My Quilt Went To Market

I know some of you have been following the progress on my Pie Making Day quilt. 

 I am still going to do a tutorial/QAL if anyone is interested, I just need more hours in a day!

I did just get it finished in time to go to market and it was prominently displayed on the table in Brenda's booth at market.

This is Brenda and Jason in their Pie Making Day booth at quilt market.  

Their booth won first place for a single booth!!

You can see the quilt a little bit better here.

Brenda requested we use her fabric for the back too, so this is what I went with.  

Seriously, this fabric is so vibrant.  

The colors were just amazing!!!  I can't wait for the line to come out in July!!!

My little embroidery done with Aurifloss.  

That floss was so nice to work with also.  

It just glided right through the fabric!

I also made a few more Polaroid blocks.  

I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually kind of happy this is done now.  

I do love how they came out and participating in that swap.

I have also been embroidering some quilt labels for my friend, Robin. 

 I finished three of them. 

I like this one the best though.

Lots more to share.  Man I really need to catch up!!

~XOP~

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

Do. Good Stitches

You may have seen this button on my side bar.

I requested to join in this group when they had an opening. 

 It is pretty slick how it works. 

 There are several different hives, if you will, all doing the same type of thing.  

One person is in charge. 

 There are several quilters that choose the blocks made each month to make the finished quilt.  

You make the blocks (2 each month) and mail them to the quilter and 

she/he puts it together and quilts and binds it.  

Then they go off to the charity that has been chosen for the group.  

I am very excited to be participating in this charity work!  

I know I have not had a lot to post about recently. 

We are having work done on our house and my sewing room is out of commission right now.  

I hope to get it all put back together this weekend and get some sewing done!

 I am working on a small quilt with Brenda Ratliff's new fabric line called Pie Making Day.  

I am planning on doing a little tutorial about that quilt in the near future.  

I will try to get some fabric requirements ready for early next week so be on the look out! 

 If you are interested in making this neat little quilt you may want to look for 

an embroidery that will fit into a 12" x 12" format.  

I have used 2 different images (free) that I found online.  

There is a really nice group on Flickr 

(Hoop Love Vintage Transfers)

that posts great images or feel free to use one you already have.  

If you have something you like but think it needs to be larger go ahead and 

try enlarging it and see if you still like it.  

I hope some of you will play along with me on this quilt!  

~XOP~

Embroidery with Aurifloss

As I said before I had the opportunity to do some hand stitching for a quilt going to market. 

 I was given some Aurifloss to use and I have to say I LOVE working with this floss. 

 At first I was not sure how it would be any different from any other good quality floss but it is. 

 It is very smooth to use even with longer strands.  

It did not seem to tangle as much and the glide in the fabric was so nice. 

 I managed to finish my embroidery and even got it pressed!  

I wish I had better lighting to show you how vibrant the color of the floss is.  

Aren't they the cutest??

I went to the DAMQG meeting last night to check it out. 

 I was thinking that I might want to be a DAM girl.

  Now I am pretty sure of this!  

The meeting was a lot of fun and they have so many nice projects in the works. 

 Their hearts are BIG and they are making a difference. 

 Everyone was so welcoming too. 

 Their charity hashtag on IG is #thatDAMcharitybee.  LOL  

How could you not want to join a group like that??

Since this little stitchery is part of a larger project I am linking up to Lee's blog and WIP Wednesday.

Have a great day and happy sewing!

~XOP~

Pie Making Day

Not *actual* pie silly!  

Brenda Ratliff, owner of Pink Castle Fabrics is coming out with her first fabric line and it is called Pie Making Day!  

The fabric is from RJR and will be available to everyone in July. 

 Ask your favorite quilt shops to carry it!! 

 It is gorgeous! 

 The rich jewel tones of this line do NOT disappoint.

I got my hands on a F8th bundle to make something for Brenda's booth for spring quilt market. 

  I guess if I can't go at least something I make will be there right?  

Here is a peek at this amazing line.

I'm pretty sure the raspberry and the teal are my favorites but 

I actually really love this entire color palate!!

I have a small quilt in progress and here you can see as I was building the blocks for part of the quilt.  Since I am using white as the background for these blocks 

I decided to use gray as the other "neutral". 

 I also have to say that the Optical White RJR solid (also designed by Brenda) is my all time, hands down, favorite white!

This is the layout of the yellow basket.

And the green basket

I only had enough time to get them all cut out and 2 of them sewn.  Here is the orange one.

And the teal one.  I can't wait to add the handles!  

You will be surprised about what I do for that! 

 I have a few more things to do that I have not cut out yet that will complete the top. 

 I will share those when I actually have time to cut and sew them, hopefully this week sometime!

I am embroidering the center of the quilt using a free pattern I found online. 

 I am using the Aurifloss that matches the teal for the embroidery. 

 I had not worked with this previously and I have to say it stitches like a dream!

  I also totally LOVE the color of this floss. 

 It is so vibrant!  

Here is a progress shot.  

I am almost finished with this part of the project, just a few flowers and it will be done.

I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek into my little project.  

I will have to see if I can post the finished project before market or not. 

 Would anyone be interested in a tutorial or QAL of this project?  

You can substitute any center embroidery that you like and 

we can talk about that if there is interest in this project.

I hope all my Christian friends had a nice Easter.  

We had my eldest daughter and her SO over as well as my youngest son. 

 Just missed the middle daughter.  

It was a nice, low key, no stress kind of a day. I leave you with a pic of my family. 

 Daughter, son and SO in that order. 

Happy sewing!

~XOP~