WIPs With Friends

I have been quite busy this past week!  

I have received several quilts back from my quilters.  

Yes plural! 

 I use three different people but this week just 2.  I have been binding like mad. 

 I did finish the mermaid binding but 

can't post that quilt as it is a gift that I have not been able to give just yet.  

The other binding on a quilt that is also finished I can't show just yet either. 

 That one is going in the mail today.

Maybe in a week or so I will be able to share it with all of you.  

What can I share you ask?  MORE binding!

I got the green quilt back and had this vintage picnic diagonal gingham to use for the binding.  

The yellow green was just perfect for the binding on this quilt!  

The pattern is a free one by Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts.  

It is called Easy As Pie.  

It certainly is a great way to use up left over fabrics!  

I will make this quilt again. 

 I just cut left over FQ up into the rectangle sizes as I was making other projects. 

 That way I was: 

A-not storing cut into FQ and 

B-making a quilt at the same time!  

Win-Win, right?

 This one I get back yesterday.  

It is the Buggy Barn Crazy basket quilt.  

I usually make the binding when I send the quilts off to be quilted so

 I had it all ready when it came back.  

I managed to get the binding machine sewn on last night.  

I just need to turn it and glue it down for the hand stitching.  

Love this one.  I have someone in mind for this one and she doesn't even know, tee hee.

 I also finished the top for the church raffle.  

I sent that off to the quilter this week along with the Chubby Chicks. 

 Do you ever finish a quilt (like the CC) and 

decide you may need to make that one again using different fabrics? 

 I am considering that.  

Although, I have no one to give it to in the first place.  

The chicks may end up in my ETSY shop so stay tuned for that information.  

I finished making the binding too so when it comes home it will be ready to finish.

I had Cole helping me for a bit while I was sewing.

Until Finny came in and decided that 

"Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, Man those cats were fast as lightening".  

HAHAHA! 

 Now you have an ear worm don't you?? 

We are going to visit my in-laws on Friday for the week in Florida.  

f you are near Sarasota, let me know and maybe we can meet up.  

Additionally if you know a fantastic quilt shop near I-75 please share!  

We are driving from Michigan to Florida.

I will probably be quiet after tomorrow until we return as I won't have my computer with me to post.  So that means no WIP's With Friends next week, sorry about that. 

 I really need a vacation though.  Now I have 2 quilts to bind while in the car too!!

So, what are you all up to this past week and moving into this week?

Link up using the blue inlinkz button and share with us!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Remembering Autumn

Today marks one year since we lost our beloved Autumn kitty.  

We went from 5 cats down to 1 in a matter of a couple of years.  

We got Autumn and her sister (Aiden) and brother (Mosen) at the same time.  

She was 16 years old. 

 I miss that crazy little girl every day as does her calico sister (in spirit), Hallie.  

The 2 calicos used to play together all the time. 

 Autumn is in the background, Hal in the foreground.

She loved hanging out with her brother, Mosen the most. 

 She missed him when he crossed to the rainbow bridge.

She loved to eat the leaves on my flowers

Always helpful when I was on my computer

 Never left a bag un sat in

Her favorite place to be was in my sewing room with me.  She would curl up in my scrap bin.

Or "help" me sew.  

These were some of my favorite times with her.

I made her her own rag quilt so she had a place to lay and watch me sew.

We loved each other fiercely. 

 She slept like this with me every, single night, or curled into my chest.

These are the last 2 photos I took of her.  She had gotten so thin.  

She was a beauty and I miss her every day.  

I hope she will be waiting for me on the Rainbow Bridge 

with her siblings and Jack and Rimshot, Freeway, and Princess.  

I can't say goodbye just see you later sweet pea.

Love mom.  

xoxo

WIPs With Friends

Ever have weak moment when you agree to do something and then regret it?  

Well that was me recently.  

A woman at my church asked me if I would put a quilt kit top together for her.  

You see she is soooooo busy and just doesn't have the time.  

She wanted to donate it to the church to raffle to raise money to 

support the young man from our parish in the seminary.  

Apparently they have no income other than what gets donated to the fund to provide for them. 

 So, dang it, that is a good cause.  

Give it to me and I will try my best to get to it.  

This past Sunday she remembered the kit and now I have it.  T

hankfully it is not too big and I am really hoping that I can get it put together by Saturday night 

so I can give it back to her on Sunday.  

My fear is that if I manage to do that it may encourage her to give me more.  

Honestly, it has not been difficult and is small.  

The cutting was tedious but it is going together quickly.  

I just don't need more of someone else's work to do.  Not sure how I am going to say that nicely.  

She did say to me that since I didn't work it would be easier for me to do it.  

Say what???  

I told her I work...full time.  So maybe that will help.

The pattern calls for many pieces and they are all labeled, 

hence the little blue tags you can see on my pile.  

Got these sewn together on Monday night.  

Last night I sewed the upper and lower border blocks and laid it out on my design wall,

aka the hallway!

There is a border that goes between the center and the top and bottom pieced borders too.

This is the pattern so you can see what it is going to look like when it's finished.

I have sewing the binding on my mermaid quilt as a February goal.  

I did get it all sewn on to the quilt and now am working on the hand sewing part. 

 That is my least favorite part.  

It hurts my left hand and shoulder to do it.  

It is easier when I glue the binding down and then I don't have to hold it as I do the hand stitching.  That seems to help. 

 I LOVE that the binding is metallic!  

The sister mermaids are gold and silver.  I had to add faces too.  I just drew them on.

I have the binding about 3/4 hand stitched down. 

 I am pretty excited to gift this one. 

 I have the exact same fabric on the back only it is minky. 

 It is so soft.  

These are the things I have been working on.  I will link up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

What are you working on?  

Please use the blue linky button to share your projects!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Chubby Chicks Pillow Cover

I mentioned previously that I wanted to use the 2 chubby chicks to make a pillow cover. 

 I got the top of the pillow cover quilted and trimmed up this past weekend.

My helper made it so much more difficult to do the quilting part!

I trimmed off the vintage sheet from the quilt back and was able to have enough of it 

to use for the back of the pillow cover.  

It will match the backing for the Chubby Chicks quilt which makes me happy!

I have more to share of what I worked on this weekend but am saving it for the 

WIPs With Friends post tomorrow.  

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I did an amazing amount of sewing this past weekend!

 YAY for lazy weekends.  

Am I right?

As I may have stated previously, I set up a spread sheet with

 monthly goals between myself and some of my friends.  

I have finished most of my February goals!  

Woo Hoo!  

Here we go.

One of the goals was to make 2 of the blocks from the Year of Scrappy Triangles. 

 I decided to make them starting with the first pattern.  

I have an old WIP that needs borders so these will turn into the borders for that quilt.

I managed to finish the Chubby Chicks quilt top!!!  

That has been in a box for a very long time!

When I opened the box and started on it again, 

everything was cut out and only the chicks were fused.

This is such a darling quilt.  

Couldn't you see this using Bonnie and Camille fabrics??

Since I am *trying* to sew from my stash I found this beautiful vintage sheet to use for the back.

I had one chick and one pinwheel left over, so I made another of each.  

I decided to make a pillow out of these left overs. 

 I wanted to add rick rack.  

I tired yellow, green and orange (it's the colors I had) and I was so not sure. 

 I ended up taking a picture of each and ended up liking the orange so much better!  

This is the project I was trying to quilt that Cole was "helping" me with.  

In case you are wondering, I used some Grabaroos gloves to do both the outlining and the quilting.  They make BOTH of these things so much easier! 

 You can find them here.  

They are amazing!

I need to trim it and make the envelope back next. 

 I will measure the quilt backing and hope to be able to use the same fabric for the back of the pillow.  I will follow Amanda Jean's directions for making the envelope back.

I will be linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Now it is your turn. 

 PLEASE link up what you are working on, or something you have finished.  

It may be any project not just restricted to quilts.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Winter At the Farm

As most of you already know, my oldest daughter owns a farm. 

She has chickens and pea fowl.  

During this past week when we got crushed with snow it was quite the adventure for the birds too.

I thought I would share some photos from the farm.

Apparently Eclipse decided that she needed to go out in the pen. 

 Instead of following the already made path she thought she would venture out on her own.  

She got stuck and started screaming until my daughter went out, 

picked her up and carried her back to the coop.  

Orion flew out to his "screaming stump" and the was really upset that it was covered in snow.  

He was giving my daughter the "I'm seriously offended by this" face until she went over and made him go back into the coop as well.  

My daughter said, "see those other walking paths?  

That is where the other girls walked out and went wading through the snow.  

I had to step over Orion's train to hear them back into the coop as he refused to move!"

What sent all the birds out of their coop you ask?  

She was trying to fix the rope lights that they had pulled down from the pegs in the coop. 

That meant she had to walk on "their" side of the coop and they did not like that, not one little bit!  LOL  Silly birds!

This shows the depth of the snow on the path her hubby cleared out inside the pen so she could get to the coop to feed and check on the birds.

This was the woodpile covered in snow too.  To say we have had a snowy week is in understatement!

She took some snow into the barn birds and they thought that was just GRAND!

I just thought I would share with you all the latest with the birds.

All of the photos are my daughter's, 

(thank you for sharing!)

~XOP~

Crazy Weekend!

This was the first weekend in a LONG time that we didn't have some commitment. 

 It was HEAVEN!

Unfortunately, we got totally DUMPED on with snow!  

This is my deck. 

My hubby had some bins out on the deck and you can see how much snow we actually got. 

 It was over 12"!

The pile after blowing the driveway!

Our front yard.

Hubby was continually shoveling or snow blowing all weekend. 

 He did the neighbors houses that don't have a snowblower as there was such a large snow fall.  

At one point he called me out to see this gorgeous hawk in the trees behind our house.  

We back up to a woods and this one and her mate have been visiting a lot lately.  

I LOVE hawks. 

 They are my good luck animal, so I was happy to see her.  

He said the other bird was smaller which means this one was the female.

I woke up on Saturday with really bad vertigo.  

I stood up, took a step and literally crashed into the wall. 

 Everything was leaning left!  

Back to bed I went and laid on my other side to see if I could equalize out the fluid that must have been out of balance in my head.  

Eventually it got good enough I could be up and about.  

We were feeling so cooped up that we ended up going out to the store and to the thrift shop 

(my idea). 

 I LOVE thrift shopping.  

Always something I *need* to buy. 

 Like this Dragonware.  Isn't it beautiful?  

It is very delicate and the dragons are dimensional, not just flat painted on the cups and saucers. 

 I bought this for my dragon loving daughter.  

I also found this GREAT pair of leather, BOC boots.  

Now they were WAY more than I usually pay but I had a 35% off card so I got them pretty cheap.  Especially when you consider how much they would have been brand new.  

I love them.  

They are the softest leather.  I am totally smitten with these.  

There was a pair of BOC shoes too but I left them there since I have 2 very similar pair.  

I really wanted them though.  

On Sunday, Finn decided he needed a nap on my bed.  

He just passed right out, LOL.  

I covered him up with a quilt.  

My husband has to lay on his left side so Finn can lay in the crook of that arm and

 he must be covered up or he bites my husband until he complies!  

As I type this I realize that his left arm is the same one he insists on sleeping on 

when my hubby is sitting in his chair too.  

Funny Finny!

I spent a lot of time in my sewing room this weekend too.  

Cole was there helping.  

Because trying to quilt a white background quilt is so much easier with a black cat laying on it, right? 

 I moved him several times so I could work. 

 It is nice to have a cat back in my room though. 

 Hal comes in sometimes but I don't think she is feeling very well right now. 

 I am considering taking her to the vet soon if she doesn't turn things around. 

 She is just not acting herself.

I am giving her one more day and will re-evaluate.

How was your weekend?

Did you get snow too?

~XOP~