Blogger's Quilt Festival

Life has been crazy here at my house lately but I wanted to get in on the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  

I am going to talk about a quilt I just recently blogged about.
 It is a dolly quilt that I made with 2 of my friends for another friend that was having a baby girl.
You can read all about the quilt here.
 One of my co workers was expecting a baby girl.
 I was using these dolls for heads and tails projects and
 brought the dolls into the lab to show my 2 quilting friends.
 They went absolutely crazy for them!
So it was decided that we would each make a certain number of them and I would put the quilt together.
 Of course we all made more than we were supposed to
so we laid them all out and chose from what we had made for the quilt.  

We each made dolls that represented ourselves too.
 Here is Judith's.
 She loves insects.

Robin's was made with Robin fabric

Mine had creepy bunnies.
 I love creepy things and I work with and love bunnies too.

 We made an "I spy" type of border using fabric from our three stashes for it.
 We each had to make a certain number of the squares so
 we got a nice variety and not one single print was duplicated!

We all work at U of M but you know I could not resist putting in my Spartan "S"!!

Our other friend Liz, did the quilting and she did a fabulous job!
Every girl was outlined, flowers in the open blocks and in the border.  

I love everything about this quilt and can't wait to make another one!
The last thing to do was make the label and I thought a heart was a good choice.

I hope you have enjoyed my dolly quilt and are having fun on the Blogger's Quilt Festival too!

~XOP~

I Can Finally Share This Finish

I have a quilt finish to share with you today that has been done for over a month.  

I could not share it because it was a gift for a dear friend and she reads my Facebook 

which this blog is linked to and the quilt was a surprise.  

A little background.  

I work with 2 other women (Robin and Judith) that I have taught to quilt.  

It has been amazingly fun to have someone to talk to about quilting and fabric etc at my workplace.  You may remember that paper doll quilt pattern I bought quite some time ago? 

 I thought it might make a good heads and tails project and I was right.  

I got it out and made a few of the "girls" and was hooked.  

If you want to make them please go here for the pattern.

I brought the "girls" into the lab to show my friends, 

knowing that once they saw them they would want to make some too.  

We have another co-worker that is a good friend to all of us and she was expecting a little girl.  

The three of us got together and decided that we needed to each 

make a certain number of the girls for the quilt.  

Because they were so much fun to make we all made WAY more than we needed to.  

This meant we all got to choose our favorites of our own and each other's for the quilt.  

Each of us had a signature block as well to represent ourselves in the quilt.  

This is Judith's, who loves dragonflies.

This is Robin's-well duh these are adorable Robins.

And Me? 

 Kind of creepy bunnies. 

 I LOVE creepy and I work with bunnies, big white ones

I wanted to do an outer border of all squares and make it like an I Spy. 

So each of us made a set number of squares from our stash to use in the border.

Of course I had to include a State block = )

You can see the quilting quite well but our quilter, Liz did another fabulous job!  

We had her quilt daisies in the blank blocks and it turned out so cute!!

This was a really fun quilt to make and I would like to make another one for a different friend's daughter when I have time to sew again for myself and not obligations!

I put the quilt together and did the binding and the label.

This is my new go to way to gift a quilt, just tied up with ribbon.

 Just look at little Yasmine.  

So sweet!

I think she likes it!

It is kind of a bittersweet gift as they are moving to California very soon.  

We hope they think of us fondly and that Yasmine's mama will tell her all about the three crazy old ladies that made this quilt for her!  

A lot of love went into this quilt!

You will be missed my dear Flor but Cali is not that far away, so don't be surprised if we come visit!

I am linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish It up Friday too.

~XOP~

A2MQG Retreat

I can't believe a whole week has gone by and I have not blogged or written about the wonderful retreat I went to with the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild.  

The retreat was held at the Hankard Inn and the facility was fabulous. 

 As a bonus we had our breakfast and dinners provided so no cooking!

I went with WAYYYY more than I thought I would be able to finish, but did not want to run out either. 

 I had some specific tops that I had to get done.

  I managed to get three of those tops completed!!  

First up was the wedding quilt that I have to gift in a few weeks.  

The back is also finished and both are at my quilter to finish.

Next up is the paper doll quilt.  

I can only say that this one has a special destination but will say more once it is gifted. 

 I love how it came out. 

 Not sure you can see but the border was done using a lot of I-Spy type of blocks.  

I managed to get the back sewn up for this one too.

Last but not least was a real oldie. 

 I bought a traveling design wall and went over to a friend's house to lay

 this One Block Wonder out using the wall. 

 I pinned all the blocks on the wall at that time.

  I managed to get a few rows sewn when I had to pick it up. 

 It had been folded up in a drawer for a few years now. 

 So long in fact that the plastic bag was disintegrating! 

 I really miss that wall so this one was up next so I could reclaim my wall.  

When I took it out of the bag it looked like this.

I had to press EVERY block before I could assemble them.  

Many were not the right size so I had to trim over half of them before I put them together too. 

 This is what it was beginning to look like as I moved forward.

I had gotten up at 7am and worked all day.

  The Doll quilt was finished by lunchtime and after lunch I started this one.  

This is what it looked like around 1am! 

 All finished.  

Don't look too closely, there are 2 that don't have the correct pair. 

 Pretty good all things considered. 

 I am not in love with it, but happy that it is now finished. 

 I will be donating it to Margaret's Hope Chest, where I hope someone will love it!(mistake and all). 

 I just can't bring myself to make the correction now that the whole top is complete.  

What would you do?

I do have some more pictures of the rooms we were sewing in and other people and 

theie works but will have to save that for another post.

I also managed to get the borders and sashings cut for 2 additional quilts so hope to get both of those tops done in the near future too. 

 Trying to bust some UFO's!

I had some minor surgery on Monday and am still a little uncomfortable.  

I had a couple of dermatofibroma's removed.

  One on my arm and one on my leg, so I have some new holes and stitches, ew. 

 Both were benign which is good.  

I hope you all had a nice 4th of July.

  I will write more later about the rest of the retreat!

~XOP~

I Think I'm In LOVE!!

I told you all about a quilt I was making with 2 co-workers right? 

 We are using the Paper Dolls pattern from Pineapple press.  

My friend Cori has it in her shop right here.  

You may need to go and pick yourself up a copy RIGHT NOW! 

 I'll wait.  

As I said before I thought to use it as a leader/ender project.  

I didn't think it would work for that but now, after making a few I realize it will work great for that!  We were supposed to make 11 each but just like Lays chips, I can't make just one (or 11).  

I made a signature block for myself and for one of the other women.  

Can you guess her name?  

Or which one is representing me? 

 (Hint, her name rhymes with "bobbin")

I have also used some of the Lizzy House Pearl Bracelet fabrics (because I am totally obsessed).

Here are the Pearl Girls!

I may need to do a whole quilt of these, especially with all the new PB's coming out.

I think my friend's 2 favorite blocks are the DS Quilts plaid girls.

You may notice that we have used different skin tones too.  

We went from very pale flesh to a fairly dark brown and every shade in between that we could find!  

Here is a photo of my 18 blocks all laid out together.

These are mine and Robin's all put together.

We are still working on how to lay them out for the finished quilt.  

I want some white space between some of the girls and want some holding hands. 

 Robin is a graphic artist so she will work on the design layout 

until we are all happy with how it looks.  

We certainly have a good start on this one and all of us plan on making another one to keep.  

I think mine will be for a friend's daughter, but don't tell.  

I am sure I will make a lot of these little girls as they are so addicting to make!

Pearl Bracelets, polka dots, plaid, vintage sheets.  

Oh the possibilities!!!

I have some more bee blocks to share but that will have to wait until tomorrow. 

 I have tomorrow off so I can get ready for my trip to Raleigh.  

I took my son out for dinner last night and my debit card was declined.  

I went home and called the bank only to find out that someone in London England 

tried to charge over $500 worth of electronics on my card!!!  

The bank declined the charge and blocked the card, thank goodness. 

Hope you are all having a good day.  

I think you need to go to Cori's and pick up this pattern.  

If you do, the one we used is the smallest one, the one they used to make the pillow.

~XOP~

Paper Dolls and Small Things

I know it has been a LONG time between posts hasn't it? 

 Someone pointed that out to me today. 

 I'm sorry but sometimes there just isn't anything good to write about. 

 I began training for a 5K with a group of ladies at my gym, 

so the amount of time I spend at the gym has increased a LOT. 

 We are doing the Couch Potato to 5K program so I have to run 3 times a week.  

That's in addition to the 3 Zumba classes and the cardiolates and body pump classes. 

 With working full time, and taking care of my dad and sisters, it doesn't leave a lot of extra time to sew. 

 I have been working on the back of the Swoon wedding quilt and

 can't share that as the bride to be reads this = ) 

 I will do a tutorial on how to do the dish towels soon, I promise!  

Have you ever had sewing you *had* to do but got TOTALLY distracted by something else?  

That's what happened to me! 

 I am always looking for a project to use for leader/enders while I sew. 

 Do you guys use leader/enders when you sew? 

 I had bought a really sweet pattern called Paper Dolls and 

thought that would work but wanted to make up one block and see how it would be to use. 

 I have been wanting to do this for soooooo long and I finally made one up.

This is unpressed but how freaking adorable is this??  

Can you totally see a whole quilt made up with these??

I think I am going to put white on either side and then maybe surround it with squares. 

 I'm not sure yet. 

 I want to alternate these with a plain block and maybe an improv cat block or 2. 

 I have NO business taking the time to make this, but it is so much FUN!!! 

 I could not resist making several!  

The largest piece is the HST part of the dress and it is 2 7/8", so VERY scrap friendly! 

 I am planning on using several "skin" tones for the girls. 

 I have several more cut out and think that it will be a good L/E project.

Fatty McFatty has been helping me a lot lately too.

She sure loves laying on anything I have been making!

One of my oldest and dearest friends celebrated her 50th birthday today! 

 I cut some lilacs for her (her favorite) and make caramel brownies also her favorite!  

One of our lab mates got her this cake and it was amazing.

So happy birthday to the one person on this earth that completely understands me, every facet of me!  

I love you man! 

 LOL

~XOP~