More Bee Vintage Goodness

I received 3 more VS blocks in the mail the other day. 

These first 2 are from Colleen. 

Aren't they beautiful? 

This one is from Sheetal. 

Such a great fussy cut center! 

 I can't wait for the rest of the blocks to show up! 

I also managed to get my mini quilt cut out and laid out for Konda's quilt tour.  

My day is September 25th so it has to be sewn, quilted and bound by then. 

 I may even make 2!! 

 I am loving that I could cut it out and lay it out in less than an hour!  

Be sure and check back for the quilt tour.

I am going to draw a winner for the Simply Charming Mini book on Friday (August 3rd). 

 Please go here and leave me a comment to be entered into the drawing!

My good friend, Cori has decided to carry the Heather Ross Line, Crafty Chloe in her online shop. 

 If you don't happen to have a Hancock fabrics near you or you live overseas you can buy it from her.

Cori's online fabric shop now has most of the Crafty Chloe fabrics in her shop. 

 If you can't get them at Hancocks she has them available and will ship overseas. 

It is $4.75 per 1/2 yard.

If you haven't seen it it is adorable!  

My favorite are the creepy doll/sock monkey and the pin people.

(photo borrowed from Better off Thread)

Although that dog is pretty cute too!!

If you happen to be watching the Olympics please give a cheer for our friend Allison Schmidt.

She is swimming in the 200 free finals today.

She took the silver medal in the 400 free, just out touched by the French woman.  

Good luck Schmitty!!!

~XOP~

Rekindling An Old Friendship

I met an old friend for dinner last Thursday.  

We had not been able to meet up for many months and 

we saw each other a few weeks ago at her mom's funeral. 

 I think she was so busy taking care of her mom there was just no extra time.  

We met for dinner and it was wonderful! 

 We started up just like we had left off.  

She brought me a bag full of gifts that she had for me for  my birthday and Christmas.  

One of the most beautiful was this pendant from Hawaii.

She also gave me a big box of thread.  

Then we had a funny thing happen between us.  

A few years ago she gave me some fabric that I thought was not very pretty (ugly in fact) but felt so guilty I decided to use it to make a charity quilt.  

She thought it was not something I would usually sew with either

 but wanted me to work outside my comfort zone.  

So I made a quilt that I dubbed The Ugly Quilt.  

Turns out my DD2 fell in love with that quilt and now it lives with her.

 The following Christmas I made a jelly roll of all the left over fabrics and gifted them back to her!  Well, in this bag was a quilt top she made out of those strips and all the left over fabric.

The Ugly Quilt Part Deux!

I used the left overs to make a back,

 I added some Kona Ash to make up what I didn't have enough of.

This quilt is now on it's way to the quilter!  

Our little baby turkey is still cute as a button.  It likes to "help" my DD1 while she is typing.

Then I got to finish up another quilt top and had some beautiful Marmalade to play with. 

 I just LOVE this fabric for the back!!! 

 My favorite. 

 Of course, Jack had to help me out too!

Marmalade fabric with a marmalade cat!

That sums up my Sunday.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too.

~XOP~

It's a New Baby!!

We had the miracle of birth happen at our house last night.

A baby turkey hatched out of the turkey eggs we put into our incubator. 

 My DD1 had a male and female turkey and the female began laying 

so we thought we would try to hatch some more turkeys.  

Apparently it is not supposed to be an easy thing to do, hatching turkeys, but we got one at least.

It was so newly hatched in this photo it was still wet.

I also want to invite you to the next stop on the Blog Tour too.

  You should go over to Brooke's blog and check out her post today.

I did manage to finish up a little quilt, it just needs to have the binding finished. 

 I call it the underwater quilt.

I think I will be listing this one in my ETSY shop soon.

I leave you with some photos of Fatty McFatty (Aiden)

She was just relaxing and hanging out on my sewing table taking a bath.  

May you all have such a restful weekend!!

~XOP~

It's My Day For The Mini Blog Tour!!

Comments are now closed.  Winner will be posted August 4th Saturday.

It's *finally* my day to blog about Konda's new Simply Charming Mini quilt book!! 

 YEAH!!

 This is one great book!  Konda's directions are so easy to follow and I can't wait to make one or two or more of the quilts in this book!!

 I was riding home from work with DD1 and was telling her about the tour and

 that Konda wanted us to talk about what you can do with a mini quilt. 

 It's kind of a thing, this response, but she said, "What can't you do with a mini quilt?"  

And we laughed! 

 It is kind of true though, they are very versatile.  

This began the following (sorry)

You can use it to decorate your dog  (a mini quilt I made for DD1)

Or use it for catoflauge  (I just made that word up!!)

Can you just see how they blend into their surroundings??

Or for real you can do what I do which is switch them out in my bathroom as wall decorations.

I trade them out seasonally.

Honestly, I think that a LONG time ago I saw this photo and it totally began my obsession with mini quilts.

This photo is from the Sentimental quilter. 

 When I saw this wall of mini quilts I just flipped!!  

Isn't it amazing? 

 What a great way to decorate a room!

I also love this photo, it's similar, from Hillary Lang

I hope you have enjoyed this post about "What can't you do with a mini quilt?" as much as I have!

Now for the details about winning a copy of Konda's book. 

 Leave me a comment and I will  do the drawing next week sometime.  

I will draw a name, but I need to have a way to contact you! 

 If you are a no-reply blogger I will draw again. 

 Leave your email in the comment if you are unsure, trust me you do NOT want to miss out on this book!!!

~XOP~

Day Two of the Mini Book Blog Tour

That's right, today is the second day of the book tour and the stop today is Nanette over at Freda's Hive.  You are going to want to stop over there and 

check out the amazing mini quilt she made using Marmalade and a pattern from Konda's new book. 

 I love the fabric and I love Konda's book too!! 

 Leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win a copy of Konda's book.

Ok now, don't forget to stop back here tomorrow for my stop on the tour and a chance to win a copy of Konda's book from me too!!

Just in case you need a little eye candy, here is how my knitted fabric scrap rug is coming along. 

 It looks kind of funky because I can't spread it out very well yet, but it is growing!!

I hurt my back and took today off of work.  

I did a lot of laying flat.  

I did manage to get a few things done although nothing I can share pictures of. 

 I made the binding for my dad's quilt, and totally cashed in my birthday "binding coupon tonight

 and handed it over to the binding Queen.  

Thanks Pauline! 

 I also made and attached the binding to one of the quilts I pattern tested for Jacquie.  

Now to hand stitch it down! 

 I LOVE how this quilt came out and can't wait to share it with you guys.  

The pattern will be available in the near future. 

 I also worked on another secret project. 

 One step closer to being able to share!

All right, enough with all the secrecy.  

Stop back tomorrow for a chance to win a copy of Konda's new book. 

 It's a really good one!!

~XOP~

Mini Blog Tour Begins Today

 Day One of the Mini Blog Tour

Just popping in to tell you that the Mini Blog Tour begins today over at these blogs.

Lissa Alexander http://modalissa.blogspot.com

 

Emily Herrick http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com

 

They will be telling you all about mini quilts and how you can use them.  

 

They will also be giving away a copy of Konda's new book. 

 

So be sure to stop over and leave a comment for a chance to win!!! 

~XOP~

Quilt Inspectors

How many of you have your own personal "Quilt Inspectors" at home? 

 I have 5 of them. 

 There were 4 of them on high alert recently.  

Jack decided that he needed to inspect the quilt currently on my bed.

His arch nemesis, Mosen decided to take a well deserved break and was inspecting my laundry!

Thanks Mosen!!

Then I went to do some quilting on a project for Jacquie and had to clear QI Aiden off the table first.

She protested VERY loudly!

Finally, I got to do some quilting. 

 I was almost done, and feeling like I had managed to dodge the last and pickiest QI when 

she who must be obeyed showed up and laid right down on the top!  

As you can see from her expression 

she was not so sure my half inch lines were actually accurate enough for her tastes.  

Hey, I'm trying Autumn, this is first time I have done anything like this.

Can't wait to bind this one and send it on it's way!

Lastly, on the way in to work this morning we were driving around 6:15am and 

I looked up and saw this

I asked my DD1 if she thought this was a rainbow, and 

sure enough, in the bright pink sky was a beautiful, vibrant rainbow!! 

 It completely went from North to south. 

 My photo is not very good, she took it on my iPhone but trust me when I say it was beautiful.

There are more photos of this on my Flickr too.

Once we were closer to our work, I was stopped at a light and she took this video.

In this you can see the entire rainbow.  

What a way to begin my day!  

I hope you are having a great day too!!

~XOP~

Fun At The Farm

We were lucky enough to be able to spend some more time with my husband's sister, our nieceand her three adorable kids at Liz and Becky's farm on Saturday. 

 It just happened to be the three year old's birthday too!  

The kids loved the farm!  

Especially the kittens.

 Grace thought my husband was the BEST!!

Aren't those baby cheeks so pinchable?  

My niece and her youngest.

Everyone loved Electra the donkey, that thinks she's a dog!

Grace even collected some eggs!

It's nice that Becky was there to show everyone around. 

 Here they are feeding the goats

Jo, the middle one, was so cute.  

All smiles all the time except when I took this pic!

 LOL

The highlight for Grace was this orange tabby.  

Which she promptly named "Orange".  

Very original. 

 I fear for her future children!

Then, just because we are the "cool" great aunt and uncle, 

we took everyone out for ice cream for Gracie's birthday.  

Jo was not too sure what to make of her first ice cream cone!

Grace sat next to Chris, of course.

At one point she asked for some of his ice cream cone and of course he shared.  

Grace's grandma, my husband's sister, told him that 

he did not need to give her everything she asked for. 

 To which he replied, "It's her birthday!  She can have whatever she wants!  

That's why your kids hate you."  

And we all cracked up, with her daughter sitting right there, who clearly loves her mom.

It was a lot of fun and a day we will always cherish, since we don't have any grand children, yet,

 this was the closest we can come for now. 

 I am hoping we get to see them once more before they leave to go home to SC.  

Oh and did I mention that Marilyn, my niece, is a new quilter???  

I didn't??  

Well, she is and I am so thrilled! 

 I went through my animal bin of fabric and found her two heaping bags of fabric.  

I have LOTS more bins to go through before they leave.  

Thank goodness they are driving.  

I hope you had a great weekend too!!

~XOP~