My minivan is getting old and tired. It's giving me fits. I took it into the shop today. I checked in at the front desk. I looked around and saw one chair near the door. It was a nicer front office for an auto mechanic shop, but I worried how long I'd have to sit and wait while the guys ran the scan on my sickly set of wheels. Jim offered, "Ma'am? There's a really nice waiting room upstairs if you'd like to go on up." I told him Thank you and began to climb the stairs.
When we reached the top of the stairs, I was quite surprised! The spacious room was decorated in a cowboy theme, complete with white leather sofa, arm chair and ottoman. There was a small child's sized table with two chairs, two stick horses and a corner shelf stocked full of fun toys and videos for the kiddos. "WOW," I thought to myself: "This IS a nice waiting room!" I found the refreshments table! There was a water cooler/heater and a basket of coffees, creamers, sugars and swizzle sticks. I said out loud, "COFFEE??!?! Twist my arm and make it hurt!" Then helped myself to a hot, instant cuppa!
Quincy played contentedly with a stick horse that made galloping sounds with the squeeze of one ear and whinnied with the squeeze of his other ear.
Happy to have the place all to ourselves, I decided to send my friend, Shelly, a coffee tag! I pulled out my cell phone and got right to work with being creative!
What is coffee tag you ask? Well, it's a picture texting game Shelly and I have played for quite a while with one another. We use our cell phones to take pictures of our coffee cups daily. It lets the other know we're thinking of them. Not to mention, it's a fun way to start the morning and help to get the creative juices flowing. When I got home today, I made a few minor edits to mine and decided I liked enough I wanted to share it here.
Not bad for a camera phone, eh?
I was so eager to try the nearly complete postage stamp quilt top on my bed. This piece is a lot of fun to look at. As I laid it out, it was fun to hear my daughter get excited about remebering past projects when she'd seen the tiny pieces of fabric long ago. 
Well, I have to say: This has been a much bigger project than I thought it would be before I started. I knew I wanted a postage stamp quilt....and I knew that I wanted lots of different fabrics for that perfectly scrappy look I love....there are 76 different fabrics used...so far. It took me two days of cutting with my rotary cutter and straight edge.
I decided on how big I needed my quilt. Then did the math to figure out how many squares I needed. I came up with 1,444 squares. I went ahead and cut 1500 to make sure that if I needed to, I could change them out. And with the squares leftover, I plan to make a toss pillow to co-ordinate. As I cut out the fabrics, I diligently marked them on this sheet of paper. I was soooo happy to finally reach ZERO! The stacks of fabrics reminded me of poker chips!
I laid out all the stacks of different fabrics and started sewing them together in random fashion in groups of two. Then put them into a basket. Once all the squares were paired, I put them into 38 stacks of nineteen groups of twos. WOW! My neck and back were really starting to feel tense by this point. 
38 stacks of nineteen two's......and a whole lotta coffee! 
There's my Q-Man....hiding behind the strips that hung in the window. Do you see him?
I really kinda liked this shot. It shows all the fun, bright, cheerful colors. I think I'll really be happy with this quilt! 
I got go out for a little bit and do just a tiny bit of shopping. I stopped at the quilting shop in Castle Rock. I wasn't even in the store very long. I knew I wanted fat quarters. I found the colors I liked and picked out patterns. Two of them are.....PAISLEYS! I don't know what it is about those swoopy tear drop shapes! I just love them. Not sure why I was more drawn blues and greens today. I think they will look lovely in the postage stamp quilt I'm working on now.
As you can see in this photo, I DO have a plan...well sortof. I really love the look of piece-y, scrappy quilts and that is what is intended for this work. There will be lots of different colors and lots of different prints. Each of the squares will be added in a very random pattern. I'll probably just throw all of the squares into a basket and as I'm sewing them together, I'll just grab and sew and whatever comes out, will be sewn into the quilt. I am really eager to start sewing, but I still have more than 750 squares that I have to cut out.
....I'm getting there! 
The cold outside and the cozy inside
My little snow-covered world.....so beautiful this morning
...it will be a scarf.....I love this color! It's is so regal!
