Bee Vintage Blocks

I just want to say that my fellow bee members are awesome! 

I just received some more blocks in the mail this week.

 Each of the women sent 2 instead of the one block they had to send. 

  These 2 came from Liz. 

And these 2 came from Emily.

I have blocks coming from two more people and then  I will have them all collected. 

 I will be very excited to put them all together.

I hope you are having a productive weekend!

~XOP~

Happy Birthday!

Today, 24 years ago, one of my favorite people of all time was born.  

She weighed in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces and had tons of jet black hair. 

 I am thrilled that I brought such a beautiful light into the world. 

 I know my life has never been the same and the world is a better place with people like her in it! 

 My silly, sassy baby is all grown up!

 Out to take the world by storm.

Still makes time to be with her mama.

So happy birthday to my little Gumba, I love you very much!!

XOXO

~MOM~

Mail Goodies

I am so lucky to have so many great blogging buddies!
 I asked for strings and strings I got!
Thanks to Rachel and Patty!!

I have been busy knitting away.
I think I am ready to stop soon, but will most likely make another one.
 It was so fun!
Now I have to find the video on how to bind it off so I can begin another one!

I was busy making my Bee Vintage blocks for August and here was my helper.
Cats can make any place look like "the" place to sleep can't they?
"Hey Jack, don't let the hum of my machine disturb your nap, ok?"

These are the 2 blocks I made for my august bee mates.
The mini-bow tie went together super easy.

This Dresden plate is beautiful but MUCH more fussy.
Getting them to lay flat was kind of a pain.
 I love how it looks all finished though.
 I may make one like this for me in the future too but would hand applique mine, I think.
I did love the flower bouquet in the middle too!

Since it has been so warm here this summer I have my windows and doors open and heard this weird, high pitched sound so I stopped sewing and went out in my back yard.
I followed the noise and it seemed to be coming from a Blue Spruce.
 I could hear some adult Cardinals around me so I figured maybe there was a nest
so I parted the branches and look what I found.
Three very loud, very hungry baby Cardinals!!

My son went down to Raleigh to visit my daughter and they went zip lining.
 (Like the piggy in the commercial)

 Here are a couple of photos of the two of them. 

Nice to know they love each other!  

The other guy and his child are just some other people that went at the same time as my two.

Now don't forget to leave a comment here 

if you would like the Charming Travelers to stop at your house!  

I am going to select a winner on Monday August 13th.

I wish I had more to show you but some things are just going to have to wait. 

 I am busy working on a LOT of things right now, just nothing I can show at the moment.  

It's not any fun when you can't show pictures of your work = (  

I hope you are enjoying the photos of things I can share though!

~XOP~

Cats on Quilts

The 2012 Pets on Quilts show is going on right now. 

 As most of you know, I have 5 cats and at any given time one of them is on a quilt somewhere.  

I am officially entering this photo of Autumn in the show so once voting begins, 

please go here and vote for her.

Of course there are a few other photos that I really like at the moment too 

including this one of Fatty McFatty (Aiden)

I think I have the most photos of Jack though.  

He is the one that needs to be near me all the time.

I took this photo yesterday as it was what greeted me as I walked into the house.

Of course you can see everything I have been using on the table and Jack is just sprawled all over it!

I posted this pic to Flickr yesterday and guess who commented on it? 

 Laurie Wisburn!!! 

 I was so excited. 

 I just love her fabrics don't you??

I am currently lusting after Brr at the moment.  

So there you go! 

 Cats on quilts.  

More Cat-o-flauge if you will!!  

Please go to Lily Pad Quilting and vote for Autumn's photo. (122)

 She thinks she is the queen of everything and she would love confirmation of that!!

Here is what they said about voting:

"Our linky party will remain open for entries until August 9 --- that's a whole week for peeps to enter their quilts and their furbabies! At that point, the linkies will be closed, and voting will begin. We will leave the voting open through the weekend (through Sunday, the 12th) so that all of our friends can participate. Then, a couple of days later (probably the 14th or 15th) we will have our announcements of winners."

~XOP~

The Charming Travelers

I first saw the Charming Travelers over at Sally's blog.  

This originated over at From Blank Pages. 

I tossed my name into the proverbial hat and the rest is history!  

This lovely package containing 56 charm squares arrived at my door on Saturday.  

Basically it works like this, you leave a comment and a way to contact you, 

you need to be an active blogger, 

and in a week

 (Monday August 13th, my 29th wedding anniversary BTW)

I will select a winner.  

What does that mean, exactly? 

 I mail the charms off to you, you choose as many as you like, 

and then replace what charms you took.

  You post a blog about the swap and choose a winner and send it on. 

 Over at From Blank Pages, she is keeping track of all the winners on a map.  

Our package is the blue one, which means USA and Canada only.  

There is a red pack for international and you can always go to FBP blog 

and see where the charm packs are so you can have a chance to win. 

This is what the pack looked like when I received it.  

The bottom row is what I kept.

A short while ago a good friend shared some of her original Flea Market Fancy with me and so I carefully cut some of that up to include in the charm pack. 

 So if you would like a chance for some FMF, Katie Jump rope and Cake Rock Beach.

There are a few of those charms in there!!  (11 of the 15)

My hope is that this will entice you to toss your name into the hat also! 

 Thanks for sharing Miss J. 

 I am happy to share my good fortune with someone else.

OK, everyone got it?  

Just leave me a comment to be entered.

Let the fun BEGIN!!

~XOP~

PS If I can get up to 600 followers I will also have a little give away!!

Folks, We Have A Winner

 Sorry it has taken me so long to post this but I finally dusted off Mr. Random and he chose a winner.  Lucky number 25, Grendelskin, who said, "I'm thinking of things in a whole new light all of a sudden! I need the book anyhow to participate in Konda's next quiltalong so if you pick my name you'll make me very, very happy!"

A hearty congratulations goes out to Sally!! 

 Send me your mailing address so I can get the book sent out to you.

I decided to work on one of my August commitments in my Bee Vintage block bee. 

 I managed to get one block made last night before it got too dark.  

(I don't like to sew at night even though I do it a lot)

This is the block for Liz. 

 I hope she likes it.

  She asked for the Mini Bow Tie block.

I like it and it was a really easy block to make.  

I wouldn't mind making an entire quilt out of this one.

  It just might need to go on my to do list!

  I have one more August block to make and then

 I need to think about what I want to get finished up for the month of August.  

I am thinking about a couple of QAL type things too. 

 Decisions, decisions!

What do you have planned for your weekend?

~XOP~

If Only...

I saw this photo on the Chicken soup for the soul and thought,

 "If I could teach my cats to do this, just think how much more productive I could actually be!!" 

 I have 5 cats so it could be LOT!!!

It kind of looks like Jack doesn't it?

I did manage to get some sewing done tonight, watching the Olympics, of course, who isn't? 

 I got all the binding done on one of the quilts I made for Jacquie for one of her patterns. 

 It needs to go to her this week for it's professional photo shoot! 

 One more thing to tick off my "to do" list.  

Have you been watching the Olympics? 

Our friend Allison Schmidt won a GOLD medal in the 200 free. 

 She won the event by over 2 seconds, which is HUGE in swimming.

  She is the second fastest in the world and broke the American and Olympic records!!! 

 WTG Allison!!!  

We are so proud of you!!

My daddy turned 86 today.

  I sent him a card and have made him a quilt. 

 I sent it to Pauline to bind (she gave me a binding coupon for my birthday). 

 I hope to have it back before the end of the month.
Although she has been super busy (you know this if you read her blog)
 

 At 86 you just have no idea how many more days you will have with him. 

 I called him tonight and he said, "for some reason, I thought you were coming to see me today". 

On a Wednesday dad? 

 Really?

  They wont' let me of work for your birthday! LOL.  

I am hoping to go and see him maybe on Saturday but we will see, the weekends are always so  busy!!

  He told me to "Stay in touch" as if I wouldn't do that, haha.  

I hope you are all enjoying the Olympics and I will be back soon!!

~XOP~

More Bee Vintage Goodness

I received 3 more VS blocks in the mail the other day. 

These first 2 are from Colleen. 

Aren't they beautiful? 

This one is from Sheetal. 

Such a great fussy cut center! 

 I can't wait for the rest of the blocks to show up! 

I also managed to get my mini quilt cut out and laid out for Konda's quilt tour.  

My day is September 25th so it has to be sewn, quilted and bound by then. 

 I may even make 2!! 

 I am loving that I could cut it out and lay it out in less than an hour!  

Be sure and check back for the quilt tour.

I am going to draw a winner for the Simply Charming Mini book on Friday (August 3rd). 

 Please go here and leave me a comment to be entered into the drawing!

My good friend, Cori has decided to carry the Heather Ross Line, Crafty Chloe in her online shop. 

 If you don't happen to have a Hancock fabrics near you or you live overseas you can buy it from her.

Cori's online fabric shop now has most of the Crafty Chloe fabrics in her shop. 

 If you can't get them at Hancocks she has them available and will ship overseas. 

It is $4.75 per 1/2 yard.

If you haven't seen it it is adorable!  

My favorite are the creepy doll/sock monkey and the pin people.

(photo borrowed from Better off Thread)

Although that dog is pretty cute too!!

If you happen to be watching the Olympics please give a cheer for our friend Allison Schmidt.

She is swimming in the 200 free finals today.

She took the silver medal in the 400 free, just out touched by the French woman.  

Good luck Schmitty!!!

~XOP~

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~

It's a New Baby!!

We had the miracle of birth happen at our house last night.

A baby turkey hatched out of the turkey eggs we put into our incubator. 

 My DD1 had a male and female turkey and the female began laying 

so we thought we would try to hatch some more turkeys.  

Apparently it is not supposed to be an easy thing to do, hatching turkeys, but we got one at least.

It was so newly hatched in this photo it was still wet.

I also want to invite you to the next stop on the Blog Tour too.

  You should go over to Brooke's blog and check out her post today.

I did manage to finish up a little quilt, it just needs to have the binding finished. 

 I call it the underwater quilt.

I think I will be listing this one in my ETSY shop soon.

I leave you with some photos of Fatty McFatty (Aiden)

She was just relaxing and hanging out on my sewing table taking a bath.  

May you all have such a restful weekend!!

~XOP~