Thrift Store Find!

I was near a thrift store today and decided to take a looky-loo. So glad I did! Look at this cute little doxie pin cushion I found for 50 cents. Love it! I also bought a pile of new (with original tags) t-shirts in a pretty blue gray color. I have something in mind for these....more soon on this....

Look at the size of a Cooper paw! It's hard to believe he was the runt of the litter. He's growing so fast and is learning new things every day. Today he put his paws on the kitchen counter and got his food bowl to tell me it was time to feed him. Not thrilled he's taught himself this. :)

A GREEN Weekend

Saturday morning I cut out an entire quilt in record time - of course I used my Accuquilt! Squares, triangles, and circles make up all pieces in more than 20 shades of green. This is the Sweetpea color collection in Kona Cotton solids, from neon lime to khaki to kelly to forest. Yummy!

I've now pieced all the blocks and will finish sewing them together today. And you know those circles will become hexies! I'm about a third done with making the hexies so the appliqué will begin by tonight! This top should be done in record time!

Cooper and I just got back from a 50 minute walk. He's doing well on his loose leash training. It's so important to teach him this before he gets to big to control, which is coming soon. And in the process, I'm getting some much needed exercise! Yay for Cooper!

Machine Applique Complete

I finished with the machine appliqué! Yay! As you can see, I don't use monofilament nylon thread. Yes, it would disappear, but I HATE working with it! With a passion! So I used a light gray, and then went to work:

I pulled out my Inktense Pencils...

and my Textile Medium. I dip a pencil tip in a blog of the Textile Medium and carefully color over thread where I need to so it disappears. A bit tedious, but it didn't take as long as you might think.

Cooper update:

He's almost 4 months old now and is (thankfully!) getting a bit easier. I've taught him to do his business in a natural, pine straw covered area of our backyard. Our grass (and hubby) is happy about that. I'm now working on teaching him to walk on a loose leash. So far, so good. He started losing baby teeth this week - yay, teething will be over soon!

Today he had his last puppy shots at the vet and he got a microchip. Two months until he has his surgery to be neutered.

Hexie Style!

Due to popular demand, here's the hexie clothing I bought this week. You'll need to click on the pictures to see better. I love the pants! They don't fit me now, but that's incentive to continue my weight loss, huh? I got these at Penney's.

And the hexie blouse came from Dillards. The yoke in back is sheer black lace and it comes with a black camp underneath.

Don't worry, I won't wear them at the same time! I think the blouse would be cute with white jeans and some colorful jewelry. And I have a cute camel sweater which will go with the pants. Hope I can fit in them soon!

Busy day today! Daughter 2 came over to help out and I kept her busy. She put together some shelving units for an upstairs closet and sorted and organized all my big yardage fabric. Didn't realize I had so much. I won't need any backing fabric for quite some time. Big improvement!

Since I've been hexie-ing for the last couple of years, I have quite a collection of fabric circles of all sizes. I'd dumped them all in a big plastic bin. She is sorting them by circle size for me. It was taking so long that she took them home with her to finish there. It's so nice to get some organization in my life!

While she was sorting and organizing, I did a bunch of boring computer work. All done - yay! Ready to settle down in front of the TV to work on a quilt!

My New Sweater!

I feel pretty darn lucky! When Melody offered up this sweater she knit for sale on her blog, I jumped on it. So excited that I got it! Melody is so talented - a quilter, a painter, and a knitter. She designed it herself. OOHH, I'm so lucky to have an ORIGINAL! It arrived today. I'm ready for Fall/Winter!

Today I had errands (Walmart for shelves to help organize some of my stash and the mall for some hexie items - yup, bought some hexie clothing!) Then I had to go to Fed Ex to ship a quilt to Paducah. I have 4 quilts residing temporarily in Paducah at the moment.

Finally I settled down behind the machine to appliqué some hexies, tucking the threads under with a pin as I stitched. Making progress!

A Lake Weekend

We love living so close to the lake! We go much more often now. One of the reasons we got Cooper was to go on our lake adventures. We wanted a dog who would love the water.

Boy, does Cooper love the water! He adores swimming - just jumps right in.

He loves to fetch sticks in the lake, and to pounce on waves and bubbles, and to splash.

And the best part is how it tires him out! He has the greatest naps afterward. Pooped puppy!

I did some kayaking with hubby, went on a few boat rides, and floated in the water a bit. Ahhh, it was good to relax!

Cooper's Mouth

Yesterday I didn't get any sewing in - too many errands! But today I definitely put in my hours. I did the ditch quilting on an entire large quilt. It still needs plenty of free motion work and a bit of my perle cotton quilting.

I also decided on a background for another quilt and pinned hexies in place on it, ready to appliqué.

So what about Cooper's mouth? I find the strangest things in it! Here he is above posing with Mickey, who has come to love this lug very much.

Let's play a game. Which of the following do you think I've found in Cooper's mouth in the last 24 hours?

1. A quilt magazine that I did not give to him
2. A quilt
3. A kitchen cabinet pull (still attached to the cabinet)
4. A stool handmade by my father
5. A doorstop (still attached to the wall)
6.  A bag of Knock Out Rose food
7.  A broom
8.  A visor
9.  My neck pillow
10.  A shirt
11.  A TV remote
12. My book
13. A potted plant

The answer?  All of the above! The only thing he destroyed was my book:

AWOL!

Sorry to have been away so long! And thanks to all who have e-mail to make sure I'm okay! I've been a bit...out of sorts. But Peggy gave me a nice, gentle kick in the behind today and here I am back blogging! Thanks, Peggy, for being a great friend.

So what's been going on around here? Hubby and I took a bitty trip to the coast.

We did a bit of sailing, some kayaking, and some biking.

We ate some yummy seafood - I love some crab claws and oysters....

We removed a bee hive from our back patio - yes, there are hexies everywhere in my life.

I had a nice birthday yesterday. Check out The Hexie Blog to see what my daughters gave me.

I wrote the book proposal for the next hexie book - yes, I'm hoping there will be another one!

I wrote proposals for teaching lots of classes at quilt shows.

I made plans (with Peggy) to attend Fall Quilt Market in Houston.

I signed up to be a vendor at a quilt show.

Cooper Update:
He is growing like a weed and chewing on EVERYTHING! I caught him chewing on the dining room curtains this morning. I'm really working on training him - since he's going to be so big, I need to get him under control. Today he and I have been working on "STAY."  He can already SIT and SHAKE hands. I'll post a new picture of him soon.

Lots of love to all! And thanks for missing me!