Kara and Dan's Wedding Quilt

I am sorry I have been MIA, but I have had jury duty for the last 7 business days

 in downtown Detroit!  

It was a very serious case and we deliberated a long time but in the end the jury was hung.  

 It was interesting to get to see how things work.  

Even though no one wants to go it is important to serve.  

A truly awesome responsibility.  

Enough of that! 

 Now back to my regular life, so to speak.

I was finally able to gift that purple and gray wedding quilt!!  

I can now show you a photo of the entire quilt all finished!!!  

It was a BEAST of a quilt finishing at 102" X 102".

This first photo is of the top before it was quilted.  The background is really white.

My lawn was the only place large enough to lay it out for a photo!

Close up of the center.  My awesome quilter, quilted the center with hearts.

Of course it had to be inspected and the proper amount of cat fur deposited before gifting!

I used up my entire stash of Kona Ash for the back and 

it still needed a strip of fabric to make it long enough!

Label sewn into the back

Another close up.

I especially love the feathers and "pearls" in the borders!  Right next to the X and O borders!!

 Kara and Dan and the big reveal at Kara's parents home the day after the wedding.  

We were so fortunate to be able to be there when they opened it!

I think they are pretty happy with their new quilt! 

We stayed around while they opened all their gifts and when they were all finished I snapped this 

Collier Studios did their photos and these were two of my favorites!

My beautiful daughter is the first one on the left.

It was an amazing weekend and we were so blessed to be able to share in the celebration!

I have LOTS more to share about the things I have been doing so stay tuned.

~XOP~

WIP Wednesday

  I know I promised some more Shipshewana stuff but this first but it is Wednesday after all. 

 I am *still* working on that gigantic wedding quilt!   

I can't show the entire quilt until after the wedding on Saturday as I want to keep some of it a secret.  I have to say in addition to being one of the largest quilts I have ever made

 it is also one of the prettiest! 

 I will have a difficult time handing this one over to it's new owners.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

I decided to hand embroider the label and then border it with squares.  

The last time I did this I loved how it looked.  

Once finished I used a matching square of solid white and sewed RST, turned it right side too and voila, a finished quilt label! 

 I had some issues with it being "puffy" when I sewed it on the last time I made one so I decided to actually sew lines into this one, sort of underlining the words.  

I like how much flatter it laid. 

 I also top stitched around the outside of the label (no hand stitching that opening shut, LOL).  

So here is the label before sewing it to the backing.

And here it is after with the lines stitched in and the top stitching done.

I did attach it to the quilt by using Elmer's washable school glue and a hot iron.  

I ran a thin line of glue along the outer edge on the back of the label and

 then ironed it down on the quilt.  

This left it so I did not need to use any pins to stitch it down and

 the glue will wash out when the quilt is washed! 

 I hand stitched it in place using a blanket stitch and some lavender embroidery floss.  

I forgot to get a close up of that though.  

I need to do before I gift it though!

I stitched the binding on to the quilt and then pressed it toward the backside.  

Then using the same gluing technique, I glued the binding into place for hand stitching.  

As you can clearly see, I had help from Autumn, once again.

As she was rolling around and bathing on this quilt, she was making sure to deposit just the right amount of cat fur on it to add to the warmth of the finished quilt. 

 I think she wanted Kara and Dan to know just how much she loves them too!

Sooooo much hand stitching to do to get this binding on!  

So far I have done about 6 hours and have 3 sides stitched down!! 

One more to go, hopefully tonight so that I can take some photos tomorrow or Friday.  

Good thing I love these guys!!!

The "Big Day" is Saturday.  

I can't wait for this wedding.  

Kara will be a beautiful bride! 

 It's almost like one of my own getting married.  

Then they are off to PA for her residency in Pediatric Cardiology. 

 Not sure when we will get to see them again in the near future but

 I wish them all the happiness in the world!

Love you Kara and Dan!!  Happy Wedding!!

Productive Weekend

I had quite the weekend. 

 I was craving pizza so on Friday, instead of ordering out, we made pizza and it was glorious!  

I am doing Weight Watchers and I wanted to keep it low in points. 

 Not sure how successful (6 points/slice)but good enough and I was so happy!  

BBQ chicken pizza.  

YUM!

Then I cut out some more quilt kits for the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild charity quilts. 

 I will bring these to the meeting on Wednesday and share with the group.  

I think this brings me up to 6 or 7 now.

Then Hallie and I were Pooped so we decided to hit the hay.  

Or perhaps she thought my embroidery supplies needed to be secured, whatever.

I got up on Saturday and ran a ton of errands. 

 UGH, but that was good. 

 Got home just in time for lunch.  

Hubby told me to go upstairs and sew so I took him up on his offer.  

I had a pincushion to make for the A2MQG swap on Wednesday. 

 I tried making EPP hexies for the first time! 

 These are 5/8" hexies! 

 Pretty teeny tiny, but oh so adorable!  

I hand appliqued them then used this vintage planter to make the most adorable pin cushion.  

This little chubster kitty is so cute!

You can see the hexies better here.

I decided that I needed to get cracking on the quilt label for the BIG purple and gray wedding quilt.  

I like to design the quilt label on the computer and then trace the words onto my fabric.  

The font is called Chalkboard.  

You could print on to the fabric and then do the embroidery but it's just as easy to copy it by hand. 

 I began the stitching too but not picture yet.  

I probably won't show it until it is finished or maybe after the quilt is gifted.

Then I made the binding for the wedding quilt using the purple Pearl Bracelets fabric (love this line)

At this point Autumn and I were exhausted!  

Well, no rest for the wicked!

Only she got to "cat nap", I still had stuff to do!!

I am in a Polaroid Swap so needed to get my swap "photos" ready.  

They still need to be trimmed but S-Z are finished and ready to trim!

Sunday came and I determined that I needed to get the back made for my Pie Making Day quilt top.  This took longer than expected as I had to lay it all out on the top and 

make sure each strip was long enough to cover the front.  

I did manage to get it sewn together and now will be able to baste and quilt it.  

I even decided how to do the binding so have that ready to make too.

Sunday afternoon found me making soup and banana bread after which time I fell into an exhausted pile and just did some pressing while waiting for Game of Thrones to come on. 

 I did some hand stitching while watching GOT and am making progress on the label!

WHEW, thank goodness it is time to go back to work!!!
Linking up with WIP Wednesday too.

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

PS My yard is still a mess!  UGH

Progress

I was going to say that I got all my UFO's and WIP's finished but 

then would have to say April Fools!!! 

 I did manage to get the entire purple and gray quilt top finished.  

I even got a friend to take some photos, but I don't want to show you the top 

and eventually the finished quilt, until after the wedding (May 9th).  

So what can I show you?  

How about some progress photos and some design decisions as I was working on it?

Originally I figured it would finish at 98" x 98" but then folks were telling me a king was 104" x 104" so I decided to sleep on that and see what my resting brain could come up with.

The rows took quite a bit of time to assemble as there was a lot of matching!

My fabulous helper cat was helping me decide on the border width.  

Originally I was going with a 2" white, then a 1" gray followed by a 6" white.  

That would have made the quilt 98" x 98".

When I posted on Instagram they said a king should be 104" x 104" so I had to re-think the border.  I didn't want to just add more white to make it larger.  

I just kept sewing and thinking and thinking and sewing.

Here is what the original border looked like and I loved how it turned out!

So I debated on whether to add a purple strip or another gray strip.  

Then I found this fabulous plus fabric when cut on the bias became "x"s.  

As you can see there were already "O"s.  

Perfect for a wedding quilt!  Gray it is!  

The back was going to be gray too so this allowed me to use purple for the binding. 

 I added another 2" outer white border after this.  

It took me 2 + days/nights of sewing to get the top finished!  

With hubby doing all the cooking.  

I literally came down for meals and to go to the bathroom that's it!!!  

And the backing you ask?  

My original plan had to be scrapped as the 108" wide I had was not long enough, sad.  

I used every bit of my Kona Ash and still ended up making a pieced strip to the my length. 

 I can show you that when the whole thing is finished and gifted.

As you can see the appropriate cat hair covering has been liberally applied!  

Thanks Autumn!

Now that you are finished laughing at her, have a great day!  

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Have a wonderful, stitchy day!

~XOP~

Last Block Finished!

I finished the last block for the purple and gray wedding quilt last night.  

I have one more block cut out.  

My friend, Rebekah, who has directed this quilt production, assures me that I need to make that and one more for pillows! 

 HA!  I will see if I have time for that.  

Here is the last block for the quilt. 

 You may or may not have noticed that every pair is opposite each other.  

The pattern has you cut out a "star" and also the center and corners to make 2 blocks.  

I didn't use the same fabrics together in both of the blocks though, I mixed them up.

More of the chemical structure fabric in this block for the future doctor.

I also saw this recently on FB and thought I would share with you all. 

I want to be this woman.  

I don't want to require validation in my quilting world to drive my life.  

I strive every day to do what I love.  

I work hard to be my own person and be happy in my life. 

 I think most of us do that.  

I struggle every day with not getting caught up in the competition of quilting. 

 The "I have to publish", or get sponsors etc.  

I try to stay grounded. 

Sometimes it is not easy. 

 I was actually thinking about this the other day. 

 Sometimes it is nice to just make beautiful things from other people's patterns.  

I work full time and don't really have a lot of extra time.  

I want to balance spending time with my family and quilting. 

 I don't think anyone in the quilting community will miss me as much as my family when I am gone.  So it is important to make time for them too.  Deadlines are not good friends for this.  

I am striving to get better at doing what I love, making, and less time worrying 

about the competition of quilting.  

Maybe no one else is struggling with this, maybe some of you are. 

 If you have any tips on how you handle it please feel free to share with the rest of us!

I love to create and to make beautiful things.  That is enough.

~XOP~

Weekend Update

I was fairly productive this past weekend. 

I managed to finish another block for the wedding quilt.

Of course my helper was back again.  Pest.

She needed to be closer of course as sitting on the back of the table was not good enough!

Do you remember the aqua rolling cart hubby put together for me?  

The one I got at IKEA?

Well, I had the brilliant idea to place my table top ironing board on top of it! 

 Now I can cut on my table and have the ironing board right next to me too (Can you say #lazy?)  

It worked like a charm!

I made some progress on the dress for my daughter.  

I took it all apart, did the alterations, and altered the pattern for next time 

(yes you read that correctly).  

I also got the bodice lined and the skirt part sewn back together.  

I have the bodice pinned to the skirt all ready to sew together too.  

No pictures though as it was dark when I got finished.

I also made some of the Weight Watcher Cabbage Soup that is zero points. 

 I love that soup.  

It sure makes a nice lunch for the week 

and keeps my points low!  

Win-win, right?  

So far I have lost almost 10 pounds in 4 weeks.  

I plan to go for the big loss this time, 

so kind thoughts and positive energy this way would be appreciated!

I managed to get the quilting finished on my mini quilt this weekend too, 

but will save those pictures for tomorrow. 

 I have one last block to make and then I can lay out the wedding quilt.  

I hope to be able to put that whole top together next weekend.  

I will only let myself work on that on the weekend if I can get the dress finished first. 

 That has a more emergent deadline.

What are you working on?

~XOP~

Pre Weekend

I was so proud of myself getting another block finished. 

 I posted it on IG, tagged the fabric designer and 

I was so excited that I got all the one way fabric to go the same way. 

 OOPSIE, how embarrassing.  

I sewed the entire center upside down.  UGH!  

So I stayed up late, ripped it out, and sewed it in correctly!

Ah, there we go, much better!

A little doggy humor lest you think I only talk about the cats.

Hoping to get to the dress this weekend and quilt up my mini quilt.

What are you up to?

~XOP~