Wednesday Weather Report #15

So, I'm having a week...not just a Monday, but a week....Saturday can't get here fast enough. Then I can put my foot up again and get back to some hexies :)

I'm working on school taxes this week. There is always something goofy but I think this year takes the cake. I generally have a three day weekend plus several weeknights to work on them. This year I only have 2.5 weeknights because they were printed really late. I was up in the middle of the night working on taxes last night so I'll blame my addled brain for not remembering to take a picture this morning of my rosette. I had really thought that repeating "take a picture take a picture take a picture" in the shower would remind me but no such luck. I think when the water goes off all ideas go down the drain with the water.

And I was sew excited to share because it was a yellow-all-the-way week and that's the first monohcromatic week since we started on 5/15/17. Next week I'll have to share several catch up photos.

In the meantime, this was what I was doing last Saturday...I was asked to do a demo at our local Farmer's Market!! Many people were thrilled with the concept of the Temperature Quilt (on the left) and they can't wait to see how it looks next spring when it's "finished".

I've pretty much decided to do another temp quilt next year (maybe for several coming years?) and I think it would be really interesting to eventually have an exhibit where the quilts were hung side by side to compare them all. I don't relish making and storing a big quilt for each year so I may have to rethink how I'm going forward next year...

As soon as those tax bills are dropped in the mail tomorrow I can get back to quilting my owl quilt - our exhibit goes up Friday evening and I'm running out of time. Eek! I've finished the curved cross hatching and borders and the binding is on.

I still need to add more quilting to each star to "flatten" it to counteract the curved cross hatching puffing up the stars. It's ok as is for the exhibit if need be but I've got some simple ideas that would add some fun detail. I've got lots more pictures to share on this project...hopefully next week.

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Feline Friday - 8/25/17

Brrr, Baby, it's cold outside!!

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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.

Happy Solar Eclipse Day!!

I survived the fair. I help at several different booths and that often leads to lots of sitting and that means lots of hexies.

I also went to the doctor last week for my ankle. He said I need to rest it as much as possible for the next week so that lead to more sitting and more hexies...

I'm thrilled to say that, as of this morning, I've finished the center/color section!!!  Woohoo!!!!!!

Not bad, considering I started this little doll quilt on July 28th.
Tonight I'll cut the cream for the borders and get started on those...

Another part of my "sitting" was to work on the owl quilt. As you may recall, I made the top and bottom border wider than the sides to square up the quilt. I quilted piano keys in the narrower side borders but I felt that the top and bottom needed a little more than just the piano keys since they were so wide.

I decided to use the same curved ruler to create scallops and then I used another new ruler to create a line of bubbles along the scallops.

I think this has eaten up enough of the border to now add the piano keys.
If you don't mind my saying so ... this quilt is looking GOOD!!

Oh please, let the sun on the shoebox be an omen for good weather!

And most importantly today, Solar Eclipse Day, I have my pinhole box prepped! The Weather peeps keep waffling about what the weather will be but it's sun and blue skies right now at 12:37 so I can only hope this will continue until we reach max eclipse at 2:35. Happy Viewing!!

Feline Friday - 8/18/17

Purrrrrrrrrfect!

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HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 8/17/17

Hello and welcome to a quicky Fair edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!!!

I'm not quite finished with the last weather rosette so this is where we stand. I've pre-placed some of the background fabrics for future weeks - which means I have full authority to move them elsewhere.

I'm still working on ruler-quilting the owl quilt. I need just another 15 minutes to finish quilting the neutral bits. Next up is piano keys in the turquoise borders.

Hmmm..another project to work on. We are thinking of doing something with this for Hexie Club so I'm *obligated* to make a sample block or two. Now to pick fabrics...

What are you working on? Any paper shape or vintage project is fair game!!!

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Almost Wordless Wednesday Weather Report #13

It's Fair week, I'm behind and I'm a little panicky about catching up...
 :(

77 - 80 - 72 - 74 - 72 - 77 - 78

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It's County Fair week and life is crazy...

Saturday was checking in the antiques (my family runs this division) and getting the open hearth cooking demo area situated.

Sunday was judging the antique displays in the morning and cooking with my SIL and nephews from 1-9pm. Thankfully my brother is a pyro (fireman!) and keeps the fires burning so we can concentrate on getting all the food cooked.

Just 6 more days to go!

I've had some time for hexies between the other chores but that's about it in the quilting department.

Sorry - I know the photo is dark but we're lucky I remembered at all as I was running to work today. Luckily, tonight is a "rest" day so I'm home from the fair but need to get the lawn mowed and pick blackberries. That is if the projected T-Storms hold off...

Feline Firday - 8/11/17

Dude - it is exhausting making friends with that new black & white "cat" in the neighborhood...

Look what Auntie Sharon sent Momma!!
A tote bag with kitties on each outside pocket and another on the inside.

How did she get my picture on there?

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Wednesday Weather Report #12 - 8/9/17

Can you believe it?
We are officially one-quarter of the way through this project!!!!!
Woohoo!!!
Has anyone new joined in? We would love to have you jump in at any time!

81 - 81 - 75 - 63 - 72 - 75 - 75F

Be sure to join our linky party below...even if you aren't stitching along you can tell us what the weather is in your neck of the woods.

Julierose asked about my new Ott light so I thought I would share. I had the "flip phone" version of the Ott light for the last 20 years. It worked great so I had my eye out for that version again. There was a :modern" flip open style but it just seamed cheap when the old one had been as heavy and sturdy as a rock. Then I saw this goose neck version. I like the table models because my couch has a wooden frame that it sights nicely on and I can easily travel with it if I need.

Yes, the cat pillow used to freak out Midgie.
I even used to need to look twice to see who was sitting on the couch.

I've made great progress on my latest hexie obsession:

I've blacked out the completed hexies and, while I didn't do the math this morning, I'm going to go way out on a limb and say the colored center is half done!!! And now I'll get off the computer and take advantage of the rest of my lunch to get started on the other half...

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A busy Summer Weekend...

It was another busy, busy summer weekend and while some of it was quilting related, most was not.

I started my long weekend with a FART (fabric acquisition road trip) to the city to get the black for my latest doll cat quilt. When I got to Ivy Thimble, with my samples in hand, I realized it was a dark blue. Silly me. I bought the fabrics I needed for the doll cat quilt and a few other FQs for my woodsmen quilt and a couple oranges for my temperature quilt. I found out today that the weather peeps are saying that August is going to be below normal temperatures. Maybe I should have found more oranges...

Next stop was Patricia's Fabric House for a couple more woodsman fabrics. This is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've been to this store but I finally figured out why they ask if I'm on the mailing list. I told her no but lifted the coupons I had printed from their website. 10% off. Woohoo!!!

Next was The Bobbin Case, a Bernina dealer. I picked up a few quilting rulers, as opposed to piecing rulers. The lady in the store didn't understand what I meant - what do you guys calling quilting rulers?

At Joanne's I bought a new Ott light - my old one was ~20 years old and recently kicked the bucket. I used it daily for hexies and I really needed one ASAP. This one is LED and almost too bright compared to the old one...shows you how technology changes.

I got home just in time to turn around and go to hexie club. We close the store so I check out the girls with their new purchases and then I needed to do hexie paper inventory to place an inventory this week.

Saturday was our annual Fire Department golf tournament. I am in charge of registration, raffles and all things money. When I have some down time it's all about the hexies!!

1 ticket / $2
3 ticket / $5

Sunday afternoon was spent at the 145th annual Pioneer Picnic, helping mom sell ice cream and quilt raffle tickets. The quilt proceeds go to the new roof/siding fund for the Castile Historical House. You know, where I am VP. Hmm...my hand in the money again. Did you sense a trend?

Anyway...the rest of the weekend was spent with me sitting and stitching. I could really use a nap...but I need to finish getting ready for the fair to start on Saturday and as soon as that is over the following weekend I can start working on school taxes. Hmm...more money!

Feline Friday - 8/7/17

Momma?!?

Why did Melvina put this awful wallpaper in our tiny under-the-stairs bathroom?
It's hurting my eyes while I wait for you to turn the faucet on so I can have a drink...

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Corn fritters

After a recent chat with Missy about grilling corn on the cob, I said that I would be making corn fritters with my fresh corn. Missy wasn't familiar with corn fritters so I offered the recipe and thought I would share it here on my blog...

I'm not sure where I got this version of the recipe but we also have an 18th century "receipt" for corn oysters that is quite similar.

1 cup corn
2 eggs
6 T flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
fresh ground nutmeg

The recipe will tolerate more corn and I rarely measure the other ingredients, just eye ball it.

Fry in 3T butter about 3 minutes per side.

I like to pat off the extra butter with a paper towel. Yummy warm or cold!

Wednesday Weather Report #11

Wow! We are almost 1/4 of the way through this Temperature Quilt project.
It feels like we started just yesterday...

75-71-69-71-77-79-81F

As this has been getting bigger and bigger it's been getting harder to find a place to keep it layed out so that I can try to not have the same oranges (I'm sooooo sick of orange!) or background fabrics together. I was trying to think of a random wall (stairwell?) that I could tack it up out of the sun. Duh! If I would just clean off part of the design wall, this would be the perfect place to hang it and it's more convenient when picking the next fabric square.

It's mostly fabrics or panels waiting for (more) inspiration so it was ok to put them back on a shelf for later inspiration.

And here we are with last week's rosette.

Uh, yeah, I added that FQ of hexie fabric, gifted by the LQS, so I can think of a design to use it with...maybe for my next trunk show in October.

Speaking of which, and since I've already told a couple people, I might as well let the cat completely out of the bag.

I. Started. Another. Hexie. Project.

I know. It's a sickness...

It started as another Duh! moment and instead of saying to myself that it was a good idea, I'll work on it later, the weekend plans shifted to get this project in motion.

After saving this $6 batik scrap for over 7 months, I finally realized it matched this Tula Pink FQ  I got back in June. Are they a perfect match? Not quite but close enuf when one is on the front and the other on the back.

And WHY do my LQSs not carry Tula Pink? Love her stuff!

I immediately browsed my hexie ideas on the evil website (ONLY possible cuz the new cell tower was finally activated. 4 bars is fantastic!!!) and found this idea. The colors didn't excite me much but when you insert the vibrant TP/batiks I think it's a much more exciting idea.

This is destined for the doll cat bed - I think I have the sizing pretty close but I may have to extend borders a little. In the mean time I've started stitching the center and outside corners, while I wait for a road trip to get some solid black and creams.

Now you see why the hexie Christmas fabric is waiting for it's own inspiration...

Don't forget to join our weather report linky!!

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The Bibliophile Files - 8/1/17

Thanks to a wonderful vacation, I've now completed 60 books for the year, putting me 8 books ahead of schedule.

While the ankle continues to bother me I've really gotten into quilting a long term hexie quilt while listening to The Shack, a unique way of looking at God. It's almost finished so I can only hope the next book is just as interesting...I need to get that quilt finished!

FINISHED
     Hidden Figures
     The body in the Wardrobe
     American Night: The Ballad of Juan Jose
     Redemption Road
     Rebuttal
     The Witches Vacuum Cleaner
     Sugar - a Novel
     My Name is Not Easy
     High Country
     Murder House
     If I Run
     Plus One
     Remember to Forget
     Sworn to Silence
     The Solomon Curse

IN PROGRESS
     On my iPhone - The Dorito Effect
     On my home stereo - The Shack
     On my car stereo - The Whiskey Sea
     Paperback - Our Family Quilt

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