Blogger friends are THE BEST.....

Don't you just love all the friends you have made since you started to "hang out" in Blogland??? I do!!! I consider myself very lucky to have made some really good friends...and we often email in addition to visiting each other's blogs and I have even met some bloggers in person now and talked to a couple of others on the phone. So....yesterday's mail delivery brought me my Joann's flyer AND two surprise packages from blogging pals. What fun that was!!!The two packages (shown below) were from two really nice blogging buddies who surprised me by sending me some fabric to be used in my batik quilt. I was very touched by their kindness....and I am happy to add the batiks to my quilt (in progress). The first photo shows the fabrics I got from Barb in American Samoa. (Click HERE for her blog.) The photo should enlarge if you click on it. She sent two great batiks and also a floral Samoan fabric, which I love. (I have a few pieces of Samoan fabric now from her and can see a Samoan floral quilt in my not-too-distant future! Thanks, Barb, for my surprise package. Look below that photo for the contents of the second surprise package.
The second surprise package was from Jocelyn. (Click HERE for her blog.) She sent me these lovely batiks after she read that I was doing an all-batik quilt. These are pieces she'd not be using and she thought they should go to someone who would put them to good use....and I will. Thanks, Jocelyn, for thinking of me!

A giveaway and a THANK YOU......

Rachel at p.s. I quilt is having a really nice giveaway, so hurry there and tell her I sent you....but of course I'm not really hoping for YOU to win...would like to win this one for myself. LOL And....yet ANOTHER giveaway (that I want to win), but I'll tell you to go look at it anyway...by clicking HERE.

Secondly, I'd like to thank all of you for the very kind comments you made yesterday about my basket. I was truly overwhelmed and touched with what all of you said. How I wish I had the time (and the $$$) to make each of you a basket. I don't think I mentioned that with the instruction and the materials, this one basket cost me $65 to do........too pricey for me to do many (if any) more of them...I can assure you of that!!!

I will leave you with some cute photos of little Jessi, my granddaughter (just turned 5 on June 1), who took her first horseback riding lesson yesterday. The photos should all enlarge by clicking on them, if you wish to see them in greater detail.

Helping to get the horse (Belle) ready....or was this afterwards? I'm not sure as I know very little (make that NOTHING) about working with horses or riding on them. I do know she must learn how to do the "chores" connected with the horse as part of each lesson.
Leading Belle out to the riding area. Belle was a bit reluctant but the ranch owner (gal in the yelllow shirt) said Jessi was a "natural" and really took control.Here she is having the horse walk....usually this ranch keeps the long rope (there's a name for that rope...but I don't know it) on the horse for a child's first lesson and the adult stands in the middle and lets the child ride around him or her in circles, but they could tell Jessi was ready to handle the horse on her own....and she did get it to move at a good pace before the lesson was over (will try to get the video from my daughter to post here sometime soon).And, of course, she had to know how to stop the horse...which she did...even was able to get it to back up a few steps. The owner was rather surprised that Jessi was able to do all of this her very first time on a horse. This stable has a 4-H group that rides their horses in events at the county fair and they said if Jessi likes this and keeps it up, she will someday surely be able to do that for them.
And........the last two show her posing (not sure if this was before or after the ride) and petting a baby deer. The deer's mother died and this ranch is raising the baby and it loves children, as you can see. What a special moment for Jessi to get this close to it.

Basket Weaving 101 ........

Hmmmmm.......I seem to recall a lot of jokes about basket-weaving somewhere along the line....implying it was for "simple" people. Well...I didn't find it simple. Class was set from 10 a.m. until 3, but we didn't finish until 5.....were told they NEVER get out on time!!! It was fun (after awhile) and I love how mine turned out, but I'd not call it simple! Sherry, whose idea it was to take the class, is more inclined to go back than I am. I'd go again, but not anytime soon....didn't thrill me THAT much. LOL Here are a few photos from our day.

First, the basket Sherry and I were making. It's called the Quilter's Companion as it can hold a spool or two of thread as shown on the little dowel and has 6 sections to hold essential tools. (Patterns are in the pockets of this basket as the LQS is using it as a holder for tiny, laminated pattern cards.)
Here we have Sherry in the early stages of working on the basket in the upstairs classroom of our LQS. Look at how hard she is concentrating!
This is the instructor, Gail, ( on the right) showing another gal, Lynn, how to proceed on her basket. She was making a chairside basket and did a very nice job with it.This is another photo in which you can see Sherry working very hard in the background and also Mary working on her basket.....called something like the Everyday Basket (can't recall the exact name). She also did a very nice job. (Except for Sherry and me, the other 4 gals there had experience in making baskets and have all made several others already.)This is how my basket turned out......I really like it. (You should be able to click on the photos to enlarge them.) And below this photo, is one of the inside so you can see the 6 sections.....very nice construction with a solid wood bottom. I intend to use it to keep (and tote) things like my rotary cutter, scissors, spools of thread, seam ripper, fabric markers, etc. I have a small pretty "ornament" from the class to attach to the outside but will wait until the spray stain (that the teacher puts on all the baskets) has thoroughly dried. Will wait until then to attach a spool or two of thread to the dowel in the heart-handle, too. Hope you enjoy seeing my attempt at basket-weaving!

Meet me at the fair.......

Edited to add: Taking a basket class today at the LQS...my first one....hope to post photos and give a report tomorrow!

Yesterday we went to the State Fair. We woke up to a very "iffy" weather report and nearly postponed our visit until later in the week. However, we decided to go and did not have bad weather and had a very good time. With it being a bit overcast, it actually stayed a bit cooler than it would have been otherwise.

Our first stop was the horse arena to see some of the events there. Next thing I knew, a familiar person sat on the bench in front of us in the bleachers. It was Quilting Nana, a blogger and a personal friend of mine and a member of our quilt guild. I said hello and when she turned around to see who was talking to her and her husband, she was very surprised to see it was me and my husband. What was funnier was that she was wearing a shirt that I also have AND I nearly wore the same one to the fair. Here is a photo of the two of us there (I'm in the pink). Afterwards, we also ran into another gal from our quilting guild and her husband, but I didn't get a photo of me with her....DUH.I will post some fun photos of the animals at the fair as well as some other 4-H photos in another post, but for now, here are a few of quilts (with comments, where necessary). The first photo shows an area of one of the exhibit buildings that housed the arts and crafts entries.....MANY beautiful things were there. (Click to enlarge and see more detail.)I truly wish you could see this next quilt in person. PLEASE be certain to click on it to see it in greater detail. It is made by Lucy (no blog), a member of our guild. She has only been quilting about 4 years.....but is excellent. She has already had a quilt (last year) selected to be shown in the Paducah show. She dyes most of her fabrics and does her own quilting on a regular home sewing machine (although she is buying a long-arm soon). I can only imagine the work she will do with a long-arm!!! This quilt won a blue ribbon...it is done with hand-dyed fabrics and is hand appliqued and machine quilted on her own sewing machine. It is truly a work of art. The last photo today (below this one) is another one of her masterpieces.For this beautiful shore bird wall-hanging, Lucy first obtained permission from the renowned photographer who took the original photograph. (It was Kevin Fleming.) He gave his permission and she reproduced his photo with wonderful detail in fabric. She quilted it (again on her home machine) using thread that matched all the fabrics. (You can see that better if you click on the photo.) Not only did this win a blue ribbon, but it won the overall Judges' Award for excellence. This photo in NO way does the piece justice, but I can assure you this gal is a super-talented fabric artist!

A block and some strips.....

Between storms and some unexpected occurrences this weekend (nothing bad), I didn't get to sew as much as I'd hoped. I have started putting together the 12 blocks for the birthday signature block exchange for Linda B. Here is a photo of one of them....simple but I'm sure they will look sweet once they are all assembled. (This is not the block for the birthday gal....won't show that on here as I'll want her to be surprised.) Each of the 12 blocks I'm making is in a different color combination.
Below, is a photo of the color strips in progress for my batik quilt. (This was the first set of them....have done more since I took the photo). I have decided to alter the pattern as I didn't like the way the rotating blocks looked with the way I'm doing my color strips. I have also gone away from my original concept of "rainbow" strips. My altered version will be more similar to a Chinese coin quilt pattern than what I initially envisioned...but it is a pattern that will really display all the batiks nicely...and that is what I wanted. I have 10 strip sections made now (all different) and they will be combined with thin strips of black fabric sashing to form 5 blocks (each 16 inches in size when sewn together). The entire quilt will require 30 blocks, so you can see I am only just started on this and have a long way to go yet. A little birdie told me to watch for a package that may contain something useful for this quilt....so I'm anxiously awaiting that, too (and will report on it when it arrives)!!! Today we hope to visit the State Fair.....love to see the quilts on display there and some year will enter one myself...I promise. LOL

A - B - C's of me.....

A good blogging friend (Sara) had a fun list on her blog a couple of days back. She does different lists there on a regular basis and I love to read them...but rarely do I complete them myself. I decided to give this one a try. If you find it fun to read it, maybe you will want to give it a try on your own blog soon. This has absolutely nothing to do with quilting....but it seemed like a fun thing to do....so here goes......

A - Age - 61

B - Bed size - twin (decided to be comfy in my old age...am not a restless sleeper but am a very "light" sleeper and never liked sharing a bed!!!)

C - Chore you hate - cleaning the toilets

D - Dog's name - Pepi

E - Essential "start your day" item - checking email and reading online newspapers, then blogs

F - Favorite color - blue (closely followed by green) OR green (closely followed by blue)!!!

G - Gold or silver? Silver

H - Height - about 5' 4"

I - Instruments you play - had learned accordion when young, and can play right hand (only) on piano keyboard

J - Job title - retired teacher and presently part-time medical transcriptionist

K - Kids - Tara and Tina

L - Living arrangements - house with hubby and dog near Delaware beaches

M - Mom's name - Dorothy

N - Nicknames - Pat (parents called me Patty...UGH)

O - Overnight hospital stays (except when giving birth) - a female surgery in 1971

P - Pet peeve - people who are not honest

Q - Quote from a movie - don't watch enough of them to HAVE a quote that sticks in my mind!

R - Right or left handed? Right

S - Siblings? two....both younger (sister and brother)

T - Time you wake up - 5:30 - 6:30 a.m. with no alarm and NOT because I wish to wake up that early

U - Underwear? What kind of question is this????? I like COMFY ones, of course! No Victoria's Secret stuff for me!

V - Vegetable you dislike - any of the cabbage family cooked (broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower) and ONIONS...hate onions (but like scallions...pretty weird, huh?) I"m a boring veggie person as I like tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, peas, carrots, and corn and very little else.

W - Workout style - uhhhhh....ummmmmm....walking and using a tiny stationery bike once in awhile

X - X-rays you've had - teeth, mammogram, female "stuff", wrist, bone density test (is that considered an x-ray? Probably not...)

Y - Yesterday's best moments - gosh, let me think...hard enough to recall current day.....hmmmm...reading a book I'd reserved at the library and eating local, fresh watermelon

Z - Zoo favorites - penguins, polar bears, monkeys/gorillas

Fabric report and a great bag giveaway.....

First the giveaway......Kim at Bitty Bits and Pieces is having a very nice bag giveaway. Her work is top-quality, so you may want to click on the link and visit there to see if you can be the lucky winner!!! If you feel so inclined, tell her I sent you. She has a very nice blog, so if you've not read it yet, you may want to become a follower there.

And now a fabric report. Yesterday I went to my favorite quilt shop, Serendipity, with my buddy, Kaye. We both made purchases that made us very happy. Kaye got a really cute purse pattern (The Two-Hour Tulip Purse Pattern by Janice Pope) and fabric to make it. She also got the first two BOM kits for a butterfly quilt that the shop is doing right now. I added to my batik collection with the 13 fat quarters pictured below. I then cut the fat quarters and started sewing some sections for the blocks of the quilt I talked about the other day here.....the one I will make with my batiks. It's an easy quilt to assemble....the most difficult part will be juggling around the blocks until I'm happy with the color arrangement since I'm making it such a multi-colored quilt to feature my entire batik collection.

Dreams of a good-sized ORGANIZED sewing room...

You know how you get things in your email that come out of nowhere? Mostly they are annoying ads and other "junk" stuff. Well....the other day I got one that caught my eye, so I actually looked at it and read many parts of it quite carefully. It came from a website called TipNut and this was the title:

Organize Sewing Rooms & Craft Supplies – Buncha Links

Okay....so how could this sewing and quilting gal ignore THAT? I spent a good bit of time looking over the links.....some were not of any use to me at all......some made me envious at seeing sewing space I'd never be lucky enough to have.....but I did enjoy checking out the link and seeing some of the ideas listed there.

Oh...in case you were wondering (and some of you already know this), my sewing area is a small bedroom in our home that doubles as the sleeping quarters for the grandkids when any of them come to visit. This means that, periodically, I have to close everything up and even move things OUT of the room and stash them in various parts of the house...not an ideal situation, but it's the best I can do. By choice, I do my cutting on the center island in my kitchen as it seems to be the best height for me. When I win the lottery (once I remember to PLAY it), of course I will buy a place large enough for me to have the world's BEST sewing room....and all of you will be invited to come sew there with me whenever you'd like! LOL

So...for those of you who want to look over the links I mentioned above, click HERE.

My Batiks........

Just below, you see the batiks I have collected so far (about 50 different ones)....some were bought by me...others were kind gifts by fellow quilters who know I love batiks. So far, I've not made anything with them, but I am ready to start soon. I have found a pattern I really like that (thanks to Nancy at Patchwork Penguin blog) and I think it will nicely showcase such a wide variety of my batiks. It's called "Wickedly Easy"and HERE is the link for it. (I think it's the 3rd pattern down on the page.) The nice thing about this pattern is that it only calls for one fat quarter of each print/color....and many of my batiks are just fat quarters and not bigger yardages. If possible, I'd like to get a rainbow effect in each of the 16-inch blocks in the pattern. (Wish me luck!)When I pulled out the batiks and sorted them into color groupings (sort of...some were hard to decide which group), I saw quite quickly that I need to go buy more purples and reds and I think a few yellowy-golds. Also, I see that some of the batiks I have might stick out like a sore thumb in this particular quilt and do not belong here at all, so some will be set aside for other (yet to be decided) projects. I feel good, though, that I am getting some sense of purpose for most of the batiks I have so far. It is obvious that a lot of this quilt will be greens and blues, but that's okay as those are my two favorite colors!

Color combinations so far....

Yesterday I showed you some fabric squares for the signature block swap I'm in for Linda B's birthday quilt. I almost has a big OOPS. I hadn't realized that I'd not seen all the directions for the swap as I missed a few posts when Jessi was here. Luckily, I know Kaye (in the swap) and she called that to my attention or my top and bottom rows would have been done incorrectly. Then I had to go and search out some fabrics to coordinate with the ones I showed yesterday. Our blocks are simple.......3 colored squares in the top row......a muslin strip (for our signatures in the middle row.....and 3 colored squares in the bottom row...so it's sort of a 9-patch, except the second row is a strip and not 3 squares. This photo shows 16 block rows I did last night. (There are two of each of the 8 combinations shown here.) If you click to enlarge the photo, you will see that some are "sedate" (maybe even boring?? LOL) and a few are quite "colorful" (maybe even loudly bright?) I'm having fun doing them, though, and hopefully the folks who someday get them (at the end of the swap) will be happy with them. I just have 4 more sets to make and my rows of squares for all 12 blocks will be completed. I am still looking through my stash for fabrics to match the remaining squares I showed yesterday and hope to get that done today.

Raring to go......

A really great blogging buddy, Linda (click HERE for her blog), recently decided she wanted a special quilt for her upcoming "special" birthday. She hoped several of her buddies would participate and she has her group set up now. I am lucky enough to be part of that group. Here is a photo of my fabrics....with the colored squares already cut......all ready and waiting for me to start on the 12 signature blocks I will make for this birthday block exchange. What a FUN idea! Thanks, Linda, for organizing this for us! I'm sure it will be a wonderful project and we will all end up with nice signature quilts at the end and, hopefully, we will make for a very happy birthday for you come December.

A fun blog with an ADORABLE photo.....

NOTE: I'm not talking about THIS blog and THIS photo, but if you want to find a fun quilting and crafting blog (or maybe you already read this one), click HERE to go to a post at Happy Zombie that is called "Don't run with scissors". The photo is one of those that will make you say, "Awwwwww....how CUTE!"

And...speaking of cute photos, above is one more of our little cutie...taken shortly before we drove her back to her mom and dad on Saturday. (I usually take the pictures and am not in them, but this is one with me in it, too.....surprise...surprise!) It was strange to come back to a very quiet house after we took her back.....but all good things have to come to an end and we did have a very good time during her visit. We made a photo album for her to take home...which we do each time....and she treasures that, as young as she is, and keeps all those albums from her visits with us in her room.

Early Saturday morning, she got out of bed and tidied up her room all on her own and did such a GREAT job that I had nothing to clean up when we came back from dropping her off........pretty impressive for a 5 year old. (Before you ask, she does NOT do that at home with her bedroom there, so I considered myself very lucky! LOL) Now I am working on turning the room back into my sewing room until the next visitor arrives in a couple of weeks.

A giveaway at Quilt Hollow.....

I've had the good fortune to "meet" online so many wonderful quilters since I began blogging. Mary of Quilt Hollow is one of them. She is also a long-armer and does wonderful work, so you might want to check her out to do a quilt for you sometime as she does wonderful work.

She is having her one-year blogging anniversary giveaway right now, so....click HERE to participate and sign up as a follower of her blog, too. She has a very nice Thimbleberries prize (pictured here). Tell her PAT sent you, okay?

She goes home today......

Little Jessi goes home today. I am now very backed up on my medical typing, so I will be stressed the rest of the weekend trying to get that done (as I had no chance to do any this week). Anyway.....I will miss her when we give her back to her parents, but I am very tired now. I think this is about as many days as I can do this (6) without totally collapsing. LOL I got about 30 stitches done (YES....just 30.....blanket stitches) around the edge of a small butterfly on a table runner while she was here....so NO sewing progress to report at all.

Yesterday we did more pool time.....and also went to see Ice Age 2 (in 3-D) at the movies. It was cute. After that, Jessi picked a place to go to dinner....it was "gourmet" McDonald's!!! She helped pick some cherry tomatoes earlier in the day (she won't eat them, though)....the only tomato plants we have left after that new blight got the rest of our plants this year. Don't you love the blue/green nail polish??? She has been very well-behaved....and very good about sleeping. The only difficult thing is that she is a very poor, picky eater. My kids weren't, so this is a big challenge (and frustration) for me.

Isn't this a cute prize?

You know I haven't been able to visit many of your blogs and have hardly answered any comments you've made on my blog with Jessi here (and keeping me very busy). I see, though, that many of you have commented on her "golden slippers" photos....and I want to thank you for that. We have another day of "vacation" with this little sweetie and, while I get very tired during her visits, I know I will miss her when she leaves!
Okay....now onto the prize mentioned in the title of this post. Recently a good blogging friend, Linda, (Fiber Fabrications) had a giveaway with 6 prize packages. I have been so busy with my granddaughter (and so TIRED, too), that I actually forgot I had won prize #6, pictured above. It arrived today and it's really cute. I have a friend who is a dessert "nut" and quite a baker. She enjoys baking carrot cake, so I believe I will make this for her birthday in January. That gives me a lot of time, so...hopefully...I'm not rushing to make it at the last-minute. (Want to place any bets on that, though?? LOL)

"Golden" slippers.....

Dorothy may have her ruby slippers, but our little granddaughter has GOLDEN ones. She had to bring them to show us and also brought a dress or two. Below are a few photos to show you how cute she looked when she decided to wear them (and one of the dresses) to the boardwalk late in the afternoon on Tuesday. (She strikes those poses on her own......which always makes me laugh, so I guess that's why she does it!) If you want to see the "golden slippers" up close, click on the pictures to enlarge them.Yesterday we did a total of 6 hours in the water at the pool (split between afternoon and early evening). Yes...I was IN the water with her that whole time. She doesn't get much opportunity to swim except when she is here.....so she began the week being very timid even while wearing "swimmies" (floaties) on her arms, and within just one day, she was swimming underwater with no "swimmies" on her arms. She is doing really well. If she had a place to swim fairly often, I believe she'd be a real good swimmer in no time at all.

My "Scrap Bag" patterns......

Recently, a group of quilt designers from Minnesota had an online designer blog-hop. It was fun. Now....there were RULES to this giveaway, though. You were to follow it for all 10 days and comment on all 10 blogs. There were 3 main prizes awarded after they checked to be sure the winners HAD commented on all 10 blogs..... and then each designer donated something as a prize. I was lucky enough to be one of TEN winners Jamie Kalvestran chose and we each got THREE of her "Scrap Bag" patterns. Here are the 3 patterns I was delighted to receive in the mail. One is for a purse....another is for a zippered wallet...and the third is for a checkbook cover. Thanks, Jamie........GREAT prizes!

My blog time will be scarce this week......

We will have the little cutie-pie, 5-year-old granddaughter with us this week. (We got her yesterday and she will be here until late on Saturday.) This means I will be doing the Grammy things.....pool......PlayDoh....coloring books...pool.....puzzles....pool......sewing cards.......pool......beach.....pool.....board games........pool......rides at the boardwalk.....pool....Webkinz.....pool. I think you get the picture! She looks SO forward to coming here for her "vacation" with us and we love having her. I will get some pictures to share. I am also going to pre-schedule some of my posts for this week, so if you comment and get no answer, please understand it means I probably haven't seen your comment as I'll be busy with little Jessi. (It also means I won't get to keep up with many blogs.......so don't think I deserted you...I'll be back!!!)Above is a photo of a set of hand embroidered pillowcases and the edging was done by hand, too. Click on the photo to see it better. (Is that edging called tatting or is it crochet with a very very thin yarn/ fiber?) I got these at a yard sale this past weekend. You know me....if I see handmade items and suspect they will be trashed if they aren't sold, I scoop them up as I KNOW somebody put a lot of work into them and I hate to think they aren't valued by someone. I got these for $1 each. They are now freshly laundered and I love them. (This photo was before I laundered them.)

My first and last quilts.....

Okay.....there is a "trend" right now for us to post on our blogs our FIRST quilt and our LAST (as in most recent) quilt. I think it started with Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company and Camille Roskelley of Thimbleblossoms....with their Parade of Quilts and now it is spreading across Blogland. Pat Sloan on her blog yesterday was asking if her readers want HER to do it (they do!!!)....and so now it has sort of become a challenge. Suppposedly Pat Sloan will show her REAL first quilt on her blog this morning. (She shows one in her lectures that she says is her first quilt, but the secret has come out...that one in her lectures is NOT her real first quilt.) I decided I'd take the challenge. Will you be next????

Here is my first quilt......an Easter wallhanging. I made it with NO pattern......too dumb to know about using quilt patterns or to know about using a rotary cutter and basic tools like that! I did some small amount of hand-quilting (tulips in some of the blocks). It was done using Easter / spring fabrics. Actually, it turned out surprisngly well for making it up as I went along......had NO idea how to make half-square triangles the "correct way", etc. I know it's not terrific by any means, but it is passable, I'd say! I did this about 4 years ago.This next photo shows my most recent completed quilt. (I have done a few things since then but nothing as large as this or as intricate....well, it is intricate to ME compared to other things I've done.) This is a throw-sized quilt. It was done as a strange kind of mystery quilt......we were given directions to cut all the fabrics a certain way and then sew them into various types of blocks. BUT....then we were directed to take all our completed blocks and make up our OWN layout. I came up with this and am pleased with the result. I had a local longarmer (Sharon from our guild) quilt it for me and she did a wonderful job (which, unfortunately, doesn't show up in the photo). So....you are next. Will you show photos of your first AND your most recent quilts on YOUR blog? Come on...it's fun....because you can think back to the first one and realize how much you have learned since that time!

LOVING this stocking........

A few days back I won a surprise giveaway in which Christie picked someone who had commented on her blog recently to win this great stocking she made. I spoke about it then and was pleasantly surprised with how quickly it got here from Texas to Delaware. ALSO...it is even more darling in person than it was when pictured on her blog. I have taken a second photo of it that shows just the detail at the top....with a little bell and some Christmas buttons and some hand-stitching.....should enlarge if you click on it (although they both look blurry when enlarged....not sure what is up with the camera lately...maybe it's NOT me). I love the stocking and would like to make some more just like it to have a set. THANKS, Christie!!! (Click here for her blog.)

Another cottage arrived......

I am part of a year-long cottage block exchange program. (I will do the cottages for the month of February.) We began this in May.....so the May, June, and July blocks have now been received. If you follow Quilting Fiesta's blog, you probably saw the July cottage block already. If not, then you are seeing it for the first time here. I love the fabric choices for this block....click to see them in greater detail. It was made by Cindy. (Sorry I didn't iron it before I took the picture, but you can still see the neat fabric choices.) Thanks to Quilting Fiesta for organizing this fun swap!

Pillow talk......and beachy divas giveaway winner!

A good blogging friend, Gene Black, was kind enough to send me the link to a very good pillowcase tutorial. Click HERE to see it. It runs a bit long but it is very detailed and the technique is very good...it's called a "sausage" method. Yesterday I tried it out. I practiced by using penguin fabric given to me in a swap by Sabrina (a gal I know from a Yahoo wool group I'm on). It would have been better if I'd had more yardage and could have made the penguins going across the pillow differently, but I love it this way, too...ANYTHING penguin is good for me!!! This will be MY pillowcase and I am very happy with it. (Thanks, Sabrina, for the fabric!!!) All the seams are finished and I'd say it took me less than an hour from start to finish. (The photos should enlarge if you click on them.) Now that I know I have mastered the technique, I see many more pillowcases being made in the "sausage" method!This shows the way it might have been better to have the penguins "walking" but I'd have needed about 1 1/3 yards for that....and I had a yard. This next BLURRY photo (YIKES.....not sure how I managed that) shows the completed throw pillow cover I'd started awhile back. Believe me, it looks a LOT better than it shows up in this blurry photo!!! Do NOT click on this one to enlarge it or you might get dizzy...whew...and I am NOT kidding!!! I figured since I was on the subject of pillows here, I'd show this one completed....and didn't realize the photo was blurry until I put it here.....UGH.....so sorry about that! This is probably the worst photo I've ever taken....and I don't have time to redo it now. And...below the blurry photo, the name of the winner of the Beachy Divas fabric panel.By dawn's early light, the random number generator picked (as the winner of the Beachy Divas fabric shown here a few days back).........Happy Cottage Quilter. I hope she enjoys her win and will send me a photo of what she makes with it!

Gosh...I am almost embarrassed......

I am almost embarrassed (well.....ALMOST...but not totally) to tell you that I won another giveaway. I was notified today by Christie that I won a giveaway on her blog. (Click HERE for her blog.) This is what I won....isn't it nice? Christie made this and I love the look of it!
Oh, yes....and I also took part (as did many of you) in the recently-completed 10-day online blog-hop that was run by 10 designers in Minnesota. Jamie Kalverstan has announced that I am one of 10 winners on her blog, so I will be getting patterns from her. (She designs some pretty neat bag patterns.) When I receive them, I will be sure to take a photo and show them here.

For now, NO teasing about me winning something else, okay? LOL When I tell you that I pass up a lot of giveaways, I am not kidding you. If I entered a lot of them, I could understand winning often, but I don't enter many......so I guess I HAVE just been on a lucky streak!

Found another good blog with a SUPER giveaway!!!

Through one of the blogs I regularly follow, I just discovered another blog that is really a good one. It is called.......I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts. The blog writer is Ryan and he is having a HUGE giveaway for his birthday. Below are 3 photos of prizes he will be giving (NICE ones, as you can see). After you look at the pictures, click HERE to go read about it and enter. (And please tell him I sent you so he knows I really did mention his giveaway on my blog!!!)

Prize # 1: A set of six (6) patriotic theme fat quarters.
Prize # 2: A set of five (5) reproduction 30's prints fat quarters.Prize # 3: A fabric charm pack from Moda's Folklorique line. 40 five inch squares.

There will be a 4th prize, too (and maybe even more) but that one is not being shown (but there are details about it on Ryan's blog). So...go back to the link I gave you above and hurry over to read about it and sign up for it....and to wish Ryan a happy birthday!

REMEMBER....and a small giveaway

REMEMBER......

Many of you asked me to REMIND you of this......which I posted way back in May......it is a little bit of useless trivia for you...just in case you want to plan a special party for tomorrow.......LOL

At five minutes and six seconds after 4:00 a.m. on the 8th of July of this year, the time and date will be;

04:05:06 07/08/09

Note that they are consecutive numbers. I was told this will never happen again...but then someone else was a party pooper and told me it will happen again that night (exactly 12 hours later). Told you it was useless trivia!

To celebrate that AND my 250th post, I am having a quick little giveaway....just for those who are already HERE so please don't blog about it on your own blog. (You know how I like my regular readers to win and not some unknown person who won't be back after they try to win!) It is a panel of the Beachy Divas fabric from Elizabeth Studios (bought doubles of it at the LQS)....a fun summertime prize.....sort of silly....but this IS a silly day coming up tomorrow........04:04:06 07/08/09, right? I will wait until the 10th and draw a name from my regular people who come here all the time. SO....IF you want this prize, comment on THIS post. If you don't care for this prize, that's fine and my feelings won't be hurt. Please excuse the wrinkles in the fabric......was too lazy to iron it before I took the picture!!! Click on it to see it enlarged and in greater detail....and also to see the wrinkles more clearly.....LOL I also showed some of this fabric on my post yesterday when I showed photos of the bag I made with two of the "beachy divas" from the fabric.