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

The worst thing ever!

This is just a quick post to pass the word on some quilts that were stolen from Karen's car in Texas.....here's the link to her post with the pics and info on it.

http://karencombs.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/quilts-stolen/

I just can't imagine how awful that must feel!  Hopefully, they will be found.  As she said, if everyone can check yard sales, flea markets, etc......they might turn up.  Obviously when the punks stole the suitcase from her car, they had no idea what was in it, and will probably not care anything about them.  Ugh!

..................

And.....thanks to everyone who sent me get well wishes.....I'm nearly back to normal (whatever THAT is!)  :o)

Hopefully I will be quilting tomorrow and posting my progress.......I have less than a week until vaca!  Yikes!

And today it was 80 degrees here in Maine.....in March!  Woohoo!  That just felt SO good!

Have a great day!

regan

More Jubilee Progress! Woohoo!

So I posted progress on the Jubilee Quilt Project Blog last week, but forgot to post here.  Sheesh!  So, to catch up, I've finished all 20 blocks, and now I've finished making the sashing strips.

I just need to square up the blocks,and put all the pieces together now.  Yay!

Of course, I would get sick last night, with the crud that is going around!  It's totally in my head and throat, all congested and can't breath or hear.......and my body feels like it's been hit by a truck!  So I don't think I'll be doing any sewing tonight.  Everyone here says this lasts about 4 days.  I guess I can deal with that!  Thank goodness I've still got about 10 days before my vacation, cuz NOTHING is going to mess with that!  I just won't let it!  :o)

Have a great week!

regan

Progress on Jubilee!

I've been working away on my Jubilee quilt.......and posted on the Jubilee Project blog.  If you haven't been over there yet, check it out!  Everyone posting is either preparing to turn 50, just turned 50, or has fond memories of 50!  lol  And the quilts are just a fun way to think about your life, your passion for quilting, and all the fun you can muster at this milestone!

Here is my progress on my quilt......I've de-papered and trimmed all 80 string pieced sections.  And I've put together 5 blocks.  They aren't trimmed down yet, I'll wait until they're all done for that.

I'm just loving everything about this quilt!  Well.....except for having to take off the papers from the string piecing!  There is so much static here, that they are sticking to EVERYTHING!  That makes me crazy!  But if that's the worst thing about my day......then life is good!  :o)

And we are still in full winter-mode here......two days ago we got about 10" of snow, and last night another 3.  Now we're having an icey rain,......fun!

On the right of those posts is a little stair way leading to our field.  The low hanging branch is the actually about 5.5' off the ground.  In the spring it's covered in beautiful white flowers.....I love it!  I just barely have to duck to get under it, but everyone else always complains about it, and wants to chop it off!  I just say......"You have to be smarter than the tree!"  Ha!

Have a great weekend!

regan

Working on my Jubilee Quilt!

I've been crazy busy working on my Jubilee quilt........and it's really coming along!  I am doing it kindof like a Bonnie Hunter Mystery......cuz there are tons of little pieces, and making them in giant batches just seems to go faster!.....and for me, more accurately.  By the time I've made 100 hst's, I'm pretty good at it!  lol

So, I've pieced the 80 strings blocks that are needed......not trimmed yet, that will come later.

And I've made about 200 of the 468 hst's......they will finish at 1".  Sweet!

Here's the inspiration quilt again......the large solid red triangles surrounding the blocks are where my string pieces are going.  I'm making it up with 20 blocks so my finished size will be a bout 63x78.....perfect for snuggling up on the couch!  :o)

AND......just cuz they are at their peak of bloom......I thought I'd share the beautiful bouquet that one of my sons sent me for my birthday last week!  Sweet!  I just love iris and tulips......how did he know?  :o)

Hope you have a great week!

regan

I think I got it!

First, let me just say, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the great suggestions that everyone made for the sashing on my plaids quilt.  I really appreciate everyone for putting their two cents in......it makes for a fun day of playing with fabrics, and moving stuff around on the design wall!  And what's really fun about that, is that you sometimes throw something up on the wall, totally unexpected, and that's the one that screams out "YES!  THIS IS IT!"

I started playing with all the sashings again, and looking back and forth from pic to pic, and I was really leaning towards a lighter beige/cream sashing with the black cornerstones, but it was reading really flat.  Ugh!  I went back and forth with the black sashing, and still was just kindof flat.  Nothing with a spark, and not that I need a spark in every quilt, but flat doesn't make me want to finish it.  You know what I mean?

So, imagine my surprise when I thought "Maybe orange!?!"

Yeah, imagine!  Me.....orange......hmmm!

Well.....WOOHOO!  This is it!

AND.....on point!  Holy cow.....I'm loving it now!  And I love that it is getting that secondary grid effect from the black cornerstones.....woohoo!

I was so excited about it, I made 5 more blocks, lickety split, so I could really see the wow-factor!

Of course, I'm wondering why it took me so long to think of orange..... (ok.....it's cheddar for you repro lovers!  lol......that was for you, Pat..... now leave a dang comment, will ya!?!).

Maybe I should just start each quilt with orange, and go from there......it would probably save a lot of time!

Have a great week!

regan

Florabunda top is done! Woohoo!

I was totally in love with making this top!  I love yellow (it's right up there with orange!), and all those fabulous big florals were so fun to look at, and cut up (finally)!  lol

Here's the top.....finished!  Yay!  It's about 76x86......a good size on it's own, no borders.

It's actually darker, more like the 2nd closeup pic.  I think the sunlight from the window was fading it out a bit in the first pic.  I'm just in love with it!  Thanks Bonnie Hunter for showing us the original in an antique shop, and giving us the challenge/nudge to use our big florals.  I'm so glad I did!  This is going on my bed when done!  I thought for a backing, I would use the florals in big sections......they are just beautiful fabrics, and should really be used and shown off.  I like that it will be totally reversible, too.

So, while I was making the florabunda quilt......I decided I needed to do something else for my leaders and enders.  Up until this, I have been sewing together 2" squares of my thrift store shirtings......any two squares together, then those together as a 4 patch.  Not caring if the pieces were light, dark, whatever!  A totally scappy 4 patch......and I had been making these for at least a year, and now have a drawer full of 4 patches.  At least 400!  So during the florabunda quilt, I thought I should make something of these 4 patches.  Here's what I came up with......a little red sashing and a black cornerstone creating a 9 patch block.

I put 7 blocks together while doing the florabunda quilt, and I'm just loving them!  But I need to really think about how these blocks will come together......I tried a few versions of sashings.  Above is just straight black.

This is black with red cornerstones.

 Here I thought I would try something different with the black and red theme.....I think it overpowers the blocks.

Here I put some of the 2 inch shirting squares across a wider sashing.

I just don't know.  I think they all pretty much overpower the blocks.  But as I'm typing this, and looking at this last pic......I'm looking at the blocks on the right with no sashing between them......and I kindof like THAT look.......so maybe I need to do a light shirting as the sashing.  Hmmmmmmm.  What do you think?  I would love your thoughts or suggestions on it.

I'm going to keep making the blocks as leaders/enders.......until I have at least 20!  Then we'll see what happens!

Have a great week!

regan