Finished a 2010 BOM!

BAM!  Another WIP can be crossed off the list. 

 Not that any of you even remember this quilt, LOL. 

I participated in the Christmas BOM at the Fat Quarter Shop in 2010.  

They were VERY generous with their fabric and I was able to eek out 2 blocks for each kit they sent!  I made one for me and one for my friend, Liz that does a lot of my quilting for me.

 She got hers quilted right up and has probably been using it for the last 9 years!  

Me?  Not so much.  

Liz quilted it and it sat in my closet waiting for be to *finally* put some binding on it.  

Anyone else do this?  No?  Sheesh. 

 I figured in my glorious binding extravaganza I have been having this month I would cycle it in. 

 I thought I had made the binding but alas that was not true.  

Then came the hunt for the fabric that matched this to make binding. 

 I was able to find it and make binding and now will have this glorious quilt to snuggle under!

The custom quilting is so fabulous!

Ho ho ho across the top of the stocking

Love the roof on this house

Love the quilting on the cap and the pom pom

I love this wreath too.

 Notice the cat in the center of the wreath?

I am so happy to be able to share this quilt!

I am even happier that it is now finished!

~XOP~

Weekend Update

I wanted to work on a few more of those UFO's and I got one more top finished! 

 I participated in the Fat Quarter Shop's Christmas Sampler BOM a few years ago. 

 They actually gave me enough fabric to make 2 of each block. 

 I decided to make one top for my friend Liz and the other one for me.  

I managed to get Liz's  quilt top finished. 

 I cut the borders out for this one and mine at the retreat.

I love the top left basket and the house, probably my 2 favorite blocks.

I love the white stars in the outer borders. 

 The directions for making the taller points was not a way I had ever done it before.

The red sashing is a loop type print with white dots, but I don't have enough to use that for my quilt.

I do have enough of the red swirly print that is in the basket but 

I worry about it sitting on the same fabric in the sashing.

I am going to make stars where the cornerstones are for my quilt.  

I have given this some thought and I bought some whipstitch piping some time ago

 not certain what I was going to do with it.  

I may have found the perfect answer for separating the blocks from the sashing. 

 If I do I will have to stop it before each sashing  star.  

It could work, I just might need to play with it. 

 Do you know whipstitch piping? 

 It looks like this.

I have the aqua and lime green and will need to use both.  

Hopefully this works out.

 Would you do something like this or would you just sew it and let it blend? 

~XOP~

12 Days Designer BOM

I know, two posts in one day, but I have a lot to say (which should not surprise anyone that knows me! LOL).  I did manage to work on my block 12 for the 12 Days of Christmas Designer BOM and got my block and LTW's block all finished.  You know what that means right?  Time for me to break out the finishing kit(s) and get some cutting done too (UGH).  I love all the blocks for this quilt and can't wait to see it all put together though so maybe that will spur me on.

Aren't these ornaments too cute? I was able to get 2 from the package again using one additional strip of the white that I had bought JIC. I need to pull the finishing kit out, maybe this weekend and see what I have to do to get er' done!

I don't know about you but this has been the second wettest spring in the Detroit area (over 14 inches so far, and the biggest was 16 inches). I think it has been the most rainy days though so there's that. Why am I talking about this? I have sooo much neglected yard work to do since I couldn't get outside to work until the rain let up. This puts a serious strain on my sewing time, see where I'm going with this??

My DH has decided he wants to do Square Foot Gardening. Great, I say, but you know what that means for me right? He built the garden "walls" and EVERYTHING else is up to me. OMG really? I was happy to put in a regular ole garden but no, not mister *I* want to have a garden. So I sat down and read the book, ok, ok, I skimmed the book and read the important parts (I have other things to do you know, laundry doesn't do itself!)

It needs certain things for the soil. Vermiculite for instance. HUH? Where do I find that? Home Depot said in the fireplace section but the other HD had no idea what I was talking about so... Still looking. And how many of you know that Peat Moss is NOT a renewable resource? I didn't until I read the book. Anyway, it looks like an interesting concept, but why do these things *he* wants to do end up falling to me to finish? Does this happen to any of you guys?? What do you do about it? I love him to pieces but his "hobbies" are going to be the death of me!

I will keep you posted about the SFG and how it goes, maybe I will even take some pictures so you will know what I am talking about. Would you like that? I'm pretty sure misery loves company so c'mon, share with me. Pretty please? ~XOP~

I am Up To No Good

I guess I have been watching too much Harry Potter lately!  I am really not up to no good.  In fact I have been trying to be good.  You?  Anyway, I found a great new to me BOM called Crazy Cats.  Looks like Helena did a great job with these cats.  Check out her website and blog.  I love meeting new people from Sweden (that's where my ancestors hail from, mostly).

I have managed to do a few quilty things since returning from market too.  I got block 11 finished in the Designer Mystery BOM.  It was designed by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill and is adorable!  I did get 2 cut and sewn.

One for me and one for LTW

I also finished block 4 in my Birdie Stitches block. I added the blossoms on the tree and I am really happy with the way it came out. Have you ever tried to press the embroidery? It is kind of tricky. I had a left over piece of batting hanging around and thought, hmm, I wonder if I could put the block face down on the batting and press from the back? Maybe that would get the wrinkles out and keep the embroidery standing nicely. It was kind of funny, but look how the batting looked when I took the block away.

A perfect mirror image! I used Quilter's Dream cotton batting to do this and my steam iron. Anyway, just a little side note that. I bet you want to see the block right?

I was very happy with how it came out!

I am getting veteran quilts ready to drop off at the VA hospital this week for one of the groups I quilt with, the Plymouth Piecemakers. I drive by the hospital every day when I go home from work so I will drop off 15 quilts to them on Thursday. I squared up the Project Special Delivery quilt last night and will hand that off to PTM for the binding tomorrow. It has to be in the mail on June 8th. It was quilted with circles. I will get some pics once I get it back, wash and dry it. I love it when it gets all crinkly don't you? Jessie's quilt will be delivered this weekend at her party. Next up is finishing the JRQAL quilt and then I will have to make some choices about what to work on next. I'm pretty sure it will end up being my yard!! All my quilting has left my yard in DIRE need of some work. I am going to make DH and DS help me to get it back in shape. My plans for the upcoming weekend are to do LOTS of yard work.

Speaking of DH his birthday was yesterday. Poor dear, he had his braces (yes I said braces) adjusted and did not want the dinner I had planned for him. DD2 came home to celebrate with us so I made dinner for the 4 of us and we had cake (which DH ate) and then we walked up to the new ice cream shop for ice cream (I abstained). It was not a very eventful birthday but maybe at our age that's ok! Have a wonderful day!

12 Days New Block(s) Done

I thought that perhaps I should work on some sewing stuff on Sunday since I had not done anything the rest of the weekend so I decided I should cut out my latest 12 Days of Christmas block and work on it. You may remember that I am making 2 of each block so that when I am finished I will have 2 quilts. One for me and one for LTW. I liked this block, it was easy to put together and looks adorable when finished.

Here they are side by side, cute huh??

I did finish the back to that super secret project I can't tell you all about too so off to the quilter with it. I will tell you I was testing a pattern for a designer, but that's all I can say. Glad it is on it's way to be quilted though it was a big project!

I had a new grand niece born on March 3rd and I have a quilt all ready for her, it just needed the label, so I got to work and made the label for it as well as a label for the dragonfly quilt I had made for my DD2.


It was dark last night so I only took a photo of the labels, not the quilts. I will try to remember to do that tonight so you can see the fronts. I did try out my new stamp that I bought. I was thinking of using it on twill tape for quilts I plan on selling, rather than ordering pre-made twill tape labels (more expensive). I wanted to try the stamp out so used it on DD2's label. I really LOVE it. I can't believe how detailed the cat came out.


Now I need to try some twill labels. I'll have to stamp some up to take with us when we go to PA so Quiltin' Queen can put them on the quilt for me!! If you get time pop over to her blog and check out the embroidered blocks we (mostly she) made to aid the efforts to give aid to the flood victims in Queensland. The patterns were designed by Helen Stubbings.
XOP

Oh Boy Do I Have A Lot To Share

Let me start with yesterday. I went to the gym for 2 hours then home for a shower, which I really, really needed!! DD2 came home and we went to get our nails done. I had a pedicure and she had a mani/pedi. We used to do this when she was in high school before all the big dances. It is a tradition we both still enjoy doing. I was always so happy that she wanted to be with her mom and we never missed a dance! We had to go to the phone store and get her a new phone too. That took forever! She is now the proud owner of a Droid X and loves it!! She has an interview in NC at a university for graduate school (second week of Feb). They are flying her down there and everything! She has an interview at Purdue the first week of Feb, too. Lastly she has a phone interview with the University of Maryland sometime soon too. Looks like graduate school for her!! We are so proud of her

I was going to vacuum but Mosen was guarding the vacuum so I had to wait (still haven't done it, LOL) What's up with that crazy cat anyway??

I didn't do very much yesterday after that so I won't bore you with the details. On to today!

I did the usual, laundry, cleaning etc but in the afternoon, I managed to get my mug rug finished. I LOVE it!! Now I will show you front and back if you promise not to make fun of my quilting. My FMQ is not the best but I think it came out pretty well.

After my arm got tired (patting myself on the back ya know?) I decided to work on my 12 Days block. It is such a cute block! A house all decked out for Christmas.

You know what that means?? It means, for today, I am totally caught up on all my BOM commitments!!!

Last but not least, I have to thank you all for leaving comments on my blog and on Stash Manicure. It was enough to get an invitation back!! That's right boys and girls, I will be guest posting again on February 11th. Mark your calendars, grab a cuppa and let's see what I can come up with for you all.

Day To Myself...What?

DH had to fly yesterday and was overnight so I had last night and today all to myself. What did I do today, I hear you ask? More laundry, dishes and vacuuming as well as cleaning cat boxes, but I got a lot of sewing done today too. Wanna see?

First thing done was block 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas. I made 2 blocks from the kit sent to me.


I needed to get the next Layer Cake block done too and here it is.


Then I decided to make the next Jelly Roll block too. I really like how this one came out.


I was watching and listening to the Tudors while I was sewing all afternoon. Now I need to finish up the laundry and a few things. I finished a baby quilt top too which I will show you tomorrow, not spilling the beans today!

Oh yes, I will be on Stash Manicure on Wednesday so come back and cuz' in addition to that I will be having a little giveaway too.

I hope you all had a good weekend too!! XOP