Catching Up With Makes

 I have been SO busy sewing and trying to finish my "to do" list. 
 (and no, Margie, I have not forgotten about the stockings).
I have LOADS of Christmas presents to finish binding, some baby quilts to ship out, and baby shower gifts that I needed to make.

First up is to share what I made for Avery for his first birthday.  

I put together a car mat, and made a Bendy Bag to put the little cars in and

 then a Midi bag to put it all in.  

This way his mom can carry everything together.

  Isn't that mat the bomb?

You can see both bags here.  Loved making them and will likely make more .

I used Hot Wheels fabric on the back of the mat too.

I was working on a quilt back that needed some attention  

The front was made using the fabric line called Dorothy's Journey.  

So I used the panel for the back and then I broke out my embroidery machine to make this crown and the label for the quilt. 

 I'm still a beginner with my machine so was pretty proud of myself to make this!

I had the BEST helpers.

Next up a lovey using the cutest skunk flannel and some minky.

Of course, my signature chenille blanket!

Made another 6 burp cloths

2 receiving blankets

2 crib sheets

Here it is all together, but I added some resuable wipes in a container, 

and some teethers that I made, and a sloth Warmie.  

Plus 2 books.

Another chenille blanket and a Tiger Warmie. 

 How cute is this combo??

I may need to find more of this fabric. 

Making the tiger stripes for the chenille was so cute!

I have a few more things to share but they need to be gifted first.

I leave for a retreat in WI on Tuesday.

Will likely not post again until I get home since I can't show gifts.

PHEW!  Lots of new stuff!!

~XOP~

Pillow Covers

I showed the pillow covers in the previous post but thought 

I would talk a little about them and show some close up photos too.

I was struggling with what exactly to make.  

I happened to find some amazing trim that was in the clearance section of JAF and thought it would be fun to use that on a gray background.  

I happened to have some sparkly linen that was the perfect background for this!

I did stitching in-between each row of trim and just stitched the trim down.  

Pretty basic.

The next one I found this amazing sheer, rosette fabric.  

I knew as soon as I saw it that it would make a great pillow cover, again without a lot of work.  

I did put it on a lining of plain gray fabric prior to making the pillow cover.  

I used fabric for the back that said "Made with love". 

 I really like how it turned out.

I bought half a yard of the rosette fabric and it was actually enough to get 2 pillow covers out of.  

I have not made the second one yet, but plan to do that and keep it for myself!

This gives you an idea of the size.  If I remember this one was 20".

The other one (that she is holding upside down) is 24"

Then I new that I had to make some that were a little more complex.  

I was thinking that they wanted me to stick with their gray and white theme but she kept showing me pillow covers with lots of teal so I determined that I would add some teal to the next one.  

I love the circle of geese pattern and since I have been honing my FPP skills, 

this pattern now goes MUCH more quickly.

 I didn't think to take process photos so this is the closest I come to those.  

I wanted the geese to be in a gradient and I think it is pretty well a gradient look.

It needed something additional to make it over the top.  

I decided to get some pearl cotton and hand quilt around the geese and then around the whole thing.  

I am not a fast hand quilter.  

This little pillow took me over 3 hours!  

That was using these chunky stitches too.

I have to say that I love the look of it though.  

This is the sandwiched top when I was finished quilting it, before I pressed it.

Here is the whole pillow cover all finished and ready to be stuffed.  This finished at 18".

I had been working on an embroidery for some time off and on.  

I was not sure what I would actually do with it once done except knew it would go to my daughter, the fisheries biologist.  

I scrambled to get it finished and make it into a pillow cover. 

 This is the finished embroidery prior to doing anything else with it.  

I LOVE this so much!!

Next up was to find some fabric to border the embroidery with.  

I had this cool raindrop fabric in my stash and it was perfect.  

This is actually the back of the cover too (in this photo)

I struggled to decide how to quilt the top but settled on circles.  

It's like when a drop falls into water it makes rings.  

I decided I would use that theme for the pillow cover too.  

I then added some hand quilting around the embroidery to help it stand out.  

I used a variegated floss for this.  

This is a photo of the finished  pillow cover front.

It was my favorite of all 4 of the pillows.  This also finished at 18".

Side by side finished covers.

I think she loved this.  Look at her friend, Amy's face in this photo.  I love that girl too.

They seemed pretty pleased with these.

Now I flew down to NC so how to get the pillow forms there?  

I was not certain I could buy the sizes I wanted while there so I went on the JAF website and ordered the sizes I needed and had them sent to her house with my name on the box.  

I told her not to open the box.  

When I arrived I put the covers on the pillows.

I had bought some blue fish fabric and wanted to make one more cover, but feared I was out of time.  As it turned out, I packed more quickly than I thought I would and had a bit of time. 

 I decided to whip up the last cover (the night before I was flying out), 

sadly it would not have a pillow form.

I used a light gray stripe for front and back then the fish fabric for the bow.  

I have to send a form there this week so they can fill the cover with a pillow.

All and all I am super happy with how all of these came out.  

I might do a few things differently in the future of pillow cover making but I really like all of these.

~XOP~

Happy Tuesday

When we were in GR for our visit we stopped at a garage sale on the way home.

I found this darling needle case there.

The lady just gave it to me.

Made my day!

We stopped in Mason on our way home too.  I picked up some fabrics that were on a pretty good sale.

Mendocino octopi.

This great background fabric from Allison Glass.  Sure wish they had more of this one!

These other 2 Allison Glass prints too.  

There is a friend in the traveling quilt group that adores AG, 

and I have very little of her fabric in my stash.

On Saturday morning this goofball brought me his "toy".  

He has spongy balls that he LOVES me to throw for him.  He brings them back every time.  

You should see how high he jumps sometimes to get them.  

I guess I need to try to video it sometime.  

Obviously he couldn't find a ball so he brought me my kitchen sponge.  

Silly kitty!

I am ever so slowly working on this crib quilt.  

The entire thing is embroidered and has cats on it.  

The border is a million cat paws.  

They are so boring to stitch in my favorite color, brown...not. 

 I try to pick it up and work a little at a time.  I am not doing the cats until all these paws are done. 

 I know if I do that I will never finish it.  

Do you ever do that?  

Work on the part you like least so you can finish with the fun part?

I know I have told you that Finny LOVES my husband.  

I managed to snap this pic one morning to show you how these 2 sleep every night.  

It is so cute!  

Thank you for your show of support on my post from yesterday. 

 I really just needed to get that written down.  

When I am having a bad day I remember how much harder my life could actually be and am thankful I am the person doing the caregiving.  

I'm sure soon enough I will be the old lady receiving it.  

Happy Tuesday my friends.  Go and enjoy this day!

~XOP~

Look at That Face!

I finished the first top portion of one of the trivets.  Isn't she great??

Definitely a WIP at this point.  Stay tuned.  Don't forget to go over to 52 Quilters and visit!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

~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~