Rekindling An Old Friendship

I met an old friend for dinner last Thursday.  

We had not been able to meet up for many months and 

we saw each other a few weeks ago at her mom's funeral. 

 I think she was so busy taking care of her mom there was just no extra time.  

We met for dinner and it was wonderful! 

 We started up just like we had left off.  

She brought me a bag full of gifts that she had for me for  my birthday and Christmas.  

One of the most beautiful was this pendant from Hawaii.

She also gave me a big box of thread.  

Then we had a funny thing happen between us.  

A few years ago she gave me some fabric that I thought was not very pretty (ugly in fact) but felt so guilty I decided to use it to make a charity quilt.  

She thought it was not something I would usually sew with either

 but wanted me to work outside my comfort zone.  

So I made a quilt that I dubbed The Ugly Quilt.  

Turns out my DD2 fell in love with that quilt and now it lives with her.

 The following Christmas I made a jelly roll of all the left over fabrics and gifted them back to her!  Well, in this bag was a quilt top she made out of those strips and all the left over fabric.

The Ugly Quilt Part Deux!

I used the left overs to make a back,

 I added some Kona Ash to make up what I didn't have enough of.

This quilt is now on it's way to the quilter!  

Our little baby turkey is still cute as a button.  It likes to "help" my DD1 while she is typing.

Then I got to finish up another quilt top and had some beautiful Marmalade to play with. 

 I just LOVE this fabric for the back!!! 

 My favorite. 

 Of course, Jack had to help me out too!

Marmalade fabric with a marmalade cat!

That sums up my Sunday.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too.

~XOP~

Completed Tops and the House fabric

I showed you the cute little houses now these are the blocks that will be between them.  This house fabric was the fabric I pulled in the 5 yard challenge.  It was the inspiration for the little houses.  Cute, eh?

I worked very hard this weekend to finish these two tops.  This is the Paisley Party top.  the colors remind me a little of The Ugly Quilt except that I really love these and the other ones were poor imitations.  
I think this one will be going to DD2's friend Kara.  She is the last of the friends that still *needs* a quilt and I think I can part with this.  I really do love it though.
I have been working on this top for the last year, literally!  It was part of Leanne's 365 Day Challenge.  You had to put the rows together (lenghtwise) and write on a square every day for 1 year.  I began this last January.  I'm glad I did it but I'm equally glad it is over.  It would be fun to do a smaller version for someone expecting a baby, if they remembered to write on it!

My DD2 told me I needed to make 2 more so each of my children could have a year of my life!  My DD1 said there will be no fighting over it as it is hers.  Well sorry, honey, I think DD2 will fight you for it!  Maybe they can share it, LOL.  Who knew?!  

I was trying to decide what to back it with.  Decisions, decisions.  I wanted to use from my stash so when I was looking through the flannel bin I found the purrrfect piece.  It is white and has cats and quilt blocks all over it and I had enough to use for the back!!  I can't show that to you as it is with LTW.

The Ugly Quilt and the Adorable Cat

Any of you that read this blog regularly know that I have 5 cats.  I love my cats, but the BEST sleeper, by far is Captain Jack.  I was watching the Red Wings game last night and decided I really needed to finish sewing the binding down by hand.  I put the quilt on my lap when my DS decided to let Jack in the house.  He thought that the cat would go and snuggle with him.  Oh contrair!  Little did my DS know, but Jack and I do this snuggle by the quilt thing almost every night!  As soon as he saw the quilt, BAM, he was there helping...I mean sleeping and purring, very loudly while I sewed.  Isn't he the cutest cat you have ever seen?  (Besides Jasper, right Jeanne?)  Oh, and Mrs. G. I bet even Haines would like him!

So you can see a little of the orange thread on the blue-green flannel back.  I really like how it came out.  DD2 is bugging the heck out of me to get it finished and sent her way.  I plan to sew on the label tonight as well as the label on the U of M one (and *no* it is still not finished, w/o the label).
You can see a bit of the quilting and the colors (ugh) in this photo too (of course you have to get by Mr. Adorable to do so).  I will try to get some pictures of it in all it's quilty goodness soon.

Have a good evening!!