A Little Fun With EQ6

Does this quilt I previously designed using EQ6 look familiar? Yep, it's this one.

Well, I have been playing around again with my EQ6 program and designed several possible future quilts. I'd love to get your opinions and find out which (if any) is your favorite. Just a little quilting-related fun. Click here to see the quilts. Just click on each quilt to make them larger.

I look forward to reading your comments and opinions. :o)

Quilty hugs,

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is my baby girl's, "special" birthday -- 25 on the 25th.

Happy Birthday, Rachel! We love you, baby!

Goodbye Tension . . . Hello Pension!

It's official! I'm retired! After 29 years, Thursday, March 20, was my last day of work. It was very bittersweet to say goodbye to all my friends and co-workers. They had a retirement dinner on Thursday evening and approximately 45 people attended. My husband and I had a great time and it was wonderful to see some people I hadn't worked with in years and years. I'm going to really miss everyone -- even more so once we sell our house and move to Florida. They were all so supportive when we learned about my husband's cancer, even donating time so I could be off work to help him recover from his surgery and spend time with him, and again when we learned his cancer had come back. The past two years have been a hard road for us, but they lightened the load with their thoughts, prayers, and generosity. I will always be thankful to them for that.

So now we are on to the next chapter in our lives. Selling our home and moving to Florida to be near our eldest daughter and son-in-law, and my husband, Chris's, family. We're also hoping our youngest daughter and grandson will be able to move down, as well. It's exciting, scary, and a whole host of other adjectives that I can't think of right now. I would have never thought that I would be retiring early at age 48 and that my husband would be battling cancer. It's funny how life-altering events can change your whole outlook. Pretty much puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

Hugs to all,

All Squared Out

Ugh. I've sewn 576 of these little 1 1/2 inch suckers together. Being a scrapaholic has it's limits and on this quilt 576 was mine. This is what I've been doing with my spare time these past two weeks. Working on my Keepsake Squares UFO. This was before ... and below is now.

The yellow fabric between the brown border and the mottled tan border is "free floating" -- meaning it's just fabric I folded in half and stitched between those borders. It gives it a fun 3D textured effect. Now granted, the mottled tan border is very plain, but I have plans for it. Now, now, you'll just have to stay tuned to see, but here's a hint...

And "no" the 576 doesn't take into account all the little squares that make up the flowers. Am I crazy or what? I have to say this quilt has been a lot of fun to make and surely will be very scrappy, so I will enjoy staring at it and ooohing and aaahing over all the different fabrics that are in it. It's not a true charm quilt, as there are a handful of duplicates, but when I was planning it I didn't intend it to be anyway. I still have to cut up all the leaves and then I can play away with the border design.

Hope you stay tuned for the results. :o)

Quilty hugs,

Lead Me Not Into TEMPTATION . . . Except Quilt Shops (and Quilt Shows)

I think the T-Shirt says it all. I was a baaad girl. But I look at it this way -- I did help stimulate the declining economy, right? Yeah, that's it!

Besides spending entirely too much, we had a blast. Even my grandson, Anthony, had fun looking at all the beautiful quilts and fondling the fabric. I think I have a future quilter on my hands. :o) At each booth he said, "Can I touch this fabric, Nana?" because he knew he couldn't touch the quilts. LOL! He's such a cutie!

We had a false start after getting lost -- for some reason I thought the show was in Edison, but while it is sort of, they consider it Somerset. Whatever...we found it after I called my brother-in-law and had him Google it and give us the directions. We have a GPS, but of course it's useless unless you input the correct destination. :o/ Now mind you, I printed out the directions before we left...but they, too, are useless unless you actually remember to bring them! Oy!

I've uploaded all the quilts that caught my eye (a lot, of course) for you to enjoy here. They were all so beautiful and amazing, and the workmanship was to die for. I was also surprised to run into Mark Lipinski of Quilter's Home Magazine at the very last booth we visited before we left. Let me tell you -- he is a hoot! I had him autograph his latest issue and Anthony and I had our pic taken with him. He's a great guy and he and Anthony got along famously. He really likes kids and was great with him. If you haven't read his magazine, you're really missing out.


Well, I promised to show you my ill-gotten gains, so here they are. All those bags! I'm glad I remembered to bring my tote cart...although if I had forgotten it like I had forgotten the directions, I wouldn't have purchased so much. LOL! But then again, the economy would have suffered....right? Right. :o)

Happy Quilting!