Need just one more post!

So, if you know me at all.....you know I love prime numbers!  Why.....I don't know!  I just do!  So as I looked on my postings list, I realized I was at 46 for the year!  Eeegads!  I can't have that!  So.....here's just one more to put me at 47......yep, a prime!  Life is good!  :o)

My cousin April is going to be a 1st time grandma (but she'll NEVER let anyone call her that!  HA!).....and she asked me if I would make the little peanut a baby quilt.  She had looked at the few I still had left from my stash, and they were just too girly......the little peanut is a boy.  Turns out, her DIL has 'designed' the baby's room to be teal, grey and white.  It is very sophisicated, modern and stylish......NO BUNNIES OR FLOWERS!  lol

I emailed April dozens of pics of quilts to help her decide on a pattern or style.....she's not a quilter, so I figured this would be something for her to look at and feel she was making some of the decision.  And she fell in love with a particular quilt......she wanted THAT quilt!  I told her it would probably be impossible to get the same fabrics, but I would duplicate the general mood of it.

So, I started with my stash.....and of course, I have 1 teal fabric!  It's just not my color of choice!  So I headed to a few fabric shops, and picked up a few more teals.  I was loving the fabrics together, but they just weren't matching the mood of the picture quilt.  So yesterday......I drove the hour and 45 minutes to Keepsake Quilting in NH.  Woohoo......I hit the mother lode!  I picked up 6 new pieces, and together with 3 of the others that I had......it's perfect!  I think it captures the mood perfectly.

Here is a pic of the fabrics.....of course, this was taken at night with the fluorescent lighting, so where it is brown is actually a nice grey.....do you think the combo has style, sophistication, and a modern look?

The pattern of the quilt is a simple chunky coins in strips......so the biggest piece will be about 6" square, and down to 2x6"......with pure white separating the strips.  Bound in black.

I will be cutting and piecing over the weekend.  I'm hoping to get this quilted and in the mail before the middle of January.  The baby is due in early March, so I don't want April in a panic.  It's an easy pattern, so I should be able to whip it up fairly fast.

I guess the hardest part......and always for me......is picking the fabrics!  Why is that?

I guess that's why I love scrappy quilts......toss everything together, and it looks great!  But tell me to pic 6 prints that go together......OY!  I'm stumped!

As I've been reading blogs today.....so many have mentioned what their goals for 2012 will be.....like resolutions, but I like the word 'goal' better.  So my goal for 2012 is to get this place organized.....my sewing room is.....why isn't the rest of the house!?!  And it's been making me a little crazy lately, too, so I guess it's time!  We'll be having another yard sale this summer (had one 2 summers ago, and it was GREAT!), so I think I will be putting stuff aside for that again!  I'm pretty excited about this, cuz there is nothing I like about clutter, and yet, I seem to be surrounded by it!  Yuk!

It always worries my husband when I get in this kind of mood......he's so afraid he won't have anything left when I'm done!  HA!

Hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year!

regan

I have a new camera!

So I got the Olympus SZ-10.....it's very compact, and has a LOT of features....most I will probably never use.  But I'm looking forward to the next quilt show that I can get tons of pics of beautiful quilts, and they will be the colors they are supposed to be!  :o)

Of course, it's night right now, as I'm trying to 'try it out'.....so I'm still not getting great stuff!  But I managed to take a couple of pics.......

Here's the tree on the screened porch.....I just love coming home at night, and seeing it from the bottom of the hill.  Makes me happy!

We aren't putting a tree inside this year (3rd year in a row!), because we aren't having any company, and we are working most of the time.  Several years ago, all the kids would fly in for the holidays, and we would all ski like crazy, and it was totally fun and chaos, and their flights would get all messed up with the weather, and we would make umpteen trips to the airport (over an hour away!), and it was fun, with tons of food, and running around, and people in every room of the house, but it was crazy!  They've all decided that it is better to try and visit when the weather is more predictable, and we can do more visiting, instead of crazy, frantic, pack-it-all-into-a-week kind of visit.  I agree!

So we don't put up a tree now.   I think John may even be working on Christmas day......so we aren't home enough to enjoy it.  Plus, it's about 3 days to put one up, and 4 days to take it all down.....so there's a week's worth of sewing I can do instead!  Yay!  And I'm gonna!

A few years ago, our grandson was staying with us over Christmas, and he was helping me to put up the tree.  I handed him the first box of ornaments, and he put those on, and figured he was done!  HA!  He had no idea.....we counted that year, and came up with over 800 ornaments!  More than half are special ones, that are tissue wrapped in the boxes.....so you can understand why it takes a while!  My motto is.....if you can still see green, there aren't enough ornaments on the tree!  lol

So this white tree (my first ever artificial tree!) was just the ticket since I've been missing having a tree each year.  It's simple, but so sweet to see from the road!  Love it!

And I have been doing a little sewing......managed to get the sashing, cornerstones, and the pieced backing done on our group's charity quilt.  It's all in homespuns that several of us had lying around.....the gals in the group all took a stack of the 5 inch squares and made big 4 patches with them......I squared them all up, and added the sashings and cornerstones.  Before the 5 inch squares were cut from the pieces, I cut out the 10.5 inch squares for the backing.  Still have almost enough to make a second quilt.....I'll just need to add a few pieces for the front and back to make it.

Of course these pics were taken at night, so the colors are off......the 1st pic shows the true colors for the fabrics we used on the front and back......it's really a nice deep-toned quilt.....perfect for a man, if the need arises.  And it will finish at about 75 x 55, nice for a single sized bed or to cozy up on the couch.

Front.....

Back......

Please ignore the mess in the room......I don't even see it anymore, until I take a pic!  Sheesh!

I'm hoping to sandwich and quilt it sometime this week.  But my T-W-TH days off this week will be spent baking cookies!  I usually make about 12 different kinds, but this year I've acquired 3 new recipes for something totally different to add......so I'll definitely be busy all three days!  Perfect timing to deliver my cookie trays on Friday!  Yay!

Hoping you all have a very merry Christmas!  Give big hugs to all the people you hold dear, and spend every minute you can with them!  Oh.....and eat lots of cookies, too!  :o)

regan

That Cruise Quilt.....Finally!

I've been working on the borders for the cruise quilt since the minute I finished the wedding quilt.....October 4!  Sheesh!  I guess it's kindof been kicking my butt.....but I'd never done a border like this before.

When we were on the cruise, I managed to finish the inside portion of the quilt.....I was totally jazzed by the colors.....they are so NOT me!  But I just fell in love with all the tropical in-your-face splash of colors!  We were in the Caribbean, so why not?  Right?

Here's what I did on the cruise.....

Bonnie's pattern was really fun to work with......I never do partial seams, and I was surprised at how fast they went together!  I've even dismissed patterns with them, thinking I was 'not gonna go there'.....but they really are easier than I thought.

So, the cruise was really inspiring......the colors of the ocean, gorgeous scenery on the islands.....bright colors everywhere.  It was really a paradise, so what else could I do but.......

And, of course, because Bonnie had given us a lesson on wonky stars during the cruise....it was only fitting to add a few to the quilt!

And I think it's totally funny that I have this quilt on the porch with a bit of snow in the scene!  The best of both worlds to me!

I didn't have a clue how to do the lettering, but after looking at a few blogs showing Tonya Ricucci's Word Play Quilts, I was willing to try it!  I really need to get her book, cuz I'm sure I took the long way to get there!  Just looking at my piecing on the back, makes me think there might be an easier way!  lol

Of course, I was going for the wonkiness factor on the lettering, and I had a very limited amount of the blue ocean with fish fabric (can you see the fish!?!).....so I guess it's not so bad.

I don't even know where that blue fabric came from, but when I was looking for a patterned blue piece to use, I saw this in my stash, and couldn't believe my luck!  And there was about 4 yards of it, too, so I thought 'no problem....this is plenty!'

Wrong!

I have a pile of sliver scraps, and 1 piece that is about 12" square left of it!  Yikes!  I'm hoping I can cut enough hst's to make the outside border with the diamond chain of colors......but if not, then it will just get bound in black.  We'll see what happens!  Cuz this is definitely unplanned all the way!

But I love quilting like that!  Make-do quilting......yep, that's me!  lol

And now I can finally start on Bonnie's mystery......it's been killing me not to get going on it!

Have a great day!

regan

Where did November go?

I can't believe my last post was way back at the beginning of this month.....but I've been crazy busy trying to get that Cruise Quilt border done......I'm almost ready to post it.....just a few more hours of piecing!

So until then.....I have this......

I had emailed my cousin this beautiful video that I saw on someone's blog (sorry, can't remember who, but thank you!).....it's lovely, and I'm still in that Thanksgiving mood.....so it's still timely!  lol

After seeing the video, we were talking and she said......"and be thankful for what we don't have that we don't want!"......which totally set me thinking on it!  Then I thought......

Oh Boy!  Let's make a list!!!! 

The things I DON'T want that I DON'T have......

1.    Grown children that still live at home.

2.    The desire to eat oysters.

3.    A criminal record.

4.    A boob job.

5.    A pet that pees and poops on the carpet.

6.    Acne.

7.    The gout.

8.    Daily traffic jams.

9.    A worse married name than my maiden name.

10.    To own anything with a clown on it.

I'm so thankful I don't have these!  lol

Ok.....so that's my list.....what are yours?

I'll be back to quilty things on my next post!

regan  :o)

A finish.....and just in time, too!

Well.....last night I was sewing on the binding of Jeanne's wedding quilt.  Today it is all washed, crinkled to perfection, and I will be wrapping it up when I finish posting this!

Whew!  And it's just in the nick of time!  The wedding is Saturday, and we are heading down to Massachusetts tomorrow, to do some visiting with other friends before the wedding weekend.

I have to admit.....I really did like working on this quilt!  I had never done many flying geese before, and this one had 480 of them in it!  Turns out, I really like making flying geese!  Who knew!?!

I learned a few things on this quilt, too!  My biggest lesson......if I'm using a particular thread color for the quilting, make sure it's a brand and color that A LOT of quilt shops carry!  Turns out......there is only ONE shop within 2 hours of me that carries the Mettler Silk Finish All Cotton #577 (a medium/dark lavender) thread.  I purchased 2 spools (the big ones with 547 yards on them) and started quilting.  When I realized I was going to need more, I headed back, bought another spool, and it turned out, it was their last one!

"That's ok.......this should do it!"

Well.......no!

When I had just finished the initial feather on the border, I was at the end of that third spool!  I felt this feather needed to have the echo quilting around it.  I just didn't feel right leaving that area unquilted.  I didn't have any other unquilted areas, and it would just bother me!

So I called, and they had it on order, and expected it at any time (this was last Thursday).  I figured, I can wait until.....Tuesday, then I could quickly finish the quilting on Tues, bind on Wed, wash and wrap it up on Thursday......it would cut it close, but I could do it!

The thing is......they didn't get their shipment in on Tuesday!  So on Tuesday, hubby and I drove ALL OVER to try and find a suitable 'match' of another brand!  We checked 3 other quilt shops, the fabric warehouse store, Marden's, and JoAnn's!  My hubby is an amazing guy.....and what a trooper!  He was even helping to match the colors!  We bought threads at 3 different places, all of them pretty darned close to the Mettler color, but all of them were poly!  Ugh!  It seems NO ONE carries any all cotton thread in any colors other than neutrals!  What the heck is with that!?!  I guess I've been buying my threads from Connecting Threads for so long now, that I just assumed all cotton was available all over the place!

Anyway, I tried all 3 brands on my tester sandwich, and picked the closest one!  And since it is just the echo stitching around the feather, the fact that it is slightly thinner than the cotton actually works out ok.  The echo fades to the background, and the initial feather gets to stand out more!  I'm ok with that!

So.....here are pics of Jeanne's quilt!  The label sentiment is from their wedding invitation.

Oh, and another thing I learned on this quilt.....I need a new camera really bad!  This pic is the truest of the colors of the quilt.  Everything else is either too dark or too light to what the real colors are.  That makes me crazy!

I love making that swirly chain down the white border.  I did NOT love making the 1/2 inch lines down the inside border.....the stitch in the ditch with dark thread next to the white fabric was murder!  I'll never do that again!  I do like how it looks though!

Turning the corner!  This was my second time making a feather border.....and I really love how it looks!  The first quilt I did it on, I made the feather way too small, so when it was washed and crinkled up, it just disappeared in the crinkles.  I made this one with feathers the size of my thumb, so it was big enough.

This is the overall quilting design I did in the center area.  Freehand swirls with feather edges.  I really love this design, and will use it again and again.  I fills an area very easily, and is fairly fast, too.  And this was my other lesson learned on this quilt.....if the quilt has large pieces of a lot of different fabrics with patterns , just do an all over design.  I struggled trying to decide what to quilt in each large square, and it turns out, because of the fabrics, the quilting doesn't even show up in most of them.  It's just quilty-puckery!  If I had tried to create some perfect design in there, it would have been lost!  So, unless I'm quilting on a solid or reads-as-solid fabric, there is no reason for individual quilt designs for each square.  I'm so glad I didn't do feathered wreaths!  Eek!

Now I can start playing with my cruise quilt again.  I just need to finish up the borders!  I have not touched it in over a month, and Bonnie is on the second cruise right now!  I hope to finish it next week, so I can post it the minute they return!

Hope you have a really great weekend!  I'm going to have cake!  Yay!

regan

Last pics of the Cocheco Show!

Ok......so here are the final pics of the show!  Again, I'm so glad I went to this one.....it was totally worth the 2 hour drive to get there!  I got so much inspiration from so many of the quilts, and I am just itchin' to get this wedding quilt done, so I can move on to my civil war repros!  I have so many quilts I want to make with them, and they are calling out to me......really loud, too!  I'm nearly done on the quilting of Jeanne's wedding quilt, so it won't be long now!

Before I show the pics.....I was going to throw out a blogger/technical question to anyone who might know.....but then I found the answer!  But maybe some of you might have the same one.....so here it is!......

It seems recently that when you click on a pic to biggie size it (so you can see some detail), that instead of getting a single, larger pic of it, you get a black background (I don't like that!), and the row of all the pics on the post at the bottom of the screen.  Yeah, you can choose a pic, and it appears bigger in the center, but I used to like to click again, and make it REALLY big!  Then you could see tons of detail.  So I wasn't very happy with this new "picture gallery" type setup.......UNTIL.......I noticed the words in the bottom left corner saying 'show original'..... and Hallelujah!......when you click on that......it takes you to the biggie pic, and you can still make it even bigger!  I'm a huge believer in "if it's not broken, don't fix it!"......but I'm glad I found the solution.

My only other gripe with Blogger right now is all of the red highlighting and underscoring of random words throughout blogs......I keep thinking those are links, but they are not!  It's so annoying!  They seem to be key words to the blog, but not always!  Does anyone know how to make that stop!  I even have one in my header, so you can't even read the last word!  Sheesh!

Ok.....that's the end of my rant!  Back to the quilt show.....

Around the perimeter of the room, along with the vendors, were previous year's best of show quilts over the past 30 years!  It was really wonderful to see the progression of quilting in this guild, and what might have been the 'popular' style at any given year.

Hope you enjoy the show!

 I just love it when a block spills over to the sashing and other blocks!  Fun!

 Chickens!!!!  I love this!

 This was just mesmerizing in person......her piecing was perfectly done.

 I'm in love with these courthouse steps in civil war fabrics......that's on the 'list'!

And I love the cornerstones on this broken dishes......gonna use that one day, too!

 This was lovely......and the FMQ was perfect!  See the close up below!

I just love how that row of light squares really pops out!  Beautiful!

This was really a lesson in contrast......well done!

It said on her label that she used a needlepoint pattern......mostly done in tiny 1" rectangles.

This was a previous years winner, and was the background 'wall' to a little sitting lounge area.  Very nice!

Another previous year's winner......love Amish quilts!

This gorgeous Dear Jane was also a previous year's winner......I just love to see these at shows!

This amazing quilt was the background to the entrance table, and was a previous winner, as well.  I took several close ups to get the gorgeous details!  The lady sitting at the registration desk said the quilter was a doctor, and if she was ever in need of some surgery and stitches.....she would be calling this gal!  Read the label on the last pic......amazing!

Yep.....there was definitely some amazing talent in this guild!

Have a great week!  Hope you can get some stitching in!

regan

More of the Cocheco Quilt Show!

Here are more of the fabulous quilts that were at the Cocheco Quilt Show in Rochester, New Hampshire this last weekend.  It was really a wonderful show.....I'll be sure to go every year!

Again, the rows of quilts were a bit tight to get full shots of the larger quilts, but you get the idea!

This is a close up of the center medallion.  She appliqued the piece on the pink background.

Oops....I forgot to turn this one upright.....just tilt your head to the left a smidge!  lol

Love the 4 small baskets making a block!  Sweet!

I'm loving the these civil war panels being used lately.  I wonder if this fabric is still available?

The last 20 or so will be on my next post in a few days!

Hope you are having a really great week!  I'm working on the quilting of the wedding quilt for Jeanne.....she's getting married in just 2 weeks!  Eeek!

regan