Embroidery with Aurifloss

As I said before I had the opportunity to do some hand stitching for a quilt going to market. 

 I was given some Aurifloss to use and I have to say I LOVE working with this floss. 

 At first I was not sure how it would be any different from any other good quality floss but it is. 

 It is very smooth to use even with longer strands.  

It did not seem to tangle as much and the glide in the fabric was so nice. 

 I managed to finish my embroidery and even got it pressed!  

I wish I had better lighting to show you how vibrant the color of the floss is.  

Aren't they the cutest??

I went to the DAMQG meeting last night to check it out. 

 I was thinking that I might want to be a DAM girl.

  Now I am pretty sure of this!  

The meeting was a lot of fun and they have so many nice projects in the works. 

 Their hearts are BIG and they are making a difference. 

 Everyone was so welcoming too. 

 Their charity hashtag on IG is #thatDAMcharitybee.  LOL  

How could you not want to join a group like that??

Since this little stitchery is part of a larger project I am linking up to Lee's blog and WIP Wednesday.

Have a great day and happy sewing!

~XOP~

Pie Making Day

Not *actual* pie silly!  

Brenda Ratliff, owner of Pink Castle Fabrics is coming out with her first fabric line and it is called Pie Making Day!  

The fabric is from RJR and will be available to everyone in July. 

 Ask your favorite quilt shops to carry it!! 

 It is gorgeous! 

 The rich jewel tones of this line do NOT disappoint.

I got my hands on a F8th bundle to make something for Brenda's booth for spring quilt market. 

  I guess if I can't go at least something I make will be there right?  

Here is a peek at this amazing line.

I'm pretty sure the raspberry and the teal are my favorites but 

I actually really love this entire color palate!!

I have a small quilt in progress and here you can see as I was building the blocks for part of the quilt.  Since I am using white as the background for these blocks 

I decided to use gray as the other "neutral". 

 I also have to say that the Optical White RJR solid (also designed by Brenda) is my all time, hands down, favorite white!

This is the layout of the yellow basket.

And the green basket

I only had enough time to get them all cut out and 2 of them sewn.  Here is the orange one.

And the teal one.  I can't wait to add the handles!  

You will be surprised about what I do for that! 

 I have a few more things to do that I have not cut out yet that will complete the top. 

 I will share those when I actually have time to cut and sew them, hopefully this week sometime!

I am embroidering the center of the quilt using a free pattern I found online. 

 I am using the Aurifloss that matches the teal for the embroidery. 

 I had not worked with this previously and I have to say it stitches like a dream!

  I also totally LOVE the color of this floss. 

 It is so vibrant!  

Here is a progress shot.  

I am almost finished with this part of the project, just a few flowers and it will be done.

I hope you have enjoyed this sneak peek into my little project.  

I will have to see if I can post the finished project before market or not. 

 Would anyone be interested in a tutorial or QAL of this project?  

You can substitute any center embroidery that you like and 

we can talk about that if there is interest in this project.

I hope all my Christian friends had a nice Easter.  

We had my eldest daughter and her SO over as well as my youngest son. 

 Just missed the middle daughter.  

It was a nice, low key, no stress kind of a day. I leave you with a pic of my family. 

 Daughter, son and SO in that order. 

Happy sewing!

~XOP~

Progress

I was going to say that I got all my UFO's and WIP's finished but 

then would have to say April Fools!!! 

 I did manage to get the entire purple and gray quilt top finished.  

I even got a friend to take some photos, but I don't want to show you the top 

and eventually the finished quilt, until after the wedding (May 9th).  

So what can I show you?  

How about some progress photos and some design decisions as I was working on it?

Originally I figured it would finish at 98" x 98" but then folks were telling me a king was 104" x 104" so I decided to sleep on that and see what my resting brain could come up with.

The rows took quite a bit of time to assemble as there was a lot of matching!

My fabulous helper cat was helping me decide on the border width.  

Originally I was going with a 2" white, then a 1" gray followed by a 6" white.  

That would have made the quilt 98" x 98".

When I posted on Instagram they said a king should be 104" x 104" so I had to re-think the border.  I didn't want to just add more white to make it larger.  

I just kept sewing and thinking and thinking and sewing.

Here is what the original border looked like and I loved how it turned out!

So I debated on whether to add a purple strip or another gray strip.  

Then I found this fabulous plus fabric when cut on the bias became "x"s.  

As you can see there were already "O"s.  

Perfect for a wedding quilt!  Gray it is!  

The back was going to be gray too so this allowed me to use purple for the binding. 

 I added another 2" outer white border after this.  

It took me 2 + days/nights of sewing to get the top finished!  

With hubby doing all the cooking.  

I literally came down for meals and to go to the bathroom that's it!!!  

And the backing you ask?  

My original plan had to be scrapped as the 108" wide I had was not long enough, sad.  

I used every bit of my Kona Ash and still ended up making a pieced strip to the my length. 

 I can show you that when the whole thing is finished and gifted.

As you can see the appropriate cat hair covering has been liberally applied!  

Thanks Autumn!

Now that you are finished laughing at her, have a great day!  

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Have a wonderful, stitchy day!

~XOP~

Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap

I know you all have heard me say this before but, THIS, this little quilt right here, 

is the reason I do mini quilt swaps!!!  The talent out there is astounding!

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing this little gem is!  The background is all pieced.  

The rosette is hand pieced!  

She did a fabulous job on the quilting too.  Just look at how cute the label is too.

She even included the selvedge!!  

Swaps can be hit or miss to be sure.  

I have received some that I thought were just ok but the last 2 I received were just amazing. 

 If you want to see some amazing mini's take a look at the hashtags on Instagram:

#tulapinkminiquiltswap

#tpmqspinkteam

#tpmqstulateam

Even Tula Pink herself noticed!  She wants to put them all together in a slide show!!!  

Isn't that exciting?!  

The group of women in this swap was outstanding.  

I am so happy that my friend Tracey decided to co-host with me too.  

It is always more fun to do things with a friend!!!

I did work on the BIG purple and gray wedding quilt this past weekend too 

so will show my progress on that on Wednesday.

~XOP~

My Weekend

I had a fabulous weekend beginning on Friday.  

I went out on a quick shop hop with my friend Windy.  

We met in Pinckney and made our way back to Lansing.  

She brought me some fabric she had found for me.  

Tula Pink!!

I did pick up a few cool green and purple prints.  I'm still looking for purples for the 2 wedding quilts

I found this older AMH print too. A great score!

I also managed to score some Elizabeth.  I got a little bit in Mason, at Keans.

I got an entire FQ bundle plus some of the queen in yardage at Pink Castle Fabrics

It was totally a great fabric score kind of day!!  I have more to share but no more time. 

 My mini quilt arrived from the Tula Pink Mini Quilt Swap, but that deserves it's own post!!

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

Playing with A Charm Pack

Have you just ever wanted to create something quick out of a Charm Pack?  Me too! 

 I needed to work some designs up that use a charm pack for a challenge coming up in my guild. 

 I am one of the Charity Chair people and this is what we are doing.  

Make a quilt (36" x 48") using a Charm pack and whatever fabric you want to add.

I decided to experiment with sewing 4 charm squares together, then cutting the 4 patch diagonally. 

 I sewed that into a HST block and then set it as pinwheels.  

The HST block was 9.5" so it makes a HUGE pinwheel.  

The only problem is that the center square gets the "point" chopped off.  

I figure as long as they are all the same it is a design decision. 

 Am I right? 

Here is one of the blocks I made. 

I plan on making 4 of these blocks and then a small border of the cream grunge on the sides, 

with larger top and bottom, 

maybe with some pieced borders for the top and bottom to make it long enough.  

These certainly are quick to do and I really like how it looks.  

I forgot how much I love this cream (with undertones of pink and brown) Grunge 

(by Basic Grey for Moda).  

Actually, I think the entire Grunge is underrated.  I love the subtle variations in this fabric line!  

The charm pack I am using is from the Kissing Booth line by Basic Grey.  

The cream with the pink and brown was part of that line. 

 From time to time Basic Grey make a Grunge or two for specific lines but

 there are basics that are carried all the time.  The light pink Grunge in this line is fabulous too!

I will have most of a charm pack left so will attempt to make another charm friendly quilt with those. I have a design in mind so will keep you posted.  

I would like to hear what you think of this block. 

 If you would like me to take photos of how I did this and a quick tutorial I can do that too. 

 Although it is pretty straight forward!

Linking up to Lee's blog over at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Have a great day!!

~XOP~

The Dress Is Finished

Yes you read that correctly!  I actually got the dress completely, 100% finished this weekend.  

It took me most of Saturday and Sunday to do it but it is complete.  

It is even in the mail now headed to my daughter in NC. 

 I can't believe I agreed to make another one for her.  What was I thinking???  

Well maybe at least the second one should be easier right?

Would you like to see some shots of this dress?  

OK here goes.  This was me hand sewing the lining down on the inside. 

 Only to realize when I went to press it that on the other side, 

(yes I know, the front of the dress in the center, of course) was a pucker!  

So I had to rip out the stitching I had just finished, rip out the seam, 

resew the seam then re-sew the lining.  

This is a view of the dress all finished.  Or is it?

No, wait, I need to add a couple of embellishments.  I put these cute little white flowers on the sleeve.

Oh, and also some on the back of the neck.  JIC she happens to wear her hair up.

Now it is all finished.  I sure hope she gets some photos of herself wearing this dress for me!

This is the back.  Zipper and all.

I also managed to finish my Tula Pink mini quilt this weekend and 

it is all packaged up and ready to send off to my partner.  

I did get a few other things accomplished too but will share later.  

Next up is to get that wedding quilt top put together!  

I managed to squeeze in some grocery shopping, cooking and laundry this weekend too. 

 Thought Auntie Dianne might enjoy seeing her Aiden getting a drink too.  

Lots of cat time this weekend.

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

Last Block Finished!

I finished the last block for the purple and gray wedding quilt last night.  

I have one more block cut out.  

My friend, Rebekah, who has directed this quilt production, assures me that I need to make that and one more for pillows! 

 HA!  I will see if I have time for that.  

Here is the last block for the quilt. 

 You may or may not have noticed that every pair is opposite each other.  

The pattern has you cut out a "star" and also the center and corners to make 2 blocks.  

I didn't use the same fabrics together in both of the blocks though, I mixed them up.

More of the chemical structure fabric in this block for the future doctor.

I also saw this recently on FB and thought I would share with you all. 

I want to be this woman.  

I don't want to require validation in my quilting world to drive my life.  

I strive every day to do what I love.  

I work hard to be my own person and be happy in my life. 

 I think most of us do that.  

I struggle every day with not getting caught up in the competition of quilting. 

 The "I have to publish", or get sponsors etc.  

I try to stay grounded. 

Sometimes it is not easy. 

 I was actually thinking about this the other day. 

 Sometimes it is nice to just make beautiful things from other people's patterns.  

I work full time and don't really have a lot of extra time.  

I want to balance spending time with my family and quilting. 

 I don't think anyone in the quilting community will miss me as much as my family when I am gone.  So it is important to make time for them too.  Deadlines are not good friends for this.  

I am striving to get better at doing what I love, making, and less time worrying 

about the competition of quilting.  

Maybe no one else is struggling with this, maybe some of you are. 

 If you have any tips on how you handle it please feel free to share with the rest of us!

I love to create and to make beautiful things.  That is enough.

~XOP~

WIP Wednesday

I am working like mad to get my Tula Pink Mini Quilt ready to send out for my swap partner.

I finally had some time to do the quilting on it and now just need to do the binding. 

 I can't show the front as I want it to be a surprise for my partner.  

I will show a little about how I did the quilting though for anyone that might be interested. 

 I decided to do concentric circles. 

 I love how this looks when done and the quilt is small enough that 

I thought I could manage this myself.   

I used a circle from the Perfect Circle set (the bigger one) to do the first circle.  

I used a purple disappearing marking pen to make the first circle.  

I took the picture when the pen still showed up.

This is part of the way finished, from the back.  

I used my walking foot to guide the quilting lines as I went along.  

I also used Superior Threads Monofilament thread to do the quilting. 

 I didn't want to use a dark gray over the light squares on the front and 

I didn't want to use a light color on the dark gray. 

 My lines are not perfect so let's not accent that = )

I also decided to just quilt over the label so I didn't have to sew it on.  

I hate sewing on labels!  

I used some Elmer's School Glue on the back of the label, placed the label where I wanted it on the back of the quilt and then  heat dried it with my iron.  

Once I knew it was in place 

I was able to keep quilting on the front and quilt the label right into the quilt!

After I finished I decided that froggy needed additional quilting. 

 I took out a few more of the Perfect Circles and drew in those lines. 

 It was too difficult to guide those small circles without lines.  

You can see the purple lines if you look closely.  I like it MUCH more with the additional quilting!

Next up was the binding.  I cut this print on the bias just because I like how it looks. 

 I managed to get it attached and there it is.  

I just have to turn and sew it down and it will be all ready to go in the mail.  

I sure hope my partner likes it.  

I really love how it came out and will share with you all once it has been received.  

I hope this helps someone give circular quilting a try. 

 It is kind of fun and pretty easy on smaller things.  

I'm not sure how I would feel about doing a big quilt on my domestic machine though.

I will be linking up to Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

Have a stitchy kind of day!

~XOP~

Asking For Prayers and Possible Donations

I have a very dear friend that lost a very young cousin last Friday.  

His name was Jacob.  

He was a husband and father to three small children. 

 He was in a semi-truck accident and was killed. 

 He was only 23 years old. 

 His wife does not work and Jacob was the sole source of income for his family.

There has been a Go Fund Me page set up for his family. 

 If you have the resources to do so I know the family would appreciate a donation.  

This is the page that has been set up for donations

Thank you my friends!

~XOP~

Weekend Update

I was fairly productive this past weekend. 

I managed to finish another block for the wedding quilt.

Of course my helper was back again.  Pest.

She needed to be closer of course as sitting on the back of the table was not good enough!

Do you remember the aqua rolling cart hubby put together for me?  

The one I got at IKEA?

Well, I had the brilliant idea to place my table top ironing board on top of it! 

 Now I can cut on my table and have the ironing board right next to me too (Can you say #lazy?)  

It worked like a charm!

I made some progress on the dress for my daughter.  

I took it all apart, did the alterations, and altered the pattern for next time 

(yes you read that correctly).  

I also got the bodice lined and the skirt part sewn back together.  

I have the bodice pinned to the skirt all ready to sew together too.  

No pictures though as it was dark when I got finished.

I also made some of the Weight Watcher Cabbage Soup that is zero points. 

 I love that soup.  

It sure makes a nice lunch for the week 

and keeps my points low!  

Win-win, right?  

So far I have lost almost 10 pounds in 4 weeks.  

I plan to go for the big loss this time, 

so kind thoughts and positive energy this way would be appreciated!

I managed to get the quilting finished on my mini quilt this weekend too, 

but will save those pictures for tomorrow. 

 I have one last block to make and then I can lay out the wedding quilt.  

I hope to be able to put that whole top together next weekend.  

I will only let myself work on that on the weekend if I can get the dress finished first. 

 That has a more emergent deadline.

What are you working on?

~XOP~