Design Wall Monday - 7/27/15

Dang! How did it get to be almost August already??!!

On Saturday part of our hexie club did a demo at the local Farmers' Market. We handed out many free kits and several people tried it right then and there. There is at least 1 new hexiologist in the world because she came into the store while I was working Sunday and bought a bunch of supplies to make several Christmas presents. Woo Hoo! She has been invited to attend out monthly meetings so I hope she comes.

I spent the rest of the weekend working on projects for the fair. This girl loves a deadline and with the fair in less then two weeks we are definitely in deadline mode! I'm pretty sure this is the furthest behind I have been in years.

I started these blocks in Bonnie Hunter's class last October. I have all the star blocks sewn together and the 2 end borders are almost done. I think the table runner will be about 15" x 48" when it's done. I picked a green for the background but I have yet to pick binding fabric yet.

You can see the green for the runner in the rear left, under the remaining 2" of gold.

And I spent a lot of time stitching this dolly quilt (for the doll/cat bed!!) - it's too bad my math skills stink and I didn't have enough hexies basted to finish last night. Maybe if I blow off mowing the yard yet again, I can finish tonight. ..

Design Wall Monday - 6/15/15

After doing some rain dodging, weeding, plant rearranging, teaching a class and taking the ambulance on several rescue calls and standby at a 5K for the local Girl Scouts, I was actually able to get a little bit of sewing done. Woohoo! I'll share my hexie accomplishments on Wednesday for HeLP for Hexie-aholics...today you get to see my machine sewing.

Yipper, I still do own a working sewing machine. LOL. And since I was just approved for my summer Friday's off, I need to schedule a spa treatment for my Bernina. I actually take my machine to a lovely Mennonite place about 1.5 hours south of here because I can schedule an appointment and take my machine home with me in ~3 hours, instead of dropping my machine at the closer dealer and getting it back a week or more later. I also like the Penn Yann Sewing Center because they offer a map of local quilt stores, fabric stores, restaurants and other sights to see. Yes, there is a HUGE difference between quilt and fabric stores in Mennonite/Amish country!!

I have now finished 15 mini sister's choice blocks from my class with Bonnie Hunter. These blocks are 5" finished so I was thinking that if I put 1 more row of sister's choice blocks and then the fun "sticks & stones" border on each end, the table runner would end up 15" x 40"...a nice size for a mid-sized black and white cat who likes to adorn my table runner clad dining room table =^..^= I would really like 2 more rows of sister's choice blocks to keep it more symmetrical but then it would be longer than fabric is wide for the backing and I think I'm just too lazy to do that at this point...I'm aiming for a finish on this baby! I'll make a final decision after I finish 3 more blocks and 2 borders.

I also worked on some more box kite blocks for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. The theme color for June is light blue. As you can tell, my definition of 'light' blue wavers as I find different scraps to use! It's a little hard to tell from the photo but the middle block on the bottom row uses geese fabric for the neutral. It's a little too busy but I couldn't resist doing just one block with it. I'll be making more blocks as time allows...hopefully at least 4 more before month's end.

Design Wall Monday - 6/8/15

Yesterday was a lovely drive followed by a class with my fav quilter followed by another lovely drive and then some sewing at home time before collapsing in bed. Ha!

Yipper!! Yesterday was the day my friend Cathy and I drove 2 hours down to Jamestown, NY to take a Sister's Choice class with Bonnie Hunter!! Woohoo!!

Funny thing is, she remembered me from the class last fall in Amherst. Couldn't remember my name but she said my face was familiar and asked if I had changed my hair (yes!).

I brought three things for show-n-share but didn't get any pictures of me and my quilts so you'll have to check Bonnies post for me with my Value Prop, Sister's Choice (still deciding borders) and my ruby colored Blue Ridge Beauty from my last class with Bonnie. She loved them all! You'll also have to check this other post about the class in general to see pictures of me and Cathy.

By the end of the class I had finished the following: 5 completed blocks (shown with 1 test block since I had reduced the size. I asked Bonnie to sign the test block/2nd from the left), 10 more 9 patches and 6 leader/ender D4P puss in the corner blocks. Phew!

After I got home I finished 4 more blocks and made some more tilted hexie fabric blocks. I'll need to cut more yellow for the star points so I can make more blocks.

Having made a SC quilt top already I decided to make a table runner with half size blocks (5" finished) - we'll see if I decide on a runner or doll quilt since someone had shared a doll quilt with a gorgeous border. I'll share that photo another day since no matter what I make I'll be using their border idea. LOL.

I have a picture of Bonnie with Cathy and myself but my iPhone isn't playing nice. Maybe tomorrow I'll share that photo and some photos I did get from show-n-share.

It's raining cats & dogs today and we even had a tornado warning (not the norm for these here parts!) so I guess I won't be mowing this evening. Instead I'll be making tiny Sister's Choice blocks for my "Baby Sister" project :)

Design Wall Monday - 3/4/13

Remember when I finally got the center of my Sister's Choice quilt done at retreat and I was thinking outloud about border options? Well, I think my idea was a brilliant brainstorm and I've got the picture to prove it. Ok, we need to support our own decisions once in a while, right?!!

I still need to plan the inner border and I'm not yet sure if it should be the same purple as the cornerstones, scrappy pieces of various bright fabrics or something else I haven't even thought of yet.

All in good time...

Retreat Report #2

While packing for retreat I told myself that I just HAD to make some progress on UFOs and Friday night would be dedicated to such a task.

I finished my Easy Street center (which I'll show tomorrow) and then I worked on Sister's Choice . Not sure how many years ago I started this quilt but I only needed four more blocks. I had cut the pieces at home so it was easy to bang them out. 

The sashing was even already on the other 26 blocks so it was also easy to get the rows put together. Of course by that time it was 2am and I had been working alone for almost 2 hours (didn't these people get the point of working in to the "wee wee" hours?) and said that was enough until I got home. Sunday evening I pressed the rows and got them sewn together. Wootwoot!!

Now on to my nemesis...borders! I have enough of the purple cornerstone fabric to either do an inner border or maybe binding. I was thinking of doing all 9-patches for an outer border but I wasn't sure if that would then be too many colors. I suppose I could do a colored inner border and then all neutrals for the 9-patches. Why can I only think of these things as I post to the blog? What do y'all think cuz I am really liking this idea!!??

Bits & Bobs

I've been kinda floundering around in the studio this week. Between cleaning house a little at at time and wanting to be outside in the gorgeous weather and my new-to-me hammock, I just haven't been able to get into any specific project.

I've been cutting neutral fatQuarters into 2.5", 2", 1.5" and 1" strips for my strip bins. I used 2.5" strips to finish putting sashing/cornerstones on all but 2 of the 26 Sister's Choice blocks. Now I need to determing how many more blocks I need.

This morning I also cut some of the 2.5" and 2" strips into squares for my Omigosh quilt.

Last night I also pulled 4 2.5" strips out of the strip bin to try tubeQuilting - that was easy and fun and I didn't even need the strip tube ruler, thanks to this video. Hmm, it appears I should have watched the video again before doing this as I think a quilt will look nicer if you use 2 strips for one side of the tube and 1 wider strip for the other side - that's the next experiment :)

This photo shows the box I keep my Omigosh parts in and the 4 blocks I created tubeQuilting which I will continue to play with since it's lots of fun and sooooo easy!

Super Cruise & Sister's Choice

Last Night was Super Cruise night at the Corral and I didn't think to take a single picture of the 550+ cars, trucks & motorocycles.  This is a picture taken by someone else last night and even tho I looked, I guess I've never posted a picture of dad's 1929 International truck on my blog - will need to remedy that...

The Wyoming County Fair Guide arrived in today's mail ... time to start planning what I want to enter. That can mean something new or finishing some UFO and I will enter two butter/jam spreaders into the antqiues division. I think one is stamped 1837 or so...

I'm still working on my Sister's Choice blocks. For the 26 blocks completed so far, I have the top sashing on all of them. I only have the side sashing and purple cornerstone on 13 of them because I need to cut some more 2.5 inch neutral strips. I much prefer to piece individual sashings to the blocks, instead of a row at at time, because I find it easier to work with one block at a time. I know, I'll still need to sew one long row to another but it works for me :)

Birds, UFO's and cats, oh my...

I know this isn't a great photo since it was taken through the screen but look...this goldfinch has a mohawk. Yeh, I know it's just a few feathers out of whack but it was funny to watch him this morning without a care for his hairdo.

I wasn't super inspired to work on anything yesterday so I pulled out a UFO. These blocks are from Bonnie's Sister's Choice pattern and they have been a great "in between" project since I have a plastic box already stocked with precut green and neutral parts. I have 26 blocks done and I started adding sashing (mixed neutrals) and corner stones (the purple is hard to see on the right side of the photo) last night. I'm not sure how many more blocks I'll make but that box still has a lot of parts. Of course, then I'll just need to decide what to do with all the left over half square triangles.

And last but not least...Pepper was working on his suntan. I can tell he is lonely without his mommy, Tula, but I am enjoying the increased attention he allows me. Someday I will let another cat adopt me but not just yet...