Japanese X and + Blocks

My friend, Robin has decided to make a baby quilt using the Japanese X and + blocks as seen here. 

The nursery will be purple and gray.  

So she went out looking for those colors plus some aqua and a touch of gold.  

She found some great diaper holders with owls on them in those colors

 so she used that as the basis of her quilt.  

She just took off and went on a shopping spree and her blocks are SWEET! 

 She also decided that since the people have a black cat there should be black cats in the blocks too.  THEN, it became an Owl and the Pussycat theme! 

 It's interesting how these things evolve isn't it?  

She doesn't have a blog and so I asked her if I could share the blocks she has done so far on my blog. 

 You are in for a treat.  

Sit back and enjoy the eye candy!!

This is my favorite grouping of blocks. Especially that one on the lower left corner with all those black kitties!

Love those pearl bracelets

I think the owls in the tree are GREAT!

Loving those Alexander Henry owls, and the gray seed heads too!

Neptune and Nest?  Fantastic!

Tula's snail and turtle look great in there too.

I like that spikey fabric in purple and also in gray.

Do I spy Heather Ross mice in there too??

Owls with clock tummies???

Who  knew there was so much owl fabric out there?

This is the kitty fabric the cats came from in that block I love so much.

There are still a few more blocks to go and some black cat fabric to arrive to make them. 

 I will share the rest, if I can, when they are finished too.  

Aren't these great?? 

 I have loved this block for a long time and 

seeing all these adorable blocks makes me want to stop everything and make them right now!! 

 LOL!

Have you made a quilt using these blocks?  

Maybe we should do a QAL using them.

What do you think???

~XOP~

Today Was Not The Day I Had Planned!

I went to work this morning with the expectation that things would go one way and instead all I did was put out fires!!  I never stopped all day.  Finally I got home and then there were more fires via email on my phone.  UGH so I took care of those as well as I could but I needed to look somethings up on the Internet.  Got my computer turned on and couldn't get on the internet.  OMG really?  So an hour and a half later I figured out the router is not working.  Me:  "Oh no, how will I be able to blog?"  haha not how can I finish my work!  This truly is an addiction!!!  Then I called DH to tell him all about what I had done so when he got home and couldn't get online he wouldn't waste any time doing the things I had already done.  I'm not sure he believed me, but he bought a new router, JIC.  I got home from Zumba and he asked me if I dropped the router.  Me: "No, don't you think I would have told you?"  Come to find out the dog knocked it down and broke the antennae.  NOT ME!! haha.  So anyway DH set the computer up and my iPhone too. 

Is it tomorrow yet?

Just so this is not all my drama from the day, here is a  photo of a quilt made by a woman from my Wednesday night group.  It is a stained glass style quilt and LTW did an amazing job on the quilting.  Take a look, this makes a great start to the holiday season!

Now it just needs to be trimmed and bound and it's all ready for Christmas!  Are you ready yet? ~XOP~

Friday Night Sew In

Last night was the FNSI. I took the day off work. I went to the gym in the morning and did Zumba then PTM and I went to the Sally Ann (Salvation Army) thrift shop. On Friday and Saturdays the ticket color of the week is 5 items for $5!! I got some more silk and linen. In addition all linens were 75% off!! I scored some GREAT vintage linens. YESSSS. Then we had to decide what to do after we were done (2 hours later). I drove home and gathered up the things I wanted to work on and then met PTM at my favorite place for lunch. (No shower either...EW!!) We then drove to her place to sew. There were a couple of things we wanted to work on and we managed to get quite a bit finished or or least loads of progress made.

PTM and I are working on Mug Rugs for a Mug Rug contest being held by Madame Samm on her blog. If you are creative you should think about doing it too. It is supposed to represent you. You all know that I love aqua and green, strings and owls so here is what I came up with.

I still need to stitch around all of the pieces, and then quilt it. I was just pleased to get it this far! So what do you think? I was a mug rug virgin!!

Next up for the night was to put together my Birdie Stitches block for that BOM over at Little Miss Shabby's blog. Any of you guys doing it? I finished my stitching on Wednesday night and put the block together on Friday night. I used Dream On for my fabric.

I'm lovin' how it came out! I can't wait for the next one. Are any of you participating in this BOM? If you are not but want to just drop in on LMS's site.
Most of you know my long arm quilter friend, LTW right? Well with all her quilting she doesn't really have time to piece. She had her mom stitch out the blocks from "Over the River" and she pulled all her fabrics and then she handed them off to me! I have several of her WIPs (which are now my WIPS!!) So all that being said, after dinner, I worked on all the flying geese required for this quilt (66 of them). She did the stitching in dark blue on a light blue background. I think these came out well. Now I need to put them together and cut the inner blocks. Never ends does it?

I finished and then it was around 10pm. PTM worked on something *super secret* so I can't share it with you at this time, but it is super cute!! She managed to get her 4th LC block done and just has her last 2 to do to catch up. I dragged my sorry butt home and went to bed!

I almost forgot to tell you about the contest the other day now didn't I? There was a woman there that had done the A Tisket A Tasket (the free BOM from Bunny Hill). How could I compete with that? I think there were 7 or so quilts and mine tied with 2 others for 2nd place. A little disappointing but hey it is what it is, right? I am thinking of submitting the quilt to a magazine. The kitties in the center are Vogart so I need to see when they were produced. If 70 years have passed they are in the public domain, so I am trying to find that out. If any of you happen to know the answer to that let me know?? I'll be working on that.

The drawing for the giveaway is tomorrow. Since some of you put all your comments together, I will go through and make a list and number them that way. I will notify the winner sometime tomorrow, once I get the ginormous list done, LOL.

Well, enough blabbing for one night. Have a wonderful Saturday night and I'll be back to announce the winner on Sunday! XOP

Quilter's Christmas Party

I have so much to tell you all since Wednesday. On Wednesday we had our Quilter's Christmas party. We all brought an appetizer or dessert and a gift for exchange. Here we are all eating.

There was a log of great food. I made a hot buffalo chicken dip and it was AMAZING! If anyone is interested in the recipe let me know and I will post it.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2-8oz packs of cream cheese softened
1 cup ranch dressing
1 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded co-jack cheese (save about 3/4 cup to put on the top
2 cans white chicken, drained and broken up
several dashes of Franks Red Hot or Buffalo sauce.

Mix cream cheese, ranch, sour cream and hot sauce together until smooth. Add cheese and chicken. Mix well. Pour into a prepared pie pan, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 F until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips.


Apparently the gift of the evening happened to be the turning mat as there were 3 of them!

PTM was doing some binding for a friend of mine and I managed to snap a few photos of the beautiful Boston Commons quilt. Stunning isn't it?

My work Christmas party was going to be on Friday so I ended up taking the day off so my DD1 could use my parking pass to part at work. I ended up going over to PTM's to sew and that would be our Friday "night" sew in. I was going to work on cutting out the red and white fabric for my basket challenge quilt. This is what my accomplishments looked like.

I need a lot of 3" squares for my project. I had to press all the fabric before I could cut it so what I managed to get done was cutting all my 3" strips. Two hours and 2 piles of strips. This ensures I will be going back to finish cutting and then put it together. I think PTM ordered a pattern to work on so she can do the challenge too. I'm sure she'll keep you posted!

PTM also finished binding the Origins baby quilt so I can now label it and send it off to France, YEAH!! LTW did a great job with the quilting too. You can especially see her beautiful work from the back.


I have lots of photos to put up from my work party too as well as the fun day I had today but it will have to wait. I hope you are all getting ready for Christmas. I had planned to bake this weekend but those plans have now changed. We are getting a new furnace on Monday so I have to help clean space for them to actually get to the furnace tomorrow. I think I will be baking on Monday when they are here putting in the furnace. I am hoping to get some wrapping done though. How are your Christmas preparations going?
XOP

Witchy Woo and Hallie Too has arrived!!!

OMG, OMG, OMG!!! I was having a really, really bad day today. I had to take my car in for a new transmission ($3000) YIKES!!! Now if that was not bad enough, and I know this is a small thing, but I needed a new light for the clock in the car. You'll love this, the bulb is $3 and the labor to put the bulb in? $45!!! Hubby told me he will do it but you have to take the entire dashboard down to get to the light. In what lifetime do you think this would really happen? I really miss being able to see the clock in the dark. *SIGH*

Then I had a really really busy day at work today. I got in around 8 and looked up and it was noon already and the entire rest of the week should be just like that. In some ways good but totally non stop for the entire week. Wow, I'm not looking forward to that, but bring it on.

Then I had to weigh in at WW and was dreading that. I did NOT have a very good weekend as far as restraint with food was concerned (gross understatement). But, I still lost. Not much (0.6) but that's ok!! So hmmm this day is looking up.

Then it happened, I finally got to open the mail and guess what? The wonderful, fantastic, talented Faith sent me a fantastic gift. It just made my day! Awhile ago she had pained a quilt and then hand quilted and embelished it. She used photos of one of my cats, Hallie (Halloween, Hallie for short) as part of the quilt. It is entitled, Witchy Woo and Hallie the Cat and it is fantastic. So, without further ado I will share this fabulous creation with all of you.

Now for the close ups. Isn't she gorgeous? Just look at the details of that quilt will ya?

Oh Faith, I don't know how you were able to part with her but I am just thrilled she can live with me. I put her up right away.

Her face is so amazing. I love all the detail in this quilt.
It is uncanny how much this actually looks like Hal too.

Here is a not so great photo of her for you to compare. Uncanny! Guess who is sitting on my lap as I write this at the moment too? PURR, PURR!!

If you haven't visited Faith pop on over to her blog and say HI, she is a sweet and talented woman and makes a fantastic friend!!

Thank you Faith, from the bottom of my heart. I am so touched that you thought enough of me to share such a precious gift. I will treasure it forever! XOXO

Light House Quilt Number One

I haven't done anything quilty for awhile but LTW has. Do you remember the light house top I pieced for her? Well, I actually did 2 of them. One had a fossil fern background and one I used Kona Snow for. This is the fossil fern one. She is going to give it to her mom for her birthday. She quilted it up so I thought I would share it with you.


There are light house squares in the center of the BIG stars.



You can see here how she did the border and the open white space. I like the movement in the open part. I don't know if you can tell from this but she used a varigated purple thread and it is so pretty!

She embroidered a name tag for me for this one quilt group I belong to but I had not sewn it to a tag. I did that tonight. Woo Hoo, maybe I am ready to begin some real sewing. My Bernina purred like a kitten. I love her so much! In case you were wondering, I have made it to the gym every day this week so far. It is hard to make yourself go every day though.

Well, need a bite then off to the quilt meeting!! Have a productive evening!!

Seeing Stars

OK, I just had to share this with all of you.I have been stunt sewing for LTW for the last little while and one of the things I was doing with this light house star quilt. Wait, what I meant to say is that this is the first of 2 of these quilts. This one, using Kona snow for the background was supposed to be for the raffle at U of M, OOPS, my bad. I just could NOT get my act together to get it finished in time. It is off to LTW tomorrow. I hope she likes it.

She had enough of the light house blocks for 2 (well almost) see the star in a star blocks? I was 3 light houses short so I made those up instead. I have to say I really like how this came out using the snow. Now the other one is on a Fossil Fern that has a blue/purple cast to it. It is pretty too but I think this one is my favorite of the 2.

Tonight I had quilting with the CHV ladies (just like every Wednesday) and so I brought the blocks to lay out for the second one. I was able to lay them all out and then get up and down to sew everything together. Well PTM decided she didn't have too much to do so she pinned and brought me the blocks and amazingly they became rows. Eventually those rows became the top!!! Now all I have to do is add the borders and the top will be ready to give to LTW!! I am not going to be at work on Friday so it will have to be when LTW gets back from her vacation but, these babies are almost hers!!!

Wait, what am I going to do once I hand these off? Sheesh, guess I will have to look at the UFO list now and make a plan. All too soon I will have to pick it all up and get ready for the holidays, I need to try to get a couple more in before then.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

That's right, you know you heard me. I said Christmas Tree. As in this is the fabulous quilt the CL's have made for the raffle at our church. The photo does NOT do this quilt justice. (Plus it isn't even trimmed this was right after I got it back from LTW)



I was really excited about how I had LTW quilt this one and once again, photos aren't the same as the quilt but I am going to walk you though it, k?

Let's start at the top and work our way down the lovely tree, shall we? First thing to notice is the star in the star. You may also see the snowflakes surrounding the entire tree. These are done in silver.



The next thing is all the ornaments all over the tree done in a sparkly gold.


In this next one you will see quite a lot. Notice the candle on the end of the branch. LTW free handed the scrolls out from the ornaments to reach the candles. Next to the candle you will see more snowflakes, followed by an old fashioned icecicle
kind of thing in that first border. The squares got a neat line treatment and the entire outer border is filled with golden jingle bells!

The view from under the tree is spectacular too. There are several different sized presents all tied up with bows. I think you should be able to see that the ornaments are actually hanging down off the bottom of the tree too.

Regretfully, the one thing I don't have a photo of is the tree trunk. No big deal you say,right? Well no detail was too small for LTW and she gave our tree trunk some free hand bark!! Yes she did!!

There are a few more photos on my Flickr account too if you want to see more/

I hope you have enjoyed your visit through our Christmas tree quilt. The pattern was designed by one of the ladies in our group and it is fabulous, isn't it? Then all the CL's made blocks for the quilt and the pattern designer put the whole thing together. Then we sent it to LTW for her magnificent quilting and now another lady in the CL group will do the binding (in the cream of the borders).

Anyone interested in tickets? $1 each or 6 for $5 Let me know.

What are friends for?

What happens when one of your bestest friends gives you this pattern and some fabric and needs your help?


Well, first you do a lot of this with all of these.

Which after some more time miraculously turns into some of these. LTW found a project in her "stash" that she wanted to make for her mom. She was telling me how she didn't have time but really wanted to get this one finished and off her "to do list." Now you all know how many quilts I have on my side bar on my own "to do list" but what are friends for, I ask you?

Especially when bribed by this. I love the stuff by Don't Look Now and she knows it. Drat one of my many weaknesses!! In all seriousness I am happy to help. (Have you looked at this pattern? I don't think I could ever finish it in my lifetime, but I love it and I love all her patterns!!)

Thanks, LTW! Now I need to sew some more Thangles. Oh and I forgot to tell you that in addition to making the one for her mom she tells me, BTW there are enough light houses to make a second one for the raffle. Oh really? I guess with PTM doing my binding I should be doing my share of stunt sewing, huh? I'll keep you posted. Maybe she will let me have the pattern once I am done, *sigh*. Such a slave driver! LOL!!

More Fabric to share

You all saw my creepy bunnies? Well they have some company in these creepy deer. How can you not love these guys?


Since I am showing some of the fabric I purchased lately and lest you think it is all creepy (to prepare for the Spooktacular Swap) I got my back ordered Christmas fabrics from the Sherri Barry collection. I love the retro colors!

When we went to the Sylvania quilt show there was a vendor that had this fabric and I thought it was so appropriate for my husband and daughter that hunt (he also fishes) The target "tatoo" on the deer was funny.

My friend, Judith brought a top to work that she had finished over the weekend. Using QuiltSmart she made this beautiful lone star using Kaffe Fassett fabric. I just thought I would share it with all of you too. She did a fabulous job. I would never have put those colors together but I love how it turned out. You can see the fabrics better in the close up. LTW just walked over to pick it up and take it to her house to do the quilting for her also. What service, I tell ya!

I'm still working on Big Ten blocks. I got all the school symbols fused to the color, and cut out now I need to fuse them to the background and do the stitching around them. *Then* I can work on my owls! What are you all working on this week??