A Riot Of Color

I had this quilt all finished in February.

It just needed the binding.  

Cole decided it was time to put the binding on.

Now this beauty is all finished.

It has a label and everything!

I was gifted this fabric and decided to play around with a new to me technique.

The blog I got it from no longer has it posted.

If you follow this link you can see how to make the blocks.

It is really easy and fun

GREAT scrap, strip buster!

I love the serendipitous heart block!

 I backed it in gray Minky and had my friend Liz quilt flowers that matched the flowers in the fabric.

 This one will be gifted in the near future.  Are you hoping it is yours?

~XOP~

Jessie's Graduation Party

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend.  Ours was jam packed!  We had a party at a neighbors house on Sat evening and that was fun, even if we were standing under our patio umbrella with a fire near by for 2 hours in the rain!  The food was good and so was the company.

Sunday was my niece, Jessie's, graduation party.  She is the person I made the layer cake QAL quilt for.  We arrived at my SIL and BIL's house just as the tornado sirens were going off, so we gathered up all the photos of Jessie and headed for the house. Standing in the driveway this is what I saw when I looked one way (the back of the house) and then the other (their backyard).

That's my SIL in the coral coloured dress. They went all out for this party. They had a candy table for the kids to mix and match candy that they could put in little bags to take with them, there were 2 slushie machines, a man playing guitar, more food than anyone could consume and this fruit and veggie table that was amazing!

One of the cutest things was my youngest niece "catching" rain drops in her water bottle and then drinking them. This was the best I could do because every time she saw the camera she would hide behind her mom! She is adorable!!

The best part was being able to give Jessie her quilt...FINALLY!! She is such a sweetie and I was so excited to give it to her. She is off to MSU (YEAH!!) just like both of her parents and they could not be more excited for her.

I did manage to remember to take a pic of the label too. I decided to put it in the basket. What do you think?

I have some more things to share but it will have to wait while I go and do some actual work!! HAHA. Have a wonderful day and if you are in MI try to stay cool today! ~XOP~

The Chenille Blanket

My good friend PTM, talked me into trying to make a chenille blanket for a gift. She even donated the fabric so I laid it out and promptly forgot about it until this Wed. So at quilting on Wed night she promised to help me with it. I ironed all the flannel, and then we layered it. First a cotton for the back, right side down, followed by 4 layers of flannel. Then the darned thing needs to be basted. Yeah, not so much. My hands just don't like doing all that work. (Sheesh, can't LTW just sew it on the big machine for me?) Anyway, being the good sport she always is PTW did the basting for me. We basted with the flannel side down but changed it later. Here she is, isn't she so cute??

Then came the marking and sewing. What?? I have to mark all the diagonal lines and then I can sew? You have got to be kidding me! Instead we put tape diagonally from one corner to the other one and I took that to the sewing machine and sewed along the edge. I used my walking foot with that weird little guide bar thingy. Ever used one? Well, it saved me having to mark the whole quilt!! Of course just before I am ready to sew my light bulb burned out. Good grief, what else is going to go wrong? Anyway, I lined up the bar on the last line I had sewn and then sewed like mad in a parallel diagonal line. I got a little over half way done in the time we had, not too bad. I am in a little bit of a time crunch so I had to decide what to do about that. This is what the diagonal line sewing looked like on the top and the bottom.

You can even see the orange basting thread if you look closely.

I decided to take half a day off work today and went over to PTM's to finish the blanket. I really didn't leave work until around 1:30 so not truly a half a day off but whatever. I dropped DD1 at home, packed my bag up, packed my gym bag too so we could go exercise after we were done and headed over to PTM's house. What got left at home you ask? Why my camera of course so no more pics today of the blanket. I did finish all the sewing. Then I had to cut through the top 3 layers of the flannel, down the center of the "channel" I made when sewing my half inch diagonal lines. I was sweating that a little, I didn't want to cut through the wrong layer. I did just fine. Then we had to square it up, not too bad, and make binding for it. I made the binding, PTM pressed it and sewed it to the "fluffy-ish" side. She is going to hand stitch it down for me too (my hands just can't take it)

Next it was off to the gym. We worked out for an hour and then went our separate ways to get ready for our road trip tomorrow. I am going on the Shipshewana Shop Hop with LTW and PTM. We thought 2 of our other friends might be joining us but one had her father pass away and the other one had something come up (she just called me). LTW is supplying the car and PTM is packing the food, I have the drinks, directions, and driving. Don't worry, we've got this! I have the BEST friends EVER!!!

One last thing before I go and finish getting my things together, I assume most of you know Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts? Well, she is going to be in Grand Rapids, MI at the end of July. Read about why she will be in GR here) I grew up in GR and that's where my dad and sister live, so guess who is going to GR at the end of the month? Yep, MEEEEE!!!!!Not only will I get to meet Amanda Jean, I will get to spend time with my dad on his 84th birthday. Life is GOOD to this quiltin' mama. I promise I will take lots of pictures to share the day of shop hop fun tomorrow, but I will probably post on Sat as I anticipate a very late return tomorrow night (3 hour drive both ways). So one more sleep and then the fun begins!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It seems like I never have enough time to do what I want to do or that the "stuff" of live gets in my way! We went out to dinner with my inlaws and DH's sister and husband at a very nice place on
Thursday. We had a wonderful dinner and a wonderful time! I really like his sister and BIL. I was talking about my quilts and then decided to show my BIL the string "M" quilt. He wanted to buy it right then and there, lol. I told him it was a raffle quilt and he said "How much?" Finally I was able to get him to understand raffle. Well, they have a son that graduated from U of M so I might have to make one of these for him.

Maybe you remember me making a rag quilt for my godson, their son? Anyway, she would not let him take it to college with him. Called it an "heirloom" PAH, it is a utility quilt! I *still* cannot convince her otherwise, sigh. She has it put away for him. I think if I make the M quilt I will have to mail it directly to my nephew (now living in SF) or he won't get to use it either!

These are the pictures of the rag quilt. Mark played basketball in HS and was considering playing for MSU. The orange and black are his HS colors and the blue is BBall fabric.

I put the college colors on the back, MSU's are green and white.
Here is Mark with his quilt! As you can see, it is clearly a utility quilt, right? It was made to be used.

Friday DD1 came home and we hung out all day (I took the day off work to spend time with her). Yesterday I had quilting with the ladies at the church and managed to get my Halloween Jars all sewn together and on their shelves. Now I have to make some design decisions. I want to applique a cat on the top and a broom on the bottom. I just don't know if my design skills are equal to that challenge! LOL. I think it needs a floor if the broom goes on it so I am off to preview "floor" fabric. I'll get a photo posted soon.