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