Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap

I know you all have heard me say this before but, THIS, this little quilt right here, 

is the reason I do mini quilt swaps!!!  The talent out there is astounding!

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing this little gem is!  The background is all pieced.  

The rosette is hand pieced!  

She did a fabulous job on the quilting too.  Just look at how cute the label is too.

She even included the selvedge!!  

Swaps can be hit or miss to be sure.  

I have received some that I thought were just ok but the last 2 I received were just amazing. 

 If you want to see some amazing mini's take a look at the hashtags on Instagram:

#tulapinkminiquiltswap

#tpmqspinkteam

#tpmqstulateam

Even Tula Pink herself noticed!  She wants to put them all together in a slide show!!!  

Isn't that exciting?!  

The group of women in this swap was outstanding.  

I am so happy that my friend Tracey decided to co-host with me too.  

It is always more fun to do things with a friend!!!

I did work on the BIG purple and gray wedding quilt this past weekend too 

so will show my progress on that on Wednesday.

~XOP~

My Weekend

I had a fabulous weekend beginning on Friday.  

I went out on a quick shop hop with my friend Windy.  

We met in Pinckney and made our way back to Lansing.  

She brought me some fabric she had found for me.  

Tula Pink!!

I did pick up a few cool green and purple prints.  I'm still looking for purples for the 2 wedding quilts

I found this older AMH print too. A great score!

I also managed to score some Elizabeth.  I got a little bit in Mason, at Keans.

I got an entire FQ bundle plus some of the queen in yardage at Pink Castle Fabrics

It was totally a great fabric score kind of day!!  I have more to share but no more time. 

 My mini quilt arrived from the Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap, but that deserves it's own post!!

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

Playing with A Charm Pack

Have you just ever wanted to create something quick out of a Charm Pack?  Me too! 

 I needed to work some designs up that use a charm pack for a challenge coming up in my guild. 

 I am one of the Charity Chair people and this is what we are doing.  

Make a quilt (36" x 48") using a Charm pack and whatever fabric you want to add.

I decided to experiment with sewing 4 charm squares together, then cutting the 4 patch diagonally. 

 I sewed that into a HST block and then set it as pinwheels.  

The HST block was 9.5" so it makes a HUGE pinwheel.  

The only problem is that the center square gets the "point" chopped off.  

I figure as long as they are all the same it is a design decision. 

 Am I right? 

Here is one of the blocks I made. 

I plan on making 4 of these blocks and then a small border of the cream grunge on the sides, 

with larger top and bottom, 

maybe with some pieced borders for the top and bottom to make it long enough.  

These certainly are quick to do and I really like how it looks.  

I forgot how much I love this cream (with undertones of pink and brown) Grunge 

(by Basic Grey for Moda).  

Actually, I think the entire Grunge is underrated.  I love the subtle variations in this fabric line!  

The charm pack I am using is from the Kissing Booth line by Basic Grey.  

The cream with the pink and brown was part of that line. 

 From time to time Basic Grey make a Grunge or two for specific lines but

 there are basics that are carried all the time.  The light pink Grunge in this line is fabulous too!

I will have most of a charm pack left so will attempt to make another charm friendly quilt with those. I have a design in mind so will keep you posted.  

I would like to hear what you think of this block. 

 If you would like me to take photos of how I did this and a quick tutorial I can do that too. 

 Although it is pretty straight forward!

Linking up to Lee's blog over at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Have a great day!!

~XOP~

The Dress Is Finished

Yes you read that correctly!  I actually got the dress completely, 100% finished this weekend.  

It took me most of Saturday and Sunday to do it but it is complete.  

It is even in the mail now headed to my daughter in NC. 

 I can't believe I agreed to make another one for her.  What was I thinking???  

Well maybe at least the second one should be easier right?

Would you like to see some shots of this dress?  

OK here goes.  This was me hand sewing the lining down on the inside. 

 Only to realize when I went to press it that on the other side, 

(yes I know, the front of the dress in the center, of course) was a pucker!  

So I had to rip out the stitching I had just finished, rip out the seam, 

resew the seam then re-sew the lining.  

This is a view of the dress all finished.  Or is it?

No, wait, I need to add a couple of embellishments.  I put these cute little white flowers on the sleeve.

Oh, and also some on the back of the neck.  JIC she happens to wear her hair up.

Now it is all finished.  I sure hope she gets some photos of herself wearing this dress for me!

This is the back.  Zipper and all.

I also managed to finish my Tula Pink mini quilt this weekend and 

it is all packaged up and ready to send off to my partner.  

I did get a few other things accomplished too but will share later.  

Next up is to get that wedding quilt top put together!  

I managed to squeeze in some grocery shopping, cooking and laundry this weekend too. 

 Thought Auntie Dianne might enjoy seeing her Aiden getting a drink too.  

Lots of cat time this weekend.

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

Last Block Finished!

I finished the last block for the purple and gray wedding quilt last night.  

I have one more block cut out.  

My friend, Rebekah, who has directed this quilt production, assures me that I need to make that and one more for pillows! 

 HA!  I will see if I have time for that.  

Here is the last block for the quilt. 

 You may or may not have noticed that every pair is opposite each other.  

The pattern has you cut out a "star" and also the center and corners to make 2 blocks.  

I didn't use the same fabrics together in both of the blocks though, I mixed them up.

More of the chemical structure fabric in this block for the future doctor.

I also saw this recently on FB and thought I would share with you all. 

I want to be this woman.  

I don't want to require validation in my quilting world to drive my life.  

I strive every day to do what I love.  

I work hard to be my own person and be happy in my life. 

 I think most of us do that.  

I struggle every day with not getting caught up in the competition of quilting. 

 The "I have to publish", or get sponsors etc.  

I try to stay grounded. 

Sometimes it is not easy. 

 I was actually thinking about this the other day. 

 Sometimes it is nice to just make beautiful things from other people's patterns.  

I work full time and don't really have a lot of extra time.  

I want to balance spending time with my family and quilting. 

 I don't think anyone in the quilting community will miss me as much as my family when I am gone.  So it is important to make time for them too.  Deadlines are not good friends for this.  

I am striving to get better at doing what I love, making, and less time worrying 

about the competition of quilting.  

Maybe no one else is struggling with this, maybe some of you are. 

 If you have any tips on how you handle it please feel free to share with the rest of us!

I love to create and to make beautiful things.  That is enough.

~XOP~

WIP Wednesday

I am working like mad to get my Tula Pink Mini Quilt ready to send out for my swap partner.

I finally had some time to do the quilting on it and now just need to do the binding. 

 I can't show the front as I want it to be a surprise for my partner.  

I will show a little about how I did the quilting though for anyone that might be interested. 

 I decided to do concentric circles. 

 I love how this looks when done and the quilt is small enough that 

I thought I could manage this myself.   

I used a circle from the Perfect Circle set (the bigger one) to do the first circle.  

I used a purple disappearing marking pen to make the first circle.  

I took the picture when the pen still showed up.

This is part of the way finished, from the back.  

I used my walking foot to guide the quilting lines as I went along.  

I also used Superior Threads Monofilament thread to do the quilting. 

 I didn't want to use a dark gray over the light squares on the front and 

I didn't want to use a light color on the dark gray. 

 My lines are not perfect so let's not accent that = )

I also decided to just quilt over the label so I didn't have to sew it on.  

I hate sewing on labels!  

I used some Elmer's School Glue on the back of the label, placed the label where I wanted it on the back of the quilt and then  heat dried it with my iron.  

Once I knew it was in place 

I was able to keep quilting on the front and quilt the label right into the quilt!

After I finished I decided that froggy needed additional quilting. 

 I took out a few more of the Perfect Circles and drew in those lines. 

 It was too difficult to guide those small circles without lines.  

You can see the purple lines if you look closely.  I like it MUCH more with the additional quilting!

Next up was the binding.  I cut this print on the bias just because I like how it looks. 

 I managed to get it attached and there it is.  

I just have to turn and sew it down and it will be all ready to go in the mail.  

I sure hope my partner likes it.  

I really love how it came out and will share with you all once it has been received.  

I hope this helps someone give circular quilting a try. 

 It is kind of fun and pretty easy on smaller things.  

I'm not sure how I would feel about doing a big quilt on my domestic machine though.

I will be linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

Have a stitchy kind of day!

~XOP~

Asking For Prayers and Possible Donations

I have a very dear friend that lost a very young cousin last Friday.  

His name was Jacob.  

He was a husband and father to three small children. 

 He was in a semi-truck accident and was killed. 

 He was only 23 years old. 

 His wife does not work and Jacob was the sole source of income for his family.

There has been a Go Fund Me page set up for his family. 

 If you have the resources to do so I know the family would appreciate a donation.  

This is the page that has been set up for donations

Thank you my friends!

~XOP~

Weekend Update

I was fairly productive this past weekend. 

I managed to finish another block for the wedding quilt.

Of course my helper was back again.  Pest.

She needed to be closer of course as sitting on the back of the table was not good enough!

Do you remember the aqua rolling cart hubby put together for me?  

The one I got at IKEA?

Well, I had the brilliant idea to place my table top ironing board on top of it! 

 Now I can cut on my table and have the ironing board right next to me too (Can you say #lazy?)  

It worked like a charm!

I made some progress on the dress for my daughter.  

I took it all apart, did the alterations, and altered the pattern for next time 

(yes you read that correctly).  

I also got the bodice lined and the skirt part sewn back together.  

I have the bodice pinned to the skirt all ready to sew together too.  

No pictures though as it was dark when I got finished.

I also made some of the Weight Watcher Cabbage Soup that is zero points. 

 I love that soup.  

It sure makes a nice lunch for the week 

and keeps my points low!  

Win-win, right?  

So far I have lost almost 10 pounds in 4 weeks.  

I plan to go for the big loss this time, 

so kind thoughts and positive energy this way would be appreciated!

I managed to get the quilting finished on my mini quilt this weekend too, 

but will save those pictures for tomorrow. 

 I have one last block to make and then I can lay out the wedding quilt.  

I hope to be able to put that whole top together next weekend.  

I will only let myself work on that on the weekend if I can get the dress finished first. 

 That has a more emergent deadline.

What are you working on?

~XOP~

Pre Weekend

I was so proud of myself getting another block finished. 

 I posted it on IG, tagged the fabric designer and 

I was so excited that I got all the one way fabric to go the same way. 

 OOPSIE, how embarrassing.  

I sewed the entire center upside down.  UGH!  

So I stayed up late, ripped it out, and sewed it in correctly!

Ah, there we go, much better!

A little doggy humor lest you think I only talk about the cats.

Hoping to get to the dress this weekend and quilt up my mini quilt.

What are you up to?

~XOP~

Progress Is Being Made

As much as I keep saying I have to do, progress is actually being made. 

 Last night I worked on one of the blocks I had cut out and finished it!!!  I

 made significant progress on the second block as well.

Maybe it was all the help I had?

Have a wonderful day and happy sewing!

~XOP~

Is It Time To Panic Yet?

I believe the answer to that question is YES it most certainly is! 

 I had the pleasure of attending a bridal shower this past weekend for 

a very dear friend of my daughter's.  

Kara is not only a beautiful girl on the outside but she is so much like my daughter,

 I just love her to death.  

She is studying to be a pediatric cardiologist!  I wish her and her hubby to be all the best!

As I was wrapping the gift we bought her it came to my attention that 

the sheet set was for a king sized bed. 

 WHAT??  

My daughter had told me queen sized. 

 That's the size I was planning to make for the wedding gift.  

But...I have all the blocks done.  

They are all laid out carefully into rows.  

GAH, time to make more blocks, sigh.

  Don't you hate when that happens? 

 You had a carefully made plan and it gets shot all to he**?  

So as we were driving home from the shower ( a 2 hour drive and hubby had come with me) 

hubby suggested stopping at a quilt shop in Fenton, the Quilter's Garden.  

Well, who am I to say no to that? 

 I needed more gray if I was going to have more blocks to make. 

 I seem to be using the gray up as fast as I bring more in lately and 

need it for another wedding quilt I have to make for this year too.  

So these were the gray fabrics I bought.

I also need purple for both of the wedding quilts so bought some of these batiks.  

I could not resist as they remind me of one of my all time favorite lines, 

Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House.  

Although I don't think she would like this as they are so close to her line.

Some in my colors.

I did get another 6 blocks all cut out for the wedding quilt. 

 I was especially happy to find the chemical structure fabric for the aspiring doctor! 

 I am going to add this to WIP Wednesday too over at Freshly Pieced.

So Aiden would also like to say hello to her favoirte Auntie Dianne.  

MEOW!

Have a wonderful day!!

~XOP~