Wednesday Weather Report #18, HeLP, Squishies & Christmas

Did all y'all miss me Sunday? Did you remember there should have been a HeLP post? I remembered way too late and then forgot again and then remembered again yet this is the first I've had time to post all week. I am sooooo ready for the "weekend" to get here...

77 - 73 - 77 - 79 - 81 - 82 - 77F

Squishy from Sharon with scraps for my secret-for-now project

Squishy from Chantal for my hexie fabric stash

Squishy from Julie with scraps for my secret-for-now project

Woohoo!! The top is done and I've opened out all the outside seam allowances.
It will be trimmed straight after I figure out how to quilt it.

This backing matched better in the store but I still kinda like it.
If I don't find anything better at the 2 stores I'll be going to this weekend
or in early October I'll go ahead with this one.

Yipp - my Christmas Cactus is getting ready for an early show.
This plant often blossoms three times a year if I ignore it properly.

Feel free to link your temperature quilt or any hexie project to our linky party today!

An InLinkz Link-up

Feline Friday - 8/25/17

Brrr, Baby, it's cold outside!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #14 - 8/23/17

Yesterday was an interesting weather day :)

It was 84 before a number of storms moved in but luckily there were no actual tornadoes. The storms were riding a cold front and today we are in the upper 60s which feels devine!

73 - 79 - 82 - 75 - 78 - 81 - 84F

If you will recall from last week's weather report, I was behind on last week's weather rosette due to the fair. That was easily caught up by week's end thanks to some time off work and doctor's orders to stay off my ankle as much as possible but then I also let the next rosette slide. I wanted to catch up last night but couldn't remember what Monday's temperature was since it's written down on my calendar at work. Oh well, it's another red so I'll finish this up tonight. As I type it's 69F - which I'll get stitched up tonight and get this project back on schedule.

Since my deputy was working yesterday afternoon, I took advantage of a lot of banked sick time to go home and sit on the couch. Before I hit the couch I did some ruler work tho.

I considered stopping after just the white stitching was done. It blended nicely and I just wasn't sure how my idea for also using grey and red threads to accent those fabrics would look in the final quilt. In the end I pushed on and I'm glad I did.

I really like how the stitching lines that follow the "pointed" side of each third-hexie accentuate the over all design. Using a straight ruler with my ruler foot made this super fast.

Tonight I'll get the edges trimmed and keep thinking about binding fabric. I have enough of the light gray to just gitterdone but I really would like to use the red - which I don't have enough of. I know a store that *might* still have more but I'm not sure if it's worth the long trip. It will depend on how my doctor visit goes on Friday (my last summer Friday off) and when the school taxes arrive so that I need to start working on those.

I also picked out another ruler design for another doll quilt that is just a wee bit from being done. Here's hoping the clamshell design will be as easy as it looks.

Design Wall Monday - 5/1/17

Happy May Day!!
I missed the annual May Day Breakfast at the church 3 doors up from my house. We had a fire call at 11pm and a rescue call at 3am - both were false alarms so all with well except I slept in a bit and completely forgot the breakfast until I was leaving for work. The church has been doing a May Day breakfast for 124 years - are there any local churches that do a breakfast near where you live?

Sew...
Did you miss me last week? I was away at 2 conferences - one in Buffalo and one in Rochester. Of course working extra before and after to get the work done. Ah...the woes of a one woman office...

Luckily they were the type of conferences where I can sit and stitch while listening to the speakers - in fact, I listen better when my fingers were busy and that means I got a lot of hexie work accomplished. Woohoo!!

I started with getting three of these rosettes together. These chrysanthemums are the birthday shapes from our hexie club from 2015. I think I am now more than halfway done. They will be machine appliqued on to a background for a lap size quilt and I hope to get the background pieced soon now that I have found more shot cotton in the color I needed.

Then I moved to these Salt & Pepper blocks. All the blocks have black-on-white jewels around a white-on-black hexie surrounded by burnt orange diamonds. I had the centers done a while ago so I just needed to baste and stitch on the diamonds.

Next up were more twisted hexies. This will be a bed size quilt when it's done and it's one of my top 3 hexie UFOs to finish this year. I keep changing my mind which I want to focus on this year. These pieces had to all be basted and stitched together.

And finally, I finished stitching on the final hexie for my 3D project. Woohoo! The cardinal fabric on the right was the inspiration fabric and will be used as the backing.

Normally I take papers out as I stitch along, especially when I need to reuse papers instead of buying them. Apparently I didn't need to reuse the papers cuz here they all are. It won't take all that long, it's just something I need to add to the honey-do list.

And because you know I can't resist... I am pretty sure this is going to be my next doll quilt. I recently saw a gorgeous yellow and gray quilt and I think this design will work well with that color scheme. The central hexies will all be the same gray while the triangles will be various bright yellows. I purchased the gray and first yellow yesterday - now I just need to find a ton more yellows to add variety.

Hey - an actual wall for Design Wall Monday. LOL.
My fav brother installed the fan and dad make the rosette to
cover the hole left by the old off-center light

And lest you think I'm a one trick pony - I've finally got some color on my bedroom walls. I was hoping that one coat would do it but that's not the case. #2 will be going on later this week. I'm trying to rest my self-diagnosed golf elbow which is exacerbated by repetitive motions like painting and hexing...cuz y'all should know that the closest I get to golfing is the annual golf tournament for our fire department. No matter what, I read that not taking care of it right away can make it a chronic condition and I've already ignored it for several weeks...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 4/17/17

Hello and welcome to this month's edition of HeLP (Hexie Linky Party) for those of us that are addicted to English Paper Piecing!!!

I'm afraid I don't have much to share as I've spent all my time lately sewing things to sell at an upcoming conference I'll be attending.

You may recall from about 2 weeks ago that I finished what I could on this 3D doll quilt. "Finished" means I had used up all 3 FQs yet still needed to finish that bottom left corner. The debate was to use the remaining 3 gray pieces or to try to make this one like the rest. We decided to try to make it the same as all the others. I had some light gray left to use and the plan was to piece the red together after trimming the bottom flat. It was decided but it sat and waited for it's turn after my conference.

Yet, yesterday while finishing up some mugrugs, I found enough of the red to make one more. Woohoo!! The block is done and I'll stitch it on when I've had my fill of conference prep.

I also received a squishy in today's mail - all the way from London.
London, Ontario. Canada.
Hah - you thought I got something from across the pond...

I think I might do mine in batiks as well...

Nope - it's a set of papers and templates for a new hexie project called Castor and Pollux that Cathy is able to produce with her own laser. Cathy was able to use the 3/8" seam allowances I like on my templates and the papers are sturdy cardstock. I'm waiting to see what else she has to offer!

The cost of shipping is more than we are used to in the US but the exchange rate on the dollar more than makes up for it.

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If I organized it, would you like to make a temperature quilt using EPP? For those that don't know... these started as afghans where the daily high was compared to a predetermined chart which correlated the temp into yarn color for that days row on the afghan. The afghan is a memento of the year's weather. If you guys are interested, I can work out the details for the next HeLP...
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And now it's your turn to share - what hexie projects are you working on?
Is it new or has it sat for a while?
What's your favorite shape to stitch?
What shape are you avoiding?

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 3/27/17

For several reasons, I was pretty much a couch potato last week and ignored the pending painting in my bedroom. It seemed like a good time to start a project I had kitted up for later in the month. Oh well, there's still time to kit something else for my conferences.

The project started with the last 2 fat quarters of this cardinal fabric from a LQS - cardinals being my fav bird. I scrounged my Hexieology Pinterest board for ideas and found this one.  I liked it because it used the hexie thirds I had just finished using in my owl quilt. This would be the third project using various papers from the owl quilt. I like getting my money's worth :)

I had spent an evening fussy cutting from the 3 coordinated fat quarters and set it aside for one of my upcoming trips. Well, I had to make a practice hexie. I am sure you can understand.

After things went south I spent most of the weekend on the couch and out came the new project. After that it has been strictly an obsession to see it progress.

I did have snoopervision. Z spent 88 minutes sitting next to me. You may think it's funny that I tracked it but I can count on one hand the number of times that Z has sat with or on me in the last 3 years. The boys may not have gotten along very well but Z spent a week being cuddly and not eating much. Don't worry tho, he's back to his old antics and wanting to eat more than his share.

I had intended to make the quilt with the red thirds on the bottom but after emailing with my highly paid (cough!) consultant, we decided it should be rotated. In the end, no one will ever think of the other layout options and I'm happy with the 3D effect.

I was able to cut out enough thirds from the three FQs to make 41 hexagons. I plan to add another row to the right and then I'll extend the length and need to fill in the top and bottom to get this to the "proper" doll quilt size. I *think* I'll have enough fabric.

Can you believe my mother thought I had enough doll quilts? I. Don't. Think. So.

BTW - Don't forget to check Denise's post today. My  consultation "'enabled" her to order papers and start her own project. I told her she has no excuses when it's time to link to the next HeLP ...