A Major Award!

And it's not a leg lamp!

The Fat Quarter Shop had a Mega Quilt Market Sweepstakes contest.  I answered all the questions for my entry.  I forgot about it.  Weeks later I get an email saying I won a sweepstakes and I needed to provide my information.  I guess I am very suspicious.  I thought it was a scam.  But, then something was tickling the back of my brain and I started getting butterflies in my tummy.  I went on FQS's blog and it all came back to me!  This was no scam!  I actually was a winner in the...

FAT QUARTER SHOP'S 2014 MEGA QUILT MARKET SWEEPSTAKES

(yes, I'm yelling!)

FQS was giving away 4 different buckets chock-full of quilty goodness to 12 lucky winners! You can see the video of all of the prize buckets here.   I won bucket #4 and they actually sent the bucket!  Look at all this stuff...

Let's go through it, shall we?  First up, a beautiful bundle of April Rosenthal's new Best.Day.Ever. ... look at this colorful stack!  I was so excited about this -  I love April's Quiltcast podcast with Amy Ellis and I'm thrilled to have her fabrics!

Next was a stack of Far Far Away by Heather Ross from Windham Fabrics (Get outta town! Really?  This basket just gets cooler and cooler!)

And yet another stack..the beautiful Tule by Leah Duncan  from  Art Gallery Fabrics...

As if that all wasn't exciting enough, they included two designer boxes of Aurifil threads...Edyta Sitar's Over the Rainbow and V and Co's Simply Color (I actually have this fabric line on my shelf!)

Gorgeous!

Here's a beautiful set of Bali Crackers a/k/a 10" batik squares...

A trio of mini patterns and the Mini Hex N More ruler from my friend Julie of Jaybird Quilts!

A bottle of Appli-Glue and a whole case of Sewline items...their great marking pencils, glue pen, refills, erasers (I love their stuff)...

Five different magazines...

And I was really excited to get this new book from Little Miss Shabby Corey Yoder.  (I'm currently stitching Corey's free Quilty Stitches cross stitch-a-long).

Two great books from the Me and My Sister Designs gals

And these two fun patterns...

And look!  I can even open a beer with my beautiful new blue bucket while I'm sewing!

I've always loved shopping at Fat Quarter Shop...your order is always so nicely wrapped and they have a great selection.

A big fat Thank You to Fat Quarter Shop!!  You rock!

Show & Tell Tuesday...Modern Quilt Guild Challenge

Earlier this year, the Modern Quilt Guild held a Michael Miller challenge.  I love the juicy-ness of the stack of fabric the Philly Modern Guild handed out...those oranges get me every time!  I really had no idea what to do with them, and then I saw what  Katie Ringo (of Katie's Quilting Corner blog and podcast fame) was doing for her challenge and was totally inspired.  Go check out her deconstructed Dresden.  I love it and the quilting she's doing on it is amazing!

I went a little more traditional with my Dresden...

I chose to put some hexies in the corners to "border" my Dresden and I love the blue background - it's some Quilter's Linen I had on hand.  I used up my scraps for a scrappy binding, making good use of my little stack of fabrics.

Also, I finally got to use the really cool wavy line quilting I've been seeing all over.  I couldn't figure out how to get my Bernina to do this stitch, which is an elongated zig zag.  Many thanks to my friend Becky, who found the right stitch on my machine (it's stitch #4 on the Virtuosa 160).  I was so thrilled!  I couldn't believe that a machine that can do a gazillion stitches (at least!) couldn't do this one simple thing.  As usual, it was operator error.  o:)

I can't wait to do this on something else!

I'm linking up to Randi's Show & Tell Tuesdays.  She's showing a very beautiful quilt herself over there today!

A QAL for Charity

Last month I read Amanda's (Crazy Mom Quilts) post about the Scrap Basket Quilt-a-Long she was hosting to benefit Margaret's Hope Chest.  Amanda posted directions to make a rail fence quilt - a great stash-buster project and I jumped right in.

I pulled out a box of fabrics I had purchased a number of years ago to make a Chinese Lantern quilt that still isn't quilted (I should though, it's a very pretty top) and thought I'd use them to make my rail fence (there were a LOT of left-overs, there are STILL a lot of left-overs.) I also pulled out a backing I'd purchased a while back so the entire quilt is from stash.  So, it was a pretty good bust!

I used a new pantograph called Filigree from Urban Elementz...it stitched up quickly and I love how it looks..

My friend Becky also quilted-along and made a fabulous version...check it out here.

My contribution will be sent off to Margaret's Hope Chest this week.

Thanks, Amanda, for hosting this very worthwhile quilt-a-long!

Happy Mother's Day!

I should be working on this with the looming deadline....

But instead, I pulled these....

To do this...just for me!

I'm too late to "quilt-a-long" with Lee's (from Freshly Pieced) Supernova Quilt-a-Long, but I'll just quilt a long by myself.   This was brought to my attention by Stephanie at Late Night Quilter (a new addition to my blog roll) who is hosting a Supernova Friendship Block Swap along with Sandra from One Million Stitches.  Since I never met a Hope Valley quilt I didn't like, it just sucked me in!

So after a very nice breakfast and some very sweet gifts from hubby, I'm going to get started (because the boys are cooking dinner tonight!).

Goo Goo Clusters - an addiction courtesy of my friend Luanne

Have you ever heard of Na Hoku jewelry from Hawaii?  I hadn't.  It's beautiful...I told hubby it opens up a whole new gift giving option!  I would have picked just about anything from the catalog.  This "mommy and baby" turtle with Koa wood is just beautiful!

Happy Mother's Day!

Birthday Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the beach for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday.  The kids joined us and we had a fabulous time.  I did squeeze in a little sewing.  Because they were coming down, I didn't haul my machine and related paraphernalia, but I did manage to fuse my the appliques on Violet's Quilt....

 And I did some quilty reading....

On Saturday night we had my favorite dinner (spaghetti & meatballs)....

And celebrated with champagne...

 Any my sweet DIL outdid herself with gifts for me....

A local candy shop, Raymer's Candies, will dip your bottle of wine in their wonderful chocolate and wrap it up in ribbons and bows...when you're ready to indulge, you pull a tab and the chocolate cracks and you can enjoy it with the wine (I understand their chocolate is fabulous!)...

And she found some Downton Abbey wine!   Too bad this season is over, or I would enjoy this while watching (and I don't think it will last until next season!)....

And she scoured the internet to try and find me a bracelet to replace a similar one I lost a few years ago....

 Miss Lilly loved sunning herself on the deck as usual...

And we enjoyed this view all weekend....

I always enjoy this poem that is framed in the house....

 So, another birthday come and gone...funny, I'm still only 29.  o:)

Sidetracked....

Today, I should have been working on making these stacks of red and white squares into HSTs for a wedding quilt with a looming deadline...

But while I was catching up on blogs this morning, I came across this post from Kim at My Go-Go Life and immediately had to make a Cathedral Windows pincushion...

before the magic happens

So cute!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled quilting....

Show & Tell Tuesday - PMQG Quilting Angels...

Or as it's become known....Elfster!  At our January meeting, the PMQG members held our annual holiday "Quilting Angels" swap.  Our swap partners are chosen through a program called Elfster which we've been using for the past couple of years.  It works out great.  The website allows you to lists ideas of things you like and also to anonymously reach out to your "giftee" to ask questions.

My giftee said that she liked solids.  So, I chose a colorful stack of solids for her (oops, forgot a photo) and I also made this snazzy Snap Happy Bag out of Orange Pearl Bracelets for her...

And this colorful pincushion and added in a box of shiny new pins to go along with it...

I, again, was blown away by the generosity and just overall fabulous-ness of the gifts I received...this year from Janet. I mentioned I really love Kaffe Fasset's Aboriginal Dots...so I got this awesome stack...

And these three gorgeous bags...even though they look great here, these photos do not do them justice at all.

They are so professional looking and the fabrics and colors are just beautiful.

Janet has recently retired from the corporate world and is launching her own on-line business - The Quilter's Bazaar - and I believe she will have things like this (along with fabrics, patterns, magazines) in her new on-line shop.  She's set to launch very, very soon (like one day this week).  I'll include a link when it's available! ***UPDATE*** The Quilter's Bazaar website is up and running!

An amazing bag like the ones should here could be yours!  Thanks again, Janet!

I'm linking up again with Randi's Show & Tell Tuesdays!

Show & Tell Tuesday - x & + Quilt

While at the Round Bobbin the other weekend for our guild's sew day, I spied an "x & +" quilt sample made with Comma by Zen Chic and loved it.  I knew I had the pattern (the Japanese x & + block having having been a guild swap last year some time).  And, I knew I had this stack of leftover Comma fabrics from the It's a Plus quilt I made last year... 

There was enough for at least a wall hanging-sized quilt.  When I went home, I pulled out this gray for the background/borders...

and couldn't resist putting everything else on hold while I made a few blocks to see what they would look like!

And now I can add yet another project to the WIP pile!!

I'm linking up to Randi's Show & Tell Tuesdays.