Design Wall Monday - 6/8/15

Yesterday was a lovely drive followed by a class with my fav quilter followed by another lovely drive and then some sewing at home time before collapsing in bed. Ha!

Yipper!! Yesterday was the day my friend Cathy and I drove 2 hours down to Jamestown, NY to take a Sister's Choice class with Bonnie Hunter!! Woohoo!!

Funny thing is, she remembered me from the class last fall in Amherst. Couldn't remember my name but she said my face was familiar and asked if I had changed my hair (yes!).

I brought three things for show-n-share but didn't get any pictures of me and my quilts so you'll have to check Bonnies post for me with my Value Prop, Sister's Choice (still deciding borders) and my ruby colored Blue Ridge Beauty from my last class with Bonnie. She loved them all! You'll also have to check this other post about the class in general to see pictures of me and Cathy.

By the end of the class I had finished the following: 5 completed blocks (shown with 1 test block since I had reduced the size. I asked Bonnie to sign the test block/2nd from the left), 10 more 9 patches and 6 leader/ender D4P puss in the corner blocks. Phew!

After I got home I finished 4 more blocks and made some more tilted hexie fabric blocks. I'll need to cut more yellow for the star points so I can make more blocks.

Having made a SC quilt top already I decided to make a table runner with half size blocks (5" finished) - we'll see if I decide on a runner or doll quilt since someone had shared a doll quilt with a gorgeous border. I'll share that photo another day since no matter what I make I'll be using their border idea. LOL.

I have a picture of Bonnie with Cathy and myself but my iPhone isn't playing nice. Maybe tomorrow I'll share that photo and some photos I did get from show-n-share.

It's raining cats & dogs today and we even had a tornado warning (not the norm for these here parts!) so I guess I won't be mowing this evening. Instead I'll be making tiny Sister's Choice blocks for my "Baby Sister" project :)

Design Wall Monday - 6/1/15

I spent all of my rainy, chilly Sunday in my quilt studio. And I do mean ALL of my Sunday...I forgot just how slow and tedious it can be to sew 16 rows of a quilt together. In between rows I worked on my green rainbow scrappy blocks and played a "couple" of games of Spider Solitaire on the computer. LOL. I also spent considerable time drying off his highness every time he wanted back in the house for him to ring the bell to go back outside 5 minutes later. Little furry stinker =^..^=

I made cheese & choco danish to go with my tea (I told you it was chilly, right? Sunday's high was way less than Saturday's low). It was yummy but I think next time I would make only half the filling or make two danishes as it was pretty sweet. It was a super simple recipe: cream cheese brick + 1/4 cup sugar + a glug of vanilla, spread it over croissant dough, braid the sides and bake. I will be making this again!

Here is my quilt, accordian folded to make it easier to sew the very last seam. You can see my green RSC blocks in the background/on the design wall, amongst all the other goodies - mostly hexies, of course. I'll post a better pick of these and my D4P blocks soon.

And finally I had the last seam sewn and pressed open. Just before I collapsed on the couch with a little fluff ball I folded it in quarters for this shot. I'm not quite sure it's big enough tho - it's for Mom&Dad's bed but I want to sneak to their house and try it on for size. It's a secret! I know it's correct for the mattress but then I realized it might need to be bigger to fit 2 people under it!

Either way it's good enough for show-n-tell at a Bonnie Hunter class next weekend in Jamestown, NY. I started the red/white quilt at a class I took with Bonnie back in October.

See all y'all back here tomorrow for The Bibliophile Files!!

Design Wall Monday - 5/4/15

May the Fourth be with you!!  Sorry, couldn't resist...Star Wars joke...LOL!

It was a busy weekend at Casa Grande - part of it spent outside in the great outdoors, digging in my delightful clay yard. Yeah, not as much fun as I'm trying to make it sound but it felt good to make some  progress on the gardens. I'm a very finicky gardener --> the weather had to be just right (not too hot or cold) because I could be inside sewing!! I cleaned up a hosta//lily/solomon's seal bed, changed out some rock borders, trimmed all 4 clematis and weeded an area that will finally be completed as a flower bed this year. I had music playing, the weather was warm, there were no bugs yet and Zorro was snoopervising! Of course, today I am stiff and my fingers are torn up since I don't like gloves but I feel "good" if you know what I mean. There is still plenty more to do - maybe once I get it sorta presentable I will share photos...We are still at the "don't look yet" stage.

I still was able to get a bit of sewing accomplished.

Goodness! My ironing board cover needs a good bath!

As you might recall, I'm making Bonnie's Blue Ridge Beauty in red and whites. I have not really been making a certain number of blocks, even though at last count I needed 24 more for my original plan. I was considering making it a bit bigger and that will work out fine since I just make 4-patches and HSTs and see how many blocks I can get. I'm gonna guess these piles have somewhere between 30 and 40 blocks and I still have a pile of 4-patches w/out HSTs. I will be attending another Bonnie class in just 33 days and I would really like to get this top done for show-n-tell. That translates into I best get my act in gear!!

The yellow is what is already attached or has the darker middle sashing on it already.
Rosette #4 in the upper left is at home so I can add the rest of the dark sashing and attach it to #4.
Rosette #10 on the middle right is at work so I can add the inner/light sashing this week. Next week I'll finish the outer sashing so I can join it to #3 and the "mother ship". I'm looking forward to sharing the mother ship at our next HeLP.

I also worked on my Value Proposition project in dribs and drabs. I actually have one block at work to add the light sashing and another at home to add the dark sashing. As soon as this post is finished I'm going to spend the rest of my lunch in my car with my windows open, my hexies and an audiobook so I can enjoy the weather - it's currently 78F!! If only I could figure out how to walk and hexie at the same time...

And just for your personal amusement, this Christmas Cactus is blossoming again! I had one that blossomed for Halloween, Christmas and Easter. Not sure what I'm doing right but I'm not going to change a thing and see if they'll blossom again in a couple months.

See all y'all tomorrow for Bibliophile Files!

Design Wall Monday - 4/13/15 - Good, Better, Bad

Good - On Thursday, I finished my penultimate Value Proposition rosette!

Better - Just minutes ago I finished the VERY last Value Prop rosette!!!

Bad - now I need to decide on a layout for all my rosettes so I can get to putting them together. Ugh, a stressful job in my eyes so it might take a while. I won't spend more than a couple days tho since I have an overnight conference this weekend and I'll have some quality hotel time available on a king size bed watching cable tv!! (a luxury I do not have at home)

PS - And just so certain people won't think I have forgotten how to use my machine - I also put together a pile of 4-patches for my Ruby Beauty quilt (altho I think it needs a better name!). I needed at least 50 to finish according to my original plan but then I got to thinking I might want to make it bigger so there is more overhang on the bed. I still need to make HSTs to go with the 4patches so I guess I'll decide if we are going bigger after the HSTs are done. Heaven forbid I have to make 2 big decisions this week. LOL!!

Design Wall Monday - 12/8/14

Friday night was Hexie Club night and I worked both Saturday and Sunday at the LQS so it felt like all I did was cut fabric this weekend but...when I went to take pictures this morning I discovered I accomplished more than I thought. Yay me!!!

What I did not photograph was getting Tyler's quilt sandwiched. I had bought 108" wide backing fabric and I had recently bought yards and yards of batting on sale. I spray baste using the tables at the LQS and the actual spraying part is a breeze but making sure all three layers were cut down to size, perfectly flat and lined up took quite a while since I was working by myself.

We offer a "Sandwich Club" at the LQS to assist each other with spray basting projects. The small class fee includes sandwiches for lunch :-) Now if I could just convince a few more people to join in it would be more fun for the group...

I cut a ton of red and white strips since I still need another 50 or so Ruby Beauty blocks. I sewed half of them together and pressed them open last night. I probably won't have much time to subcut or sew the 4-patches this week since I (hopefully) have my final bazaar tomorrow and I'm having a Christmas Party at my house on Sunday. I suppose I ought to decorate before the party! Luckily the girls understand my studio (right off the living room) is never "clean" but used and loved!

174 HST down, 106 left to go...for Clue #1

I bought three more pinks at the LQS this weekend and then cut out some more turquoise/pink HST units. I should be at 2 or 3 more non-LQSs in the next week so I can get even more variety. In case you are wondering, I don't "do" pink as a norm so I try to force myself once in a while so I can expand the stash and I think these rose colors are a good compromise.

Each clue is in it's own basket so I can track progress. I prefer to finish each step before I move on to another and this will keep it all sorted until I get some more FQs for variety.

Last but not least, I also worked on Clue #2. I have all 200 black triangles cut and I've cut neutral strips for the diamonds. I'll hold off cutting pinks until I get some more in the next week.

Keep your fingers crossed for the bazaar tomorrow. It's been delayed twice due to "snowvember" and there is another storm coming tomorrow, which will either affect the bazaar or the guild Christmas party...or both. I'm ok with some snow but there are plenty who are not...

Design Wall Monday - 10/20/14

Saturday I taught another Quilting 101 class. I had 4 students (oh it really bugs me when people sign up and then don't show up!!!), including a 90 year old retired minister. His work was spot on and I think the students in this class could be my most diligent ever. They were very interested in getting their work to be more accurate. I'm looking forward to seeing them in 2 weeks for the rest of the class.

That left Sunday for my "therapy session." LOL! I decided to rotate projects with every CD of my audiobook. I didn't follow that rule explicitly but I did make good progress on several projects.

 

I have 3 craft bazaars coming up so I'm trying to get myself into production mode. It's kinda slow going at the moment but that's because I tend to do a lot of the prep/cutting first and then when I get in to the sewing it's lickity split. I love picking fabrics but sometimes it just seems to take forever to make a decision.

Yup - time for a new cutting mat. I just need decide if I want a bigger mat which requires a trip to the city and a JoAnn's coupon or stick with the same size which is available locally but has no coupon,..

I also made more ruby blocks from my class with Bonnie Hunter. I now have 52 done. I only need ~150 more. LOL. I've been using these as leader enders as well as just making a chunk of them at a time so I'll get the blocks done soon enough.

Lastly, I worked on Tyler's Christmas quilt. It's called "T is for Tyler." Can you see the Ts in the design? The border and setting triangles are camo (his fav color at the moment) so maybe you can pick a few of those out there on the upper right. I know they are hard to see cuz they are camo. Haha. I kill me on this gray, chilly Monday.

I thought I would be able to finish all the blocks this weekend so I can start assembly next weekend at retreat but look at this next photo:

The light green had just a 1/4" extra and the dark green was 1/4" too short to cut the last piece. I wasn't able to get quite enough blocks from the fabric I had so I'll pick up some more this Friday and at least get the blocks done and get started on assembly at retreat. There is still a chance I can have it done by Christmas - I have 65 days!!! Woohoo!!!

World Wide Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome to my edition of the World Wide Blog Hop!

If you’re new to my blog, I hope you’ll come back often. I generally post about my quilts, including English Paper Piecing (we have a monthly EPP linky party called HeLP on the 17th of each month), books (another monthly linky party called Bibliophile Files on the first Tuesday) and my cats (a weekly linky called Feline Friday).

I was nominated last week by Chantal – I can’t remember how long we’ve known each other now but I’m pretty sure it started with hexies. LOL! Be sure to visit her blog which is full of bright quilts and crocheted items, book reviews and much more!

1.  What am I working on?

I guess I have 2 main projects at the moment (but I'm always working on bits of other projects at the same time!). The first is to work on my ruby Beauty blocks from the class that I took with Bonnie Hunter a week ago.

 

Just this Saturday I made over a hundred more four patches and 150 more HSTs. This week I’ll put more blocks together to see how many more parts I need. Mom loves red so I plan to give this quilt to her (so far it’s a secret...shhhh!!!!). I measured their bed this weekend but I have yet to figure out exactly how many blocks I need. Maybe it’s best not to think that far ahead since, at just 6” for each block, it’s going to be a lot!

Zorro REFUSED to look at the camera.
I suppose he thought he would be in trouble since he isn't often allowed on my sewing table.

I’m also working on my Value Proposition hexie quilt along blocks. I’m behind because it’s school tax season and I run to the school every day during lunch instead of doing hexies. I’ll catch up soon enough. This is block #9. I’m doing them out of order so I have this block plus 4 more to catch up. In case you haven’t seen my previous posts, each block has a teal in it but the rest is scrappy. Gotta love scrappy!

2.  How does my work differ from others of it's genre?

I don’t know that I really differ from anyone else’s work. Janet will tell you that at times I have completely forgotten I own a sewing machine because I’m all about the hexies but I don’t think I do anything outlandish. I love color and I love lots of (little) pieces and I don’t like hand work unless it’s hexies. Go figure…I’m just like a lot of other people. LOL.

 

3.  Why do I create what I do?

Basically, quilting is my therapy. I can certainly tell when I’ve been away from my hexies or my sewing machine. I can get down right C.R.A.N.K.Y. I’ve somehow had lots of time to sew in the last two weeks and I feel like I’m on cloud nine, even at just an hour or two a night after working both jobs. I feel relaxed and ready for another long day.

4.  How does my creative process work?

I’m lost somewhere between OCD and ADD or maybe even ADHD at times. Even tho my “stuff” looks like a mess, I pretty much know where it is and what project it’s for. There are piles of pressed scraps to trim, baskets of partially finished zipper bags and mugrugs for upcoming craft bazaars, baskets corralling fabrics for a specific project, crocks of rulers and choco and underneath it all is my cutting mat, ironing board and sewing machine. I’m in piggy heaven. LOL.

Red & neutral on table are for Ruby Beauty Blocks.
Design Wall is always covered with bits of projects.
Plastic bins under the table Dad made me are the FQ stash, Bag is selvages.
Finished blocks hang on the end of the table while I wait to finish quilts.

When I work on a quilt I’m very methodical…preferring to make all I’ll need for a certain part of the project at one time and then moving on to the next part. On the other hand, I get bored working on a project and move on to something else for a while which leaves me with UFOs out the wazoo. Leader/Enders work great for me because I’m actually working on 2 kinds of projects at the same time but also because some of my L/E projects are made from scraps so I’m always mixing up the cutting with the sewing with the cleaning up. It’s a never ending battle of finding something to entertain myself. I guess it boils down to being more about the process than the finished product for me.

Curio cabinet holds hexie projects and L/Es
Green trug is full of scraps to trim.

Oh goodness, the last photo reminded me of a very important part of my so called process. 99.9% of the time I am listening to an audiobook while I'm in my studio. At the moment, I only have 2 audio books checked out of the library so I'm a little panicky since I usually have 5 to 10 out at any time. Hopefully when I swing by the library today I can stock up properly.

Well, that was a brief snapshot of me, now I would like you to visit a couple friends:

Denise and I have been friends for eons. We have a lot in common in our personal lives including tea parties, quilting, cats and hexies. It’s been a fun ride and I always look forward to hearing from her!

Missy is another friend that I can’t remember when or where online we met. She always has a lot of colorful projects, sews on treadle machines, shares yummy recipes and has a fabulous clowder of cats that she shares on my Feline Friday linky parties.

Be sure to visit Denise and Missy any time but definitely next Monday when they answer the Hop questions and link to more fabulous bloggers.

Blue Ridge Beauty with Bonnie Hunter!

My class with Bonnie was this past weekend. It was a long day with driving 80+ minutes there and 110 minutes home since there was a bad truck fire on the expressway. I stopped at Viddler’s, an awesome five and dime in East Aurora but I was so tired, I wandered and left empty handed - not my norm when I get a rare chance to visit Viddler's. When I got home I put my things away and didn’t do much of anything the rest of the weekend. It’s a good thing Zorro made me take that break on Thursday – I could have used him again Friday and Saturday. LOL.

Ummm...that paragraph sounded like a real downer when what I had was a great day. Sorry L

Lots of space for everyone to sew, do demos at the front and 5 ironing stations at the back

 

Class started at 9am on Saturday. I got there about 20 minutes early and looked for free table space since the room was already pretty full. A lot of the students had taken 3 or 4 classes with Bonnie! Many people sat 2 to a table but I was lucky to get a table to myself. Whoo hoo – room to spread out which is nice when strip piecing.

We started with making 4 patches. I think Bonnie finally convinced me to layer the two strips and cut them as pairs without pinning! It worked well in class so it must work at home, right?

The 2-toned green bit on the left is my leaderEnder - a Christmas quilt for one of my nephews.

After lunch there were door prizes from the host guild and then we had show-n-tell back in our class room. I asked Bonnie to pose with me so I could put our picture on the quilt label. I guess I better get the back done so I can quilt this baby and put that label on!

No I don't know who the guy was in the painting behind me.
Class was in a museum and there antiques all over the place.

 

And then we moved on to half square triangles using my near&dear friend the Easy Angle. Bonnie demoed her 2 step method of flipping the EA back and forth but since I taught myself my own 2 step method years ago I just couldn’t get hers to work with any speed. It really didn’t affect my cutting accuracy so I just did it my way and zipped along.

 

Pretty soon we were putting blocks together and then Bonnie pulled us all to the back of the room to show us the best way to lay out the blocks. It was quite fun to see all our blocks thrown together into a riot of rainbow colors when we were more or less just making a 2 color quilt. The beauty block is easy enough I could see making another scrappy version some day.

 

Did you find me on Bonnie’s blog or Facebook? I’m there several times, including my hexie jacket on Facebook! I haven't seen a post on show-n-tell but maybe that is coming…

I think I've finally recovered from 3 very long days last week, a lazy day and another long day yesterday. Now that I'm typing this post I'm in the mood to go home and sew. I  should be home about 7 or 730 so my fingers are crossed I'll still be in the mood to make more Ruby Beauty blocks...I know a certain person who is going to want my quilt and I would kinda like to keep it under wraps and give it as a gift...