Steph is having a giveaway....

Click HERE to read about the cute giveaway Steph is having on her blog!  This shows what she is giving away....a cute needle book she made!  Maybe you'll want to tell Steph I sent you.

A giveaway link....

Even though I really want to win this for MYSELF, I am providing you with the link to Gene Black's blog to see if you want to enter this giveaway.  If you don't want to enter, that's fine...more chances for me to win.....LOL   BUT...while you are there, sign on as a follower as he has an excellent quilting blog and even does video tutorials sometimes, too.   Click HERE to get to the giveaway post...and remember to become a follower while there!

REBA concert......

Saturday night we went to the Reba concert. This is what it looked like from our seats. Not too bad for the $25 we paid when a special was run on tickets for a couple of hours one night last week. I sat in the higher-priced seats that you can see down there when I saw Toby Keith, but...they are all on the same level and when people in front of you stand, you need to do that, too...or you can only see on the big screens...and that seems silly, to me, when you are paying the highest ticket price, so I prefer being a bit further away and being able to sit comfortably throughout the show.

While the seats were just fine for me, they were too far, though, to get any really good pictures as my camera doesn't have a really good zoom on it. This is about the best we could get with my zoom.....
We were very happy, though, to hear the music and enjoy Reba's fun personality and we could see well on the jumbo-tron screen to see her "up-close". As an "opening act" she had the gal who played Barbara Jean on the Reba TV show (which I never watched, but many at the concert seemed to know her well). Her name is Melissa Peterman and she was quite funny. Reba's musicians and vocalists in her group are exceptionally talented, and it was a joy to see how well they worked together!

On the quilting front, I have nearly finished the binding on a quilt that has been a few years in the making...worked on it a bit last week when I couldn't do much sewing with the family here. I will show it in my next post, I'm sure. I am going to cut out some sashing strips with my GO cutter today and try to get the jelly roll quilt-along blocks turned into a quilt. Since I don't really like my blocks, it's proving to be difficult to proceed with the quilt, but......I don't want to let them sit in a drawer forever, so...I'll plod ahead on the project!!! LOL

I also made more pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer. I think I will also make holiday pillowcases for my granddaughters for Christmas as they enjoyed seeing the ones I made so far.

Today my husband and I are meeting Stephanie (click HERE for her blog) and her husband for lunch...should be fun! (Steph and I have met already but our husbands are meeting for the first time today.)

The birthday girl.....and a question for you....

Last week hubby and I drove to NJ to surprise the granddaughter by picking her up from school on her 6th birthday. She was very confused when we got there and asked where her mom and dad were. (I guess she might have been momentarily worried something was wrong...even as young as she is.) We took her shopping for her gifts and then to her favorite restaurant....Friendly's. She wouldn't wear her birthday sticker (from her teacher) at the restaurant as she recalled that she was embarrassed and cried there last year when the waitresses came out and sang Happy Birthday to her...and she made us promise we would not tell them it was her birthday this time! Here are two photos of her that night at the restaurant.......(and below the photos, a question I have and hope one of you has an answer for me).No...she didn't eat all the ice cream.....she asked us to help finish it! And then back at her house none of the 3 of us was able to eat more than a bite of her cake!!!Okay...my question......how do I remove myself from the list of "Followers" on a blog??? There is a blog on which I signed up awhile ago that has no quilt-related posts ever now....and just in the 12 hours, the blog owner has done 31 posts on her blog!!! Isn't that totally ridiculous?? It is really clogging up my blog reader. So...I tried to go there and see if I could remove myself from the Followers' list, but I can't seem to do it. Do any of you know how to do it??? I hope so, because I have got to put a stop to this nonsense!!! OH...and thanks to all of you who had such nice comments to make here after I won the GO! fabric cutter from AccuQuilt. It is in transit and due here on Monday (according to the UPS tracking system). Raise your hand if you think I'm excited about this!!! LOL ADDED NOTE: Thanks to Jackie and Lola....I am now NOT a follower of that particular blog....Whew!!! She did another 12 posts that showed up on my blog roll just since I wrote my blog post today!!! Anyone who might want to READ all her posts, contact me and I'll give you the link.......!!!!!!

Am AMAZING giveaway.....

See that giveaway "button" at the top of my sidebar? You really need to check it out.....because it is one of the most amazing giveaways I've seen. Kelly is celebrating her 1st anniversary of her I Have a Notion website and is giving away 30 prizes........all GREAT ones (including such things as a terrific iron, EQ design software, free-motion quilting DVD's and more). The event ends on April 15 and you can go back and enter on any or all of the days that you see prizes you'd like to win. I told her I'd help get some folks to go there....so tell her Pat from Delaware sent you..... so she knows my bloggers are the terrific people I told her they were, so don't make a liar out of me....LOL. Be sure to go look, because you will love some of the prizes that are being offered! Just click on the "button" on my sidebar to get there and then go back to all her posts since March 15 to find all her prizes....and then keep going back to see the rest of them before the celebration ends. She has a wonderful on-line store, too, and the service she gives to her customers is wonderful.I have had oodles of typing to catch up on for my part-time job, so I don't have my photos ready yet from the quilt show. As I told you, AQS prohibits the quilt photos from being put online without permission from them AND the quiltmakers, so I can't put those photos here. BUT...I will put photos of my purchases and one or two from my class....hopefully, tomorrow. Until then, above is a photo of one section of the main floor of the show (taken from the second floor) and it shows just a small number of the vendors. (Click on it to enlarge it.) I love seeing the action from above like that and you can't always get those photos at shows....so I was happy to snap this one when I had the chance. Just look at all those people shopping and shopping!!!

"Good Eggs" giveaway begins today.....

You might notice the bunny on my sidebar who is hopping to the "Good Eggs" giveaway. Well.......if you want to participate in about 30 fun giveaways quite easily over the next few days, click HERE. That will take you to the blog of Sandi....our Mama Bunny for this fun event! She will have the list there of several blogs you can visit and each of those blogs will have a giveaway. The ending date for this fun event is March 28. (My drawing will be held that afternoon so my deadline for entry is noon Eastern Time on March 28.) To enter my giveaway, all you need to do is comment on THIS post. Be sure you have a way I can reach you (either by clicking on your name to be taken to your email information or your blog...or you need to leave your email address in your comment here on this post). That's all there is to it....I am not asking you to blog about it....just post here (and then I hope you will visit my blog occasionally even after the giveaway ends). Here is a picture of my prize......4 fat quarters that I think say SPRING....the print shows seed packets and the other colors look nice with that print. (The blue fabric has dragonflies in it.) I really like them and hope you like them, too. I may tuck in another surprise if I find something that is "spring-like". So click on the link I gave you above for Sandi's blog and HOP around to visit all the GOOD EGGS who are giving away some nice spring goodies! Good luck to all of you!!! NOTE: I won't have internet access for the next couple of days while I'm at the quilt show, so I won't be replying to any comments or visiting any blogs until the weekend (by which time I will be hopelessly behind on blog reading, I'm sure!)

This is cute.......

For a long time, I've wanted to make a teapot cozy. I did look for some patterns and found some, but I never got around to doing it. (You know...it was put on my "someday" list......that grows longer and longer all the time! I think many of you might also have a "someday" list...right?) Anyway......I was lucky enough recently to WIN a teapot cozy. Isn't it cute? It was made by Brenda of Scraps and Strings.

She also sent this really cute card. Sorry that my flash made the center of it look faded...it's not. Can you see the fabric piled up on the back of the bicycle and the pincushion on top of the pile of fabric? I think the card is really cute. I asked Brenda if she made it and she didn't...but somebody was clever.

Go find Jandi......

I found a new blog yesterday (like I needed another one to read....LOL) and she is having a giveaway. Her name is Jandi and she has relocated her blog to Blogger from Wordpress (where she'd previously been). She said some of her previous followers haven't been able to find her yet...so she is hoping this giveaway helps them to find her. Well...I hadn't been a follower of her on her Wordpress blog, but I DID find her on her new blog! Go have a look if you want to be entered to win her giveaway....which will have at least two nice prizes!!!

Thanks to all who made such nice comments yesterday on my 500th post (and to Gene, who even wrote a cute little poem for the occasion). I am going to look at the comments from the day before I announced the giveaway AND yesterday as well as the next day or two and give one entry to each person who comments and an extra entry to any commenters who are also followers of my blog. I have a few things that will be put into the prize package and I'll try to remember to take a picture of them soon and post it. By the end of this week, I will announce the winner.....so stay tuned!

A nice Valentine's Day.....

I hope all of you had a nice Valentine's Day. We had a nice Valentine's visit with our daughter and granddaughter (but we were tired.....it was nearly a 3-hour ride up and then back late yesterday afternoon/early evening). I will go through the few photos I took and get the better ones on the blog in the next day or two. In the meantime, I realize I forgot to show some packages I've gotten recently.....so here are a few photos of those.....

An adorable penguin lotion / soap dispenser Karen from Sew Many Ways bought and sent to me since she knows I am a penguin "nut"......if you have never visited her Tool Time Tuesday feature on her blog, you are really missing something GREAT!
Really pretty green rose fabric from Barb of Bejeweled Quilts by Barb...it looks grainy because of my photography, but it is really nice, soft cotton and I love it a lot!A random prize drawing I won from Pat at Quilting Can be Fun....
Handy tools.......a nice coaster and a beautiful fat quarter....Yummy white wool, a nice cookbook and a great handmade note from Sandi at
A Legacy of Stitches (which I won in her recent Wooly Buddies virtual retreat)A pretty fabric tablecloth from a good friend, Ev, who has no blog (and doesn't quilt....tells me she can barely thread a needle....LOL) She said if I don't like the tablecloth or it doesn't fit my table, I can cut it up and use the fabric. I need to get my table cleared of clutter to see if it fits, because I DO like the tablecloth a lot.With gifts like this in the mail, I didn't even mind seeing a few bills amongst them. LOL I hope you visit the blogs I highlighted above if you are not familiar with them, as they are really fun blogs to read!

Micki has me as her February "star".....

Some of you know "Micki" of Irish Muses. What you might not know is......her life story is a genuine love story. She was a school teacher in Camden, New Jersey, and along came Joe, a nice Irish fellow. He swept her off her feet and convinced her to marry him and move to Ireland. She retired from teaching and off they went. She left the U.S. in 1997. They began their time in Ireland together by camping in many places, because Joe wanted to show Micki the beauty of his country. (Having visited Ireland for a few weeks in 1994, I can confirm that it IS a beautiful country!) They discovered County Donegal together for the first time and were hooked on its beauty and decided THAT was the place to call home. Dunfanaghy is where they settled, which is in northwest County Donegal and, Micki tells me, is called The Northwest Passage. They bought what she calls a "wee cottage" near Killahoey Beach and she says they have found their "piece of heaven". See....I told you it was a real love story....girl from the Philadelphia area of the U.S. falls in love and marries a handsome Irish lad and now lives in a wee cottage near a beach in Ireland. She asked me to be her February "star" for her blog and gave me some interview questions to answer. I was surprised, honored and humbled by her request. If you wish to view my interview on Micki's blog, THIS is the direct link.....but I do hope you will stick around to explore the rest of her blog. She is very talented and very friendly. Be advised that right now, she is battling a reoccurence of a painful health condition and she probably won't be able to answer any comments or do many new posts on her blog for a bit yet. BUT...stop by and tell her hello anyway as she will be happy to see she has had "visitors" when she is well and can get back to her computer. This photo of her is a bit "fuzzy" as I had to steal it from her blog and try to enlarge it (as it was very small there). I'm sure if she was feeling better, she'd have given me one that isn't fuzzy, but this is the best I could do for now. Thanks, Micki (and hubby, Joe) for getting me interviewed and posted on your blog. While I don't know why I was chosen (having followed such tough acts as Barb Gaddy and Gene Black), it was fun to do it and to know that a part of me is now IN Ireland, a country I loved when I first saw it in person on that trip in 1994. (Come back here tomorrow....I will reveal my choice of 4 fat quarters for the "brown bag" project that I discussed here on Saturday and Sunday.)

A win and a fun new blogging friend.....

First...news of a 12-day giveaway....a prize a day.........go HERE (and scroll partway down the page) to see news of it on the blog called fabric artist 21. I'm sure it will be lots of fun!

Now.......to tell you about a win and my new blogging friend. I'm not sure exactly how I found Steph's blog (probably was sent there by another blogger) but I was happy to discover it a couple of weeks back and to find that she vacations quite close to me....in Ocean City, MD. We exchanged emails and intend to meet and go to a quilt shop together the next time she is in Ocean City. That will be great fun!

After I discovered her blog, she had a giveaway of an antique doll quilt she has owned for several years. I am always fascinated by antique quilts but don't own any. What better way to start than to win an antique doll quilt? AND.....guess what? I did win it!!! It arrived in yesterday's mail and I have two photos of it below. If you click on the photos, you will see some of it was done by hand (some by machine) but it is obvious it was well-loved and used. That gives it a really special charm, in my eyes. So....enjoy the pictures of it AND visit Steph's blog by clicking HERE.

Link to a great giveaway.....and a new "policy"....

Ryan at the blog called I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts is having a nice giveaway for 2 lucky winners.......the GREAT calendar pictured here as well as some "quilty" items. Click HERE to enter and to read the interesting story about how Ryan came to have these calendars.

Now for the new "policy" mentioned in my title for this post. For the past 12+ months, when someone has commented on my blog, I have made every effort to comment BACK to them...to thank them, etc. and I have succeeded about 95% of the time or better. I now find that I'm following in excess of 150 blogs (and gaining more all the time) and I like to comment on them. It is impossible now to do that AND to acknowledge all the comments made on my blog. So....please understand that I won't be able to continue doing that. I would rather spend my computer time going to your blogs and commenting there (and I think you'd prefer that, too) than to reply back to a comment you post here on my blog. (Of course, if you ask a question in your comment, I will make every attempt to answer and I will also try to reply to the first comment by every new person who discovers my blog.) For awhile, it was possible to reply to all comments AND keep up with reading blogs and commenting on them, but I've now reached the point where I had to rethink it all...and I think my plan will work out fine! I hope everyone understands.

Another "no picture" day here.....

Today is the 2nd day of my Lancaster quilt retreat with the neighborhood gals. You can be sure I am going to shop and buy lots of GREAT fabrics!!! While I am gone, HERE is a post from awhile back on Bonnie Hunter's blog that I've bookmarked. I thought I'd try one of these "crumb" quilts someday. Have any of you made them? (I think this is something Gene Black would like.) Bonnie shows the tips from this gal named Barb and a tutorial of how she makes these crumb blocks. It looks very easy and it sure would help cut back on my scraps. I need to do that soon OR throw them away....UGH....and I really hate to throw away fabric...even scraps....but the scraps are threatening to over-run my house. (Sorry for the 2nd post this week with no photo....very unusual for me!!!) I'll be coming up to my 1st annivesary of blogging soon...need to start thinking about a giveaway, too. Stay tuned!

CUTE scrappy quilt.......

Isn't this quilt cute?? I came across it while randomly surfing online. A tutorial can be found for it HERE at a blog called Brown Paper Packages. I can see how anyone making this could vary a bit from the tutorial and really have a fun time with this quilt. It can be funky or more "organized". The one shown on the blog is baby-sized, but it could be any size at all...just limited by the size of your scrap bin, I guess. I may try to make some strips from my scraps and keep them for a "someday" making of this quilt! MAYBE a table-runner size would be more workable for me!!!

Want to win a subscription to McCall's Quilting?

Last year, I was the lucky person who won a year's subscription to McCall's Quilting magazine. YOU can enter to be the lucky person this year. The giveaway is done by Molly....a quilting blogger in Texas. Click HERE to go to the post where she speaks of the giveaway. Sign on as a follower of her blog and tell her I sent you, okay? She is looking to increase her blog readers and you might be the lucky winner and within a short time, you can receive that fun magazine for a year. So hurry on over!!!

Gotta love the mail..........

When the mail brings things like I've pictured below, you've gotta be happy to see the mail carrier arrive, right?

First is a giveaway I won from Cora.......I thought it was going to be the pretty floral panels (there are 4 of them....will make great pillow covers) and also the Kaffee Fassett charm squares. BUT....Cora included some nice extras in the package......a Christmas apron with my NAME embroidered on it and a really cute drawstring bag in great colors. (I'll post a second photo of just the bag as it's cute as a button...click on it to see it in greater detail.....did you use a pattern, Cora, or is this an "original" by you??) Cora, you are very kind!!!
Next we have the walking foot that Lynda G so generously gave to me when she discovered I had to surrender my walking foot when my 4900 machine was given back to Janome (and the new 5200 model they gave me did not come with one). Sorry the photo is dark...guess I didn't use my flash and didn't realize it until I went to post the photo. Lynda had an extra.....and she was kind enough to give that extra foot to me as well as a little baggie of the tiny hair scrunchies that are wonderful for keeping thread and bobbins from unwinding! Thanks, Lynda.....you are a sweetheart. I will say again what I've said many times before.....quilters are THE BEST!!! If these gals are "new" to you, please be sure to visit their blogs by clicking on their highlighted names above.

A giveaway win for me......

Before I show my giveaway win, I want to thank all of you who have emailed and/or gone to Laurie's blog to see how you can help with the project she is putting together so our blogging friend, Terry, knows we are all thinking of her and her family right now. Also.....a sigh of relief that Barb (our blogging friend in American Samoa) is getting some messages out on Facebook AND has managed to do a blog posting since the earthquake and tsunami. We are all feeling lucky that she isn't hurt....even while at the same time we are very saddened at the tremendous devastation and loss of life so nearby to her home.

It seems almost wrong to post about something happy like a giveaway with all of this "stuff" going on around us, but I do want to acknowledge Cora's blog and her birthday and the giveaway she had, which I was lucky enough to win. Below are the prizes......and they are ones I love.....pretty floral panels (I'm thinking throw pillows) and also some great Kaffe Fassett charm squares. Thank you, Cora...and Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday today, too, to Gene Black....a great blogging buddy and friend. And...one more thing....how did it get to be October already???? Weren't we all just looking forward to summer...and now it's come and gone and it's OCTOBER already??? Geesh....that means the holidays are fast approaching, doesn't it????

2nd post for today...HELP a fellow quilter......

Earlier today, my post mentioned the hardship that has befallen Terry's family. (Look back one post to read that if you didn't already read it.) One of her blogging friends has an idea of something to do for Terry. Click HERE to read about it. I intend to participate by sending a block...will wait a day to see if colors are decided or if it's to be totally scrappy AND I'm going to include a couple of dollars. Nobody asked for the money, BUT...I'm sure it can be used...either towards getting the quilt top assembled and quilted OR to give the money to Terry. She has kids still in school and a husband in the hospital an hour from home and now will lose his regular paycheck for awhile....so I'm sure every little bit we can do will help. Quilters are known for their willingness to help others and we often do it for people we don't know.....so I'm only too happy to do this for someone as kind and caring as our blogging friend, Terry. Won't some of you go read the link I gave above and join me in this effort??? (Her friend is giving a prize...and that is pictured here. I'm not really interested in the prize...but I sure am interested in anything we can do to let Terry know we care.) OH..and her friend is hoping maybe a longarmer will read about this and donate his or her services to quilt the top for Terry so that expense can be spared.......if you are a longarmer who might be interested, let Terry's friend know when you click on that link above. UPDATE: colors have been decided.....reds, blues, yellows, browns as Terry's love is "country". The quilt will be a "scrappy love" quilt.

No picture but a good blog link today.....

Today is the day my daughter gets the lump removed from her breast and I am hoping and praying it is benign. Please keep this in your prayers...as it's a worrisome time for us, as you can imagine.

I don't have any photo for you today, but I stumbled upon a blog recently that shows a really incredible quilt. The gal takes you through her whole thought process (which is pretty extensive) and then shows the quilt....which is unbelievably wonderful, in my opinion. The gal has visited Egypt many times (due to her husband's job and where she has lived) and that was the inspiration for her quilt....and I just had to put the link here for you to go see. When you get to the bottom of that blog post of hers, I think you will be amazed at her quilt, too. Click HERE to read about it and see it.

A different way to square up blocks.....

I saw this on a blog recently......and I do admit I've had times when this might have helped me. I wonder if I'll recall this the NEXT time I have this kind of squaring-up problem? When you read it, the squaring-up is near the end....so stick with it (even though it's kind of long). It seems like a lot of work, but it also seems like it would work.

Today was the first full day with one of the grandkids......the 9-year-old. We had a fun time. Started the day off by doing about an hour of medical typing...then having to wait for a contractor to come measure something for the upcoming roof job here. Then.......off to the big (fairly new) Harris Teeter grocery store. It must be impressive as Em was very impressed with it....told me it's a GREAT store. (Funny to hear that from one her age.) We came home..unloaded the groceries (which contained many things I let her choose...love to do that when the grands come..special treats for them)....ate lunch. Then....between rainstorms, went to the pool...had a nice time. After that, cleaned up and got dressed...went to the Game Stop to let her choose a new game for her Nintendo DS. Then.....off to get her ChapStick as she needed some and none in the house, of course. I then let her choose where we'd eat dinner. She chose Friendly's. DH was playing a band job, so it was just a girls' night at dinner. We had a nice time there. Next...off to the library so she could choose some books to read...then a quick stop to hear DH's band playing in a nearby park. Off to the video store to get a couple of DVD's....pick up a couple of forgotten things at the grocery store there. Home to shower and get into pajamas....and now about ready to collapse. LOL

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Remember....due to grandkids (second one...the 5-year-old.... will arrive tomorrow night to join us through the 23rd)....I won't be online much to comment on blogs or reply to comments here. I will be reading your blogs and comments, though, in the early hours of the morning or late at night...just won't have time to comment. If there is something you really need to tell me (or something that requires a definite answer from me), please email me and put "important" in the subject line. I will be scanning emails at least once each day.

Sorry no photos today.....will try to do better tomorrow and in the days to come.