This Week

I took this photo in my garden today.

Isn't she beautiful among the Peonies and roses?

I have been working with the cats to try to teach them to use buttons to communicate with me.

I recorded my voice on 3 buttons.

I recorded "foods, Play and outside"  

I was targeting Cole but Finn is also interested.

Not too suprisingly he has hit "foods" a few times today but only when I went to the board.

I am hoping they will get the hang of it.

Cole always hangs back when Finn is there too.

Here is our button set up, I moved the pop so it was less crowded.

I am trying to get some things ready for my upcoming July retreat.

One thing I like to do is to make a little something for my friends.

Another friend turned me on to these.

Her friend made them and calls them "Thready Parker"

You use them next to your machine to put the threads you cut off.

I thought it was so clever.

Left over batting  (6" ) and fabric (8")

I joined a QAL, like I have a brain in my head.

It's called Patchwork Flying Geese.

I chose navy and low volume for my geese.

I have a recipient in mind for it too.

So I guess it's not that bad right?

Cole was helping me cut everything out.

These geese are HUGE.

I bought a Bloc Loc ruler to trim them and it is 5 x 10!!!  

GIGANTIC!

Lastly, I have been playing with an animation app called Voila.

It makes you into a cartoon.

This was me when I did it.

I sure wish my skin was that nice, LOL.

It's a fun app to play around with!

~XOP~

 

WIP Progress

 I have a LONG list of WIPs to work on. 

 Don't we all? 

 I am trying to balance sewing with going through stuff and listing it for sale. 

 It's exhausting.  

I have yard work to do too.

  I have begun button training with Cole to see if I can get him to communicate via pressing buttons.  Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed!

I went to my SIL, Mary's house on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  \

We did some shop hopping and some sewing. 

 I took the Spartan pillow covers I needed to work on hoping to get the piecing done on them. 

 I made one of these white ones for my son and he asked me to make one for one of his friends.

  I did manage to get that done.  

On Tuesday it was such a beautiful day we set up to sew outside.  

I got my machine set up first but she brought out stuff to sew too.

We went to the quilt shop at Marshall House then drove to Country Stitches in East Lansing.

I finally remembered to get a picture of us there.

My son asked me to make him a reverse color Spartan pillow cover and I did manage to get it pieced.

I took the photo at night but the background is actually a dark green not black. 

 Now I need to quilt these and make the pillow covers.  

I may try to work on that today. 

 It's what I *want* to do but not what I ^should* be doing.  

I had the chance to go over to my niece's house and hang out with her and her 4 girls (all under 5).  They are the cutest!  

We brought my husband's aunt (so their great great aunt)

 to visit as she had not met the most recent addition.

  I snapped a few pics of her with Lincoln.  

Just look at all of Lincoln's hair!

OK, I have to get moving and do something.  Hope you all have a great weekend!

~XOP~

I Have So Much To Share

 I FINALLY got my hair cut!  It's been almost a year and a half.  It got SO long.

I had to find a new stylist. 

 She took 7 inches off my hair and highlighted it.  I LOVE how it turned out!

I will be going back to her again.  

She did a fabulous job. 

 I feel so much better with my hair being shorter.

We have been going through TONS of stuff from the garage.  I cam across some old slides, used my light box to view them.  I found this "beauty" in the mix.  Me when I was 11 in my aunt's wedding dress holding my cat, Princess.

This was a nice find too. 

 Me with my best friend, Kathy in swimsuits my mom made us so we could match!!! 

Not made out of swim suit fabric but pretty cute. 

OK back to quilty content.  

I finished this Meadowland quilt quite some time ago.  

I just gifted it last weekend. 

 I made it for our priest. 

 I really love the quilt and the photos don't really do it justice.  

The colors were so icy in color and looked so beautiful together.  

It was difficult to get a pic in the bright sunlight but our priest, Father Kimball, loved it!

We had a birthday party for him at the church and I was able to gift it to him then.

I promise you I have been working on things, but need to take some photos. 

 As I said we are also going through the "stuff" in the garage and selling stuff off. 

 It is SLOW going but I am happy to be doing it.  It is time to purge!!

~XOP~

Quilty Stars

 I started on a new quilt.  

My friend Mel, spurred me on.  

She and I like to choose a quilt and then both make one.

  She is in Colorado and I am in Michigan, but it is fun to "work together" from a distance.  

Since this is one I was planning on making for a wedding gift

 it seemed like a great plan to get a jump on it. 

 I have a few others I "need" to do but this is the only wedding one I have for 2021 (so far) 

and no new baby quilts. 

I have one more family quilt to make and am still deciding on a pattern.

 I feel like once this one is done I may have a little breathing room to finish up some WIPs and maybe even begin something I actually want to do just because!

Have you seen the Quilty Stars pattern? 

 It is so cute.  

Of course you ^know^ the colors I have to use right?? 

 Gray and white.  

This is the center and then there are HST to make the star points.

I have those all sewn and trimmed.

This one was "helping" me trim my HST

I had to keep moving his back legs to turn the mat.

He was SOOOOOOO tired after all his helping!

I am excited to get time to work on this soon. 

 My other friend Traci has a shop and sent me a baby quilt to make for her shop. 

 I have all of the blocks finished.

I cut something incorrectly so am waiting for a bit more fabric.

~XOP~

 

Weekend Antics

 We had a busy weekend.  On Friday we were at my SIL/BIL's house for a college graduation party.

Many of my husband's large family were there to congratulate our nephew

 and send him on his way to a new job in SLC.  

It was fun to reconnect with family.  

I managed to snap a selfie with Chris.

I got this photo of Chris with three of his great nieces.

Clara is such a sweetie.  

She always wants to sit on my lap whenever we get together!

His birthday was on Sunday.

We had a celebration at our church with many of his friends there.
Fun, food and friends.

I am so looking forward to this summer and spending time with friends and family.

~XOP~

Nightingale Quilt Is A Top

I got the blocks sewn into a flimsy.  YAY!! 

 I finally had a moment to get some photos today too.

I feel like this is such a gorgeous quilt . 

 I can't wait for the backing to arrive so I can send it to get quilted.  

I chose a silver minky for the backing.

I have seen a couple of quilting patterns used that I like so will need to decide upon the final one.

I didn't work in the yard today but I did find a friend.

Can you spot him?

Crazy little tree frog!

I took Cole out for his morning walk and he wanted to stay out. 

 I hooked his leash up to the stake in the ground and when I came back outside about 20 minutes later he was in his tent.  LOL 

 It must be the day for crazies.  Crazy frog and crazy cat!

I did manage to get a few things on my "to do" list done today.

I feel like for every one thing I cross off 2 more get added!

Tomorrow I am going to pick up a live trap to try to catch the stray we are feeding.

He is not ear tipped so no one has done TNR on him previously.

I hope we can get him vetted and then return him to his outside.

Adult ferals don't do well in placements.

Fingers crossed I can get him into the trap.

~XOP~

Nightingale Quilt

 I am still trying to adjust to being home again.  

There is so much to do here! 

 I bought plants for the garden and some hanging baskets.  

I did weed the side garden and now I need to plant. 

 There is SO much yard work to do!!!  

I have had zero motivation to actually sew in the week since we have been home.  

I changed out all the bedding in both bedrooms today and did some laundry.

 I put away all the clean clothes from the camper and did some organization.  

Some days the work list seems so overwhelming!! 

 That makes me want to do nothing.  Do you ever feel like that?

Yesterday I thought I would put together the back for my "Canada Quilt".

I didn't think it would take *that* long but it took me over 2 hours to piece a back.

Every time I thought I was finished I realized it was not large enough.

I wanted to use fabric I had here rather than go out and buy fabric.

I did manage to do it using only fabric from my stash!!!

I did not get a photo of the quilt top or back, will have to do that once it is back from the quilter.

I then pieced the top for the Nightingale quilt.

This picture is from before I put the top together.

I will take a photo of the top tomorrow.

I was too busy to do anything with it today.

This is not a very good picture of the blocks as it is in my hallway and the lighting is crap.

I will take it outside tomorrow and get some better pictures.

I am still trying to navigate work time around the house and sewing time.

I really need to find a good balance.

Not just for the house, but also for my sanity, LOL.

I am giving plasma 2x a week and have to factor that in each week also.

Any tips on how you balance getting things done and finding time to sew?

~XOP~

Spending Time With Avery

 Our month in NC is coming to an end.  
We have spent almost every weekend with Avery and his parents.

  I have taken hundreds of photos and would love to share just a few of my favorites.  

Today, when I walked in and went to the room where he was on the floor,

 he looked up at me and was smiling so much! 

 It just melted my heart. 

 He is such a happy little guy and such a pleasure to be around.  

That smile!

 I took an entire series of photos of Chris making Avery laugh.

It was so difficult to choose just a couple!

This video of Chris making Avery laugh is the cutest!

The perfect ending to our visit this month.

~XOP~