Sunbeam hot iron case

WHOOOHOOOO!
My hot iron case came today.
Our hero Bonnie Hunter blogged about this item and I must have been quick enough because I got the last one off Amazon!!!!
Hubby is doubtful about this item because it is made of plastic. I explained about the silicone interior...men!
I am heading for a retreat this weekend but I am only bringing hand work. Yet I am sure this case will still come in quite handy. I can also see me storing an iron in it here at home. Lots of possibilities.

I have my Great Grandson's quilt all sewn. I have the backing pinned into the quilting frame but have not pinned this up for quilting yet. I thought I had a good chunk of Minkee for the back but it is way too small. So I am going to use some turquoise polka dot fleece.
And as usual I have made way too many blocks. I can make another quilt exactly as the one below...what to do......
This quilt is 54" square.

Maggie Mae got her summer haircut yesterday. She never napped at all after returning home. She can lick places previously unreachable. She is such a happier kitty now. She is also trying to squeeze into places she should not be...we have created a monster!!!

How could I not take a photo of Pearl when she poses so sweetly. Our precious Pearl Piwacket. (from the movie Bell, Book and Candle)

This is one of the hand projects I am taking to retreat. I want this to be done so I can begin another Hexie project. I am loving this process...

XOXOXOOXOXOX 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.

Fussy cut Hexagon quilt top progress

I cannot begin to tell you all how thrilled I am with the progress I have made on this hexagon venture. I have been making the large rosettes for months. And since I started this a few years ago and then stopped, it is really an old UFO!

I started assembling the quilt today. Look what I have done! I love it! I really like the gray fabric in there. It gives the eye a place to rest against all the batiks.
Although this looks like it will be a circle quilt, I am aiming for a rectangle. But then some quilts have a life of their own and tell you what shape they will be.

DH just shook his head and said I was crazy to be doing this. I admit I am a bit odd but so far this has simply been a labor of love.

In the beginning it looks like a spoke wheel. Or a starfish. Then I just set the batik rosettes inside each arm making sure my little sewing machine was upright. I know I have made this a bit harder for assembly but I love those little Singer Featherweight emblems.

On the brown and pink quilt, I added a dark brown border and it suddenly said it was finished! I have the backing already pinned in the frame and am ready to baste this up for quilting. The binding is made too.
I have a new candy love: Lifesaver Jellybeans! Oh boy!! Had to go and buy more before they are all gone. Was 5  bags enough?????? When those are gone...Easter candy will be but a memory.
XOXOXOXO Subee

A pink and brown quilt top has been born!

Wow! What a joyous ride this quilt has been. It literally flew from my fingers. It did not ever feel like work.
Granted mine is only 54" square and the one Bonnie Hunter showed was mammoth!
 But...I have enough blocks to make another one!

Then border decisions needed to be made. Hubby and I decided on the lighter pink. The one on the right. I may use the rose colored one as the backing.

On the Hexie front I have made all the batik flowers I had cut out. What is on the wall is only 3/4 of them. I am now making the little 3 piece unit between each rosette. I am using a Kona fabric called Ash. It is a nice clean gray and will not compete with the batiks for glory. So I am back to basting and basting and basting.

XOXOXOXO Subee

Clover's Black Gold needles

I am not using this size hexie right now. But I have been saving heavier weight mailers papers to stamp out more papers. This is such a great way to recycle all the junk mailers!!!! Thanks to Our Bonnie Hunter for this tip and the recommendation on the stamper.

I love these Black Gold needles from Clover for slipping smoothly through the batiks. Only issue is that they are black and a bit hard to see against the batiks.
I had to stop sewing/basting because my thumb was getting pricked so much from the needles that I started bleeding on the fabrics. I then went to wearing a piece of waterproof band aid tape. That works well...but my thumb is still sore. So I am straightening up and cutting up fabrics for my Leaders & Enders project.

What a nice clean cutting area. I love working in this room. It is the closest room to the furnace and the outside air conditioner unit. So it is toasty warm in the winter months and as cold as a fridge in the summer. Perfect for me each way!!!!

This is the box that I keep the swap envelopes as they come to me. Believe me that box is FULL and HEAVY!!!!! There are two swaps here. Washed batik strips and 1 1/2" Postage Stamp Swap. Both are on the Yahoo groups. Every third month both swaps are due at the same time. Lots of packages for the Post Office. But I keep telling them (Post Office) it is job security. HA!!

Baskets all ready to receive their individual packages after I count them and check for accuracy. I have to have them by color (baskets). That is the OCD in me. It actually helps in the quilting process too.

Here are some 5" squares being cut up for the Spool Blocks that is my Leader & Enders project. And a NEW friend from Facebook who is also Bonnie's #1 fan and I swapped 10 sets of spool units. Her fabrics arrived today. So neat because I was in the middle of cutting more fabrics too!!!

I have a new great grand child coming. We do not know the sex yet. But Grand Daughter wants a monster theme. Quilt coming soon......

XOXOOXOOXO Subee

Hexagon progress

Lots of progress on my Hexagon quilt...well it is still in the designing phase.
They may be a border on that triangle center made all from batiks.
But they may also end up being a small quilt all on their own.

But...I have exhausted my supply of fussy cut sewing machines and cat fabric motifs. No problem...I will simply cut lots more. And if I do remember correctly, when I started this project it was only a test to see if I liked the whole fussy cutting experience. YES I DO!!!!!

  I whacked a hunk off the bolt and did some tracing. Then did some cutting.

So here I am again. Enough centers and kitties for 23 more blocks.
I also cut 23 2 1/2" batik strips.  I need 12 batik squares for each block after I get the first round of kitties done. These batiks are not in the first group of blocks. So far there will be no repeats. I will continue this process until I am done....

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

Circles are appearing and 1st Hexagon set done.

Yes, we have circles appearing in my batik version of the Eye Fooler  pattern designed by Krisanne Watkins.

Krisanne Watkins

1428 Pheasant Run Drive

Springville, Utah 84663

I KNEW I would love this pattern. And I was right. Even DH likes it!!!!

I need to make more of the "B" block. I was not sure I was going to make a full size version of this pattern. But I am. So more blocks need to be made. I did go ahead and make all the units needed ahead of time. I can always use them in another quilt.  They are waiting in an ice cream container. But I am totally loving how this has so much movement and will make it as big as the pattern calls for. It says to use a 90" X 110" batting. And I am sure that is a smidge bigger than the finished size of the quilt.

This was my first circle appearing this morning . WHOOHOOO!!!!

Then my design wall began to be VERY overcrowded. I had to move all the other projects temporarily. Yes, I work on multiple projects at the same time.
And I can see they are all batiks.....love 'em!!

I have my first set of hexagons done for the swap I signed up for. Only 34 more sets to go. Well, I actually signed up for two swaps. The other one is all 30's fabrics (35 sets also). But I have to go dig that fabric out from under the quilt frame. I will do that soon....as I said I multitask.
At last night's guild meeting I was able to baste 12 hexies while visiting. Then we played a round of quilting bingo so I had to stop sewing. I have never played bingo before. It was fun. I won a nice quilt journal.

I made homemade chicken and noodles a few days ago. I had lots of broth and chicken meat leftover. So when DH did his snow removal yet again, I made chicken ribble soup just for him. The ribbles have not been added yet. But doesn't it look yummy??? I am not a good cook. My food is not pretty or fancy. But there are a few meals that I do like to make because they always turn out for me.

DH says he heard a robin sing this afternoon. I believe him!!!!

XOXOXOXO Subee

Ice Cream Containers

I am a fanatic for reusing containers. But this idea came from a blogging friend's simple comment about her husband loving ice cream and she saves the containers.
I am saving them now. Really more than saving them...I am using them!!!!

The square container works a bit better for patchwork but I prefer the ice cream that comes in the round container. I use peel-able labels to identify what I am storing. These have not become a permanent storage for me yet. But they work great for beginning to organize a project.

Here is my project box for the Hexie swap I joined. I am making sure there is no contamination of cat fur here. The Hostess says she is deathly allergic to cat fur. I will do my best to keep her healthy!!!!

I made a few more blocks today. I need 18 of this block "A". Only eight more to go. This is NOT Easy Street. The pattern is called Eye Fooler. I bought the pattern three years ago. It was designed by Spruce Creek Designs for Krisanne Watkins. That is all the information I have from the pattern envelope. Sorry.

EDIT: Thanks for the information. This is how I bought mine...directly from the designer.

http://roguequilter.blogspot.com/2011/06/eye-fooler-update.html


We have a couple inches of snow. Hubby has been out there twice now keeping ahead of the snowfall. What a man. For his reward he gets Ribble soup.

MaggieMae had her "butt" hair trimmed by us today. She is not happy. But we are!

This fabric I thought would not be approved for the Hexie swap. But after sewing and sending a photo to the Hostess, it was approved.

I am sorry to say this fabric was NOT approved. Too much background fabric showing. And I totally agree with the Hostess. This fabric will not be exchanged.

XOOXOXO Subee

Finally some sewing results!!!!!

Two weeks of making smaller units and finally some sewing results can be seen.
I have learned so much from making Bonnie Hunter's quilts. Do not let the number of pieces keep you from making a quilt that speaks to you.
I simply broke it down into "units" and as I finished a unit it went into a baggie that then went into an empty ice cream tub. Ever since I read that this blogger:

http://strawberrypatchquiltworks.blogspot.com/

saved her husband's empty ice cream containers for whatever...I knew I needed to start saving my empty containers. They work great for strings, crumbs, finished units and yes, as you can see in the photo below, my hexies for the HGTV May 2013 swap I signed up for.

I have four of the "A" blocks made. I love how batiks are so colorful!

And when Our Bonnie Hunter showed how she had to clip her pieced flying geese to get the seam to be flat I knew I could use that technique to make my smaller flying geese behave too!!!  Nice and flat!!!!!

And I need a bagillion 4 patches. So instead of sewing them all, I made a few and I am using them as my Leaders & Enders as I sew block "A". Once again I have to thank Our Bonnie Hunter.

Here are my first ten fabrics for the Hexie swap. Nothing like a nice stack of fabric to make my heart sing. Right! It does not take much to make me happy.

Four packages arrived today for the two swaps I hostess over on Yahoo. It was so cold that the Postal Carrier's pen was frozen. She needed to borrow a pen so I could sign for the package that came from Australia. I had her step in the house and her glasses fogged over. She could not see. Too funny! I gave her a fresh pen to keep. Maybe one could thaw while one was being used. I treat my Postal Carriers with lots of respect. I appreciate all they do.
XOXOXOOX Subee

Hexagon Swap

This is so right up my alley!! A swap of basted hexagons in two groupings. One is totally scrappy and the other is all 30's fabrics.

http://hexagonswap.blogspot.com/2012/12/basics-for-hexagon-swap.html

I really like the basting part. I have not grown to love the assembly part. So here's hoping that receiving back new hexies after the swap is over will reignite my hexi urges.

I am going to give them a good pressing before I start. And also I want the hostess to say that the two fabrics in the bottom picture are okay for the swap. There are some rules about larger prints. I KNOW I can do some fussy cutting and get the images centered. I will wait until I get her okay!!! Gotta follow the rules!!!

One of my regular swappers on the Yahoo quiltvilleswap is named Victoria. (Love that name) Anyway she always sends a homemade catnip mouse for MaggieMae to play with. The first time I caught MaggieMae trying to bust into her swap package I really scolded her. After I opened it and found the mouse (that was triple wrapped in plastic) I told her (the cat) I was sorry.
The last package Victoria sent had two mouses in it. I hid one in the cupboard. MaggieMae found it the other day....

The catnip on the floor did not come from Victoria's catnip mouse. It is normally how the kitchen floor is in that area. Catnip heaven...so that is why it really tickles me that they still want Victoria's mouses!!!!

All done!!! She napped right where she stopped playing. Oh to live the life of a cat!!!! But then I would want to live here of course.

Or I would want to be a squirrel in this yard. (mine!) They get sunflower seeds and raw peanuts all year round. And that does not count them raiding the bird feeders too! They loved my homemade cornbread. The far squirrel is almost as large as the piece he tried to carry away. Too funny! I did take this picture through the front door window. But it came out pretty good!!!