Butterflies and Weddings

I have been trying for what seems like forever to get to this wedding quilt. 

 Then a really good friend of mine learned that after one surgery 

she will have to undergo a second surgery and chemotherapy.  

So you *know* that means she needs a chemo quilt.  

OK no worries, I can do this! 

 I spoke with the 2 women I work with that I taught to quilt and we came up with this quilt. 

 (photo from the Clothworks website)

 It is a free pattern from Clothworks, made up of butterflies.  

We each had to make 6 butterflies.  

Here are mine all done and waiting to go into the quilt.

I also had to work on the wedding quilt and here is a quick shot of my progress on that too.

I have a quilting retreat next weekend so these 2 and 

the dolly quilt tops will all be done by the time I get home!

How was your weekend?

~XOP~

Got Stash?

I seem to have an overabundance of stash.  

What about you?  

I have been lugging Rubbermaid bins from the basement to the second floor of my home 

into my sewing room.  

I have been folding and stashing and folding some more. 

 It has been CrAzY!!  

I don't even know how many bins I have emptied and how many more I have to do.  

I do know that what I have left will never all fit into that one little room!  

Bins left > storage space to put said bins!

Thought you might like a peek to see how it is coming along.

 Shocking that the blue stash takes up TWO full cubbies right?

I need another cube on the top of the tall one and maybe two more where the basket is too,

 not sure if that will crowd the TV too much but I sure could use the storage! 

 Thankfully IKEA is about a block from my house!!!

Oh and what is on top of that tall cubby?  

Some Night Shade, Neptune and Hope Valley

JIC you were wondering about hubby.  

Apparently I am now married to a pirate!

Have an "Arrrrrmazing" weekend!!

~XOP~

More Raleigh Fun

I think I am coming to an end with my Raleigh trip

.  On Wednesday I got to meet with my friend 

(although we had never met IRL), Debbie, or Mrs Goodneedle if you will from the Strawberry Patch.  

She was among one of the first blogs I ever read and we have been fast friends for a long time now. 

I was super excited to be able to meet her in person.  

She drove for 2 hours to see me and to pick me up for our lunch. 

 I made her a little paper doll wall hanging/pillow also. 

 Hers had plaid dresses.

It's interesting that she has decided that I am in the blue/green dress and she is in the blue/purple one. 

 That was how I planned it too!

I can't believe that 3 hours felt like 5 minutes! 

 It was awesome! 

 It felt like we were long lost friends and just picked up where we had left off. 

 She sees life in a similar way to me.

  We have a creative endevor planned for the future too but I will let you wonder about that.

Thanks for a great visit Debbie. 

 I look forward to visiting you at your home next time and meeting Holly too!

Debbie kindly gifted me some Marcia Derse fabrics too.

  I'm not sure what rock I have been living under but these have the look of hand dyed and are just beautiful!  I will have to find just the right project for them. 

 Thank you my friend!

One of the things we talked about was Debbie's favorite quilt shop over my way,

 Thimble Pleasures in Chapel Hill. 

 So on Thursday when Kelsey and I went shopping I made her take me there. 

OMG this place was just amazing!

I had a list of fabric I was looking for and found much of the Tula Pink Nightshade I was after right here!

As well as a little Birds and Bees

In the morning Kelsey and I went to the Raleigh farm market.  

What an amazing place! 

 It is open every day and they have a restaurant!  

Where I was educated about the difference between city ham (on the left) and country ham (on the right)

It was fun to walk around here before meeting Debbie for lunch!

While on my shopping trip with Kelsey I managed to score this adorable Hello Kitty lunch box.

What's that?  

What will I do with this? 

 Why store projects in it of course!

I hope you have enjoyed my trip as much as I have. 

 Now it is back to reality. 

 The reality being my hubby had to have eye surgery yesterday. 

 A vitrectomy and removal of a gigantic floater. 

 The vitrectomy was where they peeled a membrane of of his retina. 

 Kinda gross really, and they had to put an air bubble in his eye to smooth out the wrinkles in the retina so he has had to lay face down  all day yesterday to keep it pressing on the retina. 

 Today he just has to keep looking down. 

 He can't really see out of the eye only see the air bubble. 

 Apparently the eye will replace the fluid over the next 7-10 days. 

 Surgery was successful though and he is resting. 

 Had his post op appointment today and he is progressing as well as he should. 

 He will be off work for over a month though. 

 Not really sure how long but long enough for him to pass his flight medical. 

 I hope I can handle his being here all the time for a month, LOL!

~XOP~

Trip to Raleigh, Blogging Friends, Fun and Shopping

On Tuesday I got to meet up with my friend Sara and her son Ayden. 

 They picked me up in the morning and off we went to some quilt shops. 

 The first one was close to Kelsey's and it is relatively new.

  It was in a cute little older house and called Cary Quilting Company.

Nice stock of Glimma

Some PB & J yardage

I LOVE how this pattern came out using the PB & J line!

Super adorable wreath welcoming us too! 

The owner was very sweet.

I would go back to this shop in a heartbeat.

I bought these gloves while we were there and some "skin" colored fabric for my paper dolls.

We traveled on to three more shops.  

These were my purchases from those shops.

I found this funky cat panel. 

 Won't it make a great baby quilt?

More awesome cat fabric.  

The one on the bottom looks like Kelsey's cat Mitch.

Some grey fox and some Ed Emberly Lions and Tigers along with a FQ of Where's the Narwhale

The BEST was this score of Full Moon Forest, pink trees!!  

I wish I had bought more already! 

 LOL

The other is Hushabye that I bought for the next round of the Tula Pink swap.

We went to lunch at Tony's Oyster Bar and the shrimp nachos were the BEST!! 

 I need to go back there.  

The shrimp were kind of sweet and crunchy and the cheese was slightly sweet, it was amazing!

It was fabulous seeing Sara and Ayden again too. 

 We had a great time.

You know the paper doll craze I have been in right? 

 I made 2 small wall hangings and  I gave the polka dot one to Sara. 

 It was not finished but I thought it could be a collaborative effort. 

 It was supposed to represent Sara and me.  

Thanks for a fabulous day, guys! 

 I am looking forward to another visit in the future and lots more shopping!

On Wed morning Kelsey and I were going to the Farmer's Market for breakfast,

Then I get to meet the infamous Mrs. Goodneedle.

I can't wait to tell you all about it.

~XOP~

My Trip to Raleigh Part One The Beach

I know I have been pretty quiet lately but I have been to visit my DD2 in Raleigh. 

 I arrived on Friday. 

 We met up with her friend Dan and his wife and his MIL. 

 We all went to a nice place for small plates and wine and

 then back to their place for steaks on the grill and more wine!! 

 HAHA it was a very nice evening,

We got up and packed to leave for Wilmington where we were staying. 

 We were going to go to Wrightsville Beach for a few days too. 

 I. LOVE. the.beach!! 

 We spent 6 hours at the beach both days.

 Kelsey's friend Adrienne came with us and on the second day her friend Sam met up with us too.

This beach had amazingly gigantic waves, beautiful beach umbrellas and lots of SUN!

We could not have asked for better days at the beach!

We went out for dinner in Wilmington at the Pilot House. 

 We walked around the water front too.

On the drive to downtown Wilmington we spied this fountain in the middle of the street!

We saw this awesome ship too. 

 My hubby tells me it is The North Carolina.  

I love how this photo came out!

It was a wonderful fun filled 2 days. 

 We drove back to  Raleigh on Monday.

  Kelsey's old car was making weird noises. 

 REALLY bad noises.  

Like "it will cost you more to fix me than I'm worth" noises. 

 I knew this day was coming and was hoping to eek out a little more time but these things can't be helped.  Her little Saturn has been a great car but it was time to look for a replacement.  

While she was unpacking and starting the laundry I went online looking at used cars.  

She told me the one she was interested so I emailed a couple of dealerships. 

 The first one that got back to us was the one we would go to and so 

off we went to Fayetteville (an hour and a half away).  

We looked at a LOT of cars, drove a few and finally had it narrowed down. 

 They had a 2013 Mazda 3i HB that had been a courtesy car. 

 It had 1800 miles on it and they were selling it as used.  

This meant we got quite a good price on it but because it had not been titled we got new car financing. 

 So after 6 hours this is her new baby!

I'm not sure I have recovered from that day just yet, LOL!  

I am going to stop for now.  

The next installment will be about my meet up with my blogging friends and

 my shopping adventures so stay tuned!

~XOP~