Show and Tell from a Reader

Gina emailed me last week to share her finished Stars and Scrappy Stripes quilt (link takes you to my tutorial for this quilt) which she has titled Alamosa Stars.

Thank you for sharing Gina! I love it! I also love this great picture of your finished quilt. Nicely done.

Blog Friends are the Best!

Yesterday I received this adorable little guy in the mail from Caroll.

She made him for my new shop. I hung him by the front door. The wall is curved which is why the bottom right corner looks a bit funky. It's the wall, not the quilt.

Thank you so much Caroll! I LOVE it!

Eleven Eleven Giveaway

This is my 1111th post! And since January is also my birthday month, I'm celebrating with a little giveaway.

When I came home with the wool last month, I also picked out this fabric kit with pattern thinking that it would make a nice giveaway.

There is a tag that says the fabric kit includes fabric for the front, binding and backing for the wall hanging (the dancing snowman on the bottom right of the pattern). The pattern says the finished size of the wall quilt is 24.5" by 32.5". The pattern includes the full directions and full size applique pattern pieces for tracing to make the wall quilt as well as the table runner and the three tea towels, even though the fabric kit is only for the wall quilt.

The fabric kit looks complete to me, but I can't guarantee that the original owner of the kit didn't pull out a piece for something else at some point.

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You can tell me something about yourself, such as how long you have been quilting, or who taught you how to quilt, or anything else you care to divulge in a comment.
2. If you are a follower, old or new, leave a comment telling me how you follow my blog (through a reader, or email, or Blogger, or some other way) because I'm curious to know how other people follow blogs as I have only used Blogger.

Please be sure that I have a way to contact you if you are the winner! If you are a "no-reply" blogger then please include a way for me to contact you in your comment.

That's it! I will let Mr. Random Number Generator choose a winner on Monday Jan 12th and will edit this post once the winner is drawn letting everyone know that the giveaway is closed. I'll contact the winner on Monday and announce the winner in my Tuesday blog post.

Edited to add: the giveaway is now closed. The winner has been notified via email.

Thank you for following along with my quilting adventures!

P.S. If you don't know whether you are a "no-reply" blogger or not, google "no reply blogger." Or simply click the link in the previous sentence to view the various hits that came up when I googled it. I know that blogger does not play nice with with every type of blog account so this can't be fixed for everyone, but usually those folks already know that blogger lists them as "no reply". If you don't know what a "no reply blogger" is or don't know if you are or not, I suggest you do some research about it.

Around the World Blog Hop

Last week I was tagged by Caroll who writes at the Attic Window Quilt Shop blog. So I'm suppose to answer a few questions.

What am I working on?

I'm working on the 2014 Sue Spargo Block of the Month. I'm not allowed to show photos of my work for this BOM online yet. You can go to Sue's website to see a line drawing of the BOM for 2015. This has been a really fun project! I recently was fortunate enough to get to attend a week long class from Sue. It was a wonderful experience! I haven't made much progress on my class project from this week since I got home but I do plan to finish it.

I'm also working to finish a Christmas quilt for some friends. A relative started this quilt when it was a BOM in 1998. She finished four blocks but had the fabric kit and patterns for the rest. I only have three blocks left to do. Here are photos of the last couple I've done.

As you can see from these blocks, they are mostly applique but there is some piecing that is used as a filler between the blocks. If you click on the phrase "christmas quilt" in the category section along the left hand side of my blog you can see all the posts I have done for this project so far.

How does my work differ from others?

I don't know! I just do what interests me at the time. I started out as a fairly traditional quilter. I still enjoy traditional quilts, but I also like modern quilts as well as art quilts. Below are a couple of modern quilts I've done.

Both of these use the Quick Curve Ruler. I had actually forgotten about the first quilt above. It is still in the top stage somewhere in the pile. I have lost count of how many tops I have completed that are waiting to be quilt. A goal for 2015 will be to quilt and finish some of these. I'm hoping to do at least one per month in 2015.

I am a member of a small local art group. We call ourselves the Sew Silly Sisters. There are 6 of us and we meet monthly.

One of my favorite projects we have done recently was completed last summer, shown above. It is a group portrait. If you click on the category "art group" you can see more of the work we have done.

Why do I create?

I create mostly just for the challenge and joy of creating. When people ask me what I do with all the quilts I make I usually respond with something like, "for me the joy is in the creating, not the having." By this I mean that I don't usually think about what I will do with something when it is finished. Often I give them away. In fact, I'm currently heading a guild project to make and donate quilts in bags to the oncology department at our local hospital. This gives me a place to donate locally, which has been nice. I also make Quilts of Valor. Below is a recent Quilt of Valor I donated.

Now is the point in which I am suppose to tag someone. I am tagging Gene Black of Gene Black an Alabama Artist and Quilter. Please visit him next Monday, November 3rd. Gene does all kinds of interesting work. He is a quilter and a weaver, as well as many other things. Gene also has a project that is dear to his heart. He calls it Quilt Angels.  The link will take you directly to that page on his blog so you can read about this worthy cause.

1000

Holy Blog Posts Batman! This is my 1000th post. I'm celebrating by having a giveaway. I've written a pattern for a pin cushion with an attached trash bag. Below you can see a photo of several I have made.

I am giving away three .pdf copies of the pattern. All you need to do is leave me a comment and make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win. Followers can have a second entry. Just leave a second comment stating that you are a follower. Letting me know how you follow would be nice, but not required. New followers are always welcome, but following is not a requirement to enter the drawing.

Since I will be emailing the winners their copies of the pattern, the giveaway is open to all, no matter where you live.

The giveaway is will remain open until Monday morning (USA Mountain Time) at which time I will close comments, let Mr. Random Number Generator choose the winners, then contact them and post them here.

Thanks to everyone who reads my little blog!

The winners have now been selected. To see who won, click here.

Visit From a Friend

I had a treat last week - a blog friend, Stephanie of Peas in a Pod, came to visit with her family. They spent the night with us as they were passing through from southwest Colorado on their way to Denver.

Me and Stephanie

We had such a nice time together! Our kids got along great and were the best of friends almost immediately. Our husbands even got along nicely and were engrossed in conversation over a beer by the time we got back from my LQS, Heartstrings & Heirlooms.

Stephanie brought a little "happy"

It is the cutest little needle book.

In case you want to make one for yourself or a friend, the pattern can be purchased from the designer through this link. She has a shop on Etsy and Craftsy. I'm probably going to get the pattern for myself because this is just so stinkin' cute! What great gifts for sewing friends these would make.

Posts may be spotty for the next couple of weeks. This is a super busy time for me at work. I have a lot of computer work to do over the next few weeks. If I do have time to sew, I may not feel like doing more computer work to write up a post and share it with you. I will take pictures and write posts about everything "blog worthy" eventually, but there is only so much computer work I can stand in one day. I hope you understand.

Jumping on the Bloglovin' Bandwagon

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Squishy Mail - Argh!

I've been in what I'm calling "roster reconciliation hell" this week. I won't bore you with the details, but it has required long hours on the computer for three days this week. I turned everything in this morning.  Yay!

In the midst of all this yesterday afternoon, the mailman brought such a nice surprise.

A gift from my friend Stephanie. She posted this Pirate Girls fabric on her blog recently and I commented on how adorable it is. Below is a photo of one repeat.

So she picked me up a fat quarter of it along with a couple of companion prints and a cute little zipper pull to match. I'm feelin' the need to make a bag with this little bundle. Thank you Stephanie!!!

I also have gotten that pen I told you about yesterday to work again. I'm about halfway done with marking the remaining part of the quilt. I can only tolerate doing a little at a time but don't want to take to long in case the pen decides to quit cooperating again. Hopefully by the end of the day I'll have it done and can get back to the fun part - the quilting.

Nothing I tried yesterday with the pen was successful. So I just put it down and went to work. This morning when I tried it I didn't press down very hard and tried to keep the pen as vertical as possible. And it is working again. Go figure!

Abacus Top Finished

I finished my Abacus top yesterday.

I don't know when I'll get to quilt it, but the top is done!

I haven't shown a photo of Miss Spooky Boo recently. Look at this silly cat sleeping in her toy basket!

What a sleepy face!

I'll be taking a week off from blogging next week. It is Spring Break for two thirds of our family and we have some fun plans. I spend a lot of time on the computer for my job every day and I will have to spend a little bit of time working every day even over the break. So I've decided to not to try to blog next week. I won't be doing any sewing anyway. I'll be back week after next with a report of all the fun we had!

Leap Year Traveling Stash Box

Recently I was fortunate to win one of the several Traveling Stash Boxes circulating around the US. It arrived last week, but I didn't get a chance to look through it or take pictures until this week. Here is a picture of the goodies inside.

While I was at work last week I went ahead and purchased some things to go into the box.

That little stack of squares tied with a ribbon is 4.5" squares. I plan to add to the stack from my stash of 4.5" squares. I may also pull out a few other things from my stash.

Here are the things I am thinking about taking out of the box.

Notice that fabric at the top right of the photo above. Does it look familiar? It is one of the fabrics from the Connecting Threads line that I used for all the charity quilts I made at my retreat last weekend. I will use it on the back of one of those quilts.

If you would like this traveling stash box to visit your house, then be sure to come back here on October 29th to enter the giveaway. The rules and guidelines for the box can be found here. Due to shipping costs and time constraints, the boxes have to stay in the US. So the giveaway will only be open to US bloggers.

Blog Friends are the Best!

I didn't plan to post anything today but I just had to show you what came in the mail for me today.

This adorable mug rug from Caroll, my Modern Monday buddy! I recently sent Caroll some novelty squares for a project she is working on. My novelty squares are breeding in their shoe box so sending some to Caroll actually helped me to be able to close the lid. In addition, I sent her a little "giftie" for her and thus my little "thank you."

Oh my Caroll - I LOVE IT!! Thank you!

And since I'm posting, I took a picture of my Which Witch's Boot progress. I started the embroidery yesterday.

I haven't gotten very far, just the "Boo" and part of the bigger pumpkin.

New Mac Book is here!

My new computer arrived this afternoon! I've been a PC user for years but am trying a Mac Book this time. So far I like it, but things are done differently on a Mac. I have figured out how to get my pictures off of my camera and am playing with the editing options already installed. I've edited one photo so far.

This is what I bought at the two quilt stores I visited in Durango. I went to the Durango Quilt Company and the Durango Sewing Center. Both were very nice stores. I bought the dots (upper left in the photo) and the buttons at the Durango Quilt Company. They had a huge selection of batiks and a pool talbe in the "man room"! Everything else came from the Durango Sewing Center. Oh my! I could have been in real trouble at the Durango Sewing Center. I wanted some of pretty much every fabric they had. If you ever visit Durango, Colorado, I highly recommend both shops.

It sure feels good to be online again. It is going to take me a few days to figure out my new computer. I've been busy in my sewing room and have been taking pictures even though I haven't had any way to show you what I'm doing until now.

Technical Difficulties Update

I am still computerless! Thank goodness for my iPad. The fixes we tried on my laptop were unsuccessful. A new one was ordered today. This time I am getting a Mac Book. I hope to be back here with photos of what I have been doing lately soon after it arrives. Lynn

Technical Difficulties

Thank you to everyone who left such kind comments on my previous post about the loss of our cat. I read each and every one but just couldn't bring myself to respond to them. My family is doing much better although we are still very sad and miss her terribly.

However, my silence on this blog has not been due to my sadness. My computer has had a "stroke" of some kind. My computer is also the family computer so we each have an account on it. My husband's account and my son's account both worked fine, but I could not log into my account. My account holds all the family financial information, all of my work files as well as all of my pictures and other personal files. It has taken my husband and I two days to get it working at all. Unfortunately, it is still not working well. Everything is very slow and somethings aren't working properly. Fortunately, I back up my things regularly and was able to access files to copy them onto an external hard drive from one of the other accounts. So I haven't lost any of the most important things, I just can't do anything with them yet.

I can't get pictures off my camera or even edit them if I could download them. Those of you who have had this kind of problem know how long it takes to get everything reinstalled and working properly. So when I can nurse this thing back to health, I've got lots to share with you. Until then ...

Liebster Blog Award

Jen from The Quilty Home honored me with a Liebster Award. Thank you Jen!

This award is given by bloggers to their favorite blogs with under 200 followers. The Liebster Rules are:

1.  Post about your win on your blog.
2.  Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award.
3.  Copy and paste the award to your blog.
4.  Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have less than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized.
5.  Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Awesome! I love these awards because you get to know some really great bloggers.  It took me a while to pick my five because I want to share the love but also give you some good recommendations. I don't take this kind of thing lightly and the less than 200 followers criteria kept tripping me up. Here’s my list:

1. Alycia of Alycia Quilts. Alycia is a longarm quilter and is passionate about Quilts of Valor. She shows lots of Quilts of Valor, some she makes and some made by others. But don't think that is all she does!

2. Frauke of Quilthexle's World. Frauke is always working on something interesting. She does art quilts and dyes her own fabric. She recently opened an Etsy shop to sell her hand dyed fabric. Frauke lives in Germany but blogs in both English and German.

3. Denise in PA of My Life in Quilts. Denise is the one who pushed me over the edge into the Swoon Along. She shows a nice mix of modern and traditional projects for your inspiration. 

4. Deanna of Wedding Dress Blue. Deanna does the most amazing refashioning and she is the one who pushed me over the edge into the Oh My Stars! Quilt Along. She has some great tutorials on her blog for a nice variety of projects (both quilting and other crafts).

5. Pat of Color Me Quilty. Pat is a very new blog friend. She is the one who pushed me over the edge into the Urban Nine Patch quilt along. I asked her some questions about the Quick Curve Ruler. She responded quickly, answered all my questions and I took the plunge.

I'm seeing a trend here in my recommendations. Check out these bloggers but don't blame me if you also get sucked into a quilt along you weren't planning to join. You have been warned!

Happy Valentines Day!

I was recently featured on Craft Corners in their Best of the Web feature.

You can go here to read it. Mine is the last one so scroll down. While you are there you should take a few minutes to browse previous posts. Lots of good ideas all in one place and quite a variety of different crafts represented.

I've showed this before but I like and it seems appropriate.

keys to my heart

Fish Quilt Swims Home

I made this quilt top in 2008.

The photo was taken February 23, 2008 to be precise. This was before I started blogging and documenting my work in photos. I don't even have a picture of the finished quilt and mailed it off to it's new home before I realized this. Oh well!

I made this quilt intending to give it to charity. My mom cut out all the fish pieces for me and gave them to me as a kit. Isn't she nice! It's pretty big, about 67" square. For various reasons, it didn't seem appropriate to give it to any of the local charities, so I just kept it, trusting that I would find it a home.

A few days ago I started noticing this button in various places online. It lead me to Gene Black and his search for angels. This quilt is now on it's way to Gene for his project.

Winning Wednesday

Recently I won a book, The Devil's Puzzle, from Jackie of Jackie's Art Quilts.

The book arrived earlier this week along with an adorable bookmark Jackie made for me. Thank you for the book Jackie. I LOVE the bookmark! Blog friends are the best!

By the way, Jackie has a great blog and a new Etsy store. She sells her hand dyed fabric and other fun stuff she makes. Check out her store and her blog if you need some inspiration or a good laugh. Jackie writes a humorous column for a Canadian quilting publication. She shares some of her columns on her blog on the Articles page.

Recent Winning

I won this wonderful crocheted potholder recently from Deanna of Wedding Dress Blue.

She also included a cute little needle keeper which is perfect. I got a couple of these thinking that they would be wonderful to travel with, but they are all too large for my little travel kits. This one fits!

If you haven't checked out Deanna's blog you should. She has some wonderful tutorials, one for the potholder I won. And one for the needle keeper. She is always up to something interesting and does a lot of charity sewing. She also refashions clothing, which scares me but she makes it look so easy.

Blogging and My First Giveaway

I first discovered blogs about 3 years ago and started following a few. After about a year of reading and following I decided that I'd like to start my own blog. My main goals for my blog were to document my projects and share patterns and techniques I like. I was not prepared for the friendships and sense of community I would get in return.

I haven't been sharing on my blog most of the work related and personal issues I've been struggling with lately. I try to keep the blog mostly about quilting and sewing. However, I have made a very good friend, Stephanie of Peas in a Pod, through my blog and I've shared these things with her. Check out the sweet surprise she sent me last week as a little "pick-me-up."

Five Kona solid fat quarters and a sweet card - THANK YOU Stephanie!

To celebrate my 500th post, which was last Friday, and to thank all of you for your friendship I'm having three giveaways this week. Today is the first one. I'm giving away one of the thread catchers I made recently.

To enter leave a comment and include where you are from. That's it. It would be nice if you became a follower, but it is not necessary. I will draw a winner on Friday (Sept. 9th) morning. I notify the winner by email and post the winner on the blog on Friday. Be sure that I have a way to contact you if you win. If you are a "no-reply" commenter and do not leave your email address in the comment then I will just draw another name. International commenters are welcome too.

The other giveaways this week will be on Wednesday and Friday.