Mama Spark's World

Today's Activities

2012-01-28T18:32:00.000-05:00

It's often difficult to gauge how much to do or not to do when you are feeling well.

I got up this morning and decided that I would try some sewing at my machine.

I had a chenille blanket all basted and ready to stitch so thought that would be a good choice to begin.

No standing to press anything.

So I sat down and sewed for 2 hours and made all the channels.

I got some of the cutting done too.

That takes so long but I finally got that finished too.

Then I thought about binding it.

The fabric I wanted to use was in the basement and I was not allowed to climb those again today so I had to see what I could find in my sewing room that would work.

I came across some hot pink Free Spirit solid that was perfect!!

So soft!

It would be perfect for a baby blanket.

I made the binding and attached it to the chenille.

DH decided that we should take a quick trip to the local market.

We ran into my daughter's old swim coach and his family.

It was very mice to catch up.

We kept up our shopping and about 20 minutes into the trip I was getting very light headed.

So we checked out and came home.

This is what greeted me as I entered the house.

I love my cats!

Have a wonderful night!!

~XOP~

Every Day Is A Better Day

2012-01-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Today was even better than yesterday!
I was able to go the whole day without any pain medicine!
I was kind of tired and needed to nap but no pain meds were necessary!!
Woo Hoo!!
I even had a visitor today.
My friend Pauline came over to see me and brought me some patterns I had ordered from Crazy Quilt Girl.
I will take some photos tomorrow to show you.
Cori is going to be carrying some Australian designer patterns so be sure to stop over to her shop and check them out over the next few days.
She may not have them listed yet, as she has been crazy busy, but soon.

I also got the cutest get well card in the mail today too.
Thanks Dianne!!
That kitty looks just like Captain Jack!
It is so nice to know that my friends are wishing me well!!

If that wasn't enough, I received my order from Hawthorne Threads today too.
OHHHH so cute!!

Have you seen Backyard Baby?
If you have not, you are in for a treat.
I fell in love with the forest but the bug jars are a close second.
I think I will be buying more of this line.
Not only is it beautiful but some of the softest fabric I have ever felt!

I have come to the conclusion that I need all the Lizzy House pearl bracelets in all the colors.

Sounds easy enough, right? Well it isn't.

So far every tie I find it they are out of stock.

I did manage to find some of the light orange and then added a little bit of Out Foxed.

LOVE all of it!

Anyone else like these lines? Or have tips where I might find good deals on them?

I got these at Hawthorne Threads. I am a big fan of theirs.

Fabric.com carries them too but they are out of stock right now.

I know I am healing when I am finding it difficult to sit still and "relax".

ACK how I hate that word.

I don't know how to do that very well.

So this afternoon when it was just me and the cats I hauled out DD1's Halloween Tumbler quilt and hand stitched the binding down on that quilt!

It's all finished!!

I just need to stamp a label on it and it is ready to wash and hand over!!

That's my kind of relaxing! Hope you are all doing fun stuff.

My stamina is not back to normal yet so forgive me if I haven't commented on your blogs of late.

I will get there.

~XOP~

I'm Home and Well

2012-01-25T20:18:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you know that everything went well and I am home.
In fact I am feeling pretty good.
Maybe it's the pain meds on board LOL.

I was a winner on a blog hop recently and the gift was a surprise.
It came today.
Wanna see it?

It is a mini quilt. The bottom part is chenille, too cute.

Remember those daisies I showed you?

Well Ayumi found the royal blue ones!!

She is still waiting to come across the cream and the dark green ones for me.

She was so sweet to go out of her way to look for me.

She has a great little ETSY shop called the Pink Penguin.

You should go and check out her shop.

She has some of the Kerchief girls I love so I bought some of those too.

She tucked a few little surprises into my bag too.

Thank you Ayumi, for being so generous!

I'm happy to be home and will write again when I am a little more recovered!!

~XOP~

Here Goes Nothing

2012-01-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

The day for surgery has finally come.
I am excited and a little nervous too.
Yesterday the surgical nurse called and after our conversation she told me no jewelry.
What?? I can't get my wedding ring and diamond off my fingers anymore.
So on the way home from work yesterday, I stopped at a local jewelry store and had them cut off.
I haven't had those rings off my fingers for 28 years!!

I was OK with getting the Iolite ring cut off but for some reason cutting off my wedding band was really hard for me.

I plan on getting them resized though when I am healed.

I have diamonds from my mom, grandma and great grandma so I am thinking about having them all set together.

Could be a cool ring!

OK folks this blog will be quiet for a few days at least. I'm home sometime tomorrow.

I will put up a post when I can to let you know how it went.

I am looking forward to this being done and beginning a new era in my life.

Children are wonderful but the birthing process wreaks havoc, LOL.

So until I return, make lots of cool things for me to be inspired by!!

~XOP~

New Fabrics

2012-01-23T16:38:00.000-05:00

UH OH, I told myself I wasn't going to buy anything much new this year.
LOL, so much for that resolution!
I found the Suzuko Koseki daisies and it was all over.
These are so beautiful!
Here see for yourself.

I told you!

Now don't blame me if you get bitten by the Suzuko bug too.

I did make a friend online that lives in Japan and she found the royal blue colorway for me.

If I *need* all of them I will still need the dark green and the cream.

I'm pretty sure that I do need those.

Then Hawthorne Threads sent me an email telling me that some fabric I have been drooling over that was out of stock is now back in stock so...well...you all know what that means right.

It is on it's way to my house too.

Have you ever ordered from them? I love them.

My first choice is always Crazy Quilt Girl (although she is currently closed as her mom just had knee surgery) but sometimes she doesn't have the things I am after so the next place is Hawthorne Threads or Fabric.com.

Sometimes the prices are similar and HT almost always has a better selection.

Any new lines out there that you all are excited about?

I have a couple I am lusting after.

Most of them are not even out yet!!

Haha, so still time to save my pennies.

~XOP~

My Fortune Said So

2012-01-22T20:55:00.000-05:00

We got Chinese food last night for dinner and this was my fortune:

I had to laugh, because my plan for today was to be super productive!

I had a lot to do today and even more to do tomorrow before my surgery on Tuesday.

So I was up early, and began the wash.

Then I cleaned up my bedroom, dumped both cat boxes, vacuumed the entire downstairs and did some more laundry.

The one thing I really wanted to get to today was to cut out the quilt I am pattern testing for Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio.

I am making 2 sizes of the pattern so I got to choose 2 different colorways.

I am totally in love with this color way.

Not a usual one I would choose but beautiful none the less.

I can't show the pattern but I can show you the colors! Excited?

Me too!!

I even labelled them all so eventually if you want to make one just like mine you will know which colors to run right out and buy!

OK now I would love to know what you think of this color combo.

I am so proud of myself for getting lots of things ready for myself to do while I am recovering!

I have loads of bindings to do, and 3 quilts to sew together!

I ordered some books to read and a couple of new magazines are on their way here too.

I am considering getting the Game of Thrones books too.

Anyone read them?

I just got home from practicing Zumba with my instructor and am really sweaty so need to shower and do a few more things then bed.

DH even had home made chicken noodle soup and home made biscuits waiting for me when I got home,

YUM!!

Have a wonderful evening!!

~XOP

Geese In A Ring

2012-01-21T09:01:00.000-05:00

WHEW! I finally have all 7 of my Geese In a Ring blocks ready to send out in the mail!!
We all chose the colors we wanted to have made for us.
Here is a photo of all of the blocks.
Tell me what you think.

I made three rainbow blocks, one orange and aqua, one green and purple, one pinks and reds and one pink, yellow and green.

I LOVE how all of these blocks came out.

They take a LOT of time but are so beautiful.

I never tire of looking at these blocks!

What about you? What are you working on?

~XOP~

Presents From Friends

2012-01-19T20:55:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love a gift right?
I was blessed by some unexpected gifts this week. First up was this adorable bag from a friend of mine that I work with.
She is such a sweetie!

A little while ago I met a reader and she was longing for one of the DS quilts lines so I offered to get them and send them to her.

I've done this for a few other folks too.

Really not a biggie.

She lives in the UK.

Lookie at what she sent as a thank you!

Have you seen this magazine? It's FULL of eye candy!! Thank you Gil!

The third gift arrived in the mail today all the way from Australia. I "me" Lesley when my DD1 went over to Australia to stay with her daughter. My DD1 stayed with her daughter for 6 weeks. Later her daughter came here. I wanted to get to know the family before I sent my DD1 all the way over there and it turns out the mom, Lesley, is a quilter!! Small world eh? I am sending her a little giftie along with my DD1's gifties for her friend and she isn't done shopping!! It will arrive eventually. In the meantime I will show you the patterns she sent me by Aussie designer Natalie Lymer

What great friends I have!! I have some more to share but it will have to wait until tomorrow

. ~XOP~

SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a day late posting about the black out that happened yesterday to highlight the importance of contacting your legislators.
I wasn't going to post about this but my DD1 begged me to please post so folks that might not know about this important issue.
SOPA and PIPA are legislation introduced to deal with piracy issues.
Good intentions to be sure the the overreaching that is allowed to occur without due process is unacceptable.
You may have noticed black outs or interruptions in service around the internet yesterday on sites like Flickr, Wikipedia, Google, Twitter, Mozilla and several other sites that allow user contributed content. Here is the Wiki link if you want to read more about these bills and how you can work toward stopping them!!

I have emailed my senator and congress people. I also intend to call them.

Wikipedia had this to say about the response of "we the people":

"More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge.
You said no.
You shut down Congress’s switchboards.
You melted their servers.
From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news.
Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet."

But we can't stop now.
PIPA is up for a vote on January 24th.
It is extremely important to keep the pressure on our legislators.
Tell them you do not support censorship of the internet and they shouldn't either.
Most of us, after we have blogged long enough, have had something pirated.
I had a photo re-posted with out my permission.
I just stumbled upon it.
What if someone else linked to that photo?
Both the person that linked and the person that posted the pirated photo could be sued, have their content taken down or worse.
What if someone didn't want you posting about something.
They could link up to your blog with the pirated content and guess what?
YOU would be the one in trouble!
No questions asked and you have to police everyone that may link to you.
CRAZY!!!

This link has an article that really explains all the issues with these two bills way better than I can.

Wiki also says:

"I don't live in the United States. What's the best way for me to help?

Contact your country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar government agency.Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and any similar legislation. SOPA and PIPA will affect websites outside of the United States, and even sites inside the United States (like Wikipedia) that also affect non-American readers -- like you.Calling your own government will also let them know you don't want them to create their own bad anti-Internet legislation."

As my DD1 always says, "point of the story?"

If you like all of the freedom of content you have access to while using the internet please, please go to the Wiki link, find the contact info for your legislators and EMAIL OR CALL THEM or BOTH!!!

OK off my soapbox now.

This is really important to all of us that use the internets (all of them, LOL).

I promise some quilty content later tonight, after I get some dinner.

~XOP~

OOPSIE Here's What Happens When You Rush

2012-01-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

I was making geese blocks like crazy and then I began to take the paper off.
UGH! Look at this one.

See it there in the upper left hand corner?

The paper was white and the fabric is white and I just didn't even see it until I took the paper off.

I ended up having to make over 2 blocks.

But I got all the geese made, now I just need to take off all the paper and sew them into blocks.

That's the plan for this week so I can ship by the weekend.

I did manage to get one entire block sewn too, the one for Mary Catherine.

She wanted pink, green and yellow.

Of course I had some help.

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~

Got 6 Hours?

2012-01-15T10:47:00.000-05:00

That's how long it took me to make the components of 3 Geese In A Ring blocks!
I am in a swap group and need to get my blocks done to put in the mail but have not had any time since before Christmas to make them.
It takes so long to make one block though.
If they weren't so amazing I would probably have given up by now, LOL.
Here are the three I managed to make yesterday.

This one is for my friend Jeannette.

I was especially pleased to have been able to center the bunny and the yellow henna garden.

Now I have to take the paper off the blocks and sew them together.

Then I need to start on the last 3.

One is reds and pinks, one is pink, yellow and green and the last one is for me!!

In aqua and lime green!!

Well, I had best get my behind in gear, haha.

I'm watching Rome with my DH and I hate to go into the sewing room just now, but I am going to go shortly, as soon as this episode is finished. Have any of you seen the series?

It is wonderful!

So happy sewing everyone and tell me if you have any tv series you like watching.

~XOP~

Two Quilts Ready For Binding

2012-01-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

I got two quilts back from my LAQ this past week.
I managed to get them trimmed up and now need to machine sew some binding on.
I am trying really hard to get some things ready to work on while I am home recovering from my surgery.
I think hand sewing will be on the list!

The first quilt is one I have made several times, I really like the pattern.
It is from Evelyn Sloppy's book called 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts.
I made a quilt similar to this one for my DD2's BFF in high school and then one in completely different colors for my in-laws.
I called this the Water Quilt.
I knew when I made the first one I would make another one for my DD1, who was a swimmer all through high school and into college.

I am totally in love with this quilt.

It had been with LTW for so long I even forgot what I had used for the back.

I suggested she quilt mermaids on it with bubbles around the outside (in the bubble fabric, LOL). Turns out I was thinking about mermaids when I put the back together!

Sparkly ones too!!!

Close ups of the quilting

I plan on binding with a blue/green/white stripe fabric I have in my stash.

The second quilt I got back is a Crazy Rail pattern I bought when I was in Madison IN.

I love making this pattern as it is a non-thinking one, just sew!

This was made using up the small mish mash of left over flannels I had from previous baby quilts.

I really love how it came out too.

LTW quilted a star pattern on it. Love that too.

I used up some additional baby flannel I had for the back too.

Quilting close up

I am going to search my stash for some binding fabric.

I'm hoping for some dark purple or maybe some pink. We will see how that ends up.

I hope you are having a wonderful day!

~XOP~

Extended Christmas

2012-01-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was quite a day. I got a crown in the morning and then called my friend Cori to see what she and Pauline were up to. Turns out she had been in a car accident the night before so their escapades were curtailed. She and her son are OK, but the car needed some attention. It had to go into the body shop. I followed her to the shop to make sure she made it alright then we drove to the rental car place, where I dropped her off. We met up a little later for lunch with Pauline.

We did a small gift exchange for Christmas so I thought I would show you what I got and what I got them. I was sooooo excited to give my gifts and I wanted to share with you all but they both read my blog so I couldn't share until now. I bought some drawings from Tasha of A Little Sweetness. She customized them for me too. Check out her ETSY shop for some really cute illustrations, note cards and embroidery patterns too. Thanks Tasha!!

The one I got for Pauline, Tasha made her with red hair as she was a redhead when younger. I bought this one because, let me tell you, this one can SHOP!

I had Tasha put the name of Cori's online shop on this one.

I bought this one for myself and had Tasha put our names on the sewing tables.

Now you might want to see what they got me right?

First from Pauline.

These adorable towels, in my colors too!

Then this super cute fleece jacket. So soft and cozy!

I think she really out did herself with all her gifts (I told you she can shop!)

Oh and look there, Mosen is overseeing all the loot!!

Look at all that gorgeous wool.

She also stitched that cute dish soap apron.

Last but not least the beautiful deviled egg dish.

Thanks Pauline! You're the BEST!

Then on to what I got from Cori. Again, both of them did way too much! Isn't this ruler adorable?

Also that quilty pack of post it notes (in my colors too), a great notebook for quilty notes and 2 count them 2 sets of silk thread to try!!

I am overwhelmed by both of their generosity!

My friends are truly amazing!!

Bet you wish they were your friends too?

I have managed to get a couple of quilts back from the quilter (thanks Liz) but will post about them soon as this one is getting quite long.

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~

Not What I had Planned

2012-01-08T18:34:00.000-05:00

Today did not go as planned. Ever have one of those days? I ate an amazing breakfast made by my amazing husband. We were just cleaning up, I had put the sheets into the washer, and was just deciding what to work on when the phone rang. It was my DD1 and she was house hunting today. She thought she had found THE house and could we drop everything and meet her there? What do you say? Of course we said yes and spent the next several hours driving all around and looking at houses. NONE of the sewing I had planned to do got done. I cleaned all day yesterday so I could sew today. I guess that's how it goes right. The house, BTW was a modular home (not that great) but pretty nice the kicker is that it is on 10 acres AND was very, very reasonably priced! I think she will make an offer, although I think she might find a better house, but the land was awesome. She could stay awhile and then sell it and then move. OK enough about that for now.

I promised that I would show you the fabrics I bought in Shipshewana right? Here you go. I bought some fabrics for the frog quilt.

I also bought some water fabric for a quilt I plan on making this year for DD1's birthday.

I also bought some fabric to make a quilt for my dad. I saw the snowmobile fabric and knew he would love it. Then I found the golf balls too. I'm thinking snowball and nine patch, with the snowmobiles and golf balls being the snowballs and shades of blue the nine patches, what do you think?

I did trim a quilt today but did not get pictures of it. I will. I think I will make some binding tonight so I can say I got something done today! haha.

I guess it was just one of those days!

~XOP~

Finishing Up The Holiday

2012-01-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to tie up some loose ends about stuff from the holiday season.
I went to Shipshewana with DH and boy did we have a good time!
First stop Jo Jo's Pretzels (of course).

Followed by Lolly's. I bought a few things that I still need to photograph to show you, so that's for another time. We went to Rebecca Haar's Antiques and it is always fabulous! Lots of mercury glass ornaments, some fabulous antique quilts and I even found some feedsacks! Sad part was that her mom, who was always there minding the shop, had passed away this past fall. Very sad.

In the hall way dividing Yoders was a fabulous gingerbread house display.

More, close ups are on my Flickr account. (see link on side bar).

I managed to snap this photo of the Amish horse and buggy as we were coming out of E & S Sales.

It was raining kind of hard so I had to snap it fast!

I received a phone call from my old college roommate and we ended up meeting up with her husband and daughter for lunch.

They were in town from Virginia.

It was wonderful to catch up. Makes me realize how much I miss her!

Last but not least my DD2 and one of her BFF's were baking cookies with me when they decided to try on the Santa hat.

I couldn't resist a photo.

That wraps up 2011. I am looking forward to 2012.

I do have some quilt related posting to do but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T12:59:00.000-05:00

I just want to take this opportunity to wish all my friends (IRL) and in blogland a Happy New Year! I have been thinking alot about this post. The year is fresh and new and anything is possible, right? I made some goals last year. I met some of those goals and not others. I am a firm believer in having goals. It helps me to focus. So you don't have to keep reading if this is boring but here I go.

Goals for 2012

1-I would like to spend a little more time learning and using my EQ program. I have said this for the last 2 years and I have used it more in 2011 than 2010 so progress is being made.

2-I really, really, need to get my embroidery module out and learn how to use it. I have had it for 6 years now and still do not have the first idea what to do to use it. Maybe this will be the year! I carried this goal over from last year.

3-I need to continue to work on my already started projects. I think most of us feel like that. I will continue to list them on my side bar as a way to keep me accountable. There are always new projects that pop up but I am going to redouble my efforts to get some of my UFO's done. Organization is key for me on this one.

4-I have designed some quilts in the last few years that I would like to write up the patterns for. I now have a good friend that has promised to help me with this, so hopefully you will see patterns from me soon! Going hand in hand with that is to continue to design some more quilts this year.

5-I am thinking about setting up either some kind of embroider along or maybe a Halloween block swap. This, of course depends on time and may or may not happen. This was a goal from last year too. This time I actually have a theme in mind. I need to get drawing though and see what happens.

6-I would like to try to use more of my stash fabrics and cut down on the new fabric purchases this year too. I did fairly well with this one but not well enough. Since we are trying to pay down some debt not purchasing new fabrics as often will help with that. It's not that I won't buy new I just want to limit it to things I can't live without. I am finding that the longer I sew there seems to be less and less I can't live without!

7-This is not quilt related, but I would like to work on having a more sustainable life. We started on this last year and I would like to continue this endevor. Grow more of my own food, can more food, re-use, re-purpose and recycle more, cook from scratch more. This will help maintain a more healthy lifestyle. Again, this was a goal from last year that I will carry forward. We did a great job making progress with this goal last year.

8-Continue on my weight loss journey including more healthy eating as well as keeping up with spending time at the gym. I have kind of a high strung personality (betcha haven't noticed right?) and I have decided that alcohol is not my friend. Yes, it does help me wind down and relax but it does not help with my weight or my personal relationships or my achieving of goals so I am going to limit my consumption for a year and see how that goes. It couldn't hurt right?

9-I will work on trying to spend more time doing the things I want to do instead of always doing what has to be done first. I have been struggling lately with where I am going in life. I am going to spend more time with family and friends and trying to do things that truly make me feel happy. I also find that when I help others I am happier so I loo forward to more of that too.

10- I want to streamline my house. Thin out the "things" that are cluttering up my house and my life. Less stuff. This one is difficult for me. I seem to have bonded unnaturally with some of the "things" in my life. I have found a blog that speaks to de-cluttering your life and I plan to spend time working on this part of my life too. Maybe less "stuff" will make less stress? Worth a try!

I guess that sums it up for me and what I have been thinking about. I wish for all of you everything you need to be healthy and happy in this upcoming year. Enjoy your friends, your family and all your blogging buddies. I appreciate all of you so much. You are what makes this all worthwhile. I am glad you are joining in and becoming a part of my life! I look forward to getting to know you better and maybe even meeting up IRL!

It is said that the things you do on New Year's day will be the things you will continue to do the whole year through. Think about what you want in your life this year and sprinkle a little bit of it into your day today!

May God keep you safe and healthy in the upcoming year. If you have read this far, thanks! I hope to have an awesome year and I hope you do too!!! ~XOP~

2011 Finishes

2011-12-30T01:00:00.001-05:00

I took the time to make a mosaic of all of the quilts I finished this past year. I am always surprised at how much I actually did manage to do in the year aren't you? There were a few more tops too, some are still at the quilter's and some were donated. I didn't count those.

1. Heart wall hanging, 2. Table Runner, 3. Holly's Mom's Quilt, 4. Front, 5. Stamped label (2), 6. Baby gift, 7. Label, 8. Farm Tumbler, 9. Flower quilt, 10. Halloween Stars, 11. Over the River, 12. Christmas Tree top, 13. Chenille blanket pre wash, 14. Project Special Delivery, 15. Castle Peeps, 16. My Quilt for Market, 17. Quilt made by Pauline and me, 18. Tumbler, 19. LC QAL Quilt Top, 20. Sparkle, 21. Halloween Coin Quilt 003, 22. Jocelyn's Quilt, 23. Valentine Peacock Mug Rug 003, 24. Completed Mug Rug, 25. Finished owl mug rug front, 26. Red and White Quilt Finished 002, 27. mosaic of my 2011 quilts28. Not available29. Not available30. Not available

I am looking forward to what 2012 has to bring. I have a few creative adventures in motion with some friends, I have some ideas of my own and there are always those darned UFO's that need to be finished up now aren't there? I keep seeing QAL's that I am interested in but I am thinking that perhaps I need to focus on my quilts in progress. I think this will be my year of "Use what I have". I have so much fabric and I feel a little guilty about that, so I hope to make some kind of a dent in my super stash this year.

I gave away that Christmas tree quilt today. My friend was so surprised and thrilled! I LOVE that kind of a reaction!!! Tomorrow I will be going on a day trip with my sweetie down to Shipshewana. Should be a fun day.

Along with the "Use it up" philosophy I am going to work on being thrifty and saving money this year.

We have some bills to pay off and that is going to be a mail goal for me this year too.

Have you thought about your 2012 resolutions?

I am thinking about mine and will be posting those soon.

I would love to hear what your resolutions/goals will be for the 2012 year. ~XOP~

2012 Preparation

2011-12-29T01:00:00.002-05:00

Since my machine is back, I seem to be antsy to get some work done. I can't really do anything much until I get Christmas put away, which is going to be done this weekend, but I have been thinking that I could get a few things cut out and ready to sew in the new year.

My friend, Liz, told me that her mom would embroider some blocks for me if I would cut the background fabrics so that was the first one I did today. It should be cute. I am considering pulling the fabrics and cutting those tomorrow. We will see.

Then I decided to look for a pattern that I had bought some pre cuts to make quite some time ago. It said you needed a jelly roll and a charm pack to make a throw size, but actually I am thinking you could just use a JR which is what I did. I am using Merry and Bright by Moda.

As it turns out I had bought the JR and CP of Mix and Mingle to do another one, along with 2 additional yards necessary for the setting triangles and slim inner border and binding but I probably won't be using it so if anyone is interested I will be selling this group and the Tilt-A-Whirl pattern so you can use it to make the same quilt I am going to make. It is my pattern and once I make it I won't need it any more. This is what I will be selling.

I will sell the whole "kit" for $70 plus postage. If you are interested please email me at mamaspark@gmail.com and let me know.

I don't think I mentioned it but I will be going in on January 24th for some surgery so that's the imcentive for getting lots cut so that when I get home I can just sit and sew since I am not supposed to be doing very much for 3 weeks. It is not a big deal, just some urinary stuff from having babies, I'm sure many of you can relate, along with a little bit of shoring things up (damn gravity!) and I should be better than new!!

Also, one of my very best friends had a terrible accident yesterday. She was taking care of her horses and had just finished graining one of them and was opening up the stall when she tripped. The horse had her head in her grain bucket and reacted to the noise behind her by kicking. She kicked my friend twice in the head and once on her thigh. She had a concussion but nothing is broken. She is very sore, disoriented and is experiencing hallucinations. She went to the ER and had an MRI done. They sent her home with pain killers, but she is still in a lot of pain. Please keep her in your prayers! She sure can use all the help she can get!! I really appreciate your kindness. This is a photo of her and I at the lab Christmas party at my boss's house.

Last 2011 Finish

2011-12-28T17:26:00.000-05:00

I got my sewing machine back from it's spa trip and she is all ready to be used. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get her out until after the new year. I am planning on putting Christmas away this weekend before I have to go back to work though.

That leaves some time for a few other things. I had made a wonderful Christmas Tree quilt from a Moda Bake Shop tutorial. It was super easy to make and I love how it came out. I had it all trimmed up but needed to put the binding on it. I had that sewn and just needed to do the hand sewing. Now it is all finished and I get to gift it tomorrow to my Zumba instructor!!!

I sure hope she likes it!

I will be back with some more fun stuff tomorrow, so stay tuned!! ~XOP~

Happy 21st Birthday to My Son

2011-12-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

My son turned 21 the day after Christmas. Interestingly enough our dog was born on the same date but she turned one on the 26th.

So happy birthdays to my son and my dog!!

Merry Christmas My Friends

2011-12-25T22:57:00.000-05:00

Christmas time has been so hectic this year. Did anyone else feel like that? It seemed to just sneak up on me and I struggled to get it all done. DD2 came home and it has been a whirlwind week to be sure. On Wednesday we went shopping together and finished up some last minute shopping. Then she invited her friend Andy over and we made Christmas cookies. He comes over every Christmas and makes cookies with us.

Then DD1 and her BF made cake pops. I kept bugging for some but she made me wait. When I got up in the morning this was waiting for me.

She is so sweet! Then Jack was showing his Christmas spirit too

My DH wanted to go to Frankenmuth so on Friday we loaded up the car and he, DD2 and I all spent the day in Frankenmuth. One of DD2's friends even met us there for dinner.

Somehow I managed to get everything done, all the food made, the house cleaned up and time spent with my family and suddenly it was Christmas eve day and we headed off to my BIL and SIL's beautiful home to celebrate with DH's family.

We always bring something for the little kids to do and this year we brought 2 gingerbread house kits. Kids and adults alike seemed to have fun.

This year my father and sister joined us. We all had a great time, thanks Mark and Jackie for opening up your beautiful home to us. (I spent 2 hours the night before embroidering a dish towel for her as a thank you for hosting!)

This is my family! Including my dad, sister and DD1's BF.

Christmas morning and we woke up to a visit from Santa, our stockings were full!

I even got 12 new bobbins and a great pair of scissors!

Then we opened gifts and ate great food. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and had time to spend with family and friends too.

From my family to yours Merry Christmas!!

~XOP~

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner

2011-12-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

Well, there's no chicken dinner but there is a winner!!

Monica (#15) who said:

"A favorite Christmas cookie? They would have to be the terrible tasting but beautifully decorated cut out cookies my grandparents made when they were still alive. They were works of art."

So Monica, send me your address and I will get those in the mail to you next week!!

I hope you enjoy them and congratulations!!

I'm a Finalist, Please Go And Vote For My Tutorial

2011-12-18T08:54:00.000-05:00

OMgosh!! I woke up and went on my email and saw that the tutorial contest over at Pink Chalk Fabrics had narrowed down to 5 finalists in each of three categories and my Chenille Blanket tutorial is in the top 5!!! And guess what? There are prizes!! So here's what I need you to do. Please go and cast your vote for my tutorial over here. Voting goes on until Dec 21st so if you wouldn't mind, please go and cast a vote for mine. This is the photo so you know which one was mine.

I was able to give Holly's mom her quilt last night too! I'm pretty sure she loved it!

Ok, now if you don't mind, please take a minute and go over here and vote!

Surprise Package

2011-12-13T15:09:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness did I have a day yesterday! Mamogram in the morning followed by a trip to Checker with Cori. Then she and I went out to lunch. I mentioned to her that I needed to put up the cedar roping and she volunteered her gutter hooks, so I decided to take her up on the offer. So it was kind of warmish here in MI and I thought, "oh, why not put the roping up?" First, find the lights. Check. Then find the red bows, ok off to the store to buy new red bows, check. Ladder to put the roping up, check. I tried to use the screw on hooks but they kept breaking when I lifted them with the pole so I drug out the ladder. I managed to get all the roping up across the front of the garage, then the front porch. At the porch it has to go around a corner and then across the front of the house. I had just put on the bow, still on the ladder and leaned back to check if they were all even and ...POP, pop,pop,pop, WHUMP. All the previous clips snapped and whump the entire length of roping landed on the ground. It would have been funny if it hadn't happened to me!! HAHA, no...it was still funny! So I left it on the ground and thought I would do it when DH gets home tomorrow. So I thought, until the stupid dog ate 3 of the bows.
I can't win for losing!!!
OK, I can hear you all laughing at me now = )

I decided to change my clothes and head to Zumba to exercise off some frustration.
When I got home there was a package waiting for me from Edyta Sitar.
I had done a few things for her and asked her to pick up something for me from Fall market.
I really needed the pick me up so thank you Edyta!!
You are the BEST!!

This is the bag all the goodies were packed in

And a FQ bundle of Natalie Lymer's new line Woodland!!!

It is funny that it was this fabric that arrived. I have had an idea kicking around in my head for a little while.

I am considering doing a stitchery BOM and was thinking about using this fabric.

I have to do some sketching AND stitching before I am ready to share but would anyone be interested in joining in the fun?

I'm going to leave it at that for now.

It will have to wait until after the new year anyway.

I happened to catch my cat Hallie in this sweet pose the other night. I know it is a dark photo but all I could think of was "And to all a good night!"

Have a wonderful night! ~XOP~

Dicken's Festival Holly Michigan

2011-12-11T13:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday DH and I went to the Dicken's Festival in Holly MI. We try to go every year. They have some amazing antique shops and we like to spend the day together. First though I need to tell you that I finished the embroidered towels. So if you have not done so then go to the post before this one and enter for a chance to win them.

Here is a peek down the main street

We saw this Dicken's character making these amazing bubbles

Look at who else we found

There was even some ice sculpting

We found some cool antiques too. a GIGANTIC Fostoria punch bowl

A beautiful peacock figure and tapastry

Then I found my usual creepy elves.

And the best two things I found are the Holy water font and the musical angel

So all in all it was a great day spent with DH, getting a few gifts and having a great time! Today I have to finish cleaning and I am *hoping* to get some Christmas stuff put out. I need to order a few more gifts online too. If this isn't enough, my car is making a bad noise and DH thinks we may need to get a new car! I have no idea why, since this one only has 200,000 miles on it! I hope it is something easily fixed with not a lot of money. Anyway, have a great Sunday and don't forget to visit the giveaway post and leave a comment to be entered to win.

~XOP~

Blog Hop Party Giveaway Enter Via This Post

2011-12-10T16:16:00.003-05:00

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED

EDITED TO SHOW THE FINISHED TOWELS!

I know I am a little behind in the post of what you need to do to win but first I want to show you what you will be winning.
Two embroidered tea towels.
Hand embroidered by me!
I finally traced them today and will work on them so they are finished by the end of the hop.

Here they are traced and ready to work on

I haven't decided on floss or perle cotton so you will be surprised!

Now on to the fine print.

I would like you to tell me your favorite Christmas cookie.

I would love it if you want to be a follower too.

You MUST comment on this post, although I will consider everyone that has already posted on the post from yesterday too, since I don't want to exclude anyone.

I will ship internationally!!

If you happen to have the recipe for your favorite cookie I would be happy to have that too!!

You can email it to me at mamaspark@gmail.com or link to it in your comment.

Don't forget to click on my Blog Hop Party button too so you can visit everyone that's participating and enter all the wonderful giveaways!

~XOP~

Blog Hop Party

2011-12-09T09:00:00.002-05:00

OK, I drank the kool-aid. I joined in the Quilter's Blog Hop Party.

What is this you say?

If you go here you will find out. C'mon join in on the fun!!

You have to have a quilt related blog and be willing to give something away.

I have a quilt related blog.

But what to give away?

I think my give away will be 2 embroidered tea towels!

I have not done them yet (of course not why give away something that's already made?)

So I am unable to show you just now what they will look like.

Suffice it to say I will post as I am working on them, how's that?

The giveaway officially begins tomorrow so I will take a photo of the tea towels and we will discuss the details of what you will need to do to win them!

Sound good?

See you back here tomorrow!

~XOP~

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS FOR THE GIVEAWAY ON THE POST DONE DECEMBER 10TH

Christmas Link Day 9

2011-12-09T08:32:00.000-05:00

I hope you are enjoying the links I am listing.

If you make something I would love to know!

Again, no sewing for me last night.

I did make venison stroganoff for dinner and then made 2 dips to bring to the lab Christmas party that will be this afternoon, so there's that.

I bet you are looking for the link for today right?

I found this amazing Snow Capped Christmas tree at My Patchwork and not only is it adorable, it looks like a good way to use up some scraps! Oh and it is EASY!

(Photo from My Patchwork Place)

Now who doesn't love Lynette Anderson?

Well she has some free Christmas "to do" lists you can print off for free!!

They are so cute and I always seem to need papers for making lists.

OK quilters, that's all from me for the minute.

DH and I are off to a wedding reception tonight and the Dicken's Festival in Holly, MI tomorrow.

Woke up to a snow covered roadway this morning so glad I go into work early!

Have a wonderful day! ~XOP~

Christmas Link of The Day

2011-12-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

I actually have a couple of things to share with you all today. My friend, Mrs Goodneedle, shared a story on her blog today that is very worth reading. I could not agree more with what the author had to say. Please take just a few minutes and hop over to her blog and read it, I promise you won't be sorry you did.

The Christmas project I am sharing today I found on Martha Stewart's website. Candy Cane Mice. How cute are these little guys?? You can find the directions here. Have fun making these!!

I have also run across some Squirrel Christmas Cards by Amy Schimler that you can print out. So if you are looking for an adorable Christmas card, now you have one!

Have a wonderful day!! ~XOP~

Embroidered Christmas Tree

2011-12-07T12:43:00.000-05:00

The link for today takes you to Better Homes and Gardens to see the adorable Embroidered Christmas tree. Just go here for the info. My friend Barb has made a couple of them and is going to frame them using frames from the thrift shop. Tell me how adorable these are?

They are done using circles of fabric, buttons and embroidery. We all have small scraps of fabric so this is a neat way to use those up!

I went to the thrift shop recently and found a great vintage sheet. I had this sheet when I was a little girl and have been hoping to find one eventually.

That same day I found a GREAT vintage table cloth. I was so thrilled!!

It's not really lumpy, but I spread it out over my down comforter to get the photo before I went to Zumba. Not a stain on it either!

Stay tuned for another great Christmas craft site tomorrow and remember if you have a site please send it to me. ~XOP~

Handmade With Love - A Holiday Tutorial Contest

2011-12-06T07:05:00.001-05:00

Kathy over at Pink Chalk Fabrics is hosting a contest. You can find all the information over here. If you have written a tutorial in the past year (2011) you can post a link to it and be entered into the contest. I entered my tutorial on making a chenille blanket. There are 3 categories. LOTS of great stuff!! That my friends is my link for you for today. Go and check it out. Enter if you have done a tutorial too!! ~XOP~

How To Make A Chenille Blanket Tutorial

2011-12-06T01:00:00.001-05:00

I have made so many of these and I have had numerous requests about how to make one so Merry Christmas!

What you need:

1 yd cotton for the backing of the blanket (sometimes I get just a little over a yard, so I have room to square it up after I line up the flannel and sew it)

Four 1 yard cuts of flannel (you can use different colors or all the same)

Make sure your flannel is colored all the way through, Cozy solids from JAF are great for this!

½ yd cotton fabric for the binding

Press all fabric before starting but do NOT pre-wash!! I can't stress this enough. DO NOT PRE-WASH YOUR FABRICS

Lay the backing fabric on a large surface face down. Layer the flannel on top of the backing, right side up. Smooth each layer before adding the next. Once all 5 layers are smooth place a long piece of tape diagonally across the quilt. Using a basting needle and thread baste the layers together. Baste using a big and then a little stitch and stitch about 3 inches from your last line of basting following the tape line. (In this picture the blanket is upside down, it's best to put your cotton on the bottom and layer up the flannel. I don't have another photo to put here but trust me put your cotton on the bottom and then the flannels. You want to be sewing with the cotton closest to the feed dogs)

Now for the fun. Using your walking foot with the stitch guide attached, stitch along one side of your tape line, then you can remove the tape. Using your stitch guide to help you continue stitching, on the diagonal 5/8 of an inch from your previously stitched line until the entire quilt has been stitched.

It should look like this when all the lines are stitched.

Using chenille cutting scissors, cut through the top 3 layers. DO NOT CUT INTO THE 4TH LAVER OF FLANNEL!! Once all your lines are cut you will need to square up your quilt. Do NOT square it up until you are done cutting your channels!! (ask me how I know this, LOL)

Here is how it looks when you are done before you square it up.

To square up the blanket I fold it in half and use the fold line as my straight line guide. I then trim off each side. I then fold it in the other direction and do the same thing. Once that is done, I fold to make sure all the corners line up with each other and that it really is "square".

Now you need to make your binding. I make it using a cotton fabric (not a flannel). I cut 2.5" strips, join strips to make one long strip,fold in half and press. Attach to the flannel side of the quilt using your sewing machine. I turn and hand stitch to the back (the cotton side). I have begun to put labels in my quilts by putting it into the binding or I use a stamp I had made.

Now is where the fun begins! Wash and dry your blanket to make it "fluff" and ENJOY!!

Your finished blanket should look like these:

If you happen to make one I would love to see it! Please upload it to my Flickr group! I would love to see your creations! I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial! ~XOP~

Occupy Your Sewing Room

2011-12-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

Now why didn't I think of this? What a wonderful plan Barbara has put together and an amazingly clever title, I must add!

Here is what Barbara says on her blog:

Here's a blogging event for our times!

1. Occupy your Sewing Room will run from December 3 - 10, 2011. During that week, plan to occupy your sewing room for a full day. If you can't spend a whole day, then divide it up into whatever increments you like.

2. Write a blog post and then come back on December 11th to link up and show off what you've accomplished. This is a chance for you to finish up those Christmas gifts you haven't had time for, but you can work on whatever you like. And if you don't have a blog, feel free to post an image from Flickr, Shutterfly, or any other photo sharing service that allows you to generate a URL. Just be sure I have a way to contact you or you won't be able to win in the giveaway. No-reply bloggers, that goes for you too!

So if you want to do something useful let's unite and Occupy our Sewing rooms!! Go grab the button and quilter's of the world unite!!

"Our list of demands is short. Leave me alone, I'm sewing!"

Christmas Tutorials

2011-12-05T07:30:00.000-05:00

As I was surfing the web I found quite a few wonderful tutorials or free projects. It got me thinking that you might like to see them too. So I am going to put up one every day for as long as I have them. If you have a link to one that you think others would like to have too, please email it to me and I will use it. My email is mamaspark@gmail.com I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Today I found the cutest little stitchery over on Gail Pan's blog. It is only up for the month of December but it is adorable!

(Photo from Gail's blog)

I also wanted to share a cool thing I found for decorating. I was out buying the cedar roping for my house and found an evergreen ball (not sure how else to describe it). I took a photo of the one I bought that is hanging outside my front door. Pretty cool huh?

I finished the first of the 3 Halloween tumbler quilts I am making, now it is off to see Liz!

Of course I couldn't have done it without my kitty helpers

I also finished my next star in the FQ Star QAL.

That's all the quilt related content that I will have now until after the new year, I think. I have some bindings to do but I had to put my sewing away so I can get out Christmas. I got everything all picked up and put away. After toting 4 56 gallon tote bins to the basement full of fabric I think I have no business buying any more until I can use some up! That's why those Halloween ones need to get done as they will use up all my Halloween flannels! I need to make a new "to do in 2012" list and work really hard to finish up some of the quilts I have bought materials for in the coming year. Right now there are 3 lines I am looking forward to getting so I really, really need to get to work!!

I will be posting new sewing/crafting tutorial links so there will still be some great things here. Come back soon!! ~XOP~

Paper Pieced Santa Ornament

2011-12-02T08:22:00.000-05:00

I found a blog with the cutest little paper pieced Santa ornament on it today, so I thought I would share.

Stop on over to Pinwheel Ponders for the download.

(Photo from Pinwheel Ponders blog)

Please let her know how much you love her ornament! ~XOP~

Christmas Sewing Tutorials

2011-12-01T13:10:00.000-05:00

I found this great blog that had gathered up a bunch of wonderful Christmas sewing tutorials all in one place. I just wanted to take a minute to share them with you. It's over at Teresadownunder's blog.

Here is a peek at the photo on her blog but she has all the links there too so pop on over and check her out! Tell her Mama Spark sent you.

Believe me, you want to go and take a look at her wonderful blog. LOADS of inspiration!!

Have fun exploring!! ~XOP

I Did It!!

2011-12-01T13:02:00.001-05:00

I blogged every single day during the month of November!! It was a challenge to have something to write about every day and I have no idea how people do quilt related posts every single day. Kind of gives a new appreciation.

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment, a consultation really, but that's a topic for another time. It was quite a way from my home and my work so I just took the day off work. The appointment was in the morning so I had the rest of the day to do whatever I wanted/needed to do. I went to Lake Street Mercantile and looked around but didn't buy anything. Then I went home.

As you saw from the post yesterday, I put the binding on my quilt. We had to purchase a new stove and it was delivered just as I was walking up to the house! DH was there and he was supervising. So that's when I worked on the binding. He wanted to know what we were going to do about lunch and I suggested we go out to one of our favorite places (I'm not usually home for lunch out). We went to Chopstick House and it was YUMMY! Then we drove to get the cedar roping we usually put up on the front of our house. This year they had this really cool evergreen ball. I have no way to describe it to you so I will take a photo tonight when I get home to show you, but it was COOL! DH even thought so and he doesn't usually care much about decorations. Next stop was the Sally Ann for a working VCR. DH picked one up for $10! He is trying to copy our old video tapes on to DVD and our old vcr was not working. I got this cool duck dish!

I now have 2 different duck dishes, 2 bunny dishes and one chicken dish!! DH asked me what I was going to do with it! Pffft, why put stuff in it of course, duh! When we arrived home this is what greeted us:

"Oh excuse us Mosen. Did we wake you up?" LOL He thought Holly's Mom's quilt was the purrrrfect place to rest!

In short time it was time for Wednesday night quilting. I brought the Halloween tumblers I had cut out with me to lay out. I cut out 3 quilts worth and thought I would take advantage of a BiG space to lay one of them out while I had it. I am going to love these quilts!!

Please pardon my shoes!

They should turn out to be throw sized. When DD2 was home she wanted me to hurry up and finish hers so she could cuddle up with it! What do you think? Would you cuddle up with this? ~XOP~

Holly's Mom's Quilt

2011-11-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

I have a really especially dear friend. Her name is Holly. We have been friends for as long as I have worked at the University, almost 27 years. I was responsible for introducing her to my boss and now we work together and have for about 25 of those 27 years. We think alike, we never fight and sometimes people think we are the same person, LOL. Whatever one of us doesn't know the other one does. If she were a man she would probably be my soul mate, LOL. Her life has been incredibly challenging, and not in a good way. Amazingly she is one of the most generous, kind spirited people I have ever met...EVER!

A few months ago now, her mom gave her some photos she had taken of wildlife from where she lives. She had transferred these photos onto fabric. Holly gave them to me and passed along that her mom would like me to make something for her from them. OMG...but what? I talked about this once before but I really struggled with how to put these all together.

I finally framed each photo and then used all one color of sashing to surround all the pictures. I didn't want to take away from the photos so decided to use something woodsy. Then I had to figure out how to have Liz quilt it. I looked all over the internet. I finally found a scene that had plants with a pond in the middle. Her mom also loves frogs so I found a cute border of frogs. Liz came up with triming out the photos and making the pond plants go around the photos. Over all I like the quilting, I just wish the quilting stood out a little more.

Here are the frogs

And the plants with the frogs

More of the plants

This is what the entire quilt looks like. I have sewn the binding on but need to hand turn it. I used Kona black for the binding. The back is a green, white and black plaid flannel, which I really like.

I know it's not the best photo, but you get the idea of what it looks like right? I am very happy to be almost finished with this quilt. I hope Holy's mom likes it. It was made with a lot of love. ~XOP~

Thanks for stopping by! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

I Just Thought I Would Share

2011-11-29T22:54:00.000-05:00

So if you are squemish, STOP reading right now, seriously, STOP.

Remember that my dog bit me last Tuesday? I was talking to one of the doctors at work and he freaked out that I had not filled my prescription for antibiotics. So he made me walk over to the pharmacy yesterday and get my prescription filled. It looks much better today, but still really, really ugly! I know you are dying to see how it is healing right? Well wonder no longer here you go. First is the bite on the top of my finger, notice the blue bruise line the length of the nail. N-I-C-E!

Now remember this is one week later, but this is the bad side. There was a flap of skin about half an inch long and I could not stop the bleeding. Look how much better it looks now!!

The one on the pad of my finger still hurts and the dead skin is catching on things too. I didn't realize how much I used my pointer finger! LOL. I use it for applique, for hand stitching down bindings, and for rotary cutting!! YIKES!! Please heal quickly finger!! I have lots to do.

Hope you guys are all well too. Anyone else been bitten? ~XOP~

Today Was Not The Day I Had Planned!

2011-11-28T22:01:00.000-05:00

I went to work this morning with the expectation that things would go one way and instead all I did was put out fires!! I never stopped all day. Finally I got home and then there were more fires via email on my phone. UGH so I took care of those as well as I could but I needed to look somethings up on the Internet. Got my computer turned on and couldn't get on the internet. OMG really? So an hour and a half later I figured out the router is not working. Me: "Oh no, how will I be able to blog?" haha not how can I finish my work! This truly is an addiction!!! Then I called DH to tell him all about what I had done so when he got home and couldn't get online he wouldn't waste any time doing the things I had already done. I'm not sure he believed me, but he bought a new router, JIC. I got home from Zumba and he asked me if I dropped the router. Me: "No, don't you think I would have told you?" Come to find out the dog knocked it down and broke the antennae. NOT ME!! haha. So anyway DH set the computer up and my iPhone too.

Is it tomorrow yet?

Just so this is not all my drama from the day, here is a photo of a quilt made by a woman from my Wednesday night group. It is a stained glass style quilt and LTW did an amazing job on the quilting. Take a look, this makes a great start to the holiday season!

Now it just needs to be trimmed and bound and it's all ready for Christmas! Are you ready yet? ~XOP~

Block 3 in the FQ Star Quilt Along

2011-11-27T21:59:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to making the third block in the FQ Star QAL. For some reason I found this block challenging. I had to do quite a bit of unsewing to make it work, but I am happy with the results.

I went through and organized my sewing room. I have to get it all picked up so I can put out Christmas. My goal this week is to get it all picked up so I can get Christmas put out over the weekend. I have just a few more things to do before I can pick up the sewing room. I did take my second travel sewing machine out to see if it would work for me to use on some other projects that I might want to work on between now and January. I will try to remember to take a photo of the machine to share with you later. It's a Brother. Other than being kind of loud it worked like a charm.

Off to bed soon, I hope you all had a great holiday (if you are here in the US) otherwise a great weekend. When do you put your Christmas stuff out? ~XOP~

More Shopping

2011-11-26T22:03:00.001-05:00

Yes...today was a day filled with more shopping. I got up and went to let the dog out, then off to JAF to meet Quilting Queen. I didn't get a cart b/c I wasn't going to buy much, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I ended up buying a cutting table and BIG mat, along with special ordering a 40yard roll of cotton batting (ended up being $4.37/yard). I thought LTW could use it for her business. Then I went home. DH and I went out to Sears to get a new stove, which is being delivered on Wednesday! I made Thanksgiving dinner with only 2 working burners. I decided that I wanted to get my ears re-pierced (they had closed up) so I got that done today at the mall too. Then home and off to the gym. Now I'm home, so I took a shower, made dinner and am now watching a movie with my DD2 and DH. I got the cutest photo of DH and DD2 tonight. AWE...aren't they so cute?

How was your night?? ~XOP~

Shop Till I Dropped!!

2011-11-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

Yes, I was up at 5am and there was almost no lines today. I think opening up at midnight made the lines at 6am non-existent!! I went to JAF and got some flannel for my chenille blankets for $1.49/yd!!! Then I got some other bargains and I got an additional 25% off too. It was a good morning. I went to Kohl's and got some great stuff there too. Sweet Christmas gifts there. I went to Meijer and got a Pyrex bowl set to use (not for Christmas) and that was great too. Then I came home and spent time with the family, took out the neighbor's dog and drove DD2 to a friend's house. I also went to the gym and the Salavation Army store and got an ugly Christmas sweater for DD2's BFF for an ugly Christmas sweater Christmas card they are planning on making together. I also got some new creepy elves to add to DD2's creepy elf collection. Someone had randomly tied them to a really ugly basket!!

I have to go pick up DD2 and all her friends after the bar tonight so I need to get some sleep soon so I will be able to get them at 2am or so! HAHA at least they are being responsible!!! I will be snuggling up with a cat or 5 and will look like Hallie does here.

I hope you all got some shopping done today too. ~XOP~

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

2011-11-24T11:59:00.000-05:00

I'm just about ready to begin the food prep for our Thanksgiving dinner. I was able to work on that project I have been teasing you all with too and although it is not finished yet, it is at a stage where you will now know what it is.

I would like to introduce Ruby Turkey!

I need to stitch all the dresdens down and stitch all around him as well but that can wait for now. I love him and am excited to share him with you. I saw Mary's and new I wanted to make one too but in non-traditional colors. I need to figure out something for a border too, and since it is a rectangle I may cut some of the top and bottom off to use for a second one (yes I have enough, just barely to make a second turkey using a plain back.) The pattern can be found here at The Missouri Star Quilt Company. I would love to know what you guys think of him. I considered making him into a peacock for DD1 but maybe using terrain or some other line with purples in it. It was super easy to make (as you can tell by how quickly mine came together!) Although I had a little help.

So there you have it, my Ruby Turkey. I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!! Take a minute to be thankful for family, friends, health and having the things you love in your life (maybe even the trials and tribulations as they make us into the people we are today!!) I am thankful for all of you my dear blog friends!! ~XOP~

Can You Guess Yet??

2011-11-23T22:47:00.000-05:00

So first an update on my finger, and bruised ego. I have survived. I am not happy with the dog but I am determined to make this work. I have the name of a great trainer and will be checking into him after the holidays. Enough said.

I have been working on my project that I have been asking you to guess about too. A couple of you have guessed correctly!! My colors are anything but traditional! LOL, but the design certainly is. Here is the next step.

There is one more row and then the "rest of the story", so to speak. Any guesses?? ~XOP~

I Was Going To Write A Post But...

2011-11-22T20:32:00.001-05:00

EDITED: Just wanted to let you all know that I am OK. Went to Urgent care and got a steri strip put on, a tetnus shot (OUCH) and some antibiotics and pain medicine. We were trying to teach her not to snarl when we take a bone from her, then to come and such. She thinks she is alpha. She is NOT! She will learn or she will have to go. On a side note she is being very well behaved this morning so there is that. I am off to Jim's funeral this morning. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My dog has decided to be a bone head and she bit my pointer finger on my right hand. We gave her a bone today and she growled at us and snarled. So we were working with her and after much training, I guess she had enough. Not sure how I feel about this. If she is going to hate me she may have to go especially if she is going to be aggressive. I might be going to the urgent care tonight, not sure. Hopefully back to posting tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. ~XOP~

Just One More Thing...

2011-11-21T13:21:00.000-05:00

That's what I kept saying last night as Mr. Spark was heading to bed. I have to do just one more thing and I'll be right there. Yeah right. He knows better. I finally crawled into bed around 11pm. Let me tell you, 5am comes so darned early! I did manage to get a little more sewing done. Now not very many of you made a guess about what I was going to make with Ruby. I'm a little sad about that. So here is another clue.

Pretty little Dresdens anyone? I got that whole pile sewn into peaks and now I have another such pile to sew. OK, my peeps, NOW do you have any guesses??

~XOP~

I finally Got To Get The Sewing Machine Out

2011-11-20T21:25:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how many weeks I have had my sewing put away and how long it takes me to get everything back out once it is put away. Then I need to find my inspiration. Is anyone else like that? I saw something this weekend that really, really inspired me to get the ole sewing machine out. I'm only going to show you what I'm starting with.

Any guesses??

~XOP~

I Can't Believe He Is Gone

2011-11-19T19:28:00.000-05:00

I have worked in the lab for the last 26 years. Jim came to our lab many years ago as a post retirement hiree. It was kind of a community service hire but he is the only person, in my entire life that I allowed to call me Pam Pam. He had an infection in his pacemaker wires this past week. They took the wires out. They put some kind of vest on him to keep his heart beating. He coded and there was a drama. He wasn't strong enough to withstand it. He passed. I will miss him.

RIP Jim, you will be missed!

~XOP~

A Finish (sort of)

2011-11-18T15:04:00.000-05:00

Work has been crazy busy and so has the rest of my life. Last night after I got home I had to decide whether I wanted to go to the gym and then the quilt meeting I had to go to or just stay home, finish cutting the tumblers and then go to the meeting.

Guess which one I chose? ~XOP~

Gifts Given

2011-11-17T22:01:00.000-05:00

I forgot to tell you that I gave away 2 of the chenille blankets I had made recently. We have 2 Japanese medical fellows working in our lab and both of their wives are pregnant. One of the wives also works in the lab. We had a baby shower last week for both of these women. The dark pink chenille was for one of them (having a girl). That chenille blanket was my favorite of all the ones I have made! Here they are opening their gifts.

It was such a happy occasion! I have one more to make, but it will probably happen after the first of the year. ~XOP~

Halloween Tumblers

2011-11-16T14:42:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to digging out the rest of the Halloween fabrics to cut and guess what happened? I actually have cut so many tumbler blocks that I cut through the GO cutter mat!!! I have used it a lot in the past and so has Liz but I thought it would last a little longer than it did. So off to JAF I go after work to buy a mat so I can finish my cutting. I decided to cut the 7" strips for when I get the mat. This is what the rest of the fabric looks like that I am going to use.

Of course while I was trying to take a photo I had some "help". Mosen decided to come and oversee my work!

I have quilting tonight and think I will bring my binding to work on. I have 3 I need to bind so I need to get busy! What are YOU doing tonight? ~XOP~

Halloween Repeat?

2011-11-15T14:17:00.000-05:00

I know we are heading into Christmas but it's still Halloween around my place. I borrowed my friend's GO cutter to use it to cut out some tumblers for a Halloween table runner I have rolling around in my head and thought, "Why not dig out all the Halloween flannel you have and cut out enough tumblers to make 3 Halloween flannel quilts for all the kids?" So of course I always listen to that stupid nagging little voice and headed down to the depths of the basement to search! Lo and behold I found a LOT of different flannels. I went through 2 bins and cleared out every ounce of Halloween flannel I had. YESSSS it made room to move some other things into bins. I brought half the stack upstairs and in the hour and a half I had I cut out some tumblers (oh and the bits for the table runner).

Here is the first stack of fabrics and what they became!!

Don't you love it? I have to finish the cutting this week as my friend wants her cutter back, haha. I won't get around to sewing these until after the holiday and I might even give them to my friend's mom to do the sewing on, still deciding about that.

I spoke with Jacquie today and she has another pattern for me to test. I get to make the baby size this time so I'm thinking it should go quickly. She wants it before Christmas. I think I will be able to show you the colors I will be using (once I figure it out and order the fabrics, she wants solids) but not the finished product until she has the pattern released.

She also liked my idea of the Back Wood Quilt Shops TV show too. C'mon Travel Channel, I'm waiting to hear from you! ~XOP~

Cold and Rainy

2011-11-14T15:04:00.000-05:00

It is a COLD and rainy day here. It makes me want to curl up into a ball and sleep.

Anyone else feel like that when it's cold and rainy? ~XOP~

Denyse Schmidt's Newest Fabric

2011-11-13T21:41:00.000-05:00

I went to JAF yesterday to see if they had DS's newest line. I LOVED the colors and could not wait to see the new line. I love it so much!! They had all but one of the fabrics. So, JIC you haven't seen the new line, here is what I found.

I just want to let you know what's out there. Hope your weekend has been good!! ~XOP~

Finally...My Purchases

2011-11-12T21:46:00.000-05:00

I finally managed to take some photos of the things I bought along the way to, in and on the way home from NYC. Grab a cuppa and let's take a look see shall we?

First up on the way to NYC. I managed to snag some of the orange Sebastian (of Ghastly fame) and a JR of Sweet!! WOO HOO

Next up was the visit to The City Quilter and some more Ghastlies.

I also found some Wee Wonderfuls patterns packed up with some dish towels. I also got a little of this odd plant print. Can't remember who makes it but I loved it!

I put all my Liberty purchases together here and I found some Jansdotter fabric too.

At B & J Fabrics I found some FFA and another beautiful Liberty print, don't you think?

Next trip was down to the Garment District to look for silk and other stuff. I found leather scraps to make thimbles with.

Then I did find some silk. See that one on the right, that was the one we ended up going back for b/c I couldn't live without it!! The fabric on the left is the linen I spoke of.

I know you are dying to see my pearls right? Well here they are and doesn't that turquoise silk show them off well?

Well, time for the ride home and the spoils from that ride. I loved this roof fabric and DH thought the calendar was GREAT!

It's a little difficult to see the fabric on the left well but it is striped with aqua and green.

I was so excited to find some Swell at one of the shops too!!

The shop in Montourville had a lot of Civil War and reproduction fabrics but this one reminded me of Christmas peppermints.

I needed to find some fall fabric for a project with one of the groups I belong to, but at the same time I was intriqued with the nave and orange combo fabrics I found too! What do you think of these?

So there you have it, my haul from the trip!! Now I have to find somewhere to put it all, lol. I am anxious to do some sewing but am still digging out from the trip. I did go back to Zumba today and that felt good. I did a lot of cleaning and laundry and I still need to get to the grocery store. I hope you are having a good weekend too. Did any of you have a chance to make the block I designed? I would love your feed back. Have a great weekend! ~XOP~

A Momentous Date 11/11/11

2011-11-11T13:22:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it is 11/11/11? I have a friend that is having her baby today! Makes me think back to 8/8/88 when I was in labor with my DD2. (although she chose to come the next day, darn it all). I hope you all get to do something special today!

I tried to get some photos of my purchases but only managed to get the things I bought at the antique shop, which was the last stop. I have to tell you about my "creepy angels" (as my kids call them). When I was a little girl we had a "creepy" angel on the top of our tree. When I got married and had a tree of my own I really wanted the angel but my mom told me it was hers. I believe these angels, with their porcelain heads are from Japan originally, but I digress. Several years later, one Christmas morning, I opened a gift from my mom and it was the angel. She has been on my tree ever since. In more recent days I have seen some more of this type of angel so I have been buying them when I see them. This last trip I found 3 of them! My favorite is the BIG magenta feather covered one. Let me show you. The first 2 are small. The red one is about 3" tall and the gold one is about 4-5" tall.

Could you just die looking at their adorable faces?? I love them. The magenta one is about 8" tall.

The other thing I have taken a shine to are glass jar type things. I know most of you have seen these. Usually you see a chicken on a nest and you can lift the chicken off. A good friend bought me a rabbit, and my dad has one that's a cat. I have seen some different ones and I buy them sometimes if they are cheap ( a lot of the time they are not cheap!) I have never seen a duck, but here she is.

I should be home in time to take some photos of the rest of my spoils tonight before going to the gym.

Also, I have to thank you for saying you would watch the Back Road Quilt Shops show if I had one!! Believe it or not, I left a comment in the comment section on the Travel Channel website here. If you think it's a good idea too maybe you could go and leave a comment telling them so. I helped bring Mono Pezzy Prints back maybe you can help me do this!! How fun would that be??

MSU is playing basketball on an air craft carrier tonight for the first time. They are playing the number 1 ranked team, North Carolina. Should be a lot of fun. I hope we don't loose too badly! LOL I hope they can hold their own at least for awhile! Talk to you tomorrow!! ~XOP~

The Rest of The Trip

2011-11-10T07:35:00.000-05:00

We got on the road around noon and so headed out from NY to MI. We went a little way before stopping at our first quilt shop, The Quilted Crow, in Lehighton, PA. This was a very nice shop with some very nice ladies!

I bought a little something there and as I was checking out my DH put a calendar up on the counter (he gets me one every Christmas, so I guess he figured this would work!)

Back on the road we went. Next stop was Rose of Sharin in Danville, PA. I thought this was a nice little shop too.

Then we decided we needed to do some driving and get to our hotel. We drove to Watsontown PA to the Watson Inn. We just looked the Inn up online and thought it looked nice. We arrived at night time so please excuse the dark photos.

It is right along the Susquehanna river, so we walked from main street down to the river I took some night time photos but it was even more beautiful during the day.

We walked along the park and stopped to swing on porch type swing that faced the river. All we needed was a quilt to snuggle under and it would have been even more perfect!

We got up in the morning at ate at the local diner (the D &D Diner) and the food was fantastic! Of course I forgot to take a photo of the food, so sorry! We got on the road and headed out to our next quilt shop. Problem was we would arrive there before they were open. Luckily there was a model train shop nearby that was open! So we went there first and then to Our Gathering Place next. It is located in Montoursville,PA. What a nice shop! Loads of Civil War and reproduction fabrics.

Next stop Jersey Shore PA at Inspirations quilt shop. I didn't end up buying anything in the shop but it was a nice little shop with very friendly people in it! Loved this blue and yellow quilt!

OK so the very last stop before flat out driving for home was Bellefonte, PA. This was a beautiful historic old town with a road so steep I have never seen the like of it! I didn't get a photo but we were going almost straight up!! It was crazy. I have no idea how anyone would do that in the winter! There was a great little antique mall there and we managed to pick up a few things there too. I still need to get pictures for you though, darned daylight savings time and those short days here in MI!!

So the rest of the trip was uneventful but we got home and it is always good to be home! I hope you have all enjoyed my little trip. Thanks for coming along. I hope we can do it again next year and visit some new and different shops along the way.

I told DH I should be on my own show for the Travel Channel, Quilt Shops along the back roads! Sadly, he told me no one would watch it! Oh well a girl can dream eh?

Have a wonderful day and we will talk soon! ~XOP~

Block 4 of the FQ Star QAL

2011-11-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

I have the last leg of the journey home to tell you about but I am so short on time at the moment (work is killing me!!) so I'm just going to direct you over to Moose on the Porch for my star block!!! Yes it is finally up and I'm interested to know what you think and what you think of the directions too. Here is what the block looks like too.

I promise to be back tomorrow with the tail end of our trip (lots of driving) and a few quilt shops too

= )

I plan to take some photos (if I can ever leave work) of the things I bought so I hope you will come back!!

I have that annual check up that all us girls look forward to after work so fingers crossed the light holds up for those photos!! ~XOP~

NYC With My Sweetie!

2011-11-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

Yep today was the big day. I waited, and I waited and I waited some more for him to finish his training so we could go into the city together! FINALLY he got back to the hotel and we could go. We took the bus from our hotel in NJ into the city. I did that every morning, so I knew how to do that! It takes about 30 minutes to get there. The first thing we did was go to Times Square. I had kind of avoided going there knowing he would want to go there. Actually we just breezed through on our way up to Central Park but I managed to shoot this video from the (I call them) viewing stairs. It's a 360 video of Times Square so if you have never been here you go!

Now we were off again. Past Fox News, sigh I miss Glenn!

Past Christies where there was this GIANT spider statue hey look, it's me about to be eaten by that spider!!

Run Mama Spark, run!! OK I'm outta there and on my way again this time passing Rockefeller Plaza. It was fun to watch the ice skaters for a few minutes.

On toward St. Patrick's cathedral, so breathtaking! I would have loved to have gone in but there was a wedding just coming out!

Last time we were here there was another wedding at a different church! There are some beautiful old churches in NYC. And we're walking past Trump Tower and this fountain.

There was this beautiful statue as we were entering Central Park

Ah into the park. Should be a few less folks in here I think. Oh lookie, a Zoo! There is a zoo inside the park

We didn't go into the zoo but walked past a few things we could view like the sea lion area and the Children's zoo.

Then I saw one of the strangest things I have ever seen. A man walking his cat! You heard me right WALKING HIS CAT!!! And the cat seemed to like being walked!!

Central Park is beautiful. We got a nice photo of the two of us on my iPhone but I didn't bring my cord to download it to the computer! Here are some of the park though.

We were getting a little peckish and wandered by the Soupman. Sound familiar? Watch Seinfeld? YESSS this is where the Soup Nazi is from! "No soup for you!" But there was soup for us! You even get a little peek at DH in his Spartan hat!

DH told me that we could go back to the garment district and get some more thread for Liz (and that he would even carry it for me!) so that was our next stop. (hmmm do you think I could convince him to go back to the shop with the other silk in it that I didn't buy the first time but regretted?)

This is how you know you have arrived in the garment/fashion district

We found the shop with the thread and I bought 15 more spools!! (6000yards each!!) and guess what? You got it, that second bit of silk made it's way into the bag from the other shop too!! My DH is the BEST!!

One more trip into Times Square and a few cool shots to share with all of you and we are off, back to our hotel. I saw these and didn't have my camera ready so we waiied for them to scroll back so I could get the shots for you guys to see.

You can see the ball that drops on NY eve on top of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building!! Cool huh? There were 2 more scenes and they are on my flickr as well as many photos of the entire trip not posted here on my blog if you are interested.

Sunday we are not going into the city just hanging out around the hotel and we leave on Monday to head for home. We are driving part way and spending the night with a couple of quilt shop stops in between! I promise I will take some pictures of my loot so you can see everything I have talked about on this trip! Thanks for coming along, just a little while longer and we will be home! ~XOP

American Folk Art Museum

2011-11-07T00:01:00.003-05:00

Here is the second installment on my day trip to the American Folk Art Museum. First of all they moved. Downsized considerably! It is now just one small floor. But the nice thing is they were having a quilt display! The quilt that greeted me was one commemorating 9/11.

The National Tribute Quilt.

This quilt was done in 5 quilt sections:

I couldn't stand back far enough to get the whole thing in but you get the idea. VERY moving!

This was the exhibit that was there along with the National Tribute Quilt

all the quilts were star themed! There were some beauties there too! They ranged from the more traditional to the more creative.

Does this one remind anyone else of Swoon?

Very patriotic

Beautiful Seven Sisters and an awesome crazy quilt

There were 2 in particular that caught my interest this one because of how different it was compared to the rest (love the dolphins). Almost a Hawaiian feel to it.

And I have to say I could not for the life of me figure out the "star" theme in this one until I read the plackard. Can you figure it out? It is all tied and the stars are tied in a slightly different color thread! Very interesting!!

The hand work on this one was lovely!

I loved the circular triangles in this one.

Here are a few more

That last one reminded me of something Sarah Fielke might do! I love it!!

The colors in this one were typical Amish colors but it was almost impossible to get any kind of good picture of it b/c it was behind glass with lights beaming directly on to it!

So that concludes the tour of the museum oh, but wait, there is one more thing I saw in the gift shop that I thought I would share with you too. It is soooo true!

LOL. I hope you have enjoyed the tour of the museum with me! There were some beautiful quilts. When I finally left the museum I was very close to the south west corner of Central Park so I decided to detour that way and get a glimpse into at least part of that gigantic place so off I went. They are gearing up for a super huge marathon in the part on Sunday so there were a lot of race type things there. It was a beautiful sunny day so I decided to chance it. B/c let's face it, I needed to carry all that thread and fabric to just a few more places and walk a few more miles while holding it right? (Did I tell you that I am in a challenge at the gym where I have the final weigh in the Monday after I get home? Yeah, so there is that and I am eating so lugging that stuff was helping me right?? right??) LOL.

On to Central Park! I had to walk past this beautiful church on the way, I have no idea which church it was but it was pretty!

This was part of the race concourse

The buildings through the trees in the sun were pretty too

I really liked the pillars on this bridge and look what I found when I looked down to the end of the bridge railing.

Surprise!

As I exited the park I came upon this fountain

And statue

Whew! I needed to get back to the hotel and rest!! Tomorrow is the trip into the city with my DH!! (I think I am going to make him go back to get some more thread, giggle, so I won't have to carry it!!) Stay tuned for more of my adventures. We are leaving on Monday after lunch but spending the night somewhere on the way so I am writing my posts ahead and scheduling them to post so I can keep up with the NaBloPoMo and post every day.

Just a side note, I want to thank everyone that takes the time to comment. I know everyone is busy and all but it really makes me feel good when you take a minute to let me know you are there!! I try to respond to all my comments but sometimes my life gets in the way too, just know that I read each and everyone of them and I really, really appreciate them! I write for myself, to keep track of my life and much like my quilting, because I *have to*. It's nice to know that someone else reads and relates to my life too!! Thanks guys!! ~XOP~

Shopping In The Garment District

2011-11-06T00:01:00.001-04:00

AKA letting Mama Spark play unattended amongst the fabric shops!! BUWAHAHAHAHA!! It was an amazingly fun time I had today. I went to visit shops along 37th-39th between 7th and 8th avenue. I wasn't sure where to go first so I just went into every shop!! Some of them had spandex or more trims than things I could use but I snooped into them anyway!

Victoria (Bumble Beans) had taken me to some amazing places last time I was here and one of them was B & J Fabrics. Now they are a little bit pricey for most "regular" fabrics but they have a lot of cool stuff.

Just look at all this Liberty!

Minimum cut was half a yard. I did buy half a yard of one of the Liberty prints as well as a yard of HR Princess and the pea and 2 half yard cuts of 2 companion prints. Ouch! That hurt the wallet!!

Off I went and wandered into this shop

Where I found the BEST deal of the entire trip (so far)!! My LAQ, Liz likes Permacore thread. I stumbled acorss a small corner in the back of this shop that had quite a bit, so I asked "How much?" For a 6000 yard cone, $4!!! Can you believe it? I called Liz and proceeded to pick up quite a bit and here's the BEST part, when I checked out the woman gave it to me for $3 a spool!!! YESSS score!! Unfortunately in my desire to help a friend out, I realized that I would be lugging 12 spools of thread all over NYC with me, UGH, the things you do for your friends, HAHA!! I may have to go back there tonight with DH to get some for my other friend Pauline, but this time I will have someone else to help carry it!!

I left here and walked down the street and saw this in their window

I was like "huh?" look at those turtles swimming in pearls!!! (Sorry the photo was taken through glass as the shop wasn't open yet.)

You never know what you are going to find in NYC!!! I was kind of on a mission to find some Dupioni silk to make myself a dress with too. I bet you will never guess the color I was looking for! Yep aqua. I found it here

54" at $12/yard!! SCORE!!! If you bought 45" it was $10/yd. I did find some additional silk in a pale green/blue cross woven with cream in a different shop and I am kicking myself that I didn't just buy it. I do remember that there was a butterfly on the door of the shop, so maybe we can go there or I can go there on Monday. If not it will be on the list for next year!

As I continued to walk I came across a leather shop. I know, I hear you saying "Leather??" but I went in thinking that maybe they had some scraps that would be cheap to make my own leather thimbles. They sure did! So I bought a few scraps and went on my way to this shop. Gray Line Linen Inc

The kind I bought is the Barry line, just beautiful! They do sell online too.

Beautiful linen as far as the eyes could see!! I bought a couple of yards of the silver (it looked like it has a little greenish cast). I thought it might be fun to use for a quilt background. They had some awesome colors of solids that were just gorgeous and the hand? To die for!!

So I was about shopped out and that's all I could carry by myself so I hit the subway, bound for 66th and Lincoln Center for the American Folk Art Museum.

I think that's enough for today. The museum had moved and was only 1 floor (down from 3 or 4 and not in the same location so thank goodness I had done my homework and went to the right location! It was having a Stars, quilt exhibit. Since that post will also be photo heavy I will share that with you tomorrow. I hope you are having fun traveling to NYC with me!! I am having fun sharing my trip with you!! ~XOP~

Walking Tour of Soho, Little Italy and Chanatown

2011-11-05T10:39:00.001-04:00

Today you can go along with me on my Free Tours By Foot excursion with tour guide (and owner of the company) Steve. It was a very interesting tour, about 2.5 hours or so. Go get a cuppa as this is going to be a long post!! We started out in SoHo (South of Houston, haha). Steve began by talking about the history of tenements in NYC. I won't go into the whole history thing here (psht, like you thought I would remember it all??) So meet our guide, Steve. He did a GREAT job and I highly recommend his tours!

This is a typical tenement building, where on each floor there were 4 apartments and the square footage was about 250!! I can't believe groups of 6 or more typically lived in these small spaces. Kinda makes me appreciate my own house a little more. It's small for all 5 of us but not THAT small!

Apparently Soho has one of the largest concentrations of cast iron buildings in the whole world. See this pillar? Cast iron. Steve put a magnet on it and it stuck!!

Many of the facades had this kind of fret work. It was very interesting how each building kind of had their own personality. We were by this Pizza place here

and Steve told us that in the movie either MIB or MIB II this is the pizza place were the alien pops out of the pizza! This neighborhood is also where the "odd father", a known mob boss used to go outside muttering to himself dressed in his bathrobe trying to get out of going to jail b/c he was "crazy". Eventually they figured it out and he ended up in jail.

And we're walking! How cool is it that one of the cast iron buildings was the original Singer Sewing machine building?

This building is actually "L" shaped and went around the building on it's left so when we turned the corner you could see more of the Singer building!

We kept walking and ended up in front of this building.

Anyone know anything about this one? No? See that top floor? That's where Heath Ledger lived (and died). Talk about cold people, the owner of the building was glad he died near the beginning of the month so they could clean it out and re-rent it and he wouldn't lose the next month's rent!!

Little Italy is the next area we visited. It used to be a much larger area but China Town is encroaching upon the boundries! Here was a nice shop that had some great looking meats and cheeses.

Next up was China town. Apparently they are not sure how many Chinese actually live there as they won't participate in the census. Partly because many of them don't read English and partly b/c there are many illegals living there. It is the fastest growing population in NY and the largest concentration of Chinese in the US. We walked by a lot of fish markets where one shop had their tanks on display in the windows.

or you could choose your fish from several places like this one, where there were many kinds of fish and live crabs!

This was the view down one of the streets (Mott, I think) and the oldest tenement building in NY is located in China Town

We went down another kind of a curvy street that had many barber shops in it. It was also an area that the Chinese mafia used to control, complete with a speak easy, and underground tunnels connecting many of the buildings! (we went in those too)

We came out at Confucius square. Look at the little shades on the street lamps!

We walked through a park, Steve called it a community center. There were many Chinese playing games of chance and hanging out. He said in the mornings the entire area was filled with Chinese exercising (Tai Chi?)

Our tour concluded and we were right on Canal street so I stopped into a Chinese jewelry shop, I wanted to price some pearls. They had so many it was difficult to choose!! I found some that I liked but wanted the string longer so here is the owner's husband stringing them for me!

The ones I chose are black iridescent and oblong, not round. I really like the more unusual ones, and besides I have white round ones! I really loved the green, disc shaped ones but maybe next year. I will have to save for those! haha. I don't have a photo of the ones I bought, like I said I will photograph all the loot at once, when I get home and post about it.

Are you tired yet? I was exhausted!! I caught the subway back to the port authority bus station and took the bus back to NJ to my hotel. I hope you enjoyed the mini version of the tour I took you though and will come back tomorrow for the garment district followed by the American Folk Art Museum (quilt display)

NYC Day 2

2011-11-04T17:20:00.001-04:00

OMGosh!! It was a crazy busy day in NYC!! I had a LOT planned and not sure how I would deliver!! I got up early and headed into the city around 9am. I wanted to go to the Japanese bookstore first, and I did, but they didn't have what I was looking for so I headed out to The City Quilter. I bought some Sebastian fabric (Ghastlies) and a few other things (will take photos and show you later). But here is the shop

I walked all the way to Soho!!! It was a very LONG walk!! haha on the way I saw St Joseph's church

And this really cool owl statue

Then off to Soho to the Purl for some shopping. (again, photos later of the goods) Here is the shop

Now I am not a knitter but WOW, just WOW

So after that I had a bit to eat and went on the walking tour, but I am so exhausted that you will have to wait until tomorrow for that tour. Nap time for me, so I can go out with DH tonight!! XOP

. Trip to NYC Day 1

2011-11-03T08:02:00.001-04:00

We were up bright and early yesterday morning and left around 6am. I think I slept through most of Ohio! We were almost into Pennsylvania when I started paying attention. We did stop at a toll stop along the Ohio toll road to stretch and potty and get a bite to eat. Then back into the car. DH let's me choose a couple of quilt shops on the way out to stop at so I was busy looking for a shop. Finally decided on one, took us 15 min out of our way. They didn't open until noon on Wed. (he was not very happy with me) but I redeemed myself when I put the next one in the GPS and it got us right back on track. It was one we had stopped at 2 years ago. It was a quilt shop and a country store. I can't remember the name of it but will look it up later and let you know. Can you believe I did not buy any quilt related items??Although they did have a lot of OOP Moda pre-cuts like Swanky which I really like) I did however find a rug that is perfect for my front door. (photos later) and an adorable green sweater jacket. Funny thing when I brought the jacket to show him he told me he had been looking at the same one b/c it matched my green shoes!! Gotta love him!! So that's what I bought there. Off to the second shop.

This one was one we had not been to before and it was HUGE. Cool thing? There were loads of older lines so if there was something you were looking for you might be able to find it there. I even managed to score a JR of Sweet!!! I also got 2 yards of Sebastian the cat on orange (from the Ghastlies line) again photos later of the loot.

Now into the real business of driving. We stayed off of 80 and took the back way. Luckily DH remembered how we had done that before and it took us through the town of Benzette. A small community that has become famous for their Elk population. We drove through the little town and look what we saw

Of course there was lots of beautiful scenery but it is difficult to take amazing photos while speeding down the roads! LOL. Lots of hills and fall colors and we followed a river. More pics on my Flickr if you are interested!

At one point we were in this small town and saw this adorable church

Then we kept going and I was looking for some photo ops and as we were going along an area following a rr track I saw what I thought were statues of Elk. Only they weren't statues at all it was a herd of them!! So I asked DH to turn around, we found a safe spot to get out and walked back to where they were and I took a lot of pictures and a couple of videos. There were 23 of them in the herd and the alpha male was gorgeous!

I know I was kind of far away and my camera doesn't zoom but I hope you can see them. Here is one of the videos

Traveling along the river was amazing, so beautiful!

Have you eveer been driving along and come upon something so neat but unexpected? Well here was ours:

Hahahaha, it was so cool DH turned around on his own so I could take this photo!! It was a place called Waltz's pumpkins or something like that and they had the most amazing pumpkins and gourds. I'm sorry I didn't think to get a photo of all his stuff on the other side of the street! Guess you will just have to take my word for it.

The last thing I will leave you with is the other view we had a lot of driving through the mountains which is the sheer rock faces often times on one side of the road during our drive. Just beautiful, and many times there are springs gushing forth from them.

alright that's all I have time for at the moment. I need to shower, grab a bite to eat and begin my adventure in the city!! Stay turned today is going to be a great ride!!!

PS if you are following the FQ Stars QAL at Moose on the Porch I'm pretty sure my block is up today!!(Edited to read NEXT Tuesday!!, sorry!!) I would love to know what you think! ~XOP~

On The Road Again

2011-11-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

Me and my DH are on the road to NYC today so I thought in keeping with the NaBloPoMo of posting every day in the month of NovemberI would write a post tonight and have it post tomorrow while we are traveling. He has to go to NJ for Flight Safety and if you remember, I get to go into the city and play for the week!! We will be driving all the way there tomorrow.

So for your reading pleasure I will be talking about that little quilt I talked about recently. A friend of my DD1had her grandmother pass away and she donated all her fabric to my church quilting group. I felt like she needed to have a little quilt made out of this fabric before it all went to the church group. So I came up with a dresden plate layout. It was a very eclectic collection to say the least! I made the quilt top and decided it needed to be hand quilted. Do I hand quilt? Not very well, but I determined to try. I did alright around the plates but the feathers were so difficult. I was complaining about it at the gym and one of the ladies offered to do it for me. I gave her the top and she did the feathers, or most of them. I got it back and thought that it needed a little more quilting so I quilted inside each fan blade and then I quilted inside the rectangles. I finished it recently and I was so excited!! I put a label on it the other night just before the party because the woman I was going to give it to was coming to our Halloween party. I gave it to her and she was thrilled. Would you like to see?

Here is the back too

And the label

I talked about this quilt and showed close ups of the hand quilting here, if you want to see. I want to know if any of you are planning on participating in the NaBloPoMo and blogging every day in November too? I would love to hear from you!! Next time you hear from me I will be in NYC!!!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T16:07:00.000-04:00

Well as most of you already know I LOVE Halloween!! We have had many parties over the last few years too and this year was a great party. I thought I would share a few photos with you although there are a ton more on my Flickr account.

Some of you may recognize this space as my sewing room, but it is really my living room and was covered in party fixins' before the party.

You can see the part of the living room I usually face as I sew all cleaned up too.

This was our dessert table.

The voo-dough dolls were new for me this year and who doesn't love some cat poop cookies? (Apparently no one liked them as I had a TON left over!! haha)

I guess I should say, "Welcome to my home!" As you walk up this is what you see.

Frankenstien's monster visits us every year and always has those same clothes on!!

The living room is what you see as you enter the house and you have already seen that in the previous pictures. If you close the door and turn around though this is what you will see. That beautiful quilt was done by my friend, Faith, who lives in the UK. Witchy Woo and Hallie the cat. Amazing. Used that zombie tape to keep the guests downstairs!!

As you walk from the living room into the eating area/kitchen you will see this table on the right, full of cake pops and witch's hats.

and my kitchen table on the left

Where you can peek through into the family room. Didn't all that food look good??

Oh and there were some drinks too, this was the inside group of them.

A few guests

And my beautiful co-hostess in the family room

Now wasn't that a LOT of fun? I hope you come back soon. I have some more quilty stuff to share with you and I am trying to decide if I want to do the blog every day deal again for the month of November. I have done it for the last 2 years and it is a lot of work!! Help me decide! ~XOP~

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2011

2011-10-30T14:13:00.001-04:00

That's right it's Blogger's Quilt Festival time. Amy has hosted this amazing festival for the past little while and if you haven't heard about it be prepared to be blown away by all the inspiration out there! We are supposed to choose one quilt to share with everyone and tell the story behind the quilt. I had the amazing opportunity to be the person selected to put together a very special quilt. A group of Flickr peeps got together, virtually and everyone was assigned a color. The block style was chosen and we all went to work.

Here is my block.

My friend Pauline made a block also.

OK I've teased you enough here is the entire quilt!

I chose the layout and put the top together, my friend Liz did the quilting and my friend Pauline embroidered the label and did the binding. Know who we sent it off in the mail to? Heather Ross!!! She was expecting her first baby and we thought it would be perfect for her. We had to use some of Heather's fabric in our block too. Here is the label and you can see the quilting better here too.

I designed the label and the saying was one of Heather's. Pauline did a great job hand embroidering the label too.

I hope you have enjoyed my quilt and the story that goes along with it. Thanks for stopping by!!

Vintage Sheet Swap

2011-10-27T10:09:00.000-04:00

I participated in a vintage sheet swap recently. I sent 27 of the VS FQ's I had at home and received 27 different ones in return. This is what I received.

I have been getting ready for our BIG Halloween party on Saturday. My sewing room has been totally picked up and everything put away. That took a long time! I will take a picture of it on the day of the party. I now have to go and finish the rest of the shopping for the party today too. I have already baked 8 dozen cookies! I hope it doesn't rain the night of the party.

A few weeks ago my DH came home with a little gift for me. I LOVE Halloween and he found the neatest Jack-o-Lantern.

It is painted pottery. Very unique, I love it!! You put a candle inside so it will light up!!

I don't know if I will have anything to blog about until after the party so if not, have a great weekend and we will talk soon! ~XOP~

I Wish They Had This At My Gym!

2011-10-25T07:35:00.000-04:00

I saw this video today and it made me LOL so I thought I would share it with you all. I know that many of us are working at becoming healthier so have a good laugh and spread this around!

Having a good laugh helps your mental health!

Weekend Goings On

2011-10-24T14:54:00.000-04:00

How was everyone's weekend? Mine seemed to be spend doing a lot of "stuff" and not very exciting stuff at that. I had a lot of things I needed to do and then there was the exciting MSU football game on Saturday night!!!

One of the kind of different things I did was DH and I made mozzarella cheese together. My friend gave us some fresh goat milk and we tried making cheese with it. Here you can see it formed and then DH stretching it.

He was having so much fun stretching it that he stretched it too much and it turned out tough. So he just grated it. I will let you know how it tastes when I use it in something. I think I would like to try it again and see if we can do a better job of it. It didn't take very long either!

I also had some swaps come in this last week too. Are you guys as happy to receive swaps as I am? I got two packages this past week.

I took this dress apart and it came out very well!!

What cool swap stuff have you received (or sent) ?

~XOP~

The Decision Has Been Made

2011-10-22T08:59:00.000-04:00

Thank you to everyone that voted in my poll and sent me an email or left a comment. I had another option and I was concerned about using it. I have a custom stamper that I had made with Mama Spark's Quilts on it. I decided to try using that on this blanket. I just didn't have it in me to take the binding apart and chance that it would come apart after repeated washings.

I used the stamp and an ink pad with ink that, when heat set, becomes permanent. So what do you think of my solution? I'm really happy with it!

Then, after the gym yesterday, I stopped at the thrift shop and found a couple of goodies. I love the vintage Napco wear from Japan and found this wee treasure.

She is only about 2" tall and so adorable!

Of course I cruised the vintage sheet section too and lookie what I found there

Love this! I don't often find ones like this so I was super excited to find this one. I recently did a vintage sheet swap and can't wait to get my sheet FQs back in the mail. I did a couple of other swaps also and need to take some photos to show you that as well.

Time to go to Zumba! Then cleaning and finishing a top for a friend's mom are on the list of things to do today. Of course the MSU game, but that's not until tonight. What are your weekend plans? ~XOP~

And Yet More Chenille

2011-10-21T08:24:00.001-04:00

Are you sick of looking at my chenille blankets yet? I have one more after this that I have to make (ie baby showers) This is the third one of the 4 I have to do. I am in total LOVE with the chenille on this one. It is so rich and vibrant. I decided to go with 3 shades of pink dark, medium and light with an orange for the foundation. I put the darkest flannel on the top, then the med and then the light. I tried to take some photos this morning (in the dark) and they don't really do the thing justice. It is gorgeous IRL!! I am hoping for some better light for more pictures later. I finished the binding last night and stayed up late to wash and dry it. Well guess what? I completely forgot to put my label on it! So what I hear you say, right? Except I usually slip the ends of the tape under the binding. So now I have the dilemma of do I take out some stitches to put in the binding and re-sew the binding on or just leave it unlabeled. I'm leaving it up to you guys to help me decide so please leave me a comment and let me know which you would suggest. Vote in the poll on my side bar!

You can see the orange peeking through the layers of pink if you look close up. Also see how the binding has shriveled up with the crinkly goodness of the chenille, which I fear will make re-doing it a pain. OK, it's up to you to help me decide what to do. It's like a WWMSD question! LOL

Another Chenille Finished

2011-10-19T07:58:00.000-04:00

I have been posessed about finishing up several chenille blankets for gifts. I showed you a sneak peek at one that used Sherbet Pips pups on the back. It's all finished and should be in the post tomorrow or Friday to go to it's new home. Some sweet woman I know is having a new baby in November and I hope she likes it! Here is what it looks like all finished up.

After I took these pictures this morning I realized I needed to clip a few errant threads on the back. Please excuse those!

I have another one with the lines all sewn and all cut. I squared it up last night and put the binding on. I managed to sew it halfway down by hand. Still need to finish that up, but I have time before the baby shower. Just a few more to go and I can be done with these! It is kind of addicting to see how they are going to turn out. So far some of the ones I wasn't too sure about have ended up being my favorite! I have two Halloween-ish ones (just for fun) and one more that I need to actually buy the flannel for and make for a co-worker who is having a baby in February. The fun never stops around my house, haha. ~XOP~

And The Winner of The Traveling Stash Is...

2011-10-17T15:05:00.000-04:00

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 23 Result: 2 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Stray Stitches who said "I would love to be able to add to the Traveling Stash. I have been following both boxes from the beginning. Something about me? I'm an avid blog reader! "

Congratulations Linda!!! I will email you later today or if you see this please email me !!

Thanks everyone for commenting and for visiting!! ~XOP~

Farmer's Market and Second Star

2011-10-17T14:49:00.000-04:00

I went to the farmer's market with my DH on Sunday. I got the biggest cauliflower and head of cabbage I have ever seen, just one dollar each!!

The purple and yellow ones were just amazing!

The colorful eye candy was everywhere. I love fall in the midwest!

There was this man carving a gigantic pumpkin too, fascinating!

This market is realtively small but it was fun to get some great deals on some amazing produce!

So backing up to Saturday, I got up and went to Zumba, came home, showered and watched the MSU vs U of M game. A HUGE rivalry, which MSU won yet again!! It was a good game too. Then it was time to put up my Halloween decorations and clean up the sewing room. Done. I also managed to sew my second star from the FQ Star QAL hosted by Moose on the Porch. I'm happy with it.

I managed to sew all the lines on yet another chenille blanket, now for the cutting part! UGH that makes my hands hurt already!! 2 more to do and then done with that. I wanted to work on a top for my friend's mom but just could not get to it. Hopefully I will be able to work on it this upcoming weekend as it is one I need to have done before Thanksgiving. I did talk with a friend and have another pattern to test for her, yeah! Looking forward to working with her again. So I guess that brings you up to date with what I have going on. How was your weekend? ~XOP~

Destash

2011-10-16T13:09:00.000-04:00

I have been cleaning up the old sewing space (you should see how good it looks at the moment!) I took 4 plastic bins of fabric out of my room. I can't believe how much fabric I have amassed over the last year! YIKES. I found some things I need to get rid of, so if you are interested in any of my stash, please let me know.

Little Blessings $4.00 per FQ or $15 for all 4

Natural Effects Each of these is 1 yard. $7.00 each piece

Frolic, 2 yard piece $14.00

I also have some fabric sample cards but would prefer to swap something for them. I have an ISO list in my Flickr profile if you are interested. I hope you are having a great weekend. I will get some photos of my cleaned up sewing room. ~XOP~

Surprise In the Mail

2011-10-14T09:20:00.000-04:00

I was home from work yesterday. I did NOT feel well at all. Headache, fever, and exhausted! UGH. I really didn't want to be coming down with something. I decided since I felt crappy anyway, I would go outside in the cool air and pull out plants and weeds. I could sweat freely, look like I felt and everyone that saw me would just think I was working hard, LOL. A neighbor I haven't seen in a long time was walking by (of course) and she stopped and we chatted and then she asked if she could help! Apparently she likes pulling out dead stuff and weeds!! What a blessing that was. She didn't stay long but long enough to do some real damage with me on the front garden. It's not very often someone offers to actually help weed! Thanks Tracey!

I finally stopped after about 4 hours of plant pulling/weeding. I went inside and changed my clothes. I was going to go out to Target and get a few plastic bins to clear up the sewing room. Just as I was about to step outside the doorbell rand. It was my UPS boyfriend, Tom! We talk politics all the time, it's fun. He is a great guy. So we were talking and he handed me a small box. It was from United Notions. HUH? United Notions? I didn't order anything from them. So I went inside and opened it up and here is what was inside.

No Note just this beautiful Pezzy Prints Jelly Roll!! I think I know who sent it so I sent an email this morning and we will see. I am so excited to have this Pezzy goodness ahead of time! Thanks to my secret friend at United Notions!

I'm back at work today and feeling MUCH better. Whatever it was, I guess I needed sleep! I hope you are all well!!

MSU plays U of M this weekend so you know where I will be right? Parked in front of my TV!!! GO STATE!!!

Halloween Goings On

2011-10-12T12:51:00.000-04:00

I love Halloween. If you have read my blog for any length of time you probably know that already. I made a Jack-O-Lantern wall hanging several years ago now but I still love it and I hang it up every October. I'm not sure if I have shown it before but I thought you might like to see it. I still love it as much as when I first made it!

Each of the "Jacks" were stitched around using glow in the dark thread too!

I love the crazy outside border fabrics too.

I used a cool spider web batik for one of the borders and for the back.

If you happen to be looking for a great Fall table runner, hop over to my friend Kaelin's blog (The Plaid Scottie) for a super cute pumpkin table runner. It is seriously the cutest one I have seen in a long time! If you are like me and want to turn it into a Halloween one I bet you can figure out a way to applique some Jack-o-Lantern faces on it too! If you do, please let me know, as I would love to see it!!

~XOP~

What's In A Name?

2011-10-11T09:42:00.000-04:00

Dawn over at Sweet as Cinnamon is having a giveaway if you tell about how your blog got it's name. Now I have to say my blog name underwent a change from Mamaspark's World to Mama Spark's World. Why you ask? Because some folks kept calling me mama's park! I AM NOT A PARK! (Those of you that have followed for a long time already know that).

My DD1 has a nickname, it is herself in her dragon form and her dragon form's name is Sparkle. You may remember the small quilt of the purple dragon I did awhile back. No? Well then, meet Sparkle.

So when I was trying to come up with a name, DD1 was being called Sparkle so she suggested Mama Spark, mama of Sparkle. That's how the ~~Camel got it's hump~~ my blog got it's name! How did your blog get it's name? Make a post and link up to Dawn's blog. C'mon, inquiring minds want to know!

On to other news,lest you think all I did was apple canning all weekend, I did not! Besides the usual, grocery shopping, Target stop, banking, laundry etc, etc, etc, I managed to make my first block in Moose On The Porch's FQ Star QAL.

I am using Flower Sugar for my fabrics. I am really liking this block.

I also came across a dish towel with a piece of striped fabric that needed to be sewn to it to finish the towel so I did that too.

I did manage to machine sew binding on the chenille blanket and one of the Christmas Tree quilts too! So not too shabby.

Last night I got a call from my son who was out riding our Harley. The bike broke, he needed a tow truck and someone to come and get him and follow him to the dealership and pick him up. So that shot all my plans right out the window. I got back home around 11:30 and toddled right off to bed! How was your night?? ~XOP~