Great Friends and Bee Blocks

First I want to take a minute and thank everyone that took the time to leave such nice comments about Charmalade both here and on the Moda Bake Shop.  

Thank you from the bottom of my heart! 

 You guys are the BEST!!

Now just a special thank you to my friends,Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) and Konda (Moose on the Porch).  Thank you both for taking the time to blog about my quilt and the fact that I was a chef. 

 You didn't have to post about it but you did and I really appreciate you both.

  It is so wonderful to have such supportive friends!  

 I went to the Sewing expo today with my friend Waynette. 

 We stopped at the Bernina dealership and she bought a new machine. 

 I really wanted to, and hubby even said that I could (he really did, said I deserved it and everything) but the machine I wanted was pretty expensive and

 I would need a new table too, also expensive, so I decided to wait.

 It was a hard decision but I think the right one.

My bee mates have been patient and so when I got home I went to work on my September blocks (yeah, yeah, I'm a little behind).

Here is Colleen's block, she wanted zig zags.

 This one is for Jodie, she wanted string blocks.

Now I need to work on my October blocks.

I have an improv quilt to finish and I am hoping to work on that quilt tomorrow. 

 I am taking the day off work to get some stuff done that I couldn't over the weekend. 

 I am going to get to lunch with Cori tomorrow too, always fun!

My DD1 is closing on her house tomorrow!!! 

 It will be her first house and it has almost 9 acres of land!! 

 Lots of room for her peacocks. 

I did have some help while working on my bee blocks tonight.

Introducing...Charmalade

The BiG day is finally here!!  

The day I can share with you what I have been working on. 

 I have a project on the Moda Bake Shop!!! 

 I can't believe it! 

 I was so thrilled when they accepted my quilt and now I get to share it with all of you too!!!

This is 

Charmalade

 I submitted the quilt back in May, had to wait for the fabric and 

you all know how much time I have spent at my dad's lately.  

The biggest hurdle for me was deciding how to quilt it. 

I chose feathers in the white space in the center of the quilt with straight lines on the colored part.

I used aqua thread for most of the quilting.  

I used cream for stitch in the ditch on the borders.

Quilting modeled by Jack.

 I did the feathers on Liz's long arm and all the straight lines on my Bernina.   

Liz did all the circles in the printed outer border. 

 I am in love with the quilting on this one.

The fabrics are Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille and Moda Bella Snow.

 

I love that striped binding.

Have you ever used the bias ruler to cut bias binding?

Made all the joined strips match perfectly!

Charmalade: directions on the Moda Bake Shop.  

What do you think??

~XOP~

Mini Vacation

I had the pleasure of joining my husband on a trip to upper Michigan. 

 I say joining him because he is a pilot and he flew up there and 

I drove up to meet him (corporate rules). 

 He flew in to Harbor Springs but we stayed in Petoskey  

Turns out his flight got delayed. 

 I was almost to our hotel so I decided to find the nearest quilt shop. 

 Turns out it was in Charlevoix, about 15 minutes away.  

It is a cute little shop called Hearts to Holly.  

I met the daughter of the owner and we chatted happily until my hubby called to say they had landed.  She recommended some places to eat and I left a happy camper!  

This is what the shop looked like inside. 

 Very cute and LOTS of great modern fabrics!

This is actually what I saw as I ran up to the door in the pouring down rain!

I drove back to our hotel and met my husband.  We had a room with a great view on the balcony!

We went driving around and exploring.  

We ended up eating at Mims, the bright orange house!

My husband had the fish and it was excellent but 

by far the BEST part of the dinner was his pickled coleslaw!!! 

 They make it there and it was fabulous!

The owner's son was running the place and he did a great job.

After dinner we were driving down the lake shore on the back side of the town 

when I saw some clouds like I have NEVER seen before.  

All the bottoms were pink. 

 Just the bottoms.  

We were driving and it was kind of at the top of the hill but I snapped a few pics.

By the time we were at the bottom of the hill the same sky looked like this 

(and it was only a matter of a few minutes)

We ended up going out to buy a cable so we could watch a movie that night.  

We watched Atlas Shrugged.  

Now I can't wait for the second part to come out!  

Excellent movie.  

I sat and bound a quilt while we watched the show.  

I needed to rinse the blue marking lines out so I did that in the sink and 

hung the quilt over the shower railing to dry. 

 I was hoping to get some good photos of the quilt in a cool place while we were out the next day.  

Of course the weather didn't really cooperate...at all. 

 It was VERY windy and off and on rainy.  

On Saturday morning we went back to Charlevoix to poke around.  

We bought some fudge (of course) and

 I happened to find some pumpkin (white chocolate) covered pretzels at the Taffy Barrel!  

Fabulous!!!

Took a few photos while we were there. 

 There was this HuGe ferry and we couldn't figure out to where.  

Turns out it was Beaver Island.  

"Hey Gwen Marston how you doin'?"

 I withstood the wind on the drawbridge long enough to take a photo of this light house too. 

We left Charlevoix and decided to drive back to Petoskey

but trouble is that you either drive WAY around the lake or take the local ferry.  

You bet we took that ferry!!  

Right across Lake Charlevoix!

It's on cables.  

I had never seen anything like that before.  

That's our rental car on the ferry.

This was the view from the ferry looking out the passenger window.

We headed toward Harbor Springs and decided to take the scenic Tunnel of Trees drive. 

 It took about half an hour but the drive was spectacular. 

 Lake Mi on the driver's side and beautiful houses on my side. 

We were on our way to Legs Inn in Cross Village. 

 A very unique place to visit. 

 LOTS of additional photos in my Flickr stream.  

(See hubby in the red hat??)

They serve authentic Polish food. 

 I almost ate all my pierogies before I remembered to take a picture for you guys to see them. 

 They were delish!

 

Here we are in front of this weird carved *thing*.  

I have no idea what it was but it looked like a gigantic sea monkey.

** giggle**

Took a different way back to the hotel  met the other pilot and his girlfriend for dinner.  

On the way back from dinner we could see the waves in Little Traverse Bay and

 they were breaking over the pier by the lighthouse.

One of the neatest spots we discovered, by accident, was this neat church. 

 I was totally fascinated by it.

  Saint Francis Solanus Indian Mission Church. 

 It was so beautiful.  

I wish we could have gone inside. 

 I did manage to take a few pictures. 

Sadly the mini trip ended too soon and with a 5 hour drive home. 

 Of course it was raining on the drive but look what I saw on the way.

 (Do you think it's a bad idea to take a photo or 7 and drive?)  

Me neither.

Now if you have read ALL the way to the end of this I have something to tell you.  

I will have some pretty exciting news to share with you all tomorrow so please come back. 

 The something I have been working on will be revealed tomorrow!!  

OMGosh I am so excited!!!

How will I sleep tonight???

~XOP

Tula Pink 10" Square Swap

**US and International welcome!**

I just have a few minutes to tell you that I am hosting a 10" square, Tula Pink swap. 

 It works like this, you go here for all the details. 

 Once you are at the Flickr group go into the discussions and look for the 

"Sign up for the swap here" discussion.  

Read the rules and at the end if you want to sign up click on the link where it says "here" 

and fill out the form.

Once I have the form I will add you to the group. 

 Upload a photo of the Tula Pink fabric you want to use to the group photo section.  

Here is my choice of fabric:

Make sure you check the group photo pool so you don't choose a duplicate!  

You will need 2 yards of the fabric you choose and you will cut that into 28 - 10" squares.  

You will send them to me and I will sort and send back a set of 28- 10" squares to you.  

Easy Peasy, right?  

Now who wants in??

You know you want to !!!

~XOP~

Simply Mini Quilt Along Day 1

I am so excited to be the first blogger to kick off the 

Simply Mini Quilt Along over at Moose on the Porch.  

Konda asked me to be a part of the quilt along and I got to post first!!! 

 No pressure, LOL.  

Have you purchased her book Simply Charming Mini's yet?  

It's a great book and has loads of great mini quilts in it. 

 I chose Mosaic and I love how my quilt turned out. 

 It was a wonderful way to practice my quilting too. 

If you want to see it you will have to

  go on over to Konda's blog and check it out!!

~XOP~

Taking Care of Business

On Wednesday last week, I was not going to go to quilting as I had to pack for my trip.  

I was leaving to go and see my dad and sister on Thursday and 

then going to meet my DH in upper MI on Friday and spend the weekend with him up north.

I arrived in GR near lunch time and took my dad out to lunch.  

Then we went to the lawyer and I now officially have Power of Attorney.  

I also have all his checks so no more surprises!

Next stop was the bank where I managed to snap this pic of my dad and the bank manager, Bridgette.  She has been a God send.

We went back to my dad's house and I gave him a tied fleece blanket that I had made 

for him and my sister to take to the football games with them.  

They go to every Grand Valley State game and they are always cold.

While he loved it he told me very kindly, that he now didn't need any more blankets! 

 LOL  OK dad, I get it.

More to share soon!!

~XOP~

Weekend Fun

Last weekend as my DH and I drove around we saw this oddity.  

Who knew that there was Scotch in space? 

 We went inside and there was a free Scotch tasting of Ardbeg. 

 DH bought some because he got a free tee shirt!

 I had to go to JAF for a marking pen and look what I saw in the clearance section of the store! 

 Lots of Denyse Schmidt fabrics. 

 If anyone needs some let me know and I would be happy to pick some up for you!

I happened to snap this pic of Jack on my cutting mat. 

 Isn't he sweet?

I am enjoying the time I have left with him for sure.  

I am leaving for Grand Rapids tomorrow morning to take care of some more of the financial stuff for my dad and sister and spend the night with them.  

My DH has a trip to Harbor Springs so I will be driving there on Friday to spend the weekend hanging out with my honey in a beautiful place!

I have to bring a quilt with me to finish the binding on. 

 I am hoping to get some pretty scenic pictures of the quilt while we are there too.

I'm not sure if I will have computer access while I am away but I will be back on Sunday and hopefully I will be able to catch up then!!

~XOP~

Mini Quilt Along

I seem to keep apologizing that I am not posting as frequently as I used to but sometimes life gets in the way, eh?  I want to tell you about the Mini Quilt Along being hosted by Konda over at Moose on the Porch quilts.  Sign ups have already begun (September 11th) but there is still time to sign up.  Hop over to her blog and sign up for some mini quilt FUN! 

There will be prizes and LOTS of mini quilt goodness and guess what?  I am going to be the first one to show off the mini quilt I made for the hop!!  I had such fun making this true mini quilt, I just might have to make another one!  So if you want to join in the fun stop over at Konda's and sign up.  I think all you need is the book and a charm pack to play along (maybe a few solids too).

I can't wait for you all to stop over on Tuesday, September 25th and check out my project and Konda's new book.  Grab the button and put it on your blog to show that you are playing along!!

~XOP~

A Little Knitted Treasure

First a great BIG thank you to everyone that sent me a comment about Jack!  

He is about the same, but we have him on special food (which he hates) and 

I am giving him SC fluids once a day.  

Time will tell if this is helping.  

I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Several of you sent me your fabric strings and scraps.  

I knitted my fingers to the bone and came up with this beauty!!

It was from a tutorial by Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts.   

I could not have done it without the help of my friends sending me their left over scraps.  

I am making another one too, smaller though, LOL.

Also a GREAT BIG thank you to Pandora for binding it off for me!!

My friend, Jacquie, sent me this book and was even kind enough to sign it for me!  

Isn't she the BEST??

I have some of the BEST friends!!

Speaking of that, I need to thank everyone that has been kind enough to send me chicken fabric!

I think I have the mother load of it now!!  

My quilt top that I used it in is nearly complete. 

 I still can't share it yet (per instructions)

 but please know I could not have made it without your generosity!  

So thank you very much!!  

When I am finished with this top 

I will be passing the remaining chicken fabric along to a friend that will be using it in another swap, so your generosity is extended!!  

I hope that makes you all smile today.  

I spend 5 hours working with Liz's long arm last night quilting a quilt and got 8 of the 14 rows done.  Still need to do the last 6 and one border on her Statler 

then home with me for the straight line work using my domestic machine. 

 I think I am changing to thread that blends for that!!  

I am still a little challenged when trying to sew straight lines on a big quilt!  

Any tips or suggestions for doing this on a domestic machine would be appreciated.  

As soon as I can I will show you that quilt too. 

 I HATE not being able to show you the things I am working on!  

~XOP~