WIPs With Friends

I hope you all had a good weekend. 

 It was amazingly HOT here in Michigan.  

We almost never get 96 degrees in the SPRING!  

CrAzY. 

 I wanted to do some yard work but that just did not happen.  

I tried for a bit on Monday.  

I dug out some grass from a small part of my garden, planted some tomato and pepper plants 

and a couple of planters and called it a day. 

 PHEW!

Instead I concentrated on sewing. 

 I should have concentrated on cleaning, HA!  

Maybe this weekend.  

I have a lot of commitments coming up so wanted to get a jump on those things.  

I finished hand embroidering a quilt label for an upcoming wedding quilt. 

 I can't show that though = (

I finished a block for another Halloween quilt but have one more to go.

On my google sheet that I keep with monthly goals is always "Make one Ocean Waves block".  

 I can happily check this off my list now.  I have 21/36 blocks made.

Cole was "helping" while I was working.  

He matched the color scheme perfectly. 

(or should I say purrfectly?)

I had no intention of making the progress I did on this wedding quilt 

(Let's call this wedding quilt-A, WQ-A).  

I got the entire center of the quilt cut out.

I made all the HSTs.  Next I got those all trimmed up to 4.5".  They are all untrimmed in this photo.

Next I got the first rows sewn on.

Lastly I sewed the white rows on.

All that's left to do it assemble it into the quilt center.

I am using the pattern called Newport Fantasy by Pleasant Valley Creations which you can find here.

This is what it looks like, but obviously not in the colors I am using.

What I need to determine is what color to use where the green is in the border.  

I have 2 prints I am considering, 

but I may just use the same solids I used for the center for the outer border too. 

 I wanted to get the center done and then decide what to do. 

 Anyone have any strong opinions?  

The two prints are mostly gray and white.  

The colors in their house are grays and whites.  

I am using some gray blues in the quilt but thought about

 just using the different gray solids in the border.  

Maybe just one of the grays? 

Or maybe mix the grays and blues? 

Or stick with one of the prints I got for the border?

Time will tell.

I still have an intricate FPP pattern that needs to be tested and done by the 16th.

I best get myself working on that next.

Then I can work on WQ-A.

Sharing over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

YOUR turn.  Share with us what you are working on by clicking on the link.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy 60th To My Dear Sweet Hubby

I don't talk about my hubby a lot on my blog but today I am going to celebrate him. 

 His 60th birthday was Wednesday.  

We have been married almost 35 years.  

I don't know how I would get along without him by my side.  

He is not only my husband but truly my best friend.  

I wanted to do something special for his big birthday, as I knew we would be away on his actual day.  I tired to plan a trip but he was NOT having that, haha.  

So I conspired with his uncle to plan a surprise birthday party!  

He is pretty quiet and keeps to himself except where his family is concerned.  

He loves to hang out with his family.  He is the oldest of 7 kids.  

I invited his entire, gigantic family.  

Almost everyone made the effort to show up too.  

I could NOT have done it without his sister, Mary's help.  

Also his aunt and uncle who offered up their house for the party.  

My sweet SIL, Jackie, also had her sister make the most amazing cake too.

So the plan was that everyone would be to the farm at a specific time.  

I flew our daughter in from NC so on Saturday morning I went to the airport to pick her up.  

He was at our church doing landscaping work with others for the day so I had the day to myself.  

My daughter and I went out for breakfast then I dropped her with the eldest daughter.  

I had gone shopping with the eldest on Friday to get fruit and veggies to make for the party.  Everything was in place.

Surprisingly everyone showed up on time!  

I was texting with my eldest the entire drive to the party (an hour away).  

We pulled up and got out and his uncle came over to greet us.  

He turned Chris away from the garage door and tried to put the door up.  

His son was trying to do the same thing from inside so the door kept going up and down in the space of about a foot for a bit.  

Hubby turned and asked what was going on with the door. 

 We could hear giggling inside, which he thought was his uncle's grand kids.  

Then...the door went up and everyone yelled SURPRISE!!!  

Hubby just stood there like, "wait...what?"  

He was so confused and had no idea what was happening. 

 HAHA it could not have been more PERFECT!

We went inside and it was an amazing party.  

I had BBQ catered in and my SIL Mary made potato salad and coleslaw (I still need that recipe).  

I also had the BBQ place bring mac and cheese, OMG you guys, it was so good!

This is the cake.  It was an old man of the sea theme.  

My SIL got him a top hat that had "60" on it.  That is my younger daughter next to him.

Around the table, me, hubby, middle daughter, eldest daughter and BIL.

 Hubby with his middle brother, Mark.

Hubby and me

His uncle gave him this walker.  HILARIOUS.

Blowing out the candles

Family!

Chris's uncle explaining how to work the walker.  Notice the fishing pole, LOL.

 My daughter and me.

My daughter and us.

I could NOT have done this without the help of so many other people.  

It was so nice to be able to celebrate such a special day with our entire family (almost).  

Thank you to everyone that made this such a special day.  

As we were falling asleep that night, he turned to me and said, "Thank you for today". 

 I know it meant so much to him.

~XOP~

WIPs with Friends Thursday

Sorry for missing WIP Wednesday but I was out of town.  

My sister was having some surgery and I had to be there to make sure she was alright.  

I was and she was so here we are on WIP Thursday instead.

I am freaking out a little bit about all of the commitments I have for this month.  

What is wrong with me?  I know the word no but rarely use it, LOL.  

So what have I been working on?

I managed to sew my May bee blocks up and put them in the mail.

Every month I try to sew at least 2 Scrappy Triangles and this month I got 4 done!  

Two in each color way!

So that's it for me for this week.  I have been at the hospital or driving the rest of the time.

What are YOU working on?  Please post your current projects for us to see!  

~XOP~

Baby Peacock Quilt Finished and For Sale!

I finally have something finished!  

I managed to finish the hand binding on my baby peacock quilt.  

As much as I love him I have decided to put him up for sale in my ETSY shop.  

If you want more information please click on the link and view all the info in the shop listing. 

This is 100% designed by me.

I did all the piecing and applique.

The binding is hand stitched.

My home is smoke free and cat friendly.

 In the mean time, here are some pictures for you.

The quilt is ~30" X 40"

Quilting was done by Threadbear Quilting.  

I designed the quilting and she executed it for me, so this is custom quilted.  

Kathy is awesome and will take quilts you send to her.  

Tell her I sent you!

I did the applique raw edge and stitched around all the pieces.

The back is the softest buttery yellow flannel.

Just look at that quilting!

So if you need an adorable baby peacock in your life go over to my ETSY shop and take a look.

I am linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts today.

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

As you could see from previous posts, I have been mostly camping.  

Very little sewing.  I did manage to finish the Mad Scientist test quilt. 

 I just had the test tubes to finish and then assemble them into the other piece and add the bench top.

Here are the test tubes. 

 If you look at the fabrics close up you can see the teal one looks like crystals and 

the purple one is all swirly!

This is how the finished piece turned out.  I am so in love with this!

I thought you might appreciate seeing the back side of this foundation paper pieced project.

I spent some quality time with the cats while camping though.  Cole loves to lay like this.

Finn looked so cute sleeping on the fish quilt I could not resist this photo.

How was your week?  What did you work on this week?

Please link up what you are working on.
I am also linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Mother's Day

My daughter called me home from camping to celebrate Mother's Day early.

We went to the nail place and I got my toes and my fingers done.  

I decided to try something new. 

 I had a sparkly teal for the "French" pedicure/manicure.  I LOVE how this turned out!

 My daughter in NC sent these beautiful flowers.

My son gave me these beautiful flowers too. 

 Apparently everyone knows how much I love Stargazer Lillies!

My younger sister sent me the nicest card this year too. 

She has CP and I work to make sure she has what she needs to live as independently as possible.

The family took me to dinner too.  

All in all a pretty nice time!  

Just missed having my other daughter there too, but I know she was there in spirit.

On Sunday hubby and I went back to the camper.  

I thought we needed a photo of the 2 of us.  We are terrible at taking selfies, LOL.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend too, whatever you got to do.

~XOP~

Mad Science Quilt (Pattern Tester edition)

Anyone on Instagram knows that they use an algorithm for viewing posts. 

 This means that you don't often see the posts as they are written. I find it super annoying!

Well, the other day I signed on and there was an amazing pattern by Quiltgenius (Mary Smith) 

for a Mad Science quilt.  

She had put out a call for pattern testers but with a VERY tight deadine 

(especially for me, since I would be camping).  

The entire time I was reading her post 

(wondering how old it was and if all the spots were already filled) I *knew* I should not volunteer.  Did that stop me?  Heck no.  

I am, apparently, a glutton for punishment.  

The entire time I kept saying, you know you don't have time, 

this is too much to add to an already full month, my hands were typing 

"sure I would be so happy to test this paper pieced pattern for you and give you an entire quilt top in under 2 weeks while I plan to be far from my stash for those 2 weeks". 

 WHAT WAS I THINKING???

So Tuesday I took the day off my real science job and sewed like a fiend! 

 I sewed for 10 hours straight and got 3 of the 4 pp units done!!! 

 I found one mistake, but it was an easy correction.  I also gave some suggestions.  

Here is what I worked on for 10 hours straight.

The pattern is extremely well written and goes together like a dream though.

I'm just a slow paper piecer.

 This was part one.

Part 2

Part 3

Hallie kept me company the entire time!

So I sewed them all together and then went to dinner with a friend.

By the time I got home from dinner and conversation, it was almost 9pm.  

OK, I thought, I can get some of the components done for the 4th segment.  

I sewed one and started on another 

only to realize there was a problem with the assembly for that part.  

I took a photo and sent it to Mary and then decided I needed to go to bed (5am comes WAY to early).  I am hoping she will be able to fix that section and re-send so I can finish the whole top tonight.

PHEW!  I will be happy to get this finished but am so incredibly thrilled with how it is turning out!  

If you need this pattern, Mary will have it available soon.  

Part one is already in her Craftsy shop and you can buy it here.  

She has LOTS of great patterns in her shop too.  

There will be more parts to this pattern as well.  I'm hoping she lets me test more!

~XOP~