Meags and Me New Patterns

 I had the opportunity to work on 2 of the new patterns coming our for Meags and Me.

 I love pattern testing for these guys!  

Patterns I did were Tweet Tweet and Bird Brain.  

Tweet Tweet is at the quilter's and I just finished Bird Brain last night.

Here are pics from Bird Brain.

I did a machine free motion straight stitch around the applique.

I used the same for the legs, beak and ( ) on the birds.

I hand embroidered the eyes using a satin stitch.

I did the same free motion straight stitch around each of the flower petals.

I find this to go MUCH faster than doing a traditional blanket stitch.

I love using black thread to stitch around the applique as it really makes it stand out.

I made this entire project using fabrics from my stash!

I even found an aqua minky for the back that I had in my stash.

I used "frankenbatting" to sew batting pieces together for the batting too.

I just love how that Alison Glass fabric fit in that green block!

I decided to make bindings yesterday too.

I now have binding for both of the bird quilts as well as 2 others that used the same fabrics

that I used in the Tweet Tweet quilt.

I like to make my binding before I send the quilt away as I'm not a fan of making it at all.

That way when the quilt comes back I am ready to trim and bind.

Sometimes I forget which binding I made for which quilt.

This time I cut a post-it note into thirds and folded it into a U and stuck it in each of the bindings.

Hoping this will help me remember what goes together with what.

What do you use to keep track of your batting?

Do you like to make it before you send your quilt for quilting or after you get it back?

I have to do some house cleaning today.

Also hoping to get some more fabric listed for sale.

Then, I get to work on a new quilt for a baby that will be arriving soon.

(not my new grand baby)

What are you up to on this glorious Caturday?

~XOP~

Cats and Things

 Finny was posing so nicely that I just had to get his pic today.

Last night before bed these 2 were co-opting my sewing space.

We were at Avery's the other day and he was taking the scooper off his lego truck.

He would say "help me".

Then Papa asked him if he was going to take it off again and this series of photos says it all.

Clearly the answer was YES

Silly papa!

I got a good photo of Cole showing how BIG he is now.

Amazing to think how far he has come from when he was ill.

For some reason this is Finny's favorite place to be, UGH.

We finally got Avery to actually enjoy jumping into the leaves.

It took some work but eventually he seemed to enjoy it.

He does love to snuggle with his papa.

I thought this photo of Finn turned out really well.

He is a gorgeous cat isn't he?

Kind of a mash up of pics but hope you enjoy these.

~XOP~

Surgery Day

 Yesterday was my lumpectomy.  
We arrived at the clinic and were assigned a number. 

 Lucky 13! 

 I say that in all sincerity. 

 It is a very lucky number for me. 

 This was just before they called me back.

This was as they were taking me back to surgery.

The procedure took a little over an hour and a half. 

 It was outpatient. 

 I got home and didn't have too much pain.

  They gave me some pain meds but when I went to bed I just took Tylenol and Motrin.

That seems to be controlling the pain so far. 

 I feel more sore but not really much pain.

Hopefully that makes sense.

They sent me home in a tube top thing like we used to wear in the 70's, LOL.

It opens in the front with velcro.

I can't take it off until tomorrow afternoon.

I am anxious to see what the incisions look like.

The doctor told Chris the margins were clear.

They took 1 or 2 Lymph nodes, I am not sure.

Those get sent for pathology and I should have results in about a week.

Hoping those are negative.

I think then they send the tumor for the oncotype.

If that comes back with a good score then I might be able to skip chemo.

I just wanted to update you all and let you know I am doing ok.

So we are just lounging around here today.

\

~XOP~

Wonderful Woodland Quilt (aka the Canada Quilt) Progress

A year ago or so I bought the Wonderful Woodland BOM but had not had time to work on it.

I cut it out and have been taking it to me every time I travel.  

I thought that it would be a good one to work on while we wait for baby. 

 The first block is the moose with the Canadian leaves on it.  

Back story, my hubby goes FAR into northern Canada ( about 150 miles N of Soo Sault Marie, MI) to a cabin owned by his uncle. 

 It is very remote.  No electricity, running water or indoor plumbing.  

They have to take everything in and out when they go.

  They load everything into a boat, go across a lake, portage into the next lake and then motor across the lake to the cabin!!  I've gone there one time and that was plenty. 

 It is beautiful but I would rather stay home and sew!

He LOVES it up there so much.  He can fish and fish and fish! 

 So I decided that he needs a quilt for Canada.  

When I saw the Wonderful Woodland BOM I knew this would be the right quilt for him!  

I bought all the fabric and as I said, recently cut it all out.  

Yesterday and today I sewed on the Moose block. 

 I think I un-sewed almost as much as I sewed!  

Of COURSE I chose a directional background, 

so that made things even more challenging when I cut it out.

I got this far yesterday:

Of course I had loads of help <insert eye roll here>

Today I had a lot of sewing time!  I managed to get the whole block finished!!

Of course as soon as I put it on the table for a picture, my helper appeared!

At least you can see how BIG the block is with Finn in the photo.

Cole is doing better, thank you to all who have donated to his go fund me page. 

 I have his blood work scheduled on the 22 here in Chapel Hill.  

Thankfully I was able to find a vet that would work with us!  

I will likely have to order another  $1000 of medicine before we leave too.  GULP! 

 He takes the shots so well. 

 I am really proud of him (and his human, needle phobic helper).  

Please share the link for his page if you can or donate if you are able and want to.

No baby yet, but we are hopeful he will be here soon!  Stay tuned!

~XOP~

A Project For Baby

I have embarked upon a new project for the upcoming grand baby.  I had bought the cutest pattern for a baby photo mat.  You know what I mean, right?  The one where it has weeks/months and you indicate the baby's age with the baby on the mat.  This is the pattern I bought.  I was going to make them for shower gifts.  I didn't know at the time that I would be having a grandchild so soon!

My daughter send me this picture asking me if I could make one like this.  Well I could, but it's not very cute now is it?  This particular one seems very poorly made too.

That's when inspiration hit me!  I have an idea for a mat that involves me paper piecing the numbers, the words "Weeks" and "Months".  I am also going to FPP some hearts.  I'm not ready to share exactly what I want to do but will share the numbers I have finished so far.  I started on them last night and sewed for a few hours.

I managed to get 1-4 and 11 done.

I am so excited to be able to use some of the great "love" fabrics I have collected.

After all the gray and white quilts I have made I have lots of gray scraps!

The pattern is by From Blank Pages.

I love her numbers and the heart is from her too.

The pattern shows them all from the same fabric, but I really love the scrappy version.

Click on the link to go to the pattern.

Finn and Cole were both trying to help me last night.

Cole is a good boy and lays on the blanket I have for cats.

Finn lays wherever he wants, usually where I am trying to work!

More to come!

~XOP~

SCRAPS!

Not sure how you deal with scraps but I have been struggling to deal with mine lately.

One night it hit me.

Hubby likes us to "spend time together" at night.

This usually consists of him on the computer, the TV on and me bored.

So, I brought my scrap bin, mat, cutter and ruler downstairs a few nights ago.

I decided that I needed to cut my scraps into usable size squares or pieces.

I cut 2.5" and 3" squares, 1.5" wide strips and 5" charms.

If the pieces were larger I kept them.

If there were precious fabrics I just kept the small bits.

If I thought a small bit would work for paper piecing I kept it and put those in a bag.

Of course someone decided he needed to help me.

One of the other things I do with my scraps that are too small to use for anything 

is to make a pillow like this one.  

I buy half a yard (or so) of fleece and cut it in half. 

Sometimes it is just what I can find in the remnant section.

 Sew it like a pillow case and throw all the too small to use bits of fabric in there.  I

 also add scraps of batting that are too small to be useful. 

 Once the pillow is about 3/4 full I fold the edges under and stitch the opening closed.  

Voila! 

A floor pillow or pet bed or whatever you want!

 So far I have made three of these!

What do you do with your scraps?  

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

It's Wednesday again!  Time to haul out our WIPs and encourage the heck out of each other!

I have been working on sewing up some scraps into blocks to make a scrap vortex quilt.  

If you are interested to learn about this you can find out all about it on Crazy Mom Quilts blog. 

 It is like slab sewing but instead of using a monochromatic color scheme I am using all my colors!

I had sewn a lot of scraps into pairs and next up was to sew pairs together. 

I also found that as I sewed along I had to sew single pieces on to things to make "blocks".

 Here I laid out the pairs I had already sewn. 

As you can see even sewing what I did didn't even make a DENT in my scraps!

At one point Finny decided he wanted to help.

And by "help" I mean lay right in the middle of the sewn pairs and pile of scraps!!

What's up with cats and their always needing to be in the middle of things??

After a few hours of sewing this is what I have so far.  

Not too shabby for just "making slabs of fabric", eh?

I still need to make the "blocks" a little larger but will be working on that soon.

I have more scraps to sew but put them on hold as I really need to get working on the cat for the center of my traveling quilt.  

I made some progress on that but will show you tomorrow.

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

So for now, if you want to show us what you are working on, please link up!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Cat-Pack

Our cat, Finny, is totally my husband's cat.  

He follows my hubby around the house all day long. 

 Poor Chris can't do anything (and I mean anything) without his cat shadow. 

This is his favorite position.

He hops un on the chair and walks into this position and plops down.

He usually throws his head back and kisses Chris.

Then he settles down and sleeps.

 So earlier in the week I came home and found a back pack on the floor.  

He said, "Watch this".  

He called Finny and put him in the back pack!  It is a pack made for cats! 

 Finny loved it.  

They had already been on one walk before I got home.

If you click on the photo, you will be able to see Finn in the pack.

Good grief, what's next?  

Poor Cole will feel left out.  

I think I need to get a really long lead for Cole to use and try to teach him how to walk on a lead.

~XOP~