October sewing...looks like I am really back now!

I have been at the sewing machine for three days in a row. Well actually one day was just cleaning the machine and changing the needle.
I started slow. I was not sure how I would feel. I have been denying myself the sewing because I was in mourning for my cat Macy's death. A death that I made the final decision on. A death that I had to carry out. A death that seems to have broken me a bit. But a death that could not be avoided. A death that was a mercy for her. A death that I had to assume the broken heart for myself to help her.
Enough...I am better. I am.

I got my little Leader & Ender container out and sewed all the 3 1/2" BowTie blocks together. This was all I had prepped. I have more cheddar 2" squares cut but no more calicos cut. I am guessing that this will be all it will be and will get it sewn together tomorrow. Then I look at the two extra blocks on point over there and my head is designing. Hummmm...maybe I will wait and look at them for awhile.

And before I sewed I moved all the furniture out, used my new Shark Rotator vacumm, washed the windows and the curtains and then put all the sewing furniture back but in Winter mode. I am facing the picture window again. I cannot do this during the Summer as the sun is way too strong and I have this issue with bright light in my eyes.

I won a gift basket through FaceBook. I had to go get a prize form notarized and was thinking maybe I had won a longarm machine. But no, a few days later a box arrived that was full of goodies! One of the goodies was a white box that had 6 spools of SO Fine threads. How did they know that is my favorite bobbin thread??? I even have the color charts and have the numbers checked off that I have purchased. A couple of the colors were ones that I have but hey!!! A gal can never have too much thread. Thanks so much APQS!!!!

And I also sewed on this monster of a green quilt. I used the free Sister's Choice from Bonnie Hunter's website. (www.quiltville.com)
There are no repeats of greens in all the blocks. I need to get the backing made and then off to the quilter lady with this one.

And there is Maggie Mae helping me. She LOVES those measuring tapes. I have to keep them in the drawer. She loves to bite them. She is scheduled for her Lion cut on Wednesday.

And here is the Lucky kitty helping me. The trick is to lay on anything Subee seems to be picking up. Could be the book. Could be the tray could be the blocks she is hiding.
XOXOXO Subee

James' and my loss of a great companion.

It seems like only a couple years ago (not eleven) when we brought Our Macy Gray home.
She talked to us the whole way home. She was not upset just very vocal. And she stayed that way. We could always count on Macy to talk to us. She understood human talk. She could even spell. We tried to understand cat talk and I think my husband and I understood her very well.

She was a Tortie Point Oriental Shorthair. She was the Alpha cat in our home from nearly day one.

She was always a shoulder kitty even though she weighed 12 pounds!!!

And she started off so tiny. This picture was taken the first night home.
She was twelve weeks old.

This is a photo of her mother, Abby. They looked so much alike.

If you have made it this far into my post then you have read that I used the past tense in referring to Macy.
We lost her yesterday. She was only eleven. We had hoped for at least 20 years with this wonderful cat.
XOXOXO Subee

Still Hexing away!!!

Here is my progress on the Fussy Cut Hexie quilt.
As I am working on it, it seems I make such little progress. Then I slap it up on the wall, take a picture and am so pleased that it makes all the work worthwhile!

It has taken me a week of some serious TV watching and hand sewing to get to this point. I was watching Downton Abby and then all the seasons for Game of Thrones. Love having cable when they do "Watchathons". But I also made two baby afghans (crocheting). What I work on depends on where I am sitting. HA!!!!

I received my newest issue of Quiltmaker magazine and another of Bonnie Hunter's famous friends (who I met at a quilting retreat) is also featured in this issue!!!
I have Mickey Depre's set of Hexie Templates and her new book. They are both fabulous!

There are not many times that I can get two of my four cats in a photo. On the left is MaggieMae who weighs in at a scant 9 lbs. And on the right is Macy Gray who weighs in at 12 lbs. They are both tortie points. Love the straight white lines on their little faces!!!! Maggie is a Himalayan and Macy is a Siamese Color point. Maggie has a hair appointment next week to get her Spring shave. She and I cannot wait. She gets her tongue stuck in her chest fur. It is funny and so sad.

In love again with Hexagons & Eye Fooler Quilt is done!!!

First off I have to say I am so very sorry to the HGTV group. I resigned from their swap. I had many good reasons.

The biggest one was that the hostess says she is deathly allergic to cats and their fur. I have four cats. Okay...I can deal with that. Clean clothes every time I sit down to sew. I used a lint roller to remove any hair from the chair I am going to sit in. I yelled at the cats to leave me alone while sewing. They did not understand.

I bought new papers for the swap from her suggested site. 1200 of them. I worked in a factory that had a metal stamping department. I understand about sharp dies and slag. The papers had such rough edges from a dull die that I was worried that the hostess would not accept the hexies from me for this reason. This is a issue that was NOT my fault.

I have a lot of fabric. But had to look at my fabrics with a new eye. Not  many had small enough designs to meet her criteria. And she also said no batiks...arrgggg. Half of my fabric collection is batiks. But I spent an anxious two weeks pulling enough fabrics for the 1st swap. I found all I needed. Thanks goodness I did not cut into them yet.

Then there were basting rules. I baste all behind the paper and not through it so I do not have to remove any basting when sewing together. She wanted all basting to be through the papers. And not only that but she wants them basted exactly as she had shown on her blog. Okay...I sewed for two weeks using her method. I kept her blog photos in front of me trying to make mine look exactly like hers. So slow....

The more I grumbled at the cats and complained about the basting through the papers, my husband had enough..."isn't the best part of sewing the "joy" of the journey?" he says. Yes...he was so right.
I wrote to her and told her the reasons I was resigning. She wrote back accepting my resignation.
Me? A weight has been lifted.

I  am working on an early hexie project. Little fussy cut sewing machines surrounded by fussy cut little kitties surrounded by my lovely batiks.

I had these already done. And I was able to sit in my furry chair with a warm kitty at my side and totally enjoy the process. I even let my work touch my body!!!
No contamination here!!!!

My Eye Fooler is done. I did some investigation on this pattern. It used to be called "Sparky". Check my earlier posts. The designer is still at the same address and is still offering the pattern.
http://quailvalleyquilts.com/eye-fooler/
The designer contacted me and this pattern is still available.

I want to make another one. But I am going to reduce the unit sizes. I need to go through and do the math. This is one big quilt!!!! Yet I loved the whole process.

As I enjoyed making the East Street designed by Our Bonnie Hunter. I am no longer afraid of patterns that have more than 1000,2000,3000  pieces.
Who cares how many????

We have been without a home phone for nearly a whole month. Turns out it was some squirrel damage. It had to have been the backyard squirrels as my front yard squirrels are very well fed.

This is Macy and my DH. Macy hates cold weather. She has her own heating pad. It usually sits on hubby's desk and she stays right there with him. He swears that she was trying to drag it to the couch yesterday. So he helped her. She is not spoiled at all.

And here is sweet Pearl. She looks so nice against a pink quilt. I am sure she practices looking deep asleep. Love her stripes!!!
XOXOXOxo Subee

Second Easy Street completed.

I am totally in love with this color scheme of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street pattern.
I had to remove one offending 31/2" square this morning. Somehow two of the same fabric made it all the way through final row assembly before I noticed that they were side by side. DH said to leave it...but I decided to replace it. If it would have been a more subtle fabric I might have left them together. But it was the hot pink leopard that simply just screamed at me!!!
So I fixed it and sewed the final seam this morning.

Right now it measures 65" square. I have a nice piece of pinky-brown batik that I will add as the 1 1/2"  outer border...then I may add a bunch of the extra 4-patches around it then add some of that marvelous striped border that I out on my Minkee backed quilt.

I use a piece of batting to lay out my blocks as a removable unit if I get interrupted from sewing. I can simply fold the batting over the pieces and put it away and they stay put.

I have LOTS of extra pieces. Someday they will become another pink/brown quilt!

I have so much help while sewing. Each of my four kitties has to try to claim the batting as a great resting area.

I have the best husband. He is a wheeler/dealer. He found a used bass amp that I can lift!!! It weighs only 35 pounds. We had to drive a little over an hour to go buy it. But it was quality alone time for us.

Macy (on the right) has the rewarding job of moving any kitty so she can steal their heated sleeping spot. For one of the other kitties to remain after she attempts the steal is nothing but amazing! So I had to photograph this episode as evidence that they all can share.
Macy and Pearl came from the same breeder. But different breeding lines of course. I really feel confident buying from this breeder. The cats are raised underfoot in their home and are people lovers.
Happy Sunday everyone.
Bonnie Hunter is doing a quiltcam in 15 minutes!!!
XOXOXOXO Subee

One spoiled Siamese named Macy Gray

Poor Macy...she suffers so when the colder weather hits. She can tolerate summer when we have the air conditioning on...she goes to the warm garage. But now that winter is here she craves deep warmth.
So, out comes the old heating pad. If a cat can hug a flat object, she can!!! Here she is on my Hubby's computer desk. She will sit on the pad and scream for it to be turned on. We also move it around the room for her. No she is not too spoiled!!

I feel that the backside of your patchwork should be neat and straight too. And if it is the front side will be even better!!!

I have the 4 triangle #1's done. And eight (8) of the twelve (12) triangles #2 done.
I was surprised to see clue #7 posted today. No complaints here!!!

I lay a "master" plan on a piece of batting and use that as my guide. I have folded it away for tonight and will finish the last four (4) triangles tomorrow.

Perhaps three years ago when Bonnie Hunter's first book came out, I made my bed quilt. I called it Batik Virginia Stars. It is retired from the bed right now because I have my log cabin quilt on the bed.
I was going through a drawer where I have all of Kaye England's rulers and patterns. And I found 12 more blocks. In as little as an hour I have the above small lap quilt pieced into a lap size quilt!!! WHOOHOOO!!! I was watching the newer King Kong movie. Naomi Watts is so beautiful!!!

I am finally getting the hang of my bread machine. I have been making two loaves a week. It smells so good when it is baking!!! And makes the best french toast!!!

And here was another find while searching for greens. 24 star blocks with a Dan Morris kitty fussy cut as the centers. One of my swappers actually sent me more of this fabric so I cut one center block and voila' another lap size quilt to join the LONG line of quilts that need quilted!!!

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!!!!!

Tulip Fields is all done!

All done. Labeled,quilted and bound.
It took me three days to machine quilt it. It is only 64" square. But there are many seams and I wanted to make sure the string piecing had plenty of quilting to keep it intact. DD#1 washes her quilts a lot! This will be her Christmas present.

I cannot thank Our Bonnie Hunter (www.quiltville.com) enough for this beautiful pattern. It can be found in her newest book entitled String Fling.

Our Macy Gray is a sleeping spot stealer. She intimidates through glances and getting way too close for comfort. If she would just lay down next to her victims she could gather their heat too. But no.....

She wants it all!!!!

Poor MaggieMae.

She no longer has her heavy fur coat.

And my gigantic Log Cabin quilt is back from the long arm quilter and is all bound. I am waiting to put it on my bed. I want to take it to the next guild meeting for Show & Tell.

Log Cabin quilt with 1" strips

Here is my Edyta Sitar inspired Log Cabin quilt. I made this with 1" strips. So after both sides are sewn there is only 1/2" showing! The blocks in the corner are just some string pieced blocks. The border fabric was a leftover from eons ago. I found it in the bottom of a basket where it must have been waiting for 10+ years!

The quilt is a sweet 24" square. A perfect size for a kitty!

 I quilted each and every log. Despite it's small size it seemed to take forever to quilt it. But when I was done I was more than pleased with the end results.

 Pearl approved!!!

 A sewing machine cover???? front view

 A sewing machine cover? back view

  And here is the result of my Thangles journey. These are all batiks. I actually used every single pin in that pin cushion when prepping these for sewing!!!
I am now working on some Reproduction fabrics with varied backgrounds. After sewing just one line on the paper I am not too pleased with how these fabrics are behaving. They were pressed prior to sewing so there should be no stretching involved. Perhaps I had the stitch length too short. But the Batiks behaved well with that same setting.
I will let you all know the results of some tweaking the settings.

 I am the Hostess for the blue 2 1/2" swap on the Yahoo groups connected with Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville group. Here is the result of major pressing,cutting and packaging. A good collection of washed blue scraps and of course some blue strings for my collection!!!! WHOOHOOO!!

 I enjoy watching the Smithsonian channel. And so does MaggieMae. Honest, I found this show through the guide today. We have watched it maybe 3 or 4 times. As soon as I change the channel, here comes MaggieMae. She loves King Fishers! It must be their song on the soundtrack. She tries to get inside the TV!!! I pray that she does not knock the TV off the stand. I really like the fact that TVs are lighter. But it does make them much more of a tip danger for children and pets.

This is Macy's favorite place to nap. She has it sooooo rough!!!!

XOXOXOXO Subee