New Family Member

 Our son lost his dog recently.

  Abbey came to our home when she was about a year old. 

 She was a Golden Retreiver.  

As it turns out she was actually born on the same day as our son!

 For those 2 it was love at first sight.  

That dog thought the sun rose and set with Thadd.  

When Thadd bought his house he took her with him.  

Later he added a cat, Craig.  

Craig and Abbey (now named Sargent Pepper) became best friends too. 

 Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago. 

 Thadd came home from work, like he often did to check on the pets at lunchtime

 then went back to work.  

When he came home he found that she had passed away.  

To say he was devistated would be an understatement.  

I received a phone call and all I heard was sobbing.  

That sent this mama into a complete panic.

  *Finally* he managed to choke out "she's gone". 

 I knew immediately that he meant the dog.  

It's funny, I have 2 girls and one boy and my boy has always been the most sensitive one.

  You would NEVER know it to look at him but he was always the one to cry at sad movies with me, that got his feelings hurt but covered it up with male bravado and would corner me at my sewing table and talk my ears OFF! 

 You can't take away the hurt of losing a pet.  

Honestly, it's the worst part. 

 He was especially upset thinking that she died alone. 

 I reminded him that Craig was there and he was likely right by her when she passed.

So within a week he was looking for a new dog. 

 He wanted a rescue.  

He wanted a dog over a year old. 

 He sent me dog after dog.  

I found one but the lady was dragging her feet and he was in a rush.  

There was a HUGE hole to fill you know.  

The last 4 dogs he sent me had one that I thought might be "the one".  

She was a black lab mix, 1 year old female named Pepper. 

 Now if that is not fate talking to you I don't know what is!

  So he went to meet her and she really was the one.  

Pepper joined the family.  

Craig is still trying to get used to her. 

 We forgot what having a "puppy" was like so when we had to watch her 

we had to puppy proof EVERYTHING!  

It was CRAZY.  

So I would like to introduce you to Miss Pepper.

Oh Pepper, you have some mighty big shoes to fill.  
He loved Sargent Pepper fiercely!  

Welcome to the family!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

Wow, crazy Michigan weather over here.  

It was almost 50 on the weekend and on Monday we got 3" of snow!  

What the heck, Michigan?

I had a super busy weekend (well really what weekend isn't when you work?)

I *finally* had time to take all the Christmas decorations down and put them away.  

I think that must be some kind of record for me, letting it go on so long.  

The health issues of my son took over the 2 free weekends I did have until now.  

Did laundry, grocery shopping, cooking (the usual).  

Took laundry over to my son's house and ended up spending the evening with him.  

Then made him some dinner so went back on Sunday to deliver that.  

Anyway, I did manage to sneak in a bit of sewing too.  

Not much mind you, just enough to keep me sane, LOL.  

I saw this big goofball when I was visiting my son too.  

She is starting to get a little bit gray around her muzzle.  

I had some Bee blocks that I needed to get made so I got right on that.  

The free pattern is a modern heart by Threaded Quilting Studio.  

It is paper pieced. 

If you have never done paper piecing this would be a great one to start with.  

It was super easy and she even tells you what size to cut everything 

(although I cut the strips slightly longer and that worked better for me).

We were supposed to make 2 that were dark gray background and the heart was to be low volume. 

 I made my 2 then made a "reverse" one.  

I did this in a previous bee and she used it in the quilt and it really made the quilt.  

We will see if our lead person decides to use it or not.  

If not, maybe as a label?

Then I had to decide what I wanted to work on next.  

I have a LOT of WIPs and thought I might work on the ones that are the closest to being finished, 

but I really just wanted some mindless sewing.  

I chose to work on some Ocean Waves blocks. 

 I managed to sew up 3 more and sewed and trimmed enough HST to make 2 more!

I am officially half way now!  I have 18 of these blocks made. 

 I am anxious to make some more. 

 Sewing HST really is quite mindless sewing and so is trimming

 (using my trusty Bloc-Loc ruler).

So, I will link up with Sew Fresh Quilts and I ask you to link up on this blog with your WIPs.

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Christmas At My House

I did not have time to post over the holiday so instead of Happy New Year 

I will catch up on Christmas first! 

 I plan to post a WIP With Friends Tomorrow so get your posts ready!

My youngest daughter was here from NC so we had a house full for Christmas day.  

We were dog sitting for our nephew and my son brought Abbey and our daughter brought Beep 

(the peacock).

Up first is the dog's present.

Oh Abbey!

I thought I would tell you about one of my favorite traditions at my house.  

See that metallic green candle to the right of the angel?  

Can you see the silver one near her left ear and the red one on her head?  

This comes from all three kids trying to get "theirs" the highest on the tree.  

Now technically the green one wins as it is "on the tree" but to be fair, the red one is on the angel that is on the tree so I declared that one the winner.  

Silly children!

Beep with with us for the celebration.  We bought her a Xylaphone.  

My duaghter took a video of her playing it once she got home 

(she was too distracted to do a good job at our house).

The two youngest opening their gifts. 

This is my nephew's dog, Segram.  

She decided that I was her BEST friend, sigh, of course she did.  

She was a good dog but I forgot what it was like to have a dog around my ankles all the time. 

 Cats are so much easier for me to deal with!

I did make an apron for my son and it came out great! 

 Did I take a picture of it?  NOPE. But this is the fabric I used.  

The pattern did not call for it to be lined but I thought it would look so much nicer

 so I used that blue fabric at the top and lined it. 

 I'll see if I can get him to take a photo with it on.

We took our daughter out to the new place to eat in town, World Of Beer.  

This pretzel was gigantic, and the beer was wonderful 

(although a little expensive).  

After daughter #2 went back to NC we did a lot of cleaning up and chilling.  

Here was Hal hanging out with me on the couch watching a movie.  

It was so nice to be able to relax and just chill for a few days.  

Although you know me by now and that is not my MO.  

That being said, I did manage to get some sewing in and I will share that with you tomorrow

 as well as our NYE shenanigans

 (no there weren't really any shenanigans, but it sounds good). 

Let's meet up back here tomorrow and see what we have going on.

~XOP~

Thanksgiving at my House

I hope all my American friends had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  

Ours was busy leading up to the dinner but relaxing after that.  

We cooked a turkey that our daughter raised and it was so good! 

 (Pay no attention to the rip in the skin)

My son came over with our (now his) dog.  

My daughter brought her peahen, Beep, who dined with us.  She loves mashed potatoes!

She doesn't really like my hubby so this is a rare photo!

All in all a good time was had by all.  What did you do on your turkey day?

~XOP~

Celebrate The Ones You Love

My dear sweet husband had a birthday on Monday.  

We went out the FD's farm for a cook out to celebrate.  

We had the best time! 

 I wish our middle daughter could have been there too but 

NC is quite far from MI and we will be seeing her this summer.  

Anyway here is a shot of all of us (sans me) enjoying our day.  

You can see that even Beep was joining in.

I did manage to snap a pic of our dog, Abbey too.  

She is terrified of the bird (who in all fairness, is constantly trying to kill her).

Hubby's favorite cake is angel food with strawberries and whipped cream.  

Store was out of angel food cake and strawberries.  

So I went to the bakery part of the store and the sign said "strawberry cake".  

I figured it was a strawberry flavored cake, but thought it was better than no cake and decided to ask.  Lo and behold, it was angel food cake with 

custard that has strawberries cut up in it and white butter cream frosting.  

Close enough!! 

 I bought a can of the spray whipped cream and called it good!! 

 The cake was amazing. 

 Everyone loved it (and they are picky cake eaters).  Beep and Abbey even got some of the frosting.

Lest you think I have not been sewing (and I have not done much) I did manage to get another Splendid Sampler block finished but I did it my way and not the way the block was originally done.

I think it turned out pretty cute!  The cat is a free pattern over on Jodi Ric Rack's blog.

A friend on Instagrm (prettylittlequilts) is working on a cross block that she wants to make to pay tribute to the same kind of thing done during WWI.  

She is being deployed and wants to make a similar quilt 

as to the one in the 1917 Modern Priscilla magazine. 

 Next year is the 100th anniversary and she is making this as a traveling quilt.  

She will be collecting signatures of troops and veterans from all over the world. 

 She asked for one or 2 of these cross blocks made out of Bonnie and Camille fabrics and white.

  It should be an amazing quilt when it is finished!  

If you like you can read about the original quilt here.  I can't wait to see it finished!

Linking up to Let's Bee Social

Have a wonderful day and happy sewing!

~XOP~

Turkey Kind Of Weekend

There were several amazing things that happened at my house this weekend.  

The first was that my daughter had to take her turkey's for processing. 

Some of these birds were HUGE. 

My hubby went over to the farm around 6am to help her gather them up and load them in the truck

 to take to the processor.  

Just look at this beast of a turkey!

I was comfy at home and it began to snow.

Which was ok as I was watching the MSU vs OSU football game.  

I looked out again and we had many more inches!  It was the first snow of the year in Michigan.

I think we got over 10 inches!

Abbey loves the snow so she was thrilled!

Fatty McFatty put her ample girth over the heating register and thus made the entire house colder.  Hey, what did she care?  Her belly was toasty warm!

I watched the game and could not be more thrilled with the outcome!  

We beat the number 3 team in the nation!!!

GO STATE!

I decided to work on the label for the next wedding quilt while I was watching the game. 

 I made some good progress! 

 I actually managed to finish the embroidery, I just took this early into the game.

I have more to share but need to run, so more later.

~XOP~

Pre Weekend

I was so proud of myself getting another block finished. 

 I posted it on IG, tagged the fabric designer and 

I was so excited that I got all the one way fabric to go the same way. 

 OOPSIE, how embarrassing.  

I sewed the entire center upside down.  UGH!  

So I stayed up late, ripped it out, and sewed it in correctly!

Ah, there we go, much better!

A little doggy humor lest you think I only talk about the cats.

Hoping to get to the dress this weekend and quilt up my mini quilt.

What are you up to?

~XOP~

Oh Fall How I Love Thee

On the weekend while I was at my daughter's watching them all work on the peacock pen, 

I decided to take a walk and take some color inspiration photos. 

 I wanted to try to capture some great fall colors and shots. 

 First up are some I shot of our dog, Abbey.  She is a beautiful golden fall color all the time!

Then there were the amazing leaves everywhere.  Red maple is one of my favorites.

Sassafras is also beautiful.  This one looks like the state I live in.  Anyone want to guess?

So pretty with the red/orange against the vibrant greens.

You can't leave out the beautiful berries with their red and pink goodness.

These are just weird pods. Not sure what they actually belong to but they were kind of cool.

I love the look of the delicate white wisps of fluff that carry the Milkweed seeds to new homes.  These pods were literally exploding with their seeds.

This one concerns me a little bit.  Can you tell what it is?  

Ever heard "leaves of three let it be?"

YEP, It's Poison Ivy and it has grown into a TREE!!!

This thing is HUGE.

Lastly I leave you with a Praying Mantis.  

It looks like a pregnant female so daughter is keeping it to get the egg case and have them hatch in her area in the spring.

What a great fall color palette to inspire some fall colored quilting!

Are you making any fall colored or themed quilts?  

I don't happen to have any going currently.

I hope to have a Halloween one going for next year. 

I hate to start a new project but there are so many great fall/Halloween ones out there I may not be able to resist making one too.

I hope you enjoyed the color inspiration.

~XOP~