Fiesta Chairs

Hi readers!

Next month, my family is packing up and moving to Florida so I can finish my internship year.  In one year, I will fulfill my ultimate dream of being a clinical psychologist!  Even the thought of it is exciting.  Anyway, I found a townhouse (rental) a week ago, and am planning out furnishings.  We are moving from about 2000 square feet to about 1500.  Some things will end up in our storage shed (so that we may rent out the house we own) and others we will rely upon family to care for.  Our dining room table is large and will not fit well in the new space, so I am borrowing an old, distressed table from my parents.

The table and chairs have quite the history.  It has been a "starting out" table for a few decades now.  When I was young, my father had to build a top that fit over the existing table top as an inexpensive way of expanding the table for my family.  I had it for close to 10 years, then returned it to him when I did not need it anymore.  It ended up in my father's garage.  The chairs ended up (outside) on his deck.  You can see they make a new meaning of the word "distressed."

It will make my work easy I suppose!  I really like fiesta ware and have the place settings in all colors.  Fitting for a scrappy quilter, huh?  Based on this idea, I decided to paint each of the chairs a different color.  Here are two so far.  I still have another good coat to put on the chairs, but I imagine (and want) the chairs to maintain a distressed, used look.

Here is the blue chair.

Here is the yellow chair.

Two more to go!  I will show more pictures when everything is done.  I don't know yet what shape the table is in, but it has at least been stored indoors.

Hexie Part Deux

I was laying out my next ring of hexie flowers and realized I can't count...I have to make ten more red flowers.  I might just have to go shopping for more reds!

This is not the best picture.  7 of the outer red flowers are attached and the rest are just waiting for free time.  I guess I will start counting and keeping track of my progress as an incentive to continue.  I will count my hexies once they are attached to the mother ship.  So far, the mother ship has 308 hexies; this week I have completed 49 of them.  So I guess I would rate my progress as 49/308/???.  I actually have no idea how many will be in the finished project.

This week I have also basted 196 hexies and cut out fabric for more than 200 (my neutral ring).  I bought a pack of civil war neutral scraps from etsy a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised with the variety.  I think I purchased about 1.25 yards worth for 9.50 (after shipping).  Not too bad.  I cut about 90% of them for this project.  I use my dining room table for my cutting.

I am linking up with Life Under Quilts to share my hexie progress!

A Calf is Born

I am about to take some pictures to update everyone on Hexie Part Deux, but first I wanted to share with everyone an amazing Father's Day present - my father's first calf is born.

My father is the son of a dairy farmer.  He grew up on a small dairy farm so he has always been around livestock.  While he has always had some livestock around, he moved away from cows about 4 or 5 years ago when feed prices rose.  He has not bred his own cows as an adult though.  About two years ago, he purchased two young Charlet cows (sisters); he intended to breed them and then use the calves as meat cows.  Fast forward.  Both cows were pregnant (we call them 5 and 9) and the first had her calf yesterday afternoon.

Here she is.  My father went up to check on them and saw that 5 had given birth.  The calf is laying down while 5 is cleaning her up.

Momma is helping her up.

The calf starts looking for milk.  she was sucking on knees, udders, her Momma's face.  After 5 minutes or so....score!

We named her Anna, after my grandmother.  If the next calf is female, she will be Pearl.  I suppose it isn't the best idea to name a calf you will eventually eat after your grandmother, but she was too pretty not to name!

I will update again soon with some hexie news!

She's gone to the shop!

Is this what a mother feels like when a child goes to camp?  My sewing machine went for routine maintenance a day or so ago to a shop about an hour away.  It will be 7 to 10 days before I get to pick her up.  She surely needs the visit, but I will miss her!

Below is a picture of my sewing area (all empty looking without my Viking Sapphire).  it is in a little alcove off of my dining room.  The hampers to the right of my sewing table are full of scraps.  Crumbs are collected in the small bluish container on top of the desk.  I tell my husband someday I want a giant studio.  His response?  "When I get a man cave" (whatever that means).

I have been working on my next ring of hexies in the meantime.  I am packing slowly for our move and wishing the market was more favorable for a sale.  Oh well.  If my house does not sell in the near future, my family will make due as it always has.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Flight Prep

Today I am stuck in the house because my oldest is sick with a head cold.  Poor thing.  Thankfully a weekend full of events seems to have prevented my youngest from being stir crazy - he is such an active kid!

Later this month I travel to FL to find housing while I finish my internship year.  The airport time will give me an ample opportunity to work on my hexie project.  Here is the project to date.  I finished the green/yellow later.

I mentioned in the last post that my hexies were 1.25," but I was mistaken.  I am using 1" hexagons for this project.  In the last week, I have spent time on cutting out cardstock hexagons, cutting fabric, and basting.  Here is my main hexie sewing kit.  Recognize anything, Joan?  I have the next round of reds ready to assemble.  My grandmother unloaded a bunch of cheap thread (Coats and Clark) on me which has come in handy with the basting process.

I am more than halfway through basting a blue layer I will need later on in the pattern.  I wanted to be sure I had enough for my upcoming Maine vacation AND the flight to FL.  I am making good progress.  I purchased a cheap pair of 4" scissors which I hope will make it through airport security.

Next I will need to start collecting more civil war neutrals.  I don't have many, and will need plenty for the "background" of this hexie quilt.  This weekend, my LQS is having an anniversary sale, so I will go then to see what I can get my hands on (which will include the outer border for Acappella).

Have a fun week!

Acappella Center is Finished

Yesterday and this morning I took some time to finish the center of Acappella.  I love it!

I will be using the same fabric that framed the center blocks for the inner border.  My LQS did not have enough of the fabric, so I looked online and purchased a yard from ebay.  Soon, I will be taking my machine in to the shop for a tuneup, so I don't know if I will finish the borders before or after that is done.  I have not yet had my machine in for a tuneup, so it is about time.  I think I have had my machine for about 3-4 years now.

My other project, hexie part deux, has seen some action too.  I started this three years ago, I think.  Out of three years, I think it was sitting on my sewing table untouched for two.  The hexagons are 1.5;" all of the fabrics are civil wars.

I really did not like the original design I drew, but couldn't think of anything better.  A few days ago, I took out some graph paper, and started over.  This is what I came up with.

The center will be rotated a bit more nicely, but I wasn't about to start over.  The white areas will be all made of civil war neutrals with random flowers in it.

It is nice to be back in the blogging world again, and also to keep up with many of your projects.  I lost all of my pictures and many of the blogs I have followed, but slowly I am finding them again!  Take care all of you!