WIPs With Friends

I hope you are all enjoying the spring wherever you are!  

After the bush pulling extravaganza I have to say that I am ready to get back out in the yard and complete that front garden space.  

But first I have some projects to share with you all.  

First up is the Llama project.  

A collaborative baby quilt.  

My job was to make the pom poms 

(although I think they look like paper lanterns, so will refer to them as such).  

We were going for colorful lanterns.  I started and realized I needed the fabric for the spacers.

Once I got the spacer fabric I assembled them and put on the string.

  I think they will be great additions to the Llama quilt!

Next up is a Sea Horse quilt.  

The pattern is called Watercolor Seahorses.
Pattern by Summer Crafter and you can find it here. 

Again a collaborative quilt.  

My sea horse was to be the pink one.  

We based our fabrics from the Coral Queen of the Sea line by Moda.  

This was my fabric pull.

Aren't these fussy cuts so adorable?

I worked all day on Sunday to get my sea horse and all the waves finished for the quilt. 

 We all used the same fabric for the three sea horse eyes.

I think she is adorable!  

The other two colors of sea horses are the aqua and a green.  

I have the teal one and am just waiting for the green one so I can assemble the quilt top.  

 For the waves I used the wave fabric from the Coral Queen of the Sea line too.  

A wee bit tricky to get all the waves going in the same direction, 

but only a few triangles had to be sacrificed!

There are two rows of waves.  

And that, my friends, catches you up on what I have been doing. 

 I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Now...what are you working on?  Please link up and share with us all!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Friends Old and New

Some old friends from work were in town visiting last week.  

Hiro came from Japan and Fabiani from Brazil.  

It was so good to see them both!  I taught Hiro's wife, Yuki, how to quilt.  

Left to right.  My cohorts in quilty crime on the left and right with Fabiani in the middle.

Me (looking like a weirdo) and Fabiani.

Fabiani took this when we went out to dinner as a group.  

Fabiani, my friend Robin and her hubby (my boss), then Hiro.  

Such a fun night!  

Best steak I have ever eaten, at Knights in Ann Arbor.

Yuki sent me this adorable cat bag, pins and even some fabric ink.  So thoughtful!

Aren't these pins the cutest??

I had some fabric shipped to Yuki in Japan and this cute cat stamp was on the package!

My friends, Robin, Judith and I took Fabiani to the local quilt shop. 

 I also visited an antique shop where I found this adorable set of "Jacks".  

They are a S & P that look like my beloved Jack.  So of course they had to come home with me.

Here we all are in the quilt shop.

I bought these 2 patterns.  Hoping to make that trailer one for my hubby. (for the RV)

Thought these fabrics would make excellent fish (yes I have to finish that quilt up soon too)

Love fabric for labels and that background to add to the fish quilt.

I spotted this pattern awhile ago but had, up until now, resisted purchasing it.  

It is the reindeer, Prancer.  

Prancer is one of our all time favorite Christmas movies.  I see some cross stitching in my life!

Me, too Hallie.  

I'm exhausted!!  

I had to get back to work for a break, LOL.  Not really, work has been just as busy!!!

What have you been up to??

~XOP~

Baby Big Foot FINISHED!!

I finished the baby Big Foot quilt and it has been gifted!!  

Once again, this was a collaboration between me and my friends, Robin and Judith. 

 The quilt was gifted to a co-worker and now her precious little baby has it.

Mama Big Foot

Betty the Yeti flannel is on the back.

These are two of the trees I made.

I made the Big Foot and this tree too

The label.

I think the look on this little mama's face says it all!!

So funny story about this little wall hanging.

Judith made three extra trees.

We didn't want them to go to waste, so I suggested pillows.  

Once I started working on pillow fronts I realized they would make a cuter wall hanging.

So I made the additional Yeti.

I put 2 hearts on her and embroidered the phrase,

"I carry your heart in mine" 

across the bottom.

These are the other two trees on the back of the wall hanging.

I think she liked it!

Those are my two finishes for this week.

(even though they were finished a bit ago)

I didn't want to share until they were gifted!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts

Enjoy your weekend!

~XOP~

Odds and Ends

I have been working on getting some odds and ends finished up. 

 I finally got the dragons finished and they have been mailed.

I am anxious to see what she makes out of them!  I am soooo happy to be done with them though.

I am making 3 quilts in conjunction with my two friends at work.  

Two baby quilts and one quilt for a mutual friend.  

We settled on the baby quilts rather easily. 

 One is a Llama quilt by Elizabeth Hartman called Lloyd and Lola. 

 We are making one Llama though.  

My friend, Robin, already has that llama finished. 

 I am charged with making the lanterns that go over the llama. 

 I selected the fabrics and cut everything out but forgot to take photos of them.

The other baby quilt is the three Sea Horses pattern I bought recently when I was in Florida. 

 I have to make the pink sea horse and the waves.  

I volunteered to cut all the background fabrics for each of us and have that all finished too. 

 Those are itty bitty sea horses all over that fabric!  

We also just settled on the quilt for our mutual friend.  It is a star pattern called Sweet Jane's.  

We all loved the fabrics so much we decided to use these same fabrics for our friend's quilt.  

The fabric is from the Kate Spain line called Canyon.  

I think I will be buying a layer cake to make this one again for another person too.

I think that about sums up my weekly progress. 

 How about you?  

What are you looking for? 

 Please link up what you are working on so we can all see too.

I am also linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

I Love My Kids

I had a fabulous day yesterday.  It was Mother's Day.  

I have a love hate relationship with this day.  

Some years it has been rocky (not due to the kids) but this year it was fantastic. 

 I told the two that live near me that I didn't want anything for Mother's Day except them to come to my house and help me in the garden.  

The front garden especially has gotten out of control and really just needed to have most everything removed so it can be re-done.

Little did I know how this day would turn out. 

 First thing, my eldest daughter wanted to take me out for breakfast. 

 She asked if her MIL could come too as her son (my SIL) was out of the state and 

my daughter wanted to celebrate for him. 

 Of course I said yes! 

 So we went to breakfast and that was followed up with manicure/pedicures at the local salon. 

 I did not get a manicure as I knew we would be working in the garden.  

After that we went back to my house and about 10 minutes later my son showed up.

He came out of the truck with the biggest, most beautiful bouquet EVER!

I LOVE both Stargazer Lillies and Daisies.

This arrangement had them in abundance!

Isn't it gorgeous?

This was from all three of my children.

The middle one lives in NC so she could not be here to celebrate with us.

Then the garden work began.  Shelby and I were weeding and I charged Thadd with turning over the grass that was in the expanded portion of the garden.

He took the weed wacker and leveled the grass into dirt. 

Not exactly what I expected but I think it will work with a bit more effort on my part.

Then I asked them to help me remove the dead bush.  

Oh baby, taking out the one dead bush ended up in removing all 4 bushes 

(they looked awful once we got the dead one out.)

Shelby and I dug out around each bush and we hooked up the towing strap and Thadd pulled them out using the truck!!!

Just look at the roots on those things!!!  

Then we had to drag them to the back yard.  Chris can cut them up when he gets home.  

They were incredibly HEAVY!!!

Empty gaping holes, and branches filling some of the space in.

Now I have a LOT more work to do in leveling out the ground,

 making sure I can kill the left over weeds and grass.  

I plan to fill in with some purchased dirt, put down weed barrier, and maybe plant.  

Then wood chips on top. 

 My plan is to plant some blueberry plants and Peonies near the house and

 fill in with some vegetables in the large center and border with annuals. 

 I will have to see what hubby thinks.  

He is out of the country this week.

I kept on saying, dad isn't going to be happy we did this...

And they kept on saying, well, he should have been here then.

And we would all laugh and laugh.

It was fantastic!

I was dirty, a little sun burnt and exhausted and incredibly HAPPY!!  

This was one of the best days ever!!!  

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and celebrated your moms, moms to be, grandmas and any other mother figure you love!  

~XOP~