My Poor Neglected Blog

Hi friends!  I am so sorry that I have not posted in awhile. 

 Sometimes life just gets busy.  

I have not been in the mood to sew of late so there has not been much to show. 

 I know I talk about my life too but nothing very exciting has been happening there either, LOL.

I needed to make a pillow cover for my friend, Traci's, quilt shop (Something Quilty). 

 I made the Tribute Star quilt for her as a shop sample and this was made from the leftovers. 

I finally got my butt in gear and did it this past weekend. 

 I used a tutorial by my friend, Pam Gavin to put a zipper with a cover, in the back.  I

 love how the cover came out!  

This is the front.  

This is the back and you can see the zipper cover.

LOOK, you can see the zipper I put in.  

It was a magical day when Pam had us use our #20 foot to put in the zipper too.  

SO. MUCH. EASIER!  

My friend, Liz, quilted the front to match the quilt.  

I machine sewed the binding down too so I could finish it more quickly.  

I'm hoping Traci likes both the quilt and the pillow cover!

I was also working on my DNA for the science quilt and Cole felt he needed to help me.

I managed to get the entire block made.  

I have a few more blocks to go, but progress is being made!  

Isn't this block SO cool???

I found that background fabric recently and I think it looks like DNA too.

 Pattern is by Mary (Quilt Genius) if you need to make your own DNA block.

I need to make more blocks for this science quilt so trying to get in the mood to work on them.

Should I do the glassware or the bunnies next? 

 What do you think?  

The glassware is a pattern by Mary while I am using the 

Love, Hoppingotn pattern by Violet Craft for my bunnies.

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~

Go GREEN!!!

We received a HUGE box in the mail the other day.  

It was from my daughter's In-laws, Rick and Julie.  

I could not imagine what they would be sending in such a big box. 

 Imagine my surprise when I opened the box and found THIS!

Rick makes these for friends.  We are such big Spartan fans.  It was an amazing gift!  

A full size football helmet with our last name and the year we were married, on it.

Just look at that Spartan head on this side!!

I forgot to take a photo of the back but it has our year and an American flag on it.

I am not certain how our family lucked out in the in-law department but Rick and Julie are fabulous!

Thank you so much from the bottom of our heart for such a thoughtful and unique gift!!!  

You guys certainly surprised us with this beautiful helmet!  

I think I am going to have to try to keep it away from our son though, LOL.  

~XOP~

LARC Certification

I took a 10 week certification course last year and on Monday the university had a ceremony to honor us with certificates of completion.  

It was a LOT of information about how to be a Laboratory Animal Research Coordinator.  

This was the inaugural course and was by invitation only.  

I was honored to be asked to be a part of it. 

Rebecca Cunningham, our VP for Research was there to hand out the certificates. 

Bill Grear, our Assistant VP and Animal Program Compliance Oversite Director was there to speak.

We were awarded a certificate and pin.

Our PI's were invited and I managed to snag my boss to be my lunch date and attend the ceremony.  This is one busy guy especially since his promotion to Chief Science Officer of the University of Michigan, but he still made time to come with me and support me.  

I have been in his lab now for over 35 years.  

Retiring this year will be hard, he has been an amazing boss.

Working in scientific research is a very rewarding job, 

but recognition in a tech position is not common.  

It was nice that the university sees value in this program and I am looking forward to being able to help the university continue to make forward progress in its 

animal programs and regulatory compliance.

~XOP~

Marriage Retreat

This past weekend my husband and I went on a marriage retreat offered through our church.  

We went with another couple that are members at our church and friends.  

We had so much fun! 

 I can not remember the last time we laughed as much as we did this weekend. 

 I don't think I have ever seen my spouse talk as much as he did with our friends this weekend.  

We took our truck and our friends rode with us. 

 It was about a 6 hour car ride to Berea KY from our house.  

We stayed at the Boone Tavern.  

I would HIGHLY recommend this place. 

The beds were the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in at a hotel.

This was waiting for us when we got into our room.
Our wedding picture and 2 rosaries made locally, along with some chocolates.

The retreat was based on the Love and Respect program (you can find the videos and books online).  It was excellent.  

We learned a lot of things and am anxious to apply them in our lives.  

The priest that was the speaker was our prior so that was interesting.  

He was very insightful.  

There was a dinner dance on Saturday night and that was a lot of fun. 

I regret I didn't get a full length photo of us all dressed up but here were a couple of selfies.  

I know Chris has his eyes shut in the first one but 

you can see a little bit more of my dress in that picture.

My dress was really sparkly and it was the first time I had worn it.  

I had a bow belt at the waist and my friend kept saying I looked like a pretty package 

(when she wasn't calling me a disco ball!)

It really was a nice weekend away and some great information about reconnecting and making sure God is in your relationship.

We took the back roads down and stopped in Waynesville. 

 While everyone else walked around the town I, of course, went to the Fabric Shack. 

I picked up a few things, with actual projects in mind though for most of them.  

I went into the main shop first and found these beauties.  

I have a FQ bundle of the Pine Lullaby fabric so added a bit of yardage for a border.  

The text print is all words about the ocean/sea.

I'm not sure why, but this fabric reminded me of DNA, 

so I bought it to use for some background in my science quilt.

I checked out the annex where they have some sale fabrics, flannels and Minky.  

I found the perfect brown Minky to use for the upcoming Weiner dog quilt I have planned.  

 They also had this 108 wide Alison Glass fabric for $10.99/yard!!!  

I bought enough to back my Ocean Waves quilt 

(if I don't decide to use the Free Fall Tula fabric I already have.)  

Since the fabrics in my quilt are mostly navy and white the Tula would be my first choice, 

BUT I have heard the FF navy runs and I do NOT want to ruin all that white fabric, 

so will have to think about what to use.

All in all this was an amazing weekend and I am so happy we decided to go, & to go with our friends.

How was your Valentine's Day weekend?  Do anything fun??

~XOP~

A Little Retail Therapy In The Name of Science

I needed a few pieces of fabric to continue to work on my science quilt. 

I convinced my friend to drive to the LQS at lunch time 

(she really did not need much convincing). 

 I needed some mouse fabric for my science quilt and 

was not happy with the "rabbit fur" I had previously bought.  

Here are the mice I purchased, along with the new C&S tigers.

Much better rabbit fur!

 I made a purchase from Spoonflower of Immune Cells on the left and B cells on the right.  

The rabbits will go on the immune cell fabric and I am hoping a friend can design an IgG antibody for me to paper piece with the B cell fabric as the background.

In addition I found this amazing fabric.  

Not sure who it is by but I adore the animals in the water.  Especially the tigers!

I had paid for everything and was walking out when I saw these cats, that then had to come too.

Won't they make great pillows for the camper??

I never have enough time to sew, it seems.  Wonder if these will get finished in time for the summer?

Have a great weekend my friends and Happy Valentine's Day

~XOP~

Learning How To Use My Embroidery Module

My sweet husband bought me a magnificent new Bernina last year for my birthday.  

The Tula Pink 770 model! 

 It came with an embroidery module and I find that terrifying.  

I am determined to learn how to use it though (if it kills me).  

I signed up for the embroidery club classes at the shop he bought the machine from and 

he first class was last week.  

We learned how to embroider on a sweatshirt.  

I didn't like the design the class was teaching so went to the designs I have been buying from Embroidery Designs.com and asked if I could use one of those.  

I managed to get it from the website onto my jump drive and into my machine.

  I even resized it and saved that on my machine.  

I chose a nave blue sweatshirt from the Sally Ann just in case I hated how it turned out.  

Turns out I love how it came out!  

It says:  Cats know how we feel.  they don't care, but they know 

LOL how true.

I took a video while the machine was stitching.  So fascinating to watch!

This is a little bit more true to color of the sweatshirt.

I am so happy that I am learning and look forward to becoming proficient at this in the future.

Any machine embroidery tips from you pros out there??

~XOP~

Quilt Retreat Weekend

I went away for a quilt retreat this past weekend with my SIL and a good friend.  

It was about 2 hours away from home.  

We go every February and July. 

 It started out in July to celebrate my friends and my birthdays.  

Then we decided once a year was not enough so we planned a February one.  

I packed a lot of things but ended up workin on only one project.  

I make and trimmed SO MANY HST blocks!  

I spent all Thursday night and Friday sewing and trimming HST.  

I need to make 15 more blocks to have what I need for my Ocean Waves quilt.  

I brought one block so I would be able to lay them all out correctly before I sewed them.  

I got all 15 blocks worth of HST cut and trimmed to the correct size 

(Thank God for Block Lock rulers!)

Friday we took a break and went to Seven Sisters quilt shop.  

Always a fun trip!  

(I always look bald when I pull my hair back!)

I didn't take a lot of pictures as I was too busy sewing. 

I made some mistakes on Saturday so put the project down and went to bed.  

I got up on Sunday and fixed them, but that took me over 3 hours of ripping and resewing 

and ripping and resewing some more.  

I finally finished 7 of the 15 I need for this quilt.  

I guess they will go with me to the next retreat! 

 It is going to be pretty when it is finished.  

I am cutting into my hoarded, beloved, Neptune for some of the blocks too.  

I didn't have enough of the navy to make the whole thing out of that but 

I did cut up some of the navy and all the colors.

Cori finished 2 quilt tops for the veterans.

My SIL, Mary, finished this quilt top for her grandson, using the Double Slice pattern

She got all the applique fused to this llama quilt top but still needs to stitch around it all.

She cut all the flowers and letters on her Cricut.  

I love how they turned out.

That llama face is adorable!

She got much of the applique fused on this under the sea quilt for her grand daughter too.  

She still needs her fin and everyone needs their faces finished.

So I finished 7/15 OW blocks and they got much bigger projects finished.  

'm still happy about getting as much done as I did.  

It is so boring to sew the same thing over and over but I know the quilt will be amazing and 

it is going to go on my bed!

~XOP~

A Little DNA

I decided to get back to working on my science quilt. 

I am planning on gifting this so I need to get it finished.  

The DNA piece looks like the block with the most teeny pieces so I decided to tackle it first.  

My friend Mary of Quilt Genius is the designer of these amazing patterns. 

 I decided to make the neucleotides in Blue-Yellow and Green-White.  

(to show ATGC).  

I did this much on Friday night after work.

So yesterday I got the entire DNA strand finished.  

I still need to put it in the frame and make the desk but the hard part is now finished!

I have a class to learn more about my embroidery module on Wednesday.

I'm so uncomfortable with this, so need to get into it more.

Leaving for a quilt retreat on Thursday at Creative Passions with 2 of my friends.

I will take pictures this time and tell you all about it when I get back.

Have a great week friends!

~XOP~