Some Quilty Progress and Thrifting Scores

I said yesterday that I would take photos of my progress, 

but by the time I got home yesterday it was not great light.  

I went to JAF and got almost 13 yards of batting 

(that's all they had of the kind I wanted) and used my 70% off coupon.  

It made it so much cheaper!  

Anyhoo, here is the back of what I have put together so far.  This is 4 rows of 9. 

 I have two more sewn together and then a single row sewn. 

 As I said each row takes me about an hour and attaching each row takes me another 45minutes or so.  

 These are the stars I have left, so 2 more rows to sew.  

I need to attach the squares to 2 sides of these and they will be ready to sew together into one row.  There is so much matching.  

The fabric is Canyon, by Kate Spain. 

 I'm already tired of working on it and I have HOURS left to do. 

 My goal is to finish it before the end of the weekend so I can take it to the quilter next week.

Then I went to the Sally Ann to see what they had.  

Hubby and I usually go on Wednesdays as there is a senior discount.  

Yesterday it was a super senior discount so 33% off!!!  Here are the things I picked up.

Two super adorable Lefton figurines.  They are about 2" tall and very delicate.

OK, Lord help me I could not walk away from this silly vinyl stuffed cat.  Clearly a child's toy.  

A little creep but oh so me.  

I'm sure my children will appreciate these finds 

(Bwahahahaha)

I'm also a sucker for church related things.  

When I saw this sweet little angel with a (I'm not sure if it is a place to hold Holy water? a Rosary?) she jumped into my cart too.

I am always on the look out for dish towels.  

Do you know how expensive good towels are??

I don't like the terry cloth ones.  I scored 3 of them. 

 Plus this adorable black cat soap holder 

(Hello, now I need all the black cat things) 

and that cute spatula.

 Ahhhh, but the BEST find of the day?  This Salad Shooter!!!!!!  I have one and I LOVE it.  

I brought it to the camper and then left it there and was so sad.  

I have been meaning to buy another one but just kept putting it off.  

They were ~$30 on Amazon.  This one was $2!!!

I also could not resist this vintage Batman and Robin pattern 

if for nothing other than that picture on the front of the pattern.  

It was my very favorite show as a kid.  

The snowmen pattern is for a friend.

On top of all of that I got 2 sets of brand new queen sized sheets and 

1 set of vintage sheets for the camper pull out bed. 

(They are in the wash so no pictures).

Want to guess how much I spent?  Less then $32 for everything!!!  

It was a good night at the Sally Ann.

As I said, I did sew one more row last night.  

I am meeting my daughter for dinner tonight but hope to get home in time to sew another row tonight or maybe sew the rows I have finished together.  

Not sure which.

Enjoy your evening and tomorrow is Fri-yay!!!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I worked like a fiend over the weekend and some this week to 

get some of those stars and squares I was working on put together.  

I didn't take any photos of the assembled rows yet, 

but I do have some of my "helpers" that I can share. 

 Each row took me an hour or so to put together.  There is a CRAP TON of matching. 

 I'll get some photos tonight and share tomorrow.

Here is Mr Finny inspecting my fabric choices.  

You can also see all the squares for the pattern are sewn 

(but not yet pressed in this picture).  

It actually took me several hours to press all those seams open!

All that "helping" was exhausting!  

Of course he chose the crap valley to sleep in!  See that aqua box?  All 72 star blocks are in that.  

Oh and don't think Cole wasn't in on the "helping".  He took over inspector Autumn's spot.  

Oh Finny, you are so dramatic!

I did get my September bee blocks made too .  Yes, that's right, I said September!  

Trying to get ahead of the game here.

And they were so cute I made one for me too! 

 I am thinking that I will try to make an extra block each time and then make them into a sampler.  We will see how that goes though.  

I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Now it's your turn to share what YOU are working on.

Use the Linky tool to link up or the #WIPSwithfriends on IG.

Can't wait to see what everyone else is working on.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Charlie and His Llama Quilt

My friends Robin and Judith and I made another quilt together.  

A man that used to work in our lab has moved to DC 

(several years ago now) 

and got married and they just had a baby.  

We wanted to make something special for them for their new baby. 

 We decided on the Lloyd and Lola Llama pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. 

 I did all the pom pons and Robin made the llama.  

I love the fuzzy fabrics she used to make him! 

 Our friend, Kathy, at Threadbear quilting did the amazing quilting!

We asked her to quilt his name into the quilt. 

 We knew this meant it would take a little more time but it was totally worth it.

Just look at that adorable fuzzy face!

Charlie's dad kindly sent us some photos of him on the quilt.  

See that pocket he is inside of? 

 The pattern didn't call for a pocket, but Robin thought it would be a good idea.  

The striped fabric that made the pocket actually came from a table runner 

that Robin picked up when she was in Panama.  

I had shown her the one my daughter brought back from Ecuador and 

I thought it would make a great saddle. 

 I was so excited when she found the multi colored ones to use like this!

I did the backing in a great llama flannel that I found and
bound it in the same stripe I used for the pom pon hangers.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

~XOP~

Friday is Finish Day

I realize that I have not shown any of my recent finishes.  

I was hoping to do a link up with another blogger but she takes August off, so I will just start posting my finished on Fridays (when I have them). 

 I can create a link if anyone is interested in sharing their weekly finishes too. 

 Please let me know if any of you would like that.

Additionally, I have added a link in my header to all the finished projects 

(as a page) if you are interested.

Our priest is being transferred out to Arizona to a parish there.  

I am sad to see him go.  He was the first priest at our now church, for me.  

I have learned a lot from him and wanted to make something for him to remember us by, 

so of course I made him a quilt.  

Crosses seem to be the theme for me when making a quilt for any clergy and this was no exception.

It just so happened that we  made a great block in my Emerge do good stitches circle and 

so I used that exact same pattern to make my quilt.

Apparently Finny decided that he wanted to "help" me finish this project! 

 I hope Father is not allergic!

I hand stitched the label and added it after the quilt was finished.  

I really dislike doing that but it means I can get it to the quilter more quickly.  I

 also, did not want to cut up the 108" wide Tula backing fabric (I know, I was being lazy). 

 Finn is my label model too.

He seems to be born to this!

I happened upon that fabric for binding at the retreat I went to in July so that was great. 

 It looks perfect with both the back and the front of my quilt!

I love how this quilt turned out.  Kathy, of Threadbear Quilting did a wonderful job.  

The quilting is swirls with a cross in the center!  

This is what the front turned out like.  

The last few quilts have seriously depleted my low volume stash, LOL. 

 It is difficult to tell but one of the crosses, rather than being gray/black is navy. 

 Not sure why I ended up doing that but I love how it looks!

I hope you will share some finishes here with me too.  

I will leave the linky open until noon tomorrow, jic anyone wants to share!  

I would appreciate a link back too.

#fridayisfinishday

Enjoy your weekend!

~XOP

An InLinkz Link-up

The Traveling Quilter

I have determined that when we travel (in our camper or otherwise) and quilt shops are involved I will post under this header.  

Last weekend my husband, the kittens and I went to a new campground.

  It was called Eby Pines, located in northern Indiana. 

 If you are interested in our travels with kittens and quilt related content then come on along with us!

First up is the traveling with kittens part.  

These guys decided that they did NOT want to travel in their carrier. 

 So I decided to try letting them out and see how they did.  

Hubby was not thrilled at first but then this happened.  

Finn decided that the appropriate place for him to be was in his dad's arms, just like at home!  

At first hubby was not so sure but once he settled in things were fine.

Not to be left alone in the carrier, Cole came out and settled in on my lap for the 3 + hour drive.

When we got to the campground, we set up the pet tent and put the boys in that.

This allowed us to go in and out of the camper and not have them get out and get lost.

This campground had some quilt shops nearby.

Hubby even scouted them out for me!

First up was a little shop in Bristol called Lavender Patch.

We had to cross the St. Joseph river as we parked at a nearby park and walked to the shop.

The park was beautiful and the river was too!

I thought this guy was pretty funny!

This was the inside of the shop.  

They had some nice fabric.  

I bought a gold backing for the snake quilt and 

a pattern of a Christmas tree made from log cabin blocks.

We drove into Shipshewana, but since you have probably all seen my photos 

of Lolly's and Yoder's I didn't snap any new pics.  

I will have to do better about that in the future!

I did get a picture of the kittens enjoying the bed in the camper though.  It was later that night.

 We stopped at a shop in Middlebury called the Pumpkinvine Quilting.  This was a fabulous shop!

I managed to find lots of goodies here. 

Some older Scrumptious by Bonnie and Camille, as well as some rainbow for binding. 

We also stopped here, at the Corn Crib, The Quilt Shop.  

I have been here before and the shop is quite small.  I found a great airplane quilt pattern here.

They had giftware in the Corn Crib too and I spotted this amazing peacock Santa. 

 Hmmm...I wonder who might need this?

No trip to Shipshewana is complete without a few buggy photos.

I never get tired of seeing these.  

When we pulled up to E & S Sales there was a buggy 

with three little Amish girls looking out the back window.  

I wanted to take their picture so badly, but I didn't.

So on to my fabric purchases.  I found this unique fabric at Lollys.  I fell in love with the deer!

Most of this was purchased from the Pumpkinvine Quilting shop,

 with the exception of the gold which I got at the Lavender Patch.

I bought these fabrics at Yoder's Department Store in Shipshewana too. 

 I could not resist that top right fabric for my camper quilt. 

 I also found some "What Pet Should I get?" fabric.  

The cat fabric in that line is adorable!  

The pink and black are for bindings, the dot to go with the deer, the molecules for a science quilt, 

the whales for a friend and the brown tabby print because Finn!

On our trip home we just kept the boys out of the crate to begin with. 

 I think I am going to purchase a  window perch for the car and see how that goes, but mostly they just wanted to be together on one of our laps.  

Since that was not the best idea for the driver, and Finny got there first, Cole had to settle for being as close as possible to his dad and Finny while not actually in his lap.

Overall, a very good trip for us all.

I hope you enjoyed our travels and will stop back for more.

~XOP~