Hexxies

The hexxie throw started months ago is taking shape. I pinned all the sections up on my design wall/drape so I could see how I wanted it to go together and how many more white pieces I'll be needing...... a lot. Once I get it all surrounded by white I'll figure out what I'm going to do around the edges - I'm at a loss at the moment.  Since there's a lot more handsewing to put all these sections together and then more white pieces I have plenty of time to think on what the edging/borders will end up being.

A bit of wonky.....

 I've been working on the wonky stars, what fun they are to sew.....perfect for me, I don't have to be exact, I can just sew them however. I have many other colors in the works.  The purple card is the prototype as these will be our holiday cards this year...…...haven't decided if I'll put them together that way or not, will be thinking on it over the months to come. It will be great to have the piecing done ahead of time.

 Since I finished knitting the red shawl I needed something else to work on in the evenings while we watch tv. Since I'm not sure what new knitting project I want to do I pulled out my hexxies that I usually work on when riding in the car. I only have 3 more sections to stitch before I can start sewing them together.  I'll have more white hexxies to make but won't know how many until I start putting it all together.  I've still got to block the red shawl so pix will come once that happens.

A friend gave me a recipe for english muffin bread - it's really yummy, we had some this morning with butter and homemade strawberry jam.

Wonky stars

Today was one of those days that I just couldn't focus on much so I decided to work on a variety of little projects and what fun it's ended up being. This is one of the projects - wonky stars. After stitching regular stars for the barn wall hanging I decided to try wonky stars using some bits and pieces of purple fabrics with a background of white. What fun these are!  This is the prototype for a holiday project......now all I need are the correct colors of fabric, might have to place an online order, UPS, FedEx and USPS have been delivering many boxes here lately.  Or maybe I could work with leftover bits and pieces in my stash.....might have to investigate the fabric cabinet tomorrow.

Once again, my picture was oriented correctly on the computer but when uploaded to blogger it turned, this only happens when I take photos from my phone but it's never consistent. Oh well, such is life.

Easter bread.........a bit late........

Today I made my Nani's Easter bread recipe.  Yes, I'm late but at least I made it this year, there's many a year I have plans for it but never do.  This is an anise bread that starts with 5 pounds of flour - yep, 5 pounds!  And is it ever tough to mix and knead that much bread dough.  But I've got 10 loaves of bread to put in the freezer.   Well, 9 loaves since I've already sampled and since this picture was taken, just minutes ago, Sam attacked the loaf I started.  It's great toasted for breakfast.

I used to help my grandmother make this bread each year.  For all us kids we would make smaller braids, form them in a circle, put a dyed hard boiled egg in the center and 2 thin strips of dough to hold the egg in place. They were so pretty and we each got our own little loaf.  I can't remember what that hard boiled egg was like but it was already cooked and then cooked again in the oven - must have been like a golf ball.

So, we're set for Easter bread for a while...….minus a couple that will be saved for family.

Before and after......

 I've finished the quilt top for the barn quilt wallhanging. It's now set aside until Jordan's opens so I can take it in for long arm quilting. I imagine they will be backlogged very quickly once open, lots of quilts being made while sheltering at home. I like the way this turned out but it was a challenge - my points are not perfect and there are many places they're even cut off. It won't be entered in any competition, just hung on the wall opposite the dining room and I'll love it whether it's perfect or not.

 We had The Grounds Guys come do a huge landscaping job for us - they were great. I couldn't find a before picture from when we bought this place a little less than 2 years ago but all the mulch area was ugly gravel. 

 Now look at it with five 800 pound boulders, over 50 new bushes/plants plus some trees we planted last year.

 They ran completely a completely new drip system connected to our automatic sprinkers.

 It's going to take a while for these plants to start growing but it's going to look nice. I'll be planting tulip and daffodil bulbs this fall - can't wait.

We switched up our shelter in place location last weekend for the one on the coast, we hadn't been over in 5 weeks and the grass was a foot tall. Misty knows now to relax over there...….

Eureka.......I've found gold!

 I found this box in the guest bathroom cabinet - it's like finding gold.  We keep these in our vehicles but only have a handful in them at anytime.  And that's all the wipes we have since there have been none to be found at the store, no bleach either. I'm ecstatic. Funny how such a thing as Wet Ones could make me so happy. So now we can carry them with us in case they're needed...…..since we aren't going anywhere they should last us a while.

 An update on the barn quilt wall hanging project. I now have all 12 blocks done and am working on the corner stars - there are 4 of them up on the design wall so far.  There are 2 blocks I'm not thrilled with my workmanship so once the stars are all made, the sashing and borders cut, if I have enough fabric I'll remake those 2 squares. It really is fiddly working with these tiny pieces but I'm enjoying it. Now I wonder how do those that make the mini quilts, I mean really small, handle all those seams allowances on the back.

Friend Yvonne gave me a recipe for bread using quick rise yeast, which I have, so this afternoon I made these 2 loaves. This is the pic before Sam and I cut into one of the warm loaves and ate slices with butter. Dinner plans have totally changed to grilled cheese sandwiches on this yummy bread alongside tomato soup. 

Onward to another project......

I had plans of putting another towel warp on the loom but that cone of 8/2 black cotton had other plans. I spent hours figuring out the color order for a draft, then started winding the warp making constant color changes. I got around 5" wound before I cried uncle.  The black, of which there were quite a few stripes, kept breaking - it would break if I looked at it wrong.  Sam found me sitting on the floor trying to repair a break at the bottom peg only to find it breaking over and over again as I tied a knot, I was ready to cry but just got myself up and walked away.  An hour later I went back, pulled everything off the warping board and sacrificed it to the weaving goddess, aka trash can.  At that point I decided I needed to do something different...….

…..and here it is - a quilt wallhanging kit I bought months ago. It has 12 different barn blocks which will be separated by sashing and star cornerstones. I'm loving the look of the blocks I've sewn so far up on my design wall.  And yes, I made the design wall too.  It's a big piece of felt that I hung using command hooks and office binder clips - it's in front of the sliding closet doors in my sewing room. Easy to move out of the way or remove and so much better to see the quilt in progress.  I can't wait to get to the sewing machine today to work on block #6. I'm getting better at matching my points, still not perfect but I'm learning, matching points and working with bias pieces is new to me. Although not perfect I'm happy with my blocks.

I'm still working on my shawl a bit in the evenings. it's slow but coming along. This is my handspun, merino and merino/tussah blends that I blended together on the blending board - a total of 8 different colorways.