Weekend Shenanigans

It was a very slow sewing weekend.

I did finish binding a baby quilt but I can't share it just yet.

I started on this circle of geese and I have to say I forgot how fun this pattern is.

I have half finished.

I did this in a swap a LONG time ago and it took me so much longer to make then.

I guess my paper piecing is improving!

Since there is not much sewing, I will just share cats.  

Cole was hanging out next to me last night and I snapped this pic of him.  

Hallie sits on her "tuffet" on our deck quite a lot.  I'm not sure what the attraction of this is for her.

She has also claimed the dog house I put out for the stray cats.

Oh Hallie!

So my daughter gave us this plastic ball on a string on a stick for the cats.  

Cole has embraced this as his personal toy. 

 He cries and cries until I play with him. 

 He is quite the acrobat, actually. 

We play and play until he finally catches it. 

 I have to drop the stick and then he trots off with the entire thing and drops it. 

 Then he cries again until I go get it and we start all over again.  

You can watch him here.

I hope you all had a good weekend. 

 We were out at the farm with hubby getting the camper ready to go out, hopefully soon!  

My daughter had Stan and Artemis out of the barn. 

 I got to play "Chase" with Stan. 

You run and he chases you.  It is so cute! 

 If you stamp your foot like you do sometimes when you play with a dog, he leaps into the air. 

So funny! 

 I think my daughter might have gotten video of us playing and if so 

I will see if I can upload it here later.  

(If anyone wants to see this game!)

Hoping to get some sewing done this week, but since I am "helping" hubby get ready to go away to Canada for the week, this is doubtful. 

 I have SO much to do but I also have so much outside work to do! 

 Decisions, decisions.  

Which would you choose?

~XOP~

Mad Science Quilt (Pattern Tester edition)

Anyone on Instagram knows that they use an algorithm for viewing posts. 

 This means that you don't often see the posts as they are written. I find it super annoying!

Well, the other day I signed on and there was an amazing pattern by Quiltgenius (Mary Smith) 

for a Mad Science quilt.  

She had put out a call for pattern testers but with a VERY tight deadine 

(especially for me, since I would be camping).  

The entire time I was reading her post 

(wondering how old it was and if all the spots were already filled) I *knew* I should not volunteer.  Did that stop me?  Heck no.  

I am, apparently, a glutton for punishment.  

The entire time I kept saying, you know you don't have time, 

this is too much to add to an already full month, my hands were typing 

"sure I would be so happy to test this paper pieced pattern for you and give you an entire quilt top in under 2 weeks while I plan to be far from my stash for those 2 weeks". 

 WHAT WAS I THINKING???

So Tuesday I took the day off my real science job and sewed like a fiend! 

 I sewed for 10 hours straight and got 3 of the 4 pp units done!!! 

 I found one mistake, but it was an easy correction.  I also gave some suggestions.  

Here is what I worked on for 10 hours straight.

The pattern is extremely well written and goes together like a dream though.

I'm just a slow paper piecer.

 This was part one.

Part 2

Part 3

Hallie kept me company the entire time!

So I sewed them all together and then went to dinner with a friend.

By the time I got home from dinner and conversation, it was almost 9pm.  

OK, I thought, I can get some of the components done for the 4th segment.  

I sewed one and started on another 

only to realize there was a problem with the assembly for that part.  

I took a photo and sent it to Mary and then decided I needed to go to bed (5am comes WAY to early).  I am hoping she will be able to fix that section and re-send so I can finish the whole top tonight.

PHEW!  I will be happy to get this finished but am so incredibly thrilled with how it is turning out!  

If you need this pattern, Mary will have it available soon.  

Part one is already in her Craftsy shop and you can buy it here.  

She has LOTS of great patterns in her shop too.  

There will be more parts to this pattern as well.  I'm hoping she lets me test more!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

This past week went wooshing by for me!  

Hubby took the fifth wheel out on Thursday for a trial camping run.  

He has it parked for 2 weeks at a campground about an hour from our house.  

I went there on Friday and stayed until Monday. 

 I brought the kittens up there to stay with him for the weeks. 

 I will go back and stay this coming weekend.  

This was also the trial run for seeing how my sewing machine set up would go.  

This is our camper, the tan one in the middle, from across the lake.

Hubby bought me a Gidget table by Arrow for Christmas (and the insert to go with it).  

So I had him set it up in the camper.  

He took out the dining table and put my table in there.  

That is fine as long as it is just the 2 of us, 

but I can see wanting the regular table in there to use as a cutting surface.  

It's a process.  

I started on my MSU quilt (thanks to everyone that sent me green fabrics). 

 I got 13 nine patches done.  

I still need to figure out how many of these I need to make 

but I did NOT even make a dent in the squares I cut out!  

I would have done more but my machine was making a weird noise and I need to take it in now.

This was my view from where I was sewing.  Pretty nice!

Finny thought it was just like at home and was "helping" with the sewing.  

Cole didn't "help" but he loves going on the island and fishing the sponge out of the sink. 

 I have no idea where he gets his sponge fetish from!

He also loves those spongy cat toys.

Finn found the table most comfy for a nap.

When I came home, Hallie was SO happy to have me all to herself!!!  

She does not like having to share me with the boys. 

She has been following me around, and staying wherever I am.  

Mostly in the sewing room (as seen here) or in bed.  

She snuggles up in bed and just purrs and purrs (and licks me constantly). 

She will be sad to see the boys return home!

So that's what I have been working on.

(Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts)

What have YOU been doing?  

Please link up and share with us all!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Cats and Friends

There is a hashtag on Instagram called #melissapaintmycat.  

I tag my cat photos of the boys and Hallie on there all the time.  

Well...Melissa painted my cat!!  She painted Hallie!  

I, of course, had to buy the painting.  It looks just like her!  

Sometimes she does cartoonish ones but this one looks just like Hal.

This is the photo I tagged.

Then, you must remember the monthly goal group I was talking about.  

Where the person that finishes all their projects on the list can win a prize each month?

I put out the challenge and volunteered to give the first gift.

That meant I couldn't win.

Robin won the first round and I gave her this bunny dishtowel that I made.

Well I was the winner for February. 

 The previous month's winner becomes the gifter.

This is what I received.

The bottom is a pouch.

The middle is adorable cat fabrics.

The picture is Cole and Finn.

Robin drew these from photos of my cats!

She is an amazing artist even though I don't think she gives herself enough credit!

I'm so thankful we are friends and really appreciate all her artistic input into my quilts.

She has a good eye and we love to spend time talking quilts at work!

As you can see, Finn is in love with my little crocheted cat, Jack. 

 He was made for me as a gift from my friend Jackie!  I seriously have the BEST friends right?

I leave you with a short video I took of Cole this morning.  

He brought me his ball and wanted me to play fetch with him before I left for work this morning.  Silly cat!

WIPs With Friends

Since instituting my Google monthly goal spreadsheet with my friends I find

 I am being even more productive than I was before. 

 It is crazy, but I put some pretty lofty goals on it each month then kill myself to achieve those goals.  Now, every month won't be like that but for now it is working for me.

I have been working on some binding (with a helper of course)

My oldest daughter used to draw dragons. 

 She drew this one a long time ago and I promised I would make him into a quilt. *sigh* 

What was I thinking??  

Well I have come across him again and think he needs to go on the list of things to work on. 

 I blew up the drawing and have traced all the parts on to fusible.  

That is as far as I have gotten, LOL. 

 His name is Prismata.

On my goal sheet is also doing my Bee blocks every month and I finally did this month's blocks.

I also put one Ocean Waves block on the monthly goal list.  Here is this month's block.

Additionally I have been working to finish the green quilt's binding. 

I am almost finished with this one.

I leave you with Finny giving me a couple of "shaky" hugs. 

 He wraps his little paws around my arm and just squeezes so tight his whole body shakes! 

 It is the cutest!

Now it is your turn to link up with what you are working on.

Click on the linky button to add your project

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Vacation Loot

I thought I would do a quick post with most of the things I picked up while I was away.

A certain someone was particularly happy that I was home!

First up, I found some Kinder! At the shop in Glendale, Ohio.  

I love the apples and the frogs. 

 I am also collecting dark greens for an MSU quilt. 

 If you happen to have any that read like in this photo and would like to share 

a 5" square with me I would be so grateful!  

I don't seem to have a lot of variety.  

The green can have white in it also, like dots or checks but I am looking for that shade of green in particular, or just a bit darker or lighter.  

Email me and I will send you my address.

(mamaspark@gmail.com)

I found these at the shop in Plant City. 

 The first one is a great background.  I fell in LOVE with those cats. 

 The next one is a gradation from green to purple and the last one is a great blender.  

I had some but used it all up.

These I found in Lake City Florida.  

Can you see what is in that first print? It is from the book The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  

I used to read that to my kids!  I was super excited to find that.

  I didn't even know I wanted it either, until I saw it.

Then more greens for the MSU quilt.  

Some toys from the TV show Rudolph (one of my hubby's favorites), some red and green for Happy Christmas, some super cool blue and orange blenders and that metalic gold stripe?  

That one is a fabulous binding when done on the diagonal!

These were bought at the Cotton Patch in University Park Florida.  

Another binding stripe, those adorable mermaids (for a chenille blanket), more greens and look at that super cool +/x background fabric!!  

All the heart eyes for that one!

I found these at the Fabric Shack in Waynsville, Ohio. 

 More Kinder.  

The first white said it was from the American Made line, and it is muslin.  

It felt so silky I wonder if that was right? 

 It felt like an Art Gallery fabric.  

Also, it was pretty inexpensive, so I bought some for backgrounds. 

 I seem to go through white like water, HA! 

The last white, which is super difficult to see, has random sized circle outlines on it. 

 It was oddly soft, so I may need to starch it, but I have been searching and searching for a background for a particular project (that must remain secret) for actual YEARS. 

That gradient fabric up above was one I thought would work, until I found this white one.

 Each time I thought I had it I would decide the fabric was not right.  

I *finally* believe this may be the one.  

If that's the case I can finally move forward with that one. 

 Fingers crossed.

One last parting shot of my baby cuddling up with me last night.  

She is getting so old now (14) and is beginning to get the old lady fur 

as well as appears to be losing weight.  

She is a sweetie.  

I bought a few patterns that I did not photograph and a new 6.5 x 12.5" Creative Grid ruler 

(I have worn the numbers off my current one, LOL)

If you have any questions on need to know what a particular fabric is please message me.  Additionally, if you have any green 5" squares you would like to share you can email me for my mailing address at mamaspark@gmail.com

~XOP~

Chubby Chick Quilt Progress

I have been working very hard to get all the blocks made for this quilt.  

I had everything all cut out from MANY years ago 

when I made one with the church group I was a part of.  

Theirs got finished, D'oh!

I had this entire quilt all cut out and the chicks were fused.  

I just realized last night that everything had to be cut down though.  

So after I sewed my HST it was time to trim them up.  The size they needed to be was 3.5".

I got out my trusty Bloc-Loc 3.5" ruler and had a trimming fest!  

That set of rulers was the BEST thing I ever invested in!  

Also, the turning mat.  

Such a help when trimming HST.

Of course the other indispensable helper thing is Hallie!  

She doesn't come in the sewing room as much now that the boys are around.  

Cole, especially, likes to tease her and she does NOT appreciate his efforts!  

Just like a boy, right? (or just like MY son, I guess). 

 So I carried her upstairs, put her on my table and closed the door.  

She settled in quite nicely!

After trimming all my HST units I decided that my chicks needed to have eyes.  

I Googled how to make a Colonial knot and decided to give it a try.  

I loved the eye placement on this chick.

I couldn't resist laying out a few with some of the pinwheels I finished.  This is going to be so darned cute!  The chicks can be made using charm squares.  Wouldn't this be darling made with a Bonnie and Camille charm pack and either aqua or red pinwheels?  I think little cat faces would be cute too.  Might need to design that!

So my WIPs are continuing to progress.  

I think having the goal chart with my friends is definitely helping motivate me.

Have a great weekend.

We are getting dumped on by a HUGE winter storm, so maybe I can stay in and sew?

That's my plan anyway, LOL.

~XOP~

Shop Hop

I don't think I shared this with you all.  

On Thursday, my daughter called me at work and needed a favor.  

She has a barn cam in her barn and noticed that some of the bigger birds had knocked over the heat lamp and she was worried the straw could catch fire and burn her barn down.  

Would I please drive over to her house and turn off the lamp?  

This was around 11:30 in the morning and I was halfway into a CrAzY busy day at work. 

 Her work would not allow her to take the hour it would take to do this.  

Sheesh!  

So I took her car (I don't drive to work, I take the bus) and drove the 30 minutes over to her house.  

I turned off the lamp and this burning spot was in the barn! 

 I poured some water over it so the embers would not catch fire.  

Crisis averted.  

Drove the 30 minutes back and continued my work day.

My SIL and I went on a shop hop on Friday.  

We had so much fun!  I don't think I took any pictures of my loot but 

I did manage this selfie of the two of us!

This was the final shop we stopped at near Battle Creek.  

It was called Sew Unique Threads.  

My SIL and I are taking a Fiber Works class together and need some florals 

(I don't have much in my stash).  

I was really hoping that one of the many shops we stopped at would have some Kaffe florals.  

This last shop had TONS of Kaffe!!  

It was a very nice shop and the woman working there was so nice to us.  

There was a fair amount of Tula fabric too.  

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning on Saturday and

 being entertained by these two goofballs.  

I needed a break and to be able to clean for a bit without "help", 

so I put the boys outside in their tent.  

Hallie wandered over to say hello while I was outside.

The garden was FULL of peppers and some tomatoes.

Perfect for making and canning 10 pints of salsa!  I did this on Sunday.

How was your weekend?

What did you do?

~XOP~