Wip Wednesday

I want to share what I am working on at the moment. 

I have a mini quilt I need to finish for my Bitches get stitches swap partner.  

You have all seen Mr Peacock and his attitude!  

Well I am working on the quilting part of this now.  

I decided that I wanted to quilt a grid on the center of the quilt, approximately 1 1/2" apart.  

What is the easiest way to do this?  

Well, if you ask me? Tape.  Here is what I mean.  

I measured and then put down the tape.  I used the edge of the tape to guide my quilting.  

No marking to remove and I can re-use the tape many times.

You can see the grid is emerging nicely. 

The first piece of tape I put on was corner to corner diagonally to begin the grid.

That also anchored the three layers together. 

I did spray baste this as it was a small piece.

I will usually pin baste larger quilts.

This is my helper.  

Although she is really more of a pest than a help!

How do you get things done with your pets "helping"?

Oh Autumn!

You can see what the grid looks like all quilted up.  

If you look at the corners you can see the purple marking pen I used to mark the quilting.

I made quarter square triangles for the corners.

This is the back and you can see the quilting around the geese better in this photo.

Now all I have to do is trim it up and bind it!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

What are your WIP's?

~XOP~

Instagram Friends In Real Life

I received a phone call from my friend Windy last week.  

She wanted to know if she could come over and spend the night!  

She had a shopping trip planned over my way, so that was GREAT!!  

We became friends via Instagram.  

When I was driving back and forth to GR to see my dad, she lived there too so we got to meet IRL.  We became instant friends!  

She has even MORE cats than I do!!!  I have 4 but she has 8!!!!! 

 I had to laugh, my cats are not super friendly to those they don't know but they loved all over Windy!

She could not get rid of Hallie!  She was making her hexies with Hallie on her lap the whole time!

We visited the Salvation Army and made a stop to JAF.  

I picked up these goodies at JAF, so happy.  Now I can mark my mini quilt for quilting!

I managed to score a sweet new cat carrier at the SA too!!

I did a lot of great stuff over last weekend but will need to share that another day!  Maybe tomorrow!

~XOP~

Weekend Update and Wednesday WIP

I actually had quite a productive weekend!  

I managed to add two rows to the stitch and flip charity quilt.  

That top is now ready for making into a quilt and donated.  I just have to figure out how to quilt it.  

I did some cooking.  Pigs in a blanket.

Individual chicken pot pies

I finished embroidering my peacock for my swap partner

Working with sparkly thread is more difficult!

Then I finished the top too.  

I got the side geese made but one was incorrect.  

I must have printed the paper piecing incorrectly.  

I ended up having to remake one set of the geese to put the whole top together. 

I tried to trim it down but that didn't work.  

It was kind of close on the side but I just didn't have the heart to discard it.

So I used it on the back!  

One of the points is cut off due to my earlier trimming, but it's on the back.

I figured my partner would not care and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away!

Did laundry, and grocery shopping, went to Cabela's with hubby and then a quilt shop.  

All in all it was a great weekend, but I wish I had one more day at home.

Linking up to Lee's WIP Wednesday too.

How did you spend your weekend?

~XOP~

Friday Finish

I couldn't talk about this one before Christmas but I can now! 

 I made yet another Christmas stocking to join the other 2 I did last year for my nephew and his wife.  They had a beautiful baby girl and I got to make her a stocking to match her mama and papa's. 

 I got to work with my favorite blue and gold color combination (NOT).

I used the pattern found here to make it. 

 I always put off making things that are not quilts. 

They give me anxiety and I fret about how things will turn out. 

 I did the patchwork then laid out the stocking pattern to cut it out.

Here it is all cut out and ready to make.

I am really happy with how this turned out. 

 Although Katherine is a l-o-n-g name to fit on the front of a stocking! 

 I told them to name their next one a shorter name!! LOL

Here is her daddy's stocking

Her mama's stocking

And baby makes three!!

I'm linking  up to Crazy Mom Quilts finish it up Friday.

~XOP~

Working On A Swap Project

The deadline is quickly approaching for a swap that I am in.  

Autumn is praying that I will finish it in time.

I did begin the embroidery portion of the mini quilt and this is the outer border,

 or one of them anyway.  

I am using a pattern by my friend Kelly.  

You can find it here if you want to make awesome wavy goose borders for something too.  

I had to make 8 of these for my project and they took me most of a day to get them all finished. 

 I graded them by shade then decided that I should have made 2 more but 

if I do that now they won't grade.  

This just means that the outer 4 corners will be white, but I'm going with

 "it's a design decision" not a brain bubble.  Right?

I am going to link up with a Lovely Year of Finishes and

 this is the project I want to complete for January.
I am also linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

I also decided that I most certainly did NOT have enough things of my own to do so decided to host a Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap over on Instagram.  

Sign ups are complete and I am working with my friend, Tracey, to get this organized and to get partners assigned.

It should be a lot of fun and hopefully not too much work!  What have you been up to?

~XOP~

Welcome 2015

I would like to take a few minutes to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!  

Last year was not my favorite year to be sure but 

I am hopeful that this year will be better for me and my family.  

Many people out in blogland and on Instagram are choosing a word to help define their year. 

 I was not sure what word to choose but I am pretty sure it will be hopeful.  

That word has a lot of promise involved with it don't you think?

I have also been thinking about resolutions for the new year. 

 I believe I am just going to work on being a better person and 

tending more to those closest to me and let the rest fall into place.  

I feel like I am at a crossroads of sorts in my life right now.  

It is looking more and more like hubby will just retire rather than search out a new job (lucky him!) and that means I need to carefully consider where this quilting hobby of mine is going. 

 I have been working on designing and publishing my designs, 

but now I am uncertain if that is the direction I should be going.  

If I just sew for myself then I feel I will have more time for my family.  

I am hopeful that God has a plan and I need to slow down long enough to hear what that is.  

All that being said, I do have some things to share with you!  

I began a project as a Leader and Ender and just decided to get on with it.  

Here is the process/progress

I have been saving all those crazy triangles we cut off of everything.  

Then I cut some 5" squares out of a line of fabric I happened to have quite a bit of.  

As I was working on other things I would grab a square and a triangle and sew them like this.

Then I pressed all the triangles and trimmed them to the original 5" square size. 

 I did not cut the original square fabric away like many do.  

Yes it is a little bulkier but it makes sewing things together much easier.  

A trick I learned from Anne Sutton!

I was curious how it was going to look so I laid out a few blocks.

 Finally I sewed the blocks together and made this sweet little baby quilt top.  

I think I am going to add 2 more rows though.  It will be a donation quilt to Mott Children's hospital.

If there is anyone out there that would like the rest of my left over triangles send me and email with your mailing address and I would happily send them to you.  

I did have some help last night as I was attempting to sew some paper pieced geese.  

It always scares me when she is so close to the needle.  

This is behind my machine. 

 I am not sure why this is the favorite spot but it is. 

 I think because it is directly under my Ott light and close enough for a few pets!

So there you have it.  I am still not feeling very well but had to go back to work today anyway!

Have you made any New Year resolutions?

~XOP~

Final Christmas Sewing and Gifting

I think I am finally finished with my Christmas sewing. 

 All the trivets have been gifted except for one.  I thought I would show the last three here.  

This peacock one was gifted to my peacock loving daughter.  

Front and bck.

I finished this one for my middle daughter.  It was the only one I was tempted to keep for myself!

I am linking these two up to the Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

I had a wonderful Christmas.  My family spoiled me as they usually do. 

 I love that Kit Kat clock and can't wait to put it up in my sewing room.

I have been wanting to try these Block Loc rulers for a long time and can't wait to try them out!

I was finally able to gift the Tardis quilt to my son for his birthday too.

He loved it and could not wait to wrap up in it.  

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas. 

 I was hoping to bring in the new year a bit differently.

  Instead of my grand plans, I was, and still am, sick.  UGH.  

I hope this is not a foreshadowing of the year to come..

  I plan to share some New Year goals soon too.  

How was your holiday?

~XOP~

It's A Tardis

Any Dr Who fans out there?  I finished my Tardis quilt and wanted to take a few minutes to share that here.  My son was born the day after Christmas so this is going to be his birthday present.  The pattern is called Relatively Dimensional and the words can be purchased from Spoonflower.  The quilting is done by Kathy Koch of Thread Bear quilting and it is AMAZING!!

Here is where I spotlight Kathy's amazing quilting.  

Rays of light coming from the light on top of the Tardis.  

Windows outlined and Gallifreyan quilted into the border.

The DW is quilted into the panels

Not only did she quilt the words "Bad Wolf" into the Tardis, she used the correct font!

Some friends traded me some awesome Dr Who fabrics from Spoonflower. I used them on the back.

You can really see the quilting on the light back fabric too.

I used a Gallifreyan Translator to generate my son's name in Gallifreyan.

I used Pic Monkey to edit and add the words.

I then printed this label out on fabric and stitched over it.

That big mess of circles and dots is his name!

I am loving how this came out and can't wait to gift it to him this week!!!

What gift are you super excited to gift?

I have decided to link up with Finish it up Friday as it was gifted today.

~XOP~