.
Ready?

I did curves!!
(I almost liked it.)

I'm not sure which direction I like better...
This color combo started with the dark/burnt orange in the middle round.

It's not my favorite technique (yet?) but I was getting better by the time I added the 6th peach piece. I'm sure over the years I've just psyched myself up for something awful.

I'm used to right sides together, using tiny binder clips to make sure both pieces are the "same" size and easing in any differences. There's no really good way to match right sides together when fitting curves together. It's more like match a quarter inch section, stitch, next quarter inch section and hope the ends line up properly. I was still able to fudge a little but I'm probably the only one who sees any problems.

I think my next Jefferson Star will start with a purple fabric. Certain people won't be surprised.

I attempted to get my QCO to pose with the block this morning. He immediately rolled over and refused to roll back towards me. I immediately refused to crawl under the dining room table to get his front side.

I finally took advantage where I could and left it at that. This is why I don't enter the pets ON quilts show...

An InLinkz Link-up

PS - I promise I have not forgotten more ADK or AQS photos but it's County Fair week and I've got a bunch of time off work (my only internet access) while I help my parents run the Antiques Division.

Feline Friday - 8/12/16

Hey Momma -
I can help you rearrange these blocks so the geometric design show up better!
I'm such a good boy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 8/8/16

I wasn't home much over my three-day weekend: 2 doctor appointments, hexie club, fire department golf tournament and 144th annual Pioneer Picnic. They were all the *perfect* opportunity for working on hexies while I waited or worked the events!! Woohoo!!!

I added the last 7 hexies

Minions!!!!!

Honeycombs in the bag were already basted.

I took these with me to AQS thinking that Cherrywood would be there for me to pick a fabric
for the background squares. Cherrywood has a different "texture" (my guess is due to the
hand dying process) and I really don't want to mix it with another fabric but I just might have to....

Can you tell I fussy cut the peach points on the right?
I'll need to clip the concave curve before glue basting them.
And then it's on to stitching curves. eek!

Feline Friday - 8/5/16

When Momma came home from camping last Sunday she was telling me about the wildlife she saw.

First she saw this big bug in the bathroom. The bathrooms are the only buildings in the campground with electric and there are always bugs attracted to the lights but this one was pretty big. Ugh.

Then she told me about the two yummy sweet chippies who would come eat out of your hand. They will even hold your fingers to look for food when you don't actually have anything to offer them.

You will notice there are no photos of ducklings this year - can you believe there were none?? Momma actually threw out most of her stale bread cuz the yummy chippies only showed up twice.

You will also notice that there are no photos of bears - with the drought they are more prevalent but alas they didn't bother Momma or her campsite. Phew!

Can you find me??

Does your hydrangea turn from white to lime green like Momma's does??!!

It was all so sad and scary that I hid under the hydrangea!

It was so exhausting snoopervising Momma unload the car that I had to take a nap.
I feel better now.

An InLinkz Link-up

No self control...

Go on - laugh - you knew this would happen. Y'all know I have no self control.

This block coloring started with the burnt orange pie shapes.
I am thinking of the gold for the spikes in the next round but I'm not sure yet.

These are glue basted due to the curves.
I'm not 100% sold on the technique yet but I'm always game to try something once...

On a side note, it wasn't until I got home last night and looked at the cranky cat panel still on my design wall that I noticed that the bottom edge was cut crooked and quite short on the bottom left corner. It affected 2 blocks.

I guess I'll have to cut off the sashing that is on the panel (it's so off that I can't preserve any of the current red/blue sashing for Mr Attitude) and add my own. That really stinks but does teach me that when I buy a precut panel I should unfold it to check the quality first. Unfortunately the receipt doesn't have a business name or I would write a nastygram...

AQS-Syracuse shopping

My original shopping goal at AQS-Syracuse was to buy rulers for ruler work/quilting. I had some specific beginner rulers in mind based on lotsa research but I was open to almost anything. There were several booths with rulers but not quite what I was hoping for. A couple booths had bundles containing one ruler I really wanted but I was not willing to pay the big bundle price so I'll keep looking for those.

I did come across a longarmer who sells his own rulers and his partner who had rulers for domestic machines. I couldn't pick just one ruler to start with so I took their business card which had a link to their 140+ youtube videos. Maybe once I get through those I can pick one or 2 of their rulers. Of course, I forgot the card at home today so if anyone wants the link let me know in the comments and I'll get it to you tomorrow.

And now, lets get on with the actual shopping!!!!

-- 5 random FQs
-- Superior Threads: 3 replacement colors and 2 new blues
-- 1 mini charm pack from Primitive Gathering - couldn't resist the pretty
purple/gold/yellow combo and it's a the perfect size for 3/4" hexies
-- 2 quilting rulers
-- a cat stitchery kit: I know, sooooo not me but it's really cute and 100% true.
Home IS where the cat hair sticks to everything but the cat!

I couldn't resist the cranky cats panel.
I was going to take a close up of my fav  cat but just couldn't pick one.
Now to figure out what to do with this...
It's not very big so maybe some tabby orange sashing and borders for a lap quilt?

You knew if there were hexies I would find them!
There were 2 kits (acrylic templates & papers) avail - 1 for the smaller center and the other for
the center and outer rounds. I splurged for the bigger kit cuz I can now make both sizes.
This is one of 2 projects I own with curves. I think it's time to bite the bullet and just try curves. Wish me luck!
The big issue is do I start it ASAP or wait until "later"????
Janet can tell you I have many UFOs but a new project is always funfunfun!
And I can't remember the last time I started a new project...
oops - that would be the pieced hexie project Mickey Depre is spearheading.

A topic for another day is coming up with my own pattern to sell as this person did.
Her pattern, paperpieces.com produced the templates and papers.

And  last but not least...HALF-NEKKED WOODSMEN!!!!!
Can they come camping with ME next year??!!
Some of you may recall my fireman quilt...
I'm going to do something similar, surrounding a yard of the woodsmen with blocks or borders.
If anyone has a "simple" block suggestion I would love to see a link.
In the meantime I am combing my Pinterest boards for ideas I've saved.

What do you want next?
Quilts at the AQS show? Hiking? Or general camping photos?

Happy Hump Day!!

The Bibliophile Files - 8/2/16

Hello and welcome to this month's edition of the Bibliophile Files!

If you will recall, the July edition was a week late so I don't think this is a bad haul for just 3 weeks! As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of that is thanks to the ADK. It's 5 hours each way to the ADK and then an hour each way to 3 of the mountains I climbed = thank God for audiobooks on mp3 (no need to change disks while driving curvy mt roads).

Don't forget hiking time - I listened to some really good books and some OK books on my iPhone. I've got an OK book going on my iPhone right now. Some people would say to just quit the book but I really want to see where it goes given the first bit was more exciting than the middle/flashback section.

This brings me to #54 of 84 books finished for the year. Goodreads.com says that I am 5 book ahead of schedule. Pretty sure being ahead of schedule is a first for me :)

Finished
     Words in the Dust
     Fat Angie
     The Sin Eater's Daughter
     Mandela - An Audio History
     How it Went Down
     Family Honor
     Calculated in Death
     Egg & Spoon
     Innocence
     Every Last Word

In Progress
     Devoted in Death
     Symphony for the City of the Dead

OK, my friends, now it's your turn to share the books you've read over the last month. Remember - books include novels, magazines, quilt pattern books and cereal boxes :)

Design Wall Monday - 8/1/16

This week's blog posts are brought to you by the Adirondack Mountains!
Did all y'all miss me last week??!! I know a certain little B&W pussy cat that missed me...

For all the rain that was predicted, there wasn't a drop until I was already partway home. Woohoo! I took advantage of the good weather to get a LOT of hiking in and that meant that I didn't get a lot of hexies done 'cuz I was too tired to do anything. I know! I was surprised too!

I took the owl project with me but for the tiny bit of stitching on the mother ship and background pieces it just wasn't worth a photo.

I basted the hexies for another blue rosette - I just need to pick a layout.

I also worked on adding the sashing to this other blue rosette.

Yeah! That was it for hexies. I carried hexies to the top each mountain I climbed but never touched them there either. I think the trip was just too short - of course, isn't every vacation too short? - but with 2 travel days on a 5 day trip including 3 days of hiking, 1 days of quilt show and 1 day of rest it just flew by...

Tomorrow is The Bibliophile Files - I did a lot of "reading" while hiking and driving :)

Other posts I know you are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for will include the AQS-Syracuse show (I made just a couple purchases!), the 5 mountains I climbed (3 had restored fire towers), and camping in general.

Cya tomorrow!