Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Not the last minute! Yay!

I'm a HUGE procrastinator......and usually wait until the last stinkin second to do anything with a deadline!  Not this time!

I have a gift exchange at our quilt guild's Christmas party on Dec. 11, and I just finished my gift!  Woohoo!!!!



I picked up a little mug of the Pfaltzgraff 'Winterberry' pattern.......I have a few serving pieces of it, and just love it.......it's a sweet little sprig of holly on them.

And I just finished the mug rug to go with it!  It's a wonky star in fabric with holly sprigs on it......kindof matches, and I backed it with the holly fabric, too.

And can I just say.......this was the first time I really used my walking foot, and have never quilted with it, but........

I LOVE IT!  I'm going to be using that walking foot A LOT from now on!  My stitch-in-the-ditch was dead-on!  And it made the straight lines evenly spaced and perfect!  Holy cow!  Why had I never used that before!?!  Sheesh!  I'm so out of it sometimes!

And can you believe it......I've posted twice in one week!  Whoa!  I'm on a roll!  lol

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

regan

Monday, November 25, 2013

While I was buzzing......

.....on my caffeine high, I got so much done!  Woohoo!  But no, I'm not going to make that a habit!  It was 42 hours of knots in my stomach, and nerves on end!  No more regular coffee.....ever again!  lol

Of course, I'm totally happy that some of my 'must make' projects got started!  I pulled all my repro brown fabrics and started cutting like crazy!  I've had a brown baskets quilt on the list for a long time now, so I'm totally jazzed that it got a good start!


I am loving making these baskets!  I used Linda Franz's Inklingo tutorial on back-basting the handles and they are quick and easy to whip out!    These blocks finish at 7.5" square.  They'll be set on point with alternate beige-background squares......I'll need 49 of the baskets......8 down, 41 more to go!  lol

Don't you just love all the tutorials, great ideas and inspiration we get off the internet!?!  I was just saying the other day to my friend, Pat......."Where would we be if we weren't following the blogs we do and getting so much good info on the computer!?!  Imagine never seeing Bonnie Hunter's blog?  Or Sue Garman's?  Or Cindy Needham's?  And so many others!  Cripes!  Our whole idea about quilting would be SO different!"  And I know I would never have attempted, or accomplished, many of the quilts I've done if not for getting all that amazing information and inspiration from so many blogs!

So at this time of Thanksgiving, I'm totally grateful for all the wonderful quilters who inspire, motivate, and help to keep me creative!  And I'm so grateful for all the lovely comments I always get from my followers, too!  You are the best!  Thank you all so much!

Hoping everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving!

Eat lots of pie!  :o)

regan

Sunday, November 17, 2013

A finished top, and......oh no!

I spent the last few days putting all those little 4" blocks together......and now it's done!  WOOHOO!!!!


I'm totally in love with this quilt!  I don't know how I'm going to quilt it yet, but it will be bound in red!  And it's a heavy top, so I know the batt will be very thin!

And the 'oh no' part of this post?.......

Well.......here's the story!  I've been following Weight Watchers since May, and part of the way I get my water in every day is to down a ton of coffee!  Usually about 2 pots worth!  It's decaf, so it's ok!  It's also the way I'm able to get in any calcium, cuz I use my lactose milk in every cup, so by the end of the day, I've had some milk.  And, at my last physical, I told my doctor this, and she just laughed and said, '25 pounds down!  Whatever works!'  So it's all good!  LOL

So today, for a little change of pace, I found a couple bags of special flavored coffee (we usually use french vanilla), so I thought, "Fun!  Gingerbread flavor!  Why not!"  And I drank a pot and most of the second by dinner time.

That's when I started feeling yucky!  And I instantly thought it might be the butternut squash soup I made, cuz it was a brand new recipe (totally yummy, by the way), but thought maybe it wasn't agreeing with me.

Then about 20 minutes ago, I thought......"Hmmmmm!  Could that coffee have been regular?"

CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

I drink decaf (and have, for the last 25 years!) FOR A REASON!!!!!!!!!

Because the last time I had regular coffee.....just one cup!.......I was up for 3 DAYS STRAIGHT!!!!!!  AND my heart felt like it was coming out of my chest!

I don't even know what a pot and a half are going to do to me!!!!

Needless to say......for the last few hours, I've been VERY busy!  LOL

I actually designed 8 upcoming quilts, drafted the blocks for all of them, printed out ALL the pages for paper piecing 5 of them.......and now I'm getting ready to pull fabrics for them all from the repros stash......

And I expect to have all of the fabrics cut and kitted together by morning!  Because I don't expect to ever hit the bed tonight!  LOL

SHEESH!  That'll teach me!  And, needless to say, I am getting rid of those two bags of coffee!

Hey......could you tell by my story......I'm just a little hyper right now!  Maybe I should do a little housework, too!  Nah!  LOL

regan

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

On the design wall.....

I finished making all of the 4.5" log cabin blocks (finishing at 4" square), 1/2" finished logs.  I started working on these at the same time I was doing those scrappy churndash blocks.  They are all made from recycled shirts!  All 418 of them!  :o)


They don't fit on my design wall all at once, so I'll have to do the laying out in a couple of sections.  It's 19x22 blocks.

I just LOVE this layout!  And of the 3 different layouts I had up on the wall yesterday, it's the one that hubby picked!  Yay!  :o)

Have a great week!

regan

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Cocheco Show.....Part 2!

I can't seem to stay on track with anything these days!  Sheesh!

But better late than never......posting quilty pics, right!?!

These are from the Cocheco Quilters Guild show that was held October 12 & 13.  All of these pics are from a special exhibit from 3 quilters in their guild.  These three gals LOVE repro quilts, penny rugs, and everything antiquey......and they put together a beautiful grouping from their collections.  Enjoy!



























This was our favorite part of the whole show!  We just can't get enough of repros and antiquey stuff!  Yummy!


And I'm so happy Halloween is over......now I can enjoy watching tv again, and not have to deal with all those creepy/scary movie promos!  I hate that stuff!  I know a lot of people love it......but it seriously gives me nightmares!  Plus, I live in a very old house, and am alone a lot of nights......so I just don't need those images running through my mind when I'm turning out lights!  lol

Have a great weekend!

regan