HeLP for Hexie-aholics - 7/17/18

Hello and Welcome to another edition of Hexie Linky Party for Hexie-aholics!

And just to prove that it's really an incurable addiction I'm going to share a new project. I have a thing for basket blocks so I couldn't resist...

Janet's first reaction was that I could (should?) make these on a machine but then I countered that the project wouldn't be portable. We had a discussion on me taking a treadle or hand crank machine camping,  whether rotary cutting would be allowed in the primitive setting and later we added in the child sized antique ironing board that I haven't shared yet. In the end, it still wasn't quite portable enough so I kept to the hexies...

I've got one 8" block done - just 3 more to go. All the baskets will have the same brown fabric for the basket and the color placement (gold/green/neutral) will be the same in the other blocks but each with different fabrics.

The rest of the doll quilt will be probably be borders, maybe in a medallion style. You already knew it would be a doll quilt, right??!!

And now it's your turn to share your latest hexie project. It can be old or new, with any paper shape.

An InLinkz Link-up

Design Wall Monday - 3/2/15

Saturday evening I attended a chili cook-off at one of the local churches. It was free-will-offering for eat-all-you-can-eat and there was a Chinese Basket Auction as well. All the proceeds went to our local food pantry. There were 14 chilies to test. My first choice was tied for 2nd place and my 2nd choice (pulled pork but it was too sweet) won first place. It was a lot of fun and already can't wait for next year's cook-off!!

First order of business over the weekend was to kit up most of my remaining Value Proposition blocks. I pulled in some new teal fabrics for these 4 kits. I'll have to finish these and then lay out all the blocks before cutting the last 2 kits in case I want to de/emphasize any colors in this scrappy project.

Second order of business was to do just a little more pink for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I found 1 of the box kites when unpacking the box I had packed for my quilting 101 class and then I made 2 more, bringing the total to a respectable 8. I made just one pink basket block and worked on 4 D4P Puss in the Corner blocks (only 1 is shown tho).

Next I worked on this months scrap color: Yellow!!! I kitted 8 box kite blocks (yes I use cheap hair clips from Dollar General to separate the parts) and cut or found strips for at least 5 or 6 more. Can you tell I like yellow??!! I also worked on starting some D4P blocks and started prepping strips for 3 basket blocks.

I finally got all my hexie fabrics cut for my iSpy project. I do have a pack of 5 more fabrics that I am debating to use. They are not good quality fabric but I love the designs so they will probably be next on the cutting mat. I saved 2 others - 1 for a project for our hexie club (hopefully there will be a charm square left) and the other is a rather large design that won't show well in an iSpy so I think I'll just save it for a doll quilt backing.

Last but not least, I've made some progress on rosette #1. It's probably a little hard to tell but I have 7 finished hexagons to be added to the right side of the outer row and the last mostly-black hexie from the 2nd row is almost finished. I just need to finish 4 more outer row hexagons to finish this rosette. I think I'll have the hexies made in 4 lunch hours and then I'll have to put this together sitting at the table since it's already a monster piece. I never did get to picking fabrics for the next rosette...

Phew...it was a fun but busy weekend and other than a crockpot meal, never did get to the housework. Darn!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - January finale

January's color was "blue." It was just supposed to be a regular blue but since I'm modifying the RSC for my own purposes, I used whatever blues I came across. And since I'm making things up as I go along, I only made as many blocks as I felt like - just to make 'some' progress. I had a ton of fun pulling different blues from my stash every few days and I can't wait to see what February's color is.

I finished 14 box kite blocks, 2.5 baskets and 3 D4P Puss-in-the-Corner blocks.

I also cut a bunch of blue square pairs so when I get through some other colors, I can make a lot more D4P blocks.

Did you participate in RSC this month?

Hello 2015!!

If you've been around my blog longer than 5 minutes you'll know that I'm not great on follow through. I enjoy the journey too much to worry about finishing each and every project. My three year old addiction to hexies is making that journey even more exciting but deeper in UFOs.

And yet, I have decided that this year I will join in two different BOM projects. One of them I'll tweak for my own purposes (imagine that??!!) and the other will need no tweaking, just a lot of hard work to keep up.

I finally decided to join the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge at Super Scrappy. Each month she posts a color and followers make blocks of their choice in that color. I think I'll blame this on Bonnie Hunter. Why not? She won't see this, right? Bonnie was working on her Box Kite quilt and I liked the block. What isn't there to like about 3 squares and 6 HSTs? It was about the same time I had read someone's post about the scrappy challenge and I decided to give the block a try "just in case" I liked it enough to work on all year.

Surprise! I liked it! I've decided to use the monthly color suggestion to cut blocks for my (now) three leader ender projects. I'll be able to prep some leader enders to work on while trying to get somewhere on my UFO pile. I see the January color was posted today and it's "blue." I'll get right on that when I get home!

I have 72 basket blocks completed. These will be set on point and I have yet to pick a setting fabric.

 

I also have 70 of these disappearing 4 patch puss in the corner blocks made. I'm gonna need bigger storage tho as tin#1 is full. These will also set on point with alternating squares of a yet to be picked fabric but there is a long way to go...

The other BOM project is Katja's Millefiore Quilt-Along based on her book "The New Hexagon."

My rosette #1 paper pack arrived yesterday and I picked up this fabric a few weeks ago as my focus for this rosette. Katja posted the first set of directions today so I'll be sure to get on this when I get home too. I best cuz #1 is a doozy with 37 blocks making up the rosette and it will take a while to decide how I want to fussy cut my fabrics.

Other than making class samples, Ryan's quilt and Bonnie's 2015 mystery quilt I really don't have any quilt plans for 2015 other than working on UFOs. Hexies will be a different story. I have a long UFO list to work on and bucket list that I was trying to hold off on but the stars have recently aligned on several so it looks like I'll be starting some more hexie UFOs...I'll share pictures some day...

That's it for now...Happy New Year and I'll see all y'all next year!

PS - Feline Friday, HeLP and Bibliophile Files will all be making comebacks in 2015. Woo Hoo!

Design Wall Monday - 6/2/14

As much as I don't mind having lots of types of quilt UFOs to work on (gotta love variety) - I do have to wonder how many scrap projects at a time is a good idea. I'm talking about leader/ender style projects to use up all the bits left over from other projects.

You are probably aware of my basket project. I've finished these 6 in the last week. I neglected to count how many that brings me to but it must be more than 75 by now. I really need to pick a setting fabric so I can start putting them together and decide how many more to make. Obviously this is my most often worked on L/E project.

Yes, that is a wooden pants hanger in the picture. I group finished blocks on the hanger and they hang on the side of my cutting table.

A while ago I started making some of these garlic knots that Bonnie had in a Quiltmaker magazine. I've only made 3 so far but it was fun to pull strips from the bin and put them together easily. I had actually forgotten about this project until I was thinking of a post for today.

See, I was sew excited about this tiny block that it's out of focus!!

My latest project is this tiny puss in the corner block. Yup - just one so far. I'm preparing a class called Magic Blocks and this is one of the samples. The class premise is that you can take single blocks, 4 patches, 9 patches or 16 patches, cut them apart and then sew them back together in to a new block. Think of disappearing nine patch gone wild.

This little beauty is actually a 4 patch! I made the first sample from 5" blocks but this one is from 2.5" blocks. Any size would work but I liked them best as little blocks. I can do a tutorial if any one wants..

How many L/E style projects do you have?

Momma says - don't forget that tomorrow is the next Bibliophile Files!!!!

i DO remember how to use my sewing machine!

Just so all y'all know - I thought I would share a few recent projects, proving that I  DO remember how to use my Bernina!

I've made a few more leader/ender basket blocks. There is actually another one almost done and several more cut out ready to be stitched. You're probably thinking that something looks a little different with my basket blocks...that's because I am throwing in a few odd ball baskets just to keep it interesting. I know - I'm easily amused!

In the box is the 60+ finished baskets just to show you the different baskets. It's super easy to switch out a 4 patch for a HST to come up with a really different look.

I've also been participating in Pam Buda's Market Day SAL and just finished up week three's blocks. Good timing since #4 is posted tomorrow. Since I had them out for a photo, I thought I would play with some layout ideas. Top left is my favorite. Maybe I should mention I am making the mini size: each of these blocks is 2" unfinished.

Now, don't forget to come back this Saturday for the next HeLP for Hexie-aholics linky party to remind yourself again just how much I am addicted to hexies!!! :)  Cya then!

Basket blocks!

Having worked on mugrugs over the weekend meant I also got to work on my leader/ender basket blocks. At times I did have to remind myself not to use the mugrug itself as a leader/ender. LOL!

I was able to finish another five 4.5" baskets over the weekend.

Yes, the photobomber had to be bribed with food but only cuz he had been naughty
and didn't want to get near Momma who might still have a squirt bottle.

This brings my grand total to 63 blocks so far. It's now officially time to find a bigger (prettier?) box to store them in. I wonder if they would fit in the large hurricane jar I have? They might get dusty but visually it would remind me to work on them...

No, I don't keep a jar of medium salsa on my cutting table...
it's a recycled jar of jelly beans :)

Bad news for the day? I wore the wrong glasses and my eyes are going wonky. See, I have an older pair of glasses where the lenses are pretty small - they allow me to look thru them to see the tv well enough and under them to do handwork perfectly. I forgot to switch back to my regular glasses before going to work...ugh.

Baskets Galore!

Look Ma - no hexies!
Janet - you're gonna like this one!

This is probably the last sorta-retreat related post. One of the projects I continued to work on was my 4" basket blocks. Some were made as leader-enders and some were just an easy sewing fix to keep me sane. I'm so easy to please.

You can see the blue unfinished block is on my little design board. It's just a small clip board with  a piece of batting that has been attached at the bottom with that elastic stuff that ties new shoes together. High class!

When the blue one is finished I will have 59 baskets.

Maybe this view is a little more impressive? I now need a bigger box to store them in!

Ok - here is where I need your help...
(1) My goal with the baskets has always been to make a bed quilt in either of these styles. But do you like the vertical or horizontal zigzags better? Try to discount the pink and green alternating zigzags cuz mine will just be one color.
(2) A lot of you know that I can't stand pink - what color should I use for my zigzags? Solid or patterned? I have really used *every* color of the rainbow in the blocks so any color would really work, it's just that I tend towards the same colors given the choice.  You probably do the same. I'm just looking for random suggestions. I thought about using a neutral for the zigzags but I don't think they would show up since the blocks are neutrals as well.
(3) Anyone have a good way to draw this up in EQ7? I have tried an onpoint setting but it just doesn't look quite right yet and I have yet to get the zig zag sections drawn the way they will be sewn (they draw as half triangles instead of full triangles. I'm sorry I left that graphic at home...

As always - your thoughts and opinions are appreciated :)

Design Wall Monday

Sew...retreat #1 is over. Sadly, I neglected to take any pictures of the weekend - maybe this coming weekend when I help out again. I was able to spend a couple hours there Thursday after work and then late Saturday morning, overnight to late Sunday! Did I finish everything I brought with me or even work on everything? No but I think I made quite a bit of progress.

Over the course of the last week, I've finished 4 of these rosettes.

I made 8 more of these birthday blocks...I'm waiting on 1 more from a friend and then I have all 16 of these done.

I made 8 of these connector blocks. They probably look a little dull but I am going to put pieced hexie rosettes in the center. Next weekend I'll start work on the pieced setting triangles, center block and finish the pieced borders.

I also finally got back in to my leaderEnder basket blocks. Hard to get many done when everything can be chain pieced so I admit to cheating a little and just out and out piecing two of these. Promise not to tell!

And someone, altho Zorro shall remain nameless, was a little unhappy at my absence. I cringed Sunday morning when I remembered I hadn't locked up the box. It wasn't a lack of food issue as I had left out enough for 2 days (I was gone a whole 26 hours!) plus more "hidden" about the house that could be hunted down. The regular bowls were empty but the extra was barely eaten. I don't think any of this pile was even eaten so I'll go with Claudia's conclusion that he just needed the challenge. Someone is just too smart for his own britches!! Silly Dude....

Retreat Report #4

I promise this is the last retreat report and it's kind of random leftovers at that...

In response to several comments yesterday hoping to see my Easy Street border fabrics:

The border colors are so rich that they should pick out the same colors
in the quilt center which kind of recede behind the lime green.



The retreat was held at Camp Asbury on Silver Lake, a whopping 3 or 4 miles from my house, but there were people from up to 50 miles away as well as an attendees friend from Florida - she had fun in the snow! My previous experience at Asbury had only been for 3 rescue calls - and 2 of those were for quilt retreats. Luckily we didn't need an ambulance during our retreat!

Another project I worked on was my 4" leader-ender baskets. I kitted up quite a few blocks before the retreat but 90% of what I was working on was kind of self-leader-endering (new word!!) so I didn't get many made during retreat. Instead, I have been trucking away at them since and now have 10 more blocks done for a total of 40. Once I figure out how to do the layout I want in EQ I can determine how many more I need to make. I hope it's a lot because I really enjoy making them...

Ok, you know I had to bring some hexies with me but I didn't make much progress...and I didn't even take a picture for you because it's the same ole hexagon puzzle project. Tomorrow is hexie night at my LQS so I should make some good progress. My goal is to have this project done by the end of March. Keep your fingers crossed.

Baskets!

I finally finished quilting and binding my basket quilt! Woohoo!

This is Matilda, my doll from the early 1970's in my mother's toy high chair from the 40s or 50s. Any one have ideas on how to clear up "cataracts" and nappy hair? Nothing I have tried has worked really well.

I've enjoyed making these 4" blocks so much they are my current leader ender project. I have about 25 blocks made of the basket on the lower left and pieces already cut for a dozen more. I am debating on making some of the other blocks to mix in or just sticking with all the same block.


Don't forget next week is HeLP for Hexie-a-holics. Get your hexie projects out and let us know what you are working on next Wednesday, 10/17/12.

MishMash

Today is a mishmash of the other things I worked on over the weekend...

These are the snappy pouches I am making for the bazaar this weekend. Once the fabric is all paired up and all the parts are trimmed to size they are super simple to put together. I need to borrow Dad's tin snips to trim the tape measure and then I can get them finished up Friday.

You might remember some time ago I started a leader/ender I'm calling 4+16 for lack of anything better. Blogger is telling me that I have no posts with that label but that's not true...and I don't have time to go find them...

While trimming fabrics for other projects I have been throwing 1.5" and 2.5" blue and white strips in a bin. As the leader/ender over the weekend I sewed some of the strips together (there is still a set under the needle), subcut them and pinned them. They now sit on top of my Bernina ready to be sewn leader/ender style another day.

My 4" basket blocks are also a leader/ender project using just about any fabric as long as it's a kinda small scale. I've also been trimming fabrics into 1.5" and 2.5" strips for this as I go along and I was able to put together one whole block over the weekend.

This block is for a BOM I am teaching. The gold stands out a little more than I like but it is what it is. I still need to write the directions and make 2 more blocks. Just something else to fit into my crazy schedule...

Bitty Basket Blocks

You may recall my recent obsession with basket blocks thanks to the sew-a-long at http://temeculaquiltco.blogspot.com/. When working on those blocks I had one left over after one of the browns I chose didn't play well with the others. I set the block aside and hoped to someday make more, maybe even enough for a large(r) quilt.

In reviewing pictures from my trip to Houston last fall, I even discovered that the one basket quilt that caught my attention was a slight variation on the same block.

All this to say that this past weekend I got the urge to make more baskets!!!

I started by just picking a few 1.5" strips out of the scrap bins to make a couple blocks but when I realized there was really nothing else I wanted to work on over the weekend, I cut up a lot of "kits." All this cutting also meant that I could be cutting neutrals for my current blue/white leader-ender and neutral arrowhead projects at the same time. wootwoot. :)

I now have 10 baskets made and kits are ready for 5 more. You can see a stack of neutrals in the next shot - just a smidgeon of my collection. If I were to admit to collecting any kind of fabric it would be neutrals as they seem to be in 99% of my projects.

Ever on the hunt to organize all 1 million seven hundred and seventy seven projects I have going...the finished blocks have been put in this candy dish and the kits are in a muffin tin. And yes, Midgie was bribed for this shot :)

Anyone want to make basket blocks with me? I can post a tutorial on how I make these with the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers...

Design Wall Monday - 4/2/12

Last Thursday, the 5th Thursday in March, brought the 5th and final basket block at Temecula Quilts.

They were going to post the quilt layout on Friday so I waited to make the last block. I had originally intended to just pull random brown-ish fabrics from my stash for each block but one of the browns was more golden and stuck out like a sore thumb. Depending on the layout, I could make the 5th block so it was more like the sore thumb or I could remake the block.

I decided to remake the block and of course, that leaves me with a lone block to make into a little quilt. Dad is making me a mini quilt hangar so I think that is probably what I'll do.

Not sure that my model appreaciated this but the colors matched :)

The bottom left block is the remade block and the bottom right block is the 5th/new block. I used a brown batik for the 5th block and I really like how most of the pattern shows up in the base of the basket.

The backing is a cream and brown flower print with tiny white pin dots. The colors match perfect. What I haven't decided is what to use for the binding. I might have enough of the setting triangles and I definitely have enough of the red, turquoise or purple. I suppose I could even use the backing fabric.

Now here's a coincidence...or is it fate?!
Janet - are you reading this?!
I remembered from Houston last year that there was a basket quilt that I adored...which was weird because I never really liked basket quilts before Houston. Unfortunately, my camera battery was fading and I didn't take a lot of pictures...just an overall that turned out to be out of focus and a closeup to see how the block was made. Anything look familiar?

Yup!! Essentially it's the same block as the one I remade for the doll quilt. Her seams are in different places but it's essentially the same. I am dying to make more of this block (It was my fav of the 5) and now I'm trying to decide on colors, how big I want the quilt, should I could I maybe do some kind of swap?!

Here's another coincidence...
Michelle - are you reading this?!
Just a few pictures after I took the basket quilt photos was this quilt. It's the rose star EPP that I want to make next. Oh, why didn't I take a photo of the whole quilt? Anyone out there who went to Houston have a photo of the whole quilt they would be willing to share?

Isn't it funny how those random pictures would be so meaningful just a few months later? I better go thru the other pictues again and see what else I was drawn to...

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I can't wait for tomorrow's last basket block at Temecula Quilt Company...

Last weeks basket is at the bottom of this picture.

Design Wall Monday - 3/19/12

Other than some pressing and cutting scraps into strips, this was about all the sewing I accomplished this weeekend. Aren't they just adorable? Each block finishes at just 4" and I converted all the directions to use with my Easy Angle and scraps. Hmm...that would be a good quilt name: "Scrap Baskets."

The blocks are part of a 5 week sew along at Temecula Quilt Co - a new block is posted each Thursday in March and I am guessing the final layout will be revealed at the end of the month. Looks like it will be doll quilt sized and I plan to use this for my March doll quilt.

Thanks Janet for telling me about the SAL! I think I'll be making more of these...