NC Trip Part 1

I know that I have been quiet for awhile now.  

Babies have been born and their quilts delivered so I can NOW talk about that.  

Bridal shower gifts have been given so NOW I can talk about that too.  

This week will be several posts catching up on all of this activity.

 Breakfast (at the DTW airport) was Chick-Fillet. 

It's the only place I know of with a Chick-Fillet in MI.

My friend, Bea, (from Bea Quilter) picked me up from the airport and

 we headed to Brixx Pizza for lunch.

 I got the chicken BBQ pizza and she got Hawaiian.  It was such good pizza!

Then we went to 3 quilt shops.  We both forgot to get a pic at Wish Upon a Quilt = /

Then we went to Bernina World of Sewing.

 Next up was the Cary quilt shop.  OMGosh!  

This shop used to be in a little house and now it is in a HUGE store!!! 

 By far my most favorite shop.  

Of course I found things to buy!  

I have not taken any photos of those things yet, but will share once I do.

Kelsey and I went and had a pedicure and ran some wedding errands on Thursday.

We went out for dinner at Dame's Chicken and Waffles in Durham that night

This was my dinner.  

Kelsey got the sweet potato waffles and they were even better than the regular ones!!

Managed a quick pic in the park on the way back to the car.

Friday found us packing up and heading to Brevard to see Nick's family and get ready for the shower.

I had to wrap my gifts and Mitch supervised.  

He does NOT like me, LOL.  

You all know how much I love cats and most cats like me too.  

I wish he was friendlier, but Max, their dog, makes up for it.  He does some amazing tricks.

We got a photo of most of the family (Nick's brother, Austin was missing).  

We grilled and had a nice dinner and visit with the family.

The entertainment for the evening was when we all went on the front porch and 

took turns target shooting.  

My daughter hit the can every time!  Even the grandma's took a turn.

This is getting a little long so I will post about the shower later.

~XOP~

I Can't Share Yet

I have been VERY busy sewing up a storm but I can't share any of it yet!!!  

Everything I have made is for gifts.  

One was mailed out today and one will be given in the near future.  

The other things are for the bridal shower for this nugget.

It's hard to believe she is getting married in a few short months.  

Also, I will be away from posting for the next week or so as I am traveling to NC to see her.

We have LOTS of wedding stuff to do and the groom's family is hosting a bridal shower for her.

Keep checking back.

You can keep up with my activities on Instagram though (or Facebook) if you care to.

Have a great week everyone!

~XOP~

CDTC Link Up For May

I managed to do my blocks for May (and got caught up on the April ones too). 

 I made 3 of the blocks. 

This is block 11.  

I did it a bit differently and just used the striped fabric to make the package.

This block, 12, was a bit tricky for me to make.  I had to wrap my head around how to do it.  I like how it turned out though.

This block, 13, was my least favorite to make. 

 I, of course, charged ahead, thinking well I know how to make a log cabin block. 

 WRONG!  

You need to READ the directions.  

She tells you when to trim the block and to what size before you go on adding logs.  

Me?  

I made it and trimmed at the end.  Leaving me with a gigantic block.

 *Face Palm*.  

So what did I do? 

 I ripped it all apart and started over, trimming as was suggested as I went along.  

Additionally, if I had to do it again, I would use aquas with the same value. 

 Then I could have turned them like how the white is in the photo below. 

All in all though, it is finished and I can move on to the next ones.

I will likely procrastinate the June blocks until after the wedding shower in NC mid month.

Now it's your turn. 

Have you finished your May (or any previous month's ) blocks?

Please link up!

~XOP~

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Weekend Shenanigans

It was a very slow sewing weekend.

I did finish binding a baby quilt but I can't share it just yet.

I started on this circle of geese and I have to say I forgot how fun this pattern is.

I have half finished.

I did this in a swap a LONG time ago and it took me so much longer to make then.

I guess my paper piecing is improving!

Since there is not much sewing, I will just share cats.  

Cole was hanging out next to me last night and I snapped this pic of him.  

Hallie sits on her "tuffet" on our deck quite a lot.  I'm not sure what the attraction of this is for her.

She has also claimed the dog house I put out for the stray cats.

Oh Hallie!

So my daughter gave us this plastic ball on a string on a stick for the cats.  

Cole has embraced this as his personal toy. 

 He cries and cries until I play with him. 

 He is quite the acrobat, actually. 

We play and play until he finally catches it. 

 I have to drop the stick and then he trots off with the entire thing and drops it. 

 Then he cries again until I go get it and we start all over again.  

You can watch him here.

I hope you all had a good weekend. 

 We were out at the farm with hubby getting the camper ready to go out, hopefully soon!  

My daughter had Stan and Artemis out of the barn. 

 I got to play "Chase" with Stan. 

You run and he chases you.  It is so cute! 

 If you stamp your foot like you do sometimes when you play with a dog, he leaps into the air. 

So funny! 

 I think my daughter might have gotten video of us playing and if so 

I will see if I can upload it here later.  

(If anyone wants to see this game!)

Hoping to get some sewing done this week, but since I am "helping" hubby get ready to go away to Canada for the week, this is doubtful. 

 I have SO much to do but I also have so much outside work to do! 

 Decisions, decisions.  

Which would you choose?

~XOP~

Finished a 2010 BOM!

BAM!  Another WIP can be crossed off the list. 

 Not that any of you even remember this quilt, LOL. 

I participated in the Christmas BOM at the Fat Quarter Shop in 2010.  

They were VERY generous with their fabric and I was able to eek out 2 blocks for each kit they sent!  I made one for me and one for my friend, Liz that does a lot of my quilting for me.

 She got hers quilted right up and has probably been using it for the last 9 years!  

Me?  Not so much.  

Liz quilted it and it sat in my closet waiting for be to *finally* put some binding on it.  

Anyone else do this?  No?  Sheesh. 

 I figured in my glorious binding extravaganza I have been having this month I would cycle it in. 

 I thought I had made the binding but alas that was not true.  

Then came the hunt for the fabric that matched this to make binding. 

 I was able to find it and make binding and now will have this glorious quilt to snuggle under!

The custom quilting is so fabulous!

Ho ho ho across the top of the stocking

Love the roof on this house

Love the quilting on the cap and the pom pom

I love this wreath too.

 Notice the cat in the center of the wreath?

I am so happy to be able to share this quilt!

I am even happier that it is now finished!

~XOP~

Twin Fun

My daughter's best friend had twin baby girls this past April. 

 I knew when she told us that I would make quilts for the girls.  

Mama is very particular about things so I got the OK on colors from her before I started. 

I found the beautiful line by Riley Blake, Neverland, really fit the bill.

Since the girls are not identical I didn't want the quilts to be identical either.  

I would use the same fabrics but different quilt patterns.  

They received the quilts yesterday so I can now post about them.

This Meadowland quilt was made for sweet Audrey.

 I had my friend, Liz, quilt fairies into both quilts.

This Starburst quilt was made for sweet baby Brooke.

I just love this fabric so much!

Of course I had to center Peter, Hook and Wendy in some of the stars.

I found a coloring page that had these awesome ships on them. 

 I decided they needed to become the labels for these quilts. 

 As you can see I used Tinkerbell fabric for the back of both quilts.

Mama was gracious enough to send me photos right away with both babies enjoying their quilts.

I just love when the mamas do this!

You can't get much sweeter than these two little cuties now can you? 

 I hope to be able to meet them in real life very soon.  

They live many states away so it might take some time. 

For Audrey and Brooke, made with love and little pieces of my heart!

~XOP~