A New Month and a Few More Hexies

I did not finish much last month.  But now that my machine is fixed, I hope to remedy that.  Last week I made 8 bibs.  They got finished and were very well received.  When I was cleaning up afterwards, I noticed that I had many tear-shaped pieces of fabric left over.  These were the pieces I cut out for the neck.  I was just going to stick them into the scrap bin or maybe even the garbage.  But then I got to thinking. Each one was just the right size for a one-inch hexie.  So that is what I did with them.

 I will use them in this quilt.

But that will have to wait until summer is over.  I need to get out into the garden. The weeds are taking over.

More Hexie Flowers and a Nomination

I made a few more hexie flowers for my red hexie quilt.  These have been slow going.  I have not had much time to sew, either by hand or by machine.  So much work to do in the garden.  And I am not finished yet.

I have had to start making duplicates of the fabrics.  But that is okay.  I will place them far apart on the quilt and no one will ever know.

Emily from Em's Scrapbag nominated me for a blogging award.  Thank you Em.  I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.  But I am sure you already know what I am all about.

1. I love scraps.
2. I love hexies.
3. I have been suffering from broken sewing machine syndrome.  What a drag!  But everything seems to be working now.
4. I love flowers, and I love to garden and grow some of my own vegetables.  In the summer I have very little time for quilting.
5. I used to work for the school board.  The kids in my class all had multiple disabilities.  I am retired now, but I often see a former student and they always recognize me.  I love that.
6. I recently became a grandmother for the first time.  My daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.  He is the highlight of my life!
7. And best of all, he is coming over for a visit any minute.  I am really looking forward to that!

And now I am supposed to nominate as many bloggers as I like.  There are so many of them.  I love them all.  But many people don't like receiving awards.  So I will leave it up to my readers. Nominate yourselves if you would like to.

I am now going to tidy up my house in anticipation of William.  He is crawling all over the place now.  And he loves to pull himself up on everything he sees.  So I have to make sure he will be safe.

This photo was taken on a very cold morning last weekend.  We actually had night frost and all of our vegetables had to be covered for the night so they wouldn't freeze.  All survived.  And the rest of the day was full of sunshine.

Thanks again Em.  I love your blog too!

Baby Bibs

I've been away for a while.  Haven\t done much sewing.  But the garden is planted, just in time for some frost on Friday night.  I will have to cover everything with plastic sheeting.

Yesterday I made 8 bibs.  My DD wanted me to make some more because she likes them better than the store-bought ones.  So I got out my larger scraps and made these.

The Batman and jungle ones are my favourite.  I wonder which ones William will like.

Now back to the garden.  I have to get everything ready for the cold night.  This is so annoying.  It is supposed to be spring!  What is Mother Nature up to?

Can't Get Enough Scrappy Blocks Done

Working on some scrappy blocks.  Some were started a long time ago and some are new.  My DD wants me to make a picnic quilt for a friend of hers.  I found these blocks in one of my UFO bins.  I have been working on them while I wait to get my Bernina totally fixed.  Yes!  It was not working again yesterday.  It seems that the last time I had my machine cleaned and serviced the guy did not clean it properly. That was only a couple of months ago and I did not use it in that time. The motor was full of carbon and had to be cleaned.  Now waiting to get it back. Hope nothing else goes wrong with it.  I have put the blocks on my design floor.  They are not in any specific order.  I will sew these together in a quilt-as-you-go fashion.  I think I want it to be 8 blocks square, (or maybe 7) so I have a few more to make.  But these are really fun to do.

I have given up on my Guild's PhD Challenge. My quilts would have to be done by the end of this month and since I have been without my machine for so long, that will be impossible.  Since I have decided to not finish them I feel a whole lot better.  No more stress.  I will still try to do them as soon as I can, but not for the challenge.

I am linking up with Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

Has Anyone Seen my MoJo?

I seem to have lost it.  I have my machine, all ready to go, but I can't seem to get started on anything. I've been working on hexies though.  That is the only thing I have done this week.

Here are five of them.  And here are four more.  Sorry about the colour of these.  The sun is just too bright.

\I have a few more prepped to finish this evening.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to sew something on my machine.  My kids both want me to make curtains for their homes.  Maybe that is why I don't feel like sewing.  Ha!  Curtains really are not my thing.  Does anyone else feel that way?  Or do you love to make things for around the house?

Good News!

My sewing machine is fixed.  My DS drove me to the Bernina Shop in Newmarket.  They had the foot pedal I needed.  The guy there wired it in and I was good to go.  Just got home and haven't had a chance to set my machine up yet.  I am exhausted, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I have done a few more red hexies.  Here they are in my dandelion garden.  I have never had so many dandelions before!  I'll deal with those tomorrow too.

Have a terrific weekend, everybody.

Purple for April

My DD and William took me to the Creativ Festival yesterday.  There was not a lot of stuff I was interested in, but I did get a chance to talk to a Bernina dealer.  He had wonderful advice for me.  He can fix my sewing machine!  Yay!  I can buy a new foot pedal for about $150.  Or he can fix the broken one for about $40.  So I have options.  And that is a great help.

On the RSC15 sampler front, I have done a couple of purple blocks.  Purple is the colour for April.  I am way behind and still haven't started the blocks for the beginning of the year.

 But now that I can get my machine fixed as soon as I can get up to the Bernina shop, I have plans!

Linking up with Super Scrappy's ScrapHappy Saturday.

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day.  Only one day a year?  I think it should be Earth Day every day of the year.  Let's recycle, clean up our environment and plant trees and wild flowers.  I planted some peas and lettuce. Not just for Earth Day, but because I love the fresh bounty from my garden.

Just some garden photos.  This is what my urns look like now.

And some Scilla Siberica in my front lawn.

We've had a lot of rain over the past few days.  Today that rain was interspersed with hail and snow. The temperature will go down over the next few days.  But the sun should come out.  And that will be nice.

And now some hexie flowers.  I could make many of these for Earth Day.  And I will!

Keeping Busy

I cut and prepped another 6 hexie flowers yesterday.  But that is not what I want to show you.  I watched a quilting show yesterday afternoon.  It was a Fons and Porter episode.  I love those! Marianne demonstrated a block that she used for a large quilt.  It's a very simple block.  I decided to make a couple just to have them when I decide to do something new.  I made 4 blocks.

These blocks are 5 1/2 inches and finish at 5 inches.  That means I will need a lot of them.  I think this quilt will be a terrific stash buster.  But I have no idea when I will get around to starting it.  .

Also, yesterday afternoon, I planted some spring bulbs into the urns by my front door.  Spring is kind of slow in coming this year and not much is blooming in the garden yet.  So I bought some bulb plants in pots.  There are daffodils, tulips, hyacinth and pansies.  I should have taken a photo yesterday when the sun was in the west.  The pictures would have turned out much better.  I took these this morning.  Maybe I will take a few more shots when the sun has moved around.

  I bought plants that were not in full bloom yet because I want them to last a bit longer.

This daffodil was not open yesterday, but it is starting to open now.  I love spring!  Oh, have I said that before?

One Flower Wednesday

Is anyone out there still posting hexie flowers on Wednesdays?  I have 9 to show you.  I made these over the past few days.  I love making these!  They are so relaxing.

And I needed that because I have had a lot of dental stuff happening and on Monday I had a non-healing sore on my cheek diagnosed as Basal Cell Carcinoma.  I had it cut out and now I have a huge scab on my face.  I have been assured that it will heal up over the next couple of weeks.  Basal Cell Carcinoma is the most common skin cancer there is, but it is not complicated and usually doesn't travel to other parts of the body.  It is one of the easiest cancers to treat   Even so, I am sure you can see the need for some relaxing hexie flower therapy!

Now to sew them onto the rest of the top.  

I'm Still Here, But...

My sewing machine isn't.  They still have not been able to get the part for me.
I am seriously considering going to the Creative Festival and buying a new sewing machine.

I was sorting through my hexies and found this UFO that I started a long time ago.  It is all hand pieced.  I don't need a machine for that.  So, instead of feeling depressed and miserable, I decided to do a few more flowers. This is going to be great!

Here are some more hexie flowers.  I have several more that will soon be done.

This quilt top is now too big for a wall hanging.  So I\ll just keep on making more flowers and joining them.  Who knows where this will go.  Speaking of 'on the go'.  Here is a picture of W. He is really moving.  

I changed my header.  It is going to be 21C today and I don't want any snow photo to jinx that.  Bring spring on!  I'm more than ready!  I will try to post more often now that I have a focus.  But I'm not promising anything.

Getting Started

I only have a couple of borders left to sew onto my rabbit quilt.  But I just couldn't get started this morning.  Then I saw a tutorial for a cute log cabin type block on Tanyia's blog.  It reminded me of all the times I would sew a few scraps together in order to get my ass in gear.  So I tried that.  I did them in yellow because that is the colour for the monthly 2015 challenge.   Only got a couple of them made, but I really like them.  I think I will try to make them a bit smaller in order to use up more of my scraps.

I also have 15 house blocks done.  A new block should be posted in a few days.  These are really cute!

I might have to make a few more.  I'll wait and see.  Now back to the rabbit quilt.  I bought the pattern last year at this time and couldn't get it done.  I hope to get it done by this Easter.  I really don't want it languishing around for another year.

Just Puttering Along

Still don't have my machine fixed.  I am waiting for a new foot pedal.  So I have been forced to use my old machine.  It does not have any special feet for quilt purposes.  I got it before I ever started quilting.  But I figured out how to use the applique feature and now I think I can finish the Rabbit quilt.  So far it looks like this.  I still have 4 bunnies to applique.  I will sew buttons on for eyes after it is quilted.

A couple of days ago I was out on my scooter and I heard a robin, singing its spring song from the top of my tree.  I asked him if I could take his photo and he hopped down onto the lawn to make it easy for me.  Cute, isn't he?

Tomorrow is Earth Hour.  Will you join me in turning off all the lights between 8:30pm and 9:30pm?

I am linking up with The Quilting Reader's Garden.

Little Letters Top

Feeling much better today.  The foot pedal to my machine is still not fixed.  They have to replace it and I am just waiting on that.  Haven't done a lot of sewing lately.  But I came across my Little Letters quilt and since I had only a couple more letters to make, I decided to finish it.

I still have to put a border around it.  Guess I will have to break down and buy some fabric. These are all scraps and I don't have a big enough piece in my stash to use for a border.


I am linking up with the Needle and Thread Network.

A Bit of Weather - Under it, Over it. What the heck is going on?

I've felt a little under the weather the past few days.  Nothing too serious.  Just some body aches, stuffy sinuses and a bit of a headache.  I slept a lot and read a whole book in less than two days, James Patterson's latest, Hope to Die,

On Saturday I took my machine in to get the plug on the foot pedal fixed.  I have no idea if it can be fixed.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  If they can't fix it, I guess I will have to buy a new pedal. But as the woman in the shop said, "That will be cheaper than a new machine".

And as I was coming out from under the weather, the weather became beautiful.  It started out cold and windy yesterday morning, but then the sun came out and it felt like spring.  We decided to go down to the lake and see how much winter was still around.  And I can tell you, there was a lot!  In the middle of the lake the ice had melted, but around the edges, it was still deep and frozen.  The ducks and geese were calling to us from the ice.  The gulls were screaming from the air.  It was impossible to walk anywhere because the paths had not been cleared.  So I parked myself on a bench, in the sun, along the edge of the water and took a few photos.

The sun felt nice.  Today is going to be another gorgeous day.  The temperature is going way up to 13C, that's around 55F.  Is our winter over?  Not a chance.  It will get cold again (not as cold as it has been) but the temps will be below normal for this time of year until spring starts on Friday.  And then we might even get a bit of snow.  This weather is crazy.  I want spring.

We still have a foot or more of snow on our lawn.  But close to the house the snow has melted.  And as it did, little green crocus shoots were already coming up.  Low and behold, a yellow crocus popped out of the ground and greeted me with a smile.

Okay, now I am feeling better.  The weather can do what it wants.  As long as I have something springlike in my garden I am happy.  I think I will ride my scooter up to the library and get another book. And maybe buy some strawberries for dessert.  Yummy!  I can taste spring already.

On the quilting front, do you want to see what I have been working on?  It isn't much.  Just a few more hexie flowers.  I can keep doing these because they are all done by hand, but the machine applique will have to wait until I get my sewing machine fixed.  This is what I have so far on ny design wall.  I have not decided how big I am going to make this quilt, but I don't think it will be much bigger.  Just a border or two.

I am linking up with Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

Oh, no! That's not Good!

I bought a quilt pattern a year ago from A Red Boot Quilt Co.  It is called "The Rabbits at Hyde Park".  I didn't have time to finish it last year.  So, when I found it in a box at the bottom of my closet, I decided to get 'er done for this Easter.  I thought it wouldn't take me long, since I had a good start on it.  But as I was rolling around in my wheelchair (I still use one in my sewing room because it is too small to have two chairs and I can't get around very well.  I usually just roll from the sewing machine to my cutting table.) I got tangled up in the cord that controls the foot pedal.  The cord pulled out of the plug.  Not good!  I wonder how long it will take to fix it.

I still have some handwork to do on the Rabbit quilt, so I will continue on with that.  The machine applique will just have to wait.  And, as if that wasn't bad enough,  I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose this morning and then to make matters even worse, I burned the stew I was cooking.  It's true!  I can only do one thing at a time and this morning I was trying to do too much.

But since I am an optimist (sort of) I will show you the Rabbit quilt.  I think it will be cute.  This is only part of it.  I still have more on my cutting table.

And last, but not least, a Hibiscus flower.  My plant is starting to bloom!  Spring must be on its way.

Can I get any more positive than that?

Hexie Flowers

My machine is back home!  Hurray!!  Now I can get on with some of my WIPs.

I worked on some hexies while I waited for it to be returned.  I have about 32 hexie flowers to do, so this is just a start.  Some of these are done and some still need to be sewn.  I plan to complete 4 per day.

The temperature is going up to 6C today.  The sun is shining.  Our cold spell seems to be over!  I plan to go to the library today.  I need to get out before I succumb to cabin fever.

Stuff - Sewing as Fast as I Can

My machine is in the shop, getting a tune-up and other things.  I miss her.  Have been doing some handwork and made a few March blocks from the #qmbittyblocks on an old machine that was sitting in my basement.

Also made the Hexie Blog's hexie project for March.  This block is not done.  It looks kind of crooked, but that is because it has not been appliqued yet.

And last, but not least is my turtle block from the Elephants on Parade quilt along.  I will do the birds when I get my machine back.  Hopefully that will be on Saturday.

 .

An Elephant Parade Game

Where has the week gone?  Time just seems to be flying by.  But that's okay.  It is so cold right now that I can hardly wait for February to be over.  The weather people are calling this cold spell a Siberian Express because it originates in Siberia.  Last year was the year of the Polar Vortex.  Crazy! But spring has got to be around the corner!  It is, isn't it?

I did a lot of sewing this past week, but I have very little to show for it.  I am still working on the Jungle Quilt, but right now I am just appliqueing the pieced down.  My machine is not happy about that and is making a lot of silly noises.  I may have to take it in for a tune up before I can continue,.  I did, however, work on the Elephant Parade quilt.  I got the frog done and made 4 little baby elephants.  I have decided to make this quilt into a matching game.  All of the adult elephants will have a matching baby elephant somewhere in the quilt.  There will be two of each of the other baby elephants too.  This is what I have done so far.

I also finished the little crocheted blanket I showed you last week.  Unfortunately I gave it to my DD before I could get a photo of it.  It is just a small blanket that she will use in the library when she takes William to story hour.  I will try to get a photo of it later.  When my DS saw the blanket he asked me to make something similar for his cats to sleep on.  I found a couple of crocheted blocks in a bag at the bottom of a bin.  I have no idea where they came from, or whether they were the beginning of a quilt or some left-over pieces.  I am going to use them.  This blanket should go together quickly and I think the cats will love it.  I am going to run the ends in as I go.  I hate having to still do them all at the end.

Visitors from the Serengeti

I have completed the five large elephants for the first portion of the Baby Elephant sew-along.  I spent a couple of hours yesterday and finished them.  All of my other quilt-related sewing is kind of tedious and boring, so I really enjoyed making these guys.  Can't wait for the next instalment.

What I'm Working On

I have been out of town for a few days.  Just got back yesterday.  I didn't have much time for machine sewing.  But I did do a couple of small things.  I started to make the basket blocks for the bow tie quilt I started last month. This month's blocks were small baskets.  I don't really like them; just a bit too small and fussy for my liking. I only made two of them and I don't think I will make any more.

I know I promised not to start any other new projects, but I just couldn't resist when I saw the elephant baby quilt on the Sew Fresh Quilts site.  The sew along started on February the 1st.  I made one elephant block so far.  It is so cute and it took no time at all.  I will definitely make more blocks of this quilt.  But I will finish some more urgent quilts first.

While away from my machine I worked on some crocheted granny hexies.  I spent a couple of hours each day working on these.  I think I have enough for a small baby blanket.

Today I am heading to my sewing machine.  I really have to finish that jungle quilt before William is too old for it.

DaGMT 2015

I have decided to take part in the Drop and Give Me Twenty.  (DaGMT 2015)  This challenge started on the first of February.  I didn't read about it until a couple of days ago.  But since I have been working almost non-stop on the Jungle Quilt, I think I can still qualify for this.

Here is my statement.

I, Hetty G, am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's fourth annual quilt challenge.   I pledge to sew for at least an hour a day, during the month of February, 2015.  I think that is doable.  I want to finish several more quilts in the first half of this year and this will help me accomplish that.

So here is what I did so far this month.

On the 1st. I did about 60 minutes of sewing.  That was all I had time for.  Because it was Sunday, we had to do some visiting.

On the 2nd, (Monday) I spent about 30 minutes sewing by machine and another 90 minutes drawing and cutting out animal parts for the Jungle Quilt.

On Tuesday (3rd) I spent about 2 hours of hexie hand sewing at our Tuesday morning Friendship group at the church.  I finished the February Hexie Blog's block.

On Wednesday, (4th) I spent 3 hours machine sewing the parts of the animals that I had designed over the last few days.

On Thursday (5th) I spent what seemed like the whole day at my machine.  I am sure I did about 4 hours of machine sewing.  Then in the evening, while watching television, I did another couple of hours prepping and hand sewing some hexies.

So now I am up to today, Friday the 6th.  I am going to try to do at least an hour of machine applique. My DD is coming over today with William and that will probably be the end of my sewing time.

Can't have a post without a photo, now can we?  So here he is, the flying William, practising to be an astronaut..  Now I must get back to my machine.  

Hexie Block for February

I have been doing lots of sewing, but have very little to show for it.  I did, however, finish The Hexie Blog's block for February.  I love these little hexies.  They are so much fun to make.  Here it is, only the 5th of February, and I am already yearning for next month's block.  Just four weeks to go.  Guess I'll just have to wait.  (sigh)

Sewing Monkeys

I drew the monkeys and then transferred them to Wonder Under.  Then I cut them out and ironed them onto the quilt top.  Now all that is left to do is sew them down.  I am not sure if I am going to add anything else to this quilt.  It's been a lot of work, but I think it's worth it.  I hope William loves his quilt.

I still have some things to embroider.  Some eyes etc.  Maybe I will get them done tonight, while I watch television.

Drawing Monkeys

Now that the Super Heroes quilt top is done, I have to get on with my other half finished stuff.  The Jungle baby quilt for William is up on the design wall now.  I spent the whole afternoon yesterday drawing monkeys.  But I was not happy with them.  They didn't look like they wanted to be on the quilt.  Have to get back to them later.

But first I have a few errands to run.  And hopefully get my hair cut too.

I saw some really cute, little bow tie blocks on  Tubakk's blog.  They are from a sew along that just started this month.  I know I said that I wasn't going to start anything new, but these things just screamed to me. So yesterday morning I made them.  They are only 3.5 inches unfinished.  I needed 16 of them.  They are not sewn together yet.

Now out to the bank and stuff and then back to the monkey drawing board.