Going Into The Weekend

It seems like life is on overdrive and I am just hanging on! 

 Weeeeeeeeeeeee.  

I did sew a few bee blocks last night.  

This is a square in a square in a square, HA! 

 There is a great tutorial to make these any size you want right here At Cat Bird Quilt Studio.

I also made this improv block.  I can't wait to see how this quilt turns out!

My cat Hallie found her way into one of my fabric cubbies and thought that was a grand way to keep me company while I sewed.

That's it for my sewing right now. 

 LOL. 

 I am hoping to get to some this weekend but it is my daughter's bridal shower on Saturday so I have some prep work and shopping to do tonight.  

It will take up most of the day tomorrow.  Hopefully I can find some time on Sunday!

What are you up to this weekend??

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I have not been working on very much this past weekend as we were out at my daughter's house adding to the existing bird pens. 

 There are three more houses that need to be constructed, sigh. 

 I just want these done so I can work at my own house!!  

First there is making the base.  

You have to dig pretty deep and put down boards to keep the raccoons out.

 Then the framing begins.

Which, apparently needs a lot of supervision from Beep!

Actually, I think she was trying to fight my husband.  

She doesn't seem to like him very much.

You can see her up on the top of the crooked frame.

So I begged off work on Sunday and did chores at home. 

I did manage to paint another batch of flowers for the centerpieces.

 Once those were done a had a wee bit of time to stitch. 

 I did manage to get Shelby's name stitched out.  It matches to the printed letters pretty well.

I did decide to put interfacing on the back.  

Funny story.  

I traced her name and then thought I should put the interfacing on.

  Welllll, I used a Frixon pen and as soon as I ironed the interfacing on, the drawn letters were gone.  Sigh. 

Silly me though, all I had to do was put it in the cold and they would have reappeared,

 but what did I do?  I re-drew them!  

THEN I remembered about the cold.  D'oh!!

The scary one was Hallowedding.  This is a pretty long word and I was nervous.  

You can see how I traced it in this photo.

This one is with the stitching completed.  PHEW!!!

I hate to say it but that's all I managed to get to this past week.  

This upcoming week is not looking any better either!  

Bridal shower is on Saturday and I still have stuff to do for that!

I did buy a dress for the wedding.  Wanna see it?

I bought it at ModCloth.  It arrived and actually fits!  Woo Hoo.  Now on to a costume!

I am linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

What are you working on this week?  

So now it's your turn to share what you are working on.  

Please use the linky to link up and share that you linked up to WIPs With Friends on your blog too.  If using Instagram please use the hashtag

#wipswithfriends.  

We can't wait to see what you are working on!

Use the blue Inllinkz button to link up and spread the word by linking back to this post!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

WIPs With Friends

Here is hoping we get some killer link ups this week!  

Please grab the button and share a link back to this blog if you are participating.

I am still working on the Hallowedding quilt.  

I managed to finish the large bat this past weekend.  

It is even more gorgeous in real life. 

 The photo truly does not do it justice!

Here are the three bats all together so you can see the size difference.

I have decided to add a few blocks that were not in the original quilt by Flying Parrot Quilts.  

One was this tombstone and bat.  Isn't that spooky forest fabric fantastic??

It *had* to have a black cat.  This free pattern by Artsiana fit in nicely. 

 I think I need to make it 12" x 12" but will wait until I begin putting the quilt together to see what needs added to or taken away.

When I made this block I knew I wanted to include the wedding date.  

I translated it into Roman Numerals and added the spider and his web.  

I typed the letters out on paper, then copied using a light box onto the tombstone 

then hand embroidered it.  

The spider and web were just free hand embroidered.

Lastly, I really wanted to include their names in the quilt somehow.  

I gave this a lot of thought. 

 I finally settled on using the lettering from their invitations 

which was a very odd, sketchy, creepy font.  

Next was trying to figure out how to execute that, LOL.  

I had my niece write the lettering out in their names. 

 Then I had my friend make it the size I wanted it and printed it out.  

Ok, then I had to think about it.  

I decided that I wanted to try to Scribble Stitch the letters, but I felt in order for it to really match the actual lettering I needed an outline.  

I used my trusty light box and traced the letters onto some fabric and tried the easiest name first. 

 I put on my free motion foot, dropped the feed dogs and put in some black Aurifil 50 weight thread.  Then I *carefully* began my stitching.  

I put on my machine quilting gloves to give me some better control and that was a good decision.  What I didn't do, and I probably should have (and probably will for the other words) 

was to use some kind of stabilizer on the back. 

 Don't get me wrong, it still worked, 

but there was some major pressing happening to make it lay flat and unwrinkled! 

 OK time for the big reveal.

You can see the paper with the lettering on the left and the stitched name on fabric on the right.  

Not too shabby for a first attempt!!  

On to the bride's name and the word "Hallowedding"!!!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts too.

So now it's your turn to share what you are working on.  

Please use the linky to link up and share that you linked up to WIPs With Friends on your blog too.  If using Instagram please use the hashtag

#wipswithfriends.  

We can't wait to see what you are working on!

~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!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hallowedding Central Prep

That's right.  I am in full on Hallowedding prep mode.

  The order of business right now is to get the dead Giant Persian Alliums spray painted.  

I am using these in vases for the tables.  

This is what they looked like before I started spray painting them.

You can see my very technical set up for spray painting!

This is what they looked like after

Here they are in my fancy drying rack

I over sprayed them with glitter spray paint, but think I will try real glitter next time.

 I also tried a few dead Hydrangeas and like how they turned out too.

One purple, one orange and one mixed.  Must find more of these.

Next up I need to find some glow in the dark spray paint.  

I want to try to spray paint some Chinese Money plants and see how they turn out.

More to come, so stay tuned!!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends Explained

I am making a button for people to grab for their blogs.  

If you post about what you are currently working on on your blog, please feel free to grab the button (see the side bar) and put it on your blog that would be GREAT!  

I am hoping others will share the button and many more will link up their works in progress.

Have you ever heard of Words With Friends?  

Well this is WIPs With Friends.  

A friendly place for you to share what you are doing.  

My hope is that our collective sharing will inspire all of us in the quilting community.  

Please help me spread the word!

Also, when you do link up, please put a link to the post on your blog so others can find us too.

~XOP~

Edited:  I made a button with code (that was a tough one for me to figure out!)

It's on the side bar.

I also have an Instagram #WIPSwithfriends

So if you are on Instagram you can link via that hashtag too.

(thanks Ioleen!!)

WIPs With Friends

I seem to always be posting my first post of the week on Wednesdays! 

 It is very difficult to find time to sew right now though.  

We are in FULL wedding prep mode lately.  

Seems like my entire weekend was taken up with shopping for things that are wedding related.  

The shower is planned and invites are sent out.  

I had a friend help me with a poster of a haunted house scene 

that people can stand in front of and take pictures.  

I bought some mini wine bottles to check label size for wedding favors.  

Of course I had to sample the wine and see which one I like the best.  

Now I need to go and order a LOT of those.  

My friend, Robin, is a graphic artist and she will help me make the wine bottle labels. 

 I have gathered all the dead flowers and need to spray paint those and make the table centerpieces. 

 I guess this whole Hallowedding is part of my weekly WIP right now, LOL.

On to my quilty progress though.  

I did manage to get a few things sewn ( this witches broom) and made progress on my BIG bat.

I managed to finish an entire half of this bat!  Now I want to have time to finish the other half!!

Isn't he GREAT??  I love this pattern!  The big one has been the easiest one so far.  

After him I have 2 more new to me techniques that I am nervous about doing.  

One involves curved piecing and the other one is EPP, YIKES!

I am linking up with Le't's Bee Social too.

What are you working on?  Time for you to share with all of us.

Since no one is linking up, do you want me to stop this?

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Finish It Friday

Its FRIDAY!!!  I hope you all had a great short work week and first day of school.  

I don't have littles in school any longer but I still enjoy "back to school" time.  

I especially love that it signals apple orchard time!  

Honeycrisp should be available soon, YAY!!!

Now to what you and I have been finishing.  

Hmmmm, it has not been much of a finish kinda week at my place.  How about at yours?

I did manage to finish one more block for my Hallowedding quilt.  

The medium sized bat block!

The pattern is called Midnight Bite and this one was soooo much easier than the smaller one.

This was the half way point, phew!

Finally all finished!  

Now just the large one to work on.  

So while it is technically not an entire finish, it is one block closer.

I am not going to do a linky as no one seemed to link up anyway.

Let me know if this is something you want me to continue.

I will link up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.

What have you managed to finish this week?

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

How does Wednesday keep sneaking up on me?? 

 I have a few things to link up that I have been working on so will share here.  

In my charity bee this month we are doing 2 different blocks.  

One uses 3.5" squares to make a 4 patch and 

one uses the same 3.5" squares on the corners of a 6.5" center to form a square in a square. 

 She wanted us to use from our scraps so I took that to heart! 

 I dug into my scraps and pulled out every scrap that I could cut 3.5" squares from 

(look at all of those scraps!!!)  

I also cut 1.5" x variable length pieces from the left overs for my other scrap quilt.  

These are the four 4 patch blocks I made

These are my four square in a square blocks.

I then decided that I would cut all my scrap fabric that I had sorted out 

into 3.5" squares to use as a leader ender project.  

Then I would keep that for my own.  

Hubby LOVES scrap quilts. 

 Going through all the scraps made me remember all the quilts that I have made!

Autumn was digging in my scrap bin too. 

 Until she decided it was too much work and she settled in to rest.

Eventually the lure of my water bottle called her name and she decided to lay on my sorted scraps!

This was the pile of usable (I could cut 3.5" squares from) scraps.

After cutting MOST of the day on Friday and into the evening, you can see the pile I was left with.  You can also see the pile of 3.5" squares and

 the smaller 1.5 x various size pieces to the right of the squares. 

 I had a lot of duplicate squares though and was thinking 

if anyone wanted to swap 3.5" squares with me I would be game.  

Autumn and I were exhausted at the end of it all.  I had to ice my hands and she just took a nap!

What are you working on or did you work on over the holiday weekend?

I am linking up with Let's Bee Social.

If you have something to link up please do so (blue button) we can all be inspired!

~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!

An InLinkz Link-up

Finish It Friday

I have no additional finishes from this week except for the oven mitts I have already shown. 

 I will show them again because a post without photos is not very much fun!

I will be taking the long weekend off but should be back next week.  

If you have anything that you have finished and want to share,

 please use the linky button and link up!

  

We all are encouraged by other people's finishes.  

Have a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend!!

~XOP~

Click the blue Inlinkz button to link up your finishes!

An InLinkz Link-up