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

An Awesome Vacation! Woohoo!

We left for vacation on March 24, and got back yesterday, April 17!  And we put 4, 187 miles on the car!  Whoa!

It was a fabulous vacation in every way!  The cruise, the visiting with relatives and friends, the golf, even the drive was great!  We saw some really beautiful parts of the country that we hadn't really checked out before.  And the weather was so perfect the entire time!  I think we lucked out in every way!

I've posted a few pics from the road, but here are the last of my vaca pics.

Besides driving around to find golf courses to play, we also hit several antique shops!  Yay!

I found this great 'yard long' military pic at the first shop we hit!  What luck!  Never did see any more along the way, so I was really glad I picked up this one to add to my collection.  Just above the pic is a little 6" wooden ruler.....old and very sweet!  And above that are darning eggs!  I've been collecting those for about 30 years.....and they are harder to find these days, but I managed to find 5 in one shop!  The mother lode!  lol  And a nice long spindle spool with wool attached, and a drawer from a treadle machine......these will make nice little display items in my antiquey house!  I also picked up 4 vintage booklets for tatting and one pot holder booklet.  I also collect vintage pot holders, and I've been thinking to make a few myself.....I just love 'em, but would never dare use my vintage ones.

We also managed to find a few thrift shops and I picked up 3 shirts for cutting up for quilts!  Woohoo!

And, of course, we stopped at Mary Jo's Fabric Store in NC.  The top of the pic shows my 6 yards of cheddar (Woot!) and some really great cotton candlewicking thread that I think would be perfect for some embellishment.  I got the colors that looked like they would go with my civil war repros......we'll see what happens.  I was very restrained while in the shop, and I'm kicking myself now......cuz each paddle of that thread was just 5 cents!  I should have bought the hold dang rack!  LOL  But again.......will I actually use it, hmmmmmm!  Maybe it's good I only bought ten paddles!  lol

As I said in my post from the road.......we turned this vacation into a Krispy Kreme road trip!  I ask you......is there anything better than seeing that red light on!?!

Holy cow.......I couldn't even wait to get a pic......HA!

It was so disheartening to learn that so many of the Krispy Kreme shops have closed!  There is only 1 in New England now, and that's at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Conneticut!  Sheesh!

When we were in VA,  the guy pumping our gas got so excited to see the box in the back seat....and asked where the heck we got them!  We had been in Greensboro, NC that morning, and he was so bummed, cuz they had closed the two shops that were near him.  Of course, we only had 2 left in the box, and there was NO WAY I was giving up either of those.  Is that greedy......yes!  But hey, we're talkin Krispy Kreme here folks!  I'll share just about anything, but not those!  lol

I'll tell ya, hubby was a real trooper this trip, cuz not only did he willingly stop at every antique, quilt or thrift shop I wanted to go into, but he also stayed awake the ENTIRE 4,000 miles of this vacation!  In case I haven't mentioned before, I do ALL the driving when we are together.  My hubby's driving scares the ba-jesus out of me!  So, rather than hear me freak out or whine about it, I just do all the driving.  Which is great, but hubby usually falls asleep the minute we leave the driveway!  Which made this vacation just that much sweeter......he stayed awake, he managed the gps the whole way, and we talked, and laughed, and noticed the scenery, and made plans for future drives, and had a wonderful time!  It was amazing!  And he's awesome!

When we got home yesterday, the first thing I saw was our 'crazy tulip'!  We call him crazy, cuz he is the first thing that pops out of the ground, usually while there is still a lot of snow!  And most years, there is no bloom, just leaves.  We never planted him, he just appeared one year......and has come back each year!  None of my other tulips have survived the gophers, but this little guy is still around!  And we caught him in bloom, too!  Yay!

And, of course, the first dang thing I wanted to do was sew.......but I just wanted to push fabric......nothing too mind-bending!  So I cut a bunch of 2" squares from my repros, and started sewing them up!  These will finish at 6" square, and I've cut enough for 9 of them......I'm thinking to put them on-point......but I'm not there yet.

Here are 2 finished, and 4 still needing the center seam.

I'll finish these up tonight, and tomorrow I'll be working on my jubilee quilt again.  The top is really at the nearly-finished stage......I just need to sew the blocks to the sashing, then the borders, and I'm done.  I'm pretty excited about getting it this far so quickly, and I can't wait to get to it tomorrow.

You know, vacations are awfully fun, but it really is good to be home again.  I love sleeping in my own bed, and having home-made soup for supper (it was sooooo good), and getting back into a real routine.  I spent today going through the tub of mail, balancing the checkbook, tons of laundry, grocery shopping, catching up on blogs, and playing the computer games that need more 'connection' than what the hotels can give you.  I even got to go thrifting today, and picked up several more shirts to cut up for quilts.  Yeah......it's good to be home!

Have a great day!

regan

Still on Vacation! Woohoo!

I'm still on vacation, but I have a few minutes of internet access, so I thought I'd post a bunch of pics from the vaca so far!  We are on the last stretch of it.....should be home in about 5 days.  I just love how driving vacations can linger......and I am making sure we are taking our time!  :o)

We started in late March with a drive from our home in Maine, to Philadelphia.  I'd never seen 'the bell' before, so it was a perfect first destination!

First signs of spring in Philadelphia!  Yay!

The Liberty Bell and the statue of George Washington in front of the State House!

The room where 'those guys' signed the Declaration of Independence!  lol

Philly was fun, but we had golfing to do......so we headed to Fort Lee in Virginia, Fort Bragg in NC and Fort Stewart in Georgia.  Woohoo!  It was so good to get to play again.  Our local course closes the middle of October and doesn't open until the middle of April each year......so we are just about to burst waiting for it.  And golfing on bases is really cheap......my kind of golf!  Ha!

Then we headed for Tampa, and then got on our cruise!  Woohoo!  Royal Caribbean to Cozumel and Costa Maya, Mexico for a 5 day cruise!  Totally fun in every way!  It was my 2nd cruise, but my hubby's first, so I wanted to make sure he had a fantastic time......so he'd want to do it again!  AND HE DOES!  Yippee!

 My hubby, John.

Me on the deck, waiting for our room to be ready.  It was a lovely ship, but I didn't get many pictures......I guess I was having way too much fun!

This was a floor medallion on one of the decks......a beautiful Mariner's Compass.  Quilty inspiration!

 Yep.....I love towel animals......had to take a pic of each one!  Too sweet!

 This was the puppy dog towel that I made for our room steward with his tip envelope on the last day.  Hubby and I had just taken a 'towel animal making demo' and it was the one I really liked!

 MONKEY!

Here's the turtle our steward left for us.....next to my puppy!

And hubby and I also took a napkin folding class.......so naturally I left an elf shoe at every table I sat at from that moment on!  :o)

Our excursion in Cozumel was taking the Xtrail dune buggies through the jungle to the Jade Caverns.  It was awesome!  The ride through the jungle was amazing.....and you totally get covered in mud from the tires on the dune buggy.  FUN!  Then you get to the caverns, and you can swim in the pools.  It was a little murky looking for me.....but hubby and a bunch of others jumped in from the top of the caverns!

When we went to Costa Maya, we took an excursion to the Chocchobean Mayan Temples.  Our guide was really good, and gave us so much history and information about them.  There were several temples that had already been excavated (just since the 1990's), and many more that are just hills with trees on them, until the government can come up with some more money to fund more excavating.

Here we are at the top, looking down at the next group!

These were some really cool trees there.....have no idea what kind.  But very cool!

When we finished the cruise, we visited a bit more in Tampa with our cousins, April and Drew.  Did we get any pics of them, or the new grandson?......No!  Sheesh!  But I know April was taking a bunch of pics, so maybe I'll post one when she sends one along.  Speaking of April......she just started a blog......here's the link......Life Without a Tagline.  April is awesome in every way......and as I like to say, she's the 'voice of reason' in every group, especially when the family gets together!  lol

While we were in the Tampa area, we took a quick trip down to Ft. Myers to visit my sister, Alison.  Three words.......Norman Love Chocolates!  If you've never tried them, you are truly missing out!  If you are ever in Ft. Myers or Naples Florida, or a Godiva Chocolatier, then definitely get several!  They are little works of art, and totally yummy!  I even got to talk with Norman, himself!  :o)  And then we went next door and had some of his gelato......Holy Cow!  The best!

And did I mention that we had pretty much turned this into a Krispy Kreme vacation!  LOL  You know, we don't have any KK anywhere near us......and there is nothing like an original glaze Krispy Kreme donut!  YUM!  My favorite!  And all this chocolate, gelato and donuts are on top of all the amazing food we had on the ship!  Oy!

Yep......hubby and I are definitely going back on Weight Watchers when we get home......but for the next week, we are still living it up!  lol  I love being on vacation and eating every yummy I see!

When we left Tampa on Monday, we headed for Suzanne and John's place in The Villages in central Florida. We just spent a fabulous 3 days with them, golfing, eating, visiting and checking out all the villages have to offer.  Hubby and I are in the beginning stages of figuring out what we are going to do with our winters when we fully retire in 2 years.  And this area is looking really good.  We were also told by April that the Mount Dora area (also central Florida) is a lovely little town right up our alley!  And boy, were they right!  They so know us!  And yesterday we golfed with another couple we know from Maine in another local area, and that all looked good, too!  We have so many choices to consider now.  We just need to figure out what is really important to us.....and go from there.

Right now, we are in Atlanta, a good stopping point on our way to Mary Jo's Quilt Store in North Carolina tomorrow!  Can't wait!  Woohoo!

Speaking of quilting......I managed to mark and cut a bunch of civil war repro fabric for my 8-pointed star quilt......my next hand work project.  I saw the inspiration antique quilt on the Museum of the Confederacy's site.....www.mocquilts.org.....The Shelton 8 Pointed Star quilt.  I just love the striped fabric for the sashing, and I've always wanted to do this in small size......so these are going to work up to just under 3 inches square.

I made most of these while at Suzanne's; we spent Tuesday morning at her quilt guild meeting.....a very nice group of ladies.  I'm still deciding on what background to use......an off white/beige, or maybe a small shirting print......still don't know.  The 7 on the right are just half done.....still need the center joining seam, but my light wasn't great, so I didn't want to chance a crappy join.

And.......still on a quilty note......when I saw this car in the parking lot of our hotel in North Carolina......all I could say was......"That's a perfect cheddar color!"  Ha!

My pic reads more yellow......but in real life.....it was CHEDDAR!  ha!

Hope you have a great weekend.  I'll post more when I'm home!

regan