WIPs With Friends

As I said previously, I have been busy, busy, busy sewing but can't show much of it.  

I did make three more tea towels.  

Two of them are going in the mail to people I can't mention and 

one will be hand delivered on Christmas Eve.  

I may still need to make one more, I'm thinking about it.

We had our lab Christmas party and I found this amazing recipe online that I decided to make.  

It was a HUGE hit!  

I am going to make it for the family Christmas party on Christmas eve.  

It is a spinach dip Christmas tree!! 

 You use a roll of pizza dough to make it and a spinach dip recipe that is 

not the usual Knorr recipe and it is to die for! 

 I found the recipe on the It's Always Autumn blog and 

you can find it here if you need to make one too.  

Super easy and very yummy!

I thought I would show you the latest popular cat toy at my house.  

Cole loves to shred spongy things.  

First is his ball, then my kitchen sponge and now this noodle.  

He just goes to town on it.  

Odd little cat.  

Last night my daughter and her new house peacock, Stan came for a visit.  

I was elected to sew yet another peacock diaper!  

Yes, I really do get to sew ALL the things!! 

 This time DD picked out some fancy fabric for a diaper.  

So here is the beginning of diaper making.  

I had Beep's old one to use as a guide, but since Stan is younger and smaller I had to modify it.  

I drew a pattern from the old one.  

We had to do several "fittings" to make sure it fit correctly.

Eventually, this was the finished product.  

Stan is a snuggler.  If you have followed me for very long you may have seen the past 2 house peas.  Gizmo was the first and we lost him at about 10 months.  

Then came Beep.  

She was with us for almost 2 years before swallowing the needle thing and 

dying from complications of surgery.  

DD swore no more house peas but as you can see she could not resist Stan.  

He is happy in the house or in the pen (unlike Beep) but when in the house he needs a diaper.  

We actually think he may be slightly mentally impaired and may not have the best eyesight. 

 He really is quite sweet which you would never have said about Beep, or almost never, 

she was sweet to DD just not very many others.  

I was snapping this photo of Stan and his "mom" when my husband said, "hey, what about me? 

 I have someone that loves to snuggle with me too".  

Every time he sits in that chair, Finny decides that he needs to snuggle with his dad and hops right up, walks over his computer and expects hubby to put his arm in "the position" for him to snuggle into.  Usually he throws his head back and kisses his dad and wants to know he is ok 

then settles in for a nap.  

It is super cute.  

Except when Finn is snuggled up by me and 

Chris calls his name and he bolts over to be with his dad.  

These two!

Here is a photo of Mr Fancy Pants in his new diaper. 

So as you can see the fun never ends at my house.  Never mind that I am *trying* to get ready for Christmas!  

What are you working on?  Please link up with this page and share your fun.

I am also linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Click on the linky tool to link up!

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends

I have been sewing like a mad woman I tell you!! 

 I can't show most of what I have been working on as they are Christmas presents. 

 I did manage to finish two baby quilt tops though. 

 I will show you those instead.  

Since I have a gazillion baby quilts to make no one will know who these are for, right?

  I am totally going off grid and making what I want to make, nursery theme be damned!  haha.

First up is the unicorn baby quilt.  

I made four paper pieced unicorn heads.  

The pattern is by Unicornharts.  

You can find her pattern here on Craftsy if you need some unicorns in your life too!

This one is my favorite! 

 I made all of the backgrounds out of metallic fabrics and most of the horns.

I was thrilled to find the pastel rainbow ombre fabric for that inner border and will bind with that too.

It is not a big quilt, but babies are not big, right?  

For the borders I used the background on the opposite corner on each of the unicorns.  

Does that make sense?  

So the background of the blue unicorn became the border of the teal unicorn and so forth.

Look how great that pastel, rainbow, ombre works for that inner border!!

Next up is the Mermaid quilt.  

You best like Mermaids and LOVE pink for this one, LOL.

The Mermaids were paper pieced.  

I LOVED this pattern by kidgiddy.  It went together easily. 

 It was time consuming, as all paper pieced patterns are, but it came together very easily. 

 I would make this pattern again.  

If you need your own mermaids, you can find the pattern here.

I chose the theme of silver and gold.  

The mermaid on the left being the gold one and the one on the right silver.  

Their tails have metallic silver or gold as does their top and hair.

  I LOVE these girls!

Here is what I put together for the quilt.  

Very simple, but the pp of the mermaids was what took up the most time.  

I have the pink mermaid background fabric in minky for the back of this one.  

As I said lots of pink! 

 Did you happen to notice the metallic stripe in the unicorn horn?  

That's what I will bind this one in!!

I am planning on doing some hand quilting around the mermaids to make them stand out a bit.  Perhaps my LAQ could put some additional batting behind them to help them "puff" out, we will see.

She is magic so you never know what she will decide to do!

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

Your turn.

What are you working on?

Please share with us so we can be inspired too.

~XOP~

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Vintage Machine

A few months ago I picked up this beautiful Singer 66 at the Salvation Army.  

The cabinet is beat up but the hand wheel turned and 

the bobbin case was intact so I figured why not try it.

I brought her home and quite literally didn't even try her out.  

Well, this weekend when we were cleaning up our living room I hauled her out and decided to see how she ran. 

 I wiped her down and looked up how to thread her (I got the bobbin right the first time).  

The threading was odd so it was a good thing I looked it up.

I was nervous to put the thin thread I usually use (Aruifil) 

so I used some Coats and Clarks on the top.  

I used the bobbin thread it came with and this is the stitch I got.  

First the top.

This was the bottom.  

The stitches are perfect!  

The light works too.  I am so excited. 

 The cabinet probably needs to be refinished or painted but otherwise she sews like a dream.  

I am taking a class next month on maintenance on my Featherweight and hope I can apply what I learn to this machine too. 

 I want to clean up the finish and I am certain  it probably needs new oil and to be oiled. 

 Can you even imagine how beautiful she will be then??

Finn was watching the goings on outside while sitting on my Treadle.

While Cole was napping on the couch.  

I just love rescuing old machines.

How about you?

Are you a fan of vintage sewing machines?

~XOP~

A Day In The Life

I got an amazing set of texts with photos from my husband yesterday involving Finn.  

Finn has claimed my husband as his person.  

We have had many cats over the years but this is the first one that has really bonded with Chris.  

So yesterday they had quite the day and I thought I would share.

They just finished the laundry and were doing the dishes.

Then they made pasta sauce together.

Time for a quick lunch break.

Treat time for Finn and Cole

This is usually the time for some snuggles before mom gets home.

I think my boys are happy at home together.  They are certainly never far apart!  

Think Finn can figure out how to get the Christmas decorations in the house and put up?

Me neither.  

Guess I will have to make Chris do it.

Enjoy your weekend!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

It seems like Christmas arrives earlier and earlier every year. 

 I know when it is coming and still I am not ready.  

How about you?  

Do you have your tree up? 

Presents bought? Wrapped? 

Cookies baked?

 Gifts made?  

Ah, that last one always gets me. 

 I have decided to make gifts for my family.

  I'm doing pretty well, but I can't show them as they read my blog.  

I still have some to make though. 

 I also have a couple of baby quilts to get made.  

Then someone told me of three more expectant moms. 

 I'm not sure I will be making them all quilts though. 

 I have come to the conclusion that if the recipient can't find the time to send me a thank you note when I make a quilt, they probably won't be getting another quilt.  

I'm just putting that out there for all my family and friends to see. 

Quilts take time and cost way more than people realize to make. 

 Fabric is expensive, then there is batting, thread and I usually pay to have them quilted.

  This is not inclusive of my time either.  

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE making quilts but

 if you can't take the time to send a thank you note then I am done making things for you.  

Now, since I can't share what I am making in my sewing room,

I will show you something my kids are getting but know they are getting.  

They wanted me to make them a cookbook with all their favorite recipes of mine. 

 I have been struggling to figure out how to do that in such a way that they could add to in the future.  I found a website, Zazzle, that does custom binders!  

I found images that suit each of their personalities. 

 I used stock designs for 2 of them and uploaded photos for the last one.

I am printing out all their favorite recipes and putting them in plastic sleeves then in the binders.  They are ridiculously excited about this, LOL.  

So, while I can't show you what I am working on just now, you can see that I am still being creative.

I did manage to get a quilt bound

A baby quilt top made and a second baby quilt started.  

Only need to finish that and start the third one.

So. Many. Babies!

What are you working on?

Anything you can share and inspire us with?

Link up!

~XOP~

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