Forward Progress

Yes, yes, I am making forward progress on this Improv quilt.  I had to decide what color to use for the backing and for the binding too.  I thought I wanted to use a purple of some sort, but you never know what you will find at the store and I had something in my mind's eye of how I thought it should look.  Then I had to consider what the backing would be.  The last 2 blocks to come in will be on the back and they will be one purple and one green.  I had traced the label on Kona Snow and also had to consider the color of floss to use for the embroidery of that label and what color I will use to build that block.  So off to the shop I went in search of the perfect combination!

I was trying to decide between Kona Eggplant and Kona Berry for the binding.  How did they look with the top, both were good.  How did they look with the back, oh wait I had to choose the back, LOL.
Eggplant                                             Berry

So I laid them both out on the floor and placed the top on them.  I liked them both.  This made me decide that I had to choose a color for the back and maybe that would make the choice easier.  I himmed and hawwed and but finally I chose Kona Baby Pink and you know what?  I loved the Berry with that so here is what I got.

The pink is a really soft pink and when I put some of the purple blocks and some of the green ones on it they looked so nice!  The baby is going to be a little girl so pink is perfect.  I think I am going to leave the label in snow and surround it in pinks and purples.  The floss (no pic sorry) is a variation on the Kona Berry that I will use for the binding. 

I know you are all probably bored to tears about this quilt and I am sorry but it is consuming so much of my thoughts right now!  As is going to market!  QQ and I have gone through the gamut of events all to get there.  First we were staying with a friend, and she was going to drive us around.  Then we were going to rent a car and now we are staying at a hotel downtown SLC (Little America, if anyone wants to meet up with us or happens to be staying there too).  Staying a few blocks away gives us the flexibility to walk wherever we want and come and go as we want.  It was nice for our friend to volunteer to have us but I feel like it would have been a HUGE imposition on her and her family.  I want the FULL market experience and if that means late nights and early mornings it is better to be close by! (Thanks for understanding my weird control freakish personality, Ms Annie!)

I should be getting the layer cake quilt (now known as "Jessie's quilt") back from LTW the LAQ today and I could not be more excited to see how it turned out.  I went to her farm last week and chose the design elements for each of the blocks, with Acanthus butterflies as the theme.  I found an amazing deal on a pattern pack that had 42 quilting patterns in it at One Song Needle Arts and it was on sale!! 
WOO HOO!!  If you are interested in butterflies you should check it out!  GREAT price!!!!
Anyway, I am hoping to make the binding tonight and square up the quilt and maybe hand it off to QQ for binding later tonight.  I guess I need to think about a label for that one too, *sigh*.  Although, the back is Kona Celery so I may lazy out and just write on the actual quilt (I really HATE sewing on a label)  How do you like to label your quilts??

Some Clarification and An Amazing New Top Finished

OK, OK, lest you all think I am some kind of smarty I am not!  I get the feeling from some of the comments that you all think I *use* that formula to do my borders.  HAHAHAHA!!!  NO!  What I was trying (apparently not all that successfully) to point out is that most of us probably lay our borders out until it is pleasing to our eye.  (Or at least I do) and what I wanted you to know/learn is that oddly enough that is probably the Golden Ratio at work!!!  It was an interesting fun fact to know and tell, that's all!!  Thanks for thinking me so smart!  I chortled as I read the comments.

Some of you told me that you just use a predetermined border for a variety of reasons.  I find that
I am happier when I *listen* to my quilts.  Say what??  Yes I look at the quilt, really listen with my whole being and believe it or not, the quilt will *tell* me what it needs to have done to be the best quilt it can be!  No I am not the Quilt Whisperer and you can stop laughing at me now!!  Sheesh.  For instance, I can tell you about it with the top I just put together last night.

I joined a group of people that wanted to make a baby quilt for a special woman having her first baby.  The block style chosen was an improv style and with 30 people participating, using rainbow colors we got 5 blocks in 6 colors.  I volunteered to put the quilt together.  But how?  I tried many layouts.  With each one I stood back and looked at it.  I tried out different sashing colors, but no, didn't like any of them.  Finally I settled on a layout that I loved!!  It reminded me of like when you go to the eye doctor and they put those lens machines in front of you and keep changing it and ask you "Better 1 or 2?" "3 or 4?"  I kept changing it up and asking "better like this? or that?"  I settled on this one:

It's funny though, whenever I have to work with rainbow anything I *have to* put it in rainbow order. Do you do that?? You know ROYGBIV? But I switched it up by choosing which blocks I wanted down the center, I think it makes the more obvious ROYGBIV less obvious.I am totally in love with this quilt top.  I am waiting for two more blocks for the back, and will make the label into an improv block too.  I am a little nervous about making this back (this entire quilt if the truth be told actually).  I can't say who it is for yet but when it is finished and I know it has been received you will understand why I feel so much pressure about how this quilt will turn out.

So there you have it.  Keepin it real and tellin you how I struggle to find the best look for each and every one of my quilts!  This is another reason I love reading other's blogs.  I may see something I can use that I had not thought of before!  I hope you find things here that give you those same "Aha" moments too.  Well, off to make some binding, I understand my LCQAL quilt is done and will be coming to me tomorrow.  Have a great night!  ~XOP~

Did You Ever Wonder??

A few weeks ago I was at Wed night quilting with the ladies and they were laying out their borders on their layer cake quilts.  I found myself talking about proportions and how when I make a quilt I sometimes have a preconceived idea of what I *think* a border size should be.  Do you do that?  Then I find that when I lay border fabric by the quilt sometimes what I think will be right just isn't visually pleasing!  So what I have found is that what I end up liking is usually a derivative of some measurement in the quilt.  I did some research and found out about the Golden Ratio  (Phi) and the Fibronacci Sequence.  Basically (and I *mean* basic) that most things that are pleasing to us follow this ratio, in both nature and in art.  I have put in some links for you to read better explanations than mine.  I just know that I have found that it works better for me to lay a border next to the quilt and get it so it just "looks right" rather than using a pre determined number for the size of the border.  Try it and let me know if it works for you too!

So that was one thing I have been wanting to talk about for awhile now.  The other thing is some of the "buzz" going on in blog land about keeping it real.  Have you read this post by Stitched in Color?  You should.  It is very interesting and made me stop to think about how I feel about this topic.  She talks about things we don't say on our blogs.  Sometimes it is difficult to say what you really think for various reasons.  You know people you know IRL read so you can't say what you think about  "X" or you don't want to not feel like a part of the group because you don't like the quilt de jour going around blogland, or you don't want to show your failures or no one will read what you have to say etc.  Aneely Hoey just wrote about something along that line too.  As did Krista at Poppy Prints, I happen to agree with everything she had to say!

So all that being said, that is one of the reasons I put up the first part of this post.  It was a real life conversation about something that happened recently.  I thought it was interesting, and maybe you will too.  If not feel free to mosey along and read something else.  I think I have tried to keep it real here.  I did take a post down that some of my IRL friends (?) had a problem with and now I wish I had not.  I have a lot of opinions about a lot of things (not all quilt related).  Mostly I keep them to myself and try to keep this about quilting, sometimes they overflow on to this blog.  Again, if they are not your cup of tea please move along (but I hope you come back).  Being positive and encouraging each other is the most important thing we can do here.  I like to think I have been those things to some people.  I do try.  I love to read blogs for inspiration but I like to know that the people that write them struggle with the same things I do.  Don't you?  Some days your day SUCKS!!  Some times your life is amazing.  Share it.  Do we all want to know everything all the time?  Probably not, but a little peek keeps us all connected.  Remember awhile back when dumbing down of quilting was being talked about?  I think what Krista said about not judging others or putting your expectations for yourself on others is good to keep in mind!

Alright, that's all I'm going to say about that for now!  I do have something quilty to share with you today too.  (I know, I'm *finally* going to talk about something quilt related!)  I managed to put together the back for my tumbler quilt.  The finished top is 79 x 90".  I had already decided to put 2 rows of tumbler blocks together to use on the back and let me just say it worked out perfectly!!  I used my Kona Snow horizontally and cut it at the width plus about 6", and  trimmed off the selvage edge .  I cut 2 pieces this way and used the 2 rows of tumblers inbetween.  This made the length work out exactly right for this quilt top.  I managed to get a quick pic (although not a particularly good one) today so I could show you before it goes to the quilter.

See that white tumbler in the center?  I am thinking I may just make that the label!!  I had not planned on it but am now thinking it would work out perfectly!!  ~XOP~

Osiris and Blu Update

I don't  know if you all remember that last year we hatched 2 pea fowl.  The male was named Blu and the female was named Osiris.  They were so adorable and lived with us for the first three months (in my dining area!!)  Apparently pea fowl are susceptible to parasites and many never live past 3 months if they go outside and are allowed on the ground.  Last week we were at Liz's farm so I could plan out the graduation quilt and while I was in working on the quilt my DD1 was out visiting her "kids".  I thought you might like to see how they have grown.

Here is Osiris:


Here is Blu.  Isn't he beautiful?  He won't get his train for another year.  But he sure is a pretty boy!

DD1 spent a LOT of time socializing Osiris. She is such a funny bird and firmly believes that EVERYTHING is her business! I leave you with a video of her being "pet" and groomed by my DD1.

Have a wonderful evening and I will be back tomorrow with some quilty content! ~XOP~

Easter Fun

I took a great video of my cat Jack "Marking" (aka rubbing his face) all over the Easter baskets and the chocolate as if to say "This is mine, if you need/want candy go and get your own!"  I will try to insert the video when I get home.  The new blogger editor doesn't like to upload with my Mac here at work so you will have to view the photos instead!
He loved him some Easter candy (No, I didn't actually give him any chocolate, it's not good for his kitty digestion!)

My daughters brought me this beautiful flowering Hyacinth plant.  I LOVE the smell!  That was the cake we bought for dessert, a strawberry short cake type thing from Sam's club.  Normally I would bake but still not feeling well has some advantages = )  Also the lazy Easter bunny just put all the candy into a bowl instead of hiding the filled eggs like he usually does.  I guess he figured that since all the kids are over 20 maybe they didn't need to find hidden eggs anymore?  What do you think?

We had a wonderful day, all three kids were home and DD1 with her boyfriend.  We ate good food, and watched a lot of movies.  I even got the two rows of tumblers for the back of the tumbler quilt sewn together.  That means I could package up all the left over fabrics and the left over tumblers and get them ready to go to their new home with Katy in the UK. (all except for the brown).
 
I even got the label traced onto fabric to be embroidered for Project Special Delivery!   So QQ it will be coming your way soon!!!
 
I was in a quandry how to do this and make it neat, then I though, "hey, why not print it out from the computer and then trace it?"  BRILLIANT!!  (and neat), so this is what I ended up with.  Once it is embroidered I will put it into an improv type block and combine it with 2 more on the back.  Next up is to finish the actual PSD improv quilt top.

I'm finally beginning to feel like myself although I am still horribly congested.  I bought a Nettie pot and tried it, (gross) but it cleans out the sinuses.  And did I tell you how much I love Nyquil??  I used it for the first time last night and slept like a baby!  Amazing.  Now I need my head to drain and all will be back to normal!  How was your weekend?? 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

I am sitting here on Easter Sunday getting ready to begin the last minute cleaning and food prep for the day.  My three children and one of their boyfriends will be here for an early dinner.  What are you doing for Easter?  Whatever it is, take a minute and remember the reason we celebrate!  ~XOP~

I've Been Sooooo Ill

I'm just going to throw this out there and tell you that I am so sorry for not posting .  I had pictures and I had good intentions of posting but WHAMO, I got hit by a horrible cold!  You know, fever, aches, headache, stuffy nose, runny nose, all that good stuff.  It hit me on Wednesday like a freight train.  I missed work on Wed, drugged up on Thursday and then took Friday off too so I could sleep.  I am still feeling sick but am improving.  Now to catch you up on the other things that have been happening, and there have been quite a few.

First I finished the wedding quilt for my nephew and his new bride.  They were married last December but are having a party at their new home in June.  I used Liz's GO! and cut out a tumbler quilt.  I had bought the fabric called Natural Effects quite some time ago and it was perfect for this quilt.  I had added some additional fabrics, mostly solids to it and I LOVE how it turned out.  I just need to make a back and it will be ready to go to Liz's house for quilting.

I want to make two rows of tumblers across a Kona Snow back.  I had some left over fabrics and thought about making some pillow cases to go with the quilt.  When I put this up on Flickr my friend Katy fell in love with it.  I am going to bring her all the left over tumblers and whatever fabrics I have after I make the pillow cases too.  Speaking of Katy, she made a great quilt called Scrap Vomit and asked for others to help her out with a block, so I made one of those for her too. 

I got another gift package in the mail for my going out and getting fabrics for others.  I think this was an amazing thank you gift pack, what do you think??

Last but not least I think I told you I make a quilt top for spring market, right?  Well I did.  You can see a sneak peek of the fabrics (and who the designer is) here.  I thought I was done, but I received an email last week asking if I would work on another quilt for someone quite special.  It will be on display at market too.  So sure, why not?  The fabric arrived at QQ's house on Friday afternoon.  As crappy as I felt I went over to her house and we cut everything out.  She is doing part and I am doing part.  I worked all day today and finally finished my part and brought it over to QQ''s house tonight.  She needed mine to do hers.  We are hoping to get it into the mail by Tuesday at the latest since it still needs to be quilted and bound all before market. 

I am still waiting for the last 2 blocks for the back of the quilt for Project Special Delivery then I can get that finished and off to Liz too.  I need to work on getting the top put together, but after the whirlwind of late I think I am going to just finish cleaning my house and cook and celebrate Easter with my family tomorrow.  How about you?  What have you been up to lately??

Have a blessed Easter and stop back, I just may have some more stuff to show you soon!  ~XOP~

Sweet Gifts In The Mail

Remember my post telling you all about getting the DS fabric for some of my Flickr friends?  I charged them exactly what it cost me AND I used coupons for everything too.  The only thing I asked was that if these people had some things on my ISO list maybe they could send me a little sum-sum, ya know?  My Flickr friends are great! I got a wonderful package in the mail yesterday from Dana and Thread, just take a little lookie:

Obviously Heather Ross' Munki Munki is on my ISO and Swell (and Sweet too) are on my ISO list.  How very generous she was to me!!

Have you discovered the wonderful community of Flickr yet?  I think many bloggers use a photo sharing website to host our photos, I know I do.  Flickr is one of the choices, Picasa and Photobucket are 2 others.  I LOVE Flickr.  In addition to hosting my photos I can follow my friends and see all their photos, make new contacts (or friends), I can use Picnik from Flickr to edit my photos, I can use FM (Flickr Mail) to send email to my Flickr friends.  I can join groups and boy have I done that!!  There is a Flickr group for anything, you name it, there's a Flickr group devoted to it!  In those groups you can have discussions with others that share your passion for whatever the group is all about.  For instance, I am part of a swap group and boy do those ladies know a LOT about a LOT and always have tips about things like sales and new fabric lines coming out and many, many MANY other things.  I now understand when my friend Lynne told me she was just doing Flickr and hadn't blogged in awhile, it's THAT good!!  I know, I know, you are already on the computer a lot now and you don't want something else to do, BUT I promise if you get involved in the community you will love it too!!

OK public service statement time is done, LOL.  Seriously though, go check out Flickr...really...GO...RIGHT NOW!!
~XOP~

Don't tell me you are still reading!  *G*O*!!

And The Winner Is...

I did the random number generator on the bottom of my blog and the winning number was 137.

Mary on Lake Pulaski!!!


Mary, if you send me your mailing addy I will get these beautiful charm packs right off to you!!

Thanks to everyone that commented and for visiting me to celebrate my BIG milestone!!

~XOP~

Earlier in The Week

I told you I would fill you in on earlier in the week activities so here you go.  Anyone know Denyse Schmidt?  LOL.  She is a fabulous fabric/quilt designer.  She came out with a new line of fabric recently and it is available at Joann Fabrics.  I read about it on a group on Flickr that was just talking about it one morning and it went nuclear by the end of the day.  I went to my JAF and they had all 21 prints.  I bought a little of each one.  Then I asked if anyone in the Flickr group wanted some.  I had 5 people send me requests so back out to the JAF I went.  I stopped at the one near my work at lunch time and got most of what the other people wanted, and all with coupons!  Then I stopped at my JAF and got the rest.  Two of my packages went out internationally, to Canada and Australia!

I had to cut all the yardage up and send the right amounts to everyone so I went over to Cori's (Crazy Quilt Girl's) house and she cut while I folded and placed on the correct paperwork.  Here is what the stacks looked like (Oh and for some yummy eye candy notice it is sitting atop Sherbet Pips, which she currently has all the bolts of!)

 

The three biggest packages:
 

I happened to find this amazing sewing basket covered with Henna Garden too.  The lovely Autumn is modeling it!  I couldn't show it before b/c I gave it to QQ for her birthday!

Ok so that catches you all up until Sunday. On Sunday I worked on the tumbler top I am making for my nephew and his new wife as their wedding gift. I have it almost done. I will show it when I get room enough to spread it out and take a photo, which will probably be on Wednesday night, maybe I'll take some closer up ones for you to see. Does anyone have any experience with trimming the sides up? I haven't done that before and I am a little nervous about cutting it up, but don't want to bind it as a zig zag kind of thing.


Hallie was my supervisor while I was sewing.

It is snowing here at the moment. We are supposed to get 2-4 inches! BOO!! This is April, time to quit snowing!!

Hope you all had productive weekends too!! I will be drawing the giveaway at lunch time so you still have an opportunity to leave a comment until noon EST. Thanks for commenting. I have read them all and will be responding back soon if I haven't already. I have a meeting to go to until noon so I will draw as soon as I get back to the lab. ~XOP~

Friday Night Sew In

This Friday night was an especially wonderful one.  It was time for the Friday Night Sew In (FNSI), YEAH!!  What should I work on?  Oh yes, I need to do my block for Project Special Delivery and so does QQ.  And guess what?  Guess who is going to join us for this very special event??  YESSSS Cori of Crazy Quilt Girl online fabric shop.  I need to back up a little bit b/c I want to share a little something with you before I talk about the sew in.  Remember the coupon book from JoAnn's I was talking about?  I managed to find mine (but minus the coupons) so I took a photo of the front cover and the back page so you will know what you are looking for.



I have some stuff to tell you about from before Friday but I think I will let that wait until tomorrow as I am so excited about the FNSI. I went over to QQ's house around 6pm with my quilt blocks that I got in the mail for PSD. I wanted to lay they out and play around with the layout before making mine. QQ and I both had purple for our color. There sure were some pretty blocks. We were supposed to make an improv style of block ala Oh Fransson, with Heather Ross fabric and then whatever other fabric we wanted, for a monochromatic color scheme. 

Here's what we did, we laid out 4 colors of background fabric and placed the blocks on them. From left to right, Kona Snow, Kona White, Moda Bella Feather, Kona Ash. We both liked Snow the best, but we weren't sure about sashing as it was quite large already.

So the next lay out was random like this.

Nope this is not working for me. Let's try this again.
Ahhhhhh yesss, this one makes my heart sing!

Pauline and I made our blocks and here they are. First mine, and me!

Then QQ's and her:

I also managed to snap a pic of the elusive Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) too, AND she was even sewing!! She had won a kit from a giveaway and got all the blocks sewn into rows last night. Go Cori!



Thanks to everyone that has left such nice comments on my giveaway. I will be drawing sometime on Monday. I did manage to get 8 rows of my tumbler quilt put together today but now I feel kind of sick so think I am going to go to bed. Have a good weekend!! ~XOP~

THIS IS MY 800TH POST!!!!!! You Know What That Means, Right??

EDIT: Comments are now closed, a winner has been drawn! Thanks for commenting!

                                                                   GIVEAWAY TIME

I can't believe it!  I have done 800 posts!!!  I sure have come a long way from those first tentative posts!  I have met so many wonderful friends along the way too.  I appreciate each and every one of you too.  I told you I was looking to have 400 followers before I did this but I just can't wait!  So if you remember my dreamy stars quilt, and would like to make one too I can get you started with 3 Dream On charm packs, purchased at Crazy Quilt Girl's online fabric shop (just in case you need more than 3 she still has some).  The pattern I used was from the Moda Bake Shop and can be found here.  Here's the deal, if you would like to win the charm packs please leave me a comment telling me what you would use them for.  That's it, nothing fancy, no hunting around, no reposting (although if you would like to tell your friends that would be great), no being required to follow, but I would love it if you wanted to be a follower.  Sweet and simple.  I will draw on Monday April 18th TAX day for all of us in the states.  Maybe this will help you feel better.  I'll ship international for this one.

Now just one more thing I wanted to write about too.  I have mentioned a coupon book that I bought at JAF and have been getting a lot of questions about it so here is the scoop.  They sell a booklet.  At my store it was at the cutting counter, at another shop I was at it was at the customer service desk.  They sell it for $2.99.  There are 6 coupons on the back cover.  Four are 40% off and Two are 50% off.  You can use them all at one time or however you like.  One coupon per item.  I printed coupons off from online.  Each one has to have a different code to be used together so trade with your friends.  Then you can also use coupons from Hobby Lobby and Hancocks. (No Michaels coupons for fabric but you can use those for other things).   A group I joined gave me links to online coupons from those places but I had an additional coupon for Hobby Lobby in our local paper.  So you see, with all those together along with the ones I had from my JAF flyers I was able to pull it off, and buy all 21 fabrics in the DS line for 40-50% off.  Remember I went to 2 stores so was able to reprint a few of the online coupons and use those again.  Hope this is helpful!

The only thing you aren't allowed to do when you use a coupon like the 40% off is to use the VIP card for an additional 10% off.  You can only use that card if you do not need a coupon for your purchase.  For example if your fabric is already marked 30% off you are allowed to present your VIP card and get an additional 10% off.

I also always look before I order online by Googling the name of the shop and the word coupon.  Sometimes I am able to score a coupon for an online fabric purchase that way too.

I hope that all that coupon information is useful!  If I happen to go to JAF again soon I will try to remember to take a photo of the cover of the coupon booklet and post it here.  I discarded mine already so no luck with that.  That way you would be able to see what you are looking for, exactly!

Now go forth, leave me some good comments and let's get a winner.  Thanks for hanging out on my blog for the last800 posts too, I sure do appreciate that!!  ~XOP~

I Have Been So Neglectful!

I am so sorry about not writing for the last few days.  Did anyone miss me?  LOL.  I took some time this weekend and completed my Layer Cake QAL quilt top.  I did not have the finishing instructions at the time but I am so happy with how the top came out!  I had planned to use white for the sashing but when I laid the quilt blocks out (remember Jack laying on them?) there was just too much white!  What to do, what to do?  Move on to plan B.  Some mild angst over this as I had no plan B, very uncharacteristic of me too.  So I decided to lay the border fabric next to the quilt as inspiration.  Ah, plan B was beginning to form.  I could try light pink or a pale green.  But which one?  I really was not sure.  I took a trip to the local JAF with my border fabric and a swatch of fabric with the pink in it that I was considering.  I found a green that was just perfect and a pink that was ok.  I bought both.  I took them home and laid the blocks out on both.  It had to be the green.  It was perfect.  Oh and I wanted a HOT pink for the inner border too so I got some of that, and enough for the binding.  Here's the big reveal...


This quilt will be going to my niece for her high school graduation in May.  I think it turned out so well.  I think I am loving the basket and the butterfly blocks the most right now.

Earlier in the week it came to my attention that Denyse Schmidt had released an entire new fabric line at JAF.  Say what??  She designs for Free Spirit and has fabric at the LQS not at JAF.  Are you sure?
 

Well according to my sources on flickr it was true and let me tell you this news went from zero to NUCLEAR in less than 12 hours!!  It was *THE* talk of Flickr (and probably other places too but I got caught up with it all on Flickr).  Well where could one find it?  Did anyone know?  Which stores have it and will there be more and what about a reprint of FMF?  So many questions.  I found all 21 fabrics at my local JAF.  So I bought the prints I loved first.  Then I went to Flickr and asked if anyone needed fabric (Like my friends from Canada or Australia, since they do not have JAF in those countries, I know SHOCKING right?)  I didn't sleep very well on Monday with visions of this fabric dancing in my head.  I did not want to let anyone down either.  So at lunch yesterday I grabbed my friend, Holly, and we headed for the Ypsilanti JAF for some serious shopping.  Let me tell you, I was the talk of that fabric store!  Between that shop and the one where I live I bought over 112 yards of fabric!!!  OUCH!  I can say quite proudly that I got 40-50% off of every yard I bought!!!  Those friends will be getting a seriously good deal (It started out at $9.99 per yard)  OK, stop doing the math right now, remember, COUPONS!!   This is part of what I got at the Yspilanti store. 


I didn't have enough coupons to buy the additional 2 fabrics they had unless I bought another coupon book and they told me they didn't have any.  So I checked out and guess what?  They did have them so I bought one and then went back for the additional 2 fabrics.  After work I drove right home, changed for Zumba and raced to JAF to try to get the last 5 prints they didn't have at the first JAF.  I managed to get everything on the list except for one and I got enough of that for 2 of the 3 who wanted it.  Pretty darned good I think.  Again I bought everything with coupons!  Then I raced off to Zumba and Body Pump (I am so sore today!)

I just did all the calculations for what folks owe me and just need to add in shipping, which Cori will help me with tomorrow.  Since she is set up to cut fabric (online quilt shop remember??) I will go and cut at her place then we can package and ship.    I didn't ask for additional money but I did ask if they had any HR or Munki Munki they might like to share with me, so will see how that works out for me!

So after my incredibly busy start to my week, we will see how the rest of the week progresses.  The spring market quilt is in the mail, I still need to assemble a quilt for Project Special Delivery, just waiting for the last 3 blocks to arrive, and I need to work on the quilt for my nephew and his new wife (party sometime in June).  I hope to do some serious damage on that quilt tonight! FNSI is this week too  so I am hoping to go over to QQ's house and do some sewing on Friday, but if not I will do some at my house!  How is your week shaping up??  ~XOP~

PS:  I see I am getting close to having 400 followers and you know what that means right?  I have a great giveaway planned when that happens so tell your friends to come on over and become my newest follower!! 

I'm Making Progress!

Yesterday I took the day off and I thought I would get soooo much done. HA!  I went to the gym in the morning and then met my friend, Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) for lunch.  I went home and then went out to run some necessary errands.  By the time I got home it was 3PM!!   No sewing done yet.  So I pulled out my last Jelly Roll block and I managed to get that done.  I also finished the two 12 Days of Christmas BOM block 10 blocks finished too.  Wanna see?


One for me and one for LTW.

Don't they look great together??  I made a mistake with the pond fabric so I bought some more only mine was green rather than the aqua version.  What do you think??





I spent time at the gym this morning too. Two hours to be exact. I did an hour of body pump then an hour of Zumba. It was a good morning! Then I came home and showered. I decided to work on my Layer Cake quilt. After all I had finished my last block and I need this quilt finished by the end of May for my niece's graduation from high school. I layed out the blocks on my design wall couch and tried to decide what color I wanted for sashing. I had thought to use white but the blocks had so much white that I felt I needed a different color for the sashing. I had one of the big floral prints to use in the border so I put that one next to the blocks and had one of those eureka moments. I'm gonna keep you in suspense since by the time I finished it was dark, but I will tell you that I went out to JAF to look for some fabric to use that would work. When I got back I found this. Jack laying on top of my layout of layer cake blocks. I got some great shots of him.



Isn't he a gorgeous model for my layer cake blocks??  Oh Jack!  My bestest furry buddy.  He is sitting right next to me as I type this too.  He is never very far away from me when I'm home.  DH comes home tomorrow afternoon.  I miss him when he's gone.  I got this top DONE today!!  I will show you the rest of this tomorrow.  I am hoping to work on the other layer cake quilt top tomorrow as well as trace my block three of Birdie Stitches and another embroidery project.  I need to finish my cleaning and laundry too and there is a special Zumba photo shoot tomorrow that I said I would go to for our instructor (she didn't want to be on the poster without some students doing the routines).  I guess I should throw in some laundry and hit the hay.  ~XOP~