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

In the pink and brown rejoice!!!!

Once again I cannot thank Our Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame for her inspirations!
All it took was one look at this post:
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/03/celebrate-pink.html

And I was off and running sewing!!!
In two days I had 152 blocks made using her streamlined method. I made 20 with the browns in the corners and 132 with the pinks in the corners.
Looking at the antique quilt it seems I only needed 110 blocks. And since at the beginning of the cutting marathon I was cutting duplicates, I can set those aside and still have enough blocks to copy this beauty!!!

I was not sure I would like Bonnie's sewing method. But it is so fast!!! The only complaint I have is when I used a striped fabric. The block ended up with one fabric rotated incorrectly. Oh well....that will just add to the wonkiness of the quilt. I am totally in love with just the blocks.
Now I need to find 2 yards of a nice brown for the setting blocks. WHOOHOOO!!!

Here is the box of parts I started off with on Friday night. It only took me two days to make all those blocks.

And above is a sampling of the grays I am swapping on the Quiltvilleswap group on Yahoo. I sure love gray fabric. Someday I am making a gray/pink quilt. I can feel it churning in my head!
XOXOXOXOX 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

My Precious Pearl & eleven inch strip swap

The quilt she is on is NOT for the cats. It is my very own Minkee backed lap quilt. If I get up I MUST fold it up or this happens!!!
Pearl loves the backing so much she hugs it!!!!

I started a new swap over on the Yahoo quiltvilleswap group.
We will be swapping 11" strips of fabric with ten fabrics to each set.
Washed or unwashed fabrics...well just go join the group and read the rules in the Files section there.