Prince Charming

I don't know how many of you are in love with the new fabric line by Tula Pink called Prince Charming but I am totally head over heels over this new line.  Have you seen it?  It is like Hushabye and Neptune had a baby!! LOL  The froggy is especially adorable

Don't discount the snails either.   They are AMAZING!! Probs my second favorite in the line.

My friend Cori at Crazy Quilt Girl is selling this fabric.  You really need to go and get some, oh and tell her she really needs to just get the entire line!!   The hand of the Free Spirit fabrics is so soft, you are going to LOVE these prints, they really are Charming! LOL.

As nuts as I am over this fabric my friend Katy, may be even more so.  Here is Tula's latest artwork shown in another form.

I know she just got this a day ago but isn't it cool?? She needs to get it colored in yet but it is awesome (and I am not really a tattoo fan, but you gotta give it up for such a cool one!!)  In fact if you go to her blog, you will see some of her other amazing tattoos too.  Like Tula Pink's owl from Hushabye. 

All in all run over to Cori's shop and order yourself up some incredible Prince Charming.  We all need a little Prince Charming in our lives don't we?  ~XOP~

I LOVE Surprises, Don't You?

I mean the good ones of course!  You know what I mean.  Someone brings you flowers, cleans your house, gives you that unexpected little gift.  I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't love that right?  Well I had 3 packages waiting for me when I got home yesterday.  THREE!!

First was a wee small one with the charms I won from the Sweetwater FB giveaway. I got to choose 3 charms from their website. I chose the three you see. Funny thing is that they had hometowns and so I thought no harm no foul asking for my own hometown and low and behold they sent it to me! Grand Rapids! How cool is that?? Thank you ladies of Sweetwater, I love my charms!

Now this is an "It's a small world" story so you might need a Diet Coke or a cuppa something to read it. I'll wait while you get something, go on, I'm serious! Back? Right then here we go.

When I first began blogging a LONG time ago (5 years ago to be exact) I found blogs, probably like everyone, by finding one, reading their blog list and finding more. One of the first blogs I read was Gone Aussie Quilting. I loved her blog, and I still love her blog. I followed her for quite sometime, through a period where she was not blogging much as she had a rough pregnancy. She blogged sporatically but always had the most amazing quilts to share!(and she still has the most amazing quilts to share!!) Bored yet? No? OK. So fast forward to recently and the HUGE release of the new Denyse Schmidt fabric at JAF. I belong to a group on Flickr that was all a buzz about it. Several of the Aussie's wanted it (as well as some people her in the US w/o a JAF) so I volunteered to go and get what they wanted. I ended up at the JAF near Ann Arbor and dropped some serious cash on all their fabric. I posted about it here.

I took it over to my friend Cori's house (Crazy Quilt Girl) and she helped me cut and then ship it out to everyone. One of the people was someone named Heidigoneaussie in Australia (or Oz). I was happy to help out my Aussie friends. Then, like a lightening bolt it hit me, Heidigoneaussie was Gone Aussie Quilting, or Jeannette!!! LOL, my friend!! Even funnier, I have learned that she grew up in Saline, MI which is very close to where I live now. Can you believe that??

I know, get to the point of the story right? Well, Denyse Schmidt released some of her fabrics only in Oz and Jeannette was sweet enough to send some FQ's to me. Even after I at first told her I didn't think I wanted them. She knew I would change my mind, LOL. So thank you to Jeannette for being such a wonderful friend! Here is what she sent me.

Can you guess which one is my favorite? If you know me at all you will easily guess. It's the aqua one third from the left!

Now if my evening wasn't good enough with all that goodness, just wait...there's more! Seriously, can you believe it?? The over the top generous Jeannette sent a few little gifties. A little FMF love (OMG!!!) and two amazing charm packs.

There are 20 charms of My folklore (how did you know I love this line with their Dala horses??) and the BEST EVER??? Forty squares of assorted Heather Ross fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost fell over with the excitement of her generosity! How do you make such wonderful friends that you  have never met IRL? How I ask you? Jeannette, when you read this, please know how happy you made me and I was not having the best of nights up until that point so from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

I hope you all have some wonderful blogging buddies out there too. Remember making friends all around the world and sharing what we do and who we are is an amazing thing. I have had such great experiences with all my blogging friends. Most of them have been generous to a fault. I try to pay that forward when I get the chance too. One of my favorite sayings is what comes around goes around. It only takes a minute to be nice and you may just impact someone's life like you never expected you would. So go forth, my blogging friends and pay it forward today!! Tell them Mama Spark sent you!! ~XOP~

Happy Father's Day

YEAH!!  It's Father's Day here in the US today.  I called my daddy last night to wish him a happy Father's Day.  Now on to my own husband's Father's Day.  DD1 and I took him to the local airport for the EAA sponsored pancake breakfast.

This is what it looked like. We went around 9 and we were able to walk right up and get our food. It was awesome. Here is DD1 with DH, although it was a bad picture of him, lol, sun in his eyes.
   

  We always see the mom of a boy my DD2 went to elementary school with when we go. Her son was in my daughter's kindergarden class the year they all went to the airport hanger to see the airplanes my DH flies. From that day forward, Nick had always wanted to be a pilot. Through the years they have stayed in touch and after talking to him mom today, I found out that he is an air traffic controller in the city I grew up in! Small world huh? It was that day and my husband that influenced this young man for the rest of his life. So, if you ever wondered if you made a difference in someone's life you very likely have done. We are just fortunate enough to know it.

Unfortunately, the rest of Father's Day did not go so well for my DH. He got roped into going out to the farm with DD1 to help build her peacock enclosure. On the way to the farm they saw DS walking down the road. Why, I hear you ask?? He drove our Wrangler in a field and put a stick through the radiator. So he was walking home. They picked him up and made him go to the farm and work, LOL, joke was on him. DD2 came home for dinner and the burgers are on the grill as I type this. I guess it was not too bad of a day after all.

I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to hear if I got that embroidery finished aren't you? Well, I not only finished the one I showed you but...wait for it...wait for it...I got the second one done too!!! WOO HOO!!! Now, I can put them in the mail on Monday and BE DONE WITH this commitment!!!! Oh, you wanna see them I suppose, right?

I had to ice, ice, ice, but I am so happy to be finished with them. I really love the In a Purrfect World one. I will stitch that for myself someday. Now I feel like I can start working on the pattern for Jacquie.  I have been pulling some fabrics already!

How was your weekend??? ~XOP~

FNSI and BIG Munki Munki Score

Alright, first things first.  You are probably wondering what I got done during the FNSI aren't you (Dianne)?  Well, not as much as I wanted to I have to say.  the culprit?  Tendonitis, I think.  I get shooting pains down the back of my wrists when I do too much hand work.  I thought it would be alright, but it was not.  I managed to get the bird house and the cat stitched (ok so almost all the cat) but I paid for it today.  I have been icing my wrists all day!  I took some NSAI too.  The pain actually makes it all the way up to my left shoulder and neck.  BUT...I *will* keep going so I can be DONE with this and move on to something I really want to work on.  This is umpressed...don't judge me!

 

Several of you made mention that it was too bad that embroidery is not my first love, or that I don't enjoy it and neither is really true.  I do like to do it.  I just don't like to do it with a deadline, so now I know that.  It is difficult for me to do it quickly because of the wrist things.  

So that takes care of what I got done for the FNSI.  Now on to today.  I heard that Marshall's had gotten in some Munki Munki pajamas.  EEP!  For anyone that doesn't know, Munki Munki is a company that was started by Heather Ross.  She designed and also owned the company.  She has since sold the company but they still use her designs.  So people buy up the Munki Munki and use it for quilts or for barter.  I went to the Marshall's by my house last week but nothing.  I had to go out today and...SCORE!!!  I got the whales and the elephants!!  

I can see wearing the top from the whale set but will cut up the rest and keep some and sell some later.  Isn't it funny?  Some people sell this stuff by "one leg panel" or "one sleeve".  I guess that will now be me!!

I also went to Sew Fresh Fabrics today and bought the fabric bundle for the A Zig A Zag QAL.  It was pretty reasonable and if you buy over $35 they refund your shipping if you put ZZQAL in the comments.  They had a sweet Kona FQ bundle to go with the Loulouthi I am getting in.  I need to start going though my old stash and selling some stuff to fund my habit.  I owe Crazy Quilt Girl the national debt!!!

Off to make some dinner and maybe ice down my wrists and try to stitch some more.  ~XOP~

FNSI

Oh yes, I almost forgot, tonight is Friday Night Sew In night!!  I missed the last one and think I will be participating in this one!! YEAH!!

How about you? Participation is easy.

1. Commit.  Sign up and post your intention on your blog.
2. Sew.  On Friday night, get your house and family settled, get comfortable and work on projects of your choice.
3. Share. Sometime on Saturday, publish a post about what you worked on and share photos in the FNSI Flickr group.

I usually forget to do the Flickr post but I am going to try to do it this time.  I will probably be working on my embroidery, *sigh* as I NEED to get this done, ASAP.

Go and sign up and then don't forget to post about what you did!!    ~XOP~

As We Head Into The Weekend

I don't have much to talk about today as the weekend draws near.  I worked on my cat stitchery last night.  It's coming along.  I am hoping to have in finished soon.  I found out I need to do the second one as well, bummer, but will get to it.

You all know that I went to Checker with Cori (Crazy Quilt Girl) this week.  We picked up some Prince Charming, the new Tula Pink line.  They didn't have all of it but she got quite a bit of it, half the line or so.  I managed to snap these pictures of the bolts on her stairs the other night and thought I would share with you.

Trust me when I tell you they are even more beautiful in person than these pictures can convey!! I can't wait to dive into them. I think the snails and the frogs are my favorites, although I love the honeycomb too, esp in indigo. YUM!! Pop on over to her shop and check it out.

She also picked up some adorable My Kitten by Benartex. If you like cats you need to go and look at this. So adorable!!

Cori managed to find some of the first Flour Sugar line too. It is such a beautiful line. So if you missed it the first time go on over to the shop and snatch these beauties right up. They look great with Rose Parade!
The other new additions she has are pre-cuts from Riley Blake. If you have been dying to get your hands on some of their adorable fabric just click here to be taken to Nirvana!!

Ok, so let me see,most of my post has been about my friend's shop and she is not even a sponsor!! HAHA, just a really, really good friend, another BFF! If you like to get your fabric at a good price, in a timely fashion and with great customer service you found the shop for you!! Tell her Mama Spark sent you!! (do I get commission??)

I thought you might like to see what I came home to the other night after work.
I had some fabric stacked up to take pics for for a potential swap and when I got home from work this is what I found.

Aiden "warming" the stack. Thanks, Aiden. Then I looked at the couch behind her and saw this

My apparently alien cat, Mosen laying on one of my quilts! Hey, Mosen, thanks for the black fur all over the light colored quilt back!!

You guys have heard me talking about swaps so I thought I would show you one of the recent swaps I made. I sent some AMH voile's and got these beauties in return.

Menadacino and FFA?  for real??  YESSSSSS!!!!  How lucky was I?  I hope Kathleen was as happy with her AMH voiles as I was with this haul.  We are actually doing another swap shortly and I should have the whole Loulouthi line in FQ for some Hope Valley, some dragon fabric and some $$.  I love Flickr swaps!  I did a swap with Sara and got some amazing solids (no pics though).  I had some So St Croix FE to trade and she sent solids in various colors in return.  If you haven't checked into swapping through Flickr or your blog you should consider it.  It's a  great way to trade for what you want and keep rotating your stash.  There are several swap/destash groups on Flickr.

Well, for someone that didn't have a lot to say, apparently I really did!  Although anyone that knows me would not be surprised in the least!  Have a great Friday and hopefully we will talk soon.  ~XOP~

Lest You Think I Sit Around Doing Nothing

We could not have that now could we?  I have a lot going on at the moment.  You know I will be working with Jacquie and I am getting a pattern of hers to test.  In fact, I have the pattern now I need to choose colors.  How hard is that?  I keep picturing different color schemes in my head and discarding them.  Then last night, as I was *trying* to get to sleep, one popped into my head that I think will be the final one.  Sorry, can't say yet, but trust me it is gonna be GREAT!

I took on a project for robin at Bird Brain Designs too.  I am embroidering a shop sample for her of one of her patterns.  I love the pattern.  "In a Purrfect world, Every home should have a cat and every cat should have a home."  It is quite detailed and I am about a third of the way done with the BIG design (there is a picture frame one too).  While I love the saying, I like to stitch, and I am excited that the proceeds of the sales of the patterns go to the ASPCA, I'm ready to be done.  Stitching is NOT my first love.  I believe this will be my first and only venture into this!!  OK, stop sniggering out there, I hear you all laughing at me!  I wanted to try it.  You never know until you try it how you are going to like it, right?  RIGHT???  QNQ is doing the dog version and she is already done  (show off).  Now Robin did not give me a deadline so I need to email her and ask her when she needs it by and to see if she wants/needs both of the designs done (oh please dear God, I hope not).  So I am madly stitching away trying to finish this up, because apparently this is all I should be doing ahem, and nothing else until it is finished, but if you know me at all, I don't work like that!

What's that?  You want to see what I've been doing instead of embroidering like I should be?  Ok  I made another chenille blanket this weekend.  I love these little things! Front and back pre-washed:

Along with my special little label. I had these printed and then I figured out I can make my own! I ordered a rubber stamp online with what I wanted on it, bought some twill tape (when I was in NYC last fall for CHEAP), and use fabric ink stamp pads to ink it. TA-DA!! I have my own at a fraction of the cost, can I can make mine different colors.

Then I washed it and wowsa does the front ever change!!

Hey, that big goofball holding the blanket is my baby boy (not really so baby anymore though) You don't see many photos of him. He is kinda like the dog, you will always see more cat pictures as my girls are around and allow more photos of them just like the cats but here he is in all his scruffly goodness too = )

If you are dying to see the animals up close and personal here is a peek at them too.

I am very pleased with how it came out. Now I have to get back to the embroidery, before I receive 10 lashes for not having it done already and doing something else.
I'll finish it but I am probably going to begin Jacquie's project very soon. hehe

~XOP~

Now For The Rest of The Story

I know I promised more info and so I have a few minutes to deliver on that promise.  First I need to back up a little bit.  Last week, I went over to QNQ's house to see her use her new Gammil!  Crazy Quilt Girl (CQG) was there too.  I managed to snap  a few pics of QNQ using her new machine.  The two of them were making some small quilts to show how many quilts you can get out of a Jelly Roll if you use just a wee bit of yardage too.  I think CQG had a JR giveaway on her blog and will be giving away one of the 4 quilts they made to one lucky winner soon too.  If you have not visited their blogs you should keep an eye out.  The quilts were made using a Hullabaloo JR.  Here the two of them are, "quilting".


Next up is my trip to Checker with CQG yesterday. We finally convinced her to branch out and so she placed an order with Checker for some non-Moda fabric!! We went there yesterday to pick up some of the order that had come in and we went shopping as well.
Here is CQG as we were going in the store.

We put a LOT of fabric in our cart. So much in fact we had to get a second cart.

Unfortunately much of what we chose was already spoken for so we left with much less than this! We got another bolt of Prince Charming so watch her site, she will be listing what she has of that amazing line soon!! I am TOTALLY in love with that fabric!! We got some Flour Sugar at a pretty good deal that she is passing along to you too. Then I totally convinced her to buy some of this line from Benartex with some awesome retro kitties on it. This is the print that made me want it so much.

She got it in pink too. There is a coordinating stripe for both of them and a solid for each of them too. Then there is a smaller print that reminded us both of the illustrations in an old fashioned Golden book. Once it gets listed, which should be today, go and take a peek. If you are a sucker for kitties like me you are going to have to have some!! It really is amazingly sweet!! I'd be interested to know what you guys think of it and don't buy it all!!!
Then we went down the Kona cotton isle. I could hardly contain CQG as she was drooling over all the beautiful colors. I'll let you in on a little secret though the pinks and purples were her favorites!!

Alright kiddos enough for now. I need to get some real work done at my real job (*sigh) since I had the last 2 days off. Have a great day!!    ~XOP~

Just for You Ruth Ann

Today was a really fun day but I don't have the time right now to tell you properly but I do have something else to tell you all about.  I was driving home from the gym and saw my friend, Ruth Ann driving by.  She waved and I realized that she wasn't driving.  Being that it is Tuesday, I figured she was going to quilting and that her son, Craig was driving her.  Craig is an amazing quilt designer and a great guy.  So I went home, showered and went to the church to visit with Craig.  I have lots more to tell you about him soon too, but RA was asking about my dog and how come there are no photos of her on my blog only the cats.  So here you go Ruth Ann.

I came home the other night and there was Laxy laying on a quilt on the couch. Crazy dog! I hope you all had a great day, heading off to bed now, LOTS more tomorrow. ~XOP~

How Was Your Day

That's right, how was your day?? Mine was supposed to be so much different than it turned out to be.  I was supposed to go out with my friend Cori but I got really ill last night.  My stomach was knotted up and I felt awful.  I called Cori in the am and we decided to plan our adventure tomorrow instead.

So that meant that I had the whole day home, since I went back to bed and didn't get up until 11am!!  I finished the chennille blanket I was working on.  Now on to the binding.  Pics later.  I spent a lot of time persuing swaps on Flickr, which is kind of addicting!

I thought I would let you in on my secret, now that I have permission.  I am so excited to talk about this.  At the bloggers meet up in SLC I had the pleasure of meeting Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  If you are not familiar of her work you should go and check her out.  Anyway.  I was so excited to get a photo with her and she said she was excited to get a pic with me!!  As if!!  Anyway, she called me last week and asked me to be a pattern tester for her!!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it??  I am so excited!!  We end up having so much in common, it was so exciting to actually have an extended conversation with her.  I am so walking on cloud 9.  We may actually be meeting up in Chicago sometime soon.

Next up I need to tell you what I did in a moment of weakness today.  I was watching several Featherweight sewing machines on Ebay and I don't know what came over me, I bid on one!!  I didn't think I would actually win it.  Most of them go for $200 or more.  I got this one for considerably less than that, cas and attachments and all!!  YIKES!!  How amazing is that??  I hope DH doesn't mind.  I guess he should not go out of town eh?

Well I thought I would leave you with some pics of Mosen, laying on the chennille blanket.

So I am going out with Cori tomorrow and you need to stay tuned for more exciting adventures of tomorrow! ~XOP~

More Destashing

I hope you are all having a pleasant weekend.  Mine has been kind of low key so far.  I went to Body Pump and Zumba yesterday.  I was rocking out to a song in Zumba when the heel of my shoe caught on the carpet and down I went!  Landed on my butt, fell back and was flat on my back.  How embarassing!!  Of course I was in the front and everyone was facing front at the time so everyone there saw me too.  Of course they did!!  I could have died a thousand deaths.  Good Godfry!!  Yes, I'm ok, just bruised my butt (and my pride) a little bit.  I finished the class.  Interestingly though someone else fell on the same move in another part of the song, at least I didn't feel so bad then.

I managed to plant my second SFG box and still have some plants left over so they will go out to the farm.  I went to a grad party too.  Mostly I was a slug. At least that's how I felt.
I have so much I need to do and just don't really feel like it.  Ever get in that kind of a slump?  Today was better.  I did some more cleaning in the sewing room and came across some things I would like to try to sell.  I could also swap if someone is interested.  Let me know.  Here are pics and prices and if you have any questions, just email me. You pay exact postage.

Panache by Moda. Total of ~3.5 yards $21.00

Giddy by Moda 23" $5

Tweet Tweet by Moda ~1.75 yd $10.00

Verna by Moda ~2yd $12.00

Freebird by Moda ~23" $5.00

That's what I have been up to. Cleaning, organizing, and now blogging. I am learning about my new computer too. Today was the first time I have uploaded pictures to it.
I leave you with an adorable picture of Captain Jack. ~XOP~