It's A Tardis

Any Dr Who fans out there?  I finished my Tardis quilt and wanted to take a few minutes to share that here.  My son was born the day after Christmas so this is going to be his birthday present.  The pattern is called Relatively Dimensional and the words can be purchased from Spoonflower.  The quilting is done by Kathy Koch of Thread Bear quilting and it is AMAZING!!

Here is where I spotlight Kathy's amazing quilting.  

Rays of light coming from the light on top of the Tardis.  

Windows outlined and Gallifreyan quilted into the border.

The DW is quilted into the panels

Not only did she quilt the words "Bad Wolf" into the Tardis, she used the correct font!

Some friends traded me some awesome Dr Who fabrics from Spoonflower. I used them on the back.

You can really see the quilting on the light back fabric too.

I used a Gallifreyan Translator to generate my son's name in Gallifreyan.

I used Pic Monkey to edit and add the words.

I then printed this label out on fabric and stitched over it.

That big mess of circles and dots is his name!

I am loving how this came out and can't wait to gift it to him this week!!!

What gift are you super excited to gift?

I have decided to link up with Finish it up Friday as it was gifted today.

~XOP~

More Trivets

That's right.  I am making even more trivets.  

Although I do see this coming to an end in the near future. 

 I still have 4 more (I think) to make for a few more people.  

Here are the two I worked on yesterday, and they still need binding.

This nativity print was one from a while ago at JAF. 

 Isn't it cute?  

The Holiday Happy by the Happy Zombie seemed a good fit for the triangles around the Nativity. 

 I think if I make this one again I would choose different fabric for the first 2 rounds of triangles,

 but I love the nativity!

 Then Kelsey came home and wanted me to make a trivet for her to 

give to her "NC mom" to thank her for all the nice things she does for her. 

 Kelsey chose the center fabric but I really like how this one came out too.

My scrap bin has been overflowing so

 I decided to work on some scrappy blocks to see what I can use up.  

A long time ago I had seen someone put cut off triangles on the corners of a square

 then sew them together.  

I thought I would give that a try.  

I really love the look, but it doesn't use up those triangles very quickly!  

I have a lot of that cream fabric so thought I would use that for the squares. 

 I will keep you posted on this.

While I was on the computer Fatty McFatty (Aiden) decided to keep me company.  S

he really is a sweet cat.

As I got up to start wrapping presents I looked out on my deck and saw this fat little bugger. 

 Just look at his belly!!! 

 He did not even move when I opened the door.  

He ate every single apple off my apple tree this year.  

I guess he is ready for the winter!  Hey... maybe that's my problem too?!

I hope you are all getting ready for the holidays. 

 We are all set except for cookie making and a few more groceries.

~XOP~

Patchwork Please Trivet Progress

I am totally loving the Patchwork Please trivets.  

They are so much fun to make.  

I want to try several other things in this fabulous book but not before Christmas.

I have made 5 trivets so far and just finished the last one last night. 

 I am hoping you want to see.  They all look so different!

You have already seen these two but I will re-cap:

This one was for my friend Pauline.

This one was gifted to my friend Robin.

This one was gifted to my friend Judith

This one was super special. 

 I used the butterfly fabric in the middle and back and binding that I used in the quilt I gifted to my friend Holly when she was going through her radiation treatment.  

This is the back of the butterfly one.  I love Tamara Kate's fabric!

Someone asked me how I put them together. 

 I paperpieced the tops and then sandwiched like making a quilt using 

Insul-Bright ( heat resistant batting) in the middle and backing then quilted, trimmed and bound them.

Flatter was my friend for nice crisp fabrics and I glue basted the binding and sewed it down on the front by machine.  Much easier than hand stitching it down!

I have a few more to make but they have been really fun. 

 They would make cute mug rugs too  using just regular batting.  

I take my hubby in to the hospital tomorrow late afternoon for his kidney stone removal.  

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  

I am going to link up the Finish It Up Friday, if I can figure out how to do it with my phone.  

I am writing this a day early so hopefully I can figure it out tomorrow!

I leave you with a shot of Autumn trying her best to be a snowman!

Have a great weekend!!

~XOP~

Christmas Decorating

I spent time on Saturday, most of the day, getting the Christmas decorations out and the tree up. Hubby carried in all the bins full of Christmas cheer.  

He complained that we had too much but when I tried to get rid of something, he was not having it.  Last year he didn't want to help so I only put up the tree.  

Told him if he wasn't helping I wasn't doing.  

This year he was the one asking me if I was going to get it done and chomping at the bit to help me.  A change from last year to be sure!

I sometimes forget how much I love my decorations.  We did get the tree decorated. 

We also got the entire Santa collection put out too.

I have a ceramic Christmas tree that was gifted to my mom when I was a child.  

I loved this tree and it was always a treat to be able to choose where the lights went on it.  

Anyone know where you can get additional lights from?

We also came across this child swinging on a star that used to belong to my grandma. 

 I was wondering what happened to it and was so thrilled to find it in my Christmas things.  

Guess I must have taken it a long time ago and forgotten!  

Sorry for the bad photo!

I have made cross stitched Christmas stockings for my girls

 (the last one nearly did me in, took me 18 years to finish it!).  

I did a simpler version for my husband.

  Now I am wondering if I should make one for my son and one for myself.  

Here is what we have so far.

Mom and dad stockings (I love the cat one!)

Daughter number 1

Daughter number 2

Number one son

I also have an angel collection.  

When I was a girl, my mom and dad had this beautiful angel that went on the top of our tree. 

 She had a porcelain head and the most beautiful gauzy body and wings.  

One year, after I was married, my mom boxed her up and gave her to me.  

That was the beginning.  We were shopping at an antique shop and I found another, 

then another and, well, you can guess where that ended up!  

Now I pick them up when I see them.  

Here is my collection so far.  

I adore the angel in the bright pink feathers!

The angel under the lamp is one of a pair from my grandparents house too.  

I have been busy sewing too.  

We had a Secret Santa thing in the lab.  

I made a trivet to go along with the other gifts for my person.  

It turned out so cute. (again poor lighting)

I also finished another one that will be a gift and just need to bind 2 more.  

I have a few more to make so will show you those as I get them finished.  

The pattern if from Patchwork Please, love that book!

People on IG were asking me about how I finished them. 

 After paper piecing the top I cut a back and Insul-bright batting piece to fit the top,

 with extra all around like this.

I used a monofilament thread from Superior Threads to do the quilting.  

Then I trimmed the piece and put on the binding. 

 I sewed the binding to the back and turned to the front.  

I glue basted the binding around the front and then machine stitched the binding in place on the front, again, I used the monofilament thread.

I am so pleased with how this came out!  

I am making some jars of beer bread to go with the trivets.  

Just add beer, mix , pour 1/4 cup of melted butter over the top and bake.  Such great bread!

 I plan to get a bit more shopping finished today then hope to get all the wrapping finished this week.  Kelsey is home on Saturday and hubby has his "procedure" on Friday.  

How was your weekend? 

~XOP~

My New Great Niece and the Holly Dicken's Festival

My chenille blanket arrived and my new niece is now wrapped up in some love from me! 

 Isn't she a doll?

This weekend we did a little Christmas shopping and 

on Sunday we ended up in Holly for the Dicken's Festival.  

We try to go every year.  

There are characters from A Christmas Carol strolling around some were singing, some were acting.  Always fun.

There was a live nativity too.

I think this was the first year there was no snow. 

 I usually pick up a few "creepy elves" for my daughter but there was not a creepy elf to be found.  Sad.  I did spy a "Pansy bowl". 

 Have you ever seen them?  

My grandma had one, hers was green.  

You put Pansies in all the slots and eventually you end up with a beautiful Pansy ball. 

 I would love to find one of these.  

This one was close but the slots were a little big and it was not quite domed enough.

I did find this adorable reindeer but not creepy enough and my daughter said 

we are keeping to elves or angels or Santas.  

So I left him in the store.

I tried these odd felt animals but she said no go with those either.

I found the cutest apron. 

 I think, in the future, I may try to make one similar.  

Wouldn't this be adorable with Dresden plates along the hem?

Of course hubby liked this cuter apron. 

 He really wanted to get it for me, but between you and me, I think he had ulterior motives ; ) 

 It was kind of sassy!

On Saturday we did some thrifting in our shopping extravaganza and

 I found this great cake stand, still in the original box! 

 It is called Spirit of Christmas made by Portmeirion.

 I think it looks pretty Scandinavian, don't you?

Well that was my weekend, almost, in a nut shell. 

 I did get a couple of things cut out and ready to sew. 

 I REALLY need to get the Christmas decorations put up, the tree too. 

 Most of the Christmas shopping got done though and that's a great thing.  

I am making some things this year and we are cutting way back, obviously, 

since hubby is still unemployed.

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

Naughty Bunnies

I am in a naughty swap called bitchesgetstitchesswap.  

We are using bad language and some other fun things (as you saw in my last post) for our swap gifts.  I did use some of the bunny fabric to make the cutest little trivet for my swap partner. 

 It is from the book Patchwork Please.  

There are some fabulous patterns in this book. 

My friend Ayumi is the author.  

You can find her amazing book right here on Amazon.  

Since the naughty bunnies are the centerpiece I thought I should surround them with some overly sweet fabrics, maybe giving them some privacy eh? 

 So I choose Scrumptious for the fabrics (it also has the word scrump in it, giggle).  I

 used insulbright for the batting so it could be used for a trivet for something hot.  

You could also just use it for a mug rug. 

 So here is my little naughty trivet.

Here is what the back looked like before I sewed the binding down.  

I think it came out cute.  

Several of the co-workers that I showed it to did not realize what the bunnies were up to, so I think it is subtle enough not to be offensive to anyone that may see it. 

 Although if you are participating in this particular swap I would hope you are ready for whatever! 

 I think I may make some of these for Christmas gifts this year too.  

Would YOU be happy to receive one of these trivets?

(not with the naughty bunnies, just with pretty fabric).

I have another idea too for a mini quilt for my partner. 

 I don't think she views my blog so I will show you the embroidery I have planned.  

I am still contemplating how to make it into a mini quilt but I have some ideas.  

You know of my love of peacocks so this incorporates that.

I would embroider the peacock and the words (already traced on to fabric)

then do some kind of border.

I am considering some form of flying geese, probably from my friend Kelly's patterns.

I love her Goosing borders so that will probably be the one.

You may need her patterns too.  They are stunning!

I need to figure out a color scheme for the embroidery yet, but I am excited to get started.

I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Have a great weekend!

~XOP~