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, May 26, 2017

Feline Friday - 5/26/17


I was outside for an all night bender last night. Silly me to snuggle with Momma when I finally came home this morning. She was warm to snuggle against but she waited till I was sleepy and then got cheeky enough to rub my belly. I couldn't bring myself to stop her...


I later took up my (3/4!!) share of the couch for a good stretch.

Momma got cheeky again. Huh? Wha? Twice in one day??!! I must be slipping in my old age...




Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Wednesday Weather Report #1

I've finished the first rosette for my Hexie Temperature Quilt!!

There really was quite a swing in the temperatures: 80s-80s-50s-60s-70s-60s-60s.


I was debating this morning on how to orient the rosette on the background squares. It was a long debate with neither one really sticking out more than the other. I was actually thinking that maybe I could just alternate back and forth.

What do you think? I like the symmetry of having them all oriented the same but it's going to be a crazy quilt anyway so why not alternate the orientations??!!


And just because I keep forgetting... here's the hunter star mothership. I know I said 14 blocks on Monday but apparently I don't know how to count...oopsies.


Monday, May 22, 2017

Design Wall Monday - 5/22/17

Remember my plan to keep adding finished hunter star blocks to the mothership every week? I'm already off the rails with that plan and I should have known better...

First thing I did Friday night was sew together the 14 finished blocks. I had originally planned to make a 10x12 block quilt so I'm planning to make the quilt in two columns and then sew the halves together. I've got 2 rows of 6 blocks sewn together and then the final two blocks are sewn into a pair.

Unfortunately for you guys, I forgot to take a picture of the mothership. You'll have to trust me that it looks good!

Last week I asked my Dad if he had any scraps of half round trim. He says it doesn't really exist but asked what I wanted it for. Have you seen those muslin covered pieces of half round for raising up one seam to make it easier for pressing without goofing up the other seams? I wanted one to make it easier to press open the center seam of these blocks. I was going to let it drop if he didn't have half round but he offered to make me something. Essentially I now have this pile of blocks ready to have the center seam pressed open but I'm waiting for my pressing "stick". Not sure how long they will sit as dad is in outside/garden mode at the moment...


I've still got plenty more halves to sew together so that should keep me busy part of this week...


Other quilt lab projects from this weekend...

My guild hands out baggies to make blocks or strip sets at each meeting. We bring them back and then do something else with them at the next meeting. Eventually all the pieces are made into charity quilts. I had brought home 3 strip sets from our last meeting and used hunter star blocks as leader enders for putting these kits together. I'll stash them in my car so I don't forget to bring them to the next meeting.


I also spent some time trimming scraps for my temperature hexie quilt. It's silly how this one project has grabbed me so much. I can't wait to check the temp every day at 1pm so I can add the next hexie for the week. I'm really stunned with the variety of temperatures/colors I've been able to use this week. I've seen other temperature projects that are gradual color changes but mine is jumping all over the place. Again, I should have known better cuz this is Western NY and if you don't like the weather just give it 5 minutes and she'll change...


A lot of you will recall that Judy's Design Wall Monday was discontinued last week. I put out a call on my blog for new linky suggestions and received three, including a new DWM!! I'd still like to hear of more if you have a suggestion.

Today I'm linking to Design Wall Monday and Monday Makers.
On Wednesday, I'll link to Midweek Makers.


Friday, May 19, 2017

Feline Friday - 5/19/17

Can all y'all tell Momma not to worry so much?

Purrlease!!!


She even came home at lunch to check on me yesterday. I wasn't eating cuz it was hot. I chose to stay inside cuz it was hot and I had to sleep off an all night bender. It had nothing to do with falling.

I did, however, do the obligatory bath to cover up my embarrassment from falling. I felt much better after my bath.

Heck, It's not like I haven't rolled off the bed before.
And the dining room table.
And the couch.
And the ottoman.
And the counter.


I've even rolled off the top of the stairs 3 or 4 other times. So what's the diff if I did it again??!! She had just gotten out of the shower and heard me land 15 steps below. Then she started yelling my name - not even my nickname but my REAL name. I knew I was in trouble then. She's told me not to sleep at the top of the stairs but I was tired from partying all night and just couldn't. go. any. further.

After I fell, she came running down the stairs, still wet, in just a towel to cover her lady parts. I guess she  wanted to make sure I was taking my bath but why did she have to check me all over?

Geesh! I'm fine Mom - you can stop checking on me now!




Wednesday, May 17, 2017

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 5/17/17

Hello one and all and welcome to another rousing edition of Hexie Linky Party!!!!

You think you're surprised to see Z in my lap - try being me!!!
I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with me - it's all about his fav B&W fleece on my lap.

Lest you think I've been a hexie slacker while working on some machine sewing, Zorro and I would like to present proof of 2 more finished Twisted hexies on the coffee table and another started.

My exciting news for today is the announcement of my new 
Hexie Temperature Quilt
 and I hope all y'all will join in with me!!!

BACKGROUND
For anyone not familiar with a temperature afghan or quilt: each day one "'unit" (row, hexie, etc) is made based on the temperature for the day. The colors are predetermined for specific temperature ranges and you can choose to use the high for the day or the temperature at a certain time of the day.

LAYOUT
Thanks to Erin, I've decided to make one 1.5" hexie each day and since there are 7 days in a week as well as 7 hexies in a rosette, I'll be making each "week" into a rosette and then machine appliqueing the rosette onto a 9.5" unfinished neutral square.


This is my planned layout: 52 weeks and 4 empty corner blocks for a 7x8 block layout. I'm not planning any sashing or borders at this time so I'll end up with a 63" x 72" quilt. The EQ7 layout is very rough but if someone wants the file I am happy to share.

TEMPERATURE
I've decided to use the temperature of any given day at 1pm. It's the time I return from lunch most days so I thought it would be easy to remember and it's nearly the hottest time of the day. If I ever forget or don't have cell service (Imagine that?!?!) I will check Weather Underground for the high temp of any particular day.

FABRIC
This is the most fun part, right??!! Not knowing how many days I'll have at any particular temperature and not knowing how much of each fabric to stock up on, Chantal suggested I aim for scrappy. Wonderful! Hoping to include people outside my local temperature norms, I expanded the range pretty far. I certainly don't think I'll be using much brown and you might not be using much white but one never knows...

>100     browns
90-99    maroons
80-89    reds
70-79    oranges
60-69    golds
50-59    bright greens
40-49    dark greens
30-39    dark blues
20-29    dark purples
10-19    light purples
0-9        light pinks
< 0        WOWs


I figited with my fabrics and tweaked the colors a couple times to find what works with my stash. It would be fun if everyone was basically the same to compare apples to apples but you might not like purple as much as I do and I completely understand.


These are the fabrics I used to create my base colors. I had my local print shop make a couple color copies for me this morning and wrote my temperature range next to each FQ. I put the whole thing in a sheet protector and I'll put it on my studio wall tonight. Anything to make it easy to figure out what fabric to use and get those hexies done ASAP.

My friend Cathy is going to join in and she hopes to fussy cut fabrics for special holidays and birthdays. That will be fun to see!

Sew??!!!

What do you think?????

Would you like to play along???

I would love to hear if you're going to play along, if I left anything out of the directions and if you would like the details in a tab at the top of my blog. You might even run home to make a hexie and link it up tomorrow. Hint. Hint.

As always, I hope you will link up a hexie project to my linky party, temperature quilt or not. The project can be of any vintage or paper shape/size.




Monday, May 15, 2017

Design Wall Monday - 5/15/17

Janet - you better sit down again...!

Yesterday morning I was cranky. I hadn't slept well most of the weekend and I managed to twist my ankle Saturday - one week to the hour before my 5K this coming weekend - that meant I couldn't go for my much anticipated longer Sunday walk in an effort to let it rest.

The only solution I could come up with was to start a new quilt. LOL! I thought maybe it would be to start Bonnie's Mack Island blocks but all I managed was to iron the teal fabrics I've been collecting. I'm being gifted the square in square ruler on Tuesday so I put my freshly ironed fabrics to the side for the new ruler.

Then I thought of a block I had seen on Bonnie's blog. I searched for what felt like forever given our lousy cell service and finally found the block (4in9) but couldn't think of what I was going to make with the blocks. I tried doodling in EQ7 but I wasn't inspired. Can you tell I was getting crankier?


I finally pulled out a UFO - probably one of my oldest. I had started cutting pieces when I lived in Miami (Uh, I moved to NY in 2008) based on a magazine article before I found the Rapid Fire Hunter Star ruler by Deb Tucker.

When I had last worked on this project I wasn't sure if I would be able to use that huge stack of blue triangles that were cut from 5 1/8" squares instead of the 6" squares the ruler calls for. Well, in 5 minutes I had sewn a blue triangle to the diamond-trapezoid-diamond piece, sewn the new blue half-block to one of the many, many other completed green halves and measured it with the ruler. It would work perfectly!! I should have spent those 5 minutes years ago but now I'm on a roll.

There really is a lot of wasted fabric this way.
I'll need more blocks so I may cut the large triangles from 5.5" instead of 6" squares.

My next problem to solve is the layout: Original? or Chunky? Which do you prefer?

I like them both and would be happy with either...I'm almost to the point of closing my eyes and just picking one to get on with it. Instead, I'm going with popular opinion. Which ever layout has more votes by Friday will get my full attention this weekend...

This is the Original Hunter Star layout.
I think it's a bit muddled given the same value for both fabrics but it does show the star nicely.


This is what I'm calling the chunky version.
I think it shows the fabrics nicely in the "chunks" but the star is lost.

My plan is to pick a layout and start sewing them together this weekend. I hope to keep working on this quilt, by adding any new blocks to the mothership on a weekly basis. I don't often make 2-fabric quilts so it's new for me to put a quilt together as I go instead of waiting until all the blocks are done and then messing with color balance.

I won't tell you that in adding the label for this post I discovered the 'hunterStar' label already existed. I last posted this project in February 2013 and we had the same layout discussion. When posting your choice here on today's post, please add if it's different from your choice last time...I'd then love to know if you have any insight as to why you did or did not change your mind. Inquiring minds want to know...

=====================================================================
In case you are wondering, the ankle is better today, if not a little tweaky. I was able to get my 3 mile walk in this morning with no problems but my ankles crossed on the coffee table while eating huevos rancheros for breakfast was a whole 'nother story. I'm torn between sticking to my daily walks, uping the length to prepare for Saturday or cutting back to continue letting it rest...

=====================================================================
I published this post and clicked over to Patchwork Times to link up to Design Wall Monday, which, it appears, she is no longer going to host.

A. that means I have to come up with my own post names. Please say it ain't so!!
B. I'm looking for linky suggestions - what is your favorite linky party?


Friday, May 12, 2017

Feline Friday - 5/12/17

We interrupt your regularly scheduled laundry service...


...to notify you of the warmth within...



O.M.G.
It's da bomb!!!



Like. Heaven. On. Earth!




Monday, May 08, 2017

Design Wall Monday - 5/8/17

Prepare theyselves, my friends - I sewed on a sewing machine!!!! LOL

I thought I had leaned towards finishing my twisted hexies quilt next but, NOPE, I've leaned towards the chrysanthemums. Most of these were gifted to me as part of our birthday swap at Hexie Club. Each year we pick a different paper shape and each participant picks a fabric style or color. Two years ago we did the chrysanthemums and I wanted black and white fabrics. I'm pairing them with shot cottons and I just love the contrast.


This is the design I spotted online.


And this is my preliminary EQ7 layout. I really just needed to gauge size and how many blocks I would need. I'm sure I'll make several changes as I move along but it's a start...

Sorry! Not in focus...but it does show the variety of B&W fabrics

This weekend I machine appliqued 18 rosettes to the back ground squares. I was worried that I would need to use something to stabilize the shot cottons so the first one was stabilized with a phone book page. I tried the next rosette with nothing and it came out the same - no shrinkage or puckering. It probably helped that the rosette was already pretty stable since it's 2 layers and I spray basted it in place. Thank God, 'cuz it took forever to pull the tiny paper bits out of the blanket stitch I used.

The colors are fairly accurate, just remember they are shot cottons so there is some
 color variation depending on what angle you are looking at the fabric with.

I've used all the chrysanthemums gifted to me so far and I've got enough of my own B&W fabrics to make 3 more rosettes. If I stick with the above design idea, I'll still need to make 2 more. Dang - I might need a shopping trip. LOL.


Friday, May 05, 2017

Feline Friday - 5/5/17

O.M.G.
It's raining AGAIN.
Boooooooo!
Hissssssssssssssssssssss!


It's a good day for a little "paws out" time on the couch...


You're pushing it lady.


Oh. Wait. That's actually kinda nice!


Change my mind! You can leave now!


Oh, now this, THIS, is delightful.

PS - did you hear we are expecting snow next week?!?! I'm not sure if I'll be couch surfing or out checking on my neighborhood. Either way, Momma and I need some sunshine or we're gonna get cranky.





Tuesday, May 02, 2017

The Bibliophile Files - 5/2/17

Hello and welcome to another monthly reading report from my little corner of WNY. I feel really good about how many books I've finished, especially given that both my current in-progress books are exceptionally long, and goodreads.com says now I'm only 4 books behind in my goal for the year. I'm making progress!!!


FINISHED
     Book, Line & Sinker
     Pirate King
     The Omnivores Dilemma - Ugh. Enough said.
     Point of Origin
     If Walls Could Talk - a new to me series regarding old home renovations and murder in the San Fran Bay area
     Material Witness - The last in this quilt related Amish trilogy. I wish there were more in the series
     Burning Bright - This is the third book I've read by this author and I plan to add a list of all her books to my reading binder (yeah...I'm anal and have a binder listing all the books in each series I'm reading so I know what to order next from the library) so I can read them all.
     The House Girl - I admit I hadn't remembered reading this before until I was partway thru the first disk but it was all I had with me on a road trip and I couldn't remember all the details (like the ever important ending) so I read it again. I enjoyed it both times.

IN PROGRESS
     On my iPhone - The Paying Guests
     On my home stereo - The Verdict

And now it's your turn to share - what have you read in the last month?? Anything counts: novel, magazine, quilt pattern, cereal box.



Monday, May 01, 2017

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...