A quick post

Last chance to enter the giveaway for the sewing machine cover. You must be a follower. I'll draw the winner tomorrow morning.
Hi Everyone
This is just a quick post to say hello and to thank everyone who has kept my mom in their thoughts and prayers. She is doing quite well and they expect her to be released from the rehab unit sometime next week. I know there is still a lot of work involved and hopefully we can get her back to where she was before her hip broke.
On a happy note, because we had to cancel our mini-vacation to visit our son in Arizona, he and his family are coming here! Yeah, I still get to see my grandchildren and have all my family together again!
I did make a little time for myself and got the rest of my bee blocks finished for my 3x6 bee on Flickr. I'm Hive #9.
Here they are.

Hopefully, I can return to sewing and blogging on a regular basis real soon.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

100 Quilts for Kids

100 Quilts for Kids - Help Spread the Word

It's almost time for the 100 Quilts for Kids charity drive to start. Help spread the word. Share it on your twitter, facebook, blog, and tell your friends, family, and quilting buddies. Get the word out there, and help make some quilts!

100 Quilts for Kids Basics
-Make a baby, toddler, or twin sized quilt.
-Take pictures of the quilt, and add them to the 100 Quilts for Kids flickr group.
-Link up on September 28-30 or October 12-14 to be eligible for fabric related prizes.
-Donate your quilt to a child or organization in your community.

Head on over to Swim, Bike, Quilt for all the details. What? You're still here! Get on over there now! What are you waiting for?!?!?

I am spreading the word, but due to the fact that I will be overwhelmed with my mom's recent hip break and surgery I will not be participating. It's a great cause and  I wish I could play along.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The GOOD news is my son, Michael,

who has been trying very hard to get a job on the fire department found out yesterday that all his hard work has paid off. Yeah, he is now officially a fireman, or will be after the academy is complete! Now I can add one more thing to the reasons he makes me proud to be his mom...his perseverance!

The BAD news is my mom broke her hip and will have surgery this morning. Thanks in advance for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers.

The UGLY, well that just goes with the movie title, so it has to be Madeline, our bulldog. The sweetest dog in the world!

It's going to be crazy around here for a few weeks. Our goal is to get my mom to be able to put on her dancing shoes and make it to my nephews wedding in 4 weeks.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

Kitchen gifts winner and one last giveaway

The winner of the pot holder, pot handle grabber and kitchen dish towel is lucky commenter #13, picked by Random.org.

Congratulations to Angela, who said

Sew Loquacious Angela said...13

Happy Blogaversary! Your kitchen items are terrific! I love the fabric you've used.

I can't really think of a mix up I'm guilty of, but we still laugh about my husband using Honey Smacks cereal (instead of bread or oats) as the filler once when he a meatloaf!! It didn't turn out too yummy!

Angela

August 20, 2011 7:10 PM 

That would not be a good flavor in a savory meatloaf. I really enjoyed everyone's funny stories of kitchen mishaps.

August is coming to a close and thus so is my month long Blogaversary celebration. I have had so much fun sewing little projects to give away, making new friends and finding new blogs.
To be eligible to win my last giveaway you must be a follower and I have to be able to see that you follow through viewing your profile. Just leave me a comment, any comment will do.
I have to admit I am so pleased with the way this sewing machine cover turned out. It is made with Kate Spain's new Terrain fabric and linen. Here it is. I hope you are as excited about it as I am.

I don't even have a sewing machine cover so I guess I'll be making another one of these for myself real soon.

You can register for this giveaway, by leaving me a comment, until Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at midnight, California time. I will draw the winner September 1, 2011. One entry per person. I will ship international.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

First day of school

Our little granddaughter, Davis, started pre-school a few weeks ago. Here she is on her first day all ready to go in her layered skirt, silver sandals and backpack in hand. Can you stand all this cuteness? I thought I would use her photo for Kim Klassen's Back to School challenge for Texture Tuesday. After adding a layer mask and adjusting the hue/saturation to give it a more vintage effect, I used Kim's Just Stitched texture, soft light at 100% and Sweettart texture, overlay 100%.

thanks for stopping by,

"di"

If it's Tuesday, what happened to Monday?

I am on call for jury duty all week so I don't want to plan anything or get too involved in a project because at noon everyday I have to call to see if I have to appear at 1 in the afternoon each day. Such a pain, but I am doing my civic duty, I guess. With that said, I forgot to make my list yesterday. Let's first see how I did on last weeks list.
This weeks list (Make a List Monday, week 4)
1. Buy backing fabric for baby carrot quilt. Ordered, but not yet received. I had originally wanted to back it with carrot print fabric but I guess it is out of stock in most stores and I was unable to find it on line. But I have a new idea sparked by this pieced block. I can't remember who's blog I saw it on, sorry, so I can't give the credit to the creator of this cute block.

2. Start Swoon quilt I have completed two blocks so far. One was blogged about here and this is the second block.

3. Finish secret sewing project Finished some and still working on others
4. Make 3 Farmer's wife blocks The Farmer's Wife and I had a break-up and I will return to this project after we make up.


Make a List Monday, Week 5
1. Cut out Across the Seas quilt for QAL 
2. Finish bee blocks for 3x6 Quilting Bee.
3. More secret sewing
4. Make 1 Swoon block
5. DON'T GET ORDERED TO REPORT FOR JURY DUTY!!

Nine years old

It's hard to believe that our first grandchild celebrated her 9th birthday over the weekend. It was so fun to see her with all her girlfriends, happy and giggling as they swam and ran around acting like "girls". Remember, I raised 4 sons, so I am not used to all this girl stuff.
Makenzie had asked us many months ago if we would get her an ipod touch for her birthday. We were super excited to be able to give her something that she really wanted. It was definitely a hit! I even made her a cute little pouch (I followed this tutorial, making it 1/2" wider to accommodate the protective case ) to keep it in and protect the "bedazzled" cover we got her for it. For this week, we are pretty cool grandparents!

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

52 Lists, Week 12

Linking to On the Brink of Something Beautiful, once again.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

Another blogaversary giveaway

Here is the next giveaway to celebrate my blogaversary. It is a kitchen set of 1 pot holder, 1 pot handle grabber and a dish towel. All made using Lori Holt's Sew Cherry line of fabrics.
One lucky winner will receive these kitchen accessories.

Leave me a comment telling me your funniest kitchen mishap. Here's mine...I was giving an elegant bridal shower for a friend's daughter to be and had covered the gas cooktop with a board, decorated it  and then used it as more counter space. Someone walked by and leaned against the stove knobs and one accidentally turned on and started a fire. Luckily, we caught it in time. It was not funny at the time, but I can laugh about it now.

This giveaway will close on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at midnight, California time. Be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply commenter.
Off to sew. Have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

Saturday, fun day!

Mr. R is at a class all day so I planned to get lots done today...clean up the garden, sew and actually take a shower and wash my hair! Ha! Ha! But here it is after 10 am and I am still scouring the blogs, Flickr and Pinterest while I watch Project Runway. I know, Procrastinator is my middle name.
Here is the next installment in my Quilt Chronicles. This quilt was made for my sweet friend, Lindsay, on the occasion of her high school graduation, in 2005. Her mom snatched a few of her favorite t-shirts, some photos and childhood artwork of Lindsay's and I made them into a rag quilt. It's not my style anymore but it is definitely a memory for Lindsay and a soft and comfy reminder of her high school days.

Check out this giveaway!

There is a wonderful giveaway at Jackie's Art Quilts, sponsored by The Intrepid Thread.

 I'll just say this TAZA! So gorgeous!

Winner will be chosen August 26th

The teacher once said, "doesn't play well with others"...

A friend and I had a parting of the ways this week. It has actually been brewing for a few weeks now. I know it's not her fault, but she was making me put demands on myself that I was not enjoying, so....
The Farmer's Wife and I are taking a break! Ha! And you thought I meant a real person.  No, she's a really nice project to work on but I was not enjoying her company very much and I didn't like the choices I was making for her so I just decided to put her aside for a while. It doesn't mean we won't be friends again, I just want to play with others right now. All you other gals playing with the Farmer's Wife are doing such beautiful work and I just want to think mine is as pretty, but right now I am loving a few other projects more. But, here are my favorite blocks that I have made, so far!

If you want to see some really pretty Framer's Wives go to the Flickr site and see what others are doing.

 Right now I would rather be working on my Swoon quilt.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

And the winner is...

Amorette!

Congratulations! Random.org has chosen comment #71 from the 285 comments I received on the giveaway post.

I will be in contact with you to get your mailing address and Julie will be sending the Little Apples Jelly roll directly to you.
Thanks to Julie, at the Intrepid Thread, I have 59  new, wonderful followers and I have found some new to me blogs to follow, too. Be sure to check out the Intrepid Thread shop whenever you need or want beautiful fabrics! (You notice how I said NEED?)
I will be announcing my next Blogaversary giveaway tomorrow. It's part of the secret sewing sessions I have been doing.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

Swoon and a quilt-along

I started another quilt. I am so excited to be making the Swoon quilt by Camille Roskelley. I have had the pattern for a while and I purchased Joel Dewberry's new Heirloom line of fabric in the Citrine colorway, and a few additional fabrics Julie from the Intrepid Thread helped me choose. I cut all the background fabric and two fat quarters,  yesterday. The quilt uses 18 fat quarters.  I am using Kona Snow for the background fabric. It is the perfect white to go with the Heirloom fabrics.
Here is my first square. This will be a fun quilt. The squares are all the same but with different fabrics and really easy to follow directions. I love it!
These are large blocks, 24" squares. The quilt will be big and beautiful.

I have joined another quilt along. I like working on a project with my online community of friends. For this  QAL I am sewing along with Annabella from Morocco and Jennifer from North Carolina.  Jennifer and Sarah, from Ireland, put this Across the Sea quilt along together. It's an 8 week time frame, low pressure QAL. I hope you will think about joining us. Here are the fabrics I have chosen to use, a layer cake of Kate Spain's Terrain and some gorgeous Kona jewel tone solids, on a background of  Kona Coal. After we get out first instruction I will decide how to incorporate the solids or maybe not use them at all. They are just so yummy!

You still have until tomorrow night to enter the giveaway, so go to the top of the page and click on the giveaway link, if you haven't entered already!

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

The Butterfly

linking up with Faith, Hope and a Whole Lotta Love's Wordless Wednesday.

Funny Girl

It's Texture Tuesday again and this week Kim has asked us to texturize a photo that expresses our favorite movie. I don't have just one favorite movie. Just this week I added another movie to my favorites list, The Help! This movie was so good and opened my eyes to the racism that was going on in our country when I was a young girl. I was so detached from that life style, living in California, that I only read about it in history books in high school. The book was good, but the movie brought all the characters to life. You must see this movie. It is a tear-jerker, but so, so good!
So back to my list:
The Thomas Crown Affair
The Notebook
Life is Beautiful
Blood Diamond
Somethings Gotta Give
Yanks
The Way We Were
and my first favorite movie...Funny Girl.
I am a huge Barbra Streisand fan and so I decided to use this photo of my granddaughter (from a few years ago) and call it Funny Girl. Makenzie and her brother were making funny faces while eating oranges with Papa.
I used Kim's scripted edges and just stitched textures after using the Pioneer Woman's Heartland action.

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

Make a List Monday, Week 4

First let's see how I did on last week's list!

Make a List Monday, Week 3
This week I hope to get a lot accomplished. I have two quilts that are ready to go to the finished stages. 
1. Add the sashing and borders to Baby Carrot's quilt. Buy the backing fabric and get it to the quilter. Finished the sashing and decided that's all it needs. I have not purchased the backing fabric yet, but I know what I want. Can you guess? After I purchase the backing I will take it to my local long arm quilter.

2. Sew the Rockin Robin quilt together and add borders. Get it to the quilter. It's ready to go, I just need to decide who will quilt it. Lisa from That Crazy Quilt Girl has expressed a desire to quilt it. That should be a fun experience to have a new to me quilter put her spin on my quilt..

the pieced backing uses all the same fabrics from the front

3. Make the postcard with a Bloom theme for the Do What You Love postcard swap. Finished, sent and already received by the recipient.
4. Make 2 Farmer's Wife blocks. I only finished one block.

#81

5. Choose fabrics for the Color Wheel Charm Square Swap. Ordered but not received yet.
6. Start the Swoon Quilt. This last one might be pushing me a little too much, but I am ready for a new project. Didn't even have time to think about it. Hopefully this week!

7. Do some secret sewing for another giveaway. Although I didn't get the giveaway sewing done I did make this cute little pot holder set to include in a housewarming gift for our friends.

This weeks list (Make a List Monday, week 4)
1. Buy backing fabric for baby carrot quilt.
2. Start Swoon quilt
3. Finish secret sewing project
4. Make 3 Farmer's wife blocks

That's all I am committing to right now. I think I was putting too many demands on myself to get things done too quickly. It's not a race, this is just a hobby for me, right?

Thanks for stopping by,

"di"

If you haven't already done so,  remember to sign up for the giveaway at the top right of the page. With the help of  Random.org I will be picking the winner on Friday morning.

I'm linking up to the Blogger's Dinner Party at Needle and Spatula