Catching Up and Getting Ahead

It's funny just when you think you are going to be able to get something done 

a million other things you want to do pop up!  Am I right?  

You know from my last post that I have a wedding quilt to make 

(actually I have three but this is the first of those).  

I promised my daughter I would make her this dress.  Now I actually have to do that! 

 I am going to make a practice dress first and take it to NC when we go then make the adjustments and figure out what I need to change.  You can order the pattern and fabric on Craftsy right here.

She is going to look adorable in this if I can figure it out.  I know one of my friends at the retreat (maybe more than one) knows about garment construction so maybe they can help me!

I have decided to join in the Snap Shots QAL on the Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber blog. 

 Here is my first block.  

I wish I had more contrast for the white part but live and learn!

I see that my partner in crime, Tracey, is looking for sprout blocks for a quilt for a friend with stage 4 ovarian cancer so I made 2 blocks for her last night too.   

This quilt block was designed by Tracey J Quilts and 

the quilt she made for a friend with cancer can be found here. 

 It is GORGEOUS! 

Seriously take a few minutes and go look at it.

Tracey is helping me run the Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap.  

I still need to design and make that mini quilt too!  

Right now here is the order of what I need to do:

1-Make a mock up of the dress- Finished dress must be to daughter by the end of March

2-Design and make my Tula Pink Mini Quilt which is due to be mailed March23

3-Make a wedding quilt to be gifted in May (then 2 in August)

4-Quilt the charity quilt I have pinned.

WHEW, I think I can I think I can!

All glorious WIP's!

What are you working on?

~XOP~

Cutting, Cutting and More Cutting

I was hoping to get an entire Fireworks quilt cut out and 

ready to bring to the upcoming retreat this coming weekend.  

It took me WAY longer than I anticipated to do all the cutting.  

Never mind I expanded the quilt and so made much more work for myself. 

 Yes I said never mind!  

I went up to my sewing room around noon.  

I emerged at 4 to grab a quick bite to eat then again at 7ish for dinner. 

My back had had enough at that point.  

I did manage to get all the stars cut out. 

I always seem to underestimate how long it will take to choose the fabrics, press all the fabrics and then do all the cutting.

This is what I started with.  Purple, gray and aqua.

That all got turned into these.

I realized just how few grays I actually have in my stash and I still need to use gray for my next quilt.

While I have a LOT of aqua I have very little that is lighter in color.

There were also many, and did I say MANY? strips of white that still need to be subcut.  

I am making progress though and it should be beautiful when it is done (if I live that long). 

 It's a good thing I love this girl!  

This is going to be a wedding quilt for one of my daughter's besties.  

I can't wait to actually begin the sewing.  

While I am being overly confident in my abilities to get everything done, I am also bringing a dress pattern to try to make a mock up of for my daughter.  

How do you sew for someone that is so far away?

I told her to message me her measurements so we will see how that goes.

I need to choose some mock up fabric to bring with me and go get a zipper.

I was wondering if anyone out there knows of any fabulous quilt shops in the Sarasota Florida area?

Looks like hubby and I will be going there next month to visit his dad and his wife.

Maybe Venice too, if I can convince him to take me there.

I love looking for sharks teeth along that beach!

How was your weekend?

~XOP~

A Piece of Your Heart

Today is Friday.  The day most of us look forward to every week.  

This week Friday was not a good morning.  It began last night.  My daughter raises peacocks.  

One of the pea hens that she searched for for a long time had a sinus infection.  

So she took her to the vet.  The vet drained it and gave my daughter antibiotics to give the bird.  

My daughter noticed that the bird was not using her leg and thought it might have been dislocated from all the scuffle of the day so took her back and had an x-ray done.  

No dislocation, but clearly something was wrong.  

So he sent her home with an anti-inflammatory drug to give the bird.  

So my daughter held the bird and tried to give her the medicine and 

heard a "snap", yes, she broke her leg! 

I received a panicked call and a "mom I don't want to be alone can you come over" call.  

I packed up and drove to her house.  

The bird was quiet so we decided to let her stay calm and go to the vet again in the morning.  

This morning.  They did another x-ray and the leg was not just broken it is shattered.  

Considering the bird still has an infection and another hurt let, the vet did not advise surgery. 

 He was worried she would still not be able to use it and t

hat with the sinus infection it was likely she would become septic anyway. 

 Shelby decided to let her go.  It is always so difficult to make that decision. 

 It was the right decision, you don't want them to suffer.  

My heart breaks a little bit every time we go through this. 

Her birds are pets, part of the family, part of our hearts.  

So Godspeed Oksana.  

Go to the big lake pen run by Osirus.  

Keep Octavian, Luna and Gizmo company and play with your friends there. 

 You will be missed.

~XOP~

Finish It Up Friday

I have a finish today.  

I am part of the Bitchesgetstitches swap.  

I showed you the trivet I made for that swap already.  

I decided to make a mini quilt for my partner.  

She didn't have much put in her Instagram feed for ideas so 

I just decided to make something I would love to receive.  

What else do you do right?  I finished the binding last night (after all the drama).  

So here is the mini quilt for my partner.  

I am really thrilled with how it turned out.  I did my own quilting.  

The geese were paper pieced from a pattern my friend Kelly has on Craftsy.  

You can see the stitchery better in this photo.  

I used metallic thread which makes the stitches look a little choppier but he is so sparkly!

This is the top all finished before I quilted it.

I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday post too.

What do you think of this?  Would you be happy to receive it as a mini quilt for your wall?  

~XOP~

Wip Wednesday

I want to share what I am working on at the moment. 

I have a mini quilt I need to finish for my Bitches get stitches swap partner.  

You have all seen Mr Peacock and his attitude!  

Well I am working on the quilting part of this now.  

I decided that I wanted to quilt a grid on the center of the quilt, approximately 1 1/2" apart.  

What is the easiest way to do this?  

Well, if you ask me? Tape.  Here is what I mean.  

I measured and then put down the tape.  I used the edge of the tape to guide my quilting.  

No marking to remove and I can re-use the tape many times.

You can see the grid is emerging nicely. 

The first piece of tape I put on was corner to corner diagonally to begin the grid.

That also anchored the three layers together. 

I did spray baste this as it was a small piece.

I will usually pin baste larger quilts.

This is my helper.  

Although she is really more of a pest than a help!

How do you get things done with your pets "helping"?

Oh Autumn!

You can see what the grid looks like all quilted up.  

If you look at the corners you can see the purple marking pen I used to mark the quilting.

I made quarter square triangles for the corners.

This is the back and you can see the quilting around the geese better in this photo.

Now all I have to do is trim it up and bind it!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

What are your WIP's?

~XOP~

Instagram Friends In Real Life

I received a phone call from my friend Windy last week.  

She wanted to know if she could come over and spend the night!  

She had a shopping trip planned over my way, so that was GREAT!!  

We became friends via Instagram.  

When I was driving back and forth to GR to see my dad, she lived there too so we got to meet IRL.  We became instant friends!  

She has even MORE cats than I do!!!  I have 4 but she has 8!!!!! 

 I had to laugh, my cats are not super friendly to those they don't know but they loved all over Windy!

She could not get rid of Hallie!  She was making her hexies with Hallie on her lap the whole time!

We visited the Salvation Army and made a stop to JAF.  

I picked up these goodies at JAF, so happy.  Now I can mark my mini quilt for quilting!

I managed to score a sweet new cat carrier at the SA too!!

I did a lot of great stuff over last weekend but will need to share that another day!  Maybe tomorrow!

~XOP~

Weekend Update and Wednesday WIP

I actually had quite a productive weekend!  

I managed to add two rows to the stitch and flip charity quilt.  

That top is now ready for making into a quilt and donated.  I just have to figure out how to quilt it.  

I did some cooking.  Pigs in a blanket.

Individual chicken pot pies

I finished embroidering my peacock for my swap partner

Working with sparkly thread is more difficult!

Then I finished the top too.  

I got the side geese made but one was incorrect.  

I must have printed the paper piecing incorrectly.  

I ended up having to remake one set of the geese to put the whole top together. 

I tried to trim it down but that didn't work.  

It was kind of close on the side but I just didn't have the heart to discard it.

So I used it on the back!  

One of the points is cut off due to my earlier trimming, but it's on the back.

I figured my partner would not care and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away!

Did laundry, and grocery shopping, went to Cabela's with hubby and then a quilt shop.  

All in all it was a great weekend, but I wish I had one more day at home.

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday too.

How did you spend your weekend?

~XOP~

Friday Finish

I couldn't talk about this one before Christmas but I can now! 

 I made yet another Christmas stocking to join the other 2 I did last year for my nephew and his wife.  They had a beautiful baby girl and I got to make her a stocking to match her mama and papa's. 

 I got to work with my favorite blue and gold color combination (NOT).

I used the pattern found here to make it. 

 I always put off making things that are not quilts. 

They give me anxiety and I fret about how things will turn out. 

 I did the patchwork then laid out the stocking pattern to cut it out.

Here it is all cut out and ready to make.

I am really happy with how this turned out. 

 Although Katherine is a l-o-n-g name to fit on the front of a stocking! 

 I told them to name their next one a shorter name!! LOL

Here is her daddy's stocking

Her mama's stocking

And baby makes three!!

I'm linking  up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up Friday.

~XOP~

Working On A Swap Project

The deadline is quickly approaching for a swap that I am in.  

Autumn is praying that I will finish it in time.

I did begin the embroidery portion of the mini quilt and this is the outer border,

 or one of them anyway.  

I am using a pattern by my friend Kelly.  

You can find it here if you want to make awesome wavy goose borders for something too.  

I had to make 8 of these for my project and they took me most of a day to get them all finished. 

 I graded them by shade then decided that I should have made 2 more but 

if I do that now they won't grade.  

This just means that the outer 4 corners will be white, but I'm going with

 "it's a design decision" not a brain bubble.  Right?

I am going to link up with a Lovely Year of Finishes and

 this is the project I want to complete for January.
I am also linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

I also decided that I most certainly did NOT have enough things of my own to do so decided to host a Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap over on Instagram.  

Sign ups are complete and I am working with my friend, Tracey, to get this organized and to get partners assigned.

It should be a lot of fun and hopefully not too much work!  What have you been up to?

~XOP~

Welcome 2015

I would like to take a few minutes to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!  

Last year was not my favorite year to be sure but 

I am hopeful that this year will be better for me and my family.  

Many people out in blogland and on Instagram are choosing a word to help define their year. 

 I was not sure what word to choose but I am pretty sure it will be hopeful.  

That word has a lot of promise involved with it don't you think?

I have also been thinking about resolutions for the new year. 

 I believe I am just going to work on being a better person and 

tending more to those closest to me and let the rest fall into place.  

I feel like I am at a crossroads of sorts in my life right now.  

It is looking more and more like hubby will just retire rather than search out a new job (lucky him!) and that means I need to carefully consider where this quilting hobby of mine is going. 

 I have been working on designing and publishing my designs, 

but now I am uncertain if that is the direction I should be going.  

If I just sew for myself then I feel I will have more time for my family.  

I am hopeful that God has a plan and I need to slow down long enough to hear what that is.  

All that being said, I do have some things to share with you!  

I began a project as a Leader and Ender and just decided to get on with it.  

Here is the process/progress

I have been saving all those crazy triangles we cut off of everything.  

Then I cut some 5" squares out of a line of fabric I happened to have quite a bit of.  

As I was working on other things I would grab a square and a triangle and sew them like this.

Then I pressed all the triangles and trimmed them to the original 5" square size. 

 I did not cut the original square fabric away like many do.  

Yes it is a little bulkier but it makes sewing things together much easier.  

A trick I learned from Anne Sutton!

I was curious how it was going to look so I laid out a few blocks.

 Finally I sewed the blocks together and made this sweet little baby quilt top.  

I think I am going to add 2 more rows though.  It will be a donation quilt to Mott Children's hospital.

If there is anyone out there that would like the rest of my left over triangles send me and email with your mailing address and I would happily send them to you.  

I did have some help last night as I was attempting to sew some paper pieced geese.  

It always scares me when she is so close to the needle.  

This is behind my machine. 

 I am not sure why this is the favorite spot but it is. 

 I think because it is directly under my Ott light and close enough for a few pets!

So there you have it.  I am still not feeling very well but had to go back to work today anyway!

Have you made any New Year resolutions?

~XOP~