Ocean Themed Traveling Quilt

I bet you are all pretty tired of hearing about this traveling quilt.  

Almost as tired as I am of working on it.  

While I love the quilt I am SO ready to be done.  

I could not really share all the blocks either as I wanted my finish to be a surprise.  

All week I have been hard at work frantically trying to finish up the last of the blocks I needed to do.  Last night I finished the last of them and decided to sew the strip together.  

THEN, I thought, Hey, why not add it to the quilt top and BE FINISHED?! 

 So that's exactly what I did!!!

Here is the ocean themed traveling quilt top with my top and left side additions.  

It has one more person to visit then back to the owner.

 I made stars and surrounded my mermaid with them. (pattern by Quiet Play)

 I made a "Nessie" (Loch Ness monster) pattern by Elizabeth Hartman.  

I added the word Thalassophile, which means sea/ocean lover 

using the letter patterns of From Blank Pages.

 The patterns of sea creatures were from Sarah Elizabeth Sharp.  

They are in her book Adventures in Paper Piecing & Design.  

(a totally awesome book!)

First I made invisible jelly fish.  I enlarged and shrunk the pattern.

 Next up was a sea dragon.

Followed by an octopus.

And another sea dragon.

I did a LOT of improvised water for the quilt to make all my side blocks 12".

I decimated my blue/aqua low volume stash.

I had fun making the stars too.

I took this last night as I made the final 4 stars.

Before I put them into the quilt.

Lastly my friend that was taking photos made me pose for this one.

So here it is without the side 

And completely finished and ready for me to mail!

I am very proud of the additions I did and hope that Jenny loves them as much as I do.

I think it was second only to the Hallowedding quilt for time and effort!

Have a great weekend!

~XOP~

Sea Life

I have done some work on the Traveling Quilt, but not much this week. 

 Holy week is a super busy week normally but this week we had a mission at our church so it has been church every night this week!

I did finish a few pieces for the side of the quilt though and 

have 2 more creatures and some stars to make.

I made this invisible jelly fish.  It is kind of small and needs a bigger one to go with it.

I started on the bigger one and since taking these pics have finished it.

 My favorite part is the little starfish peeking out.  TOTALLY intentional.  I love paper piecing!

Lastly is this sea dragon I made.  I LOVE him so much!  

I made him as suggested by the pattern then added some improv water, 

turned it and cut a 12.5" square.  

I could not love him any more!

These are all from the book Paper Piecing and Design by Sarah Elizabeth Sharp.  

This book is amazing! 

I can't wait until I have time to read it cover to cover.  Currently I am just making patterns from it!

I also finished 2 backings ( and hand embroidered labels for them) 

for the twin girls that were born April 7th.  

Those quilts are now at the quilter's. 

 I cut the backing and batting for my Minky patchwork quilt but saw a bit that needs to be sewn better so I will fix it and wait for my quilter to return from vacation.  

I know I have to do the March and April blocks for my CDTC sew along too. 

 I have 1 of the 4 completed. 

I don't anticipate having any time to sew this weekend so, um yeah.  

Not sure when that is going to happen.

Have a great weekend!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I finished the top for the sisterhood traveling quilt. 

I had Paula's center which was an amazing purple Monarch butterfly. 

 Unfortunately I did not get close up pictures of the blocks that I added. 

 I only took one of the finished top.

I have previously shown these blocks but will group them here too. 

 I made these and brought them to the retreat with me but added 

another flower, the bunny, squirrel and the word GROW.

I also taught my SIL how to paper piece while we were at the retreat.

She made the same bunny and is turning it into a pillow for her granddaughter.

This quilt needed to go to it's next home and that happened to be with Traci. 

 I handed it over to her before I realized that I had not taken any pictures of the additional blocks.

I'm hoping she will take some photos for me.

Your turn to share.

Please link up what you are working on.

~XOP~

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Quilt Retreat 2018

I set up a quilt retreat with my friends Cori and Traci and my SIL, Mary, at Creative Passions.  

It is only about an hour and 45 minutes away from my house.  

Traci flew in from Wisconsin and we all drove to the retreat.  

Captain Jack was helping me get packed.  

We had lots of wine!   

 Also a lot of snacks, we would not go hungry!

Beautiful view of the river on a walk one morning!

I was working on my parts that needed to be made for the Traveling Sisterhood quilt.  

I was working on a bunny too.

We went out for dinner at the Pintuck and had really great Pizza.  See Traci and Cori with me.

My SIL, Mary, and me.

Traci made her center for her traveling quilt so it could be sent away too.  Isn't it cool??

Breakfast for me one day was a Vegan cinnamon roll and Diet Coke!

We went to the Seven Sisters quilt shop too.  I made the girls stand for a photo.

Then they made me get in one too.

There was a Patch the cat and a super cute cat bed in the shop.  I guess he sheds way less than an actual cat! LOL.

I worked on my center and will show you tomorrow. 

I am already planning our next retreat in February!

~XOP~

WIP With Friends

I have a few things to share with you.  

I made most of these over the weekend. 

 They will be added to the center of the traveling quilt that I currently have.  

The theme is "garden".

First up were these adorable mushrooms.  

I think that I am going to need some "filler" in-between the animals I want to make 

and these are about 4.5" tall.  

This pattern is by Stitching Notes and can be found here.

The next thing I did was this flower.  It is called Wild Carrot and is by Violet Craft.

The last one I managed to finish was this fairy and it is by the Tartan Kiwi.  

I didn't think this one would be as difficult as it ended up being.  

The fairy "bits" were not colored in or notated in any way 

on the paper pieced portion of the pattern at all.  

I had to look at the colored drawing and try to figure it out myself 

then remember where to put that on the actual pattern.  

I had the head all sewn until I realized I forgot to do the neck in flesh color and, of course, those pieces were two of the first ones! 

I had to rip it all out and re-sew it.  

I wish she had given her hair too. 

 I guess I might have been able to alter the pattern but there was NO WAY I was going to rip that part out one more time! 

 This was my first time using a FPP pattern from her so I don't have experience to know if all her patterns are uncolored. 

 It is so much easier if the background or the object are somehow distinguished from each other!!!

I still need to make one more flower and 2 more blocks then figure out how to put them all together.

What are you working on?

Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts 

and 

You should like your work up here!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Halloween Blocks Are Finished

I am making a couple of Halloween blocks for a friend.   

 It is a swap of sorts.  

I decided to make blocks that I liked when I made my Halloweding quilt.

First up is this cat block by Artisana.  

I love this block!

The other one I made is this haunted house.  It was fun choosing who or what to put in the windows.

Also, I love the board like fabric I found for the house.  

Tonight I need to make some binding for the wedding quilt.

This weekend I plan on working on the traveling quilt for Paula.

~XOP~