July swap is all done!

July swap is all done!

I confess that I am OCD. I am proudly OCD.
Most of my factory working life I spent in shipping departments. I love counting. I love number combinations. And as a lead person I trained new people. I sure could tell who was not able to do the job. I do not know why I am saying this. I guess I wanted to share my love of counting.

Every package was opened and counted. I had 9 swappers + myself.
Easy peasy...some sent 2 sets some sent 3. I played 4 times...
except I came up 20 packages short. So I pulled 20 from my own pile and fixed the one basket that was short.
Now I am putting the swap into their respective envelopes then remembered that one swapper only swapped 5 sets! HA! I was right all along.
So funny!!!
Something like this would have major freaked me out. I have noticed that since I have been on thyroid meds that I am coping so much better with the blows that life throws at me. I get a blood test this month and then will see the Endocrinologist to see how I am doing.

Here is my Bess helping with the hexie sewing. She claims my left hip as her territory all the time. And she is so sweet that she asks first before jumping up.

Bella claims my feet/legs. Sometimes she is between my legs and other times she is also on my left side.

Here are the 200+ fabrics I ran through the Accucut. And the basket is full of my strips. This was taken a few weeks ago. But I had not posted about it.

I have 171 pink hexies with cheddar centers done. I may make them into diamonds. The two extra hexies are under each flower. I am using 3/4" hexie papers. I was punching all my hexies from junk mail and those postcards in magazines. I took a chance and bought a ream of 67# cardstock vellum. Perfect weight for hexies. Not as stiff as regular and purchased hexie papers. I bought pale gray so I can tell the difference without too much worry.
XOXOXOXO
Subee
Postage stamp swap hostess!

April is a new awakening of mind and spirit

I am trying so very hard. And it seems to be working. Positive vibes are, at times, hard to hold on to. But the good times seems to be more and more.

Part of this positive feeling is from spending 3 days with my quilt guild at a retreat in Shipshewana Indiana. Food and fabric and relaxation. Two very special friends are so very important to me now. I am glad I opened my heart and let them in.

I am also trying to feel happy about the impending warmer weather. I am a Winter/Fall type of person. I hate bugs and sweating.

What do you think of this yarn bowl? Isn't she precious? This was created by:
Something Lucky 13. The art of Lucky Stradley. I found her on Facebook but had to order through her Etsy shop. And all the art is named and numbered. My yarn bowl is named Callia. She was born on January 14, 2016.

I had the choice of where the yarn exits the bowl. I decided on the nose and not the teeth. The yarn moves smoothly against the ceramic surface.

Here is a photo of my sweet Bess...we love torties. She is covered in our own home grown catnip. Yep! She is happy.

This is my shaded 9 patch. It has been a Leader and Ender's project this winter.

MaggieMae and Bella snoozing together. It will not last long. Maggie will leave in a huff. All poor Bella wants to do is cuddle. She gives Maggie a great deal of respect. I am sure that soon they will be sleep pardners.

Tumbler quilts...I now have 4 made. As I was looking for another item I ran across my container with precut-tumbers in 4" and 2" sizes. All ready in foursies ready for row piecing.  Loved those templates...

XOXOXOXO Subee

My Janome 6600P has died.

I was innocently sewing along and my Janome 6600P started squeaking (high pitched) and then the warning sign came on and she froze up.
I opened her up and could not see what was wrong. The handwheel could barely move. I clean the bobbin area every two bobbins. I am OCD that way.
The quilt I was working on needed to be done ASAP.
So I got my Singer XL1000 embroidery machine out and finished the quilt.
Not fun as the features I love on the Janome do not exist on the Singer.

Today I took her to the dealer for an exam and hopefully a repair that will not cost an arm and a leg. It will be 10 days before I hear from them. Bummer. And I was bowled over with sticker shock on the new Janome 8900.

So...I set up my 1932 Featherweight (her name is Sissy). She fits in the cabinet almost perfectly. And I can maintain a good 1/4" seam width with her.
I oiled and greased her and she is purring away.

Lucky "helping" me quilt on the Singer XL1000.

We are all in love with those thread doilies. I whipped up one for me in less than an hour. Easy peasy. My first love has always been crochet.

Unfortunately Lucky Lucy has found the design wall. Not good...not good!
These leftover "wrong" blocks from my Dancing 9-patch fit this panel perfectly. So I have a bonus quilt that will go to GGS's brother in October.

Hubby likes this design. I am not sure. I want it to be much bigger as I have made 82 blocks and this is only 36 of them.

I like the Straight Furrows set. Much easier to make bigger...

Evidence that the older kitties are accepting Lucky Lucy. This is Bess. I do not know who was there first. I guess it does not matter.
XOXOXOXO Subee

String "H" blocks

Nita,

Since I have been the hostess for the washed swaps on Yahoo (2+ years) I do wash the fabrics I swap.

I always wash batiks before using them in a quilt.

Most of my scraps are now a mix of washed and unwashed. Most of the strings are from my past WASHED swaps.

Well, I have went and done it again. I am hooked on another version of string blocks. The versatility and fabric/stash busting value of string blocks just cannot be beat!!!

And yes, that is my version of Jamestown Landing being assembled. I have a bad habit of making ALL the units for a quilt and then putting all them away in a box. This has been sitting and waiting for assembly ever since the pattern came out. (designer is Our Bonnie Hunter of course)

In an effort to find any pitfalls of making these blocks I became a guinea pig. I consider myself a competent string block maker. But this 45 degree angle can make you cut your strip off too short if you try to eyeball the edge before folding the strip out.
I eliminated most of that issue by cutting my foundation papers a bit larger than Michele Foster has in her tutorial.
http://quiltinggallery.com/2013/02/20/tutorial-scrappy-herringbone-quilt-block/

Michele was trying to be frugal with her expensive leave-in foundation papers. We are not using those type of foundations. We are using removable papers. And telephone book pages are free!!!! So I cut my foundations 4" X 8.5" instead of 3.5" X 8.5" as Michele recommends. Problem solved.
And by cutting this way I can get a matched set of lefties and righties all ready for sewing.
Note to self...use a waste piece of paper under foundations to avoid pencil marks on the cutting mat.

  They look so rough before trimming!!!!

 And so nice when done!!!

String piecing can be messy. And I have one cat who is bound and determined to kill herself by eating threads. She knows I am watching her watch me for any lapse in my concentration on just where she is at during the sewing process. This is the same cat who ate two quilting needles with quilting thread attached. The thread wound around the base of her tongue and the needles lodged in her stomach. She had to have abdominal surgery to fix this...my fault. It will never happen again if I can help it!!!

Another perfect loaf of wheat bread came out of the bread machine. 

 XOXOOXOXOXO Subee

Easy Street clue#5 complete

As with all of these clues, this clue was super easy. And Our Bonnie Hunter has still got me guessing as to the layout of this mystery quilt!!!
Many quilters are making this mystery quilt. Check them out on Bonnie's blog:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html

I do not usually buy fabric at Walmart. I do buy batting and yarn there. And then I spotted lots of the limey greens that Our Bonnie is using. I had to buy some as this is NOT a color I have in my stash. I was also very lucky and a clerk was close by and did a great job of cutting some off each bolt!!!

What a Christmas surprise from my wonderful husband, James Mohr. He bought me a drop dead gorgeous burgundy U-Bass. It is very small and light but packs the same punch as a full sized bass guitar. But the strings are kind to these old fingertips and the guitar fits my hand and fingers perfectly. How am I to sew and practice bass at the same time??? I still need to clone me!

I have a small amp to practice with. I am going to set this up real close to my sewing machine so I can sit in my sewing chair and still practice, practice, practice!

When I am too tired to sew at the machine I pick up a crochet hook and make some baby afghans. Dear Granddaughter #3 is expecting. We do not know the sex of the baby so I am using a multicolored yarn that will be okay no matter which sex it turns out to be. But with a plethora of great-grandsons, we are all hoping for a girl!!!

I finished my Subee's Stars quilt. Bess is inspecting my workmanship.

XOXOXOXOXO Subee

Easy Street Clue#3 finished & Subee's Stars quilt

Both colorways are complete for Easy Street clue#3. I loved making these units. I used scrappy pinks and browns for my colorway#2. But turquoise is not in my stash in a great amount. But...I had an entire bolt of this RJR turquoise fabric. I have used it many times with my Laurel Burch collection (original fabrics from eons ago) and it worked. I love the purple and blue together!!! We have to give it up to Our Bonnie Hunter...she is a genius with colors!

I added this photo to this post today (Monday). I had to have DH hold it up for a picture. I am soooooo very pleased with how this turned out.
But what will I sew on now????

Now on to my own design...I was going to set them on point...didn't happen.
Then remembered my one big block that was an experiment that never made it to a big quilt. I was going to do a kitty size quilt but...the colors were all from the same scrap basket. Check them out...but they do not quite fit around the center block. But I did not discover this until I had sashed and sewn both sides on...reverse sewing was needed...
The center block was made from 2 1/2" HST. And my star blocks are made from 2" HST. But I made it work!!!

WHOHOOO!!!! Loving this...I have more blocks to add but needed to take a break. I sewed for 12 hours today. Hubby bought pizza so I did not have to cook. What a great man!!!

I love the stripe that I used as a spacer strip. It lends itself to so many projects. I do not know what I will do when it runs out!!! I reach for it so often.

I have four cats. And I take lots of pictures of them. But how often can I catch one with her tongue out??? Here is Bess's tongue!!!

XOXOXOXO Subee

Quilt for Leslie's baby boy!

I found some baseball blocks made in the Yellow Brick Road pattern. They were leftovers from a gifted quilt eons ago. My niece, Leslie, is awaiting the arrival of her first child. It is a baby boy. And I thought these blocks would be perfect for her. I also had these two pillow panels. So I combined them to make a nice sized (65" square) quilt.

I simply did some diagonal quilting across the entire body of the quilt.
Blue star flannel as backing. (I pre-washed it since flannel shrinks so much)

I also used Quilters' Dream Puff for the first time. I love it's silkiness and the loft is nice and even across the batting. I can see an entire roll of this batting in my near future. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Macy and Bess just had to test drive the flannel I used on the back. They promise to not leave any cat fur on the quilt. Ya...right...you two BAD kitties. I also used the flannel for the binding. So with the combination of Puff loft batting, flannel on the back and flannel binding, it was a bear to get the binding on. But I did. The corners turned nicely. And the fold of binding is full of batting!!!!!

From the leftovers come another quilt!!!!!

I finished the guild's Mystery quilt. When doing that tricky pieced border I ended up with some really nice units that were too nice to throw away.
I also harvested some from the end of the mitered border strips to end up with enough to make these 4 blocks below:

 I added some sashings and corner stones and now have a 38" little topper that I am sure the kitties will enjoy snuggling on. I am sure they will because they helped put it all together during the sewing process. HA!
Another reason I made this is I was wanting to use up the backing I had pieced for the first quilt. This little one will take up the leftover backing with almost no waste!!!
WHOOHOO!

The leftover borders pieces are in the left top pile. I just added some more little pieces and had a lot of fun not knowing what I was making or how it would finish.

 Voila' a nice little block. Made three more and I now have the topper done.

My birthday is tomorrow. My Secret Quilting Sister gave me my present at the last guild meeting. Everyone knows how I love neutrals. I actually do not have any of these fabrics already! Too cool! And check out those kitty scissors!!! Too cute!

I am so blessed with great quilting friends to help me celebrate my birthday! My only complaint this year is the time change falls on Saturday evening. Bummer! I do not like the Savings Time method of keeping time. It is a pain! Messes with my internal clock and the kitties' clock too. They are soooooo predictable.

 Above is my sweet Bess. 

She loves to eat thread and sometimes there are needles attached. 

I have learned my lesson but she has not even after a $$$$$ abdominal surgery to remove two quilting needles w/ threads still attached!!!

And MaggieMae is so overdue for a haircut.

She is a tiny kitty but looks so big with all that fur attached!!!

Catnip sachets and an UNWELCOMED visitor

Last Fall, Hubby and I harvested our own catnip. We hung it upside down in the garage to dry over the Winter.
This Spring I cleaned it and got that huge pickle jar full of homegrown catnip.

I ended up making 75 catnip sachets just from scrap cat fabrics. I donated all sachets but one to a Steam and Engine show in our area this August.

Of course I had catnip sachet testers during the construction phase.

Bess is very, very happy!!!!

And we had an unwelcomed visitor during the sewing phase.

This female beautiful black cat comes around a couple times a week. There is not a white hair on her. She has all her claws. And I see no signs that she has any kittens. I hope she is well cared for by a home around here. But they should NOT let cats roam here in the city. It breaks my heart.

She seems tame and allows us to pet her. I see no fleas or ear mites. She also has no desire for food offered. She just sits in my birdfeeder and irritates my Macy. Macy growls and gets puffy tail. She eventually gets hoarse from growling. The black cat is totally unaffected by Macy's display.