Blogger's Quilt Festival Quilt Photography

I debated on writing a post about this quilt.  

I am totally in love with the photo I took of this quilt while in Traverse City.

I made this quilt for the MBS and you can find the pattern right here. 

 I love the fabric, Marmalade by Bonnie and Cammile, 

I love the quilting, done on my friend's long arm machine, 

and how could you not love Traverse City Michigan?!

It was raining lightly but I was determined to get a good photo of this quilt 

for the money shot on the MBS.  

I had seen this little church on the bay earlier in the day and 

asked hubby to drive me (and the quilt) back there.  

I leaped out of the car, flung the quilt over the fence, snapped two pictures, 

scooped it back up and off we went.  

All the while with me saying, I think I got *the* shot!  Of course he thought I was mad, 

but I really do think this is a beautiful shot of this quilt.

You can see some of the quilting better in this photo.

This one always reminded me of Jack claiming this quilt for his!

Probably my all time favorite photo of both Jack and this quilt.  

He passed away a year ago, but I think of him everyday and miss him so much!

I have entered the first picture in the Blogger's Quilt Festival in the quilt photography category.  

I would love it if someone would nominate it for a viewer's choice!  

If you would like to see more photos of this beautiful quilt please check out the MBS and my blog.

Have a great time visiting all the fabulous entries!

~XOP~

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Life has been crazy here at my house lately but I wanted to get in on the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  

I am going to talk about a quilt I just recently blogged about.
 It is a dolly quilt that I made with 2 of my friends for another friend that was having a baby girl.
You can read all about the quilt here.
 One of my co workers was expecting a baby girl.
 I was using these dolls for heads and tails projects and
 brought the dolls into the lab to show my 2 quilting friends.
 They went absolutely crazy for them!
So it was decided that we would each make a certain number of them and I would put the quilt together.
 Of course we all made more than we were supposed to
so we laid them all out and chose from what we had made for the quilt.  

We each made dolls that represented ourselves too.
 Here is Judith's.
 She loves insects.

Robin's was made with Robin fabric

Mine had creepy bunnies.
 I love creepy things and I work with and love bunnies too.

 We made an "I spy" type of border using fabric from our three stashes for it.
 We each had to make a certain number of the squares so
 we got a nice variety and not one single print was duplicated!

We all work at U of M but you know I could not resist putting in my Spartan "S"!!

Our other friend Liz, did the quilting and she did a fabulous job!
Every girl was outlined, flowers in the open blocks and in the border.  

I love everything about this quilt and can't wait to make another one!
The last thing to do was make the label and I thought a heart was a good choice.

I hope you have enjoyed my dolly quilt and are having fun on the Blogger's Quilt Festival too!

~XOP~

A Super Sloth Costume Finish and Dad Update

My Daughter that lives in NC requested that I help her make a Halloween costume.  

I was thrilled.  

Since my kids are grown and I have no grands I don't have much call to make costumes any more.  

My kids had homemade costumes when they were little.  

With everything that is going on with my dad I was not sure I would have the time. 

 Last weekend was supposed to be my weekend at home, when I could get the costume done.  

As it turns out my dad had a couple of back to back falls and 

I ended up waiting to hear from the hospital if he was alright.  

He was not all right.  

In one of his falls he broke his femur (thigh bone) 

right at the top where the prostetic part of his hip attaches to the bone. 

(This is the pic the doc drew to show me where the break was)

 So I packed up the car and drove to GR to be there for the surgery they told me he would be having. 

 I was at the hospital on Friday night and back on Saturday morning in time for surgery, 

which didn't actually end up happening.  

I got to see and speak with the orthopedic surgeon and 

because of my dad's age he was going to try a more conservative approach.  

He wanted my dad to try a brace to stabalize the leg and go into rehab.  

The thought being that if over a week or 2 the bone showed that it was healing

 it would be better to avoid surgery. 

 Dad is now in a rehab facility and seems to be doing well.  

He is in good spirits and says there is less pain and he is walking on his leg.  

I will be going back to GR on Saturday to do some more 

clearing out of "stuff" from the house getting it ready to be sold.  

Then off to visit with my dad.  

I was in GR until Monday night and he misses me being there all day every day for him.  

Unfortunately I don't think my work would appreciate it if I stayed there all day every day, 

although they really are being understanding.  

Great boss, for sure.

***Now on to the costume!***

I showed you some of the costume in a previous post.  

I was stumped on what to do for the top. 

 With her living so far away there was no way for me to make it and see if it would even fit her.  

So I went back to Joann's to brainstorm.  

Hmmmm maybe I could use and adapt this pattern to my purposes

Brilliant! 

 I could make one that laced up the front.  If it was too big no deal, but if it was too small she could just loosen the laces or leave it open entirely.  So here it is all finished!!

I was pretty proud of myself as I lined it, and put in grommets too.  

There are even darts in the fur and the lining!!!

I bought a pair of black gloves and sewed the fingers together so that there are 3 toes 

and the whole costume was finished!!!  

I laid it out for a photo so I could show you.  

I'm pretty sure she will be the cutest sloth ever!

She is buying some brown and cream paint for her face, with a little black for the nose.

I packed it up and popped it into the mail yesterday.

I made her promise to send me some pictures once she is all dressed up.

It felt great to have another finish!

I am linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish It Up Friday too.

Happy Friday to everyone!!!

~XOP~

WIP Wednesday

I am linking up with Lee's WIP Wednesday today.  

After all the stuff that has been happening with my dad I needed some distraction so I started working on that Sloth Halloween costume yesterday.  

I managed to get all but the top done!  

Here are some pics of my progress.

First up is the arm cover.  

I was so nervous to work with the fur but other than the mess it really was not awful to work with at all.  I am planning on sewing the fingers on a pair of gloves together 

to make the 3 "toes" to wear under the arm part too.

Leg warmers. 

 These were interesting to make.  

The bottom is just hemmed and the top has a fleece casing for the elastic.

This is the head piece and I wish I had made one that came together in the front.  

This is more like a hat. 

 It is lined with fleece.  

It might be nice though as it would com off more easily.  

I am still considering making a different one. 

 It will be a time thing I think whether I do it or not.

Here is the skirt.  

It is more of a Loin cloth deal with a front and back panel that ties on both sides.  

I did put it on but will spare you *that* photo!  

Suffice it to say I realized I needed to anchor the ribbon somehow 

so they would not slip out of the casing.  

I sewed a few stitches, vertically in the center of the casing. 

 That way she could still gather it and tie it to make it fit her better.

The top part really had me stumped.  

I went back to the store to look at patterns.  

I am not going to spill the beans here but I will tell you I am attempting something crazy for the top.  Hopefully I will have that bad baby done tonight. 

 It is partially sewn right now. 

 I thought I was being clever and sewed it how I thought it should be sewn only to realize I was wrong and had to rip it all out!!! 

 Ripping out your stitching 

(especially when I forgot to lengthen my stitches on this one)

 on fake fur is NOT FUN!!!

It will be waiting for me to work on when I get home from work tonight though and 

I hope to have it complete soon.

The floor of my sewing room looks like I murdered a small animal!! 

 I can't wait to be finished with all this fake fur so I can vacuum and get on to the next project. 

 It is something I promised a friend I would make for her kids.  

It needs to be done in time for Christmas but I would really like to have it done and 

out of my hair sooner than later. 

 I won't be able to show it to you until after Christmas though as it is a surprise for the kids and they read my blog!  

Did I say they are grown up kids?  

LOL

What have you been up to?  

If you have a WIP head over to Lee's blog and link up too!  

She is another Spartan!!

Go Green!!

~XOP~

We Have A Winner

As I am sitting in the hospital watching my dad sleep I am writing this post. Dad had a fall on Friday and broke his femur. The break is pretty high up, near the anchor of the ball joint part of his hip replacement. I thought he was going for surgery on Saturday but the ortho doc wanted to try a brace first. If the bone can be stabaluzed and begin to heal on its own we may be able to avoid surgery. Please keep us in your prayers. 

I did manage to choose a winner. Lucky number 4 Judy in Mich. Not sure how to copy what she said as I am typing on my phone lol

Congratulations Judy!!  Please email me your mailing address so I can have Sharon send out your loot!

~XOP~

I Can Finally Share This Finish

I have a quilt finish to share with you today that has been done for over a month.  

I could not share it because it was a gift for a dear friend and she reads my Facebook 

which this blog is linked to and the quilt was a surprise.  

A little background.  

I work with 2 other women (Robin and Judith) that I have taught to quilt.  

It has been amazingly fun to have someone to talk to about quilting and fabric etc at my workplace.  You may remember that paper doll quilt pattern I bought quite some time ago? 

 I thought it might make a good heads and tails project and I was right.  

I got it out and made a few of the "girls" and was hooked.  

If you want to make them please go here for the pattern.

I brought the "girls" into the lab to show my friends, 

knowing that once they saw them they would want to make some too.  

We have another co-worker that is a good friend to all of us and she was expecting a little girl.  

The three of us got together and decided that we needed to each 

make a certain number of the girls for the quilt.  

Because they were so much fun to make we all made WAY more than we needed to.  

This meant we all got to choose our favorites of our own and each other's for the quilt.  

Each of us had a signature block as well to represent ourselves in the quilt.  

This is Judith's, who loves dragonflies.

This is Robin's-well duh these are adorable Robins.

And Me? 

 Kind of creepy bunnies. 

 I LOVE creepy and I work with bunnies, big white ones

I wanted to do an outer border of all squares and make it like an I Spy. 

So each of us made a set number of squares from our stash to use in the border.

Of course I had to include a State block = )

You can see the quilting quite well but our quilter, Liz did another fabulous job!  

We had her quilt daisies in the blank blocks and it turned out so cute!!

This was a really fun quilt to make and I would like to make another one for a different friend's daughter when I have time to sew again for myself and not obligations!

I put the quilt together and did the binding and the label.

This is my new go to way to gift a quilt, just tied up with ribbon.

 Just look at little Yasmine.  

So sweet!

I think she likes it!

It is kind of a bittersweet gift as they are moving to California very soon.  

We hope they think of us fondly and that Yasmine's mama will tell her all about the three crazy old ladies that made this quilt for her!  

A lot of love went into this quilt!

You will be missed my dear Flor but Cali is not that far away, so don't be surprised if we come visit!

I am linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish It up Friday too.

~XOP~