What! I WON!!!!

Before I raked leaves after work today, I snapped a picture of today's happy mail:

I won this Rustic Vive thread collection by Pat Bravo during  Kathy's Quilts Save the Bee draw!  

Fuse Your Batting Pieces!

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say, I have a pile of batting remnants. 

All different sizes. All taking up space. All unused.

Last week I was piecing the backing for a crib size quilt when I realized I didn't have the white batting I needed, yet I had numerous remnants of such. I then remembered some Heat Press Batting Together I had won during one of our many blog events, yet had absentmindedly tucked away.  

So I dug it out and set out to use it to "piece" five remnants of white batting together.  It was exceptionally easy as I just had to lay the batting edges together. Lay the tape of Heat Press Tape over the two edges and iron. This literally took me half the time it would if I sewed the batting together.

I used the 1.5 inch Heat Press Batting Together for this project.

I ended up creating a whole piece of batting that was flat and sturdy when I moved it.

Even better....there were no "bumpy" seams to quilt over. I loved that!

It was also invisible once I was finished quilting.

I so appreciate the wonderful sponsors of all our of blog events and appreciate having the opportunity to try out a new products like this one.  Here's a quick link: HEAT PRESS BATTING TOGETHER. I just wanted to share my success with it and give a shout out of gratitude to all our blog event sponsors. What do ya think? I mean just think: no more sewing batting remnants together! 

Moving Forward...

Well I returned home this weekend. My Meme duties finished, for now. I'm grateful for the precious moments I got to share as our daughter and SIL settled into their new home and welcomed their new little baby. I soooo enjoyed all my newborn cuddle time.

I also had the duty of unpacking and setting up the boys' bedroom. I never tire to seeing my my quilts being used and it was rewarding to see the boys' dinosaur quilts together and looking good.

My daughter texted me this picture below this morning exclaiming: "I swaddled him in one of your receiving blankets and he slept from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am."  Now, I'd like to think it was the blanket...but he really is such a good little baby and my daughter is doing a wonderful job nursing.

But hey, I'll take credit whenever I get it! Seriously though, sleeping newborns are just adorable. 

As we all move forward and begin to return to familiar routines, life is good for big brother too. He is loving his baby brother and even started at his new preschool today. He told his mom on the way that he was excited to be back at school...but misses his two friends. I miss him already!

So with that said, I'm back to sewing. I won this fat quarter bundle awhile back and it arrived while I was gone. I'm thinking of making two receiving blankets with them, with flannel on the back. Please do share  if you have any quick pattern ideas. I also have my Dec. OMG goal and wool stitching to keep me out of trouble, I mean busy. All truly are fun sewing, that I did get a chuckle from your previous comments how each project "was so me." You guys are the best! Thank you for your continued bloggy friendships and for inspiring and motivating me with your talents as well.

Until Tuesday Archives tomorrow, I will close wishing you a fantastic day!

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

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Grateful Friday!

I had one of those lucky weeks, as I won not one...but two give-aways! What!??

My heart is fill with gratitude as more often than not, I'm often  "that person" who never wins.  LOL!! So I just had to give a big THANK YOU to first:

 Homespun Hannah's Blog as she celebrated her Sixth Blogging Anniversary. 

  She sent me this adorable needle book with a very kind card:.

And inside that package was this wonderful table-topper:

It fits the decor of my home perfectly and I keep moving it around to find the right spot for it.

Next, I'm so excited, as part of Carole's Autumn Jubilee, I won a $30 gift certificate to:

(Click the picture above to check out their online store of Extra Wide Backing fabrics!!)

Today my heart is filled with gratitude. 

Next week's Tuesday Archives theme is: Lone Star quilts and projects.

Happy Mail Ideas???

Hmmmm....over the past years I've belonged to a variety of quilty mail order

clubs or BOM.  I belonged to a fat quarter "club" were I was sent a set of yummy fabric each month. (This was a wonderful way to build my stash.) I did a wool sampler of the month and I completed My Garden Party appliqued quilt through a BOM club. Now, well who doesn't really, but I loved coming home to my package of "happy mail" and I miss it. Yet, nothing has caught my eye lately. .

So with that said...what kind of "happy mail" do you enjoy? Have you found a new BOM/Club out there you are enjoying? I'd love to join ya.  Please comment to share your ideas. THANKS!!

(PS: I usually keep this around a budget of $30.00 each month.)

PS: Speaking of Happy Mail....I found out this morning I won a cute give-away at Homespun Hannah's Blog. Click here to check out the adorable needle book coming my way. Thanks Hannah.

Also, click HERE to check out this week's variety of cute HALLOWEEN posts.

A Happy Mail Thank You!!

Oh how happy was I to have won this wonderful bundle of solids 

from Cynthia's  Quilty Orphan Adoption Event. 

And as if that didn't give me enough to smile about, she included this starter bundle of Kaffe fabrics after I complimented her use of color in her Splendid Sampler Blocks and commented that I was inspired to start adding some Kaffe fabrics to my stash. 

Great to have quilty friends who feed our habit huh!! 

Thanks friend!

And for that chance to win a copy of Diane's Scrap Quilt Secrets Book, click HERE.

(Give-Away open until April 4th)

My Trunk Show of Word Quilts

When I heard about the Trunk Full of Quilts online trunk show event hosted by Soma of Whims and Fancies and after touring the show myself this mornig from the comfort of my home, warm in my winter bathrobe, sipping my moring tea, I was inspired to take a look through my own archives and share all the WORD quilts in my collection of quilt.

  

My "trunk" was a little more full than I remember!

Here is one of my very first quilts: Oh Happy Day. 

These letters were traced from a lettering template and appliqued on.

Thennnn I found the book: Word Play Quilts by Tonya Ricucci 

and found myself adding words to wallhangings...

...and even on the back of quilts to personalize them.

Most of all, after making wonky hearts on and off for a year, I pulled them altogether in this Aniversary Quilt I finished for my husband and I in 2014 by adding our "favorite" words to the quilt..  Click over to here to read more about this fun finish and check out my tutorial for making those fun hearts! 

(Be forewarned: they ARE addictive to make!)

I continued to use this book to create my "word" for 2014 which was:

And my "word" for 2015 that has been:

And my latest finish which most of you have seen, our grandson's birthday quilt. 

Once again, I used letting templates and appliqued these words on.

Thank you again Soma for this fun trunk show and for my being awarded such an awesome prize!

In gratitude and...

H2H Winnings!

Oh my do I love starting the first day of July with a fan of kona brights delivered in the mail!

Along with some1 1/2 yards of  baby flannel and
a 1/2 yard of this white small phrase fabric from the The Chalk Line!

All these were my winnings from the H2H sponsor:

Upon shopping their online shop here are some things I appreciated about their online shop

 and just had to share:

• I had fun trying out my fabric choices for a quilt block before I bought them on their shopping cart design wall. (Note: Items must be in your cart first. Once I had a few fabrics in my cart and had my very own design wall!) 
• WOW! LOVE THIS: FREE US shipping-all day, every day, no minimum, no limit, no coupon-NO HASSLE. Buy a pattern, buy a bolt...free shipping!! PLUS they offer great international rates, including first pound to Canada is free (which would include an order of up to 2 yards of fabric).
• Shop by color, designer, brand, collection and style (This made my search quick!)
• Shop by 1/4 yard (love that!)
• They offer great customer service: We get to preview fabrics that are on the horizon & sign up for email alerts for its arrival. Then they'll send us a  5% coupon code when the fabric is in house. Seriously! No payment in advance. We still get first crack at the fabric we like & save money...oh and don't forget that free US shipping too (I noticed they have the full line of Hello Darling by Bonnie and Camille coming in August)
• Gift certificates are available in any dollar amount -purchaser can even send a personal message to recipient, and the GC is valid immediately after purchase. 
• There's free pattern downloads & I noticed there are more FNQ patterns coming soon
• They also have a virtual show & tell gallery of customer quilts and their own  quilts 

Along with checking out their online shop, also click the picture  below to join their Scrap Quilt Challenge that started today! And who can resist being part of their philosophy:  Just remember this sentence: Make whatever your heart desires, just meet the minimum requirements. .  

I know I'm looking forward to particiapting. 

And, Hey! Let me know if you decide to join, as it will fun to cheer eachother on.

I'm a Pets on Quilts Winner!

Yep! My number came up and I feel so darn lucky to have been one of the winners

 of the random draw at Pets on Quilts at Lily Pad Quilting. 

I opened my happy mail to this adorable package:

Inside I discovered all these goodies from Michelle at The Raspberry Rabbit:

I mean seriously, she included a raspberry Ghirardelli Chocolate! (She's my new BFF!!) And look at those adorable rabbit scissors. They went right into my applique kit. 

Her book has easy to follow patterns with wonderful pattern templates:

(I'm thinking of "playing" with this pattern and making a mug rug this weekend.)

To say the least, I'm a new GFC follower of Michelle's and grateful to have won her wonderful prize! Thanks again Michelle.

With smiles,

Val:)

Blogger Happy Mail!

If you've been following my blog for a bit, you know how much I like my "happy mail". Lucky me, the past few days I've had surprises from blogger friends! 

The first was from Marianne at Adventurous Quilter.

She's helping me collect 4 inch squares for my I Spy Quilt WIP that I'm making for our new grandson. I'm sooo lucky as she has the best "boy" fabric and having raised girls, this is a god-send! My husband always enjoys when her little packages arrive in the mail, and is the first to spread out all the squares! (Boys!) Marianne and I both started blogging this summer, and became fast blogger friends. We each keep a basket in our studio to collect/cut I-spy squares for one another. Every now and then, we'll drop one of these little  packages in the mail to surprise the other with new I-Spy squares. 

I also won this during the Blog Hop of Give-Aways in November from Angie at Quilting Readers  Garden and it just arrived today!

And, every Christmas my parents always renew my Quilting Magazine.

(Thanks guys) My notice arrived in-between all the bills.

I'm silly...I know. But life really is about the little things. 

And don't ya just love getting fun stuff in the mail?

Make your confessions here...what's your favorite Happy Mail?

(I promise not to tell your husband,)

With smiles!

Val:)