Sheltering In Place

I know I have been quiet but we are all ok over here.  

I am not at work (we have to work from home) so my computer there is not the best for posting stuff.  I am doing a quick check in while I am at work for a little bit today 

(somethings just can't be done at home). 

 We are off possibly until the beginning of May.  

How crazy is this!!??  

Please, my friends, self isolate as much as possible.  We need this to pass quickly.

That being said, I have been working on my Mad Science quilt.  Thought I would show the progress.

These are the side blocks.  DNA and a Microscope.

 An atom and a mouse looking into a flask

Here you can see the glassware and the bunny block I am working on.

This is the bunny after I hand stitched around her to make her stand out from the background a little.

The background is all different immune cells.  I found it at Spoonflower.  

This is what the bunny looked like before I outlined her.

This is what the real orange balls look like that we give our bunnies to play with.  I think mine is pretty good.

I am making this to go in the center of the quilt.  Still working on that bit.

(My boss's last name is Kunkel)

 Progress is being made.

Mad Science quilt patterns by Quilt Genius

Bunny pattern by Violet Craft 

Letters by From Blank Pages

Just in case you need a little more entertainment to hold you over here are a couple videos of the cats.

Cole is playing "fetch" with a pipe cleaner.  

He kept bringing it to me in my sewing room and I would throw it.  

He would meow very loudly if I tried to ignore him, LOL.

Finny goes for a "walk" every night with my husband.  Then they sit together on the porch.  

He cries incessently and scratches at the window if he doesn't get to go outside with Chris.

OK Friends, everyone stay safe and I hope to be able to post more later.  

It all depends on my silly home computer.  

~XOP~

Traveling Quilt Update

I have been hard at work on the pieced parts of the current traveling quilt that I have.  

I have the Sea themed one.  

I thought I would show you the pieces I have done so far.  

The pieces for the top part are almost complete.  

I have to take a break to sew a binding on a baby quilt then I will resume.  

First up is Nessie.  It is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern.  I may have shown this previously.

Then I finished a mermaid.  She is a pattern by Quiet Play.

I made some low volume Friendship Stars and realized I needed a few more of these.

I have the additional stars sewn into their rows, just need to put the rows together to form the stars.

I paper pieced a gigantic word too.

THALASSOPHILE

It means lover of the sea.

It was too large to get a good pic of so I took a video!

Once I finish the binding of the baby quilt I will be back at this again.

I hope to have time this weekend to do the math to put all these pieces together for the top.

Then on to making something for the bottom of the quilt!

What are your goals for the weekend?

~XOP~

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~

Add your like here:

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Productive Weekend

This past weekend I determined that I needed to get a lot of things I had promised, finished.  

Let me back up a minute though.   

On my way home from work on Friday I saw the neatest clouds.  

It looked like rain but in only a specific spot. 

 Take a look.

Friday night I started on this heart block for someone that requested them for charity.

 It is paper pieced and so somewhat time consuming, 

but I love the heart and wanted to try my hand at one.  

The request was for rainbow on either low volume white or black.  

I opted for white.

I had made and mailed my Bee blocks for April but somehow they got lost in the mail, so on Friday night I made a second set.

 On Saturday it was cold and rainy so I decided to sew.  

I usually clean on Saturdays but things were in pretty good shape so 

I decided to knock out as many "have to" projects as I could.  

I finished the whole heart!  It is so pretty!!  I used Moda dots for all the colorful fabrics.

Of course I had a kitty helper.

Next up was a set of cat faces for another charity donation.  

A woman I know from IG had her daughter pass away from the FLU.  

She was in kindergarden.  

That just broke my heart.  I can NOT even imagine what she and her family must be going through.  She wants to make a quilt for every child in her daughter's class to remind them all of Emma 

(who loved cats).  

So I made 2 cat faces to mail off to her on Saturday too.

I had to run after the mail truck to get these three things out in the mail on Saturday!  

Running, for me, is not a pretty sight, but I did it anyway and successfully sent all three out.

Then I saw this fabric sitting near the machine and decided I needed to make this chenille blanket.  

I had all the flannel set next to it so that got this out of the room! 

 I managed to get all the stitching on one side finished on Saturday.

It was night so the colors are not very true.  

I finished all the sewing, cutting, squaring up and binding.  

It is now ready for the wash. 

If you want to make a chenille blanket, go to my tutorial page for step-by-step directions.  

They are pretty easy and make GREAT baby gifts.

Sunday I finished the chenille, as I said above, then we went out to the farm for a visit.  

Hubby wanted to pick up his boat and take the cover off the camper. 

 I played with the birds. 

 Here is Orion, my daughter's purple peacock.  Isn't he gorgeous??

I couldn't get close enough to get a good shot of his eye feathers, 

but you can sort of see the centers are purple!  

He is a beauty for sure.

She also had LOTS of chicken and pea babies.  

The little black one closest to the dish is a Genetic Hackle chicken the other 3 are pea babies

They are super nosey even as babies.

  I'm not sure if you can see it but the peas all hatched very recently and 

still have their egg tooth on their beaks!!  

It's the little bump on the top of the beak.

There is not much cuter than the baby peas.  They have such BIG eyes.

Although, I have to say, Lenore is super unimpressed by it all.  

Just more NOISY birds in the house as far as she is concerned!  

She always looks grumpy but she is such a sweetie.  

She never stops purring the whole time I am there and she is super LOUD!

Sorry this was so LONG, but a lot was happening at my house.

I also started cutting out the green squares for my MSU quilt.

I have a lot more to cut but I'll get there, eventually.

How was your weekend?

~XOP~

Folksy Fish Finish

I've been sitting on this finish until the quilt had been received and then life intervened.  

My daughter has a good friend that had a baby.  

I have adored the pattern Folksy Fish ever since I saw it.  

If you *need* the pattern you can find it here.

They decided to decorate in a fish theme.  

PERFECT!!  

Now I could make this pattern. 

 I collected up the stuff and began working on it. It was a really hard pattern for me!!  

All of the fish were paper pieced but I was not understanding how to assemble them.  

 I also decided to improv some "water" and that took me much longer than I anticipated too.  

Good think I started early!

On to the quilt

  I call it Too Cool For The School.

Good thing I love this girl!

This fish represents baby Jack.

Kathy at Thread Bear quilting did the quilting

 I asked for wavy lines, seaweed and bubbles.  I love how it turned out!

This fish was the most labor intensive.  Those white lines were all paper pieced.

Once I finished the fish paper piecing they had to be sewn into the background in a curve.

Wooo, lots of new stuff to learn!

I could not resist making one "cat fish".

You can really see the seaweed and bubbles in this section.

When we were in Florida in the spring I found the perfect backing fabric too.

I snuck in some little animals too.  

Also the word "fly" (dad is a fisherman) and "love".

Here is baby Jack on his new fish quilt.

I did hand embroider the label.

The new little family.

Even the doggie got in on the action.

It makes my heart so happy when I gift something that was so much work and is so appreciated!

The mama, messaged me right away to let me know how thrilled they were with it!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Up Friday.

Speaking of Friday, have a good weekend everyone!

It's good to be back!

~XOP~