Wednesday Weather Report #41 - 2/28/18

Yesterday I finished tree skirt section #5. I tried to get the quality control officer to help me out with a photo this morning but all I got were blurry motions shots or pass thrus.

This was the best I could get so we'll just skip it and move right on to the catless photo...

Much better!

And #6 is already in progress. I'll probably have a good share of the bottom right corner done before lunch is over today.

40 - 31- 42 - 38 - 51 - 43 - 52 F
(52 is the bright green on the left)

And then THIS! This has got to be the cutest picture ever! I was trying to get Z to pose with today's rosette but I didn't think it would work out since he was also trying to chew on it.

I scolded him for chewing yet the rosette hung from one nail and he looked right at me. There was a one in a bazillion chance the photo would turn out and it did!!

Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket today...

An InLinkz Link-up

Couch Time!

I've been making lots of progress on my hexie tree skirt!!!

You may recall from last Wednesday that I had section 4 almost done. I had wanted to finish it Friday night but I was just so run down that I gave up and went to bed early. That of course meant I woke up early. Well first I woke up at 3 when Z turned into a cuddlebug - on my pillow - but then I woke up again at 5 and there was no going back to sleep at that point so I got up and stitched.

Tada!! - we have no crossed the half way point with 4 done and 4 to go!

I quickly layed out the 5th section and got it started before we headed off to Ryan's hockey game and some shopping in the city.

Sunday was "supposed" to be spent on mass producing name badge holders but early on I got sucked into binge watching Criminal Minds and never really got off the couch other than to let the cat out and in and out and in and out and in until finally at the end of the day he took up his supervisory position and stayed still for a while.

It's hard to tell with his dark eyes but
I was getting the stink eye about his dinner accommodations...

As soon as I hit publish I'll be spending the rest of my lunch stitching a seam so that everything to the right of the left most reds is in one piece and that leaves just 2 more seams to have section #5 finished. Woot!

It will be a struggle tonight to get some housework done instead of finishing #5

Feline Friday - 2/23/18

Momma got me a new toy a while ago. Something about it's long and I might like to kick at it instead of her sneakers. I pretty much ignored it until she doused it in 'nip. I was ignoring it cuz the label clearly said it's a dog toy but the extra 'nip was a nice bonus.

I promptly killed the squeakers at both ends but I prefer Momma's sneakers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #40 - 2/21/18

I had three quilty goals for my long Presidents Day Weekend...

Goal #1 was to work on inventory items for an upcoming sale at my annual work conference. That began with working through some of the bits and bobs on the tables that have taken over my huge living room.  I didn't take any worthy photos but I did get some of the fabrics sorted and kitted so that I could put the scraps away. I really already have a lot of my general inventory thanks to a poor Christmas sale so my biggest goal is to make tons of name badge holders - I like to cut out as many as possible and then stitch them in batches by thread color. Someone asked how long it takes to make one and I had no idea since I mass produce them.

Goal #2 was to complete the 4th section of my Christmas Tree Skirt and I came pretty close.

I only took the one photo so you'll need to trust me...I've got 4 big seams left until it's in one piece so I'm certain I'll have it done by the end of the week.

Goal #3 was to get all my temperature rosettes appliqued onto back ground squares and this was completed 100%!!!!!

The blank square on the bottom left is for the rosette that finished yesterday and the 2 blanks on the right are half of the "label" that will be a thermometer to explain the rest of the quilt.

I did have snoopervision while I was sewing but I had to be very, very, very careful not to move my rolling sewing chair!

I thought I was so cool, basting yesterday's hexie before work so that I could stitch it in place during lunch and then get it appliqued after I got home really late for a final photo of the updated quilt.

44 - 56 - 32 - 30 - 35 - 46 - 70F

Except!! We were in for a big surprise when it was actually a record breaking 70F yesterday. I had prepped yellow but I needed orange!! I took several walks yesterday, just ask Mr Cranky Ankle, and I even slept with the window open last night. It was fabulous to wake up to the birds singing. Yet, it's February in Wyoming County and tonight it will be a mere 30F when I get home. We all enjoyed it while we could!

The pic is pretty washed out but I couldn't resist the morning sunshine. That orange in the bottom left sticks out like a sore thumb doesn't it??!!

And one last photo of my new mug. Thanks for the link Janet - such an enabler!!!

And now it's time to share your latest temperature rosettes:

An InLinkz Link-up

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 2/17/18

Slacker that I am, I didn't realize until yesterday that today was going to be a Hexie Linky Party so I didn't have any updated pictures of my hexie projects to prepare a post with. Oopsies.

I'm pretty sure you'll understand and be able to use your imagination to see that I completed section 3 last night as well as placed the latest rosette up on the design wall. Go Me!!!!

This long President's Day holiday weekend, 2 of my 3 sewing goals are to complete section 4 and get the temperature rosettes appliqued to their background squares.

Goal #3 is to ramp up making inventory for an upcoming sale. Mostly I'll be making name badge holders for a conference but that's a whole 'nother post.

Sew! Tell us! What EPP projects have you been working on? I'm cruising on my UFO - you are more than welcome to pick a hexie UFO and stitch along to meet our 7/6/2018 goal or try to tempt us into starting a new project. Trust me (ask Janet!) it's not that hard to tempt me....

And now, let's see your projects! Any paper shape or vintage project counts...

An InLinkz Link-up

Feline Friday - 2/16/18

It's a good thing that GrandPoppa helped me get a Valentine's card for Momma!!

Cuz we have officially entered the Mud Season.

Has Momma ever told you the story of how "she trained me" to dry my furs off?

When I come inside she says "towel" and I sit on the towel that is kept on the floor. Then she says "man down" and I lay down so she can wrap me up and dry me off. It's the best kept secret to have Momma do most of the drying cuz it means half the licking for me! Woot!

An InLinkz Link-up

Push It!

It's amazing how a little push can really make a project move forward.

I've told you that my hexie club is doing a UFO challenge for the first 6 months of the year. I spent most of January working on something else but really pushed myself to get this Christmas tree skirt going just about the time of our February meeting.

I've had section 1 of my tree skirt into 3 or 4 bits for years. I was able to get them into one complete section the weekend of our meeting. That meant it was time to start a new section. Each section has 36 diamonds but because it's a limited fabric pallet I've been picky about laying out the blocks to try to keep the project balanced. This is what has originally pushed me into thinking this was a stay at home project - how was I going to travel and keep the diamonds in the proper order?

Last weekend I spent all day Sunday on the couch. It had been a busy work week and I didn't want to push my luck with everyone around me getting sick - it was time to relax. Well, if you call stitching all day and binge watching This is Us season 1 relaxing than that is what I did and that allowed me to finish section 2 and get started on section 3.

Uh, Zorro, honey, the peeps can't seem Momma's project!

That's better!

And now I'm already 3/4 done with section 3. This pic was taken a couple days ago and since then I've completed the blue row that isn't on the design wall and as soon as I hit publish on this post I'll finish sewing the blue and white rows together. I've nearly gotten 2 sections done in 2 weeks! Woot!

With a three day weekend coming up who knows how much I'll be able to push through - I'm thinking nearly another section?

Sew!! What's the trick to pushing me full on back into this project? That's easy! My smart phone. I didn't have a smart phone when I first started this project but now I do. I can take a picture of the layout on my design wall and it's always handy for any project to make sure I'm putting it together in the proper order. It's amazing how this one "little" tool can really push a project forward so quickly.

Have all my references made you think of this video????!!!!! Sorry, Couldn't resist :)

Wednesday Weather Report #39 - 2/14/18

25 - 22 - 23 - 33 - 41 - 27 - 29 F

Yes - it's week 39 - and that means we are officially 75% done with this quilt!!

It seems like just yesterday that we started and yet May 17th is just around the corner, when it will be time to start another temperature quilt.

That's right, I'll be doing another one. I need to make another so that I can compare the weather from year to year. LOL.

The only question will be design and I'm still pondering that one...

I've been getting lots done on my EPP tree skirt - hopefully I'll have time to post those pictures tomorrow.

Don't forget to link up your hexie temperature quilt project using the link to your specific post and not just to your blog.

An InLinkz Link-up

Feline Friday - 2/9/18

I'll be honest - I really don't have too many restrictions here at Casa Grande. I know that but I still like to test Momma's my limits.

The coffee table is one place that I'm not supposed to be.
I don't know why cuz Momma cleaned some of the hexie projects off it last weekend.

But look - Mr Cranky Ankle needed inspecting. How could I pass up that opportunity??!

And this IS the best spot to watch TV. Momma was watching a mini series called The Pillars of the Earth. We finished it last night. We miss it already...

Every once in a while I show off my belly furs! It's enough to get away with most anything....

Now if I can just convince Momma to let me keep sitting on the ironing board (which is really a board that sits on the cutting table) to play with the scissors, push pins, leather thimble pads and other things that Momma hangs on the wall...

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday Weather Report #38 - 2/7/18

24 - 43 - 11 - 24 - 38 - 19 - 23F

Not the best picture of one of my weather rosettes but I think it gives you a pretty good idea of the weather outside. The weather people were preaching gloom and doom with 6-10 inches of snow today but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess we top out at 3" based on the current snowfall.

For the second year in a row, my hexie club is having a UFO challenge. Each member is encouraged to pick one of our hexie UFOs to work on until our Christmas in July Party. Of course it would be great to finish a project, but the point of the challenge is to make as much progress as possible.

The project I chose is my Christmas Tree Skirt. According to my blog labels, it looks like I probably started this project in December 2013 since I finished cutting the diamonds in January 2014. It's finally time to buckle down on one of my earlier hexie UFOs!

I originally bought the fabric and papers as a kit. Would I now choose the same fabric? Not necessarily. I like the fabrics but I wish I had thrown in a bunch more for variety. My scrappy skills have expanded in the last how many years and I'm much more in to tone-on-tone fabrics that really read the desired color.

No matter what, I'm on a roll and enjoying this project again.

An InLinkz Link-up

The Bibliophile Files - 2/6/18

Hello! Hello! Welcome to my monthly reading list. I didn't read much this month and most of what I did read was actually on my phone while doing mindless stuff at work. I LOVE audiobooks for that very reason - I always have something interesting to listen to no matter where I am or what I am doing.

FINISHED
     Origin - not nearly as good as the other Robert Langdon books, the ending was more of WTF was that?? But still, the process to get to the end was as interesting, as always.
     Naked in Death - love this futuristic police procedural series. I started somewhere in the middle so it's nice to see how it all started.
     The Good Nurse - a true story and scary to think of what this guy got away with for so long.
     Runner - mostly a good book - until the end lost my interest. It's the first in a rather series but I haven't yet decided if I'm going forward with the rest of the series or not.


IN PROGRESS
     On my iPhone - Into the Water - I'm only 5 minutes in so I have no idea so far.
     On my iPhone - The Cuban Affair - Yipp...Still waiting for my hold to renew. This time I promise myself to dig right in cuz I've already forgotten what I listened to back in December.
     On my home stereo - World without End - I'm only on disk 3 of 36. Yes! 36! The book is FORTY-FIVE hours long!!

And now it's your turn -- What did you read in the last month?
Anything counts: novel, quilt pattern, magazine or cereal box...

Monday update

I must say, I haven't accomplished much in the sewing department lately. January is one of my busiest months and that translates from late days at work to no desire to do anything but hit the couch when I get home.

I have been slowly working on my version of Bonnie's Mackinac quilt. I need 480 HSTs and I'm down to needing just 155 more. Woot!

What do all y'all do with the dog ears that you trim off your HSTs? Many moons ago I saw a neat clear glass Christmas ornament partially filled with dog ears. Ever since I've been saving mine in this old canning jar. The jar keeps them pretty neat until a naughty B&W cat gets in to them...

This weekend my nephew turned 13! A teenager!! Eeeek!! I can remember changing his stinky diapers just like it was yesterday and I've got pictures to prove it. LOL.

Anyways...the boy is a hockey fiend and he's been playing since he was 4 or 5 so I decided that he needed a hockey tie. I won't say that tie making is the easiest or hardest project in the world but it sure is fiddly work.

I think the tie was a hit but Tyler had been up half the night with a sleepover party and just finished a game before he opened presents so, yes, he does look like he's half asleep. A highlight before their game yesterday was the team posing with a local professional hockey player who is going to the Olympics in a couple weeks. Good luck Brian Gianta!!!

No, I didn't watch the super bowl yesterday but I did have a wonderful snack. A s'mores mug cake. I've stalled using this book for a while because most of the recipes make 2 cakes but it finally dawned on me that this rarely used soup mug would be perfect to make an entire recipe. It's not in the photo but I also added a scoop of homemade root beer ice cream. Thanks Janet!!

Happy Monday!!!

Feline Friday - 2/2/18

Happy Groundhog Day!!

Can you believe all the credit they give that silly woodchuck?

First they sing crazy loud songs. Then they pull him out of his tree stump and "confer" in groundhog-eze regarding his decision. He's probably quaking in his boots and nervous as all get out.

Except ... did you see the stadium lighting? Of course that guy is gonna see his shadow! And then the ticker on the video says that he's only right 37% of the time. Geesh.

On the other paw, Auntie Denise has a local celebrity called Sand Mountain Sam. That opossum has been spot on for the last 23 years! Go Sam!!!

No matter what, I was smart enough to stay inside today when it's only 11F outside and I can't see no stinking shadows!! I am the Caballero de Castilla, I am Zorro and I predict Spring!!!!!

Do you have a local weather predicting celebrity? Is he accurate?

An InLinkz Link-up