Shy Sherry & the Lakeside Ladies......

Our little neighborhood group (Lakeside Ladies) met at my house yesterday so I could help them with paper piecing. One of the gals was unable to come, but Sherry, Joann, and Kaye were here. Sherry finished her hummingbird (which you'll see in one of the photos). Kaye and Joann each got a good bit done on their goldfinch but we will meet again in a couple of weeks so they can finish. They all did very well...not too many mistakes and the ones they made were quickly detected and easily corrected. I think two of the three liked it......Joann is still not too enthused about it, from what I could tell. I didn't get to make a bird while they were here as I needed to spend the time helping them, but I did make a cardinal after they left. You can see that photo here, too.

Sherry & Joann working away on their paper-pieced birds.

Kaye at her sewing machine working on her goldfinch.
Shy Sherry (LOL) shows us her completed hummingbird...made in batiks...VERY nice....but wasn't wanting us to see her.......silly girl
My paper-pieced cardinal to add to my hummingbird and goldfinch I showed you a few days back

Quilt Diva.....

One of you, my fellow bloggers, (and I think it was Crispy but my memory is failing me right now) won a Quilt Diva pattern recently and I then emailed you the photos I took of MY Quilt Diva who is in my UFO pile (of course). You said I should share her with my other friends in Blogland. I worked on her at a class a couple of years ago and have yet to do the stitching around the MANY pieces of Quilt Diva. If I would make the time to sit and do that, I can then get it sandwiched and ready for quilting and then do some fun embellishments on her....a real bracelet...some quilt-show pins on her vest, etc. SO...for the rest of you...here is how Quilt Diva is looking right now. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.) Notice the real tape measure in her hair and the pieces of fabric hanging out of her suitcase are just dangling there, so they are 3-dimensional and flapping around in the breeze. She was fun to do but a LOT of work. Don't you love my wild color choices? (Actually, she looks a bit like Maxine except for the hair color, doesn't she?

Here is a full-length shot of her. The scissor blades are a metallic fabric. The letter I under her is a shadowed letter and the silvery part of the letter I is made to look like a sewing needle. Cute, huh? See the tape measure holding that wild "I Love Lucy" head of hair in place? And, yes...she has cleavage!!!And here you can see the pieces of stash fabric trying to escape from her little hand-held quilting case and the real zipper on her rolling tote. She's SUCH a fashionista, isn't she? Don't you just love her footwear??? LOL

For the birds.......Part 2......

Okay.......many of you said you couldn't wait to see the hummingbird, so I got that done right away to show you. Here are the two birds I've done so far. I think I am going to do a total of four........will add a cardinal and a robin to this. If I decide to go up to six, I'll then add a blue jay and a chickadee (so "stay tuned"!!!) Here is a photo of the hummingbird and the goldfinch. On Wednesday, I'll spend my time helping the gals learn how to do the bird they each chose and if I have time, I'll start on my cardinal or my robin. Oh, yes......also...
Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!!

This one's "for the birds"...........

Wednesday I will host the little neighborhood quilt group and work with them on paper piecing. I have done paper piecing with them one other time but they want to make paper-pieced birds from a book I have. There were to be 4 gals here (but one can't make it now). Two of them chose the goldfinch and the other two chose the hummingbird. I have the goldfinch sample completed (see photo...and please excuse the fact that Mr. Goldfinch has no eye yet). I am still working on the hummingbird. The hummer is a bit more difficult as it has some curved pieces. I goofed at the bottom of my goldfinch and accidentally took off the quarter-inch seam, but since it's only a sample that will be used by me at some point for a small wall-hanging, it's not too bothersome if his tail is a bit squared off instead of pointed. It should be a fun day and I hope the ladies end up happy with their paper-pieced birds.

It's all about the number 3........a GIVEAWAY.....

Remember the other day I posted about the birdhouse blocks I won in a guild BOM a few years back? You remember them........the ones that have been sitting as a UFO since then. Well....one of my regular blog readers REALLY liked them and has been needing to make a birdhouse quilt for a relative for awhile. SO......since I wasn't super-attached to them, I decided to give them to her and she is very happy about that. (That's ONE way to get a UFO out of the sewing room, isn't it?)

Anyway.......I like seeing my UFO pile get smaller.....so I found another of my many UFO's that will be involved now in a giveaway. I was in a swap of flowerpot blocks. I made 6 and sent them off and got 6 back. Now I have decided I have no need for all 6 of them. I kept 3 and will make either 3 small wall-hangings or 3 pillow tops. The other 3 are pictured here and are up for grabs as a giveaway. They are each 10 inches square and the applique is all fused on and then the raw edges were stitched. Maybe you will be interested in trying to win. So...look at the photos and then read the giveaway "rules" below the photos.

Flowerpot # 1

Flowerpot #2
Flowerpot # 3
Rule # 1 - this giveaway is ONLY going to be mentioned here. My personal blog giveaways are only for my regular readers...seems the fairest way to do it. I have grown tired of those who just show up after they hear about a giveaway but never show up after that. So.....you don't need to be mentioning this on your blog, okay?
Rule #2 - today is May 3 and so you will each get 3 chances to win and you can split your chances up in whatever way you decide (maybe 2 chances for flowerpot # 1 and only 1 chance for flowerpot #2 and no chances put in for flowerpot #3....OR maybe you only like flowerpot # 3 and want all 3 of your chances to go there...or maybe you want 1 chance for each of the flowerpots). You look at the flowerpots and you tell me where to put your 3 chances.
Rule #3 - if you are one of the winners, please agree to show us what you do with your flowerpot (or maybe you'll win more than one). I'd enjoy seeing if they become the start of a large quilt...or if they will become small wall-hangings or the top for a pillow cover.

Simple enough....3 flowerpot blocks to be given away......3 chances to win....3 rules!

The giveaway will be closed at 5 a.m. Sunday, May 10, and I will draw a winner for each of the 3 blocks that day and announce it on my blog the following morning. GOOD LUCK to all who decide to enter this giveaway! (And if you don't care for the blocks and don't wish to enter, no offense is taken!!!)

Hmmmm.....did you know......??

This has nothing at all to do with: quilting.....crafting.......or family!!! But...I found it interesting enough to put as today's post. It is a little bit of useless trivia for you...just in case you want to plan a special party for this "occasion".......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! (Told you it was useless trivia!)

The SHOCKING tale of a temporary blogless friend......

Many of you who read my blog have also been readers of a blog called FabricNFiber Fanatic......penned by Sara in New Hampshire. Well....since a couple of days ago, she has been blogless but NOT by choice. It seems that earlier this week, she posted about a giveaway on her blog (which many of us do). Within that post, she provided links to many of the people involved in the giveaway (another thing which many of us do). HOWEVER....unlike what has happened to any of us (or at least not to me...who has often posted MANY links on my blog), Sara's blog was removed from the internet by Blogger as they thought her blog might be a SPAMMING blog since it had all those links in it. HUH??? What is the MATTER with those folks???? I never saw anything about us not being able to put links of our blogging friends in our posts, did you???

Anyway....Sara is quite upset by this (as you can imagine). She is able to read other blogs and comment, but she really wants her own blog back. They have indicated it will be back...but she has no idea when. Maybe by the time you are reading this, it WILL be back online. I hope that's the case.

I offered to post about this and Sara was eager for me to do that...because she wants those of you who follow her blog to know what is happening. She and I talked about her starting another blog on one of the other blog sites, BUT...she'd then not have all her previous posts nor her list of blogs from her current blog. SO....for now she will be waiting for her regular blog to "return" from the land of the REMOVED. Let's all cross our fingers (and our toes) and hope this resolves for her soon. I know she reads my blog, so if you have comments for her, leave them at the bottom of this post, okay?