A Visit From My Daughter

 I am recovering well. 

 My daughter came up from NC on Saturday after my surgery and stayed until Wednesday.

  It was so good to see her!  

On Monday (day 3 post-op) we went and got pedicures.  

Just like in the old days when she was living here.  

So much fun!

We ended up going to East Lansing on Tuesday to meet up with a friend of hers

 and her 2 boys for lunch.  

I was 4 days post op and felt pretty good so off we went.

After lunch we drove over to Mason and met my SIL and niece and her 4 kids for ice cream.

My SIL, had food for us, stuffed peppers, chicken salad and her famous sugar cookies.

It was nice to see everyone.

It was great having her here.

I really miss her.

She was anxious to get home to her little boy and her life though.

I certainly do appreciate her traveling all that way though!

After she left I finished these 4 crib sheets. 

 I had sewn them all but they needed the elastic inserted and closed up.  

It felt good to finish something.

At this point I was still waiting for the pathology results.

  More on that tomorrow!

~XOP~

Weekend Antics

 We had a busy weekend.  On Friday we were at my SIL/BIL's house for a college graduation party.

Many of my husband's large family were there to congratulate our nephew

 and send him on his way to a new job in SLC.  

It was fun to reconnect with family.  

I managed to snap a selfie with Chris.

I got this photo of Chris with three of his great nieces.

Clara is such a sweetie.  

She always wants to sit on my lap whenever we get together!

His birthday was on Sunday.

We had a celebration at our church with many of his friends there.
Fun, food and friends.

I am so looking forward to this summer and spending time with friends and family.

~XOP~

A Visit To My Alma Mater

I took a trip with my daughter and my hubby up to visit MSU while she was here visiting from NC.  You forget how beautiful the campus is until you get to walk around again.

No trip is complete without stopping along Grand River in all the MSU gear shops!

Beaumont tower was looking especially lovely!

Daughter and daddy in the gardens

Me and Hubby at Spartan Stadium.

Kelsey and me at Spartan stadium.

On the banks of the Red Cedar...

Lookin good Sparty!

My old dorm, Gilchrist.  It was an all girls dorm back in the day.

I loved this "selfie" of the three of us.

We met my SIL and BIL for lunch and there was much laughter and talking. 

 I wish we could hang out more with them, we had such fun.

This one was taken at the restaurant.

  Two BIG dorks! 

 Yes, they actually planned to wear their matching shirts.  

Love them!!!

How was your weekend?  

~XOP~

My Guys

I don't have a lot on the quilty front to post about right now. 

 I am almost finished with my Secret Stalker Swap mini quilt, but I can't share it yet.  

I basted another chenille blanket, but forgot to take pictures, maybe tomorrow. 

 I started on my Crayon Challenge quilt but don't have much to show with that either. 

 Lame I know!  I did join another swap on IG.  

Bitches Get Stitches.  

I think it will be fun. Potty mouth fun!  

Loads of fun women in this one.  It should be interesting!

Hubby got a chance to go fly with a friend and they took our son along.  

They flew from Jackson down to Indy and had lunch.  

I think it was good for him to be out flying again. 

 I know how much he really misses it.  Here is a pic of the two of them from that day.

We will be helping our eldest get ready for her Halloween party next week most of this weekend.  Also the BIG game is on tomorrow.  

GO GREEN!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

~XOP~

100 Quilts For Kids

I think I just made it under the wire. 

 Luckily for me my friend Liz is amazingly fast and got both of my quilts back to me 

so I could machine bind them tonight.  

WHEW!! 

 I am planning on donating to Margaret's Hope Chest. 

 They are local near my dad and I can drop them off when this craziness with my dad subsides a little bit.

I made one Michigan

The back

And one Michigan State

The back, which is really a light green with the black.
I had to take photos in the darkish as I was feverishly working on the binding!

I had Liz quilt a football pattern into them and am pretty happy how they came out.

Margaret's Hope Chest gets two more quilts,
AND
I am happy I was able to link up to 100 Quilts for Kids too!

~XOP~

Cloud Nine

I was out shopping a few weeks ago and 

came across a pattern that I thought would make a great donation quilt.  

It is called Cloud Nine and is by Villa Rosa Designs.  

I decided it would make a couple of great quilts for Margaret's Hope Chest.  

I did one in U of M and one in MSU fabrics

First the MSU 

(of course)

Close up

Then the U of M quilt top

Close up

After working with both the black and the white as backgrounds, 

I like the look using the white much better. 

 I am making a third one for someone special so that will have to be shown later.    

This top goes together so quickly, and finishes at 56 x 70" 

 Perfect donation quilt size.  

I am handing off to the quilter tonight and

 hope to have them back by Monday to bind and enter in the 100 Quilts for Kids. 

 I am going to machine bind as that will go so much more quickly.  

Wish me luck!! 

What is your go to donation quilt pattern??

~XOP~

Surprise, You've Got Mail!

I just have a minute to share.  Do you remember that I went to the MSU football game 2 weeks ago and the tailgate the College of Natural Science put on?  We went to the tail gate and we signed up for the raffle they were having.  There were a LOT of people.  Now fade into yesterday and look what I found when I went into my house

I thought my DH had ordered something but no, it had my name on it as well as Biomedical blah, blah, blah. Oh no, I thought, something from work. Then I read it came from East Lansing and I realized I won the BIG prize!!!

An amazing signed photo of the statue of Sparty that is on MSU's campus!!! I walked by him every day I went to school there!! I am thrilled!!

I also got a cool shirt, a pen, a window cling, a little pin and a really nice key chain (which DS promptly took, and I plan to covertly take back heheheh).

All this for a person that never wins anything!! YIPPEE!! ~XOP~

Spartan Football!!

We were lucky enough to get tickets for the MSU football game on Saturday.  I didn't care that they were playing a small team, or that it was pouring rain the entire way there.  I was going to go to a Spartan football game!!!!!  As we drove on to campus the rain went away and the sun began to shine down on MSU.  God loves Spartan football!!

We met up with my husband's sister and her husband and my husband's brother and his wife and their kids. We had so much fun! All six of us are MSU grads and bleed green and white. They have season tickets and parking passes so we parked and walked and joined their party!
My BIL was working the grill making breakfast sandwiches.

Then my SIL's son showed up with some of his buddies. They were heading off to the U of M night game. Clearly wearing the wrong attire for our party! His other brother, our God son, graduated from MSU also. His mom is the one on the left.

Now Mark and Jackie have a daughter attending MSU as a freshman this year. Our middle daughter graduated from MSU also. Lots of green and white! I look awful in this photo, hindsight tells me that I was getting sick! I ended up with a fever later that night!

On top of everything else MSU won their game 44-0. After their last score I managed to capture the fight song as I panned the stadium.

We really missed DD2 but all in all it was an amazing day. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too.  ~XOP~

EEEEKKKKKK

That's right you hear me correctly I said EEEEKKKK. Here's the dealio. I was getting ready to eat my dinner and thought I should feed the dog so she wouldn't pester me while I was eating. I went out to the garage and scooped up some of her dog food from the plastic bin I keep it in. I dumped the cup of food into her bowl, all the while looking down to make sure the food poured into the bowl and what do I see in the bowl??? A little mousie looking up at me with that WTH just happened to me? look in it's eyes. Both of us being taken unaware, the mousie bolted into my kitchen and between 2 cupboards that have a space between them. I'm looking around for one of my FIVE cats for one of the 2 that are actual mousers. I spy one, Hallie so I snatch her up and plop her in the kitchen. Now she is giving me the WTH look as she was sound asleep on a chair in the other room when I rudely snatched her from her sleep! She spies the mousie and a chase ensues. She catches the mouse but as cats are wont to do she plays with it. It runs back into the same crack and she is staring it down. Until big dumb dog runs into the kitchen to be included in this amazingly fun activity. Get out of here you stupid dog now you have chased the cat away! *SIGH*. Now the cat is nowhere to be found. Mousie runs into my family room into various places until the second mouser, Autumn, appears for another round of cat and mouse. Only to be interrupted by the big dumb dog yet again. "Go upstairs, you stupid dog!" DS takes her to his room. OK, now there are ZERO mousers around except me and DH. He corners it and I opened the patio door and WE herd said mousie outside. WHEW!! That was WAYYYYY too much excitement for one night!

On to quilty content, ok? So I finally took a photo of some of the coins for the Halloween coin quilt. I have them pinned together in a specific order so you can just see one row. I'm kind of excited to finish it.

I plan to sash it in black and may have LTW quilt it in orange, or maybe I'll be dull and have her do black. Not sure yet.

Now on to another totally unrelated but none the less still quilty bit. I got home from Cori's yesterday ad I realized that I already had a Bliss layer cake so I emailed her asking if I could trade it for a Dream ON JR. No problem. I was hopping all around blogland yesterday when I happened upon this, over at Ryan's blog. It got my creative juices flowing. I've has a "plus" quilt on my radar for some time. I also need to make a few baby quilts, so hmmm it was a "You've got peanut butter on my chocolate." "Hey, you've got chocolate on my peanut butter" moment. Why not try this pattern? It uses only a charm pack and one yard of fabric for the top. Everyone seems to be having boys around here so what CP can I get that would work for a boy? This one.

I realize it is not the best photo but I think the green and gray combo is so popular right now. I will be using a Kona gray for the plus part. I will keep you posted. I'm very excited to begin this one too. I think this combo will be stunning.

I have exercise class tonight (and DD2 may be joining me), then I hope to be able to do some sewing. Sat is weigh in, class, shower, LTW's and then the BIG game. MSU vs U of M. NOTHING will keep me from watching that game. We beat them the last 2 years. Our coach just had a heart attack at the beginning of the season, right after the Notre Dame game. Keep your fingers crossed. It's gonna be a good one!
GO STATE!!

What an Awesome Weekend!

MSU won in overtime against Notre Dame with a fake field goal!! So SWEET!!


Then our poor coach had a heart attack and had to be rushed to surgery for a stint. I understand he is doing well though. Hopefully we will see him back on the field soon.

In other weekend news, I met my friend, Shelby, for lunch. It was a nice time and we don't get to see each other too often. When I got home DD1 and a friend wanted to use my sewing machine to make a cover for her arm so it won't get all scratched up by the peacock landing on it. There went my sewing time!

Sunday was the best though. I finished my Jelly Roll Quilt Along top!!!

Don't you just love when the sun shines from behind your top? It almost looks like stained glass!!

In addition I finished block 4 from the FQS BOM and did the second block of the third month (I had one finished but gave the first 3 to LTW for her birthday). It was too dark for photos so I will take some today and post them later.

I am slowly working my way though some UFO's and it feels good! Now I need to make a back and the binding for the JRQAL top and send it off to LTW!! How was your weekend?