BBQ I Do

It seems like this year is the year of more weddings!   

My best friend's daughter got married last weekend in her back yard. 

 It was a short and sweet ceremony with a very large downpour just after pictures were finished!  Luckily they had a gigantic tent.  The rain cleared realtively quickly and the BBQ party began.  

The food was amazing.  I LOVE some good smoked turkey, and the pulled pork was fantastic!  

This is one of my favorite photos of the wedding.  

The beautiful bride, her mom and her grandma.

Three generations. 

 So amazing!

I snapped a few of my hubby talking about the weather with my friend, and of course the bride.

Check out that sky!  It was before the downpour.

Of course I had to snap a photo of my friend and me.  We have been friends for such a long time.

I am not sure how I would have made it through some of my tough times without her.

Nicole and her dad.  He was so cute, very emotional about the whole day!

Nicole and Jerry opened up the quilt I made for them.  

Somehow I did not manage to get a photo of the quilt though.  

Go figure.  

I think I was helping them hold it open.

First dance.  Always a favorite of mine!

Meet the new Mr and Mrs!

I loved the fact that they pulled this whole thing together in less than a few months!  

The venue, her farm home, was perfect.  

I could not be happier to see Nicole happily married.  

Beautiful weekend, for a wonderful couple.  So happy we could be a part of it!

~XOP~

August Bee Blocks

I loved the choice for our August bee blocks so much I made them last night. I like this block so much I may save this to make more at a later time.  I might need to mock this up in EQ and see how it looks. That will have to be after I get all my "have to's" finished though.

The block is called Scrappy Susannah and directions for the original block are here.  

These are my blocks.

Our colors were green, aqua and yellow.

Aren't they so cute??

~XOP~

How is My Baby Girl 30 Already??

Thirty years ago, at 7:47am my second daughter was born.  

She was in a rush to get here (10 days early) but then changed her min and had to be helped along.  Stubborn even then she decided that she wanted to be born on 8-9-88 

even though I was in labor on 8-8-88.  

She always knew her own mind and she still does.  

Happy 30th to my brilliant, beautiful, kind, crazy, fish loving, amazing daughter! 

 I can't even imagine my life without you in it!!!  I can't wait to celebrate 30 more years with you!

I hope you have the BEST 30th birthday and an amazing decade.

 The thirties are a time of lots of changes, but all positive.  

I love you so very much and am so glad you decided to be ours!

Love,

~MOM~

WIPs With Friends

I have been busy working on a HST quilt that I have a deadline for. 

 I finished the quilt top on Sunday and am working to get the back pieced so 

I can send it to the quilter.

I snapped a few photos as I was working on it.  Most were as I was playing with the layout though.

The colors are slightly more pale in person.

It actually reminds me a bit of sea glass.

As you can see Finn was assisting with the layout.

I have a tooth fairy pillow to make and then on to my kitty swap pillow cover.

What are you working on?

Link up and share with us!

~XOP~

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Bridal Shower

My hubby and I went to a couples shower for a friend of my son's that is getting married in October.  They have been friends since second grade when they played football together.  

His mom and I became really good friends too. 

It was a beautiful Michigan summer night and we had a lot of fun.

I decided that we need to take more pictures of the people in our lives so you will have to suffer my "selfies" when I don't have someone to help me take a photo. 

I got hubby to sit still for a photo.

Then I wanted one of Terry and I together. 

I sure miss this woman!  

Our lives seem to always be going in opposite directions and now with her hubby retiring in the fall they will be traveling even more!

I made these towels for the shower.

I wanted to make some dish towels, but could not decide on a color.

Then it hit me.

They are big Lion's fans so Lions it was!

I think they turned out GREAT and they kids loved them too.  

Stop back tomorrow to see the latest quilt I have been working on.  

I am so close to having it finished and ready to send to the quilter!!

~XOP~

Tiger's Game With Work

Yesterday was a fun day spent with my hubby and my work mates.  

My boss chartered a bus and we all went downtown Detroit to Comerica Park for a Tiger's game!  

I am not a huge baseball fan but I had a lot of fun.

First is the gigantic charter bus and all the snacks and drinks (I only drank Diet Coke though).  

I am trying to get better about taking people pictures when we are out and about.  

Here we are on the bus.

I'm sure you all know my fascination with cats on a good day but how can you beat all these amazing tigers everywhere you go at this stadium?

These two are on top of the stadium.

As are these two

This guy is right out front!  He is my favorite!

We stopped in at a shop and they had this vintage "take your photo with a Tiger" so I did!

Here we are under the gigantic stone tiger.

I love this tile work so much.  Wouldn't this make an amazing quilt?

A tiger carousel.  Ah, yes please! (I'm totally riding this next year!)

Tigers lit up to the baseball ferris wheel?  Amazing!

Us at Comerica park?  Priceless!

Someone even got our lab put up on the big screen!  How fun!!

It was such a fun day.  The Tigers won, the day was overcast but beautiful, just the right temp!

I was tired but happy after my day at the ball park.

GO GET EM' TIGERS!!!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I need to make another wedding quilt.  I decided that I would use grays, greenish grays and grayish blues.  I am making it all HST.  I wanted to use 7.5" blocks but ended up using 7.25" blocks.

I had sewn all the HST that I had when sewing with my friends, but realized I needed more.
I sewed what I had into pairs too.

I cut more and sewed all the additional HST and got them all trimmed. 

Finn decided that he was going to supervise.

Upon wider inspection you can see that I actually had 2 supervisors in my sewing room.

I have no idea what his deal was but he had to be touching my blocks as they came off the machine.

Eventually he just passed out.

I could not resist this view of him through the throat space of my sewing machine!

I managed to get some of the pairs sewn into 4 patch blocks last night too.

Your turn.  What are you working on?  Link up!

~XOP~

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