It's Been A Long Week!

I've been unusually quiet I know but life has gotten crazier than usual. 

 Last Sunday I went to the Checker Distributors open house with Cori and Pauline. 

 I bought a few fabric cards and thought I would share what I bought.

 I am planning on swapping these whales

 And the "It's a boy" fabric on the right

 And the Madrona Road, if anyone is interested.

Now here is the naughty part. 

 I also bought 2 bolts of fabric!!  

YIKES!! 

 One was a bolt of Kona white which I use all the time and 

the other one was so freaking adorable I just couldn't pass it up!!

Have you people seen Sarah Jane's new line Out to Sea??  

I really love it.  

I just remembered I did not take a picture of my fabric so it is night time and my pic is kind of bad but if you go here you will see it in it's true color.

 (The white spot was from my light)

I believe the pirate girls and the Narwhals will eventually have to join in the fun too.

While we were at the open house I got to rub elbows with someone most everyone knows too.

Alrighty then, this takes me up to the rest of the week now. 

 I left to go to Grand Rapids on Thursday afternoon and will pick up there tomorrow. 

~XOP~

Goodies From Checker

I thought I would share the things I bought while I was at Checker (wholesale distributor).  They had a TON of patterns really cheap so I bought a LOT.  I was thinking about you all though and will most likely do some as a give away in the future.

I got a few books too

Of course the obligatory fabric samples (you can peek at those on my Flickr here)

I wasn't going to buy any fabric I swear, but how could I resist this with all the cats all over it?  I couldn't!  It was a small bolt only 7.5 yards.  So adorable!

I keep leaving this post to go and finish up the apple pie filling, more apple butter and I baked 2 loaves of banana chocolate chip bread too! I am sending a loaf of that to DD2 in NC. DH is going there tomorrow for work and so he is going to meet up with her. I wish it could be me! I really miss her. At least she will have some of my homemade lovin'!

I hope you have had a great weekend, mine sure has been productive! ~XOP~

What Do You Do On Your Day Off?

Well, let me tell you what I did today!  I got up around 6:30 and Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) came and picked me up, then we went to pick up Quilting Queen.  We were headed to Checker to pick up some stuff Cori had ordered.  I bought a few things but it is too late to take any pictures so you will have to see them tomorrow.  I thought we would be going out for lunch but we ran out of time!


You see I had a dentist appointment at 2:30 to put on my permanent crown and it is 30 minutes away.  BUT...before I left for the dentist I had to stop at the grocery store to get some of the ingredients to make Buffalo Chicken Dip and wrap a baby shower present and eat lunch before I had to leave.

We saw these amazing rows of Kona while at Checker.  I really wanted a bolt of each one!

As it turned out we stopped for the ingredients I needed for the dip, then my friend dropped me off at home around 1:30. I made the dip, wrapped the gift and headed out. Stopped for a quick bite on the road, and went to get my crown put on. Off to the baby shower. That pretty pastel chenille blanket? That was the baby gift along with some burp pads I made a long time ago. She loved the blanket!

Isn't she just so adorable? While at the shower the wife of one of the post docs in my lab expressed her interest in learning to quilt. I would be so thrilled to be able to help her, but she is expecting a baby and has a 4 year old so I'm not sure how much time she is actually going to have!

Several people have asked me to share a tutorial for the Chenille blanket. If you are interested, you can check out my tutorial for it here. I have had several people ask for the Caramel Apple Jam recipe. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow when I make another batch and I will post about it, with photos and the recipe soon.

I have a LOT of other stuff to share with you so I will stop for now and continue tomorrow.  ~XOP~

Checker Open House

Checker Distributors had their annual open house on Monday.  I went with Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl Fabric Shop), Quiltin Queen, Liz and her friend Mary Ann.  We had so much fun!  I had not seen Barb and Mary (Me and My Sister Designs) since market so I was so excited to see them!!  It was nice to catch up.  These are two great ladies!!

We also ran into Jaybird (Julie Herman) and Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts). Two VERY talented women! Julie on the left and Edyta on the right.

I managed to get a pic with Julie and then we got a group shot of Quiltin Queen, Crazy Quilt Girl, Edyta and myself.

Now I have some super exciting news to share with you. When I was talking with Edyta she was super excited and leaned over her counter and said, "Would you like to be my personal assistant?" I just about fell over! I replied, "What exactly does that mean?" We are currently working on just exactly what that means and my first job responsibilities begin on Monday. She lives about an hour away from me but there are several "online" things I will be doing for her for now. Eventually, I may get to do some traveling with her to markets and such. I am currently in SHOCK! It is all just soooo exciting! Only time will tell how our relationship will work itself out but she is an amazing woman and designer and I am looking forward to a long friendship with her.

If that was not enough, Konda (Moose on the Porch) asked me if I would like to design a star for her FQ Quilt Along that is beginning in September. I had noticed that you could contact her if you were interested in designing and just had not gotten around to doing it when she emailed me! So look for that in the future from me. I'm a little nervous about it and need to study the details.

There's one last thing. As fellow bloggers, do you look for things to take pictures of so you can use them on your blog? It seems to always be in the back of my mind, always looking for that opportunity. So on Monday after I dropped Liz and Mary Ann off at the farm I went to get into my car and this is what I saw

All I could think was that they were there to give me a 21 duck salute to send me on my way!! Have a great day and we'll talk soon! ~XOP~

Now For The Rest of The Story

I know I promised more info and so I have a few minutes to deliver on that promise.  First I need to back up a little bit.  Last week, I went over to QNQ's house to see her use her new Gammil!  Crazy Quilt Girl (CQG) was there too.  I managed to snap  a few pics of QNQ using her new machine.  The two of them were making some small quilts to show how many quilts you can get out of a Jelly Roll if you use just a wee bit of yardage too.  I think CQG had a JR giveaway on her blog and will be giving away one of the 4 quilts they made to one lucky winner soon too.  If you have not visited their blogs you should keep an eye out.  The quilts were made using a Hullabaloo JR.  Here the two of them are, "quilting".


Next up is my trip to Checker with CQG yesterday. We finally convinced her to branch out and so she placed an order with Checker for some non-Moda fabric!! We went there yesterday to pick up some of the order that had come in and we went shopping as well.
Here is CQG as we were going in the store.

We put a LOT of fabric in our cart. So much in fact we had to get a second cart.

Unfortunately much of what we chose was already spoken for so we left with much less than this! We got another bolt of Prince Charming so watch her site, she will be listing what she has of that amazing line soon!! I am TOTALLY in love with that fabric!! We got some Flour Sugar at a pretty good deal that she is passing along to you too. Then I totally convinced her to buy some of this line from Benartex with some awesome retro kitties on it. This is the print that made me want it so much.

She got it in pink too. There is a coordinating stripe for both of them and a solid for each of them too. Then there is a smaller print that reminded us both of the illustrations in an old fashioned Golden book. Once it gets listed, which should be today, go and take a peek. If you are a sucker for kitties like me you are going to have to have some!! It really is amazingly sweet!! I'd be interested to know what you guys think of it and don't buy it all!!!
Then we went down the Kona cotton isle. I could hardly contain CQG as she was drooling over all the beautiful colors. I'll let you in on a little secret though the pinks and purples were her favorites!!

Alright kiddos enough for now. I need to get some real work done at my real job (*sigh) since I had the last 2 days off. Have a great day!!    ~XOP~

I'm a WINNER!!

I think many of you know who Sweetwater is right?  Well, they just joined Facebook recently.  They asked if we would go to FB and "like" them.  So I did that.  Up for grabs were some of their darling charms found here.  I got to choose 3!!  How exciting is that??

                                          I chose Hope, House and  Hometown.

Oh, and did you happen to notice the new button on my side board?  Well, I am joining in the Zig Zag quilt-a-long that Angela over at Cut to Pieces is going to be doing.  Why don't you join me?  It looks like a fun quilt and I have always wanted to do a zig zag quilt!  C'mon...you know you want to!!

Last week I went out with my BFF and we went to Checker to pick up some stuff for LTW and Crazy Quilt Girl's shop.  One of the BEST things about going is getting to go through the fabric sample cards they are getting rid of.  I love it!!  I only got one pic so far but will take more as I take them apart and share them with you.  I managed to get a little Flour Sugar, as well as some AMH voiles (which I am swapping out at the moment, so no pictures of those here although you can see them on my Flickr if you really want to).

I did manage to have DH help me to mix the dirt for one of the Square Foot Gardens this weekend. It is in the box and the box now has the grids and it is ready for me to go home and plant tonight!! We still have one more to do but DH said he wants to make it more level on the bottom first. I will

try to remember to take pictures of them too, should have done when we were mixing the dirt. Boy was that a lot of work! I got a lot of stuff planted and weeded and such. It sure was a hot one this weekend though. I don't even know how many gallons of water I drank while working out in the sun!

I did some cleaning up in my sewing area too.  Filed all my patterns and put some fabrics away, tore out what I wanted to keep in my magazines, recycled the rest, then filed those in notebooks.  It took me a long time but I think it will help me find things when I need them again.

How was your weekend??  ~XOP~

Fabric Heaven

Yesterday was an amazing day spent with my amazing BFF, The Quilting Queen, Pauline (or QQ for short). I picked her up around 9am and we headed for an amazing place. A fabric warehouse in Ohio. Oh the trouble we get into there! It is about an hours drive for us and this is what awaited us...Fabric Heaven

Or you can see QQ showing her impression of Vanna White.

"Hey QQ whatcha' lookin' at over in that isle??"

I think it was a "put that camera away" moment!! LOLOL, you know me.
Shopping was almost complete and QQ asks me "here, you want some fabric??"

It was so much fun! Here we are with our final selections. First me with mine (some of my cart was for our friend who lets us use her access) and the other one is of QQ with her haul! We sure do heart our fabrics!!


Don't you just love QQ's expressions?? I think I bring out the best in her don't you?? I was thrilled to get some of Allison Smith's Peacock fabrics at a bargain!! I see a pastel peacock quilt in my future!!

We paid for our purchases and left to get some (late) lunch and then make the long drive home. Although, it never seems very long when the two of us are together, time really has a way of slipping by. I hope that is the case when we drive to PA in a few weeks too.

After we returned to QQ's house we settled up and then down into the basement we went. She taught me how to use our friend's GO that I had borrowed. I am making a tumbler quilt for my nephew and his new wife to celebrate their wedding. I got it over halfway cut out. Here you can see the fabrics I chose along with the stack on tumblers I got finished. I needed a plain green and QQ had some in her stash. I love shoppin' the stash!!!


I think this line is called Natural Effects. I really, really love it. I hope they will too. I had put ribs into the crock pot in the am before we left so went home to have ribs for my dinner.

I am looking forward to the weekend and seeing what new adventures pop up for me! Have an awesome weekend too!! XOP

LCQAL Block 9 Done

What a hectic day today has been. I had a ton of stuff to do at work today and was sooo distracted. Got lots of great stuff going on behind the scenes that is hush hush for the moment. I'm sorry to keep saying that but I am practically BURSTING to tell you guys but I just can't right now. Soon, hopefully soon. What I can talk about is what I managed to get done at quilting tonight. My number 9 block in the Layer Cake Quilt Along. TA DA


Isn't it pretty?? I just love how it came out!!

The Quilting Queen and I are heading out to do some shopping together tomorrow. I'll bring my camera, cuz' you know who probably won't think to bring hers, LOL. No problem, I like to share. Pray we don't get a ton of snow dumped on us tonight!!
XOP

Shopping With My BFF

I know you are all waiting to hear about my trip to Frankenmuth but first I know you all want to hear about my shopping trip with PTM right?? We left early in the am on Friday to go to Checker. We had placed a pre order so we were going to pick that up but you know that we will also get a few "must have" items. So I will take you through my purchases.
My first pre order is a Kona Color card!!!! I am so excited about this purchase!

Right? Who wouldn't love this? I also got these amazing patterns as well as the piping tool.

There are also sample cards and I got a few. They had some with my favorite peacock line by Allison Jane Smith. I am so in love with this line!!

I got some samples of Anna Maria Horner's violes too. SWEET!

Then there was this Lincoln fabric. Not really my style but my last name is Lincoln so I bought the sample cards so I could make a log cabin quilt some day for my DH. I would call it Lincoln Logs!! OK, SOMEDAY!! Don't hold me to that for awhile.

Last but certainly not least I bought 2 bolts of fabric. One is Kona medium gray and the other is a Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley print. I plan to use some on the back of a quilt I have swirling around in my head using those prints. I will probably sell the rest in ETSY or trade some to PTM. I think she bought 4 bolts. I really need to take you on a tour of her basement. She could literally open a shop! It's amazing. I love her basement!!

So much for my being a good girl right? Oh well, we had fun and I will use both colors. I'm off to do some cleaning and laundry and hopefully get some sewing done today as well. Have a wonderful Sunday.
XOP