Good Mail and Good Friends

As you are well aware my life has been kind of a hot mess lately. 

 Well never fear, between some serious retail therapy and some amazingly great friends

 I am feeling better.  

Although my dad did take a tumble today and that is never a call you want to receive, he is alright, thank goodness.

I thought I would share with you some of the great mail I have gotten lately. 

 First up a couple of purchases. 

 Some Nest from an ETSY shop, love those birds.

And a FQ bundle of Fort Firefly.  

I totally love this line!

Then I was a winner of this amazing book.  

If you have not looked at it you should.  

There are some very talented people in this book!

The quilts are super adorable too.

There was even a personal note to me inside from Amy!!  

Thanks Amy!!

My friend Pauline has been knitting up a storm and knitted me this fabulous Halloween scarf.

(sorry the photo is a little dark, it is still dark when I leave for work at 5am)

This is just one of MANY that she has made for me.

Thanks Pauline!

Then I received this big package in the mail on Saturday from my friend Dianne.

We have not met IRL yet, but I will make my way to her eventually!

(You have been warned)

She knows how much I love aqua and blues and greens and cats.

But really?  

Who doesn't know this about me right?

She is also a knitter/crocheter and made me this!

How exquisitely beautiful is this???

Those colors just make me want to do the happy dance!!

She even sent the left over yarn 

(I have no idea how to knit or crochet, LOL)

and just look at those sweet kitty scissors!!!!

She also knew it was my month to be the Queen in my bee.  

I chose aqua/bluegreen/greenblue airplanes.  

The pattern is from Quilter's Cache and it's called Lone Eagle.  

So she paper pieced me up a few or eight!  

AND sent me the left over fabrics to make more from !!!

Dianne, you are the BEST!!!

GOSH you guys!!!

I have no reason to feel sorry for myself.  

 I should feel blessed, and I do!

Thank you for reminding me.

Life is Good

Even if it is not always easy!!

~XOP~

Day Two of the Mini Book Blog Tour

That's right, today is the second day of the book tour and the stop today is Nanette over at Freda's Hive.  You are going to want to stop over there and 

check out the amazing mini quilt she made using Marmalade and a pattern from Konda's new book. 

 I love the fabric and I love Konda's book too!! 

 Leave a comment on her blog for a chance to win a copy of Konda's book.

Ok now, don't forget to stop back here tomorrow for my stop on the tour and a chance to win a copy of Konda's book from me too!!

Just in case you need a little eye candy, here is how my knitted fabric scrap rug is coming along. 

 It looks kind of funky because I can't spread it out very well yet, but it is growing!!

I hurt my back and took today off of work.  

I did a lot of laying flat.  

I did manage to get a few things done although nothing I can share pictures of. 

 I made the binding for my dad's quilt, and totally cashed in my birthday "binding coupon tonight

 and handed it over to the binding Queen.  

Thanks Pauline! 

 I also made and attached the binding to one of the quilts I pattern tested for Jacquie.  

Now to hand stitch it down! 

 I LOVE how this quilt came out and can't wait to share it with you guys.  

The pattern will be available in the near future. 

 I also worked on another secret project. 

 One step closer to being able to share!

All right, enough with all the secrecy.  

Stop back tomorrow for a chance to win a copy of Konda's new book. 

 It's a really good one!!

~XOP~

Knitting? Me?

Like I have a brain in my head! 

 Yes, I am knitting a rug.  

Do you remember Amanda Jean's post about her knitting a rug from left over fabric scraps?  

Well I thought that was so cool and now I am doing it! 

 It takes quite a bit of time but I am actually kind of enjoying it! 

 I really need to be binding. 

 In fact I worked on my MSU quilt binding last night.  

The binding is black and it makes it difficult to work on at night.  

Plus by the time I was finished, my left arm and hand were killing me! 

 I thought I had that licked but no.  

I took some Ibuprophen and iced my arm and

 it is ok this am although I know that I did binding last night!  

Here is my progress on my scrappy rug.

I wanted mine to be as big as possible so I cast on as many as I could. 

 I used size 35 needles. 

 It kind of twists around as I go but it is going to be pretty cool.  

I used lots of the strips I usually discard.  

I am finding that I have a LOT of blue scraps or a lot of white.  

I think it would be better if you had lots of different colors though. 

 My stitches are not too regular but I hope that will add to the charm of it.  

It will, right?

I did trim my quilt for Daniel (Yolanda's second quilt). 

 I was trimming and got called away and 

when I got back I tried to move it to trim some more and it wouldn't budge.  

This is why.

Someone (Jack) was lying on the back side as it draped over my machine table!  

Thanks Jack, you're such a helper!  

Speaking of helpers, I did some sewing on an upcoming project that you will see soon and 

again was called away and when I returned this is what I found.

You can see that he is sitting behind my machine almost on top of what I am sewing! 

 Sheesh, Mosen!

Ok I leave you with a cool photo I took of a Moon Flower from my garden. 

 This was just before it opened up that evening. 

 Don't you just love that little curl on the tip?

Here is one that has opened.  

They open at night and are closed during the day.

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~