No Quilting Here, No Design Wall

It was our 46th anniversary today and we welcomed to our home Frank's sister and brother-in-law in the area after a Panama Canal Cruise. So we had another houseful of family - 14 in all.  Keeping the kids in mind, we had a take-out Thai supper and ice cream for dessert - no pies or cakes so close after Thanksgiving - LOL.  I'll save that for later in the month.  Hope you had a great weekend.  For quilty news and eye candy, check out Judy's Patchwork Times , Lyn's BOMs Away . They always have spectacular links.

Hexie Weekend

No hexie progress this week - too busy getting ready to hosting the holiday at my house. We had all the family here - all the offspring and our grands - 12 in all.  I bought a brined turkey - wow, it turned out good!  They ate most of everything! I froze the bones for turkey soup later next week.
All the Grands - the towhead is visiting from CO.
Hope you had a good thanksgiving.  Linky Party back next week.
Continued blessings as we start this Holiday Season!

Applique Tuesday and more Mug Rugs

Hi, here is all the applique I've done in the past week, and you've already seen it - LOL

And here are some more of the great mug rugs that were gifted by guild members, and have applique on them:
At first I thought the center was embroidery, but it was appliqúe.

Oh, so sweet!

Perfect for Christmas cocoa.

LOL - this is more like a snack mat.



She got a teapot as well as the cup and mug rug.


I'm linking to Esther's WOW and Connie's Linky Tuesday.  And I've got my fabrics ready for Bonnie Hunter's Mystery.  It starts the 28th!

Hexie Weekend and Finishes

What with watching Alan and Will and nursing bruised ribs, here at last is Hexie Weekend.

My latest flower:

 Made this while I waited with Mom at the doctor's for three appointments.  It's not attached to the table topper.  I threw it on to take this photo.
Our guild was having a gift exchange for the November meeting and we were to make mug rugs, package them up with a mug and bring to the meeting.  We then played the steal game.  It was a lot of fun! 64 of the near hundred members and guests who attended played. So here are the two (mine were 6"square) I made (one for Mom) that I can now show you:



And here they are with their mugs:
Snapfish had a 50% off on their mugs so I got one with our guild's pin design for this exchange. Mug  rug has our logo on it.

Debbie and her DGD opened my second one. DGD loves the cup - was just right for her and of course Debbie let her keep it.
















Here's the one I got. I love batiks in my favorite fall colors and the cup is fabulous - big enough for soup.  

One more of the fabulous mug rugs that were entered for this event:
I think I'd hang this one on a wall if I had won it. I'll show you others in later posts.

What have you been up to?  Show us your eye candy - doesn't have to be a new post. Linky below.  I'll be linking to Amanda's Finish it Up Friday and Sarah's Can I have a Whoop, Whoop?  Happy Thanksgiving!


An Applique Tuesday QRG Report

On the quilting front: Made a mug rug but can't show it until after tomorrow's guild meeting. It's part of a game.  Used a fat quarter on that mug rug and something else I can't mention. That's it for my stash report.  I did do some slow stitching Sunday:
All the vertical sashings are done. Now working on the horizontal joining sashing. Little by little.
And today I slow stitched on a hexie as I waited for my mom at the doctors.

Then working on my commission quilt.  Machine quilting the symbols.  I didn't like the zig-zag for these, so doing them with straight stitch, but a straight stitch done with FMQ.  Straight stitch on left.
If I had my druthers, I'd have machine appliqued these before starting the assembly of the quilt. Limited to how these can be stitched down otherwise.

Once those are done, got started on stitching in the ditch to anchor the blocks.
This will be a slow process - not due until Dec 18th and I have two sets of out of town visitors starting Nov 25th.  I'll be happy to get to do 15 a day.

Still reading the Guernsey book.  And from the garden, the last of the flowers for now:


I love these sulpher cosmos!

What are you up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come see your eye candy!

Hexie Weekend

I started this last week during the train trip. Well today, after St. Anne's, I sat down for a few minutes and actually finished it. Ah, it's good to put the feet up.
What are you up to?  I'd love to see your eye candy.  Doesn't have to be hexies or a new post.  Surprise me!  Linky below.  I'm linking to Amanda's Finish it Up Friday and Sarah's Can I have a Whoop, Whoop?  Lots of eye candy there.


Bread for the Journey

of Life.  Go here for a moving, thankful post.  From the Mennonite Girls can Cook.  They have some
great recipes, too.  Thank you Esther at Esther's Blog for introducing them to me.


The world is a wonderous place and the Net joins us together in many ways.  Thank you friends of the Net for brightening my days.

Blessings during this Thanksgiving season!
Angie in SoCal

Okay, I gave thanks - your turn!  I look forward to what you have to say.

Applique Tuesday

The top is done.  I'll take it Thursday to St. Annes so the ladies can sandwich it. Then I'll take home to quilt.  We want to give it to him in December for his birthday.
Measures 45 by 63.  I kinda like it. Came out pretty good for a D9P.

What have you been up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see your eye candy.  Linking with Connie for Linky Tuesday and Esther for  her WOW.  See you there.

A QRG Report for 11/09/14

Quilting:  did some hand stitching yesterday

This is a 50+ year old ufo from an estate sale that a friend gave me to finish as she knows I like to do QAYG.  I learned a few things so far:
  1. The polyester thread from so long ago shreds terribly when you're trying to pick out a seam.
  2. The sizes of the 7 blocks ranged from 13" to 14.75" I had to make 2 more and trim the others to 13". Fortunately there were a bag of scraps and backing/sashing to go with the squares.
  3. Working with such lofty batting is a pain.  One must squash it get an accurate size.  That was because there were already 6 squares quilted as they went and I wasn't about to take them all apart and remake them use different batting.  
  4. Polyester/cotton can be so thin!
  5. Log cabin blocks are not a good candidate for QAYG.
I've got the three rows of blocks stitched on the back.  Now I need to add the sashing between the rows, stitch those down, bind and I'll be done. I'm linking to 

Slow Sunday Stitching

this week and to  Judy's Patchwork Times  and Lyn's BOMs Away as I didn't add anything to my stash and nothing came out of my stash and I worked with these blocks. 

Reading: I'm reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  From the back cover: January 1946: "Writer Juliet Ashton recieves a letter from a stranger...and so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as it name."    I'm so enjoying it for the story and because it is written mostly in the form of letters exchanged which makes it easy to pick up, read a few letters, and then back to whatever I was doing.

Gardening: 
I like cactus because like mankind - they are so beautiful and varied in their diversity.

And off I go to start another week - blessings!
Angie in SoCal

Hexie Weekend

Can you believe?  I actually got some hexies done on the train yesterday.
Would have gotten more done, but you know how it goes when you have six women gabbing and sharing all the way there and back - lol.  There were 18 of us and we had a great time. Our destination was Exposition Park.  We stayed together as a group from Riverside to Exposition Park and then we let them loose to do what they wanted. About half did want to see the Pompeii exhibit, a fourth the IMAX theater presentation, and another fourth to the National African- American Museum. We all had a good time, then met up again to come home, however 3 couples opted to go home later so they could do other things, and that was fine by us.  I guess it went well as most asked when the next trip was. LOL - it will be a while - this wore me out evey though it was fun.

Have you got some eye candy to share - hexies or otherwise.  What are you up to?  Linking below.
I finished a flower so I'm linking to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Fridays and Sarah's Can I get a Whoop, Whoop?  Since it's been weeks since I've posted hexies, I consider that flower above a finish!
PS: The white fabric looks odd on those petals because the templates are from illustrated cards and the colors show up.


Secrets of Free-Motion Quilting

by Christina of A Few Scraps is now a class at Craftsy.  She is so great at showing us how to FMQ.  You don't want to miss this as her class is 50% off if you use the link on her blog.

Go here to read her post and find that link.  I've got my seat in the classroom already for when I get back from that day train trip. Can hardly wait.  Hmm, think I'll take my hexi bag with me to do some on the train.
Bye for now!
Angie in SoCal

10 Secrets:

Pope Francis’ top 10 secrets for living a holier life

For those of you who read ebooks

Browse our FREE section!
1000's of eBooks! 

A new site I found: Bookshout! Give it a minute to come up. Also, I read mine with the app Kindle for PCs that I got from Amazon for free. No need for another device if you don't have one.

Enjoy, readers!

Applique Tuesday 11/4/14

Second half of the commission quilt is done.  I hope to have a completed flimsy by Friday.
What have you been up to?  Leave me a comment and I'll come and visit as life permits. For eye candy worldwide, I'm linking to Esther's WOW and Connie's Linky Tuesday party. Check them out.
Blessings!

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...