Wednesday Weather Report #115 - 7/31/19

It's hard to believe that summer is half over tomorrow.  Boo!

We had a slow, wet creep into summer, then it got dreadfully hot several times and now we are finally getting comfortable. I would like to think it will stay comfy but that's not what generally happens in August...

July 24-30, 2019
75 - 76 - 80 - 82 - 82 - 84 - 76 F

And now to share the hexies I worked on during my vacations. That's right - 2 camping trips to 2 different parts of the Adirondack Mountains: 10 days by myself around Saranac Lake and Paul Smiths and then 4 days with the family near Inlet. It was a lot of driving (5 hours each way) but not such a struggle in the new car or with the mountains as my destination   :)

One of the first things I finished was sewing the bottom row of 4 blocks onto this kaleidoscope doll quilt. When I got home I measured it on the doll bed and it definitely needs another side row of 5 blocks so that's what I'll be working on during the fair in a couple weeks. The size won't be perfect for the bed but I have to work with the 4" block size and make the best of it.

Next I worked on these Salt & Pepper blocks. I haven't worked on them in quite a while so in case you don't remember the story: After my cat Pepper died I was quite upset and kept trolling Pinterest with no purpose in mind. This block kept coming up in many different forms so I felt it was a calling. My bloggy friends named the project.

The central 1" hexies are always white on black fabrics and the 1" jewels (my absolute fav hexie shape!) are always black on white fabrics. Not shown is the 2" diamonds made with burnt orange fabrics. Generally I only use the white fabrics once, unless it can be fussy cut several ways, but the blacks and oranges can be repeated. Considering that this is to be bed sized and I am only using the white fabrics once, I am kinda considering this a "lifetime" project since it'll take me that long to find so many white fabrics. With these blocks I now have 36 completed and 14 needing the diamonds for a total of 50 blocks. I think I have another dozen sets of white jewels already cut. I best lay out the blocks to see how many more I need. Or maybe I shouldn't find out just how many more I need just yet...

Last but not least I worked on this new doll quilt. Before my trips I only 1.25 sections of the colored hexies done. Adding the sashing after completing the first 2 sections was a PITA so now I'm adding it as I do the colored hexies. I measured the quilt today and I think it might be too long for the bed, this quilt might have to run across the bed and not down it. Oh well.

Why, do you ask, am I working on so many doll quilts again?? Well, I was asked to do another trunk show this October and I can finish a doll quilt much faster than a bed quilt. I was told to bring "everything," finished or UFO, but I would like to have as many things "finished" as I can so I'll hit up the UFO shelves as soon as these 2 doll quilts are done.

Don't forget to link up your weather post or tell us about your weather in the comments...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 10/17/17

Hello my fellow hexiologists!!! For today's Hexie Linky Party I'm going to finally reveal my secret-for-now project!!!

Background: several months ago I was asked to do a trunk show for Patchwork Gardens in East Amherst. Their store has a monthly hexie class and they tend to focus on one paper shape each month. I was asked to pick my favorite shape that I could demo after the trunk show. After stating that picking a favorite shape is worse than picking a favorite child, I quickly picked the jewel which is the main element in my Salt & Pepper project.

Once we had picked a shape, I thought maybe I should have some other projects to share with the same shape. I really like to have more than one purpose once I've spent my money on the papers - I was sure the girls would agree.

That's when I put out the word that I was hoping people would be willing to share a couple scrap strips with me. I really wasn't expecting more than just a few strips from each person, something that a 49cent stamp would mail. Instead I was overwhelmed with generosity!! Here's the last packages:

These little beauties came all the way from Jo in Australia!!
I've cut into some of the strips but not the larger cat or Australia fabrics yet.

These came from Janet O.
I just had to make up the Star Wars heart ASAP because it's so NOT Janet.
She's since sent me a couple more pieces of SW fabric.

This large package came from Donna in Florida - she apologized to having to delay their
sending until after the hurricane passed. Not. A. problem.
 Donna - I hope you'll post a comment sometime!!
There is actually yardage in this package - I'll cut the bits I need for this project and use the rest for Kennel Quilts.

Phew - that's a lot of fabric for everyone to share!!! And can you believe that there was not a single duplicate among the donations or my own scraps? That's unbelievable.

So - did you figure out what I'm working on? Maybe this give you a clue?

I'm making jewel hearts!

The original idea was to make a "large" size quilt using just the hearts but I decided that it was just too busy to "see" all the scrappy fabrics.

I decided that I would separate the hearts with neutral honeycombs so that the hearts would be more defined. On Friday, I was laying out some of the hearts with the honeycombs for a friend and realized the honeycombs won't fit - they are the same 1" sides as a hexie but different angles. I'll need to use hexagons. Thankfully I only had 6 or 8 honeycombs finished. Oopies.

I've tried to see if I could create a box type shape with the hearts but I haven't gotten it to work yet so it appears I'll be doing my first strippy quilt.

What do you think?? I hope everyone who donated fabric is happy with the project!

And now it's your turn. What projects are you working on? Secret or otherwise?
Any paper shape or vintage project is fair game.

An InLinkz Link-up

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...

Design Wall Monday - 5/23/16

Instead of moping 100% this weekend I just dug right into my hexies Thursday/Friday evenings and half of Saturday.

My fav fabric of the 5 is bottom left.
The 2 bottom fabrics I just got in Cobleskill.

And what better project to work on while moping? Why Salt & Pepper, of course!! Read about how the project started here.

Eventually I got tired of working on the stars and moved my sorry butt to the Quilt Lab, looking for something "different" to work on. I quickly remembered from my recent trunk show that I told everyone of my Rose Star project. It's become my camping only project. I had no actual finished project in mind when I started it - I just had 12 or so coordinated FQs and I wanted to make as many blocks as I could. I decided that I would finish fussy cutting the parts so I would be prepared for the 3 camping trips I am planning on this summer. This will give me 23 blocks - a weird number but it will work out perfectly for a layout that I found.

I had meant to bring the neutral bits to work to stitch during lunches this week but managed to leave it at home. Boo! Hiss!

For the rest of Saturday I worked on The Bathroom Floor but didn't take any pictures.

You'll be glad I didn't take pictures of what I did on Sunday - spending an hour or so in each room of the house; cleaning, putting away and purging. We won't get into the psychology of that project but the mutlitple bags in the garbage can and windows open to let in the sunshine and fresh air helped lift my mood in this big, old, "empty" house where the  remaining feline wants to spend his time outside...

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 clean up post #2

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

--------------
On Sunday I started cleaning up/out the Curio Cabinet. My SIL has an extensive collection of Precious Memories figurines and when she outgrew the cabinet my Dad made her a new one and I was offered the old one.

I didn't know what I was gonna do with it at first so we placed it in the quilt lab (only free corner) until I decided. I very quickly decided it could stay there to house UFOs and then it has gradually morphed into housing hexie UFOs.

Most of the projects are stored in plastic boxes. I am torn about buying more boxes since I hope to finish projects leaving empty boxes but I know myself and if there's a box I can fill it with something. With that said, I am at least buying one more box for the top of the cabinet as I have another large/long-term project I need a box for.


The top most box houses my "Salt & Pepper" project. After my cat, Pepper, died, I was moping around Pinterest and kept coming across the same pattern in different variations. I took it as a sign that I was meant to make that project. I can't quite remember how I picked the colors but it's been fun looking for just the right fabrics. Each star has a white-on-black center surrounded by black-on-white fussy cut jewels surrounded by burnt orange diamonds. The various diamonds will become 'baby blocks' when it's all stitched together. I am trying to use the black-on-white fabrics just once in the project but the others can be used more than once. I'm at a point where I have lotsa shapes cut already so I want to stitch them before I find any more fabrics or do any more fussy cutting.

fussy cut diamonds and jewels on the right
houndstooth for binding and inspiration "batik" on the left

15 finished star blocks and the Russel Stover tin they are stored in

The second box on the top is for my Patchwork of the Crosses (POTC) project. I found this fantastic red paisley that will be in every block and then I found the perfect red that will be the sashing. The cream blocks you see on each block is part of the sashing as well.

This box houses the bulk of the red and paisley fabrics, precut beige sashing pieces to stitch
 with thread ends and any other fabrics I think might work for future blocks.
You'll also see the 2 honeycombs I found on the cutting mat.

Only 4 finished blocks so far - this project isn't much of a priority at the moment altho I adore the fussy cutting.
The center will have more of the beige/red sashing fabrics and then a square of 4 fussy cut fabrics in the center.

Almost as soon as I became addicted to hexies have I wanted to make this tumbler pattern using 2 different size tumblers. I didn't have fabrics in mind - just the pattern. That was until I went to Gettysburg, PA with my family and we stopped at a "costume" shop that sold scraps of the civil war fabrics they used to make period dresses. I purchased 2 bags, at maybe $5 each, and was well on my way to another project. I purchased the purple for the large tumblers at my LQS. I started to cut some of the small tumblers cuz I wanted to get my hands into the fabrics but it's not a priority project at the moment so the fabric was just pushed into the box. I do think it will be a nice travel project since I'll need quite a variety of the small tumblers stitched before I can start stitching anything together.

Fabrics in the box haven't been pressed or fussy cut yet. Once I've used the fabric it's folded flat and placed
in the baggy. Cut pieces wait for me in the choco box and basted pieces are in the ball jar.

The colors in the picture just aren't doing this project any justice - I think there will be a nice
contrast between the purple and the other fabrics. I've started by cutting 10 of each repro fabric.
The 1" tumblers are a little fussy to stitch but I'm sure I'll get in a groove and be happy with it. This
might have been a time where I should have bought the acrylic template with a 1/4"
instead of a 3/8" seam allowance.

This next pattern is called Rose Star online but it's become my 'owl' or 'camping' project. Owl because there is a fussy cut owl in the center of each block and camping cuz I only work on it while I am camping in the ADK mountains. No reason to ONLY work on it then but it's been a fun tradition. This project started with a FQ bundle of coordinated fabrics that I added to, giving me a dozen fabrics to work with. My goal is to keep making as many blocks as I can until all of the FQ bundle is gone.

I think there are 15 blocks done already.
You can see the cream batik that will hook all the blocks together. I found the extra cream
fabric in a separate box and moved it into the box with the rest of this project.
Don't worry, I filled that box with another project already!

The stripe will be the binding and I finished the owl fabric bolt so there is plenty for a backing.
You can also see there is a decent amount of the FQ bundle left to make more blocks.

Yes, I was OCD enough to make a chart so that all the fabrics are used equally.

I bought myself the papers for George Town Circleand then my boss gifted me the acrylic set for Christmas. Woohoo! I started with fussy cutting the asian border fabric and will add in other fabrics as I get a plan for this project. I'm girding my loins for stitching curves...

I enlarged the pattern so that I could make notes on fabric, shape, etc.
Several of the shapes are similar from round to round but a slightly different size - it's gonna
take some advance planning to make sure I put the pieces together correctly and nicely fussy cut.

I'm pretty sure that's enough for today...I'm overloaded from hanging my head in UFO guilt and you from reading and laughing and reading and and and...

Check back tomorrow for more pictures of way too many UFOs...

HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 11/171/15

Welcome to another monthly edition of Hexie Linky Party!!!!

What have you been working on? I do hope you'll share your projects whether past, present or future :)

I'm still in mash-mash-hexie mode while I work on class samples and holiday gifts. I just grab something that fits in a small to-go bag and I'm happy to keep my fingers busy while I'm out and about. I know I'll get back to a more regular schedule after Thanksgiving next week so I don't mind a few diversions.

I do have a mini-trunk show for a fundraiser tea party in early December (they requested only finished projects plus a couple WIPs to show process) so my plan for Black Friday is not to shop but finish the 3 doll quilts that need quilting and binding. Let's hope the quilting idea fairies are generous!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hexies!!!

So...I considered showing you pictures from our guild meeting this week but I worried you might think I was off my hexie rocker. I'll show you the guild meeting next week...Joan Ford, of Scrap Therapy fame, gave a trunk show. I was inspired enough to cut up some scraps when I got home - I'm behind, as usual.

I stitched the center of this star at my conference back in April - it just took 3 weeks to finally get around to adding the diamonds. This really is not my high priority project but I haven't worked on the HPP for several weeks now. Hopefully after I catch up on 2 hexie SAL projects this weekend I can get back on track.

This is my progress on block #3 from Karen's Value Proposition QAL - 9 more hexies to go. I think it's turning in to my least fav of the three and thru no fault of the design: I probably should have fussy cut the plaid and the outer rust isn't 100% on with the inner rust hexies. I don't dislike it enough to redo it and I think when all 22 blocks are done it won't stick out amongst all my scrappiness...I just should have planned better before cutting into my scraps.

Design Wall Monday - 5/5/14

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! Sadly, I don't think my leftover 4 cheese lasagna hamburger helper will qualify but it's what's in the fridge...

I had a whole day at home yesterday to sew to my heart's content! I needed to iron some new FQs so I could put them away in the proper bins and I got that out of the way early. I was also determined to finish up two smaller hexie projects and those would be easy to do while I finished the DVD set for WhiteCollar Season 1 due at the library today.

The thing is...I never got motivated to machine sew anything other than the 2 steps needed to catch up with the Market Day SAL and some leaderender basket blocks which I'll share later in the week. I had plenty that needed doing but nothing that I could decide on. And that means all y'all are stuck looking at the hexies I worked on yesterday...

I think I had to baste another 6 or 7 hexies and then whipstitch the whole basket together for The Hexie Blog BOM. I had once thought of using another fabric or 2 to look like there were flowers in the basket but I finally decided that might not work well with the flowers on the fabric that was already cut so I just went with my original plan. I'm pleased with the balance of the flowers across the piece - I think I only planned 2 of them, pulling the rest out of a paper bag.

I caved and bought another set of jewel papers to use on my Salt & Pepper project. I was one paper short on this block but had put the rest of it together so all I had to do yesterday was baste 1 more jewel and whipstitch it in place.

I finally decided to join the Value Proposition QAL with Karen and picked fabrics for my first block. The QAL is already on their 2nd block but I am determined not to berate myself for being late on this project since I know I'll be late for all 22 blocks! LOL! I'll get them done when I'm done. 

And I finally added the last hexies to this table topper project. It's a bit on the small side so it might be better on a small side table instead of the dining table shown above but I do love the concept. This was fussy cut from a border fabric which made it a really simple project once the cutting was done. I'm going to try a slightly different/new-to-me way of doing the back but I'll take pictures and share with you when it's done. Please don't hold your breath!

Don't forget to check back in tomorrow for our monthly The Bibliphile Files linky party with our latest reading adventures. I hope you'll share the books, magazines or cereal boxes that you've read in the last month!

Hexie Updates

Did all y'all miss me while I was gone? Thought not...

I did get a lot of hexies done while I was in classes. I always maintain eye contact with the teacher so they know I am still paying attention...just in case you were worried. My roommate also brought her hexies and I saw another person crocheting. A lot of ladies were interested in learning to EPP - maybe at our next conference...

Hmmm ... thought I had finished 6. Maybe there is another one in my suitcase. I think I have papers for one more and then I will definitely be working on putting rosettes together to free up some papers.

I really only worked on these when I had a bit of thread to use up so I didn't make much progress. Of course, the new BOM Butterfly was posted today so I better get my butt in gear to finish this basket block.

I only pieced the white jewels at conference. I added the black hexie when I got home last night. I'll get the orange diamonds on this weekend.

This large rosette is about half together.
I really need to work on the RWB project tonight since I need it for Hexie Club tomorrow. Oops!