Finally a sewing day!

Last week a three day snowstorm kept me from my studio, and just when the snow was showing signs of melting, we had some newborn piglets in distress that we've now been bottle feeding for a week.  (They're finally at the stage where they can go two hours between feedings.  This is a wonderful step up from the every-45-minutes that we started with.) 
Anyway, today was the first time in two weeks that I could head that half mile down the road and spend an afternoon at my sewing machine.  Hallelujah!

Naturally my first thoughts turned to chickens.

I still have no idea what I'm going to do with my RSC assortment of cluckers, but I'm having fun making them and that's the part that counts, right?

The little red hen was actually constructed as a leader/ender for my main project at the moment.
I'm building a backing

including using some of the leftovers from the front of the quilt

because I'm working on this quilt again.

Finally.
I realized that I was procrastinating on it because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to quilt it as well as it deserved.  But it has dawned on me that my walking foot opens all kinds of new possibilities, and it really doesn't matter that my free-motion quilting still needs lots and lots of practice.  I'm not exactly a whiz at walking foot quilting either, but it's much more approachable for me at this point.  Tally ho and quilt on!



Linking with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday, and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!  Come see all the fun!

Itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, purple polkadot...

Well, not a bikini.  I've got some purple polkadot hexies though...

This is intended to be a long-range, multi-year project, so I don't mind poking along with it.

As nearly as I can tell from looking at my inspiration picture, I'll be making hexie diamonds, joining four of them into a larger diamond unit, then running a row of hexies all around it for a border.  Then four of those diamonds are joined together, with another border around that.  Then repeat until it's big enough or I'm bored with it, whichever comes first.  Or until I run out of fabric, I suppose.  (Yeah, right.)

I've figured out that I can fit a hexie paper into a 1 1/2" x 1 3/8" rectangle, so I've been cutting stacks of pieces that size out of 1.5" strips.  Then I stack the rectangles with a hexie paper on top and cut them roughly into hexagons with scissors.

I've been cutting my hexie 'papers' out of those annoying subscription cards that they stuff into magazines.  I experimented and found that cardstock was too heavy, but regular paper wasn't heavy enough.  My hexies are so small that it was a real puzzler - until I found those cards hit that sweet spot between those two paper weights.  (I keep running out, though, since we don't get that many magazines.)  (My relatives that do take a lot of magazines will be hearing from me soon.)

If you take a close look at those papers in the upper right corner of that photo, you can see the telltale postage-paid marks!

As for the tiny size of my hexies, it's purely arbitrary.  I ordered one of these squeezy tools

online for cutting out papers (Easy and lazy!  Double win!), and assumed that when they said 3/4", they were referring to the side measurement.  Turns out that quilters and papercrafters measure hexagons differently - that three-quarter inch was the diameter of the hexie, not the side.  The side measures 1/2", so I'm making half inch hexies.  Tada!  (I could have returned the squeezy tool, but a)that's a lot of bother and b)hey, look, a challenge!)  (Which explains a lot about my life, I realize...)

So, I'm slowly stitching away at these little monsters beauties, and will be for years to come.

Linking to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework (because oh my yes with the scrappy), and with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts (because oh my yes with the slow).

"Who will chase the monkeys?" said the little red hen...

I played a little more catch-up (ketchup?) (also red, btw) with sewing my red scrap blocks.  With yesterday's Centennial stars safely tucked into their bin, I tackled a Buckeye

and a Whatchacallit Star.  (I'm a sucker for stars, I freely admit.)

Most of the blocks I make have scrappy backgrounds, but my Whatchacallits are all using the same white-on-white fabric.   It's a good use for the WoW, which I originally bought for a different quilt and then changed my mind.

And we all know I had to make another piglet.  I've been making them since the end of 2015, and it's just too hard to stop.  (Try to ignore the fact that he looks like he's swearing...)

And who could resist this chirpy little clucker?

When I mentioned I was clearing up the piles of strips on my cutting table, several people expressed concern about it being an ideal hideout for monkeys.  There was worry that they would spring out at me.  (I promised to wear a helmet)
Well, as predicted, several did jump out at me, then scampered off giggling.  I only got a picture of this one, and only because he tripped over my foot and hit his head on the table leg.

I fixed him an icebag and told the other monkeys to stop hooting at him, then he joined his buddies under the couch.
Rascals, every one.
I just hope the chickens don't get any ideas from them...


Linking with ScrapHappy Saturday at SoScrappy.  Come see red with us!
And also with Scraptastic Tuesday at She Can Quilt.  There's just no end to the fun!

I was so good that I got stars and glitter

I've been putting off straightening my sewing table as long as I could, but I was at the point where the working area on my cutting mat was smaller than a sheet of paper.  Even I had to admit it was time to do a little organizing.

See that clump of jumbled strips on the upper right of that photo?  That's what's left to do.  I didn't think to use my camera before I started, but picture that mass over a foot deep and covering my entire cutting table.   Most of it is cleared - now I just pull out a strip or two and put it away every time I go near my rotary cutter, and eventually it'll be done.  At least, it'll be done for a brief moment before I start messing it up again.

So, to celebrate, I tackled a little sewing with a clear(er) conscience.  Some centennial stars got laid out

and sewed together.

And there was a bit of glitter.

Because what's a celebration without glitter?