Lizzy House Mini Quilt Swap

I finally got my Lizzy House mini quilt all finished!  I quilted it myself and I am so happy how it turned out!!

Here is the back side too.  

I didn't use any fabric that was not Lizzy House in making this quilt!  

I don't think my partner reads my blog so I think it is fair to show the name on the label.

The tracking says it has arrived but she has not posted anything up on Instagram yet so I hope it has.

I also made this pin cushion to send along as a little extra.  

It is not made out of all Lizzy House fabric.

But the back is.

I cut a full set of all of the Pearl Bracelet fabrics and sent a charm of each along 

with some Quilty looking chocolate from IKEA.  Here is what my little package looked like.

I sure hope she posts about it soon or I just may die of it!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilt's Finish It Up Friday post.

~XOP~

Emerge.Do.Good.Stitches

I am part of a new charity bee online called Emerge.Do.Good.Stitches. 

 I am happy to be a part of this bee and making blocks for charity every month.

  We only need to make 2 blocks each month and we use our own stash, which is great!

This month Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts fame, allowed us to use her pattern 

Birch Trees as our block for the charity quilt. 

 You can find the pattern here.

The head of our bee this month asked us to make the backgrounds in 

"manly" colors and to use brights for the "trees".  

I used Kona Indigo for the background on both blocks.  For the first one I did a variety of brights.

The second one I used varieties of greens and blues and I LOVE this one!!

This would be a fabulous way to use up your scraps. 

 If you have not checked out this pattern you should.  

It was super easy to make and I used it as a leader ender while I was doing some paper piecing!

I hope you are all enjoying your week.  We are trying to stay dry over here. 

 It has rained almost every day so far this week!!

~XOP~

Canning and Life

Sometimes life gets so busy doesn't it? 

 We had to go to a funeral of a friend's mom on Friday. 

 It was so great to reconnect with our friends!  

They live out of state but the entire family was there so it was nice to reconnect.  

Then we decided we needed to go pick strawberries (and peas). 

 So we went out to the farm and picked up our daughter and "BEEP" (her new baby peacock). 

 I got to hold Beep in the truck on the way to the berry patch.  

Beep will now have the honor of being the new house peacock.  

Fingers crossed he fares better than the last one.  (RIP Gizmo)  

Beep was the first of 5 to hatch out.  You can watch the  chicks live right here.

Here is a pic of hubby picking.  He kind of looks like a giant picking the tops of trees but whatever!

Here is one box of berries

We picked around 20 pounds of berries!!

 They were so good!!

Also some sugar snap peas

On Saturday we had a graduation party to attend. 

 Our babysitter had three girls and her oldest was graduating from High School.  

(No that does NOT make me old, thank you very much).  

When we got home we decided (and by we I mean me) 

that the berries were not going to keep for very long so we had to make jam.  

So I began cleaning berries and started the jam making process.  

So many hours and 23 jars of jam later we (I) was finished.  

We had a couple of packages for the freezer of just berries too. 

 You can see the 3 jars of peas we did as well.  

Actually I won't even pretend I did those, although I did shell most of the peas!

What did you do this weekend?

~XOP~

Tula Pink Mini Quilt

You may remember that I was part of a Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap a few months ago. 

 I ran the swap too.  It was so much fun. 

 Tula actually put together a mosaic video of many of the quilts.  I realized, looking back, that I never shared the finished quilt with you!

I tried to make a rainbow (of sorts) with Tula Pink fabric.  I used some of my most precious fabrics.

That full Moon Forest Owl is a favorite, but super difficult to come by!

I felt so good being able to share it with someone else too!!

I chose concentric circle quilting for this one too.  I sure do love the effect!

I love this little froggy too!

 This is one of my favorite prints for binding.  Cut on the bias makes it look so neat!

So this is my entry into Finish it up Friday.  

Have a great weekend everyone!

~XOP~

A Little Birdie Told Me

I realize, looking back at some photos that I have not posted some of the 

things I have finished working on! 

 Remember when I was going over to work on the Improv quilt top with my two friends?

 I made a little pin cushion for my friend that hosted the get together.

Her name is Robin, so when I saw this sweet pattern I could not resist making it for her.

  It was called something else but all I could think of when I saw the pattern was a robin.

See that fat little Robin fabric?  

That's what I put on the back of the pin cushion. 

 I want to make some coasters for her in the near future using this pattern also.

  Isn't it so adorable? 

 It came as part of the Block of the Day program. 

 If you subscribe to the Quilt Pro Block of the Day program (free)

 they send you a different block every day.  

I think you have 3 days to save it and then it is gone. 

 If you are interested, you can check it out here.  

I have received several really great block patterns!

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~

Fold and Sew Square in a Square Block Tutorial

A friend of mine showed me how to make this neat little block using

 a layer cake square (10" square) and a charm square (5" square).  

Apparently there is a whole host of "fold and sew" quilt blocks out there.  

 Who knew?  

I am thinking that Handicrafts by Peg may be the originator of this technique?

If not she certainly had a LOT of cool fold and sew blocks!

Go and check her site out!!

I don't know about you but I am always looking for quick and easy donation quilts to make up. 

 When my friend showed me this block, BINGO, quick and easy donation quilt! 

 Then I started thinking about it and it is also an excellent way to make a quick lap quilt. 

 I have this fish fabric hanging around that both my husband and my daughter would like. 

 I need a new lap quilt for him and she is always wanting whatever quilts I make. 

 I have not had much time to work on it but I did get a block or two made. 

Once these wedding/grad quilts are finished I hope to have time for some selfish sewing

Let's get started.  For each block you will need one 10" square and one 5" square.  

Place your 10" square face up and your 5" square also face up on top of your 10" square. 

 I like to vary the placement of each charm as then I don't have to match up seams 

when I sew the blocks together. 

 Just don't place it too close to the edge.

Next you will fold in the two sides.  

They will NOT meet in the center.  

I used a Hera marker and my ruler to make a crease to fold on.  

I placed my ruler on top of the charm and lined up the right edge of my ruler with the right edge of the charm making sure the charm was straight 

by checking the ruler markings on the top and bottom edges of the 10" square.  

(I forgot to take a photo, but if you need one tell me and 

I will take one on another square and edit this).  

I ran the Hera marker along the edge of the ruler from the bottom of the 10" square to the top.  

This makes a great creased line to fold on!

I used the marker as the fold line needs to be butted up to the 5" square.  

Using the marker to make a crease made sure it was exact.  

Once you have creased and folded both sides, press the folds.

Take your folded piece to your sewing machine and sew 1/4" from your folded edge. 

Press the sewn edges open. 

Turn your square and fold in the other two sides the same way you did the first two and 

stitch along the folded edge.  

Just like you did for the first 2 folds.

You can see all the edges are sewn in this photo.

 This is what it will look like on the back of your block when it is all pressed open.

As you can see all your seams are enclosed!  

Trim your block to 8.5"

Ta-Da, here is your finished block!  How easy was that?

I hope you enjoyed learning this technique.  I know that I sure did. 

Thanks Pauline for showing me how to do this!!  

I can't wait to make some more fishy blocks for my quilts!!

Please let me know if you make some of these blocks and if you have any questions.

Have a wonderful day!

~XOP~

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today the world lost an amazing man and I lost my dad. 

He was part daredevil.

He was fascinated by my daughter's peacock, Gizmo.  

It was one of his fondest dreams later in his life to get to visit her farm and see all her peacocks.

He got that wish.

He was petting the pet turkey, Jocelyn here.

He and Gizmo sharing a bonfire at the farm.

He love my children fiercely and unconditionally and they adored him.

This is one of the last outings we were able to go on together.  

We drove to Lansing to see his best friend and stopped in Mason for ice cream on the way home.

This is my favorite photo of me and my dad.  

It was taken on my wedding day almost 32 years ago now.

I miss my dad.  I think about him all the time. 

 I still want to pick up the phone and give him a call to tell him something that has happened or is happening in my life, but I know he knows.

If you still have your dad or grandpa in your life, take a minute and give him an extra hug today in memory of my dad.  Spend a few more minutes listening to that same old story once again.  Appreciate all the time you have left and take LOTS of pictures.  

RIP dad, you are loved and missed!

~XOP

Lizzy House Mini Quilt Swap

The WIP I want to talk about today is the Lizzy House Mini Quilt Swap quilt.
Linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

 I finally got some time to work on it this past weekend. 

 I decided I needed to get it quilted so that's what I worked on this past Sunday. 

 I had to make the back.

I had one set of flying geese left over but that is not what I wanted to do.  

I picked it apart and made a pinwheel with it.  I decided to put that on the back. 

 Then I thought it would be neat to try to match the placement with the gray pinwheel on the front.  

A little tricky. 

 I sewed a back with the pinwheel in the same place on the back as the front.  

Then I layered it and used the crack in my table and a pin to try to line the pinwheels up 

as close as I could before I began to baste.

I then pin basted and drew the beginning circles using Perfect Circles templates as my guides.

I was able to use those lines to guide off for making the rest of the concentric circles for the quilting.  

I did make a few registration marks to know exactly where to begin the next set of circles, 

but that is all the marking I did for the quilting.  

I chose circular quilting to sort of build on the wind theme.  

Air coming off of the pinwheels.

This is how the quilting looked on the pinwheel on the back.  

Pretty close, just offset by a small bit, but I am happy with this.

Here is the quilt almost finished. 

 I chose some Pearl Bracelets for binding and it is just glued down.  

I still need to finish hand stitching it down and I need to make a label.   

I am very pleased with how it is turning out.  I hope my swap partner will love it as much as I do!

~XOP~