Everything Day!!!

It's hard to know where to start today - so many things to share - and there are lots of pictures so I'll just make a photo roll to share everything. Enjoy!!

Several of the trees in the village where I work have been
yarn bombed. They are all adorable but this snowman shows the snow
storm that arrived yesterday, just in time for my birthday. Woot!

"My" highway guys took me out for breakfast this morning!

There was even cake! Thankfully it was only 1 candle when
this is one of the bigger "9" birthdays.

But wait - later there was more cake from another coworker!

Have you ever seen a Birthday cactus?
This also blossomed for Halloween

It's been a while since I posted anything for HeLP but I have been
making progress on my Underground Rail Road blocks for hexie
club. This is birds in the air. 

In this basket is nearly 40 shoofly blocks waiting to be
pressed and trimmed with my bloc loc ruler. In the back
you can see 2 very important items for any quilting space.
Which 2 would you pick?

And what fun is time in the quilt lab if the Quality Control Officer is not
there sleeping on the job in his very own quilt lined plastic bin?

And last but not least is my favorite but injured feline. Due to fur matting and Z not wanting me to investigate, I'm not sure what caused the initial injury but he has now stopped limping and the matted fur is gone, leaving just a scab. The funny thing is the app my local vet uses sent Z a birthday wish this week. They used the first time he came to the office as a birthdate so in  reality, it's the anniversary of his first visit for an abscess. Boys will be boys, huh?!

And now it's your turn to share...do you have a furry friend to share for Feliine Friday? Or maybe you have a hexie project to share for HeLP?

Have an excellent weekend! It's sunny and cold here, the ground is covered in snow, my little old man is on the mend and I can't ask for much more...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 9/17/19

Hello and welcome to HeLP for Hexie-aholics!!! Can you believe how fast the last month has flown by? I certainly can't. It doesn't feel like I've accomplished much on my hexies but I suppose I can only blame that on my fall job taking up my lunches and evenings. By the weekend I'm too pooped to clean house, mow or stitch much. It's pretty pathetic :(

I think I've doubled the width of this doll quilt since I last shared it with y'all. As you can see, the top/bottom edges are a little wonky due to the honeycomb shape and me working on this in halves to keep the fabric pairs separated. I have 2 and a half more columns to put on the left side to use up the fabric I've cut. I think I'll then need 1 or 2 more columns to get it the proper width and then I can clean up the top and bottom. Next step after that is to pick a silhouette. Several people felt a cat would still be appropriate despite having just finished Mr Serious but I've still got my eyes and ears open for anything that strikes my fancy.

And now it's your turn. Please comment below with a link to your hexie project or tell us about a project you are dreaming of starting. I look forward to seeing your projects!!

Wednesday Weather Report #113 & HeLP - 7/17/19

Sew, while I thought I would have a very special weather report this week, it appears that I have pictures for neither a weather report nor a HeLP. Oh the shame and agony. 😟

Please free to add your weather report and HeLP links to the comments and hopefully I’ll have proper photos to share next week...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 6/17/19

Remember how I droned on and on with myself about which day was really the 9 month deadline for getting the top for Mr Serious done? Well, in the end, I let technology make the decision and I almost missed getting out of making the decision. LOL.

I have a great app on my iPhone called "Reminder" and it will count down to any deadline you give it. I use it for everything such as vacations, our hexie club quilt exhibit install date and it even automatically adds birthdays and holidays.

Once the event passes, it will also count the number of days since the event passed. I finally remembered to check the count "up" on the Sunday of my conference and lo and behold it was the end of my 9 months!!!

We were stitching outside on the patio of our hotel room so I immediately ran to the beach to take some photos, knowing there wasn't much light left at 8:45pm.

White sand beaches don't make for great photos but I was so happy to see it as "one" piece I didn't really care. I had just a few more stitches to finish the right hand side but it's still in 2 pieces as I decided to add one more row of brown across the bottom and thought it would be easier in 2 pieces.

It's amazing how close it is to the photo and my original design . I know it should be but still...

This, however, was the money shot because who can resist a sunset in the ADK mountains? Don't forget that greyish mountain in the middle (Whiteface) as that will appear on one of my other trip reports later this week.

And now it's your turn - what EPP projects do you have to share??!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

HeLP and Wednesday Weather Report #100

Welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics as well as our weekly Wednesday Wather Report!!

I don't know about you but I think WW week #100 is pretty exciting!!! If I had planned ahead I would have brought cake to share - maybe after the next 100 weeks! Anyone else want to bring the ice cream?

April 10-16, 2019
36 - 34 - 75 - 55 - 38 - 37 - 48 F

Yes! 75! Friday was a sunny, 75!! It was amazing until a very distinctive line of storms rolled in and then we were back down into the druthers of sew-saw spring temps.

April 1 - 16, 2019

June 1, 2018 to April 16, 2019

Sew that was just a quickie post for today but I'm really looking forward to your shares for HeLP and WW! Any EPP project, of any vintage,  in any paper shape qualifies for our combo linky party today. I can't remember the last time WW and HeLP coincided...

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 3/17/19

Hello and welcome to all my favorite Hexie-aholics!!!

I figure everyone is pretty tired of seeing Mr Serious so I thought I would share the Underground Railroad block that I am working on for hexie club. This is actually the 5th of 12 blocks in the series but only the second one that I have stitched. I have one more block cut out and started the fabric selection for the other two.

Underground Railroad - Bear Paw

Our plan is to eventually show all of our quilts in an exhibition at the local Arts Council. We've all chosen different fabrics, including my batiks, civil war and flannel, so the quilts should be the same but quite different.

And now it's your turn!! What hexie projects have you been working on? Any paper shape or vintage project is fair game.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

HeLP for Hexie-aholicss - 1/17/19

Hello Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party where we entertain EPP projects of any vintage or paper shape.

It's a brand new year - do you have a new hexie project or are you still working on old faithful? Today is the day to share!

As you are well aware, I am working on Mr Serious. I've just counted up the finished hexies and found it to be 1001 which makes me just 163 short of the half way mark!!!!

If my numbers have already made you crossseyed, you can skip to the end!

My original plan had been to take 9 months to stitch the top, leaving 3 months to quilt and bind the quilt. I also knew 3 months gave me lots of wiggle room, if needed, even tho they would be busy summer months. On Saturday I will be 19 weeks thru the 9 months with 20 weeks left to go. Where has the time flown?

The original math had told me 8 hexies a day would be sufficient while I had actually hoped for 10 a day knowing that some days I wouldn't even have time to stitch a single hexie. It's good to know that I have actually been keeping a 7.5 hexie a day pace so far despite many no hexie days. I had no idea I was so close to being on schedule.

It will be hard not to stitch all weekend, instead of doing some necessary chores, during the pending snow storm...wish me luck!

And now it's your turn - what are you working on? Did you start a new project? Pull out an old project? Finally succumb to starting a temperature quilt?

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 11/19/18

Yikes - I've really been off my blogging game lately. It was yesterday, mid-morning, before I realized that I had missed our monthly HeLP post on Saturday. I'm 99% done with job#2 and I only have one more Christmas Bazaar so maybe life can get back to normal now...whatever "'normal" is.

The arrow is the mid height point

Can you believe we have been doing HeLP for over 6 years now? Me either but we had the first help back in August of 2012. Time flies when you are having fun!

On the one hand, I took some time off Mr Serious to work on one of my other hexie projects for a week so it's been a while since I posted a picture. On the other hand I've gotten a decent bit of work done and I just haven't had time to post a picture.

I'm thrilled to say that not only did I reach the top left corner of the project but I've now begun stitching my way across the top. The project is getting a little big to work on anywhere off my couch or someplace with a table but I've got some ways to work around that.

Since job#2 is just about over I now have my lunch hours back and I'll be working on the brown section which is easy enough to transport in a tiny box. My ultimate goal is to work down towards the bottom left corner. Once I've got a good chunk of the brown section completed I will attach it to the catship (haha, instead of mothership) so I can see the full height of the project. At the same time, while at home on the couch, I can continue to work along the top right of the catship, adding fur (2 greys, 1 black, 4 creams/whites) and continuing with the red at the top.

My other work around is a new box to store all my supplies for the project.

Above is the 6-compartment box I've been using - it's part of a 3-box-stack. The stack only has one lid which is awkward when you only need one box, leaving the rest of the stack open.

I think a little jerry-rigging will make the lid removable.
The green/black rosettes on the right are eyes!

The new box above comes with the 6-compartment box to further sort out my fabric but also has the 2 long boxes. Even better they are all movable so I can put two 6-compartment boxes in or just one leaving blank space or whatever combo I need. Tonight I'll be expanding the black/greys that are currently crammed in to  one compartment.

I also like that the color "map" of the project will fit in the box. I was carrying the small lidded box, a clipboard with the map, the sharpies were loose plus the catship. Now it's just the catship and the big box. Woohoo!

And now it's your turn to share an EPP project. We look forward to any paper shape and any vintage project whether it's a UFO, WIP or dream. I can't wait to see your projects!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #74 and HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 10/17/18

Hello and welcome to a double dipping of hexies today!!

I wish that I had a more exciting hexie project to share in addition to my weather quilt but that's all I have today. We'll blame it on a lack of photo taking skills after staying up wayyyyy too late watching the last 3 episodes of Call the Midwife season 7 last night after guild.

Hopefully you have something exciting to share~

79 - 66 - 47 - 47 - 54 - 62 - 47 F

The color is the best I could get it for this photo but you'll still need a bit of imagination... The cutting mat is traditional Olfa green and the three 40s hexies are a gorgeous teal color. The week was looking pretty tropical, color wise, but it certainly didn't feel tropical outside. Perfectly fall like but not tropical.

In fact, I finally closed the bedroom window last night. My bed it cozy with quilts blankets and one chummy cat but the house as a whole is getting quite nippy and I'm too cheap to turn on the heat yet. I might change my mind if those snow showers actually appear tonight and or Sunday.

Speaking of snow showers, I might even get to introduce a new color Sunday as our expected high is just 38F. Zorro stayed inside again today - even he knows the weather has taken a downturn that's ready to stay.

October 1-16, 2018

And now it's your turn! Are you making a temperature quilt? It doesn't have to be hexies - it can be any quilt style. You don't even have to wait until January to start - jump in any time!

Maybe you are making another EPP project? We would love to see it!

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 9/18/18

Sew...it was about 7pm last night when I realized it was the 17th. As in the day I should have posted HeLP for Hexie-aholics. Eek! Except I had been at a training in Canandaigua and it never dawned on me to schedule the post last week.

Oh, please forgive me, my hexie friends!!

Does it help that I was working on hexies while listening to the training? I worked on a different project than what I am going to share but hexies are hexies, right?! I am trying my best to only work on 2 hexie projects for the rest of the year. The first I worked on at training, a kaleidoscope doll quilt that will be my UFO Challenge project for hexie club this fall.

The other is Mr Serious. Zorro introduced the project back on 9/7/18. The purpose of the project is to make a 34" x 42" quilt for our next hexie club exhibit in September 2019. In the last post I was trying to chose from 3 photos. I actually tried converting all of these photos and a couple more but because Mr Serious was more of a compact photo when cropped I was able to get better detail. I know a lot of people liked the photo with me & Z but we would have just been blobs. Ick.

As you will recall, I started with the above photo.

The colors aren't nearly this dark...
it's more like my 12+ year old laptop needs replacing

I put the photo into EQ7 and got this. Fun! EQ assigned something like 60 colors.

There was no way I was investing in 60+ fabrics so I fiddled with the colors, more for shading purposes than actual/final colors and ended up with this. There are 2 reds, 2 golds, 1 brown, 1 black, 2 or 3 grays, 4 whites/creams, 1 lime green for the eyes and 1 pink for the nose. All are grunge fabrics. (Yes, I'm officially addicted!) I'm still not happy with the yellows I've found but I have time to keep looking.

I'm using this Fiskars (?) punch to cut my own 1/2" hexies from those stupid magazine cards. My friends are happy to give me their cards so now I have piles of them! Yes, 1/2" is kinda small but when I tried to increase the hexies, even to 3/4", I lost a lot of detail so it's worth it to stay small. Once I get into a rhythm it really isn't so bad.

I started with the eyes. With just 8 greens it was easy to get them out of the way and now I'm not likely to lose the cut pieces. I'm happy to admit this is the green that got rejected from the temp quilt - I knew I bought it for a reason =^..^=

This is how much I had stitched by Friday am.
Can you see that what I have blacked out by my knuckle corresponds with the stitched bits?

Luckily, the small town where I work has a fabulous print shop who will make color prints for 25cents per page. I had Rachel print the overall quilt and then this red quadrant. It's a bit hard to tell the 2 reds from each other in the print so I outlined them with a very fine blue sharpie to make my life easier. You can kind of see the difference in the reds in this photo of the stitched bits: as fat quarters the reds are quite different, as real life hexies a good enough contrast but in photos nearly the same. Frustrating to share with you guys but it looks good in person. You'll have to trust me or stop by to see it in person!

I'm not sure how I'll be differentiating all the black hexies when they are also outlined in black but I have time to figure that out. Most likely I'll change the black to a color unlike anything near it (blue, perhaps) so that I'll be able to black them out.

If I did the math correctly, this quilt has 2,327 hexies. Again with the math but if I do 10 hexies a day I'll have the top pieced in 3/4 of a year, leaving 1/4 of a year to quilt and bind it. I think that's doable. I know I won't be able to do 10 every day but I also know that I'll have meetings or DVD binge watching sessions to get a lot more done.

The safety pin marks my first hexie, which I've cut out
of the pattern as a reference point

Case in point! This was taken Sunday night and I've continued working since then...nearly twice as big in just 3 days.

Hopefully my crazy project will more than make up for my lack of remembering to post HeLP yesterday. I'm really looking forward to seeing your projects, whether they are as wild as mine or much more reasonable. Have a fantastic hexie day!

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics & Feline Friday - 8/17/18

It's two of my favorite days wrapped into one!! Hexie Linky Party and Feline Friday!!

Bonus - can you believe that HeLP is 6 years old today?? Yipp! It was started on 8/17/12!! In that vein I will send a little gift to a drawing winner. I just realized the linky-versary as I am typing this so I don't have the prize well thought out yet but I'll update the post with a picture next week.

RULES: Anyone that links is in the drawing. Since it's HeLP and Feline Friday, you can link once for hexies and again for felines, for 2 chances. Links must go to a specific post and not your blog in general. Posts must contain English Paper Piecing and or your cats. Links not following the rules will be removed from the linky party. Thanks for playing along!!!

Most of the previous week was spent finishing my Owls in the Mountains quilt:

Break Time!!!

I did receive some assistance.

The quilt has been mostly quilted and bound for a year but the dense curves meant I needed to add more quilting to the rose stars.

I used "rulers" to add circles. I didn't take a final closeup pic but I also did a couple circles around the owl in the centers.

Great napping spot, Momma!

Finally done!

I have yet to figure out how they choose which quilts to hang open or folded at the fair. My owls must be napping as the quilt is hung sideways. It's hard to see in the picture but I did get a blue ribbon on this and my other 2 quilt entries. One of which is the red/white in the bottom left.

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 7/17/18

Hello and Welcome to another edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!

And just to prove that it's really an incurable addiction I'm going to share a new project. I have a thing for basket blocks so I couldn't resist...

Janet's first reaction was that I could (should?) make these on a machine but then I countered that the project wouldn't be portable. We had a discussion on me taking a treadle or hand crank machine camping,  whether rotary cutting would be allowed in the primitive setting and later we added in the child sized antique ironing board that I haven't shared yet. In the end, it still wasn't quite portable enough so I kept to the hexies...

I've got one 8" block done - just 3 more to go. All the baskets will have the same brown fabric for the basket and the color placement (gold/green/neutral) will be the same in the other blocks but each with different fabrics.

The rest of the doll quilt will be probably be borders, maybe in a medallion style. You already knew it would be a doll quilt, right??!!

And now it's your turn to share your latest hexie project. It can be old or new, with any paper shape.

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 6/17/18

Hello! Hello! And welcome to the latest edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!!

Have you been stitching anything new and exciting recently? You may recall that I finished my Lion several weeks ago. My original plan has been to make a single quilt with all the animals in it together but then I changed my mind. Women's prerogative, right??!!

This was the first quilt that I free motion quilted ... on a machine that didn't lower the feed dogs. It's not my best work but it's my first and it's been hanging in the same place in my quilt lab for the last 10 years. Time for a change...

Aslan the Lion

That is sew much better!!!

And with that it was time to start on the peacock! The papers were separated, matched with the fabrics and placed in baggies.

Percy the Peacock

I worked on it gangbusters for a while but I also promised Lisa I wouldn't finish before her and she has 2 cross stitch pieces to finish for her grandkids first so I've set it aside for now.

I've been working on Zag & Zig but it's really in my best interest to get working on the quilt for our next hexie club quilt exhibit at the Arts Council...I have 442 days left to design, stitch, quilt and bind it. For next years exhibit we are all going to make the same size wall hanging but the fabrics, colors, shapes, etc are up to the quilter. I want to take a picture of Zorro and convert it into a quilt using EQ7. First things first, I need to pick a photo so before I commit to Z, I better make sure I have a decent photo...

And now it's your turn to share! What projects have you been working on or dreaming up? Any UFO, PIG or WIP counts as does any paper shape. Looking forward to your links, especially since this whole comment thing is still a disaster.

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 5/17/18

Hello my fellow hexie-ologists and welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party!!

With my EMT written exam tonight and some other deadlines and meetings in the past couple of weeks I haven't made any progress on Aslan. I guess no progress isn't really correct because I have been plodding along ... it's just that there are only 3 pieces left to baste and or attach and I'm positively dying to get him done. Tomorrow! I promise myself!!

And what's on deck when Aslan is done? Well the peacock of course!!!
Shall we call him Percy Peacock? Does anyone have a better name suggestion?

I forgot to put the gold fabric in for the feather centers.

My friend Lisa is making the peacock as well so she picked up the fabrics and we split them.
Gotta LOVE these brights!

Rumor is ... Violet Craft is releasing "something" at Spring Market this weekend and I'm hoping for another EPP pattern. Her facebook page says that 4 patterns will be revealed and at least one appears to be EPP!!! Woo Hoo!!

And now it's your turn... What EPP projects have you been working on? Remember, any paper shape is welcome as is any vintage project; meaning WIP, UFO or dream. We all need the inspiration!

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

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 2/17/18

Slacker that I am, I didn't realize until yesterday that today was going to be a Hexie Linky Party so I didn't have any updated pictures of my hexie projects to prepare a post with. Oopsies.

I'm pretty sure you'll understand and be able to use your imagination to see that I completed section 3 last night as well as placed the latest rosette up on the design wall. Go Me!!!!

This long President's Day holiday weekend, 2 of my 3 sewing goals are to complete section 4 and get the temperature rosettes appliqued to their background squares.

Goal #3 is to ramp up making inventory for an upcoming sale. Mostly I'll be making name badge holders for a conference but that's a whole 'nother post.

Sew! Tell us! What EPP projects have you been working on? I'm cruising on my UFO - you are more than welcome to pick a hexie UFO and stitch along to meet our 7/6/2018 goal or try to tempt us into starting a new project. Trust me (ask Janet!) it's not that hard to tempt me....

And now, let's see your projects! Any paper shape or vintage project counts...

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexieaholics & Wedesday Weather #35

It's my birthday! It's my birthday! It's my birthday!
Hopefully most of my regular readers will remember that this is why we hold our Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics on the 17th of each month!

Nope! Wasn't driving for this one either.

The day started perfectly with a gorgeous sunrise and breakfast with "my" highway guys (coworkers). I have a dinner meeting tonight and I just know I'll squeeze some hexie time in somewhere today. But maybe I won't stay up way too late for the second night in a row watching Code Black Season 2. That show is positively addicting.

I've been plodding along on my birthday kaleidoscope blocks. If I recall, there are 12 or 13 of us playing so there are many more blocks to come. But first, I'll get on that orange there on the bottom right.

38 - 52 - 57 - 11 - 15 - 13 - 26F

And then there was last weeks weather. It WAS a doozy! From winter to summer to thawed and then back to freezing. Thing is, there is yet another thaw coming this weekend. It won't be nearly as warm but it will be in the 40s. I guess I'm ok with 40s.

OK - time for me to sew the rest of my lunch hour. That means it's time for you to link up to todays party. Feel free to link up any EPP project of any vintage or shape. And if you would like to start a temperature quilt with us please speak up!

An InLinkz Link-up