Design Wall Monday - 5/9/16

One extra...how did that happen?

blue "scissors" pieced hexies were constructed as leader-enders

I made (16) 1" too short...

yellow "cogs" pieced hexies were constructed as leader-enders

Then I made (16) 1/2" too long...

Finally!!! Just right!!!!

I love how the striped batik "surrounds" each wonky 4-patch

This i-spy quilt has 100 different hexie fabrics!!!
I'm thinking the name should be something along the ideas of "99 bottles of beer on the wall"...

Funny how the final quilt is really different from my initial idea.

Design Wall Monday - 5/2/16

I was able to go on my F.A.R.T.** this weekend and it was partially successful.

I went to the not-so-LQS in search of new hexie fabrics. I needed 5 but found nearly a dozen so I had to make tough choices. And yeah, I chose the pink over a brown. Highly unlike me but I wanted bright colors, even if it is pink.

I did get a half yard of another hexie fabric (matches the one in the middle below) that would make a cute backing for a small quilt.

I'm pretty sure this will be the only tractor in my iSpy quilt :) The big question will be red or green. The answer will be which can I fussy cut the easiest or cleanest.

It's kinda hard to tell but the daisy's have white hexies in the background.

Full Disclosure - other fabrics were purchased but were too shy to be photographed.
In other words, I forgot...

I had also been looking for the stick-on thimble pads which they didn't have at the time. Maybe I can try superglue for the next week or so until I'll be near another store...

The rest of the weekend, (other than a fire, a rescue call and cleaning & cooking for Mom's Birthday dinner) was spent working on various hexie projects. OK, fine, I guess I didn't need to explain that. I'm *always* working on hexies!

I'm working on putting together a pieced hexie project of my own design and it's almost finished!! This project was stalled for a long time since it had no purpose or direction. As soon as I found a purpose it's just flying together as fast as my punctured little fingers can stitch. LOL.

I'm currently working on these modified "rototiller" blocks, making four strips of four. I've got 5 more to baste and then I'll be able to design the corner bits. I would love to share a full picture with you - and I promise I will in a few weeks - but I need to keep some surprises for my upcoming trunk show!

That's it for today. Anyone else working on a pieced hexie design of their own?


** Fabric Acquisition Road Trip

Design Wall Monday - 4/25/16

2 pieced hexies and 2 chrysanthemum rosettes (hexie club birthday shape for 2015)
completed at my conferences last week. I've finished some other rosettes but they got
filed away before being photographed. Oopsie!

My work conference is held in Saratoga Springs every other year. On those years
I stop at a quilt store south of Syracuse on the way home. This year my goal was
blue/yellow/orange (across the top) for my pieced hexie project and hexie fabrics
along the bottom for my iSpy . This brings me up  to 96 different hexie fabrics!!
Thing is, I think I need 4 more to finish the design I am working on. Oh and the
green batik (top left) is sashing for the iSpy. Unless I change my mind, of course...

This weekend was a statewide volunteer fireman recruiting event.
The weather was gorgeous but the event wasn't very successful.
We did get 1 application which is better than none...

Yesterday was spent making the rest of the iSpy blocks and sewing them into twosies.
I'll have to finish pressing them tonight. Can we say boring??!!

Vacation shopping

Part of the fun of a vacation is shopping. Now I'm not much of a shopper but put me in a grocery, antique or quilt store and I'm a dedicated shopper! Having not been to any quilt stores in Baltimore, or Maryland for that matter, I asked Dad if we could go to one while visiting my uncle. Even better - he came back with 2 or 3 stores in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Amish/Mennonite country!! Woohoo.

When counting hexie fabrics for yesterday's post I forgot to
count the 2 on the right side of this picture. 

Our first stop was by accident - we were driving through Bird-in-Hand towards Intercourse when we drove by Log Cabin Quilts so we did a quick u-turn and found a cute little store. It carried fabric, finished quilts and other things like candles and a few home goods. You know I tuned right in to the new hexie fabrics!

Sampler box of jams and jellies picked from probably 20 options.
I thought this would be fun for a tea party.
The chapsticks are ok - I probably wouldn't buy them again, esp at that price.
The peach amaretto pecan honey butter is delish on crackers. Just 2 is a sweet treat.

Once we got to Intercourse we started at Kitchen Kettle Village - OMG, all the samples! We barely needed lunch. There were jams & jellies, salsa, pickles, relish, dips and desserts. And you have to try EVERYthing (sometimes you need to try it more than once) to make up your mind what to buy!

Also in the "Village" of tiny stores was a little garden shop. I REALLY wanted the yellow rhododendron but couldn't cough up the funds (I have a someday vision of a completely yellow and purple garden) so I settled for this sweet little lavender plant.

Moda is celebrating their 40th anniversary with this cool "selvage" fabric.
Oh! Gee! More hexie fabric! I'm surprised!

These three batiks (2 were on sale!!) are for my pieced hexie sampler.
These are 2 of the 5 constant fabrics. The other 2 are purples.
The carved wooden bird is for my Christmas bird tree.
In another 30 years I'll have enough bird ornaments to cover the whole tree.

Next up was The old Country Store which carried books, clothes, some food, quilts, jewelry and lotsa fabric. It was a nice mix.

Next up we swung over to Hinkletown Bernina to buy a ruler foot. This was kind of a birthday gift since I haven't been able to buy what Mom gave me money for -she then told me to buy whatever I wanted. I guess that makes the rest of it a gift to myself! 

Just today I booked one of my summer camping vacations which means I have to drive thru Syracuse which means I can make a pit stop at AQS Syracuse. What a co-inky-dink! I'm SURE  they will have quilting rulers to buy!

Last stop of the day was an antique mall. Lots of pretty things with pretty high price tags. This little watercolor beauty was just $3! Now I need to find a wall to hang it on where it's not overwhelmed by too much wall space.

Not a bad haul for a non-shopper, huh?!

Design Wall Monday - 4/11/16

Salt & Pepper blocks completed in MD

I'm baaaaaacccckkkkk!

Twisted hexie blocks and extra black centers completed in MD

Didja miss me?

"house" blocks completed in MD for hexie club birthday swap

As you may recall, I disappeared from the blog for a week of laziness after a long Easter weekend to visit my uncle in Baltimore and then for a 2nd week after being sick. I may have disappeared from the blog but I was still working on projects in the background.

pieced hexie blocks for Mickey Depre's 2016-17 sampler.
These were machine sewn before the trip. During the trip I trimmed seam allowances and basted them.

I suppose your first question is what happened to my March quilt lab clean up project. Since I was out of town, sick and I'm now getting ready to go out of town not just once but three times, it's been placed on hold or maybe delayed is a better word.

I've been trying to catch up on my i-spy blocks since vacation.
This pile of 30 blocks has the wonky black-on-black borders attached.
They were later trimmed down to 6.75" square - a boring job if ever there was one :(

 Let's just say that I'm still working on cleaning the lab but it's taking longer than expected since life has gotten in the way. I'm not surprised. Are you? I highly doubt that it will be finished in the next month or 2 due to a big project so lets just call it a longer term (summer?) project.

more twisted and pieced blocks completed at home

I expect there will be hexie finishes in the next month and there are also new projects so there will be plenty to entertain you in my ongoing hexie UFO saga....

All but 4 of the I-spy blocks are completed. I've got them layed out sorted by left
 /right angles and by which BOB fabric so I can keep it balanced.
I know - it's a little OCD.
I'll be at several quilt stores this weekend to look for more hexie fabrics and then
I'll start to sew them together. I have 90 hexie fabrics as of today!!!
Some are the same pattern but in different colors - there are prob 80 different patterns.

Back to the Design Wall...

I sell name badge holders at one of my conferences -- this is batch #1.
This is a new (requested!) pattern since the girls wanted zippered compartments.
I hope they like them...

We traveled to Baltimore, Maryland for a long Easter weekend and then stopped in Intercourse, PA on the way home. That meant that I had 10 hours travel time for stitching as well as tv time at my uncle's house. I was quite productive, if I say so myself. Of course, I still packed 3 times too much (this is what happens when the supplies take up so little space) but it was nice to switch projects now and then.

I've started to make some of the blue pieced hexies for Mickey's pieced sampler

Since returning home, I've finished some of the projects started on the road trip and worked on others as well. I have not one but 2 conferences this weekend so there will be plenty of stitching time - I just need to pack enough to keep my fingers busy which helps me concentrate in the classes better.

I finished the left card trick block and made a second.
I will make at least 2 more and then assess what to add for the proper doll quilt size.

I had originally intended to lay them out with the teal always in the upper left but I layed one of them
 down backwards and I'm kinda liking what will become a teal 'X' and a purple 'O''. 

Quilt lab cleanup post #1

Project background: I'm spending the month of March cleaning up my quilt lab and blogging about all my hexie UFOs along the way...

--------------
I didn't see Janet's request to start with the curio cabinet until after I had already started on the cutting mat so I'll do the cabinet next.

I had chosen to start with the cutting mat because it's kind of grand central for my quilt lab - everything seems to start and stop here. And apparently a lot gets dumped here as well! I thought a nice/large/clean area would be very encouraging for the rest of the project.

This is what I started with. Not the worst I've ever had but not the best either considering I could only use about 11" x 20" on a 24" x 36" mat.

We have a monthly birthday swap in hexie club and Denise is our penpal member.
I finally sorted her envelope of birthday shapes into the storage bin with my prepared shapes.

This weekend I had been working on my hexie iSpy quilt by cutting more 5" squares
of hexie fabrics and black wedges. When I started cleaning I had 52 blocks made, 29 cut and 4 more to cut.

While cleaning, I cut the last 4 and put it all the parts back into it's bin.
 This will be a nice no-brainer project when I'll have an hour to sew.

Hmmm..left over fabric from Value Proposition...put this in the fabric-to-put-away- pile.

I'm working on a kind of new project and decided I would use my Fiskars cutter to cut our 1/2" hexies from all those annoying magazine inserts. I cut a page worth this morning while I was waiting for the car to warm and maybe melt some of the ice encrusting it. Not sure where to store this unless I just gitter done and put the hexies in with the project and put the Fiskars away.

The 3 shot cottons were on the cutting mat since I had cut the olive green a few weeks ago. The round tin usually contains the finished Chrysanthemums I spread out and the choco tin held the rest needing to be put together. These are the 2016 birthday swap shape and I'd like to get the background sewn together ASAP so I know how many more chrysanthemums to make but I might need to get more olive shot cotton first...

Hah! - found an empty plastic bin to store the fabric and to-be-completed chrysanthemums in.

These are from my POTC project. For a while I had some spare bits at my couch work station to use thread ends. Not sure why it was on the cutting table but I finished these up while watching TV and put them away in the POTC box.

This is new fabric for a hexie project that I haven't picked yet - I just couldn't pass on the pretty fabric.
I put it in the someday pile.

And this is what I ended with!! Woohoo!! I spent time doing tiny bits of work to finish parts of the projects so it prob took a bit longer than I had originally planned but it's nice to have those bits done.

The tin holds batik strips to trim into half hexies for my Twisted hexie project.

Lookie there - I trimmed them up this morning, set the tin aside to house another project and now
my cutting mat is 99% clean with just my rotary cutter at the ready and my hexie rock.

Yipp - that was 8 hexie UFOs/WIPs on just my cutting mat. This is gonna be a loooooooooong clean up...

A successful F.A.R.T!!

Yip - I was recently able to go on a successful Fabric Acquisition Road Trip that had some other fun activities thrown in for good measure.

I started the day by day by driving to Naples where I hiked through part of Glen Cove to get to this gorgeous water fall. This was apparently the lower falls but with the recent rains and the only way to the upper falls being to walk in the creek, I'll have to go back another day to see Upper Falls.

I loved this old tree hanging over the creek. Even better was the house just past the tree. Can you imagine having this fun little park literally in your back yard?! The sound of the rushing water was quite soothing.

Next stop was Carriage Quilts - a cute little 2 story quilt shop I had never been to. I picked up my Row by Row pattern and a few fat quarters.

My next stop was going to be Penn Yan to take my Bernina in for service but I got waylayed!! How could I pass a stop at Hazlitt's Red Cat Winery??!! Yes - I tasted and I bought. I also climbed the mountain path where the vines used to be when the winery was started. I'm sure it's much easier now that they are all on the valley floor.

In Penn Yan I was able to stop at The Windmill (an outdoor farm and craft market) that is generally only open on Saturdays but it was open special for 7/3/15. I also went to the new location of Golden Lane Fabrics, a Mennonite run fabric store. Quilt stores in Mennonite country sell quilts and no fabric. I learned this the hard way my first trip to Penn Yan.

On the way home I finally stopped at Bath National Cemetery. I had no idea what to expect, even tho I had been to Arlington many years ago, but it was a nice pleasant drive through a huge cemetery. I only wish there had been parking spots so I could walk around.

And now for the fabrics...I had 2 goals and I finished them both!

I finally found a border fabric for my Value Proposition quilt!!! There was a lighter blue fabric that matched my sashing perfectly but it just kinda washed out. This fabric actually matches all my teals perfectly in real life and adds some life to the border area. I'm still working on binding fabric...

And last but not least - I needed (ok, wanted) more hexie fabrics for my I-spy quilt. I almost missed the turtles (in the baby section) and the soccer balls (in a sea of black and whites). For some reason I was drawn to the orange but it also comes in 2 or 3 other colors. Maybe the next time I get back to Material Dreams, which was my last stop of the day for one more Row pattern, just 15 minutes before they closed.

Phew. It was a long day of driving, walking and shopping but my fitbit was pleased! As I told Denise, who knew that window shopping was good for you?!

Design Wall Monday - 3/23/15

I had an excellent weekend!! Saturday afternoon I showed my friend Kim how to use her new sewing machine. She plied me with wine and brownies - our usual M.O. - LOL!!

The rest of the weekend was spent leisurely sewing and listening to audio books in my studio. It was heaven.

I completed 9 yellow box kite blocks for the RSC15. I might get a few more done before the end of the month but it's going to be a busy week so I'm not holding my breath. I have the strips all cut so I might just work on them another month. One can never have  enough yellow :)

I also completed 5 yellow puss in the corner D4P blocks and, obviously, several other colors as well. I really just periodically paw thru my pile of 2.5" blocks to find nice matches. So far I have over a 100 of these little 4.5" blocks. I'm still debating if I want every other block in the quilt to be a solid instead of pieced block. The quilt would come together faster, with fewer seams to match, and you would possibly be able to see the pieced blocks better, but I just adore making these and can't imagine stopping just cuz I had enough for a quilt...

I also worked on my hexie fabric I-spy quilt. I stopped by the LQS for more black-on-blacks and was able to make quite some progress on getting the blocks made and trimmed. These blocks are 3/4" smaller than the original blocks shown a few weeks ago but now I'm wondering if I need to get that last 1/4" trimmed off. I'm almost thinking it wouldn't be worth the effort since I can trim them to 6.75" in a flash if I leave 5/8" black past each corner of the center charm square. That's probably clear as mud but I think I just talked myself out of more trimming, Thanks for listening!

I sewed these up this morning and I think there are 4 more to sew up tonight. Of course then there are the 4 new hexie fabrics I still need to cut into charm squares. It's a never ending process LOL.

I have no idea when I'll be putting the i-spy blocks together since I'm still finding hexie fabrics. (Do you have any hexie fabrics I could barter for??) The quilt certainly won't be finished for some time since there are new fabrics all the time so I'm torn - make today's pile into a partial top just so it's not another pile in the studio or wait until much closer to my hexie trunk shows to have a bigger pile with more variety before assembly...there are nearly 40 blocks at this time. My other option is to make these into 4 patches so just get started on assembly. What would you do? Keep the pile growing  for as long as possible or start assembly just to get the pile out of the way?

PS - did anyone notice that I missed HeLP last week? I noticed just before I hit publish on the Feline Friday post. Oops - clearly too much was going on with my Dad in the hospital. Anyone interested in having HeLP this Wednesday??!!