January is almost over!!

January is almost over - woohoo! It's my least favourite month of the year. For me it's 6 weeks between pay cheques, usually very cold and snowy and dark. All in all I'm just not a fan. But, February is coming and this year I think I'll be ready !

Last week's hexies are all together now and the top is made. Today maybe a quilting day, then again  maybe not! I spent the last week soaking/cleaning most of my linens ..... 26 doilies, at least 2 dozen linen napkins, miscellaneous tea cloths and table runners and a dozen or so cotton/linen hand towels.

I used this product which I purchased from Soft Impressions by Lisa one of the vendors who visited our guild in November. I wasn't convinced it would work, but did drag up the enameled wash basin from the basement . Well, this product does work so fortunately/unfortunately I now have A LOT of ironing to do!
I took Friday off to have a 3 day weekend. It seemed like a good plan .... I spent the day house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and a visit with the pater and his partner. They got a flat screen TV for Christmas, so I was asked to hook up the cable for the "old" TV in the basement. Got the TV hooked up and found the remote, so now he can watch TV in his Dad's den!
Saturday was a full day starting with picking up my nephew's winter coat he wants mended, then picked up the mater and off to her hair appointment. Brunch next door then grocery shopping, pharmacy, post office, delivering her groceries to her place then back to my home.  I cooked us a roast beef dinner in the crock pot -  yummm. A couple of TV shows and a wee visit then back out in the cold to take the mater home. I have to admit I was tired by the time I got home .
Today the sun is out and I'm busy baking muffins and boiling eggs for next week's lunches. Dare I say it - I'm looking forward to going back to work so I can relax! Ha ha ha.

How's you're week been?
TTFN

Hexie Love :)

 It's hexie love - totally!! Here are the two mug rugs I made last week, front and back. I don't use a pattern, just whatever piece of matching fabric I can find in my stash, hence the different sizes. Not to worry, they both still work as mug rugs!
I spent the rest of the week cutting up more paper hexies, studying my two hexie books, and making up a whole wack of red hexies. Here they are all laid out, going to be a mini Valentine's Day heart hanging for my bulletin board at work. Hmmm. now my scrap squares box is missing several reds - oh no! So guess what I'll be sewing next week !

I'm totally hooked - OMG! Must remember I have several UFOs still to finish before I get too involved in another massive project. Right now I'm tempted to make both a Lucy Boston AND a Grandmother's Garden, or maybe a Giant Monstrosity quilt. What's a girl to do, sew many fun projects, so little time ...

I've had some overnight visitors. I think it's rabbits, based on the scat they've left behind. In January I try to leave out some goodies, especially if it's been real cold. Lately I've been leaving out some apples which had gone soft. Apparently the local wildlife like apples!

That's all for my week, Downton Abbey tonight !!
TTFN

Hexies Mojo ...

Well, I have  rediscovered my quilting mojo. After my Christmas sewing marathon last Fall I rather  lost interest in any sewing /quilting. But I have found it again  and the pic below was/is my inspiration!

So, dear readers, you all know I have lots of Owl fabric leftover from the Whoo Loves you Baby quilt I made almost one year ago. This fabric is so pretty, but what's a girl to do with it? I didn't want to make another Owl Baby quilt and I have already used some making Claire the Amish puzzle ball. Hmmmm.

So, I dug up my printouts from the Fairies & Fibres blog, an excellent source btw of  EPP (English Paper Piecing) information and for inspiration, and my leftover Owl fabric, and ....

this is what I made last night while watching The King's Speech. I used 1.5 " hexagons templates from moxieideas.com and printed them on card stock. Thought I should start my hexie journey with something not too small or complicated. These hexies were fussy cut - warning ladies, fussy cutting wastes lots of fabric, but the results are nice!

Ok, now I get it  - the great hexie addiction affecting so many quilters out there. I know of  two women in my guild who are now doing Hexies. Here's a link to Cathy S who is doing the Giant  Monstrosity Quilt project, also from Fairies and Fibres. Fortunately (?) I'm not that ambitious - oh, what am I saying ! Did I not buy the Lucy Boston Points of the Cross book and start cutting 2000 elongated hexies? Haven't I also bought myself a Hex n More ruler ?

Yes, I'm crazy. Stayed tuned for more of the fun!!

P.S. What would a blog entry be without a pic of my tree ? Well, we survived another first week of January with another day of snow squalls ....

Vacation is over - Wahhhhh

Really? How does it happen - you wait soooo long for some time off work, then poof - it's over. :(
Ah well, the house is clean, I'm well rested, have had lots of family time and lots of time with my friends so I'm not complaining. I spent 4 days, yes, you read that right - 4 days cleaning and re-organizing my sewing room! Below is a pic of two sofa cushions I finally got made! I used some of the bolt of fabric I have left over from recovering the East Lake chairs. I took apart the 2 extra cushions from the basement loveseat and used them as the pattern and stuffing. Not perfect, but they'll certainly do!

 

Since cleaning I have spent 3 afternoons in my sewing room going through all my patterns and mags hoping for inspiration. For some reason I've lost my quilting mojo and am just not enthusiastic about any new project!

So instead I watched reruns of Vikings (new season starts Feb. 19th - YEAH), Sherlock (the BBC one with Benedict Cumberbatch - oh yeah. If you haven't yet seen it do!), and Rehab Addict, I like what she does with houses!

Of course, tonight is the return of Downton Abbey - Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah!! 2015 is going to be a good year :)

TTFN