WIPs With Friends

Believe it or not I actually have something to share today!  YAY!  

I managed to make a couple more Scrappy Triangle blocks.

I have been working on binding this little gem that I can't show until the baby arrives and I can gift.

Can you see Hallie's feet in the background?  

She is never far away.

I can only show you the back since I don't want to give it away. 

 I found the cutest flannel fabric for the back too.  

My quilter did fairy wands in multicolored thread for the quilting.  

I also started on the second book in the Saxon Chronicles last night.  

I love this series!

Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts

Your turn.  

Link up whatever you are working on right now and inspire us all!!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Vacation Loot

I thought I would do a quick post with most of the things I picked up while I was away.

A certain someone was particularly happy that I was home!

First up, I found some Kinder! At the shop in Glendale, Ohio.  

I love the apples and the frogs. 

 I am also collecting dark greens for an MSU quilt. 

 If you happen to have any that read like in this photo and would like to share 

a 5" square with me I would be so grateful!  

I don't seem to have a lot of variety.  

The green can have white in it also, like dots or checks but I am looking for that shade of green in particular, or just a bit darker or lighter.  

Email me and I will send you my address.

(mamaspark@gmail.com)

I found these at the shop in Plant City. 

 The first one is a great background.  I fell in LOVE with those cats. 

 The next one is a gradation from green to purple and the last one is a great blender.  

I had some but used it all up.

These I found in Lake City Florida.  

Can you see what is in that first print? It is from the book The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  

I used to read that to my kids!  I was super excited to find that.

  I didn't even know I wanted it either, until I saw it.

Then more greens for the MSU quilt.  

Some toys from the TV show Rudolph (one of my hubby's favorites), some red and green for Happy Christmas, some super cool blue and orange blenders and that metalic gold stripe?  

That one is a fabulous binding when done on the diagonal!

These were bought at the Cotton Patch in University Park Florida.  

Another binding stripe, those adorable mermaids (for a chenille blanket), more greens and look at that super cool +/x background fabric!!  

All the heart eyes for that one!

I found these at the Fabric Shack in Waynsville, Ohio. 

 More Kinder.  

The first white said it was from the American Made line, and it is muslin.  

It felt so silky I wonder if that was right? 

 It felt like an Art Gallery fabric.  

Also, it was pretty inexpensive, so I bought some for backgrounds. 

 I seem to go through white like water, HA! 

The last white, which is super difficult to see, has random sized circle outlines on it. 

 It was oddly soft, so I may need to starch it, but I have been searching and searching for a background for a particular project (that must remain secret) for actual YEARS. 

That gradient fabric up above was one I thought would work, until I found this white one.

 Each time I thought I had it I would decide the fabric was not right.  

I *finally* believe this may be the one.  

If that's the case I can finally move forward with that one. 

 Fingers crossed.

One last parting shot of my baby cuddling up with me last night.  

She is getting so old now (14) and is beginning to get the old lady fur 

as well as appears to be losing weight.  

She is a sweetie.  

I bought a few patterns that I did not photograph and a new 6.5 x 12.5" Creative Grid ruler 

(I have worn the numbers off my current one, LOL)

If you have any questions on need to know what a particular fabric is please message me.  Additionally, if you have any green 5" squares you would like to share you can email me for my mailing address at mamaspark@gmail.com

~XOP~

Vacation!!!

I am back from our Florida vacation! 

 It was a great break from my work.  

I brought a quilt to bind and only got half of it done, YIKES!  

We sure did have some fun though.  

We drove from MI to FL.  

We stopped in Georgia for the night on the way down and KY on the way home.  

There were several quilt shop stops both ways.  I am going to concentrate on the quilt shops here.

This shop was in glendale, OH It is called Stitches and Stuff.  

A very cute little shop.

I would go back here.

They had a pretty extensive collection of fabrics. 

 I found some of the new Kinder line by Heather Ross. 

They also had these giant fiberglass squirrels all over the town.

 This one is in front of the bakery

This shop was in Berea, KY  The shop was quite small but the lady working there was so nice.

This town had these odd fiberglass hands all around it.  

Now you will see I found LOADS of these gigantic fiberglass oddities on this trip!

We also stopped at Stitches N' Stuff in Powell, TN.  

This shop was so cute and she had a very nice selection of modern fabrics.

I really loved this shop!!

She also had a blind rescue dog in the shop that greeted us.  

The owner does a lot of work with this particular rescue.  

It was nice to hear that.

Isn't this peacock great?  I think I know someone that would like this on a quilt!

 Now I have the usual Florida photos and many look like previous years, 

so I am not going to bore you with those.  

Well, maybe just a few highlights.

We went to the strawberry festival in  Plant City.

 It was just a glorified carnival, but we had fun.  

Look at the strawberry hot seat amidst all those fresh berries.

I asked hubby if this was the strawberry festival or the whipped cream festival?!

I do have to say this guy is pretty special.

He plans all of the shop stops for me.

Then he walks around the town while I shop.

He always encourages me to buy at least one thing at each shop too.

This guy is a keeper!!!

This quilt shop, in Plant City, was probably one of my favorites in our line of stops.  

There was a HUGE selection and many of my favorite designers!  

I would love to go back here.

There were lots of little antique/junk shops in this town and at one of them I found this. 

 A Featherweight (in really rough shape, but they still wanted $250) 

and the FW folding table ($350).  

That table is on my wish list but that is a bit over my price limit!

For me, one of my favorite parts was going to visit my husband's sister and brother-in-law.  

They bought a place on Bird Key and it is so amazing! 

 In this photo hubby was trying to fish 

(he had on his "lucky" hat and everything) 

and everyone was crowded around watching 

(and offering helpful advice).

This is their pool.  Our niece got them the Flammingo.

Their house is so beautiful!  

We walked around St Armand's Circle and went to the Wyland Gallery

 where I saw these amazing peacock sculptures.  

They were made out of crystals and real peacock tail feathers!  

The crystals alone cost over 24K!!

We did eat at the Salty Dog, one of my favorites.  

One of their daily specials were Grouper egg rolls.

Let me just say, these were amazing!  

We got them as an appetizer and I could have eaten them all myself!!!

We stopped at Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati on our way home. 

 It is a gigantic store with all kinds of amazing foods and stuff in it including this fiberglass Rino!!

The last stop before home was the Fabric Shack. 

 I forgot to take photos of the shop, but this shop is well worth the stop.  

Tomorrow I will share my purchases!

Hope you enjoyed the virtual shop hop.

~XOP~

Cat-Pack

Our cat, Finny, is totally my husband's cat.  

He follows my hubby around the house all day long. 

 Poor Chris can't do anything (and I mean anything) without his cat shadow. 

This is his favorite position.

He hops un on the chair and walks into this position and plops down.

He usually throws his head back and kisses Chris.

Then he settles down and sleeps.

 So earlier in the week I came home and found a back pack on the floor.  

He said, "Watch this".  

He called Finny and put him in the back pack!  It is a pack made for cats! 

 Finny loved it.  

They had already been on one walk before I got home.

If you click on the photo, you will be able to see Finn in the pack.

Good grief, what's next?  

Poor Cole will feel left out.  

I think I need to get a really long lead for Cole to use and try to teach him how to walk on a lead.

~XOP~

Easter is Hippity Hoppity on it's Way!

What do you do before you go on a long trip?  

You make some cute bunny towels of course!

I needed one for a gift.  

I thought I would try making the bunnies as chocolate bunnies, for Easter.

Pattern is on Flamingo Toes blog.  Click HERE if you need to make one too.

I made a few changes.  

Hey it was late when I decided to make these.  

I used minky for the tails on these two, not pom poms. 

I also used rick rack instead of pom poms and running stitches.  

I love this one so much!

I am in a group that posts our goals for each month.  

I told the ladies I would provide a prize for the person that finishes their list.

  If a tie, the person that finishes the most things on their list.  

This sweet towel is for my friend that had the most finishes. 

For the month of March, she will be the person providing the prize.

I figured this way everyone has a chance to give and also to receive.

I hope the other recipient likes the chocolate bunny towel as much as my friend liked hers!

Leaving MI just in time.  BIG snowfall going on here today!

~XOP~

Some New Gadgets

I was talking with my friend, Cori, (Crazy Quilt Girl Fabric Shop) 

about some of the things I use all the time when I sew.  

I thought I would share a few of these things with you all.  

I will provide links to her shop if you are interested in purchasing them too.  

I do not receive any compensation for this, 

just her willingness to mail my packages and watch my cats when I go away = )

First up is the amazing Bloc Loc ruler.  

I have the HST rulers in several sizes but find that I use the 2.5" one the most.  

You may remember the Ocean Waves quilt where I am making a BAZILLION HST for each block?  

I would die a thousand deaths 

without the accuracy the Bloc Loc ruler provides me for trimming these units.  

It makes putting the block together 

SO. MUCH. EASIER. 

 Notice I did not say *easy*, just easier. 

 If you want to pick up a Bloc Loc ruler please click HERE.  

I can promise you that you will NOT be sorry!

I used the 3.5" size for the HST on the Chubby Chicks quilt.

Turning mat is also a very valuable tool.  

Use your coupon at JAF and get yourself one of these too!

Another thing that goes hand in hand with making HST is a Clearly Perfect.  

You may have heard me GUSH about these in the past but not understood what I was talking about. 

 I did a video to show you!  

Don't laugh, it's really difficult to sew and film at the same time!

You will have to go to You Tube to view the video as it was too large a file to upload to Blogger.

Click HERE to go to the video I made (you can hear my voice) of how to use the Clearly Perfect.

Please click over and watch it.

It just may change your quilting life forever!

It did mine.

If you want a Clearly Perfect you can click HERE and get one for yourself.  

I forgot to bring mine when I went on my last retreat and I cried!  

Unless your squares are gigantic, you will be able to make HST without drawing on lines.  

I always oversize mine and then use the Bloc Loc rulers to trim them to the correct size.

Next up is the Grabaroo gloves. 

I am in complete LOVE with these gloves and you will be too once you try a pair.  

They are not very expensive and they will give you a level of control that 

you will wonder how you ever lived without!  

They have little gripper things on the fingers.  

You can put them on either hand and there are grippers on BOTH sides.  

So no wrong way to put them on.  

BONUS

Of course the obvious thing to use them for is free motion quilting.  

They work GREAT for that.  

I hear you say, but I don't do FMQ.  

I feel you.  

I don't do it very much either, 

but when I do any quilting these help me move the quilt 

without the usual tension I seem to get in my hands and shoulders when I work.

Do you remember seeing these?

I dropped my feed dogs, put on my applique foot, and my Grabaroo gloves,

 then I free motion stitched around them.  

I call it scribble stitching.  

The control I had using the gloves made such a HUGE difference in my ability to control the lines and in the amount of time it took me to outline each bird.  

I got them all stitched around in one night, PAIN FREE!  

I have some tendonitis in my hands and I get super tense in my shoulders when I FM stitch.  

The gloves make a world of difference.  

My friend, Crazy Quilt Girl is now carrying these in her shop too!  

She has 3 sizes. 

 I think mine are the small (I have pretty small hands).  

You need a pair of these in your life.

  Click HERE to a link for the small, 

HERE for the Medium and 

HERE for the Large.  

She can get Extra Large if you need them just email her.  

If you are unsure of your size message her and ask!  

She is super helpful.  

You can also call her shop from 9am - 5pm EST at 1-866-807-3776. 

 Tell her Mama Spark sent you!

She just got the cutest Binding Babies in this week too.  

They are from Dohicky Designs and they are so cute!  

I am picking one up from her when I get home from vacation to try.  

I think I need the blonde one.  

She has multiple hair colors too.

I will do a review of these when I get mine and can give it a try.  

If you want to see them and order one they can be found by clicking HERE.  

She currently has them on her home page as they are new.

You can see how to use them in this You Tube tutorial by Dohicky Designs. 

 I can't wait to pick one up and give it a try.  

She currently has the large size in stock.  

OK, I guess this is enough information for one post!  

LOL

Sorry for such a long post but I have been wanting to talk about these for awhile now.

I hope you find these things (and my review) helpful.

If you have not checked out Crazy Quilt Girl Fabric Shop,

you are missing out!

Corina is the sweetest and her service is top notch.

She has super fast shipping too.

That crazy woman ships twice a day most days!!!

Enjoy your new tools and let me know if you have any questions.

I am happy to answer any questions or explain things further.

Please, leave your email in your comments.

I have had several comments lately and no way to answer as they are from no-reply people.

This makes me sad!

If you are ever wondering why I never write you back that's why!

Check the comments later and sometimes I reply back on those when I can't find your email.

OK, go forth and try new things!

~XOP~