Feline Friday - 5/21/21

Momma promised (again!) to catch up on her temperature hexies this weekend and post them next week. Instead she has been working on this test pattern for a friend. What you are seeing is actually two blocks tessellated and filled out on the sides. It looks way more complicated than it really is, it just took Momma a while to finally settled on a design.

As you can see it's on "my" dolly bed but I don't plan to sleep there any time soon.

Instead, I'll be outside working on my summer tan!!! We have been in the high 80's this week - what else is such a fine feline supposed to be doing?

Feline Friday - 1/5/17

Momma?

I think you gots enough hexie UFOs in this curio cabinet.

What say you we close up this door and prevent more from sneaking in?

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #22 - 10/18/17

The weather lately has been cool and crisp - very fall like. As in perfect for my fav season of the year.

A bonus of this cooler weather is that someone (and Z shall remain nameless) has been a little more social and cuddly. I therefore had big expectations when he seemed interested in helping me photograph last week's weather rosette.

We got off to a slow start. I really would have been happy with just toes as I have pictures of  other cats over the years with just toes. Except it's out of focus.

I tried a different angle.
He tried a different angle at the same time.

I finally got to use a new color!!!!
51 - 62 - 63 - 70- 76 - 45 - 59

In the end, I just went with this photo. It's on "my" trunk. It's really Mom's trunk and I borrow it for trunk shows but after the penultimate trunk show she never put her things back in it. I told her when I borrowed it this time that I wasn't giving it back!! She didn't protest very much.

She actually told me to keep the smaller green flat-top trunk I borrowed a while ago. I also own my great-grandfather's trunk which is 1.5 times as big as this one. Both this and GG-pa's are barrel top trunks - do you know why people had barrel top (~hump back) trunks?  I'd be happy to share more trunk photos if anyone is interested in them...

And just because I was pleased as punch -- check out my new socks!
Jelly? Aren't you?!

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 9/11/17

There was a lot of fighting for the space heater this weekend!
My house tends to stay on the cool side year round.
It's great in the summer but not in the fall or winter...

My first scrap package arrived on Saturday!!
Can you believe they are 100% different than my stash?
 I've got half of the strips cut and half of those stitched already.

Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the bottom of this post

I didn't get far on the Kennel Quilts.
It appears I've got extra time tonight to work on them some more...

This doll quilt is nearly done. Woohoo!!
It needs half hexies along the right and full hexies along the bottom.
When the top/bottom are trimmed flat and it's quilted/washed it should fit perfectly.

Wordless Wednesday - 11/11/15

Design Wall Monday - 8/31/15

Last fall my hexie group did a fussy cutting challenge. We each bought a FQ of a fabulous red, white & black fabric and had to make a 3 round rosette using 1" hexies. At our December meeting we played a fun variation of a right-left game to exchange the rosettes and were supposed to make something of them by the March meeting.

Red/White/Black fabric in the center & middle round
 is from our fussy cutting challenge.
I lined the bag with the same fabric.

I just finished mine yesterday. LOL. I suppose being the 'lead troublemaker' gets me some leeway sometimes.

My original plan was to convert a cloth bag from the local grocery store but the project just wasn't calling my name. I recently found a youtube link to make a backpack using 4 FQs and this finally sang to me!

Be sure to print out the free pattern listed in the "more" section of the video.

I modified the size of the bag to finish larger based on another backpack I use often. I also used a half-yard piece of the solid red to eliminate one seam.

I gave my rosette a good last press before removing the papers and then spray basted it to the red. I also spray basted a chunk of batting behind the red before machine stitching the layers together and then trimming away the excess batting. It's a little stiffer than I would like but there was no puckering of the rosette and the final bag looks fab.

I stole the cords from a freebie/smaller backpack but I think they need to be a bit longer...next time I get to Joann's I'll buy a bunch of cord so I can make more. I looked at the local Walmart but it's being reorganized which means it's a mess and there are no other local stores w/in 50 miles. And speaking of Walmart - if you want to use grommets for your backcpack, don't get the cheapies at Walmart. Not. Worth. The. Money.

Waffles

Well, it seems that I'm not being very diligent in taking pictures at the fair this week. I think it's a combo of the high heat and humidity after a cool summer. Yes, I lived in Miami for 14 years but no, the heat doesn't agree with me in any way, shape or form.

Sunday/Monday/Tuesday were excessively warm. Of course on Sunday/Monday I demoed open hearth cooking and last night we marched in the fireman's parade (with polyester uniforms!). Tonight and tomorrow there might be scattered thunderstorms with flash floods possible tomorrow and then some kind of cold front is moving in. I guess we are going to cover both extremes this week! It wouldn't be the fair if we didn't have either hot or cold weather - it's never middle of the road weather.

The only picture of the food that I demoed is going to give a few certain people the giggles.

On Sunday I cooked with my SIL for 8 hours and we are both overachievers since it's a once a year gig. I made sea pie(1), herb bread, blackberry cake, ham hock soup, tyler tarts(2) and started corn fritters (too hot to finish). Kristie and her boys made butter, sea pie, herb bread, blueberry coffee cake, peach pie and cherry pie.

On Monday I only cooked for 4 hours and start by making a 1234 (cup) cake(3) and wild blackberry sauce for gingerbread waffles. I had intended to finish the corn fritters but, again, it was too hot to finish. When it came time to choose one of Mom's 3 antique waffle irons, there was no debating which one I was going to use!!!

(1) Sea Pie is the last fresh meal the men would have as they went out to sea. It has a layer of veggies, a layer of 2 kinds of meat, a wine cream sauce and a pastry topped by the same again. I used potatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, rotissery chicken and venison sausage but it's really a kitchen sink kind of meal where any meat or veggie would work as long as you can fit it in the dutch oven used to cook it.
(2) Tyler Tarts are a coconut custard named after President Tyler. Funny thing is, my nephew is named Tyler and he thinks they are named after him!
(3) Cup Cake or 1234 Cake is 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour and 4 eggs. A very basic "receipt" and since a lot of people couldn't read in the 1800s a very easy recipe to memorize.

One Word Wednesday!

Quilted!

HeLP for Hexie-aholics!!!

Howdy and welcome to another rousing edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!!!

All y'all have your hexie nail polish on for the party, right??!!

This past weekend was retreat #2 for the LQS. Luckily I get to attend in a work capacity, running the on-scene store, answering quilting questions and what not. When the girls don't need me tho, I get to do my own thing!!

Thanks to a lot of this:

Windchill of -32F = -36C

I was doing a lot of this:

Which resulted in this:

I had to get more of the black to finish the last block in the 2nd row and I have parts of the third row made. I had gotten this far at the end of retreat on Sunday and, while I could have continued with the rosette Sunday evening and Monday (federal holiday), I chose to work on some other hexie projects for a change of pace. Nothing exciting enough to share, just making progress on smaller projects that fit in ones hand...  :) This sucker is HUGE! About 36" across!

Now, if I could just get over this bronchitis, I would be a happy woman. Today my right lung hurts from coughing so much. I'm gonna leave it up to YOU, my bloggy friends, to take my mind off being sick: please link up to a specific blog post showing any hexie project you would like to share. As always, it can be a current project, a UFO, an antique you came across and everything in between!

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics!

Yes ladies - HeLP for Hexie-aholics has arrived again! Today's the day we share our English Paper Piecing projects whether they are current, UFOs, antique or just a dream. Any shape or vintage is fair game and will probably inspire someone!

Did you catch my Twisted hexie tutorial earlier this week? I'll get it added to the Hexiology tab someday - I need to finish fair week and go camping again first. Selfish, aren't I??!!

I've been taking my hexie box with me to the fair all week and getting some work done. It's not dedicated/productive stitching like camping but it's still fun to share with newbies. I did take out a few projects Wednesday tho. I was just being too over-optimistic and needed the space for what I was doing that day (sitting at the LQS booth and demoing).  Don't worry, they will be moved back to the box shortly for another quick camping trip.

The (new/clean) biohazard bags were dropped off at the LQS for us hexie girls to use.
They are perfect for our projects and it's a fun inside joke.

I think this is Value Proposition block #6. Yipper, I'm behind but really enjoying the value challenge, fussy cutting and finding fabrics hidden in my stash to play with. I have the next 2 blocks kitted up and need to work on kitting #9 this weekend. This photo was taken Thursday morning and should be completed well before the time this post goes live on Sunday. The debate will be to work on the sashing or start the next block...

Hmm...didn't mean to use the pic with the "stink eye" but she wasn't happy with me trying to pose her so it is what it is.

 

Always a sucker for a new project, I have actually been working on this while at lunch this month. One of the not-so-LQS has small scrap bags of coordinated fabrics. This bag had the orange/pink/yellow batiks and the wild fabric on the left plus a small bit of brown batik and was called "Vibrant Autumn." I had to substitute the brown for a larger piece. I'm not sure that it will have the same impact but it appears to work. I'll be using the brown where the paperpieces.com pattern shows black. I have yet to decide what to do in the center/gray or outer corners since I plan to use the wild fabric on the back and maybe the binding. Maybe I can find a red to match the background of  the wild fabric. This will probably just be a small ~12" doll quilt/cat mat since I have very little of the batiks left.

Alright - show us your current projects, your dream projects and your recent hexie related purchases. Please remember to link to a specific post and not to your blog in general. I can help with that if you need..

Hexies at home...

If you will recall, last Thursday I shared my at-work hexie kit.
Today I thought I would show you my home set up.

I bought this relish tray at a vintage store a few years ago for under $2. It sat in my china cupboard ever since, just waiting for the perfect party to use it. Ha! It works much better for hexies! It's heavy so it won't slide around my lap and the divided areas keep everything organized. I highly suggest you look for one of your own.

BTW - the melamine tray under my glass tray is so I can eat in front of the tv w/out harming Grandma Ballinger's vintage coffee table :-)

Anyways...
From left to right: my Thread Heaven and thread ends, scissors and mini binder clips, honeycomb papers for my POTC* and the ever-present Burts's Bees, precut sashing pieces for the POTC.

Across the back: needle dome, Bottom Line thread, choco, 1" hexie papers left from my last Value Proposition rosette, finished POTC sashing pieces and red fabric waiting for the square POTC papers.

In front of the tray are my extra glasses (short lenses so I can see thru them to the TV and under them for my hand work!) and the twisted hexies I am working on.

Here'e where I usually plant my tuchus to sew. Have you ever tried to take a photo of an Ott Light? I don't blame you. Nice and bright but not great for pictures. You can also see the giraffe and fish face that I brought back from Ghana many moons ago. The face has a phone number on the back - lets just say I was the only white woman for miles with long brown hair wearing Ghanian clothes and I had a blast dickering for the giraffe. It was the biggest I thought I could get back on the plane until I saw a guy with 2 of them twice as tall.

And what's a good sewing session w/out a snoopervisor!?!?




* patchwork of the crosses

Hexies on the go...

Have any of you Hexie-ologists ever stopped by the Hexagon Alley blog?

It's a group blog and while it's not super-duper busy, there are tons of good projects to oogle over!

One of their recent discussions revolved around what is in our hexie kit.

I hope you'll pop over to see what's in my travel kit.

Yeah, that means I also have a kit that stays at home. What can I say? I am obsessed!

HeLP for Hexie-aholics

Hello and welcome to another edition of HeLP for Hexie-aholics, our monthly Hexie Linky Party!!!

As part of our Hexie Night at the LQS, we have a Birthday Club. When it's your birth month, the other hexiologists give you basted "hexies" in whatever color you have requested. Last year was our first and we exchanged 3/4" hexies - you'll recall the pillow I am making with my purple hexies.

This year we are exchanging 1.5" 6-point diamonds. I bought the papers a while ago but they were too small for my intention at that time and they got put in the drawer while I worked with a bigger size. Now that we are going to play with the 1.5" diamonds I decided it was time to make something with them - not only as a sample for the girls to get ideas for their birthday diamonds but also because I've had this picture pinned for some time and I wanted to do it in EPP (the original was done with paper piecing and not with diamonds).

I'll be adding diamonds of a darker orange around the outside edge.

Please don't ask what it's gonna be when it grows up!

Ok, Now it's YOUR turn to share an EPP project of any shape or vintage!!!! Don't forget to link to a specific post. Let me know if you need help linking properly or fixing a link. I'm looking forward to seeing all of your projects!!!

Wordless Wednesday!

The last Birthday Party Post

I promise these are the last party pictures.

I neglected to get a prettier picture of the purple hexie sugar cubes so this will have to do. I made this dark purple batch and with the dark sugar that didn't fit in the mold, I added a little more sugar and a tiny bit more purple to get a light purple hexie as well. Each cube is about 1 teaspoon which is equal to 2 cubes bought in the grocery store.

This picture shows Michele on the left who is relatively new to quilting - she must have been concentrating because I can see her tongue in her cheek. LOL. In the back is Morgan who is new to quilting also and it was the first time using her new (purple!) sewing machine. Morgan is the daughter of The Quilter's Daughter owner Claudia, standing to her left. Cathy in the middle and Nadine in the back at the ironing board are both "old hands" who helped the newbies immensely.

To the right is another newbie, Kim, who had borrowed her mother's sewing machine for the day. She had such fun she made two more blocks the day after the party. I don't think her mom is getting her machine back anytime soon! Hey look - I finally got Nadine's face in a picture!

And this is the design that I am going to make with my blocks. I designed it before my copy of Ring Around the Hexies arrived so it is similar - I changed the main block and the borders (ok, I think I changed the borders...can't find a pic of the whole quilt online). I really don't completely understand copyright so I hope this was enough of a change to declare it my own design and post it online. I haven't picked a pieced hexie design yet for the rosettes but it will probably be something from the new book! 

Don't hold your breath on when I will finish this - Just 2 seconds ago I decided it would be fun to take to retreat next month but I am not sure what else I'll be bringing. Y'all know I'll get bored if I only work on 1 project. I suppose I could work on the project I started last year at retreat and you know there will be hexies also :)

Ackckck - I almost forgot - today is the very last day to enter both of my giveaways. You'll need to go back to this post and enter either the Hexie Linky Party or the Feline Friday Linky Party in order to be eligible for prizes. Good Luck!!!

Feline Friday & the REAL Studio Tour

The kids were all excited to host today's post for the The REAL Studio Tour but they are still frozen after their little adventure this morning!

Hmm...maybe it's time to take the bunting down.
It was snowing faster than I could shovel this morning.

I still don't let Zorro stay in the house if I'm not there so he was very ceremoniously taken to the porch while I went out to shovel. Apparently the porch was lonely tho cuz he followed me up and down the driveway as I dug my way out. It was very cute as he would sit near me for a while and get covered in snow flakes and then run back to the porch for a few minutes. He would be back soon enough. Sadly, I couldn't get him to play in the snow.

LOVE YOU, Momma!

After shoveling was done, every one came outside:
Squeaky wanted outside.
Zorro wanted inside.
Midgie didn't really want outside so I carried her and then she really didn't want to go back inside either so I carried her again :)

Sew, today's topic on The REAL Studio Tour is all about storage ideas.

As a certifiable crock-aholic, there are several crocks very prominent in my studio.

I didn't get the 3rd crock in this picture but there are 3 at the corners of my cutting mat and ironing board. The largest holds my most often used rulers and the two-colored crock you see is a trash bin. The hidden crock holds ... wait ... can you guess? ... Chocolate! And for those of you who stopped by last week, YES, that is 3 containers for choco in my studio. LOL.

This 20 gallon crock is just as it was this morning when I was taking pictures - a dumping ground from when I cleaned something else off. If I had taken the time to clean, the bottom of the crock holds packages of batting and a trug full of scraps waiting to be trimmed sits on the packages. It has the appearance of being 20 gallons of scraps and I assure you it is not!

I forgot the 7(?) gallon crock that is the perfect height to hold rolls of wrapping paper, interfacing, etc.

This curio cabinet was a hand-me-down from my sis-in-law. I've filled it with baskets and boxes of UFOs. Yipper, probably half of the projects in the top section are hexie related.

Ok, you've probably been waiting for this on pins and needles - this here is hexie central!!! It got to the point that I couldn't keep all the slippery little bags of hexie papers neat and tidy in a basket so I got these drawer units at Dollar General and created a chart in Excel of all the shapes and templates I own. Each drawer holds a specific size and then there are a few drawers left for random sizes or supplies. It's so easy to pull out what I need or want to play with.

Don't forget to stop by next Tuesday for HeLP for Hexie-aholics and again next Friday for the big reveal of our REAL studios!!!

I hope all your pussy cats are warm and dry!

I actually have a ...

...Finish!!!!!!!

Ok, so all I finished was the top of my topper but I'm going to use the same backing, quilting design and "facing" finish as the last topper. There's no thinking involved so it should be easy, right? Except that I have Xmas gifts to finish first. If nothing else I can cut out the kite shapes to finish the facing and then the fabric in my project bin can be put back into circulation.

Check this link for the other finished topper and what I mean by "facing" - when I get this one to that stage, I'll do a tutorial.

Now I have to pick another hexie UFO to work on...I'm thinking the twisted hexies so I'll have the half hexie papers for when Santa drops off my purple and green fabrics :^)

Thursday UFO

I enlarged the design grid from the paperpieces.com package and
colored it with colored pencils so I could remember my layout!

I was all gung ho to tell you that job #2 is 99.99999% done for the year and I get my lunches (and hexie time) back but I got a message today that another FedEx arrived and that can only mean problems at this point. Darn! At least the end is in sight...

Besides working on a pieced hexie UFO over the weekend I also pulled out an EPP UFO. I suppose all my hexie projects are UFOs since I rotate them but this will probably be one of the easiest/fastest to finish up...so I can start another, of course. I have a plan for those Civil War scraps from Gettysburg.

Remember my hexie shaped end tables? And how I finished a table topper for it this summer? 

Well it's time to finish the topper for the other table :)
With my lunches back and a few evenings watching X-Files on DVD, it shouldn't take long!

HeLP for Hexie-aholics!

Hello and welcome to HeLP for Hexie-aholics - a monthly linky party for anything hexie. Yes, that means all EPP shapes and projects of any vintage.

Today I thought I would share my method for putting together a rose star block. It's probably nothing earth shattering but some people "struggle" with the different shapes and I have figured out the best path for me to use the least number of threads for whip stitching. Assume you will baste pieces and cut off the thread, unless stated otherwise.

Let me first tell you that I do not baste thru the papers and my basting and stitching is all done with the same thread (a pale yellow Bottom Line). I also don't knot my threads - a couple or 3 tack stitches on top of each other does the job. I also advocate for tiny binder clips to hold your fabric steady while you are basting - I get mine at Walmart. Lastly, be sure to punch a hole in all of your papers so they are easier to get out when the piece is done.

The rose star consists of 31 pieces: 1 hexagon, 18 kites and 12 hexie-thirds. I'm using 2" pieces from paperpieces.com.

I start with basting the hexagon and because of the size I use 3 binder clips.

Next I baste the 6 inner hexie-thirds. I use 2 clips and start basting at the bottom right corner, finishing at the bottom left corner. Because the top 2 sides are a little longer, I just catch the needle/thread into a smidge of the fabric, that way the thread isn't waving about.

Next I whip stitch the 6 thirds around the hexie, "travelling" the thread on the short sides to eliminate starting and stopping threads.

Now I baste 2 more outer hexie-thirds, 2 inner kites and 1 outer kite. I again use 2 clips for the kites but start basting in the upper right corner, finishing at the point and catching the needle/thread into the fabric on the long side. I try to plan my basting so that I am basting the last inner kite using a long thread and don't cut the thread. Don't worry about the "dog ears" at the point of the kite - they will be on the back side of the star and will nest together.

Lay out the 3 kites and 2 thirds as shown. Using the basting thread from the last kite, whip stitch the pieces together and do not cut the thread from the last side. Using the same thread it can now be stitched to any side of the center. Repeat twice, sewing to every other side of the center hexie.

Now lay out 2 inner and 1 outer kites, assembling in a similar manner. The thread will end at the side of the triangle allowing you to stitch to a hexie-third in the spaces left from the previous step.

Oops...before I forget. This is what the back looks like where the dog ears are nesting with each other. When I am whip stitching kites I just tuck the dog ear out of the way to do the stitches and then let it fall back in to place.

And here are the blocks that I have finished so far. I have a 12th in progress and 3 more ready to fussy cut. I still need to play with color placement and decide how many stars to make. I have a feeling I'm going to make stars until I run out of fabric :)

All right friends - it's time to share your hexie projects! Please remember to link to a specific post and not your blog in general. Ask for help if you need it. Non-hexie links will be deleted.