Jessie's Graduation Party

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  Ours was jam packed!  We had a party at a neighbors house on Sat evening and that was fun, even if we were standing under our patio umbrella with a fire near by for 2 hours in the rain!  The food was good and so was the company.

Sunday was my niece, Jessie's, graduation party.  She is the person I made the layer cake QAL quilt for.  We arrived at my SIL and BIL's house just as the tornado sirens were going off, so we gathered up all the photos of Jessie and headed for the house. Standing in the driveway this is what I saw when I looked one way (the back of the house) and then the other (their backyard).

That's my SIL in the coral coloured dress. They went all out for this party. They had a candy table for the kids to mix and match candy that they could put in little bags to take with them, there were 2 slushie machines, a man playing guitar, more food than anyone could consume and this fruit and veggie table that was amazing!

One of the cutest things was my youngest niece "catching" rain drops in her water bottle and then drinking them. This was the best I could do because every time she saw the camera she would hide behind her mom! She is adorable!!

The best part was being able to give Jessie her quilt...FINALLY!! She is such a sweetie and I was so excited to give it to her. She is off to MSU (YEAH!!) just like both of her parents and they could not be more excited for her.

I did manage to remember to take a pic of the label too. I decided to put it in the basket. What do you think?

I have some more things to share but it will have to wait while I go and do some actual work!! HAHA. Have a wonderful day and if you are in MI try to stay cool today! ~XOP~

Scrap Vomit Block

Ok, I've scammed my DD!'s computer for today while she is away attending a wedding (bwahahaha) but...I can't upload my photos here so today I am borrowing a photo from my friend Katy.  Before spring market I volunteered to make her a "scrap vomit" block for her quilt.  I didn't take a picture of it before giving it to her so I asked her if she would take one for me.  I couldn't post it before market because I put Anne Sutton's "Puttin' on the Ritz" fabric in there.  Now, though, since the fabric is out, I can show you the block. Except for the fact it is  in England and all.  Katy came to my rescue and took a photo for me so I could share it with you guys.

Photo courtesy of Katy

The fun part about this was using up some scraps to make the block.  The squares are 2.5" each and there are 49 squares in each block.  I liked fussy cutting the round robin and the other bird.  Can you spot the Liberty of London prints in there?  Also the gray from Puttin' on the Ritz?  Maybe some Castle Peeps?  Thanks Katy, for sharing the pic with me.

DH has some home made baked beans simmering in the crock pot, he soaked the beans last night and everything) and I have 2 pans of cheesy potatoes in the oven for the party we are supposed to be going to at 4pm at our neighbors.  I already gave them the beer to chill!! 

I hope you get to spend some time with the people you care about this weekend too.  Talk to you when I get a chance to be on someone's computer again, LOL!  ~XOP~

More Destashing Going On

I am going to try to do some destashing over the weekend.  I will be digging around in my stash and should have some things to post in the near future.  I have a few things to sell today so if you are interested, please email me and let me know.  Remember I do NOT have my computer all weekend so please be patient about responses from me since I have to borrow from the family and get on when I can.  This is what I have to sell at the moment

I have 1 reindeer panel from the Crazy 8 line from Moda. It is a little wrinkly at the bottom, but I can press before I mail it to you, I just needed to get a picture before it got dark last night.

Crazy 8 panel $7.00


All of the next items are from the same line, Crazy 8. I have 1 turnover $10.00


One Honey Bun $17.00


Two charm packs at $8.00 each


I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day (If you are here in the states). We have a backyard party to go to on Saturday and our niece, Jessie, is having her graduation party on Sunday. I am also hoping to make it out in the yard to do some more work. There is so much to do and it has been so wet I can't get anything done!!
Have a wonderful weekend and let me know if you are interested in any of the goodies I posted!! ~XOP~

I am Up To No Good

I guess I have been watching too much Harry Potter lately!  I am really not up to no good.  In fact I have been trying to be good.  You?  Anyway, I found a great new to me BOM called Crazy Cats.  Looks like Helena did a great job with these cats.  Check out her website and blog.  I love meeting new people from Sweden (that's where my ancestors hail from, mostly).

I have managed to do a few quilty things since returning from market too.  I got block 11 finished in the Designer Mystery BOM.  It was designed by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill and is adorable!  I did get 2 cut and sewn.

One for me and one for LTW

I also finished block 4 in my Birdie Stitches block. I added the blossoms on the tree and I am really happy with the way it came out. Have you ever tried to press the embroidery? It is kind of tricky. I had a left over piece of batting hanging around and thought, hmm, I wonder if I could put the block face down on the batting and press from the back? Maybe that would get the wrinkles out and keep the embroidery standing nicely. It was kind of funny, but look how the batting looked when I took the block away.

A perfect mirror image! I used Quilter's Dream cotton batting to do this and my steam iron. Anyway, just a little side note that. I bet you want to see the block right?

I was very happy with how it came out!

I am getting veteran quilts ready to drop off at the VA hospital this week for one of the groups I quilt with, the Plymouth Piecemakers. I drive by the hospital every day when I go home from work so I will drop off 15 quilts to them on Thursday. I squared up the Project Special Delivery quilt last night and will hand that off to PTM for the binding tomorrow. It has to be in the mail on June 8th. It was quilted with circles. I will get some pics once I get it back, wash and dry it. I love it when it gets all crinkly don't you? Jessie's quilt will be delivered this weekend at her party. Next up is finishing the JRQAL quilt and then I will have to make some choices about what to work on next. I'm pretty sure it will end up being my yard!! All my quilting has left my yard in DIRE need of some work. I am going to make DH and DS help me to get it back in shape. My plans for the upcoming weekend are to do LOTS of yard work.

Speaking of DH his birthday was yesterday. Poor dear, he had his braces (yes I said braces) adjusted and did not want the dinner I had planned for him. DD2 came home to celebrate with us so I made dinner for the 4 of us and we had cake (which DH ate) and then we walked up to the new ice cream shop for ice cream (I abstained). It was not a very eventful birthday but maybe at our age that's ok! Have a wonderful day!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Every year, Amy, runs a Blogger's Quilt Festival and this year is no exception. I want to participate but which quilt to post about? I finally decided on "Sparkle". I wrote about this quilt before but just in case you missed it here is the story.

My DD1 has drawn for a long time.  She loves to draw dragons.  A LOT.  She drew a purple dragon of herself in dragonform and called it "Sparkle".  In case you were wondering that is where my blog name came from, mama of Sparkle, aka Mama Spark.  When she graduated from high school I asked her to draw Sparkle so I could use it for a party invite.  This is the dragon she drew, and the invite said, "Graduate?  Already?"  (I left the words off)  Here is the applique and the original drawing:

I think they are pretty close.  I hope you have enjoyed this little quilt!  I have enjoyed sharing it with you.  ~XOP~

Last Day of Market, Saturday

Saturday brought some mixed feelings. I had lots more people I wanted to meet but it was also the end of our trip. Market went one more day, and it would have been fun to stay and help take the booth down, but I was determined to make the best of the day.

There was a young woman always running around working hard for the Moda folks and her name is Holly. She does some designing too.

I was really excited to meet Lizzy House too. Isn't her booth cute??

Her booth happened to be across from Jaybird's booth. Oh look there's Julie and Candi.
I found a local pattern designer, Maggs and Me with some super cute patterns too.

I got a Little Bunny Foo Foo pattern while on the shop hop. Too cute!

I was super excited to meet Tula Pink, and her mom just happened to be there too! Her booth won second place for best booth. Her blog has photos. Her quilts were show stopping and I am in serious love with her new line Prince Charming!!

I saw this little guy just hanging out at the batting booth. What's up with that? He reminded me of our peacock, Blu.

I told you I would show you the other quilt I made with Pauline for Moda didn't I? Here it is:

I did the pinwheels and the sashing and Pauline did the applique and the borders. Sweet isn't it?

Another celeb is Gail Pan, a wonderful Aussie designer too.

Kokka and Seven Islands had an amazing booth. Just look at all that yummy Heather Ross fabric!

A new designer, Aneela Hoey had her new line Little Apples there and was giving out temporary tattoos of the little girl.

My favorite celebs were the Annes.


That night there was a Blogger Meet Up and you will never guess who I got to meet IRL. Amy Ellis and Jacquie Gering. Both are great inspirations!! It was fun to meet Jacquie after following her for so long. We really hit it off (and we are the same age!!)


Before I knew it it was time to leave to get ready to head for home. Our flight left at 7am on Sunday. I had a GREAT time and loved meeting everyone and seeing all the new eye candy. I hope to catch up with everyone again in the near future too.

As Pauline and I left, Anne, Barb and Mary sent us off with a wave!


I really hope you have enjoyed my adventures at market as much as I did. I know it is kind of the condensed version and if you want to see all the pics you can go to my flickr account and see them all!! ~XOP~

Market Day 4 Friday

Wowsa has this been an exciting adventure! The rows began at 100 and ended at 2900!! It was massive! So much to see and so much data overload!! I had a list a mile long of things I wanted to see. I did have one good idea before I left home. I brought some white Kona and a fabric pen with me to have some of my favorite designers sign the fabric for me. I made the squares kind of big and had them write in a quarter of the square. Brilliant, huh?? I even had a Neptune square for Tula Pink to sign! I did not take photos of this fabric but I will try to remember to do that and show you. I missed a few but maybe I will be able to go back again and get them next time! I will use the signed squares in a quilt made with either the fabric from the person or a pattern of theirs.
SLC is a beautiful city. This is what we saw on our walk from our hotel to the convention center every day.

Our hotel was about 4 blocks away and it was VERY nice and VERY reasonable.

Now for the 50 cent tour. One of my favorite booths was the Don't Look Now booth by Kellie Wulfson. I adore her work!!! It is so cheerful.

One of the first rows we went down had Riley Blake. They had all the local Utah designers design a quilt block for this quilt, both sides! They gave us a card and we went to each designer's booth for a stamp. Once it was completed we turned it in for a chance to win the quilt. All the patterns will be available on the All Dolled Up blog, I think this is where they will be. If I find out differently I will let you know.
Here is some of Lori Holt of Oh Cherry fame.


Now for some of the celebs (oh, and me, but just really look at them, k?)
Sarah Jane (Michael Miller) adorable fabrics!! Sherbet Pip-ish


 Cori Blunt of Chitter Chatter Designs.  You should go and check out her blog because her patterns are completely adorable, just like her!


Pat Wys of the Silver Thimble. We have been friends online for some time and I finally got to meet her in person! She has a new book out too.

Next up was Lynette Anderson. I adore her patterns and was thrilled to finally have the opportunity to meet her. She and her husband, Vince, were so nice. It was like you were talking with old friends. A stand out in the Aussie designers for sure! I finally managed to snag A Kitten's Tale, WOOT WOOT!!

I was also lucky to meet the creative genius behind Crabapple Hill, Meg. Her new patterns are fabulous!!

On the blogger side of meetings I snagged a photo with John Adams, aka Quilt Dad. He is one tall guy and very nice.

I also had the pleasure to meet Konda, from Moose on the Porch.  What a sweetie!!  If you have done the layer cake or Jelly Roll QAL this is the woman that coordinated it all.


We managed to get to isle 1500 from 9:30am until it closed at 6pm. We then jaunted across the street for a Moda appreciation dinner. Free food and drinks, dancing and loads of great company. After dinner I wanted to go to the Modern Quilt Guild meet up. I was looking forward to seeing Katy (I'm a Ginger Monkey) again (we had finally been able to actually meet earlier in the day when I recognized her). She is the one I gave all my extra tumbler fabrics to. I also made her a"scrap vomit" block, which I couldn't show you as I had used some of Anne Sutton's fabric in it. Apparently my photo is on my home computer so maybe Katy will take a pic and send it to me? and then I can show you! She was hanging out with Heather of House of A La Mode, who most of you probably know. It was fun but brief. Pauline was sitting in the lobby and I felt bad, even though she was talking to someone, I didn't want to stay too long. Meeting Katy felt a bit like meeting an old friend.

So this is where the big adventure ends until Saturday. I am seriously typing my fingers off to get these ready so they will post on the weekend (no computer, remember??) I hope you are enjoying the trip so far. The last day of the trip is tomorrow. ~XOP

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