BONUS BLOCK #3

BEAUTIFUL DAY

I'm totally enjoying sitting on our back porch doing some hand piecing on my Cincinnati quilt on this beautiful Spring morning.  

BALLARD LOCKS

I had to drop my car off at the dealer's to get the license plates installed and for service.  

Jelly and I walked over to the Ballard Locks.  It was a beautiful morning.

Artwork

Inside viewing the fish ladder, there were no fish.

On the other side looking back down at the locks.

Playing with the geese.

Crossing the railroad tracks.

The railroad tracks.

Walking across the locks.

The big lock.

Looking out.

Gull

One of the interesting buildings that are all made of concrete with wooden windows.

Lots of gulls

Beautiful colors.

Flying gull.

Big tree.

Steps.

An easier option?

Looking back down from the steps.

I want this plant for my garden.

This one, too.  It lives in the shade.

We rode the bus back to the pick up the car.  Jelly didn't like the bus, it was creaking and banging.

Jelly's first bus ride - the 29.

NEW HEXAGONS - BRANDI

From Katja Marek's The New Hexagon, here are my Brandi blocks:

DORIS BLOCKS

These seemed the prime candidates for the alternately pieced borders.

Doris blocks

KELLY 1

SWEET SIXTEEN

Here are the first eight blocks done, two each, sixteen in all.

SARAH 2

 Here is the second Sarah block:

I put a little different border on this one.  I was originally going to do all of the borders this way, but that is a lot of added work.  So, I'll just do a few of them this way.

CAROLINE 1

This is Block 5, Caroline.

BUSY WEEK

Busy week...well, that depends on your point of view.  If sitting around hand piecing is busy, then I've been busy.

Don't get me wrong, I've been getting my exercise in and housework done first.  But, then I've spent all my TV watching time busily hand sewing.

Block 2, Carol

Block 4, Lorraine

Another Block 2, Carol

I wrote to paperpieces.com and asked about getting some paper pieces to use for the border on each hex block.  I sent them the dimensions and within a week I was able to buy them online.  Anyone can buy them now, they list them as one of their products.  Pretty cool, huh?

BLOCKS 16 AND 17

From the Floral Trails collection:

BONUS BLOCK #1

NEW DOG BEING SHIPPED

I lost my mind again and decided to get a dog!


Working with California Russell Rescue again, I found a young JRT.  She started out being over a year old, when I said I wanted her.  Then they told me she was around a year old.  Then they told me her birthday was June 18th...quick calculation, she was just 7 months old.  I didn't want a puppy!


Then the guy that was fostering her tells me she's not housebroken.  But, it was too late, she was mine, and plans were being made to have her shipped up here.
 
I was allowed to follow her progress on her trip up I-5.  I was surprised at what a feat of cooperation it was.


She and other dogs are loaded into a volunteer's car in the Los Angeles area, then driven anywhere from 80 to 120 miles to the next volunteer, who takes the dogs and drives them on another leg.


They coordinate and keep in touch on FB Messenger.  I was also included in the group messages and followed her progress over two days as she was ferried up here.


From Salem Oregon northward, she was the only dog in the car.


Here are some of the pictures of the people involved (there were 18 legs!).


Thank you so much. 

Jelly in Menifee California at her foster home.

Jelly starting out on the first leg of journey.

Jelly and friend at the home where they spent Saturday night

Jelly with Gabby

Jelly with Lynn

Jelly with Shareen

The little sweetheart came from a breeder who had named her P'NutButter Jelly.  The volunteers have been calling her Jelly.  I've been calling her Jelly when I speak to them about her.

I thought we'd probably find her a better name, but I think Jelly is going to be it. 

Thank you,  CA Russell Rescue Organization!

FINISHED FIRST BLOCK 3, SARAH

Still needs a border.

Paperpieces.com got back to me, and they have made the pieces I asked for to do the borders with.  I ordered a big pile of them today.  They should be here on Friday or Saturday.

WORKING ON BLOCK 3

GLUE BASTING

I glued basted all of the pieces in my to-go kits today (two blocks).

BORDERS!

This is the first block with the borders on.

A PIECED BORDER FOR EACH

Okay, I've come up with a plan for how to put together my "New Hexagon Blocks"....

I opened up Electric Quilt and tried fooling around in there to determine how many blocks I'd need and what size.  But, Electric Quilt is not that friendly for trying things using hexagons.  Their program has just the bare minimums for figuring hexagon quilts.  But, I was able to come up with a rudimentary plan.

I'm going to put a border around each hex block, just like they are doing in Katja's Project.  But, I'm not going to be doing it the way they are.  I'm going to paper piece the border on - which means I need the paper pieces.  I did some calculating and figuring and drew and cut out some pieces to see if it would work.

Each block will have one of a different taupe, beige, tan or gray fabric that is in the group.  So, I went ahead and cut a bunch of strips off the fabrics to set aside.

Then I sent off an email to paperpieces.com to ask about having those pieces custom made.  We'll see if that is affordable or not.   Considering I need almost 600 pieces, it will probably be very worth it.  We'll see.