Triangles!

I can't believe it but I have finished piecing all of the triangle blocks for my quilt!  All 196 of them!  And the 18 side half-blocks.....AND last night I cut out all of the background pieces!  I'm ready to put it all together!  Woohoo!  And I just looked back, and realized that I started all of this just 2 weeks ago!  Holy cow!  I sure do love being retired!  Cuz it is ALL about the quilts now!  Yay!

Here are the stacks of blocks ready to be put on the design wall for placement!

Here are about half of the blocks laid out on the floor a few night ago.  I realized I needed more light-on-light blocks, since that is what really speaks to me in the antique original.  So I spent the last few days just making those, until I had all the blocks I needed.  The finished quilt will measure about 72 x 86.

And today I'm supposed to have a golf lesson (my short game sucks!), but it's also supposed to get to 92 degrees today......so I think I'm cancelling the lesson......and I'm going to start piecing these together!

Hope you all have a great day!

regan

Visit with a friend and triangle progress!

Last Friday, I headed down to the Boston area to visit with my dear friend, Rita.  And we had a wonderful visit! I was mistaken, in that she is 86, not 91!  (She's my dad's age, not my mom's!  Brain cramp!)

I met Rita when I first moved to the Boston area, back in 1996.  I had been quilting a little previous to that, but thought if I joined a guild, I would get into it more.  So I found the local guild, Crosstown Quilters, and showed up at a meeting.  I was early, of course, and the few gals there said to sit anywhere, so I plunked myself down at the middle table, so I could hear and see everything!  Turns out......I picked the best table, because Rita came and sat next to me.  She told me years later that she thought I had spunk, plunking myself in the middle of everything!  Ha!  We became fast friends, and she invited me to the local senior center, where they met every Thursday for quilting and every Monday for rug braiding!  I had always wanted to learn to braid, so of course, I started going with her!  What a great group of ladies at both meetings, with the quilters from the guild's center table making up most of the group at the senior center!  Nice......I already knew them!

I learned so much at these groups, where all the ladies were well into their 60's, and some in their 90's!  Amazing talent, and they were all willing to share ideas and techniques with this 'spunky' 34 year old!  I was very lucky to be there!  What's more, is that the senior center was an old victorian house in town, and I just loved being in those surroundings!  Sadly to say, the upkeep of the old home was too much for the town to manage, so the meetings were moved to the town municipal building, and the old victorian 'Hersey House' has gone to disrepair.

But back to my visit with Rita.  She does all sorts of crafts......quilting, rug braiding, counted cross stitch, crewel work......and it's all lovely!  Here are some of the things she's kept, because she gives most of it to her daughters and grands.

I just love her rugs.  The one in her dining room is over 30 years old!

Gorgeous crewel work!

This little hexie wall hanging was fabric salvaged from an antique quilt top that the neighbor found in a dumpster!  It was terribly torn up.....rags, really......but Rita salvaged what she could and made this beauty!  The hexies are 1/2" sides!

Here's Rita with her latest piece of crewel work.......it's really lovely!  She's such a sweetie!

And here's Rita with our good friend, Dottie, who conspired with me to set up this get-together.  We had to keep my visit a secret, because Rita will fret herself into a tizzie worrying about me visiting!  So it's much better to surprise her!  And she sure was!  We had a lovely day of just talking about quilts, and stitching, and did a little show and tell with our past projects!  Dottie brought lunch, and we had a perfect day of it!  Fun!

Now, of course, since I got back from Boston, all I can think about is my Triangle quilt!  And if you happened to read the comments from my last post, you'd see that Linda C from Quilts in the Barn blog actually owns that inspiration quilt!  Holy cow!  What are the chances of that!?!  She bought it on Ebay, and I'm so glad that wonderful quilt went to a good home!  Upon further inspection of my pic, I realize that the 'matching' fabric I have for the offset triangles is just slightly different.  It's the same print, but the original has a bit of red on those little black marks!  But that's ok......I'm loving it 100%!

Here's my progress in the last couple of days!  I just can't leave it alone!  lol

I'm going to have to refigure the setting for this quilt.  Because we have a footboard on our bed, I always make quilts to fit the bed so it doesn't get tucked at the end; the binding just rests next to the footboard.  So when I do a quilt, I have to make the long sides the top and bottom!  It usually doesn't matter much, because blocks are blocks......but I just realized that I am preferring the triangles not to 'sit' at the bottom.  Here's a pic of the original again, and I really like looking at it from this angle.  What do you think?

And......a big 'Thank You!' goes out to Rachael at Blue Mountain Daisy for reminding me to take a pic of my peonies!  This one is nearly gone, and I didn't even think about it!  Thanks, sweetie!

Ok......I'm heading back to the sewing room.......triangles are calling me!

Have a great week!

regan

Life is Good!

Especially 'retired' life!  Woohoo!

Today marked two weeks since I stopped working, and I can't believe how busy I've been!  First off, a friend made a comment on how nice it must be 'to be a lady of leisure, and not have to worry about getting up!'  Well, two weeks ago I committed with my friend Pat to walk every morning at 8:00 am around the softball field, so now for the first time in years.......I'm having to set an alarm for 7:00 am!  Every day!  Cripes!  Lady of leisure.....with an alarm clock!  But it feels really good to start the day with a 3 mile walk, and I'm finding a LOT more energy later in the day!

So much so, that I've been reorganizing my sewing room for the past few days, sorting scraps by color, putting fat quarters away, and getting everything in it's place.  And of course, once it all got tidied up, I instantly wanted to start pulling fabrics for a new quilt!  And no, I haven't finished my jubilee quilt back yet, but it's on the design wall, so it can't get too far out of sight!

The quilt I've started has been in my "must make" folder for over a year now.  I think I found it on the Quilt Index, but I'm not really sure.  It's an antique, and scrappy......and I've just been in love with it from the minute I saw it!

Isn't she gorgeous!  I just love this quilt, and so I instantly started pulling my civil war repros to make it!  About 6 months ago, I actually found a really great piece of chrome yellow for the background block, and when I got it home, I found it was EXACTLY the same print as in this quilt!  Amazing luck!

But before I could start cutting all my fabric up, I really needed to plan this out!  That's kindof my problem with quilting most quilts......I just wing it!  About half the time I'll graph it out on paper, but a lot of the time, it's just a sketch.  That's why when I make something on-point, it usually is a weird dimension, either huge or too small when finished.......cuz of the winging-it!  lol

Well, I wanted this quilt to be GREAT......so out came the graph paper!  But it's an equilateral triangle, and that's just a LOT of ruler work on a square grid paper.  So I googled it!  And came up with this great site.....

http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/

It is loaded with any kind of graph paper you can think of, with FREE downloads that you can print out!  Score!  And you can make the dimensions of your graphs any size you want!  So I played with it, and printed a few, and drew my quilt out, figured how many triangle/blocks I'd need, and went to town printing out pages for paper piecing it........so all my points will be there!

Months ago, I thought I would hand piece this, but now that I'm doing the 8-pointed star for my hand piecing project, I kindof wanted to get to this sooner.  So paper piecing it is!

This is the paper I'm working from, and you can see the stack of paper pieces in the background.....all 203 of them!  Three of these pieced and one single fabric will make up a block!  And yeah, there are extra lines on this grid, but if I hadn't done that, I would have only got about 2 of these per page, and that would have taken forever, and wasted a lot of paper.  Printed the way I did, I was able to get 12 from every legal size sheet of paper!  Yay!

I LOVE THIS BLOCK!  And and I love the background fabric.......it just looks darker here than it really is. (Note to self.......I really need to do something about those fluorescent lights in my sewing room!  They ruin every picture!  Ugh!)

So I'm working away on this.......I just couldn't stop once I got started!  Who could, right?  lol

I'll trim them all up later, but for now......I just love adding to this on the wall!  These blocks are 6" finished size.

Of course, it hasn't been ALL about sewing these past 2 weeks.......I've actually been reading a book!.....and taking naps, too!  Woohoo!

Life is good!  Yes it is!

And tomorrow I'm heading down to Boston area to visit my friend, Rita.  She's 91, still lives on her own, and does some kind of craft every day!  She's the best rug braider I've ever seen, and she taught me how when I lived in Boston, some 14 years ago!  She also hand quilts, knits fisherman cable sweater for American Girl dolls for her great-granddaughters, does counted cross-stitch, and crewel work, and.......

she says that everything she does is WRONG, because she's left-handed, so it's all backwards!  Ha!  She's amazing, and everything she does is a work of art!  I can't wait to spend the day with her!

Have a great weekend!

regan

There's a story behind it!

Since my hubby was gone for 6 days at the Wildwood Kite Festival in New Jersey, I was able to sew my little brains!  I finished all the letters for the back of my Jubilee quilt, so now I can show the plan.  All the letters need trimming up, and the bottom orange area is going to be all crazy-patch pieced, but I think it's well on its way!

And here's the story behind it.......

When we first moved to Maine, I used to drive all over New England exploring.  One of the first drives I made was to Connecticut, driving down I-95.  Well, as you drive along south, there is an overpass across the highway, and on it is this piece of graffiti........"Perhaps some chocolate chips cookies and milk!"

Well.....the second I saw that.....my heart skipped a beat!  It's the best graffiti I've ever seen!

First.......it starts with the word Perhaps!  How cool is that!  I just love that word!  It's so sweet and kind, and so unexpected in a graffiti!  Coming from Southern California, where the graffiti is all gang-based, harsh and evil......I thought that this was just so darned sweet!

Second......who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies!?!  Yeah!

And, of course, being I'm lactose intolerant, the 'milk' part is a stretch, but when ya gotta dunk, you just gotta dunk!

So.......I looked into this graffiti, cuz I was just so taken by it, and it turns out it is the answer to a question posed on a previous overpass.  The question being......"What will set you free?"

That's a pretty profound question, but in my book.......that answer says it all!  Straight and to the point.....life is just that simple sometimes!  And shouldn't it be!?!  :o)

So......for years now, I've always wanted to put that little phrase on a quilt........and what better quilt than my Jubilee!  It's all about me, for me, what I love, and it just had to be!  And I'm loving it!

I'm going to be piecing the crap out of the bottom orange section this weekend, while hubby is gone on a golf weekend with our son.  Once the bottom is all pieced I can start sectioning it together!  Woohoo!  It's really coming together!  :o)

Have a great day!

regan

Confucius say......

......"Woman who take camera outside, while cooking on stove......go hungry!"

Yeah......never do it!  I thought I was just going out for 1 minute to take one little pic of the Lily of the Valley garden, but I got sidetracked, and distracted, and started taking pics everywhere, and walked down the hill, and around the back of the barn, and when I finally came in, my oatmeal was fused to the bottom of the pot!  lol

But I did get some good shots of the plants around the yard.......but first.......I've been working on the back of my Jubilee quilt!  Woot!

And no......this doesn't spell anything yet......I'm just making letters at this point!  And after each letter, I'm getting more and more ideas about the back, and I'm getting more excited about it!  I can't wait to show you something that makes sense, but I'm no where near that point yet!  But getting there!  And with my hubby gone for 6 days, and I only have one more shift to work until I'm totally done......I have a feeling I'm going to be cranking out the letters pretty fast!  Woohoo!

So......the other pics I took are outside, around the house.  I'm just happy to have everything so green, and a few blossoms coming already.  I know a lot of you have had all sorts of prettiness in your gardens already, but here in Maine, we kindof have to wait!  And it seems like forever sometimes!  But when I was planting my seedlings for my veggie garden this morning, I was noticing all sorts of 'stuff' out there!  Yay!

My Lily of the Valley bed has really filled in nicely in the past 2 years.  It was so sparse and awful looking a while back, so I looked it up, and read that it really likes to have its roots 'messed with'......so I did!  I took a shovel and rake to it, and figured if it didn't come back, I'd have another bed to plant lilies in, but it came back beautifully!  And I took a bunch of cuttings of the flowers back in the house, and made 2 little bouquets with them.  I never thought to do that before, but I saw it on a blog (omg.....WHERE did I see that!?!).....and now I have that lovely aroma over my kitchen sink and in the living room!  I think I need to pick some more!

On the left is the Lily of the Valley bed, and it all overlooks the side yard and neighbor's pond.  I just love this view, and it's what we get to enjoy from our screen porch, on the right.

This is from that side yard from the last shot looking back at the big maple tree.   Several years ago we had a neighbor friend do some excavating on the front yard, and I asked, while he was at it, could he build me a planting area and retaining wall around the maple with the big rocks we had lying around.  I went to work, and I came home, and he had built this wonderful stone wall around my maple tree!  It is just as I had discribed it to him!  Love it!

And he's SO good, he even put a granite bench in it for me to sit and enjoy the view!  What a man!  It's taken a couple of years, but most of my plants have really filled in the bed around the bench and tree, and I put in a little stone path to get to the bench from around the back.  I just love this little area.

My peonies are really filling in this year, too!  I can't wait for the blooms!

And my Sum & Substance hosta is already over 3 feet across!  It will get to nearly 6 feet across by summer!  I just love it!

And my biggest 'happy thought' right now is that I am going to get to spend all the time I want in my gardens this year, and from now on!  Woohoo!  Life is good!

Hoping you are having a wonderful day!

regan

The top is done!

I just finished putting the last two borders on my Jubilee quilt!  I'm so happy with how it turned out!

And yes, the top and bottom border are the same, the right border is different, and the left has no border at all!  It matches my inspiration piece from the Red & White show.....and I love it!  It's totally out of the box for me......woohoo!

I'm still drawing up the plan for the pieced back, but it won't be long before I can start cutting fabric!  It will be a very simple back, cuz there is so much piecing on the top, I don't want it to weigh 80 pounds!

And boy, are things ever falling into place these days!  Here's my really big news!.......

I just put in my two week's notice at work!  I'm done!  I'm totally done!  I'll never have to work again!  Woohoo!  I'm so happy I could do cartwheels (and I've never done them before!)  lol

A friend of ours who recently turned 62, told us he started his Social Security benefit.  And John and I started thinking......why are we waiting!?!  He's turning 63 in July, and our plan has always been to wait until he was 65 to start it.  But really......why wait!?!  So we did the math every which way you can, and figured it going out 20 years, and the difference over 20 years is only about $4,000!  I was shocked!

MY SANITY IS WORTH $4,000!  lol

So we made an appointment at the SS office, and started it right up!  And the very next day, I gave my notice!  My last day is May 25......and I'm so damned happy!

This just made so much sense to us.  And really, all I want to do is spend time with John, and golf, and quilt, and travel.  Two years ago, when John had prostate cancer, it struck us that you just never know what can happen, or what tomorrow will bring.  He's totally cured, thank God, but anything can happen......any time!  And we need to spend every minute we can together, and happy, and feeling good.  And not wasting it at some stupid job that doesn't make a bit of difference in this world.

So.......in just two short little weeks, I might manage to post on this blog a little more often, too!  It's a win-win!  Yay!

Who knew turning 50 could be so good!?!

Have a great weekend!

regan

I've been shamed into posting! Ha!

Lori, from Humble Quilts blog, noticed I hadn't posted since I returned from my trip.......about 3 weeks ago!  What's up with that!?!  Surely I have something to say, or pictures to show, or I could do my usual ramblings.

So.....yeah.......usual ramblings it is!  lol

I guess I have been busy, trying to get back into a routine......but it's damned hard to do after being gone for a month!  Vacation is so much fun, and normal life is so blah!  And full of chores!  But I have managed to find a few fun things to do since being back!

In fact!, yesterday!  My friend Pat and I headed over to Cyndi's Busy Thimble shop in Litchfield, and had a ball!  What fun!  And Cyndi's shop is packed full of nothing but reproductions!  Woohoo........Heaven!  It's so funny, cuz I was running out the door to meet up with Pat, and I raced back in to get my little 8-pointed stars, cuz I thought "I will need them to match to the fabric I want for the sashing.".......and then I realized.....Duh!......it's all civil war repros......it will ALL go together!  Yay!

So......first things first......this is the fabric I've chosen for the sashing for the little stars.

And here are the 24 little stars I have finished so far......I'm sure I'll need a couple hundred, but I'm still not sure how big I'm going on this......so we'll see!

I also purchased a few other fabrics at Cyndi's.......and these gorgeous birds were on on the discount table!  Yummy!  The flower rows were used in a beautiful little quilt for the borders, and Pat and I both bought some of it......we just couldn't resist!  So perfect for the borders!

THEN......we went to Marden's (a big discount place here in Maine that has a fabric section) and JoAnn's, but I didn't get anything at those.

BUT THEN.......we headed over to Quilt Essentials in Lewiston, and I picked up a layer cake of the Australian fabrics that I saw there just before I went on vaca.  I had been thinking about them the whole time I was gone, and I loved the display quilt they made from them.......it had a very masculine look to it.  And I just knew I needed to make my hubby a quilt with them!  I'm so excited, and they are stunning fabrics......and totally out of my usual box!  I'm really liking stepping out of my box!

Arent't they amazing!  I just love them!

So when I got home, of course, the first thing my hubby always asks is, "What did you get?"  (He's so well trained, huh?  lol)  I had packed all of this stuff into one bag, and I had my little stars in their fat baggie in the bag as well, so I dug in and pulled out the sashing fabric and birds that I got at Cyndi's, and had the stars baggie on top of everything else, so he couldn't see that there was anything else in the bag!  Yay!  I totally hid the Australian fabrics from him.........so he is going to be so surprised!  I'll try and work on it when I know he's gone for a while, and I'll just one day magically have it done!  Ha!  I can't wait!  And yeah, he never reads my blog, so I don't have to worry!  :o)

That's something I've never had to do with him......hide fabric.  I know a lot of quilters stash stuff and sneak it in the house, but John has always been the first one to say "get it", so I've never had to sneak anything past him!  And it's not that easy!  lol  Good thing I never have to do it!  :o)

Of course, I have worked (just a bit) on my Jubilee quilt, too.  I've put all the blocks and sashings together, and now it's just needing the last two borders!  Woohoo!  I'm nearly there!

I just love how it's looking, and I already have the plan in my head for the pieced back!  Yippee!

And one last thing........the other day, I was driving past the animal shelter thrift store, and out on the lawn was a treadle machine.  Well, I was heading for work, with not a minute to spare to look, so I called my hubby who was at the nearby golf course, and said check it out, see if it's crap, but if it's decent......I might want it!

He arrived at my work a couple of hours later with it in the car!  Woohoo!  And it just needed a little WD-40 on the mechanism and that wheel is running smooth!  Totally cool!

It just needs some polishing, and cleaning up a bit.....but I love it!  And I checked the site with the serial number and it's a 1923 vintage!  Love it!  The cabinet is in really nice condition, too......with the little decals all in tact!  Just needs a little polish!  And it had two bobbins in the drawer!  Score!  lol

Ok.......that is truly all I have to say........except that I just had my physical and mamo on Tuesday, and everything is great, including my cholesteral!  Woohoo!  Life is good!

Have a great weekend!

regan