Finally Finished! Yippee!

I finished the two quilts going to Massachusetts last night!  Got them wrapped, boxed, and off to UPS this morning!  Whew!  It was a real struggle to get enough time in on them, since these last two weeks have been crazy at work, and I've been working more than the normal shifts!  Sheesh!

But here they are, in all their glory!

The front....

 and the back.....

I did an all over swirly quilting design on the blue one....the top thread is an ocean blue, and the bobbin was a lilac!  (I only had one spool of each color, and I didn't want to run out at the last minute....hence, two different colors!)  You can only really tell the color on the light colored fabrics, and that's ok.....I love it!  I might have to do that again!  I did a chain of swirls in the inside border....that was fun, but it took a little planning to get the corners to come out right.....consistency is key!

I did an arched square in the 9 patches, and the alternates got a swirled feather concoction!  It was a combination of some designs I'd seen, and it seemed to fill the square quite well.  I did the same swirly design in the border that I did on the blue one.....I needed something that could cover it to the edge, because I really didn't want to do a little strip of something in that last inch and a half of brown!  It was quilted with a dark pink thread....which shows up A LOT in the brown squares, but blends really well with all the lights on the back and in the 9 patches.  I used the extra 9 patch blocks on the pieced back.  Love it!

As I was quilting the brown squares, I thought it was going to look awful....and was really worried, but didn't have the time to pick out the ones I'd done and start over.....so I just kept going, and I really like it now, after doing the triangles on the edge....they seem to pull it together, and it's not so 'in your face' quilting!  You know what I mean?  I kindof like machine quilting to be in the background, and not such a focus, but with a big blank square, what can you do?

I just realized that in the pics, you can see the pile of thrift shop shirts on the couch, waiting to be cut up.....what a mess!  Sorry!

I'm busily baking right now, typing between 9 minute batches of cookies!  And I've done something to my thumb, so the drop cookies are taking a bit longer than usual.  Good thing the rest of the cookies aren't drop-type.  Of course, I'm sure it didn't help my thumb any to bind two queen sized quilts in a 48 hour span!  Sheesh!

We just got word that our middle son (who lives in Virginia) is going to join us for Christmas!  Woohoo!  I can't wait to see him!

Oh, and this last pic is of the blue quilt, but with no flash!  I love that the camera can pull colors out like that!  I really love the look of all those browns together.....so it's inspired me to do another quilt, all in browns!  Maybe not that exact pattern, but something with lots of bits!  Sweet!

Ya know, I love everything about winter.....the frozen lakes, the icy grey skies, having to bundle up, the bare trees.....everything!......except....... getting shocked every time I touch ANYTHING!  Thank goodness hubby and I are really good at remembering to 'ground' ourselves before we kiss....there is nothing worse than being shocked on the lips!

Have a really peaceful holiday, and eat lots of cookies!

regan