Thursday, December 29, 2011

WINNER Time!

Before I announce the winner, I just want to say that I think y'all are awesome!  'Nuff said.

And welcome to all you new followers!  I can't always promise you verbal wittiness
(it hurts my brain too much) but I can always promise lots of
eye candy of the fabric variety...LOL.


Without other further adieu, the winner of the Cobblestone Lane kit is...


Anita
The Other Side of Me


Congratulations!

P.S.  Sorry I didn't have time to respond to your comments.  I will try harder...I promise.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

The best Christmas Present EVER!


Our son arrived home as THE last combat troops to leave Iraq.

The Welcome Home ceremony was awesome.  It was a very cold and rainy day waiting in the stands at Cooper field.  When it was time for our soldier to arrive, we watched the buses pull up on the other side of the field and all we could see were the feet of our soldiers disembarking.  Then we all shouted "Move that Bus" and this is what we saw marching across the field after the buses pulled away. 

I get teary-eyed just writing about it.  And believe me...I couldn't hold back the tears then either.  This really was the best Christmas present ever.

For those of you that have a loved one in the military that is deployed and far away from home right now, my heart goes out to you.  I hope your soldier arrives home to you safe and sound...as soon as possible.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones wherever they may be!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Have you seen this yet?!!!

The Hobbit
Official Trailer


I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

300 Followers Giveaway!

300?  Wow!

To celebrate this milestone I want to have a giveaway.  And I've thinking about it
for quite some time. What would be a great giveway to celebrate?  
Well I think I have something pretty fabulous.

How about a quilt kit?


One lucky follower will win a complete kit for Cobblestone Lane by This & That
in reds, teals, and browns.  The kits includes fabric for the blocks, borders, and binding.

This giveaway is open to FOLLOWERS ONLY as my way of saying thank you.  
Whether you live in the US or abroad, it matters not.  All that matters is that you are a follower.

If you want to be included in the giveaway, simply leave me a comment.
And remember...if you are a no reply blogger, please be sure to leave
a way for me to contact you in your comment.

I'll select a winner next Wednesday, December 28th via Random Number Generator.


Good luck to everyone and
Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Don't leave! Don't go anywhere!



I've just hit 300 followers...thank you Donna!
So it's time for another giveaway!

Give me a day or two to work on getting rid of this nasty cold
and decide on a super cool (hopefully) prize and then I'll be back
to announce my 300 Followers Giveaway!

Blog Hop Party WINNER!



Congratulations to





Thanks to everyone who entered. I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond to all
your comments.  I've been battling a terrible cold for the past week.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Blog Hop Party Giveaway

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.
THE WINNER WILL BE
ANNOUNCED SOON.

Welcome to my giveaway for the Blog Hop Party hosted by Quilting Gallery.

One lucky person will win a signed copy of 
Redwork Winter Twitterings by Pearl Louise Krush.


 
And it's an extra bonus if your name is 'Monica"...LOL.

 
I will also through in some red fat quarters to sweeten the deal.

To win, simply leave a comment telling me anything you like...no other hoops
to jump through. But please make sure I have a way to contact you.
"No reply" commenters that do not leave their email
address are not eligible for the giveaway.
On Saturday, December 17, I'll announce the winner
via random number generator.

Good luck!!!

Blog Hop Party...



...starts tomorrow!
You can learn all about it HERE.

What do you get when you let two kittens play with your IPad?

Mouse catching MAYHEM!!!




This was a couple months ago.  Now when they play with the app,
they just lay on it to stop the mouse...lazy kittens.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Almost done!

Just a few more side units to make and then I can sew the rows together
and a small pink border.  Then it'll be ready for quilting!

But how to quilt it...any suggestions?


Saturday, December 3, 2011

*snicker*

If you're easily offended
don't look at THIS.

Click it!  I dares ya...LOL.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Ocean Waves

My Ocean Waves quilt is moving right along.  While it's been pretty monotonous sewing half square triangles, I'm really happy with the results thus far. 

As we speak I am making four patch units with the 1200-ish half square triangle blocks. I'll need a total of 220 four patches for the entire quilt. Thank goodness all those half square triangle blocks are already made and trimmed.



Pictures below is part of my Unit A's.  There are 49 total and are ready for the four patch blocks for above and below this block.



With any luck, this quilt top has a good chance of being completed this weekend...fingers crossed.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

What I'm Working On Today

Ocean Waves
2,951 pieces


All 1240 half square triangle blocks are finished and now begins the finishing process.  I swear I've been trimming half squares triangle blocks for over a year.  In fact I know it has been that long.  It was a year ago August when I started the process of selecting fabrics for this quilt.   There is somewhere between 300 or 400 different fabrics in the quilt...maybe more.


 
Half Square Quilt
1080 pieces...so far


This one was started a couple months ago when I needed a break from Portobella Market.  All the pieces were cut with my Studio.  I have 135 blocks so far and nothing repeats.  I don't know if I'll make any more blocks.  I need to decide on a layout first and see if I have enough blocks.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Festival Finds

Well here I am finally getting around to sharing my festival finds.  There were just so many fabulous things that I wanted to get a closer look at.  But I have to say that I'm glad this all I came home with.  Because if I had had more time to look around I would have come home broke broke broke! 



Some imported Japanese linens with some non-Japanese cotton coordinates



A fabulous wool kit plus a few more patterns from Wooly Lady


Lollipop Trees plus Frosted Donuts I and II
which will be perfect for appliqueing with Kaffe



Pre-printed 16.5" and 18" wholecloth tops from



Patterns from Lori Smith of From My Heart to Your Hands
(it's really hard for me to pass them up when I find them)


More wool patterns...this time from Primitive Gatherings



Patterns from Painted Pony 'n Quilts



And finally...9 degree wedge rulers from Doheny Publications
(I can't wait to play with these ones.  The big 25" ruler is for a tree skirt!)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I'm alive...

...and back from Houston Quilt Festival!  And what a week it was.  It was go go go from the moment we arrived Tuesday evening.  I wish I could say that I have oodles of quilt photos to show you but honestly, we were so busy with our booth that we barely had time to step out of it and wander.  I did manage to snap a few photos with my IPhone Sunday morning on our way into the building.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Disclaimer:  In my tiredness I forgot to get the titles of the quilts and the names of their makers
so if you see one you recognize please let me know and I'll post the information with the photo.












Give me a few more days to recouperate and I'll post about the goodies when I did manage to sneak away for a moment or two. 

Monday, October 24, 2011

Goofy Kittens

They're just like children I tell you! 

If you leave something within their reach they are going to play with it. 
It started out with Jesse (the instigator) knocking the bowl off
the shelf to check it investigate the bowl further.  



And Frankie thought it looked like so much fun that he decided to give it a try also.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I might actually be getting the hang of this machine quilting thing...

After almost 15 years I've become a pretty good quilter. I'm no [insert name of the most fabulous quilter/designer you can think of] but I can hold my own pretty good. I am self taught and have been able to teach myself everything I've wanted to...for the most part.  

But anyone who knows me well, knows I hate machine quilting.  It stresses me out.  I dread the times when I have to quilt something myself.  I'm worried about it not looking perfect.  I'm worried that this project I've worked so hard on will be ruined by my lack of skill.  I'm worried about people looking at it and thinking "she did THAT?!" 
Get to the point...right?  Well as you know I've been working on some samples for a shop that is going to vend at Houston Quilt Festival.  Among the things I made, I completed four miniatures.  When I said I'd do them I never stopped to think who was going to quilt them...not even for a second...what a dummy. 

Things are crazy at the shop right now.  My BFF for life is quilting day and night trying to get samples quilted so they can be bound before we leave for Houston.  So she doesn't have time and besides they're 16" x 20".  Who would ask someone to pin a tiny quilt to a huge Gammil to quilt it?  I would!  But I didn't.
I put on my big girl panties and quilted all four miniatures by my big girl self!  Would you like to see them?

The first one turned out a little wonky so tilt your head ever so slightly to
straighten it out (stitch in the ditch and diagonal quilting in the outer borders).



The second one came out a little less wonky...sort of
(stitch in the ditch and more diagonal quilting).



My third attempt is where I branched out and tried to be a bit more creative. 
It's not perfect by it'll do.  I should have done thread color changes.


My fourth and last attempt I think turned out the best.  I really tried to go all out for this one. 
Because let's be honest...before this was quilted, it was just OK.  Now I'm tickled pink with it.


So maybe I'll never be as good as Judi at Green Fairy Quilts, Mary of Quilt Hollow, or Margaret of Sewing & Quilting Gallery.  But I know now I can quilt a miniature without having a coronary.  And who knows?  Maybe someday I'll actually have the nerve to touch the longarm machine that resides in my dining room.

Monday, October 10, 2011

I've got...

...nothing new and exciting to share...zip...nada...zilch.  I'm busily working away helping get samples and kits ready for Houston Quilt Festival.  I had a lot of catching up to do after being sick for two weeks back in September.  It put me drastically behind.

Being so busy has left me with little time for anything else.  I haven't even been replying to comments and emails.  I hop y'all will forgive me just this once.  I hope to be done with all the Festival stuff this week...fingers crossed.

Since I don't have anything new to share I thought I might post some random photos of some older quilts of mine that I designed for this and that.  I have no clue which ones I've shared before but that really doesn't matter does it?


Tropical Beauty
24" x 24"
3" Finished Blocks



Love's Promise
100" x100"
(designed for 2009 Raffle Quilt)



Walk in the Garden
60" x 60"



Indian Blanket
60" x 60"



No Name Quilt
60" x 60"



Fons & Porter Baby Quilt Contest Entry
36" x 36"



Scrap Happy
56" x 72"
Made quilt-as-you-go


I'm going to be MIA for the next few weeks so be alarmed if I don't post for a while.  I will try...but no guarantees.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

More Highlights From the Trinity Valley Quilt Show 2011


Sand Castles
Made By Billye Olsen
Quilted By Susan Corbett






Mom's Quilt
Mady By Marjorie Winters & Vivian Stroman
Quilted By Frieda Coblentz




Fantastic Night
Made & Quilted By Pat Burnham


Rio Festivale
Made & Quilted By Pat Burnham



Puppy Blues
Made By Pat Burnham
Quilted By Nina Henderson



Purple Predilection
Made & Quilted By Amy Varner


Block Swap Stars
Made By Carolyn Bowden
Quilted By Donna Akins



1800 Petit Four
Made & Quilted By Sheri A. Macom


Bob's Pumpkins
Made By Peggy Sympson
Quilted By Dawn Smith




Civil War Ancestral Tribute
Made & Quilted By Sheri A. Macom





Independence Day
Made By Sara Bourgeois
Quilted By Susan Corbett



Vintage Touching Stars
Made By Carla H. Roberson
Quilted By Melinda Giacamorro



Flowers With Happy Smiling Faces
Made By Gwen Dunn
Quilted By Linda Johnson