Thirfty Thursday - Blogtoberfest Day #6

Its day #6 of Blogtoberfest and I am having a good time visiting everyone's blogs.  I have even re-designed my blog a bit to make it easier to read.  I've been good at posting every day this month, so far so good.

I have been a bit busy lately and haven't had a recent thrifty find, so I will share one of my favorite finds and best of all it was - FREE!

When Hurricane Ike hit Houston several years ago, there was damage to many houses.  I would guesstimate that over 90% of the homes in my area had damage to the fences.  I stayed at my parent's house during the storm and their fence had blown down, so we had to walk the dogs several times a day.  We were at the outskirts of her subdivision and were crossing an empty parking lot when I came across the letter M.  I picked it up and said to my mom, "Wouldn't it be great if there was a letter K?"  I was halfway through saying K when I looked over 3 feet and there was a K on the ground!

We couldn't believe it!  M.K. are my initials.  There were no other letters or debris around and we could not figure out where they came from.

Wordless Wednesday - Blogtoberfest Day #5

Christmas Yo-Yos

Today I was thinking about a blog topic for day 4 of Blogtoberfest and I also was thinking that it is almost the Christmas season.  I searched my projects and found this old work in progress (WIP).

I love the look of yo-yo's.  While working with the hexies, I was thinking about how much I like to work on making yo-yos when I need a mobile project.  Hopefully, I will enjoy making hexies too someday.

This fabric has been in my stash for quite some time.  It is white cotton with silver sparkle stars and 2000.  I remember seeing this fabric many places in 1999 right before the year 2000.  I bought 2 yards and thought I would make a Year 2000 quilt but never could come up with a design.  As years passed, I couldn't think of a project to make using it and it didn't seem right to donate it.  (I mean, I couldn't understand someone wanting Year 2000 fabric.)

I had an idea to use this fabric for yo-yos, since no one would notice the Y2K material.  I think the yo-yos look cute with the sparkly material.  I plan to use the yo-yos to make a garland for Christmas decorations. 

ARGHHHHHH! Hexies!!

ARGHHHHHH!!!! and I don't mean that in a pirate sort of way!  Although thinking of Johnny Depp briefly helps.

I first started working with the purple hexagons and used a 1/4 inch seam allowance which seemed like a very small amount of fabric to work with.  I had a bit of trouble but thought they looked OK.  Then when I tried to join them, I found they were kinda lopsided.  After a bit of frustration, I decided too throw the lot back in the stash and work on another project.

After cooling down and not being one to just give up, I decided to try again this time with the blue hexagons.  I used a more generous seam allowance but these too did not seem to match up.  I thought maybe I could make them fit when I attached them.  No such luck.  Not only could I not get them joined evenly, the joining stitches were visible.

I think its time to step back and read some more tutorials.  I must be missing something.

Working with Hexagons

There was a sale this weekend at Joanns and I used a bunch of coupons to get a deal on all this stuff.  I have been wanting to try working with hexagons.  I have seen many blogs where everyone makes cute hexagon flowers and I want to try it too.  So today, I think I'll jump right in.

Blogtoberfest 2011 - I'm in!

So I was surfing the web reading blogs and discovered Blogtoberfest 2011.  The idea is that you post to your blog every day for the month of October.  I don't know if I can do it, but I sure am ready for the challenge.  I really have been quite productive lately and this seems like just the incentive that I need to stop neglecting the blog.

So Blogtoberfest - I'm in.  I have got the button, now I guess I need to get busy posting.

 

Blogger's Block of the Month - Sept

I haven't done a Block of the Month project before, but after looking at the list of designers featured in the Blogger's BOM I wanted to quilt along. 

September's block was posted today over at A Quilting Life.  I had a good time going through my stash to make my fabric choices and didnt realize that I have so many different polka dots.  So, I decided that the blocks will be dot blocks with a gray solid.  The blue fabric for this block was left over from a recent project.