Current Projects

 I have been working so hard to finish up some of the things I had started.  
I got the Economy Fox quilt finished, but only snapped this picture. 
 I love that border! 
 It took me so long to finally cut into it and then to try to get it to line up (somewhat).  

I put the borders on my All Hallows Eve quilt using this pattern.  

I had 3 blocks left over so made this table runner out of them.

I used the left over border fabric for the back too. 

 Used scrap batting too.

I got my new quilt labels in the mail too so used one on the back of the table runner.

I now have 5 quilts heading to my quilter!

All Hallows Eve

Kitty Corn Buffalo Plaid

Prissy Pumpking

Quite Contrary

Economy Foxes

I made binding for 4 of them.

Still need to make binding for the fox quilt

I ordered some Red fox fur Minky for the back of that one!

You can see all my binding babies holding my bindings.

Last but not least for now.

I have all the stuff to make 2 Changing Stations (Made By Annie Pattern)

You can see the first one I made here.

I made one for my daughter and intended to make more.

It was pretty time intensive for a non 3-D maker so I just put it off.

I will be retreating next weekend with my SIL and thought, BINGO!

I'll bring all the stuff and all she will need is fabric and 3 zippers

This gets a HUGE bag out of my sewing room too, BONUS!

This is the fabric I plan to use for mine.

The birds for the outside, the aqua for the lining, and the stripe for binding and handle.

I have a few more things to share, but need to take some pictures.

~XOP~

Baby Lincoln's Quilt

I couldn't post this until it was received.  

Little baby Lincoln received her quilt today in the mail.  

You all saw the left over pieces from the Neverland fabric line and this is the quilt I made with it.  Pattern is a free one called Star Break.

I LOVE this pattern and I really have enjoyed working with the Neverland fabric.

  I still have quite a bit left if anyone else wants to make one.  

See previous post for fabrics for sale.

I used the pretty mint flowers from the line for the back.  

My friend, Liz, did the fairy quilting.

Close ups of the stars.

I made a label using the same fabric as the back.

It was the first time I tried that and I love how it turned out!

We get to meet one of the other babies born in our family on Thursday.

I can't wait to give him his quilt and to share it with his label too.

I am currently working on making nap blankets for a friend.

Her daughter teaches in a 4 year old classroom.

The kids need blankets for naps so each year my friend and her friends make nap blankets.

One yard each of cotton woven and one of flannel.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew!  

I have cut out 12 so far and still have fabric I pulled for more.

I may just give her the rest of the fabric.  

I'm not sure I will have enough time to make more than 12 right now.

I gave plasma today too.

I've been trying to give 2x per week. 

It went really quickly today.

I made my entire donation (830ml) in 40 minutes flat!!

I took a photo of my arm but figured you might not want to see.

It was pretty cool watching the bin fill and then empty my cells back into my arm.

Then fill and return until my donation was complete.

Maybe a pic of baby A would be a better photo to put here?

He loves this Johnny Jump Up!

What are you working on?

I need to cut a couple more nap blankets tomorrow and then start sewing.

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

It's Wednesday again and you know what that means.  

WIPs With Friends time!  

I have not been able to do a whole lot of sewing but I did manage just a little bit last night.  

I needed to make the label for the Legendary (Baby Big Foot) quilt.  

I decided to make an inverse colored tree.  

The trees on the front are a color and the background is mostly white. 

 So my tree for the label is the background fabric from the front and a color for the background! 

 I still need to write on it, but this is how it turned out.  

The Yeti print on the bottom is what the backing is made out of.  

I used the same striped fabric in the trunk that I used for the binding!

The other thing that I managed to work on is another fish!!!  

This is officially the most difficult block I have ever made!  

Each of the 2 body sections took me about 2 hours to piece, the tail another 2 hours and the background and assembly another 2 hours.  

It's tough as there are no matching points on the pattern 

so I was VERY unsure how to match this up to assemble it.  

I took a chance on placement.

Getting the paper off was not easy either.

The center seam line is insane!!!!!

It is so thick it is very difficult to make the fish lay flat.

I'm not sure but hope it won't break any needles when it is being quilted!

While I love how it turned out I think this will be an only fish in the quilt.  

I had a lot less trouble with some of the other fish so may make more of those. 

He sure is cool though!  

I have one more different style fish to piece.  

Then I have to decide if I want to make any of the same fish but swimming in the other direction.  

Or 

Do I want to make the fifth fish that is different swimming in the opposite direction 

(signifying the baby).  

I'm feeling like I need to make some pieced water blocks now and play with the layout to see if I need to make any additional fish blocks.  

I really want some negative space of just the pieced water to be in this quilt too.  

I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

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

Please link up using the blue Inlinkz button.

If you are posting on IG please use the #WIPsWithFriends

And don't forget to link back to this page!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey Kind Of Weekend

There were several amazing things that happened at my house this weekend.  

The first was that my daughter had to take her turkey's for processing. 

Some of these birds were HUGE. 

My hubby went over to the farm around 6am to help her gather them up and load them in the truck

 to take to the processor.  

Just look at this beast of a turkey!

I was comfy at home and it began to snow.

Which was ok as I was watching the MSU vs OSU football game.  

I looked out again and we had many more inches!  It was the first snow of the year in Michigan.

I think we got over 10 inches!

Abbey loves the snow so she was thrilled!

Fatty McFatty put her ample girth over the heating register and thus made the entire house colder.  Hey, what did she care?  Her belly was toasty warm!

I watched the game and could not be more thrilled with the outcome!  

We beat the number 3 team in the nation!!!

GO STATE!

I decided to work on the label for the next wedding quilt while I was watching the game. 

 I made some good progress! 

 I actually managed to finish the embroidery, I just took this early into the game.

I have more to share but need to run, so more later.

~XOP~

Weekend Musings

My weekend was a little bit odd.  Husband and son were gone deer hunting 

from Friday to Saturday night. 

 Michigan had 2 odd deer hunting days in certain overpopulated counties. 

 Both my son and his friend, got a doe.  

That kept them busy for a few days.  

I had to hurry up and finish a quilt for a really dear friend that is in the hospital.  

She has cancer. 

 I don't want to show her quilt just yet but here is the label.

I can show you the back too.  I used cream flannel on the back. 

 She is in ICU but I am hoping that she will get to use this. 

 Please pray for her.

I almost have the green and gray plus quilt bound and finished too. 

 I need to take some photos once it is finished. 

 Kathy did a great job quilting both of these quilts for me!

I did happen to make an Infinity scarf and can see more of these in my future.

Though I would not make them so wide and I would wash the fabric first, for cotton.

My ever present helper was not in her usual place.  She got tired of me shoving her off the dark green flannel and retreated to a nice fabric lined cubby!

 I needed new jeans badly.  Mine were getting so big. They were on sale. 

 I tried on one size smaller and lo and behold it was still a little big. 

 I tried on TWO sizes lower and they fit!!!  

I texted this to my husband and he asked me if my cup size was two sizes lower too.  MEN?! 

 I sent this photo to my daughter and she said they looked big still, but they fit just fine!

I also managed to get the wedding quilt top finished but need to move on to embroidering the label.  Once the label is finished then I will figure out how to incorporate the signature blocks 

and the label directly into the back. 

 I HATE sewing on labels!!! 

 I did some weeding (pictures later) and finished the second baby quilt top for donation. 

 I need to make backs and bindings for those and take them to my other quilter friend.

Phew, glad to be back to work!  Wait...did I just say that??  LOL

How was your weekend?

~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

What's In A Label?

Do you remember this quilt? 

 I made it for my nephew James' wedding.  

It is now quilted and bound.  

Love that stripe binding cut on the bias! 

 I have found that using silk thread to do the hand sewing of the binding works so well.  

I also press the binding toward the hand sewing side before beginning and

 it seems to help with hand fatigue.

The last thing it needs is a label.  

I usually write on my quilts but a good friend always hand embroiders her labels.  

I thought this was a good idea so thought I would give it a try. 

 I don't know about you but my writing is far from legible and I can't keep my words on a straight line.  So I came up with this great idea.  

I wrote what I wanted on the label using my computer and a font I liked. 

 I sized it to work for the label (ie not too small to stitch) and printed it.  

I then cut out a piece of white fabric to size and using a light box, transferred the words to my fabric. 

 I chose my floss colors and did the embroidery and TA-DA perfect!

I laid it face down on some scrap batting to press it so the lettering sticks up, 

you can see the batting near the top of the photo.  

I am thinking about putting some of the blue and green squares around the outside and 

then stitching, RST, to another piece of white.  

I will leave an opening to turn and once I do that there are no raw edges.  

Last will be to hand sew it to the back of the quilt.  

I am going to gift this on Saturday and I can't wait!

Here is the happy couple after they were married on June 1st!!

~XOP~