eBook Winner!

Thank you everybody for stopping by!

My winner for the ebook version of Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe is:

#69, Heather

Blog Blitz!

As I had mentioned, I'm one of the 18 contributors to the new book, Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe.

There are all kinds of awesome quilty bloggers in this book, and I'm honored to be included among them.



My quilt is called Starflower.

I designed it late last summer, at the time thinking quite a bit about the negative space we constantly talk about.  I thought it would be cool to look at the idea of reversing the prints and negative space within both traditional and common modern quilts.  The change in quilt design that results is really fun and sometimes surprising!

Well, the publisher's Blog Blitz is starting, and that means free stuff for you!  Leave a comment here, and you have a chance to win the ebook - 19 cool, modern quilt patterns for you to follow or give inspiration.

Mark sure you leave your name and email address, linked through or part of your comment, that's how they will get your ebook to you.

Even better, enter a ton of times - not only one chance here, but at Martingale and all 18 blogs.  Follow Martingale's link to get to all your other chances:  Martingale Blog Blitz

We will all pick our winners on Tuesday, January 29th.

Good Luck!

i spy......

I have a fun little giveaway planned and want to try out Rafflecopter.

It seems to easy and cute - and they have an adorable little helicopter mascot that needs naming right now. There's a link below to enter to give him a name - a free Kindle Fire if they pick it! Seemed like a fun thing to do this evening.

I have a couple more bits to gather before I do my giveaway. But it goes along with a WHOLE bunch of modern i-spy fabric I've been pulling from my stash.



(HELP Leigh........ I already bought more fabric this month!)

Traveling Art for Becket

I made a Traveling Art Show for Becket last night from an awesome tutorial at Bread and Buttons. It went together super fast! This is high on the list of things people suggest for in-flight entertainment.

I was going to use velcro to close it for Becket to work himself, but he actually should learn how to tie. You don't really learn that since all the shoes are velcro! So I ended up using some Hancocks Fabric twill tape I had saved.

We went to Staples this morning and he picked out a few of the things for the inside so far. We'll add some stickers and mini activity books, too.

He just saw me typing this up and ran to get it - he's opening and closing and testing it out. I may have to hide it until the trip!

I used some really yummy echino fabric with 1974 stash. I seriously want to win, but you may want to enter Penny's give away....you can win a little shopping spree at superbuzzy and get some echino for yourself!

It's May Giveaway Day!

Welcome all for May Giveaway Day!

I must say I have an ulterior motive here. You know how newlyweds are so happy and they want everybody else married too. I'm having so much fun with my new obsession, that I want you addicted also! So, I have a couple of things for you.

It started innocently enough - I need some kind of handwork to keep me sane on an upcoming airline flight. There so many cute hexagon projects popping up lately, I had to give it a try.

And of course I found that it's the perfect little handwork to fill in for the carry-along I miss now that I don't knit much anymore!

With some of my first hexagons, I've made you a Lunchmate. Perfect little thing now that picnic weather is near. Open and unroll for a nice, clean spot when you're eating outside! Picnic tables can be a bit gross especially if you find a nice one under a pretty tree where birds may sit.

Leslie, at Fluff & Nonsense, made up the Lunchmate as a gift for her mom. And I thought it was awesome! I asked Leslie if it would be ok for me to copy the design for this little giveaway. She so kindly said yes, and then sent me the construction notes she had made for herself. Thank you Leslie! I put linen for the inside with the hexagons, and that yummy orange dot for the outside. Totally washable.

I also want you to give hexagons a try yourself. I made a little starter package (or add-on package if you're already addicted).

A packet of 25 card stock templates in the 1" size, and a nice stack of 70 modern 2.5" fabric squares.

To enter, please give me at least one idea to entertain a child on a long airplane flight. I want to work on my hexagons and not just entertain the 4, 11, and 13yr olds!

One person will win both of these prizes. I'm in Chicagoland and will ship internationally, but you need to have an email linked to your comment in some way so I can get a hold of you! I'll pick a winner on Thursday night - Good Luck!

Must. Gather. Others.

Can you possibly guess what I'll have for you on Sew Mama Sew's May Giveaway Day?

Go sign up to spread your own love.

Then make sure you enter here on Monday.
You know you want to.

Blistered be thy tongue!

{Romeo and Juliet}Today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day here in Chicago, and that has been my favorite line since Freshman year in high school.

More importantly, I have a winner of these lovely fabrics...... Meg - a college student that loves to sew. Send me your address and I'll get these off to you!

Thanks for all the nice words and hellos from everybody! I also found several new blogs to add to my reader.

I have the top and a back pieced for my huge shoo fly quilt.

And a little pile of fun for the small quilt I'll make from the ousted lemon shoo fly block.

I must leave with one more Shakespeare quote - he shouts the best insults: Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe. {Henry IV}

Giveaway & Use my stash year : week 16

First, the required accounting of my stash. Still going the wrong way.

Busted: 2.417

Purchased: 6

Net YTD: (21.147)

no, seriously - some day this will be a positive number

And what is this mob of quilters doing? I'll share the fun from our Modern Guild meeting later this week.

Now this little package for you will help me with my stash. Along with gobs of other quilty bloggers, I turned 1yr old yesterday. That first blogger quilt festival really kicked many us into action!


Besides being a log of what I've finished, I've found lots of great, quilty friends! So for you, I have two fabric favorites - a FQ of lime dandelions and nearly a quarter yard of Heather Ross' cute bagged goldfish. It's just a little short on one end, hope you don't mind.

Just say 'hi' and I'll pick a winner on Friday :)

Ticker Tape Parade!!!!

I present the "Ticker Tape Parade" - a collaborative quilt by myself and the 5th graders - 62" square now that it's washed, crinkly, and soft! This quilt will auction at the Home and School adult social.

All the kids had a 5" square to create, and I ironed it down to get them home (Heat-n-bond on all the bits). This of course was all inspired by Amanda Jean's awesome Ticker Tape quilt. The kids' blocks were all pieced together with Kona Ash solid blocks.

Then I stippled the solids and raw edge quilted the kids' creations. I did all the squares free motion - it kept me from having to shove the quilt through four ways for every little bit. And there were a LOT of bits. I estimate there were at least 600 little pieces!

There was one spot left, so I made a block with the school year and name. All the blocks have the children's names on them. (Can you tell I had light issues?! I had the worst time even getting things to work with photoshop.)

I chose a busy print on the lighter side for the back - you can hardly see all the strange quilting and stop/starts on this print.

My neighbor is another 5th grade mom and will be at the auction. She's planning on bidding and said she'll call with the end amount. I'm interested to see what it goes for. It was a cool project and the kids loved doing it!

Another thing to celebrate - today is my birthday! I came up with the best idea last night....since I LOVE the Olympics and also want to sew, I set up a temporary table right in front of the TV.


I plan on quilting and watching Snowcross all day today. Until that starts, I'm happy with Gordon and BBCAmerica!

Finally, for making it all the way to the end of my big party today, I have some extra Kei dots to give away. Tell me what your favorite winter Olympic sport is and I'll randomly pick a winner Tuesday night. Until then you'll find me in my sweats with my hair in a headband enjoying my birthday!

Needle winner

Random number.org spit out my lucky number 4! It's Laura, from May Your Bobbin Always Be Full. Laura, leave me your email so I can contact you for your snail mail address. And as I changed my bobbin the fifth time on that big picnic blanket, I was wishing I had engineered that cone-bobbin already so my bobbin would be full.

But now we're driving off for the weekend to my nephew's 4th bithday, so it will have to wait. I have a couple of good books on CD, though, so we should all enjoy the long drive.

Quilting along....

I'm plugging away on my summer picnic quilt. Perhaps I'll finish it before the official first day of school in less than 2 weeks?!

I also did one more experiment. I'm a mechanical engineer, so I make and fix stuff. I had to try one more time to figure out what the deal was with those sharp needles!

I didn't come to any solution, but was able to repeat the issue I had seen before, which is at least satisfying. Don't you hate it when your car or appliance has an issue and then totally behaves when the repair guy comes! Anyway, I end up with a skipped stitch if I go over any seem. The only difference between those two rows of stitches is sharp vs universal. And in both cases I was careful to make sure they were installed well and the machine won't let you put a needle in backwards.

Oh well, one of you will enjoy 9 new, and 1 very slightly used machine needles. Be sure to comment in the previous post to be entered in that giveaway.

Tool Time Tuesday giveaway (and another pink star)

I have these sharp needles.




I thought for sure I would love them, but they are driving me up a wall! I don't know what the deal is. Perhaps some strange incompatibility with my machine. Every time I try them, I get skipped stitches. I have a brother Innovis NX-450Q that I love and kindly de-fuzz bunny after each completed quilt. So it is not a machine issue.

I use the same brand needle that is made for quilting and love them, so it isn't the brand. For general piecing and stitching, I now use only the 11/75 Universal needles. I am happily back to nice, even stitches.

I have tried everything to fix the problem, and gone through a whole package over time, but it seems they are the culprit. I can't return them, since I already de-packaged the little buggers. I made them pose with another of my pink and orange stars.

I'm sure somebody out there uses these guys successfully, so if you want them, leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on Thursday.


If you hate them leave a comment, also. But I won't make you take them if I pick your name. I'm curious if it is just me, my machine brand, what?

Ready to Go

The binding is on, ready to work on at my Gram's.

I put the final join at the bottom left, as you really won't see it where this quilt is going to hang because I didn't want to see an awkward break in the pattern. Of course, it somehow worked out perfectly! I certainly couldn't plan it that well.

I'm bringing a few of my quilts to show her. And while I'm there I'll try to take a picture of the first weaving I did in grade school. I made it into a pillow and Gram still has it on her couch.

Finally, be sure to go over to the Moda Bake Shop - Julie has a super cute pincushion tutorial up. I thought they would make cute bowl fillers or baby gifts, too (without the pins of course!). Visit her blog while you're at it for a fun giveaway.

Neptune winner!

Well now I have to plan several other island trips after those fun guesses! But for this one we are going to Kauai and Maui. I can't wait!

Mr. Random chose Chen as my winner! Hurray for more fun mail.

One more Hawaii picture - I still can't believe that an ocean can be so clear and blue.

Guess where I'm going...

..and win some Neptune fabric! I thought I would celebrate my finished quilt and getting all 5 of us to our tropical destination on points (and hopefully earn some good karma so I can get all of us back on points when I make those reservations!) by giving away some oceany fabric.

six layer cake pieces - two of each print

Go back a couple of days to my 'Speed Binding' post and try to figure out where I'm going. Those three pictures represent two different locations. Last time we went, Caleb helped some locals dam a stream...

Leave a comment with your guess and I'll let Sir. Random pick a winner when I get up on Friday. Follow me for an extra entry! Good luck.

Mini Quilt Monday and Sewn Launch Give-Away

The binding was sewn during the Lacrosse game Saturday and I love it! This mini quilt really brightens up the kitchen table. So quick and fun - plus a great way to try out new techniques - I will certainly be doing more!

And now, with help from the random number generator, the winner of the fun pattern for Bonzer is:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:107
Timestamp: 2009-06-08 12:13:42 UTC

Dan and Karen said...
These are so cute! My son loves koalas and I love Melly and Me patterns. Have you seen the adorable monkey pattern they have? Thanks for a great giveaway.
6/05/2009 7:32 PM

I had so much fun visiting all of your blogs! I hope you have enjoyed reading mine. At this rate I am not too far from a 100th post giveaway!

Sewn Launch Party Giveaway!

To celebrate the launch of the new Australian website SEWN I have decided to join the Launch Party Blog Giveaway!

"SEWN is new and innovative online quilting and sewing community for all lovers of fabric crafts. There will be Tips and Innovative Tools to help with your projects, an Advice Centre for all your sewing questions, online forums and chats, and information on your local shops, sewing groups, quilt groups and classes.

SEWN will feature designers and shops from Australia and New Zealand,as well as the latest from the USA, Canada,Europe and Japan.

There will be articles, interviews and tutorials from industry experts,competitions and free patterns! We’ll even be reporting via podcast from craft shows around Australia and the USA."

It sounds like so much fun! Go check out the website and by joining the SEWN Launch Party you are also in the drawing for more terrific prizes.

So, to join the fun I decided to give away this super cute Australian couple! The pattern for Bonzer & Beaut by Melly & me.

I love them so much, I accidentally bought two, so enter my giveaway and one pattern set can come live with you!

To win all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. The random number generator will pick the lucky winner who will be announced here on Monday, June 8, 2009 - the launch date of the new website.