Tribute Star Quilt

I *finally* finished the hand stitching on the binding of the Tribute Star quilt. 

It turned out so well!  

The pattern, Tribute Star, is a free Denyse Schmidt Pattern.

I used Tula Pink's Monkey Wrench fabric for the front and her 

108" wide coordinating print for the back.  

Seriously, the feel of this fabric was amazing!  

The aqua color is just stunning in person too.

My friend, Liz, did the quilting and it is amazing.  Click on the photos to enlarge.  

GORGEOUS!

I got a few up close photos of the star portion of the quilting,

 which shows up much better on the back.  

I chose to do a two sided binding because I wanted the black on the front and purple on the back.

I didn't have anymore of the beetle fabric so I used the black monkey fabric.  

I am very happy with how this turned out.  

I received my fabric from the shop Something Quilty.  

If you need some Monkey Wrench of your own check her out!  

I don't think it is listed in her ETSY shop just yet, but you can ask her.  

She is opening up a brick and mortar shop soon and this quilt will be in her shop as a sample.  

Her shop is located in Wisconsin.

If you want to make one too, she can help you out!  

Just tell her Pam sent you!!!

~XOP~

Some Sunday Destashing

I went through some more fabric bins and found some more fabric to destash. 

 If you are interested please email me at mamaspark@gmail.com 

 Yardage and prices are listed.

  Let me know what you want and where you are so I can calculate your shipping costs. 

 I will paypal invoice you.

Here we go!

Five FQ of Wild Bunch by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr  $10

Assorted aqua prints.  Total of about 3.44 yards with the individual yardages noted on the paper.

$15

Set of 5 fall FQ's (the one on the left is flannel) $10

Denyse Schmidt  21" x WOF  $4.00

Dreaming in French by Art Gallery Orange Curls 1/2 yard $4.50

Farmdale Apples 1 yard $7.00

 Flamingo Run by Sentimental Studios for Moda 2 2/3 yards $16.00

 Polka dot FQ  $2.00

Recipe for Friendship by Mary Englebriet 1 yard $8.00

Simply Sweet in green by Barbara Jones 1 yard $8.00

Simply Sweet in aqua by Barbara Jones 1 yard $8.00

FQ of 30's Reproduction kitties $2.00

Happy Shopping!

I hope you stop back here tomorrow because I have an exciting project to share with you!!

~XOP~

Weekend Fun

Last weekend as my DH and I drove around we saw this oddity.  

Who knew that there was Scotch in space? 

 We went inside and there was a free Scotch tasting of Ardbeg. 

 DH bought some because he got a free tee shirt!

 I had to go to JAF for a marking pen and look what I saw in the clearance section of the store! 

 Lots of Denyse Schmidt fabrics. 

 If anyone needs some let me know and I would be happy to pick some up for you!

I happened to snap this pic of Jack on my cutting mat. 

 Isn't he sweet?

I am enjoying the time I have left with him for sure.  

I am leaving for Grand Rapids tomorrow morning to take care of some more of the financial stuff for my dad and sister and spend the night with them.  

My DH has a trip to Harbor Springs so I will be driving there on Friday to spend the weekend hanging out with my honey in a beautiful place!

I have to bring a quilt with me to finish the binding on. 

 I am hoping to get some pretty scenic pictures of the quilt while we are there too.

I'm not sure if I will have computer access while I am away but I will be back on Sunday and hopefully I will be able to catch up then!!

~XOP~

A New Quilt Shop and Some Good Friends

There is a new quilt shop in my area. 
A local shop went out of business and was bought by a local LAQ.
Some friends called me yesterday and wanted to go to the shop and they wanted me to go with them.  So I went out to breakfast with my daughter and then went to the quilt shop with my friends. 
It's called Quality Quilting.
This is what you see when you drive up.



Then we went inside and boy was it packed. This was the main part of the shop.



I found a few things that needed to come home with me (of course). Wanna see?

I thought this would make a really cute back for a chenille blanket.



There was a panel that went with that and it is about a yard too so I bought it.
Thought it would make a really darling baby quilt.
Very different animals.





I also fell in love with these crazy looking birds.
I'm a sucker for cute and seem to always have a ton of baby quilts to make!



They kind of remind me of the stuff Carol does.

I also got this cute package of buttons.

I was looking for the last Aunt Edna fabric I was missing and so asked if we could go to the JAF in Ann Arbor and so we stopped there too.

Lo and behold, I found the elusive fabric I was looking for.

All in all it was a great day.

I had a fun time and I'm so happy they asked me to go.

I just realized how close I am to my 1000th post.

I think 2 more posts and I will have written 1000 posts. 

I guess I have a lot to say. 

I am going to have to come up with something to giveaway to celebrate

. Hmmm I'll have to think on it and let you know.

I sure do appreciate all my readers and followers too.

Thanks guys!

~XOP~

The Cat is Home Now

You remember that saying?  When the cat's away the mice will play?  Well, my DH is home so no more playing for me.  I'm thinking that next time he goes somewhere I may need to do some painting!  HA, he is going to be afraid to go anywhere!!  He had a great time in Canada and he looked all scruffly when I picked him up.  It took a good chunk of my time to drive to get him and get back home, but worth it!

I made it out to JAF to see if any additional Sugar Creek fabrics were available and found two more prints. Unfortunately there was a power outage and I couldn't check out! I had to go back the next day and get them. I just need 4 more to have the whole line. I am picking them up for two other friends too.

The visit with my friends was so nice!  They stayed for a few hours and it was great to see them and catch up.  Apparently it has only been 2 years since we saw them. I saw them at my son's grad party, but I was so busy with food and all I don't think I talked with anyone for very long!  In any case, I think we need to see each other more frequently!

Lest you think I was not working on anything I want to assure you that I was.  I finished another Christmas tree top and am sending it to Liz today for quilting.  I didn't get any pictures b/c it was night time when I finished last night.  I also got the back finished to the little left over squares quilt and am sending that one too.  I hope to have it finished soon so I can send it along to MHC with the Halloween top for the 100 Quilts for Kids.  Are you participating?  They are also looking for sponsors if anyone is interested in that.  I did manage to finish binding 2 Thimbleberries projects too.  A small wall hanging and a table runner.  I will take photos soon.

I was pretty happy with my productivity this weekend.  I got into 2 more swaps too.  I am lovin' this swappin!  You know who wasn't productive?  These two.

 

Wouldn't it be great if all brothers and sisters got along this well? It seems like all the cats are finding their way back to how they acted before we had our dog. I don't know if that is good or not. Both DH and DS want another dog. *sigh*  I'm sure it will happen, but we were so spoiled with the last one.  I just don't want to jump right in to another dog.  DH had expected we would have one when he got home!

Have a wonderful day and we'll talk soon! ~XOP~

While I Was Home

I took yesterday off of work.  I was/am exhausted.  Both physically and emotionally.  I was so emotional on Wed night.  With everything going on with the dog and with my DD2 leaving to go to NC, so far away!  It's about a 12 hour drive from our house, or so DH tells me.  I guess I will have first hand knowledge on Saturday night as we will be making the drive.  First, thanks to everyone that took the time to comment and encourage me about Laxy, our dog.  I don't know if she will pull through this but I am doing everything I can to help her make it over the hump.  I've given her subcutaneous fluids twice and she is a trooper about sitting still while I stick her and put the fluids in.  I have to give her Malox 3x a day to help bind up the excess Phosphorus and she is tolerating my shoving that berry tasting liquid into her mouth.  I found the antibiotic pills are *much* easier to swallow wrapped in a piece of turkey too.  She seemed perkier this morning.  Still not herself but more herself.  Time will tell and now it is in God's hands.  Thanks for the prayers!  We all appreciate them.

I had 2 friends tell me about doggie disasters recently.  One of them, her son's dog was bitten twice by a rattlesnake.  Once on top of the head and once in the eye!  The dog will lose sight in that eye and I am waiting to find out if it will be ok.  The other one, her dog had an ear infection that turned the ear canals to stone!  They did a surgery to remove the ear canal (who even knew you could do that?) and sewed the ears shut.  She is now deaf, but still alive.  Please keep these good people and their pooches in your prayers too.  I'm glad the cats are stable, one issue at a time, although we still have Blu, our peacock living in the house.  He had surgery on his ankle joint to remove a foreign object.  I have to give him his pill and liquid medicine tonight and tomorrow am, wish me luck with that!  I'm kind of nervous to do that.

So on to some other news.  Everytime I walk out my front door this is what I see, so I thought I would share it with you too.

I am in love with all the cone flowers that have sprung up! I am thinking about taking the bushes out and just letting them spread! Just look at those moon flowers too. Each morning when I step out they are open (they open at night). We are getting so many butterflies with all the cone flowers too.

Lest you think I have not been doing anything quilty I did make a trip to JAF yesterday looking for the new DS Quilts fabric due out in August. No luck, but I did happen on this DS Quilts fabric that I had not seen before.

I didn't buy any but had put my camera in my purse in case I found the new fabric. Came in handy to take these pictures. Anyone else seen Lisette fabric? Is this a new line by her?

I finished up the gift for my friend. I still can't post the pic of the top since her birthday is not for a little while yet. I had laid it out on the couch behind my sewing machine. I open up the afghan and use it as my design wall. Aiden happened to be napping on the couch, of course. She just let me unfold it right over her and kept sleeping. I put the quilt top out and laid the borders around it to make sure I had them in the right order. She was just so cute I had to snap a few pictures. (Plus you get a little peek at the top )

She was so adorable!

I guess that catches you up. I am hoping to make the back for that top tonight. I will also make the binding, if I can figure out which fabric I want to use for that. I think I want a deep navy, but may end up having to buy some since I used up the darkest one for the inner border, we will see. Family reunion tomorrow, then leaving for NC to bring DD2's car to her. She is taking our van and we are driving the little Saturn (hey how did that work??) We will be back on Tuesday night. You may not hear from me until we get home. So enjoy your weekend and we will talk soon.

I LOVE Surprises, Don't You?

I mean the good ones of course!  You know what I mean.  Someone brings you flowers, cleans your house, gives you that unexpected little gift.  I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't love that right?  Well I had 3 packages waiting for me when I got home yesterday.  THREE!!

First was a wee small one with the charms I won from the Sweetwater FB giveaway. I got to choose 3 charms from their website. I chose the three you see. Funny thing is that they had hometowns and so I thought no harm no foul asking for my own hometown and low and behold they sent it to me! Grand Rapids! How cool is that?? Thank you ladies of Sweetwater, I love my charms!

Now this is an "It's a small world" story so you might need a Diet Coke or a cuppa something to read it. I'll wait while you get something, go on, I'm serious! Back? Right then here we go.

When I first began blogging a LONG time ago (5 years ago to be exact) I found blogs, probably like everyone, by finding one, reading their blog list and finding more. One of the first blogs I read was Gone Aussie Quilting. I loved her blog, and I still love her blog. I followed her for quite sometime, through a period where she was not blogging much as she had a rough pregnancy. She blogged sporatically but always had the most amazing quilts to share!(and she still has the most amazing quilts to share!!) Bored yet? No? OK. So fast forward to recently and the HUGE release of the new Denyse Schmidt fabric at JAF. I belong to a group on Flickr that was all a buzz about it. Several of the Aussie's wanted it (as well as some people her in the US w/o a JAF) so I volunteered to go and get what they wanted. I ended up at the JAF near Ann Arbor and dropped some serious cash on all their fabric. I posted about it here.

I took it over to my friend Cori's house (Crazy Quilt Girl) and she helped me cut and then ship it out to everyone. One of the people was someone named Heidigoneaussie in Australia (or Oz). I was happy to help out my Aussie friends. Then, like a lightening bolt it hit me, Heidigoneaussie was Gone Aussie Quilting, or Jeannette!!! LOL, my friend!! Even funnier, I have learned that she grew up in Saline, MI which is very close to where I live now. Can you believe that??

I know, get to the point of the story right? Well, Denyse Schmidt released some of her fabrics only in Oz and Jeannette was sweet enough to send some FQ's to me. Even after I at first told her I didn't think I wanted them. She knew I would change my mind, LOL. So thank you to Jeannette for being such a wonderful friend! Here is what she sent me.

Can you guess which one is my favorite? If you know me at all you will easily guess. It's the aqua one third from the left!

Now if my evening wasn't good enough with all that goodness, just wait...there's more! Seriously, can you believe it?? The over the top generous Jeannette sent a few little gifties. A little FMF love (OMG!!!) and two amazing charm packs.

There are 20 charms of My folklore (how did you know I love this line with their Dala horses??) and the BEST EVER??? Forty squares of assorted Heather Ross fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost fell over with the excitement of her generosity! How do you make such wonderful friends that you  have never met IRL? How I ask you? Jeannette, when you read this, please know how happy you made me and I was not having the best of nights up until that point so from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

I hope you all have some wonderful blogging buddies out there too. Remember making friends all around the world and sharing what we do and who we are is an amazing thing. I have had such great experiences with all my blogging friends. Most of them have been generous to a fault. I try to pay that forward when I get the chance too. One of my favorite sayings is what comes around goes around. It only takes a minute to be nice and you may just impact someone's life like you never expected you would. So go forth, my blogging friends and pay it forward today!! Tell them Mama Spark sent you!! ~XOP~