Finish Along 2016 Q1

It's time to link up to the 2016 Finish Along!  

You can find the information here, about how to join in the fun!
Link is live until January 16th here

I have a few things to list here as proposed UFO's

1-Baby Pinwheels:  Needs to be quilted and bound

2-Vintage Sheet rag quilt:  Needs to be sewn and snipped

3-Dreamy stars needs the binding to be hand sewn down and a label made

4-5 I have 2 chenille blankets that are basted and need to be sewn, cut and bound.

6-Amy and Matt's Wedding quilt will need to be bound once it is back from the quilter.

7-I have another Fox Face quilt that the top is finished that needs to turn into a quilt.  

I made two tops at the same time.  

One turned into a quilt and one is waiting.

I think this is as much as I can cram into one quarter of the year.

8-I also have decided to work on finishing some embroidery/cross stitch.  First up is a beautiful mermaid that I started I have no idea how long ago.  

Oh TRUST ME, there are soooo many more!

Are you going to join in and work on those UFO's?

~XOP~

Chris and Ashley's Wedding Quilt

In listing my finished projects on the pages portion of this blog, I realized that I never posted photos of several projects that I finished in 2015.  I will do a series of posts to fix this!

First up is the quilt I made for my niece who got married in August of 2015.  Since her mom is a quilter I was not certain she would want me to make a quilt for her daughter.  I quickly realized that was not the case!  LOL.  It took a little figuring out with her mom just exactly what I would be able to make that she didn't already have.  (Her mom has got most of it covered).  

Once I had the colors, and chose the design things went pretty quickly.  I used a pattern by Cherrie House and I LOVE how this quilt turned out!  The chosen color scheme was teals (I added the green part).

Colors were chosen

Blocks were made

Obviously with some help!

Backing was chosen

The design placement took a LONG time.  Good thing the block sewing went quickly!

Progress was made

The label was embroidered and ready to put on the back

Beautiful quilting was done (thanks Kathy)

Use up every scrap and extend the back length at the same time, win-win!

  Isn't it gorgeous?

I decided to go with a two color binding.  One color (all the front colors) for the back and the indigo, that matched the center pieces in the front, for the front.

LOVE the effect of this binding technique.  (You can find a tutorial on my tutorial page)

One of my all time favories

All wrapped up and presented to Ashley and Chris at their wedding.

More finishes coming up soon.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

~XOP~

A few More Projects

I have been working on a couple more things too. 

 In the spirit of moving forward with UFO's I hauled out my older Dream On stars quilt.  

It only needed the binding done.  I had to make the binding and attach it.

I had that green vintage sheet just begging to be made into binding for this beauty.  

Bonus that I only needed 5 strips for the entire quilt!  

Now comes the task of hand sewing the binding down.  I'm working on it.  

This will be included in my Finish Along group.

I cut up a TON of old batting scraps to use for making rag quilts.  

If you happen to have old charm or layer cake squares you don't need or no longer want,

 I would happily take them!  

I know I usually end up with a few left over squares that I don't end up using in the project.  

They typically end up in my scrap bin.  

Well, feel free to mail them off to me!  I need 12" squares, 10" squares and 5" squares.  

I don't really want to take the time to cut a ton of these.  

So if you want to clear some out, email me at mamaspark@gmail.com and 

I will give you my mailing address.  

I have enough of my own fabric that I can cut up, but if they are already cut, 

you know it will go that much more quickly!  

I did take the bull by the horns and cut up a bunch more of my vintage sheets to make 

198 squares for one of the sets of batting I have cut out. 

 I put them all together and sewed the "X" across the squares.  

All that's left is to sew these together and voila, a rag quilt in the making.  

Then all that snipping, Oi!

I will be listing this in my finish along post too.

I am excited to be able to bust out some new WIP's and finish up some older ones.

Will you be joining me??

~XOP~

New Baby Quilt in Process

Because I don't have enough to do, I decided that I needed to begin another baby quilt.  

It looks like I will have 3 to make this year. 

 I basted 2 chenille blankets last night but they are both decidedly "girly" so I need to baste at least one more in case one or more are boys.  

Just so I am clear:

Three wedding quilts

Three chenille blankets 

Three baby quilts

So far anyway. 

 I am hoping this means I can sneak in some selfish sewing along the way.  

What do you think?  

I had seen this adorable pinwheel quilt with Prairie Points on the Moda Bakeshop.  

It said that it took one charm pack.  I thought, what the heck, why not?

The pinwheels went together pretty quickly.  

Those prairie points?  Not so much!  

You use a 2.5" square and fold it 2 x diagonally to form the PP. 

 Then you kind of nest them.  

I have a few pointers on this. 

 Don't be an idiot like I was, how about that for starters? 

 Pay attention to which way the folded edge vs the open edges face as you pin them to the quilt.  

I did not do this.  It would have been best if the folded edge faced you as you sew. 

 In other words, make the folded edge the part your needle comes into contact with first. 

 Once I had them pinned in place I noticed that the folded edge slipped out of the overlapping edge.  Elmer's washable school glue to the rescue! 

I put a dot of glue under the open edge, slipped in the folded side and pressed.  

This holds them all together and nothing slips out of place when you go to baste them to the quilt top.

They are all basted down in this photo.

Once they were all basted I was able to sew on the outside border pretty easily.

 The next step was to grab a vintage sheet for the backing and get to basting.  

It is now ready for me to quilt. 

 It is small enough to quilt on my home machine.  

I am excited to get to quilting this one.  It is such a cheerful quilt!

I am going to join the Finish Along going on out there in blog land too.

It is done by quarter year increments. 

Info can be found at She Can Quilt.

Linking up begins today some time if you too are interested in getting some UFO busting done.

I'm hoping this is not a UFO for long!

~XOP~

Happy New Year

Now that we are on to the new year it is time to wish you all a happy, healthy one!

I had a couple of days to work in my sewing room and decided that one of the things I wanted to get done over the break was to finish up the quilt top for Amy and Matt for their wedding.  

This was a much bigger job than I had anticipated!  

I got all the blocks finished.

Of course I had loads of help from Autumn!

So almost there.

Seems like I get a pic of Hallie near the tree every year!  She is so pretty.

Saturday morning found us making some Ebelskivers (hope that is spelled correctly) for breakfast.  YUM

Finally the inner part of the top was finished.  On to the borders (sorry for the poor lighting)

I had the embroidered label done for awhile so I could incorporate it into the back. 

 I finally decided to use my most cherished, Pearl Bracelets to make the back. 

 Notice that the first frame around the label says "Made with love" 

 I LOVE that fabric!

Pearl Bracelets for miles! 

(or maybe just yards 6 yards to be exact!)

It is all finished and ready to hand off to the quilter. 

 Whew!  

I can't wait to see what magic Kathy does with this one!

I have more shares but they will have to wait until another day.  

Is anyone out there interested in the Improv Plus along??  

I think that may be next up after I share the rest of what I have been working on.  

~XOP~

Christmas 2015

I know I have been MIA over the holidays here on my blog.  

If you ever wonder where I am and what I am up to just check in on my Instagram. 

 I rarely, and I mean RARELY, use my computer at home.  

I am NOT a PC gal and prefer to use my Mac at work to post on.  

So, how was your holiday?  Did you get to see family? Eat anything special? Go anywhere fun?

We had Christmas eve at my SIL and BIL house and my daughter from NC was home for a bit.

 Son and Middle Daughter on Christmas morning

Oh lookie, a new banner for the front porch.  thanks, son!

My girls and Beep (also my girl)

He was thrilled with this shirt we got him for his birthday (the day after Christmas)

Middle daughrer's bestie is getting married in February so 

there was also a bridal shower thrown in there after the holiday.

 I used glass paint and stenciled their last name of the outside bottom of a casserole dish.  

This way whenever she goes somewhere she will always get her pan returned to her!

Amy (the bride to be) and Kelsey (my daughter)

Amy, who is quite possibly the most dignified person I know, actually wore the hat made of bows that my daughter placed upon her head.  

On the last night that Kelsey was home her friend, Andy, came over to decorate cookies with us.  This is a long time tradition that he comes over each Christmas to decorate cookies with all of us.

Both my son and older daughter LOVE to be there.  

Unfortunately, there was a HUGE ice storm so she was not able to make it.  

We sure do miss this guy!  

We broke out a puzzle shortly after all the decorating was finished.

There was a little bit of this happening also. 

 So, although this is late, Merry Christmas to all my friends and family!

~XOP~