Feline Friday - 4/27/18

When Momma came home from her conferences and whistled for me I was way far away so it took me a while to get close to home. I started meowing when I was across street so she would know I was coming as fast as I could. I ran right up to her and let her pick me up to introduce me to the little person that was in the car. There was no need to make Momma suffer cuz I had missed her terribly. I followed her around the house for a solid hour, not letting her out of my sight.

I also took advantage of Momma missing me to lay down on my GreatGrandMomma's game table. I am NOT allowed to be on this table cuz I am often naughty to the lampshade. Momma screeched but she also grabbed the camera so I easily got away with it.

I probably won't be able to get away with that again until she after goes camping this summer...

Thursday Weather Report #49 - 4/26/18

Did you miss me while I was gone? On Friday/Saturday I was in Buffalo for an EMT conference and Sunday thru Wednesday I was in Albany for a town clerk conference. Both conferences were very educational and it's fun to see people you see once a year but I'm whooped. It's also nice to have a little furry fellow very happy to see me when I get home.

The purpose of me making and selling the name badge holders is to make money to buy more fabric. It's a good thing I sold 18 of the 20 since we stopped at 2 quilt stores in Syracuse and Albany and I spent a good share of the proceeds. Hadn't planned to use it that fast but why not when at 2 new-to-me stores?! No pictures yet as I haven't finished unpacking but soon, I promise. The best purchase of each store would be a black fabric with multicolored bird houses for the back of the temp quilt and the peacock pattern that is the same style as the lion.

We are still in the midst of Spring Weather - which means it's all over the thermometer. It snowed most of last Thursday and it appears snow is also on the agenda for this coming Saturday. I've been using the same blue snowflake fabric for the last few snowy days but I think I'll have to come up with something else for Saturday since I am pretty sure this was the last piece...I was hoping lack of the fabric would mean a lack of snow. I should have known better.

37- 32 - 40 - 47 - 58 - 67 - 68 F

How as your weather this week?

Weather delay

Today's Weather Report will be posted tomorrow after I return from my conferences.

I'm generally able to work on hexies in my classes (it helps me concentrate) so hopefully the rosette will be ready to post.

Catchy all y'all tomorrow!

Feline Friday - 4/20/18

Why do Seagulls fly over the Sea?

Cuz if they flew over the Bay they would be Bagels!!!

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha!
I kill me!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #48 - 4/18/18

I was going to share some recent weather photos with you. You know, the beautiful cloud formations, the flooding behind the library, the snow yesterday but I think the following sums it all up perfectly:

Now this is Western NY and we like to joke that if you don't like the weather give it 5 minutes and it'll change. I don't know that today's 37F is any better than yesterdays 33F or tomorrow's expected snow but I do know that next week's 60F is a move in the right direction.

The big question, with just 4 weeks left in this phase of the project, is will the ending temps match the beginning temps of my quilt? Spring is very far behind in these here parts with lots of farmers already behind schedule so I'm not holding my breath.

I started this project 5/17/17 with a red hexie. I wasn't keeping track of the actual temps in the beginning but red is in the 80s. I can't even imagine temps that warm it's been so long...

I just used weatherunderground.com to check the max temp a year ago today and it was 63F...only a 26 degree difference from the present. Yikes! Mother Nature is going to have to work hard to catch up with those kind of temps.

And here is the last week - filled with rain, ice, floods and snow. I don't recall there being much sun which is wearing everyone down...

44 - 50 - 49- 32 - 34 - 38 - 33 F

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 4/17/18

Hello, Hello and welcome to the latest Hexie Linky Party, our monthly (when I remember) link up to check in on our hexie friends and their projects.

As you will remember, I'm in the midst of newprojectitis and working on The Lion by Violet Craft.

I'm amazed at how easy this project has been. It probably takes more time to cut out the fabric than to sew them together thanks to a wonderful pattern. The pattern pieces are numbered in the order they should be added to mothership. I've made some personal changes in the order, even sewing a group of 2 or 3 pieces together before adding them when that chunk of pieces will have a relatively straight edge. No need to handle the mothership more than necessary.

And now it's your turn. Do you have newprojectitis, UFOresurrectionitis or maybe just newprojectdreams??!! Any project, in any paper shape, of any vintage is free game to share in the linky party. We are looking forward to seeing your projects!

An InLinkz Link-up

Feline Friday - 4/13/18

Happy Feline Friday the Thirteenth!!!!

I'm in Time Out again...

Momma is upset that I was playing with the mouse I found upstairs late Wednesday night and didn't kill it before it got away.

I've been out hunting this week and caught a mouse and a shrew in the 2 days since. I left them as peace offerings on the porch. I'll keep bringing peace offerings until it I'm out of Time Out. How long do you think it will take?

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #47 - 4/11/18

Due to a very serious, but not quite lethal, case of newprojectitis I became engrossed in working on this:

Another round added!!
There is so much depth to this pattern in the solids.

And completely forgot to finish this:

38 - 29 - 38 - 30 - 30 - 35 - 37 F

Oopsies!!

I'm not sure how someone forgets to work on something that you've been doing for 329 days but I did. I'll get it caught up liketysplit.

In the meantime I need to distract myself from that Lion.

Probably not gonna really happen but it sounded good, didn't it?

An InLinkz Link-up

The Lion, the stitcher and the new ruler

Ok - so the title is corny but I'm sure you know where I started and I'm sure, if you're here, that you know who the stitcher is. Work with me people...

Having "finished" the project I shared yesterday...I decided it was time to start a new project. That and Chantal is going to make the project at the same time. Nothing like a little sew-along to get a project moving!!!

My chosen project is the Lion by Violet Craft using the kit I bought from MSQC last fall.

It's really an ingenious way to do such a complicated pattern. Each fabric/color is assigned a symbol and the appropriate symbol is on each piece along with the number order to piece them. My only complaint so far is that I can't find a piece numbered 28. I'm sure that means it doesn't exist since it's not in the diagram but that little OCD corner of my brain keeps looking and looking and looking.

First I layed out the pattern (a heavier card stock than I am used to) and separated them into piles of similar symbols.

The bagged papers were then matched with the fabrics from the kit.

That's when I had to wait for my eagerly anticipated my new ruler. A girl's gotta have the right tools!!!

The 12" length is a little awkward sometimes.
 I had considered having Dad cut it in half but then I needed more than 6" the other night.

Anyone who's familiar with the add-a-quarter rulers for paper piecing (one of my previous obsessions) will recognize the new add-three-eighths ruler. Isn't it fabulous??!! I am all about ordering matching acrylic templates when I order papers from paperpieces.com but some times there are just too many paper shapes in a project to make that affordable or reasonable. With a little washable school glue to hold the paper in place it's super easy to trim out fabric as I need them.

The piece is worked from the back which can get a little messy
and you don't quite see how the pattern is evolving.

Next up was to start stitching!! For the most part it's been an easy process since the numbering tells you what order to stitch them in. It's just a little fussier with the thicker card stock to get the pieces to fit together since I prefer to stitch with a regular whip stitch and the pieces are right sides together. I suppose I could try the flat-back-stitch but I'm not always working at a table. It's worth a try tho...

A quick peek to the front side now and then is always interesting to see how the pattern is evolving.
Isn't it fabulous so far???!!!!

Be sure to look up Violet's other EPP patterns - there is a peacock and an owl so far. I'm hoping there will be a 4th (or more??!!) so that I could put them together into one quilt. Otherwise this is destined to become a ....drum roll ...... doll bed quilt. LOL.

Christmas is coming...

It was a lazy weekend which lead to a little progress on a lot of projects.

I'm just going to bore you with two...

You will recall that I finished stitching my hexie tree skirt last week. The next step was to buy backing and binding fabric. I found this lovely poinsettia for the backing but I haven't settled on binding fabric just yet. As they say, there is plenty of time.

I bought the end of the bolt, just an inch shy of 2 yards since I wasn't sure how much I was going to need. The pattern called for 49" square backing and at the end of a Friday I wasn't in the mood for math. My original plan had been to quilt this baby with the diamond points on but when it became apparent that the backing was almost close to the size of the tree skirt I decided to cut them off first and baste the top to the batting. When I get home I need to remember to stay stitch the edge so none of the hand stitching comes undone.

With the help of my Quality Control Officer, I then basted the top/batting to the backing, not basting near the edge that was short.

Not spray basting near the short edge allowed me to use my machine to add on a 4" strip and get it finished up right quick. It still doesn't lay 100% flat but I know that quilting will work out part of it and cutting this to become a tree skirt will work out the rest. It's been suggested that I don't cut this for a tree skirt, leaving it as a table topper, but with it not lying flat I'll be happier if it becomes the tree skirt.

 Zorro then decided to try out the skirt in preparation for it's first use in December. Just 259 days till Christmas but only 235 days till the tree goes up! Can you tell how excited he is?

This has now been set aside until after I finish some end-of-April deadlines. When I do get back to it, I'll be doing some simple straight line stitching that follows the "starburst" or "fireworks" outlines of the various colors.

Oops - Changed my mind - there are so many pictures for the other project that I'm saving it for tomorrow. Something to look forward to, eh?

Feline Friday - 4/6/18

Do YOU know what season it is?

Momma does...

It's MUD season!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #46 - 4/4/18

Last week's weather lead to what I thought was a cool rosette, alternating between green and blue.

40 - 48 - 39 - 47 - 36 - 44 - 37 F

If today's weather could be put into rosette I would need bright green (50s), dark green (40s), dark blue (30s) and something to designate high winds, full sun, overcast, rain, grapple and snow. 

Good old Mother Nature can't make up her mind.

I don't mind the minute-by-minute change in weather but when the wind keeps opening and slamming the front door of my office building it does make me jump a wee tad bit...

Just 6 more weeks to finish year #1 of this project!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Bibliophile Files - 4/3/18

Hello and welcome to our monthly book linky party!

Woot! I finally finished some books! World Without End was only 36 CDs long and just seemed to go on forever. Good story, very similar to the first book but different time period. It was just loooooooooong.

FINISHED -
     The Cuban Affair
     The October List - This story is written in reverse. I didn't realize it at first and was confused with the overlap between the first 2 chapters after that it was really cool to reveal new aspects to the storyline. It was a real twist at the end = my fav kind of story.
     World Without End - with 1014 pages or 36 CDs I will NOT be reading another book this long this year or I'll never make my personal challenge to read 90+ books this year. There is a third book in this series and I've scheduled it for next January. LOL.
     Into the Water - should be finished this afternoon. A little confusing with the switch between decades but I've finally gotten into the gist of the book now that it's mostly done.

IN PROGRESS -
     On my iPhone - The Alphabet House
     On my home stereo - A Dog's Purpose - I watched the movie first so we'll see if the book is better...they usually are.

And now it's your turn - what books have you read in the last month? Anything counts: novel, magazine, quilt pattern or cereal box.

3 days in the Quilt Lab

It was a lovely 3 day weekend at my house filled with all kinds of sewing and quilting.

Friday was spent watching DVDs and finishing the tree skirt. It doesn't quite lay flat so I'm going to go at it with some starch and a steam iron before I sandwich this coming weekend.

Saturday was mostly about making progress on Bonnie's Mackinac design.

First I finished 50 of 120 tri-recs. They still need to be sliver trimmed but I think they are pretty close. You can see from the note card that I decided how many blocks I wanted in the finished quilt and then counted out how many "parts" I needed so that the process was more like one of Bonnie's mystery quilts: I needed 30 square in squares, 120 tri-recs, 480 HSTs.

My assistant had to be bribed with a chair next to my chair so I could sit at the sewing machine.

Next up was 30 square in square blocks. Had I re-read the directions properly I would have gotten them done faster AND I could have used the fabric strips I had set aside for this project a month ago.

I cut the center square 1/4" too big but didn't realize until after I had 2 opposite triangles sewn on and the dog ears trimmed. I un-stitched one triangle and trimmed down 3 sides of the center then put the triangles back on. But then they also had to be trimmed down to the right finished size. There was a lot of trimming down, partly my fault but partly the design of the block. Life would have been easier if I had been able to find that out-of-production square in a square ruler that Bonnie used...I'm still looking!

Eventually they were all done!
Now all that's left is 155 more HST that will be sewn into "4patches". The strips are cut so I just need to cut them with the easy angle and start sewing.

The sewing included making a tie for my nephew's birthday last weekend. I think he liked it but it was hard to be excited about a tie when the Easter Bunny had gifted huge baskets of toys and candy.

Finally needing some more handwork for TV time, I pulled out Mickey's on the road project to work on adding sashing to some of the finished rosettes. It's monotonous work but needs to be done so I can lay it all out and figure out how many more rosettes to make during my upcoming conferences and camping trip.

And with that the weekend was over. Is it naptime yet?