WIPs With Friends

I have to confess I have not been doing much sewing of late.  

I received my nephew's quilt back from the quilter and she did a FABULOUS job, as usual. 

 The wedding is August 13th so I will show a sneak peek at the end of this post.  

We have our great nieces and nephew in town for a few weeks, 

staying with grandma (my husband's sister).  

Last night when I got home they were all in my family room!  

The girls rushed over to me and gave me the biggest hug! 

 They are the sweetest. 

Christian decided that he really needed to try out our vacuum!  

Who was I to say no?

 We took them to dinner to meet up with their grandma and their aunt and uncle and their 2 girls.  

We took over the dining area at the local Culvers!  

My eldest daughter joined us so it was quite a party!!

We decided to take the three back to Shelby's farm and let them play with the animals.

  Well, Beep was none too sure about this invasion of the littles!

Out came the babies.  Grace was holding the baby peacock. 

Christian was the first one to hold one of the snakes.

 Then Shelby brought out the BIG snake. 

 Grace and Christian were not too sure but Jo was all about it.

Looks like we have a little Herpetologist to be in the family.

Jo watched everything that Shelby did with the snake and decided to mimic her.

Take a look at Jo's face at the end of the video.

PRCELESS!

OK if you stayed through all of that you deserve that sneak peek I was talking about, but shhhhhh don't share this photo!  I still have a LOT of hand stitching left to do on that binding!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social

Now it's your turn.  Link up with WIPs With Friends and show us what you are working on.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Finish It Up Friday

Well hello! 

 It has been a super crazy work week for me with very little energy left over for sewing.

I knew I needed to get those Onsies finished so I concentrated on doing that.  

I managed to get them all sewn around.

I like to use the scribble method, LOL. 

 I put my free motion quilting foot on and use some black Auriful 50 weight thread and go to town. 

 It takes me way less time then blanket stitching around each thing 

and I actually love the finished look.  

I have had several people tell me I should sell these in my ETSY shop 

but I'm not sure I have time for all that!  

Tell me what YOU think.

Here they are, sort of grouped together.

Some more close up photos.  L to R top to bottom:  

Whale, Hermit Crab, Stingray, Puffer fish, Otter and Flounder

Platypus, Dolphin, Trout, Sand Dollar, Octopus, and Starfish

Shark, Jellyfish, Squid and Narwhal

These are the only things I worked on all week.  

I have joined the Pokemon Go movement along with my family.

It has gotten ALL of us out walking more.

We  have been enjoying playing.

I have the wedding quilt back from the quilter so need to work on the binding.

I REALLY need to get to work on the Hallowedding quilt too. 

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

Enjoy your weekend!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

You may remember that I was going to a baby shower for my niece this past Saturday.  

I was helping throw the shower so decided to have us make some Onsies for the baby to be.  

The theme of the nursery is whales (pink and navy) 

so I went with using a Under-the-sea theme for the onsies.  

I found lots of coloring book pages of Under-the-sea animals and sea life. 

 I narrowed them down to the ones I thought would translate into making Onsie appliques.  

I bought several different sizes of Onsies, and both long and short sleeves.  

Ahead of time, I traced the designs onto fusible (remember to do this using the reverse of the design!)  I flipped my papers over and put them on the light box (aka the window) 

and traced them onto the fusible.  

Next I chose fabrics to make the design.  

I rough cut out the pieces of fusible and fused them to the desired fabrics. 

 I roughly cut the fabric out, but not the individual pieces.  

I put the Onsie, the coloring page and the fused fabric into a Ziploc.  

I had the coloring book page facing out so when I laid them all out 

the guests would be able to choose by the drawings.

I brought scissors (small ones), a table top ironing board and an iron with me the day of the shower.

People came up to the table and selected a design and took it back to their table.  

Once there they took out the fabric that had the fusible design on it and cut it out, ON THE LINE.  Once they were finished with that they brought them back to me.  

I had them remove the paper and place the pieces according to the design they had chosen.  

It was so much fun!  

I took them home to stitch around but here is what they look like before I stitch them.

Narwhal and Otter

Stingray and Jellyfish

Dolphin and Sand Dollar

I guess I have my work cut out for me to get them all stitched around!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social

What have you been working on?

Please join the link up and share!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Q3 Finish Along, The Proposed Finishes

I have a few things on my list of things to finish.  Here we go.

1-Mark and Karly's wedding quilt.  I can't show photos since they can see my posts on FB.

2-Onsies from the baby shower. 

 I have the shower this weekend so hope to get them back and work on them then.

3-Repeat of the shower gifts.

4-  Hallowedding quilt, my take on this quilt, but for my daughter's wedding.

(the photo is not of my quilt, but from the Epic Halloween quiltalong on Flying Parrots Quilts)

5-get the cat quilt patterns written and ready to sell.

6-Finish the baby peacock quilt 

This is my list.  Sorry not more photos but some are waiting to be published.

Linking to the Q3 FAL.

~XOP~

Finish It Up Friday

I had a couple of finishes this week, but they weren't quilts!  

First I want to share these adorable Fox sewing kits my friend at Crazy Quilt Girl has for sale.  

This is what is inside the kit.  

The scissors are color coded to match the color of the fox too.  

If you are interested you can leave your pay pal address here and I will forward on to her since she doesn't have them listed in her shop just yet. 

 They are $8 shipped or $5 if you can pick them up from me.  

They would make cute gifts for friends that sew.  They are great little "extras" for swap partners too!

One of my finishes is this adorable Hula Hoop dress.  

It was easier than I expected and now I want to  "Make all the dresses", LOL

I even made the buttonholes!!  Pretty steep learning curve here though.

My friend, Robin also has this pattern and she made the dress 

using the Heather Ross strawberry fabric.  

So cute!

In the dress listing on ETSY there is a fox dress. 

 Unfortunately, that version was not included in the pattern.  

So...I improvised my own version of the fox dress.  

I put a bow on the back too

I will be gifting these on Saturday.  I hope she likes them!

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

Have a wonderful weekend and make time for your family.  

In this crazy world you never know what will happen next!

~XOP~

Happy Birthday To Me!

Monday was my birthday.  I have a fantastic birthday...7/11. 

 Free Slurpees on my birthday for everyone!!!

We went to Pink Castle and I bought some great fabric.

I ran into Brenda and she gave me a couple of charm packs of her new fabric,
One room Schoolhouse.
Isn't it pretty??

I had to work all day but I went out for dinner with my wonderful family.  

Three of my friends gave me some fabric for my birthday.

Judith gave me this Charm Pack.
It is the Spring Kaffe fabrics from 2016 and my friend Dianne sent the adorable cat FQ.

Robin  "shopped her stash"which is extensive, I must say!  

I made out pretty well from these friends!

Hubby and I went shopping on our way to GR and I picked up a few more things

The BIG birthday gift though was a new serger!!! 

 I have a couple of friends that have this machine.  

My thoughts were that if I got the same one I could ask for help should I need it.

I have her unboxed but have not had time to watch the CDs to see how it works.  

Wish me luck!

There was no cake for my birthday, but this was a pretty good gift!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

It's that time again.  Time to share the things you are working on with everyone!  

I have been madly sewing away on some little dresses. 

 I can't show you just yet as the baby shower is on Saturday, but soon! 

 I found the cutest pattern for some diaper covers and it just happened to be on sale too.

I'm thinking the dresses need matching diaper covers.

Isn't this the cutest?

Even though I can't share the dress I can share one of the fabrics. 

 Isn't this adorable? 

The fabric is called Wild Thyme.   

This dress is almost finished, just need to add the button holes and the buttons 

(I hate making buttonholes)  

Anyone out there know how to use the 3A foot on a Bernina 170 so it's automatic?  

Anyone?

I did manage to make some charity blocks and you can see them behind Autumn in this picture. 

 I get to turn them in at the guild meeting tonight.  

They are the red white and blue ones.

Last but not least, I saw this idea on Facebook. 

 It is an old sewing machine table turned into an entertainment table!  

GREAT idea right?

  Sometimes you find these old tables really cheap at the thrift shops.  

Often there are no machines, so...entertainment table!! 

 I am so going to be on the look out for one of these!
This one can be found on Angie's blog right here.
Go check it out and tell her Mama Spark sent you

Linking up to Let's Bee Social

OK now it's your turn to link up!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

WIPs With Friends

I have ventured into doing some garment making of late. 

 I have decided to try making a dress for an expected little girl. 

 I have a shower in a few weeks and since the grandma has already made EVERYTHING that baby will need, I decided to make a few dresses. 

 I found a great pattern on ETSY. 

 It's called the Hula Hoop Dress.  

If you want to make one too you can buy the pattern right here. 

(photo from the pattern pictures on ETSY)

My dress making skills are a little rusty, but I am going to try.  

The buttonhole will be the most difficult as 

I have never made these in all the time I have owned my Bernina! 

 Can you believe that??  

I am making a practice dress first. 

 I got it all cut out last night. 

Of course I had supervision, although she was laying down on the job!

 Peachy Pearl Bracelets for the skirt.

Pairs perfectly with some Fig Tree fabric for the top. 

 I have big plans for making at least a couple of these if this one turns out.

Now it is time for you to share with us what you are working on.  Please link up.
  I am linking up with Let's Bee Social

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Fourth of July Weekend

Our Fourth of July was pretty quiet and calm. 

 On Friday we celebrated with our friend Roy, his 95th birthday!  Quite an accomplishment.

On Saturday, we were invited to Austin lake to visit with my husband's family.  

His brother and his wife and their kids, live there and we usually get together over the holiday.  

This year, Andy, my husband's brother, called him and asked him if he would like to fly from Jackson to Kalamazoo with him in the airplane he had built. 

 My husband is a pilot and jumped at the chance to not only fly but fly with his little brother. 

 My husband is the oldest of the 7 kids and Andy is the youngest.  

This is the little plane that Andy built.

His sister Julie rode with us and she took a turn sitting in the cock pit, Hi Julie!

Here is my hubby in the white shirt and his brother in the pilot seat.

Here they are taking off!  I drove with Julie and my son the rest of the way to Kalamazoo.

 We made it to Austin lake and several of the brothers and sisters were there.  

We were missing 2 families.

We had such a lovely time!  My son set off some fireworks but Mother Nature had plans of her own!

I hope that if you are an American you celebrated our Independence day. 

 Freedom is especially dear, knowing so many gave their lives for us to have the freedoms we enjoy.

God Bless America!

~XOP~