Our Mini Vacation

My life has been so crazy of late and

 when hubby suggested we take a few days and go to the Berlin OH area I jumped at the chance.  

We enjoy shopping around that area. 

 First stop was Lehmans. 

 Don't know it? 

 It's a HUGE general store.  

You should check it out!  

They had this wall of old antique teeny tiny sewing machines.

I especially loved this little blue one.  

Isn't it adorable?

Hubby was so happy because I let him buy a crock for his saurkraut making! LOL 

 We looked at wheat grinders but I need to research some more before we invest in that! 

 Those babies are pricey for sure.

We ate dinner at a place called The Farmstead.  

Good, traditional Amish food. 

 And bonus there was a quilt garden in front of the place

The real selling point though was the giant rooster! 

 haha I love that cheezy stuff. 

 Someone I know made a joke that I won't repeat here but you can probably figure it out!  

Something about that man (my hubby) having a  BiG rooster...  LOL

Crazy, I know!!

Ahhhh Amish life

We went to Sugar Creek and saw this life sized working cookoo clock.

Had to chuckle about this on the wall of a shop there too.

The wheels were 3D too!

We did go to a few quilt shops, of course and I did buy a few things, of course!

I have wanted to do a map of the US ever since I saw one done on Flickr.

  Figured it was easier to buy the pattern rather than figure it out on my own! 

 Also the Dresden flower was large enough to be a cool centerpiece  

The shop had it done up in OSU fabric. 

 Hmmmm that gives me a great idea too!

The top fabric is for a peacock quilt I have in my head and I just could NOT leave those cats!

OK now for some fessing up right here. 

 My hubby is totally in love with Farmall tractors.

  He kept pulling out all the Farmall fabric and asking for a quilt. 

 How could I say no to that guy after all he does for me?

Well, as you see clearly I couldn't.

  He also wanted the food fabric. 

 Lord help me I have no idea what to do with that!

I have no idea how I ever missed this fabric but it was great! 

 I wanted more colors but settled for these three.

Man oh man oh man oh man was I ever excited to get this group!!  

How fun are these??

Innocent crush, Mama Said Sew, Hope valley and Henna Garden, what? 

 The middle two were in the sale section too!!

This was just the first part of our trip. 

  I will share the rest of the trip later. 

 No more fabric but some awesome eye candy anyway! 

 I hope you stop back for the rest of the story.

~XOP~

Another Happy Friend!

I LOVE making chenille blankets! 

 You all know this. 

 I have a good friend that is expecting a baby any day now.

  In fact I think she was due a few days ago, as my friend said, "She is taking her ladies time". 

 I decided at the last minute to make a chenille blanket for her. 

 I always have one or two basted and ready to sew. 

 So I took the girly one and stitched it up. 

 I LOVE how great it turned out. 

 Love, love, love the dark pinks in this. 

 My tutorial to make one is on my tutorial page if you are interested, or

 for a pieced back, you can find it on the Moda Bake Shop right here.

It was the only finish I can share. 

 I had another one but can't share it just now = )

My friend, Karen, is from Brazil.  

She always calls me Flor (flower) and her son LOVES cats and so do I) 

so I thought this back fabric was purrrrfect!!

I loved that the touch of orange in the backing fabric was picked up in the orange background of the chenille.

I have sooooooooooooo much more to share but I am exhausted so will share more tomorrow.  

Have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend to all my US friends!

~XOP~

A Few New Purchases

I have made a few purchases and thought I would share with you all. 

A few bolts of fabric.  

That amazing butterfly fabric from Michael Miller, 2 colors of Sketch, 

some Narwhals and some Kona Indigo.

A couple of sale books and a few sample cards that I forgot to photograph!

I got this die for my GO! Cutter

I also bought this adorable tooth fairy pillow.  

I got the Nordic Christmas pattern and even got it autographed by Gudrun.  

I love the Scandinavian feel to this pattern, especially since I am of Swedish blood!

I did buy a few things at the GR quilt show as well. 

I love the patterns by this woman. 

 I had to contain myself and only buy these two but her stuff is fantastic!

 I could totally see this as a medallion in a red and white quilt.  

How adorable!

I had looked at this pattern last year and finally decided to make the purchase.  

I have a person or 2 in mind to make this for.

Last but certainly not least, lookie lookie what i found in the wild!

NEPTUNE!!!

I bought all she had, which was 2 yards of this one and only print

As I was paying, the owner asked me if I knew what this was.

Pffft of course I know!

 = )

I have another finish too but need to get a few photos.  

Hope to have that to share soon.

~XOP~

A Very Special Gift

I was so happy to share the butterfly quilt with all of you. 

 It is all quilted up now and actually gifted. 

 I can now share some more information with you about this fabulous quilt. 

 One of my oldest and bestest friends has cancer. 

 She has had 2 surgeries and will be starting radiation therapy very soon.  

This quilt was made for her. 

 I wanted her to have something to take with her during the treatments to keep her warm, wrapped in love and hopefully a little cheered up.  

Two of my co-workers and I made all the butterflies for the quilt and I put it all together. 

 I had to wait for the fabric, as you know, to actually finish it up.  

What you don't know is that I hand embroidered a label and I love how it came out.

The saying was soooo appropriate for her!

My friend, and an amazing quilter, Liz, did the flower/butterfly quilting and it was perfect!

I got a sun dappled photo but that's all I had time for.

 I love love love the back.  

This rainbow fabric is to die for!!

I had one extra butterfly so I put it on the back and it made the perfect setting for the label.

I had to decide how to wrap it up for the gifting and this is what I did. 

 I think it was perfect!

I gave it to my friend on Monday night and I think she was thrilled.  

We have been friends so long that when I asked her if she could pick out the butterflies that I had made she got every one of them right!

Not a single wrong guess!  

She said it was my fabric choices.  

The one made out of blue dragonflies was the first one she guessed.  

I really hope she knows how much she is loved and how much her friendship means to me. 

I am a better person for having he in my life!

This quilt was a true joy to make and to gift.

~XOP~

AQS Grand Rapids Quilt Show

Last weekend when we were slaving away in GR I go 2 hours to myself to go to the BIG quilt show.  It was fabulous!  

I only had 2 hours and there were a lot of quilts and even more vendors! 

 I only made it to a few of the vendors but did a little damage.  

I will share a few of my favorite quilts but 

if you want to see them all I will be uploading them to my Flickr account.

This quilt was simply stunning!!

Loved this birdie

This one looked like a painting.

 Seriously!

I really loved the use of value in this quilt

Totally awesome!

I enjoyed the playfulness of this one.

There were a LOT of beautiful quilts at this show. 

 See more on my Flickr account.

I also scored in that I got to meet up with my friend Jacquie, as she was teaching at the show.  

She had some of her amazing work in her class. 

 I didn't have much time but promises were made to get together "real soon". 

 LOL  

With her crazy schedule it might only be via facetime! 

 Miss her, but here is some of what she had with her.

This was her flip and turn class I think.

Love this one.

Who am I kidding?  I love them all

Hey look...kites!

So after I was forced to leave done at the show, 

we went to my sister's and built IKEA furniture for 2 and a half hours.  

Then over to take my dad out for dinner. 

 Notice those holes in his shorts?

You can see the one on his inner right leg really well here.

Why you may ask, am I showing you the holy shorts?  

We call them the shotgun shorts. 

 One day not too long ago, he was putting his shotgun away and

 was not sure if he had gotten all the shells out of the gun. 

 Now normal people would just check inside, or perhaps count the number of shells you loaded. 

 Not my dad, no sir, wayyy too easy to do it that way.  

Instead he saw a HUGE pile of jeans on the floor and thought, 

 "hey those are pretty dense I'll just shoot into those and 

if there is a shell in the gun no harm no foul, right? "

 And BANG!!!  

There was a shell.  

It went through ALL the jeans, through the floor and out the basement window!!!  

I refuse to buy him new pants.  

This way he remembers what he did.  

Oh and I case you were wondering, I took all the ammo in the house too = )  

Can't have him shooting up the neighborhood!!

Crazy old man!!

~XOP~