Helping Out The Detroit Area Modern Quilt Guild

My friend Vicky is the president of the DAMQG and they are making a quilt(s) for charity. 

 It is to support a cure for breast cancer and the blocks are super cute and paper pieced bras! 

Yes you read that right.  

There were 2 sizes and we were supposed to paper piece the larger size.

  I can't say I am the biggest fan of pp but I wanted to contribute to the cause

 so I sat down last night and made this.

It is difficult to tell but the trim is actually a metallic purple.  

While I love my friend Vicky, I have to say I did not love making this block. 

 It has made me realize I actually like to paper piece really small things

 not large things...at all!!  

I am glad to have made one and hope my small contribution will help!

Have a wonderful day.

~XOP~

RJR Color Inspirations Club

Have you heard about this club?  

It is a monthly solids club using the RJR solids.  

Brenda at Pink Castle is the person that got this set up and

 had some of people do some pattern designing for.  

There were 12 color pallettes chosen by Brenda and the quilts designed around those fabrics.  

One of the months I had was March, the Daisy Field colors. 

 I fell in love with these fabrics!! 

 My quilt was entitled Daisy Field.  

I don't have very many photos of the quilt as I just finished the binding on it this weekend and it has to be ready to be mailed off for spring market soon. 

There will be kits available for this quilt and the pattern will be available for sale as well.
Pattern is available here.

There are FQ bundles of each of the month's colors available for sale too.

Here is what I have for photos so far.

A photo taken by Brenda with her son David on the quilt just after it came back from the quilter. 

 He just might be showing up the quilt!

Some of Librkat's (Kathy) amazing quilting!!

This weekend I was putting the binding on and had a little "help"

So NOW this means me spending a lot of time today getting all the car hair off the quilt

 before I can send it = )

How was your weekend?

Linking to ALYOF here.

~XOP~

Flat Jack Needs Our Help

I just have a few minutes but wanted to write a post asking for my friends in Blog land's help.

I have a co-worker that has a grandson named Jack.  

Jack is in the second grade and his class is doing a geography project.  

Each student in the class made a "flat" version of themselves to be send around the US and the rest of the world. 

 I printed Flat Jack (FJ) out and put him on a stick. 

 I took FJ to Canada and then to St Thomas with me. 

 I wrote a little tale about where he went and what he did. 

 Jack's class is competing with another second grade class to see which class can log the most miles.  

I am asking anyone out there that might have a few minutes to print out a copy of FJ and take some photos around where you live, write the story and send it to his teacher, Mrs Pipkorn 

(I would love a copy too).  

Her email address is apipkorn@fils.org

It does not need to be anything too elaborate, just where he "visited" and what he did.  

Unfortunately my FJ washed out to sea in St Thomas!  LOL

Here is the link to the pdf of Flat Jack and here is the link to the teacher's note. 

 If you can't print it from that just email me at

mamaspark@gmail.com

and I will send you a copy of FJ and the note from his teacher.

So far that I know he has been to Japan, China, Brazil, St Thomas, Canada, the Netherlands, Oklahoma and Michigan.  

So if you are willing to help out a wee second grader and help him learn geography and win the contest please let me know!

FJ's travel needs to be finished by May 15th.

All of the miles add up!!

Just so you can see him  here he is on the beach

And here he is with Sammy Swan at the swan festival

It was a great conversation starter! 

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help!!

~XOP~

Want To Go To Saint Thomas For The Weekend?

That's what my hubby said to me last week.  His company had a trip and I got to tag along.  We were there just 24 hours but it was fabulous!

The day we arrived it was cloudy and overcast but so warm!  We headed right to our hotel and then to the pool.  Here is hubby and I on our balcony as we headed to the pool

I wanted to go to this pool, an infinity pool with a swim up bar.

There were these little birds there and the bartender was feeding them some kind of juice.

When I asked her about it she said if they didn't the birds would be in our drinks!

They were called Bananaquit birds.

They were like a cross between a golden finch and humming bird.

Quite charming.

As we swam around I noticed some odd things in the bushes

 As we swam around I noticed some odd things in the bushes.

There were Iguana's everywhere!

Sunset from our room after the rain.

There were some beautiful boats sailing around the island too.

We walked to the beach on both days but it was much sunnier on Sunday.  

The water is so amazingly blue!

~I think this was my favorite photo of the beach~

If you look closely you can see an amazing number of Iguanas hiding in these bushes!

Here were two of my favorites.  This photo almost looks fake with such blue water in the background!

The flowers all around were so vibrantly PINK!

I love this fellow's striped tail!

Well 24 hours was not long enough, but it was enough to re-charge my batteries.

This is out the airplane window as we were leaving.

 ~XOP~

Wordless Wednesday

~XOP~

Stratford and the Swan Festival

Our daughter had given us a two night stay at the

 Stone Maiden Inn in Stratford Ontario, Canada for a Christmas gift.  

For some odd reason she thought we needed to get away from it all. 

 After finally being able to go and coming home, I realized she was right.  

I feel much more relaxed and energized and ready to work!  

We had a great time.  

We drove to Stratford and it took us about 3 hours. 

 Here is the Inn we stayed at.

We stayed in The Secret Garden room.

Our towels were folded like swans!

We walked everywhere and had beautiful weather.  

We went into some amazing chocolate shops.  

This one was the BEST. 

 Rheo Thompson. 

 That bunny was gigantic!

A different chocolate shop had these amazing apples!

We walked along Lake Victoria (the locals call it Avon Lake)

There were free carriage rides this weekend so we did that too.

Sammy the Swan was there to hug the kids!

Beautiful courthouse

The city hall was pretty spectacular too

 Stopped in at the local pub one night and had a beer.

This was the weekend of the Swan Festival.  

On August 23, 1918, a pair of Mute swans was released onto the Avon River in Stratford. They were a gift to the city from Mr. J. C. Garden.  The population of Mute swans has grown considerably since 1918. Over the years, swans from other bloodlines have been introduced and the resulting 

offspring have firmly established Stratford’s herd as healthy and diverse.

 Several of the swans on the river today are descendants of Queen Elizabeth II’s royal herd. In 1967, 

Her Majesty gave six pairs of Mute swans to Ottawa in honour of Canada’s Centennial anniversary. Subsequently, one of the pairs was then given to Stratford. The female lived more than 20 years on the Avon and had several mates and numerous offspring.

So every year they release the swans by having a parade and marching the swans to the Avon.  

It all begins with the pipers followed by the parade of the swans to the Avon.

They are beautiful birds!  And HUGE!!

Little known fact, when I was a little girl my grandparents took me to feed the ducks and there was a swan there.  I guess I was not fast enough and one of the swan's bit me!  I have been a little nervous around them ever since.  I also had a gigantic blow up swan with a weighted bottom that I used to  "ride" in the water when I was little too.  

Have fun in the Avon swans!!  

We had a great time visiting your city!

~XOP~