WIPs With Friends

I have been furiously working to finish the binding on my Sparty quilt.

This one is staying with me and going in the camper.  

I had Hallie on my left.

And Finny on my right, later joined by Cole, as did the hand stitching on this one.

I picked up that green binding fabric when we traveled to NC.  

It's all gone now, used up in this binding.

It was the exact perfect color for the binding of this quilt.

Fall is going by so quickly here in MI.  

I went to let Hal inside the other day and she almost blended in with the leaves.  

I LOVE this photo of her!

Your turn.  What are you working on?  I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

Please link up here.  

Let's try for 10 link ups and I have some fabric to give away if we get 10.

Share, share share!!!

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends and Giveaway

Hey there.  It's been awhile since I have had actual time to write one of these posts. 

Anyone out there doing any sewing?  Halloween costumes?  Halloween Quilts?  Christmas stuff? Let's share what you are working on! 

 I have some adorable fabric to give away to someone if we can get 10 pictures shared on this post!  

Me?  

I am working on getting things ready for my trip to California in a few weeks 

for the Sew Beachy retreat.  

I want to make this adorable first aid bag but I am really a bag chicken.  LOL. 

 I am not confident at all when sewing things like this.  

It is from the book Crafty Little Things to Sew.  

My friend Jaimie (@madebyjamie) 

will be there to and she has agreed to hold my hand and walk me through the process. 

She is amazing!   

I would love to make these for gifts.  Wouldn't they be great in your car? 

 I just need to learn how to make one first, HA!

I did just get my Sparty quilt back from the quilter, but it has rained every day so no photos yet.  

I made the binding and sewed in on, just need to hand stitch it down now.  

I sent the gator quilt to the quilter and made the binding for that one too.

I made another Cheddar Jack to use in a project.  

He is so cute and a free pattern here on my blog, 

in the Mama Spark's Tutorial section (link in header too)

I had LOADS of help with him along with the paper pieced word I was making one letter at a time.  

I can't show that or the person I am making this for will know who they are = )

I used the alphabet pattern from Diane Bohn.

It is a really nice one and if you need a copy you can find one right here.

I still need to show you guys the fabric I bought while on our NC trip.  

I hope to have that posted tomorrow.

I am also linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

If you want to be in the drawing for some sweet fabric please link up what you are working on.

If we can get 10 people I will give away some fabric!!!

(and we all NEED free fabric, right?)

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends

I have been sewing when I get a minute, but it has been sporatic things. 

 I need to get my butt in gear and work on my pattern testing stuff and my kitty swap project.  

I started on the pattern test block only to realize she needed to make some changes 

( or I should say, I wanted her to make some changes).

This is the block, designed by Quilt Genius.  I can't wait to get started now that I have her changes.

I'm going to use the science words for the background.  

Those peach fabrics will be the paws, tail, ears and nose.

I guess Finn thought he should help too.

At least I got all my fabric choices done.

While I was waiting I decided to work on my Tula Granny Square Challenge blocks.

In the Tula Pink group I belong to on FB a woman asked if anyone would be up for a challenge.

She would send each of us 12 babies (center of a granny square)

of OOP Tula fabric.

Each month she would issue a particular challenge to sew with a particular square.

Here are my blocks for July, August and September

July's challenge was to use fabric with circles.  I used some Neptune, and also Flutterby.

August was to use a blue print or solid.  I used Slow and Steady and Nest.

September was to use fabric from the Eden line.

I am really happy with how my blocks turned out!  

I need to finish the October one now so I can be ahead and have time to work on other things. 

 Next up is the pattern testing and then the kitty swap projects.

What are you working on?  Link up and share with all of us!

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends

I have been busy working on a HST quilt that I have a deadline for. 

 I finished the quilt top on Sunday and am working to get the back pieced so 

I can send it to the quilter.

I snapped a few photos as I was working on it.  Most were as I was playing with the layout though.

The colors are slightly more pale in person.

It actually reminds me a bit of sea glass.

As you can see Finn was assisting with the layout.

I have a tooth fairy pillow to make and then on to my kitty swap pillow cover.

What are you working on?

Link up and share with us!

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends

I need to make another wedding quilt.  I decided that I would use grays, greenish grays and grayish blues.  I am making it all HST.  I wanted to use 7.5" blocks but ended up using 7.25" blocks.

I had sewn all the HST that I had when sewing with my friends, but realized I needed more.
I sewed what I had into pairs too.

I cut more and sewed all the additional HST and got them all trimmed. 

Finn decided that he was going to supervise.

Upon wider inspection you can see that I actually had 2 supervisors in my sewing room.

I have no idea what his deal was but he had to be touching my blocks as they came off the machine.

Eventually he just passed out.

I could not resist this view of him through the throat space of my sewing machine!

I managed to get some of the pairs sewn into 4 patch blocks last night too.

Your turn.  What are you working on?  Link up!

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends

I have been pretty busy getting ready for my quilt retreat this weekend.  

I was finishing up a few things and mostly cleaning my house and packing. 

 I made some design boards to bring along. 

I found the tutorial from Lori Holt.  

She uses foam core board and hot glues batting to the board.  

Then she glues binding around the outside.  

Looked easy enough.  

Welllll, it was a little bit trickier than I thought to make them. 

 I am fairly happy with how they came out though.  

These are the ones I made.

This one was the first one I made.  

And this one was the last.  

The join got better with each one as did the equal amounts 

of fabric binding on both sides of the board.  

I bought this doll quilt on IG from a friend.  

She had it all put together and even pin basted. 

 I quilted it this weekend and put this binding on it.  

I need to hand stitch the binding down yet.

This was the back of the quilt.  

I know exactly who I am going to send this to.  

Probably at Christmas time with a stuffed cat (since her "mean" mommy won't let her have a cat). 

 I just love the Tiger Lily line of fabric.  One of my all time favorites!

I may take this to the retreat to finish it.  Thanks, Lee, it is purfect!!

What are you working on?

Link up and share with us!

~XOP~

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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~

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WIPs With Friends

As you could see from previous posts, I have been mostly camping.  

Very little sewing.  I did manage to finish the Mad Scientist test quilt. 

 I just had the test tubes to finish and then assemble them into the other piece and add the bench top.

Here are the test tubes. 

 If you look at the fabrics close up you can see the teal one looks like crystals and 

the purple one is all swirly!

This is how the finished piece turned out.  I am so in love with this!

I thought you might appreciate seeing the back side of this foundation paper pieced project.

I spent some quality time with the cats while camping though.  Cole loves to lay like this.

Finn looked so cute sleeping on the fish quilt I could not resist this photo.

How was your week?  What did you work on this week?

Please link up what you are working on.
I am also linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.

~XOP~

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WIPs With Friends

This past week went wooshing by for me!  

Hubby took the fifth wheel out on Thursday for a trial camping run.  

He has it parked for 2 weeks at a campground about an hour from our house.  

I went there on Friday and stayed until Monday. 

 I brought the kittens up there to stay with him for the weeks. 

 I will go back and stay this coming weekend.  

This was also the trial run for seeing how my sewing machine set up would go.  

This is our camper, the tan one in the middle, from across the lake.

Hubby bought me a Gidget table by Arrow for Christmas (and the insert to go with it).  

So I had him set it up in the camper.  

He took out the dining table and put my table in there.  

That is fine as long as it is just the 2 of us, 

but I can see wanting the regular table in there to use as a cutting surface.  

It's a process.  

I started on my MSU quilt (thanks to everyone that sent me green fabrics). 

 I got 13 nine patches done.  

I still need to figure out how many of these I need to make 

but I did NOT even make a dent in the squares I cut out!  

I would have done more but my machine was making a weird noise and I need to take it in now.

This was my view from where I was sewing.  Pretty nice!

Finny thought it was just like at home and was "helping" with the sewing.  

Cole didn't "help" but he loves going on the island and fishing the sponge out of the sink. 

 I have no idea where he gets his sponge fetish from!

He also loves those spongy cat toys.

Finn found the table most comfy for a nap.

When I came home, Hallie was SO happy to have me all to herself!!!  

She does not like having to share me with the boys. 

She has been following me around, and staying wherever I am.  

Mostly in the sewing room (as seen here) or in bed.  

She snuggles up in bed and just purrs and purrs (and licks me constantly). 

She will be sad to see the boys return home!

So that's what I have been working on.

(Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts)

What have YOU been doing?  

Please link up and share with us all!

~XOP~

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