After the feast!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Ours was very quiet, as hubby had to work at 3:00, so we did an early dinner at noon, and I had the whole rest of the day to sew!  Woohoo!

I've nearly put all the blocks and rows together on my spiderweb.....now it's just a matter of deciding what kind of border to do.

I'm loving everything about this quilt.....first, it has lots of orange, which is my favorite color!  (You just can't help but be happy looking at anything orange!)  Second, it is using the shirtings I have collected, and I am very pleased about that!  I just wish it had made a small dent in the bin, because it's still overflowing!  Sheesh!

I'm thinking about small wedges pointing in for a border.  And definitely a pieced backing of all the shirtings (big blocks, not the tiny pieces....eek!)

Here is a pic of our Christmas Cactus which never blooms on Christmas, but at least 3 times throughout the year!

Ok, back to the sewing room!

Have a great day!

regan

Two more baby quilts!

I'm so excited about Bonnie Hunter's mystery that starts tomorrow!  I'm just so crazy that I'm not going to be here until Saturday night!  My friend, Brenda, and I are heading north and we are going to try and pack as much fun fun fun in as we can!  I'm guessing we'll hit at least 2 Marden's, 3 quilt shops, and maybe 2 antique shops, all on the way to the Bangor Hollywood Slots!  Hit the jacuzzi the minute we get there, have the great buffet (their carrot cake is to die for!) and only spend a little on the slots, as we have more shopping to do on the way back!  Then, the minute I get home, I'm starting the mystery!  I'm still deciding on my color scheme, because I don't have many greens, but I have a lot of greys/slates.....so maybe that instead.  We'll see what happens!

In the meantime.....here are two more baby quilts that I've made.  These were made when I had a website, but as I've mentioned before, it never got off the ground, because I was waaaay too far down the google listing for anyone to find my little baby quilt site.  But since using ebay, I've sold one recently, and will probably start an etsy shop soon, just to see what can happen.

I've been giving them away as the need arises.....this first one went to little Sophia Grace, the first baby of our sweet niece Corin and her wonderful husband, Josh.  They sent me a real pic of Sophia with the quilt, but my scanner is ill, so until it is feeling better, here is just the quilt.

This next quilt has a funny story to it.....as I was quilting the heck out it, (it is really highly quilted...see the closeup), and just had about a 4" section left to do, my dang machine went crazy on me.  It jammed up, so I had to take the machine apart.  (I'm sure you're saying, "You're not supposed to take it apart....only a tech should!" but if I followed the suggested 'every 20 hours of sewing, get it cleaned' scenario, I would have my machine in the shop every week!  Can't do that!  So, I dove right in!  Plus, it's not a $3,000 machine; THAT I would take to someone!)

Now, this was a fairly new machine, only about 3 months old.  And I had been quilting all these baby quilts on it with no problem whatsoever!  Well, this was the first time I had even taken off the feed-dog plate!  And when I did, OH BOY!  There was practically an entire quilt worth of fluff in my machine!  Sheesh!  I got out the little brushes, and the canned air, and a tweezers, and went to town on it!  It was really unbelievable how my little machine could have kept going with all that in there!  I hadn't even noticed that the spaces between the two double rows of feed dogs were packed tight with white fluff....only the tweezers could get it out!  Yikes!

So, I got all the crap out of there, oiled where it needed it, and put it all back together!  Did a little test, and it worked like a charm!  Sweet!

So, I started the quilting to finish the baby quilt, and as I was almost done, a clump of oily fluff fell out of the needle mechanism and before I could stop and catch it, I ran over it with the needle!  Of course, it HAD to be oily, couldn't just be fluff!  So it left a spot about the size of a pea in the corner of the quilt, about 2 inches in!  DANG IT!

What's a quilter to do......but......cut off the corners!  AND I LOVE IT!  It's one of my favorite quilts I've made, and I think I will be keeping it, and using it as a wall hanging!

Have you had any disasters that turned out for the best?

regan  :o)

A few more baby quilts!

Progress is being made on my spiderweb quilt, but who needs more pics of progress....until it is nearly done!  So, here are a few more of my baby quilts.

This first one was recently sold on ebay....yippee!

This next one was made using a bunch of hand pieced blocks that I had lost interest in.....but they were hand pieced, so ya just gotta do something with them!

And finally, this was a pattern I saw in a catalog.....might have been Keepsake, but can't remember.....I like to cut out pics from magazines and catalogs to give me inspiration.....I never use the exact pattern, always bits of this or that.....but I really like the way it turned out.

The first two quilts were machine quilted with an all-over meandering stitch, and this last one has that, but in the white background pieces, I did a really small stipple.

I've been rearranging my sewing room.....now that the bed is out!  I was helping my friend, Brenda, set up her sewing room, and was so jealous that she had so much space.  When I got home, I boohooed it up big, and convinced my hubby that we didn't need 3 guest rooms, and that I should have one of them for just sewing!  Sweet!  (And yes, we have needed 3 guest rooms before, many times, because they all seem to come in a mob to go skiing!)  But as Brenda said, "You live here 365 days a year, and they're only here for a few days....you should get the room!"  I like her thinking!

So, I'm very happy with all the space!  It was like a maze to get to the ironing board before, but not now!!!  Yippee!

regan  :o)

Totally Addictive!

Yes these spiderwebs are addictive.....I just couldn't stop making them.....until 3:00 this morning!  Sheesh!  They measure 5 1/2 inches on the short side, so two of them will finish at a 5" square.  I'm loving everything about it!

If I keep at this pace, I should have this top done by the middle of next week!  Woohoo!  Perfect timing, as I will be busy with Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll Mystery quilt starting on the 19th!  I can't wait!

Are you going to do the mystery too?

regan

Spiderwebs!

These foundation spiderwebs are totally addicting!  I just couldn't stop!  I spent all day yesterday working on them, from drafting the dimensions, to making bunches!  Of course, it has not even made a dent in the shirtings scrap bins, but that's ok.....I'll just keep making more!

Here are some of the pieces on my design wall.

My inspiration for the design was on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville "Spiderweb" page.  If you look at the background design for her page, this was the design I used! 


Of course, because the design is not symmetrical, you have to make two templates for the triangle shapes.  Here's a pic of mine.

You need to make the same number of each side for a complete design, but I think I might do something different with the outside edge.  Maybe leave off the small web end, so the outside border area will just be the big webs and a lot more orange.  I don't know....I'm not there yet!  We'll see what happens!

I have quilt group tonight at the town office!  I just love going; it's my only chance for hand piecing right now, and my grandma's flower garden is really coming along!  It's really a wild flower garden, because it is a jumble of scraps, not the usual same color petals!  I'm on the 'path' rows now (they are a mottled dark purple), and will soon start putting them all together!  I will show a pic very soon!

regan  :o)

Another baby quilt!

I just got back from the thrift store where I picked up 9 more men's shirts for my shirting collection!  Bonnie Hunter has created a total shirt maniac in me!  I can't wait for Saturday's when the thrift store is open!  My drawer of just the collars, cuff, and pockets is overflowing, so I thinking I'm needing to get busy on those with a project!  I was thinking a scrappy spiderweb design.  We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, here is another baby quilt that I've made!  I just love the simplicity of the 9-patch and the blue and white.  It measures 45 x 38, so it's on the generous side for a baby quilt.

I made a similar twin sized quilt for my mother.  Hers was the quilt that I did my first machine feather all around the border, and it turned out great!  Although I think in hindsight I would have made the feathers bigger, because it really blended with the stipple around it, and unless you were really looking, you might not see it!

But it's one of my favorite quilts that I've made.  I just love the clean look of it!

Also, I can't wait for Bonnie's upcoming mystery quilt!  It will be my first mystery, and I love her stuff so much, I know it will be fun fun fun!

regan 

My civic duty!

So, I was counting votes until 2:30 this morning!  Sheesh!  That was a very long night!  Our turnout was great for our little town: 815 votes!  Waterford only has 1455 citizens.  A very good turnout!  Love that!

To keep my little photo library going, here is another baby quilt that I've made.  Again, with the 30's prints!  I just can't get enough of those!  It is machine quilted with an all-over stipple design.  I love that crinkly look!

This quilt is currently on ebay, but when they stop offering the free listing in January, I will start an Etsy shop.  I have several baby quilts left, after giving several away.

I used to have a website, but it never was seen.  I was way too far down the listing to be found.  They never tell you that in the add for starting websites!  They also make it sound so darned easy!  They lie!  I was in tears for 2 months trying to figure out how to upload and list it.  Creating the page was the easy part....of course that's where they give you all the instruction.  It's the 'getting it out there' part that was a nightmare!  I instantly realized that web designers are totally worth what they charge!  Because it's all a big secret, and they are the only one's who know it!

With that said, I'm hoping an Etsy shop will be as easy to start as this blog was!  Of course, I had huge help from Karen at Sew Many Ways.  Her blog has a 'Blog Buddy' help section that I am totally grateful for!  Thank you, Karen!  You rock!

regan