UGLY FABRIC brown bag adventure.....

Want to have some fun AND get rid of some of your "WHY DID I BUY THAT?" fabric??? Click HERE to get info on joining the Brown Bag Ugly Fabric contest at the Stash Manicure blog. I'm joining and will look forward to getting someone else's "ugly" fabric and turning it into something that I will KEEP (that's how the adventure goes!!!) We have until March to finish and there will be some great prizes for some lucky participants. I'll put this button and the link on my sidebar, too, so it can be easily found for awhile. Deadline for entry is Sept. 1. You know I will use my GO to cut this ugly fabric easily so it can be made into something that is NOT ugly!!!

Fun photos.....

Here are some photos from when my friend was visiting. She left yesterday morning. Now I need to prepare for the arrival of my 6-year-old granddaughter this weekend and she might be here for a little over 2 weeks. I better charge up my "batteries" so I can keep up with her for that long!!!

Rhea tried the GO cutter and was amazed by it. She doesn't quilt or sew but I think if she lived nearby and got to use this enough, she WOULD take up quilting.
We went to breakfast at a nice place near here on the Indian River Bay. This is Rhea with me after breakfast.And this is Rhea with my husband, Gary. We went to 4 very nice restaurants during her 5 days here. She loved all of them!Sunday night our friends, Linda and Jim, were kind enough to take us for a sunset cruise on their pontoon boat (on Indian River Bay). Here are Linda, Rhea, and me. It was a very nice evening and a beautiful sunset, as you can see!It had been 4 years since Rhea visited us, so we really had a nice time while she was here and we hope she comes back again soon.

I'm still here!!!

Just to let you know, my computer time is limited for the next few days. I have a houseguest...a very good friend who I don't see more often than every couple of years. I am doing my best to read your blogs but I won't be making many (any??) comments while she is here because that will save me some time. (If I take the time to make comments, it will be hard to read as many blogs.) So...don't be offended if you don't see me "talking" on your blog!!! Today I am going to show my friend the GO! cutter and let her try it. She doesn't sew but she does read my blog and has been excited about this......so today we will spend some time doing that. I know she will think it's really great...because it IS!!!

What a GREAT day it was!!!!

Yesterday was a really great day. If you read my blog post yesterday morning, you know I was going to meet Michelle (click HERE for her blog). I did and we were so chatty and comfortable and at ease with each other. I felt as if I'd known her for REAL for a long time (instead of just knowing her by way of our blogs for just about 2 years now). We had some laughs and talked about a lot of things....not just quilting. She is the wife of a career Air Force man (God bless those troops!!!) and I am the wife of someone who was in the Air Force many, MANY years ago. Both of our hubbies have been sent to foreign shores and conflicts that caused us both to have many days and nights of worry....and that is a bond that can only be understood by those who have experienced it. That...added to our common interests in quilting and scrapbooking and other crafts as well as sharing stories about family and about less-than-nice sewing machine dealers caused us to sit and talk for over 2 1/2 hours!!! (No....we were NOT eating all that time....thank goodness, huh??) We will definitely be getting together as often as possible. We know she will probably only be in this neck of the woods for 2 years, so we'll make the most of the time we can spend with each other. Here is a photo the waitress took of the two of us. Yesterday also had something else good happen for me. You all know I won a GO! cutter a couple of months back on AccuQuilt's Facebook page and I absolutely love that cutter. Recently, I was asked by them to have a giveaway for a cutter on my blog and that finished on Sunday. For doing that, AccuQuilt let me have 3 more dies for my cutter. A little over a week ago, they asked if any of us would make videos to show any tips we had for the cutter. I had an idea, but I was sitting on it for several days as I do NOT like to be in pictures or videos. However....I also feel very grateful to AccuQuilt for what I have gotten from them and for the fact that they have developed a product that is a wonderful addition to any quilter's sewing room. SO....I gave myself a good talking to...and I said, "SELF.....you get beyond your nervousness and make that darned video and show AccuQuilt how much you appreciate that cutter!" Yesterday hubby was the cameraman and video editor and we got the video done and put online. I still cringe when I watch myself, but it's gotten some positive feedback, so I guess I did okay with it. And now...it's done....and I'm glad. Whew! If you have a GO cutter or are fascinated by them and want to see the video, click HERE for the link. If you don't want to see it, that's fine, too!!! Be forewarned.....if your computer is slow, it will take a bit of time to download (which it does on mine). Today will be another good day, too, as a very close friend is arriving for a 5 day visit and she's not been here now for a few years! I won't be online as much while she is here, but I know she and I will have a lot of fun.

An exciting day today....

I am very excited as today I will be meeting another blogger. (I met Cecelia for lunch a couple of weeks back when she was in my area visiting her sister, as you probably remember.) Anyway, today I am meeting Michelle. (Click HERE for her blog.) Her hubby has been assigned to Dover AFB and they arrived a few days back. She and I had known each other for awhile on blogs.....since at least before her son went away to the University of Delaware where he'll be a junior this year. When she emailed me several months back and told me they were being sent to Dover this summer, I was VERY happy. She was happy, too, since it meant they would be a lot closer to their son's college than they were when they were out in Idaho! Now the big day for Michelle and I has come.....and we will be meeting at 11:30 this a.m. and will have lunch together. I am really looking forward to it. I will take my camera and hope we can get a waiter or waitress to take a picture of us during lunch!
Now....do you like that picture above? Isn't the quilting WONDERFUL? It was done by Mary who has a blog called Quilt Hollow. Some of you know her, I'm sure. She is entered in a Schnibbles' contest. People are voting for the Schnibbles' quilt they like best. There are prizes for the winners who MADE the quilts, but there are also prizes for the voters...so why don't you go vote and maybe win a prize? Click HERE to look at the quilts and then pick your favorite and vote on it. The contest is open for a few more days. All the quilts are nice, but if you have trouble picking a favorite, might I suggest Mary's (shown above)??? It is #11......My Sweet Addiction. Of course, if you like another one better, that's okay, too......because, as Mary says, the important thing is for everyone to have fun seeing the quilts and hoping to win a prize simply because they took the time to vote for one of them.

The suspense is over......

Here is a picture of the folded up entries....some blue, some gold, some white, and some pink... in the basket for the giveaway for a GO! cutter and dies on my blog. You will notice below the basket and near the notebook, there are 4 of the entries and one has a checkmark on it. The checkmark was a reference for me so I would know if the first name drawn already owned a GO (and would win the dies) and then another name would be drawn. I also had the date each person entered the drawing AND any identifying info if there was another person with the same name who entered on that date. (All the entries were kept in a folder in my computer...by date....for easy reference by me, too.)
Okay...I know...enough of THAT......you want me to cut to the chase and reveal the results. Actually, the first name out was a slip of paper with a checkmark on it indicationt it was someone who already has a GO (and she will win 3 dies).....so........ we had to choose another slip of paper for the GO cutter. (The second name did NOT have a checkmark on it....so that is the winner of the GO! Here are the two winners........Robin (rsislandcrafts) won the 3 dies and Stormy Days (Dana) won the GO! cutter. Oddly enough, both entries were made on July 16...the first day of the giveaway AND both live in Florida. (There must be good luck in the air down there!!!) My pastor joked with me that Stormy Days will probably have a very SUNNY day today when the good news reaches her!! I will be emailing both of them as soon as I post this to my blog. Thanks to all of you who entered and if I were a rich person, I would definitely give GO! cutters and dies to ALL of you....because I believe in the products so much. A very big thank-you to AccuQuilt, also. You are an amazing company with wonderful products, a fabulous staff AND a big heart!!!

GO! giveaway deadline has passed here....

No more entries accepted in my GO! giveaway as the deadline is now passed. Be on the lookout later today for the winner to be announced here!