Feline Friday is hosted every friday and HELP for Hexie-aholics is hosted on the 17th of each month. We hope you'll join us!

Friday, November 29, 2013

Feline Friday - 11/29/13

We're being lounge kitties here on this long week/end. Momma has the Bernina purring and we girls are doing nothing!


I was feeling a little under the weather earlier this week so Momma tucked me into her fav purple afa-ghan.


But now I'm in the universal belly-rub pose... and Momma LOVES belly rubs. I've learned to like them too. Pepper was really on to something!


Oh, I have a secret...don't tell!
I snuggled with my little sissy this morning! Midgie used to snuggle with Pepper but now he's out in the garden and can't snuggle with her so I thought I would give it a try. I kinda like that too. Maybe I shoulda been nicer to Pepper. He was pretty smart!

What have your brothers or sissies taught you?



Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Turkey Day to my American Friends!!

May y'all have a lovely long weekend with many good eats, 
spending lots of time with your family, friends and sewing machine!



Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Winter Wonderland!!

Just how many calories does a person burn shoveling heavy, wet snow for an hour??! I certainly worked up a good sweat this morning and Zorro was my little mascot, jumping thru the snow drifts instead of on the shoveled driveway. Dork :)

Early morning side porch view
Early morning front porch view
View of my sloppy shoveling. The panoramic feature does some weird things when you  you pan 180 degrees. I'm standing on the road but the perspective is way off. Guess I shouldn't pan 180 degrees any more...

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Trippy Tuesday

Not sure why I'm so in to my Scrappy Trips project lately but I've got a rhythm going and I'm making lotsa progress, especially thanks to my tiny helper holding down this stack of blocks.


I was originally going to do a standard ST quilt but then I started playing in EQ7. That's like just having a little look-see at Pinterest ... it goes on and on and on until someone cries uncle!


I ended up with the above design, using 20 blocks.


Yesterday, as I was preparing the last 5 blocks I pulled up the EQ file to make sure I remembered the block count correctly and started playing again. Very quickly I decided that one more row and one more column would show my funky layout much better.


I layed out the finished blocks this morning. I'm not sure the design is as prominent in scrappy colors but I think if I use some brighter yellows for the rest of the blocks and arrange some of these "darker" blocks at outside corners, I can make the design stand out. What do you think?

Thinking about it now, I should have used just 1 fabric for the center. *IF* I ever make another (and I can't believe I'm saying this considering I didn't like this project a few weeks ago) I would try using just one fabric.

Oh and go ahead and steal my design, you know you wanna, but you have to promise to show me the quilt that you make from it :^)


Monday, November 25, 2013

Design Wall Monday - 11/25/13

I had a bit of a panic when I got to work today...I left my hexies at home. Ackckckck! What will I ever do during lunch?

Apparently my package of 1" jewels is 1 paper short so I'll have to finish this star after I remove some papers from other stars.


I like the bikes but it's not as "clean" or as striking as the pineapples. The pineapples and the blah blah star are my top 2 favorites so far.


 And I did make decent progress on my Star Blossom but since it's at home I have no proof. Just think how much more progress I'll make before I have a chance to post about it :) Forgive me, I'm loopy with no hexies to work on during lunch...


Friday, November 22, 2013

Feline Friday - 11/22/13

Squeaky here, Momma says to say sorry that she is late posting today cuz her boss took her out to lunch with the toolhouse guys. Yipper, Momma and her 5 guy coworkers - lucky her or lucky them??  :^)

Chillin like a villain on the porch, avoiding the neighbors blue roof.

What I wanna know, tho, is why is the Introoder still on the porch and how come I can't go outside too?





Thursday, November 21, 2013

Thursday Mashup

Today is just a mash-up of things that happened in the last few days...


I had to test out the panoramic feature of my new iphone at quilt guild this week. Not bad for the first one, altho it's a little hard to tell it's panoramic. We had just finished making charity quilts from the guild's stash - you can see a couple samples in the photo. We also revealed our secret sisters. Once again I received some lovely gifts and I'll try to post them another day. I would like to again thank anyone who sent a postcard to my SS. She thought it was a lot of fun and told me I must have lots of friends and I do! Thank you all!

Auntie Lauren, if you're out there - thank you for the new catnip toys!!!

Last night and this morning I wanted a mindless project to work on...Scrappy Trip was just the ticket. I finished up 3 more blocks so I now have 9 done. Can't remember how many I am planning on but I'll be happy when it's done. It's not my fav pattern to sew strips together to cut them apart to sew them back together. It is going to be a great quilt tho!


I finished the pineapple star for my Salt&Pepper project. Wait until you see the bicycle fabric I have!


I also finished 6 more triangles for this Star Blossom table topper...just 6 more to go and I can complete the top. I'm thinking in the next week or so with some holiday sitting-on-my-butt time I can get this top done :^)


After the last bazaar on Saturday I'll need to start working on 2 class samples. One is my design, for which I already have the fabric, and the other I still need to design to teach HST for a quilting 102 class.

I hope y'all have been working on fun projects!


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

Do I look any smarter? I don't think so...

Taken with new smart iphone 4s instead of my old stupid EnV3!!!


Monday, November 18, 2013

Design Wall Monday - 11/18/13

This past weekend was the last minute push to get more things ready for 2 bazaars this week. Since I'm also sick it was a fun weekend to spend holed up at home, in my jammies with lots of junk food :^)

I love making mugrugs - the fabric combos and designs are endless...
In looking thru the FQ bins for new combinations, I found this pineapple fabric and couldn't resist whipping up another star for the Salt & Pepper project. So much for making progress on a hexie UFO :)




Sunday, November 17, 2013

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 11/17/13

Sew...I clearly wasn't paying attention to the calendar when I posted my latest hexie ventures last Thursday. There was no way to make any more progress to schedule today's post so I'm going to share the "dream" for my next project...

Remember the Civil War Scraps I got in Gettysburg?


Well...I have been wanting to make this pattern from paperpieces.com for eons and I think this is the perfect opportunity.

I bought some of this deep purple for the 3" tumblers and I'll use the scraps for the 1" tumblers. I'll have to do some fussy cutting for the 1" tumblers - the pieces just aren't that big. I am thinking of a table runner (for now) so that won't use many scraps but oh well...I'm sure I can find other projects to make with them!

OK - sew now it's your turn to share a hexie project. We look forward to seeing any EPP shape and the project can be a dream like mine, a current or finished project or even an antique you found somewhere. Just make sure you link to a specific post or you link might disappear and we don't want that!



Friday, November 15, 2013

Feline Friday - 11/15/13

I guess it's finally time to share my news - I had to put Zorro back outside a few weeks ago.

He was inside for 28 days and I still hadn't broken him of the scavenging the counters/sink/trashcans, keeping me up half the night destroying things, attacking my other cats or biting/scratching/bringing me to tears multiple times, etc, etc.

My heart is broken that my little Zorrito is out in the cold but several people have told me he will be OK since he's such a scrapper. I've put together a little cat house on the porch and just minutes ago a customer told me how to make it warmer for him and how to get the burdocks out of his gorgeous tail. I still feed him twice a day and he still sits in my lap for purrs and cuddles.

Mom says I'm just a softie - she actually wants me to stop feeding and housing him so he'll go away but I don't think that's in my nature...and I don't think he'll just go away. I know there were lots of readers who thought it was wonderful that I brought Zorro inside but I guess it just wasn't mean to be  :^(



Thursday, November 14, 2013

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!


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Tuesday UFOs

Sew...what's a girl to do with a free Friday afternoon when the office closes early and she has 2 bazaars coming up soon. She works on a UFO of course!!!! LOL!

I just couldn't get into "making" something - I needed to "piece" something - so I worked for a few hours to soothe my inner beast. Probably would have gotten more done if I didn't have to figure out where I had left off 5 years ago. And let me tell you - my accuracy was pretty lacking back then. It could take some doing to get the squares to fit together when I get all 20 done.


The project was started with Thangles but I am much faster at using my Easy Angle these days so it should be pretty easy to finish the blocks when I get another UFO urge :)


Friday, November 08, 2013

Feline Friday - 11/8/13

There are sew many toys to pick from...


I think I'll play with this one now!!!

Luckily for us, Momma makes some of her project bits into toys for her favorite felines! And to thank her, I often carry them to the couch or to the food bowls, talking to them all the time!

Does your Momma make you toys?



Thursday, November 07, 2013

Gettysburg - Part #3

I know this is a lot of pictures for one post, but I wanted to (finally) finish out the pictures from this trip and then maybe we can get back to some quilting pictures :^)

On Saturday after all the reunion festivities we stopped at the Pennsylvania Monument and it is massive. The brown plaques around the bottom are lists of names. It's hard to see but just under the top dome is a viewing platform - the spiral stairs were inside one of the columns.


The view was fabulous and I especially appreciated these copper discs pointing out the places we had already visited to put it the battlefield in perspective.


There was even a Reb at the base of this monument...funny thing was, I turned around and he was GONE! Like in to thin air and there was no place to hide...


Later that evening we walked around downtown and eventually stopped at the Rupp House. I have this gentleman's card at home but he talked about the house, saying that the 2 sides of the war were tip toe-ing thru town to fight each other when eventually they decided to shoot thru the houses at each other! Mr Rupp had sent his family away to safer grounds but he had stayed and was hiding in the basement during the battle.


 At least the basement door was there to protect him - it didn't fare too well!


I bought a teacup at the Rupp House - I doubt it's antique but it's a nice reminder of my trip.


Sunday morning started early with a 3 hour walking tour of where my g-g-grandfather's regiment fought. The sky was blue and clear and deceptively warm. I was wishing for a couple more layers. GGGrandfather's regiment was part of Col Smith's 2nd Brigade and they fought on Smith's Ridge along with 2 other regiments.


At the time, the ridge was open fields without much to protect the men from gunfire.



Today, it's residential streets. You can see the ever-so-slight ridge - the photo was taken from the top of the ridge, with the National Cemetery behind us.


After the tour we visited with Lincoln on a trip back to the Military Museum gift shop

Check out the rabbit ears in true Ballinger fashion.

And who can resist a former president's lap?
 Our last stop before heading home was to Abraham's Lady. They sell civil war dresses and accessories. You can also buy civil war repro-fabric and patterns to sew your own dress. And you know what happens when people sew??!! There are scraps!!!!!!!!!!!! You can buy bags of scraps for $7 or they had a hamper of scraps that were a dollar each. I managed to limit myself to $20 worth of fabric but there was such variety it was hard - I'm guessing I have somewhere between 4 and 5 yards of scraps with lots of selvages. The lady also told me they would be happy to mail out scrap bags. I don't see them specifically listed on their website but feel free to contact them for details.


I hope y'all enjoyed my trip - I know I did!



Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Monday am - leaves falling after a hard frost
Wednesday am - bare trees & "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning"

Monday, November 04, 2013

Design Wall Monday - 11/4/13

Hmm...more and more this Design Wall Monday is just becoming Hexie Monday. LOL. It's about the only thing I've had time for besides CrazyFallJob#2 and bazaar prep.

I did well this past weekend and now I am preparing for the next two :^)


2 completely done and now it's time to set them aside for a bit so I can finish some older hexie UFOs.
Oh stop laughing...

Finished more green hexies!
Purple hexies are for the denim pillow I plan to make.
Orange hexies were a swap at Hexie Club to make a pumpkin colored table mat for fall.
Unfortunately, I can't show you my last pieced hexie project as it's a little bit of a secret. I'll give you a hint that it includes candy canes and it's *adorable*!! It will be done by the next Hexie Club meeting on 12/6/13 so I'll share then. I promise!


Friday, November 01, 2013

Feline Friday - 11/1/13

There's nothing better than lounging on the (back of the) couch with your favorite quilt!