Why did I do that?

Why on earth did I ever make a list of my UFO's!?!  That was the dumbest thing EVER!!!!  Or rather, I should never have mentioned it to my hubby......because the very first time I mentioned starting another quilt, he said "NO!  You HAVE to finish one of these others first!!!!"

WHAT!?!

I was totally crushed!

He, of course, was joking.......but deep down inside, I knew he was right!  DANG!

So, I worked diligently on one of the warm-hug quilts, and finished it the other day.  BUT.....to my utter shock (and thanks, Pat, for pointing it out......) THAT quilt wasn't even on the list!!!!!!

WHAT!?!

SHEESH!

How did I not pay attention to that!?!

Oh well.....I'm counting it as done, a completed UFO, a giant check mark on the list (cuz I added it to the bottom!), and NOW........I get to start a new one!!!

YIPPEE!!!

It's a lap sized quilt for a lady, as the prints are all florals.

It's also the first FINISH of 2013......AND......the first finish on my Grace quilt frame!  I've had the Grace frame for over 5 years now, and the first quilt I put on it stopped me dead in my tracks!  For some stupid reason, it was the first time in my life that I 'let' the machine wind the bobbin without me guiding and checking the thread.  I've always done that since junior high home-ec class.  BUT.....this one time, I went crazy, and didn't pay attention to it.  And I was doing a stippling across it, back and forth, several rows, and when I rolled the rollers up for the next section, I saw that the bobbin thread was all screwy, and loopy, and a giant mess on the back!!!!  CRAP!

And I walked away disgusted!

For years I kept saying I was going to get to it, but it became a make-do table top for pulling fabrics, laying out pieces for measuring, etc.  I almost forgot sometimes that there was a quilt on it.  Well, a few months back, when I was showing someone the room, I realized (like a lightbulb moment!) that it was a hand-pieced quilt on that frame!  So......of course I needed to get it finished!  Sheesh!

I took the quilt off the frame and rollers, and picked away at it.  Some of the stitching was SO tight that I ended up cutting into the back a couple of times, but that's ok, cuz I can piece the back now.  And it's a Christmas quilt......so now I have the rest of the year to actually finish it!  (Yep....that's another ufo to add to the dang list!)  lol

Well......since the Grace didn't have a quilt on it, hubby was so nice and he dismantled it, and brought it down to the 1st floor parlor room so I could start quilting on it where there is heat!  (Our third floor, where it used to be, isn't heated!  It's always been the rule that I'm able to quilt up there in spring and fall, but not in winter or the stifling heat of summer.)

And.....the Grace frame is designed to be used with a Juki machine.....which is what I have now!  Perfect!

So I'm happy to say that the Grace is getting used now......and maybe those ufo's won't be far behind this one on it!

BUT.......because I finished SOMETHING.......I got to start something new!!!!  Woohoo!  :o)

I've been in love with all the churn dash quilts I've been seeing on the blogs lately, so I had to start one of my own!  It's made entirely from thrift store shirts!  The blocks will finish at 5", so I'll need about 130 of them for my quilt.  I have made 19 in the last two days!!!  Yippee!  And I just love em!  I'm making some with matched fabrics, and some totally scrappy.  I love that look!

The quilts I've been seeing have a solid one-color alternate block, but I just threw a bunch of shirt squares to fill in the alternates......and I really like that look, so that's what I'll do.

I love that I'm using up some shirt plaids......I have 3 extra large shopping bags full of shirts that have just been deboned, but not cut down at all.  I have so much of them......and I need to stop hoarding, and start using them.  :o)

And, to totally change the subject......hubby and I just got new phones!  Smart phones!  Holy cow!!!  I know, I know.....most everyone in the world is leaps and bounds ahead of me on this!  In fact, while we were in the phone store, I sent my very FIRST EVER text message!!!!.....to my son, who promptly replied "Glad you are now living in the 21st century, Mom!"  lol

We figured with all the traveling we do, it just made sense.  And I was worried that if we didn't do something soon, we'd be so far behind, we'd never catch up!  I'll be playing with it for weeks until I have a clue what it does......but it looks like fun!  :o)

Hope you're having a wonderful day!  I'm going back to the sewing room to those churndashes.....they're so addicting!

regan

We leave tomorrow! Woohoo!

And today is going to be so busy!  We still haven't packed......and we are driving, so that means packing way too much stuff, just because we can!  lol

I haven't spent one single minute on my Jubilee quilt this week......and I don't know why!  I wanted to, but it seems I only want to work on it when I know I can spend hours at a time doing it!  Twenty minutes here and there is just not relaxing for me.  It's either all or nothing!

I did spend yesterday trying to quilt up a quilt for our group charity project.  Turns out, we have someone in town that should receive it, and I'd like to get it to them BEFORE I come back in the middle of April.  If I can finish up the quilting on it, and sew down the binding, Pat (one of the gals from the group) said she would finish hand sewing down the binding.  Yay!  I'm doing just a simple wavy line down each seam......it's a stripey quilt, so I wanted the quilting to be stripey, too!  I'm nearly done with the quilting......I should finish it tonight!  Yay!

I do need to spend a few minutes today marking some fabrics with templates......for my handwork project on this trip.  I know I'll want to sit and stitch here and there, so I really want to have something very portable with me.  My plan is to make little LeMoyne stars from my civil war fabrics......about 3 inches finished.  I've seen a bunch of these antique quilts out there, and just the other day, Barbara Brackman linked to a site of civil war quilts at a museum, and there was one in the collection with a fabulous striped fabric sashing!  I'm in love!

So that's the plan for stitching on this vaca.  Our trip starts with 5 days of golfing/antiquing our way down to Tampa (with a stop in Philly to see the bell!), and then visit with our cousins in Tampa for a few days, then the 5 days cruise to Mexico, and then visit some more in Tampa.  When we leave, we are heading straight to visit at Suzanne's place in FL......you would recognize her as "Suzanne with the dump machine!".....now famous since Bonnie Hunter put her on her blog!  Ha!  We'll play a little golf with them, then continue our golfing/antiquing all the way back to Maine!  So......I needed to prep for all of this golfing......

This is kindof my thing......I HAVE to have decorated golf balls......I just can't play with a plain ball!  It doesn't feel right!  I really like looking down at the little flowers just before I smack the snot out of it!  Ha!  It just make me happy!  :o)

And yeah.....I usually get a lot of comments like....."Gee, someone has a lot of free time on their hands!"

And NO, I really don't......but this is a necessity!  Really!  My game just wouldn't be the same without the little flowers!

And on other non-quilty topics.......my hubby just finished making a kite for a friend of ours who does kite building workshops with kids.......and the kite came out REALLY great!  It's the logo for his workshop business, and it flies like a dream!

Ok......I'm off to pack, stitch and mark fabric!  Whew!

AND.......I'm officially NOT keeping track of my food starting tomorrow!  I've been following Weight Watchers since the beginning of February, and I've lost 13 pounds since then.  My goal was to lose 10 by our trip......so I'm totally jazzed about it all!  I'm not even going to worry about it during our trip......and I'm eating every dessert I see on that dang ship!  Ha!  Cuz vacations for us are ALL about the food!  Yum!

And I'll get right back on WW when I get home!

Hope you have a great few weeks.....I know I will!  :o)

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

Our group's charity, and the local quilt show!

I've mentioned before that I go to a Wednesday night quilt group at our town office.  We started it just over a year ago, and we meet twice a month.  And I love our little group.  Most times there are just 4 or 5 of us, and we talk and hand stitch and look at quilt magazines, and for 3 hours, it's all about quilts!  Yay!

So a few meetings back, I told the girls that I was wanting to do something with the group as a form of a charity.  Most of us have huge stashes, and there is no reason not to use up some of that fabric!  But there are all sorts of 'quilt charities' out there, and I wanted to do something a little different, and for our own community.  We live out here in the sticks.....and it's Maine.....so in the winter, nearly every year, someone gets burned out of their house.  Whether it's the faulty space heater, or a chimney fire that gets out of control....the whole darned place will burn to the ground!  All I can think is that it must be quite terrifying while it's happening, and then the reality hits, that you have nothing left!  How awful!

So I asked the girls at our meeting if they wanted to start 'stockpiling' a collection of quilts that we could give as the need arises......so the next time someone has just been burned out......we would be ready with a quilt or two to help them get started on putting there 'home' back together!

They liked that idea, so we started it last meeting.  It was very impromtu, in fact, we hadn't really put together an idea for a quilt yet, so since I had brought my 2.5" strip bin (it was way too full!), and Pat brought several bags of scraps, and I had my machine......we started sewing up strips!  Everything in blue!  I left the meeting with a ton of strip pieces connected in long strings of about 65" long.....and yesterday I sewed all the strings together!  Yippee!

Here it is, on a queen bed.  We had made so many strings, and I had just kept sewing, that when I trimmed it up, it was 64 by 98!  Sheesh!  So I took off several rows, and now it's 64 x 84.  And tonight is our group meeting, so we can decide if it's getting borders, or just quilt and bind it!  I love how it turned out, and with the extra rows that I took off, we can start another one, maybe with several different color sections, blue (done!), yellow, green, red, orange.....whatever we have an abundance of in our scraps!  And I'm hoping to get a little more organized tonight, and we can 'plan' the next quilt we work on!

Last Saturday, I went to a local quilt show, and got several pics of some really nice quilts!  I hadn't made this show in about 6 years, so I was quite surprised at how much it's grown, and the variety of quilts.  (I remember the last time I went, it seems they had all worked on the same pattern, cuz there were way too many of the same quilt.....kindof silly!)

I loved the colors in this quilt, and her piecing was really accurate!

 This was a stunner.....I love it!

 Great border design!

I just loved this block from it.....I think I need to make it!

Love all the colors in this quilt.....it's so fresh and happy!

This one screams Autumn.....but I love that!

A very sweet little wall hanging!  I love tumblers!

The upper right corner block really caught me eye.....I love the two-toned background.  I've been wanting to do a quilt with that idea, using one of my antique hooked rugs as my pattern.....it's gorgeous!

I guess I'm loving anything with flying geese since I've just done one with a bunch.....I can really appreciate them now!  And this quilt just pops!  And I just noticed that the double red line border and the fat green border don't go all the way around!  Huh!  I didn't even notice that when I was looking right at it!  Guess all the colors were distracting me!  But I like that.....it's so different!

This was probably my favorite quilt there.....it's so lovely, and my friend Rita (she just turned 85!) just made a quilt like this using just the applique blocks.....hers is a stunner, too!  I really like the alternate block on this quilt, as well.....I like to keep pics of 'good alternate block effects' for when I'm trying to put something together!  It always helps to see it, before I draw the whole dang thing out!

Ok......that's the show.....hope you enjoyed it!

Have a wonderful day!

regan