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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

WIPs With Friends

How is it Wednesday already?  
I don't know about you guys but this WIPs with friends keeps me sewing during the week.  
I need something to be able to show here right? 
 I have continued to work on the Hallowedding blocks.  
I have 2 more blocks done!

First up is the potion bottle


Over the weekend I managed to get half of a bat completed.


I finished the bat on Monday.  
This one is 6" x 12".  It is from the Midnight Bite pattern by Lillyella.  
You can find it in her Craftsy shop, or on her blog or ETSY, or her Payhip here.  
This is the small bat. 
 I still need to make the medium and the large ones.  


I did manage to get my Bee blocks completed also.


 Autumn had to test them out and contribute her fur.


She has found a teeny bit of empty space in one of the IKEA cubbies full of fabric and decided that was a fine place to take a cat nap!


The only problem after all that sewing (especially the paper piecing) is that it kills my wrist. 
 I think it is all the trimming. 
 Holding the ruler with my left hand just sends my wrist into so much pain.  Ice seems to help though.


I am linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts too.
OK so now it is your turn.  Link up what you have been working on so we can all see.

~XOP~


You've heard of Words With Friends?  This is WIPs With Friends.
Add your latest WIP to the link up.
Then visit the person next to you in the link up and leave a comment.
We all love comments!
You will inspire and be inspired and maybe make a new friend.
I can't wait to see what you are up to!


Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Sewing With Friends

A few times a year I get together with my friends Robin and Judith at Robin's home to sew.  
We have been choosing a project and then spend the day working on it. 
 Last time it was a wedding quilt for a co-worker.  
This time they decided they wanted me to show them how to make oven mitts.  
I have been using this online tutorial to make the once I have done in the past. 
 So they printed this out and selected their fabric and we all met at Robin's house on Saturday.
  I see Skip To My Lou has a new tutorial out also for a little bit different oven mitt pattern 
and that one can be found here.  

First up was choosing my own fabrics. 
 I selected this fun fish fabric by Michael Miller for the outside of one set of mitts.
  I used fabric from The Lovely Hunt by Lizzy House to make the bias binding.


For my other set I chose these math themed prints with a mint bias binding.  
My middle daughter has chosen these colors for her kitchen (and her BF is an architect).  
Of course my helper had to check things out!


I love this math fabric!


I decided to do "wavy" quilting on the fish mitts.  
I really like how it came out and it was super easy! 
 I enlarged a stitch on my machine and it did the waves for me. 


First set of mitts completed!


Robin and Judith and I were on the screened in porch.  
Robin had a station set up for each of us. 
 This was later in the day.  
We stopped for lunch during the thunderstorm and this was when we got back to it.


Here are my four mitts finished.


From left to right.  Robin made the gold ones for part of a wedding gift.  
The couple chose Kate Spade gold dots on white for the dishes.  
The 2 fish mitts are mine.  
The French Provincial is Judith's and the math ones are mine.  


We had a fabulous time sewing and gabbing and eating.  I am excited for our next little retreat!

What were you up to this weekend?

~XOP~


Friday, August 26, 2016

Finish It Friday


I don't have an entire project complete but 
I am concentrating on the things I am finishing for the Hallowedding quilt.  
Each block is it's own mini project (and they all take a lot of time so far!) 
 I managed to finish the one potion bottle last night.  
Can you even believe it took me 2 hours to make this little block?  
I love it though.  
I think the line fabric reminds me of smoke coming from the potion in the bottle.
If you would like to make one too the pattern is free here.
(www.fandominstitches.net)


 As usual my helper was a BIG help!


Now let's try this again.  
If you have a finish please link it up!

The linky button will be under my name and it is blue from inlinkz.
~XOP~



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

WIPs With Friends

How is it already Wednesday already?? 
 I have made some progress on my spiders and even made another block!  
I know you are dying to see the spiders so here you go!

Pattern is by Flying Parrot Quilts and you can find her link on her blog here.  
Now on to the photos.

First up is the small one.


Then the medium sized one


Followed by the GIGANTIC one


Now you can see them in relation to each other.


 I also managed to finish the cauldron block.


I did have some help and it was thirsty work!  


I have some bee blocks to get done.  Maybe I will have them for next week!
I'm also linking up with Let's Bee Social

Now it's your turn to link up what you are working on!!

The linky will be open for 24 hours after I post.

~XOP~




Friday, August 19, 2016

Finish It Friday

I see that Amanda Jean has taken the month of August off, so I will put in a link up for finishes.  Hopefully you will all have something to share!   
I can't promise that I will always have a finish, LOL but I do have a BIG one this week.  
I finally get to share the wedding quilt!!!  
My nephew (and Godson) got married last Saturday and this quilt was for him and his wife. 
 I used the same colors I did for the quilt I made his dad but added some Kona Snow. 
 I am so pleased with how it turned out!!


Here are a few close ups of the quilting.  Kathy from Thread Bear Quilting did a fantastic job!



Notice the little green and white bit on the binding.  The rest of the binding is charcoal.


Love this quilting!


I made the back all gray and then used up a few of the left over HST to make one colorful strip.
I incorporated the hand embroidered label in the strip.


I love how the label turned out!


Here it is all "wrapped" up and ready to gift.  



Ok so now it's your turn.  
Show us what your finishes are!  
If you click on the blue Inlinkz button you can link a blog post showing what you have finished.
(It is under my signature)
The link is active for 24 hours after I put it up.

~XOP~






Wednesday, August 17, 2016

WIPs With Friends

That's right, it's time for another installment of WIPs With Friends.  
I will share what I have been working on and then you link up and share what you are working on.  Deal?

I have finally begun seriously working on the Hallowedding quilt.  
You saw the candy corn and witch's hats that I had made already.  I made a few more candy corn.


Autumn was exhausted watching me work on my spider.  There are three of these in the quilt. 
 I started with the smallest one first.


Here it is from the back in all it's paper pieced glory.


It looks even better from the front!


 Next up is the medium spider block.  
You can see that I wrote the fabric sizes on the paper as I went along. 
 Some ended up modified but overall so far so good.


Here it is from the front.  
I found this cool metallic wood grain fabric that I decided to use for this one.
I really like it.  

I have one more section finished and two more to make to have this one finished.
Then on to the LARGE one.


I'm not gonna lie.  These seriously creep me out!  HAHA, but I will get them finished.
I am linking up with Let's Bee Social.

So now it's your turn.  Link up what you are working on.  

~XOP~





Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Mark and Karly Get Married

My nephew Mark married his best friend, Karly this past Saturday.  
He is our Godson and the date was our anniversary. 
 We have been married for 33 years now. 
 It was a beautiful sunny day and everything was perfect.  
The wedding was at the MSU alumni chapel with the reception 
in the banquet facility at Spartan Stadium.  
I will show you some pictures but this one is my favorite. 
 I didn't take it but it is fabulous!


She looked like a real live princess and he was so handsome.  
It made my heart really happy.  
This is the couple that had all of their bridal shower gifts stolen.  
They persevered and today could not have been better.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful.  
There was a priest and a minister that was Mark's friend and they both did a great job,


They did it!


After the wedding, while we were waiting around for them to take pictures, 
I managed to get a few of my own family.  
My son on the left in the blue and my nephew, James on the right.  
These two sure love hanging out!


My two beautiful daughters


Thadd and Kelsey with Saprty.
I love this photo too!!!


Me and my hubby


Moving on to the reception, this was the view from the banquet facility.  Spartan Stadium!!!


Up for a little football ladies and gents??


A beautiful family photo of my two nephews, their wives and my SIL and BIL.  
The little one is the daughter of the nephew on the far left in this photo.  
Their baby was not there for the picture. 
 Such a happy day for everyone!


 Sparty was all lit up on our way out. 

 Great evening.  

Congratulations, Mark and Karly!



I finally got to gift their quilt too, but more on that later in the week.

~XOP~