Today is your last chance to enter my National Hot Fudge Sundae Day giveaway! Entries will close at Midnight EST tonight and I'll announce the winner tomorrow.

Today is also the 2nd of 7 glorious days of the Think Christmas Blog Hop.

Yesterday was truly amazing...43 blocks of wonderful creativity and inspiration. You definitely need to check out today's offerings by these bloggers:

Tuesday, July 31 

 Jane's Fabrics and Quilts

Quilting Fiesta

Scrapbox Quilts

From This to That 

Buzzing and Bumbling

No Loose Threads

Deborah B 

Judith Handmade Treasures

Gran-Knot-Y Embroidery Lady

Mrs. Pickles

Susie's World

Don't miss out on my National Hot Fudge Sundae Day giveaway. Entries are open through midnight July 31st.

Since the teacher quilts were completed and therefore no longer making me not a quilting crazy lady, I'm finally getting back to getting some other things done around the house. How I hate to have my home a mess and disorganized! Anyway, this past week I have been rewarding myself with a bit of sewing time after I complete a household task.

On Tuesday, the office was straightened out and cleaned. I swapped out the curtain rods in our bedroom (needed larger ones so they would hang correctly) and then used those rods in the office for the valances. I also got a couple of pictures hung. There is a ton more fire department plaques, awards and stuff in boxes to be unpacked and homes found for but we need to get a shelf or two for that.

As my reward I sewed the bindings on the front of the queen size Tribute to Danny quilt. I almost finished hand sewing the binding on the back last night but I was starting to nod off so I quit. Only about 2 more feet to go.

Yesterday after work (Wednesdays are only 1/2 day for me), I tackled the dishwasher and then sewed the binding onto the lap size Danny quilt.  I plan on starting the hand sewing part tonight after I complete the bit left on the bigger one and then finish this one up on the drive to my sister's house tomorrow afternoon. I can't wait to throw it in the wash to remove all the carpet lint the black fabric picked up.

Did you know that July 25th is a very important holiday?

Well, it is! It is

I am one very lucky lady in that I have access to the most awesome hot fudge sauce on the planet. It is made by my good friend Katie at Sundaes Best Hot Fudge Sauce Company. 

I don't love to tell folks about her products because she is a friend, I tell people about it because it is honest and truly THAT GOOD! It is made with 5 real simple ingredients: cream, sugar, semi-sweet chocolate, butter and the highest quality cocoa available.

Not only does she make her original dark chocolate fudge sauce but she also has 9 other flavors: Raspberry, Mint, Peanut Butter, Java, Hazelnut, Orange, Cherry, Almond and Caramel. All chocolaty goodness, each and every one. I'm betting you can't pick just one favorite! This thick and gooey wonderfulness isn't just great on ice cream...it is also fantastic on pound cake, strawberries, pretzels, marshmallows, drizzled over sliced apples, adding a spoon in your morning coffee, it makes the very best hot chocolate...I could go on and on and on.

To celebrate this momentous day, she is having a special promotion for her newsletter subscribers between now and midnight on July 31st:

Buy (3) 8 oz jars and get one free

Buy (6) 8 oz jars and get two free

Buy (9) 8 oz jars and get three free

Plus to 1 of my lucky followers, she is giving away (3) 8 oz jars in your choice of flavors.

What do you have to do to have a chance at winning? You must be a follower of course.

1) Leave me a comment and tell me your favorite ice cream flavor.
2) Sign up for Katie's newsletter.

2) If you click on over to her website and make a purchase, you get a 3rd chance at the prize. Make sure you mention "Crayon Box" in the notes so that she knows you found her through me (I will be checking).

That's it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 3 chances to win. Entries will remain open through the deadline of her promotion, midnight on July 31st.

What might all of this be for, you ask?

I'm a person that has a problem and somehow, someway works, researched and think until I find a solution.

The problem? This!

 This is Sunshine's pile. I forgot to take a "before" picture of Jammer's pile.

We've pared down the "guys" but there are still a bunch the kiddos want to keep. No problem. They aren't the type of kids to pile them all on their beds. But having them sitting along the walls of their rooms or taking up an entire shelving unit just doesn't work either.

So what are we to do? Research time. Online I found this cool idea.

Great! I'm all about using vertical space as much as possible. Cost? $13 plus shipping, for plastic chain and clips no less. Too much, too much.

So I checked out the local Toys R Us to no avail but they did suggest I try the home improvement stores. Hmmm. Interesting thought.

After stocking up on essentials at the grocery store, I stopped at Home Depot and a very nice salesman helped me with my project. I bought (2) 6 foot lengths of metal chain (one for each kidlet's gang), 30 of these metal and definitely stronger clips and a pack of split rings to attach the clips to the chain. No doubt this will hold up so much better than the plastic version would have. Total cost? $30, less than 2 of the plastic ones with shipping included.

Within minutes, those piles on the floor became this

and this.

A huge improvement if I do say so myself and hopefully they will stay off the floor now. As I was brought up and strongly believe....a place for everything and everything in its place!

When I started this blog, I made a wish list page to help me keep track of all the quilty tools and fabrics that I coveted to own. Well I eventually deleted the page because I'm sure no one was interested in it and many of the fabrics weren't available any longer.

But now I have decided to resurrect that page, if only for my use and reference. I want to try FMQ and I'm finding there are some things that would help with that. And I've seen one quilt line that I must, must have once it comes out in Sept and if I don't put a picture of it somewhere, I'll forget. I missed out on her last fabric line (learned about it way too late) and I don't want that to happen again. I so love her lines! Plus it will give me incentive to save my fabric $$$ for the lines that I really love instead of those that I just like.

Of course, if you have any suggestions of other things that I should add to my list, I'm all eyes and ears.

The dang numbers fanatic in me got to wondering yet again while I was taking my shower. What about this time?

The price of thread!

I typically buy Gunterman at Joanns with a coupon or when it is on sale. Until recently I couldn't even get Aurifil locally, let alone any other of the "better" threads. If I ordered it over the web, by the time I added shipping, it would be a lot. Plus I didn't want to order a bunch of it to find out that my machine doesn't play nice with it.

Now my favorite LQS is carrying it plus I can get all the colors available by getting it through them when the place their order so no additional shipping costs to tack on. Terrific!

Now I just need to make sure I like it.

But which is actually more economical for me? This inquiring mind needed to know.

The larger Gunterman spool is 250 meters, or 274 yards. On sale and with tax it costs me $2.69. That is $.0098 per yard.

The Aurifil sells here with tax for $11.88 per spool. It has 1300 meters, or 1422 yards. Per yard it works out to $.0083 each.

I know I am talking pennies here, or actually less than pennies, but over time those partial pennies add up and any way I can find to save money on this expensive obsession of mine is a good thing.

So as long as the Aurifil and my machine play nice together, I'll be using it for the most part from here on out.

Another deadline! What am I thinking?

 That I don't want to miss the party, that's what!

Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to make. I rushed over to my LQS this morning to meet up with my long arm friend with the Tribute to Danny quilts and while I was there I grabbed 2 red FQs to use for this hop's block (s). When I peaked at my stash this morning, I saw that while I have white and a bunch of different greens, I didn't have much in red.

I know that it (they) don't have to be done in traditional Christmas colors but ya gotta know that I will make at least one like that. The others? Who knows. You'll have to hop here on my day to see.

This is definitely a blog devoted to my quilting adventures and other crafty pursuits but I also sprinkle in a little smidgen of other interesting tidbits every now and then. This is one of those that I just needed to share. Besides no one can ever claim that cooking is not crafting.

Cooking for the ones you love is the Spice of Life and truly good food demand good spices. The very best spices I have ever used (and have only used now for a lot of years) are from Penzeys.

Yes they are labeled except a couple (got to get the labeler out and fix that problem) and they are in alphabetical order. I like to be able to find what I am looking for and not have to search for just the right one.

I swore a number of weeks ago in this post that other than 3 specific needs I wasn't going to purchase any more fabric until summer was over. I have plenty of projects to keep me busy for quite a while.

Well I did buy the fabrics I needed for the Tribute to Danny quilts and the Fruitcake quilt bits that I was missing. I still need the backing and binding for the baby girl quilt though and will shop for that once I get started on that one.The swap was postponed so that one got crossed off my list.

But then I went and bought a bunch of other fabrics that weren't on that list. I just couldn't resist! Michele at Quilt Kit Market was still having her going out of business sale and with the huge discounts, the prices were ones that are unheard of these days.

Two weeks ago I placed another order with Michele (great name she has ya know). For a whopping $43.20 plus shipping I got 4 charm packs, a layer cake and a jelly roll. All of that for less than 50 bucks! Regular prices would have been about $118.

But then I got an email from her at the end of last week that suggested I might want to check for any yardages I might need for backings for future projects. A yard of fabric for $3.60! Rare indeed. No one can pass that up and I didn't. But inventory was low so I didn't go hog wild.

My new order consisted of a trio of kits and 3 1/2 yards for one of those future projects on my To Make list. What did I spend this time? A grand total of $38.40 plus shipping. Really it was impossible to pass up kits for less than $10 each (with backings included no less). I just wish there was more that I could have gotten at those prices.

So I'm confessing and begging my wallet's forgiveness. I will work really hard the rest of the summer to not spend another dime. Thankfully hubs hasn't said a peep about my spending and I don't think he has ventured to inspect just how much is in my stash but the accountant in me feels the guilt and I'm promising here and now to reform. At least for the next 6 weeks that is.

...but they should definitely come with a serious warning.

I loved participating in the Celebrate Red, White & Blue Blog Hop put on these past 2 weeks.

I also had a blast checking out all the other participants on their designated day. So much wonderful patriotic beauty abounded.

During the Ghastlie Blog Hop last, I couldn't wait for each day to start so that I could check out all the new goodies everyone created.

I was hooked and seriously addicted.

Of course, I now own a LOT of my own Ghastlie fabric.

So what's the problem with blog hops?

It isn't all the gorgeous quilty eye candy shared every day nor actually learning about lots of great blogs I didn't know about before. Meeting so many new-to-me quilters is always fabulous.

And it isn't because there is something fun to wake up to every day. It is the very best way to start each morning, with a nice hot cuppa fresh java right at hand.

Blog Hops are dangerous because of the following facts:

1) A ton of new blogs get added to my Google Reader and keeping up reading all the posts is already hard enough. Don't even ask how many were waiting for me when I got back from vacation. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.

2) There are so many ideas that I see and want to make my own versions of that my To Make list keeps getting longer and longer. I'll never get caught up.

3) Those ideas make me want to shop immediately for the perfect fabric, stretching further my already stretched fabric budget.

4) Work, house cleaning and other household chores become less important and I just want to spend all of my days in my studio creating (but that doesn't get to happen).  Major disappoint and dispair sometimes results. 

Now I'm not saying that there shouldn't be more blog hops nor am I saying that I won't participate in a few of them myself. I can't wait for the next one. It goes without saying that I will do a ton of hopping around so as to not miss one single quilty bit.

What I am saying is that before you start hopping, be prepared and forwarned. Be strong and resist the urge to forget about everything else in your life that needs your attention so that you can do nothing else but sew. Enjoy the party but be smart and have support if you need it so that you finish without emptying your savings account. Remember to eat and sleep and shower, pay attention to your loved ones and don't piss off your employer by being MIA. 

Be inspired. Be part of the community.

But also be careful.

Who knew that I could complete an entire queen sized quilt top in about 10 hours? That has to be a new record!

Ok, so I'm fessing up....I didn't actually make the entire quilt top in 10 hours. Yes I pieced the blocks together and added the sashing and borders but it I wasn't the only one who contributed to making this quilt a reality. 25 other wonderful and generous blog readers made and sent the blocks to me and for that I will forever be extremely grateful.

So Tuesday late morning I arranged them all into a layout that I was happy with.

The blocks became rows.

On Wednesday afternoon, the long strips of sashings were joined together.

Then all the rows were attached together and the border was added to eventually come up with this.

For those of you that have express interest, the raffle tickets for the Tribute to Danny quilts are now available for sale. They are $5 each or 3 for $10. The actual tickets are in the mail on their way to me today.

I've tried to figure out the easiest way to do this and I honestly don't want to have to deal with the Paypal fees so if you want some raffle tickets, you can just send me a check. I trust you. If you already don't have my snail mail address, I'll email it to you.

So that you know that I actually purchased your ticket (s) on your behalf, I will email you a photo of it (them) showing your name and the ticket number.

There are 4 other large items that are being raffled at the event:

1) an Ipad2
2) a Wii and 4 games (I don't know which ones)

3) a flat screen tv

4) a pair of hand made Adirondack chairs

Since the tv and the chairs would be impossible to ship, I'm leaving those out of the options here but if you want to try for the Ipad or the Wii, you certainly can. You don't have to buy 3 tickets for the quilt and then separate tickets for the others, you can mix them up. Just let me know how many of each want in your comment.

Thank you so much to all of you that have told me you want to buy a ticket. I am touched deeply. It was never my intent to try and sell them to my readers but since you asked, I'm not going to say No.

There were 218 comments on my Celebrate red, White and Blue Blog Hop post. Wow! There are also 70 new readers to my humble blog. Welcome! I hope you enjoy what I have to share and will stick around for a while. I tried to reply to everyone but while away for the weekend, the internet access was very spotty and though I could read comments I couldn't post any replies. Now it would take me all day to get caught up and I have way too much other stuff on my To Do list today.

So now to relieve your suspense, the winner of my 2 charm packs of Jovial is (as chosen by random.org):

#79 Gmama Jane and here was her comment:

The piecing and quilting was completed over the winter but then due to the hectic work on the 3 teacher quilts, it got put aside until recently.

While on vacation I did the hand sewing of the binding. It was the perfect project for the road trip.

As I am coming to prefer more and more, the backing is pieced. That wasn't the original plan though. Once I had completed the top, I started thinking about which way to piece the single fabric backing but I quickly discovered that the pattern I used listed the wrong amount and I didn't have enough. So I used that fabric, the fabric I originally bought for the binding and a white on white print from my stash and pieced together this much better and prettier backing.

My long arm quilter did a sweet butterfly pattern with variegated pink thread.

This project turned out to be the perfect one for the hodge podge of prints and shades of pink fabrics from last year's NJ Shop Hop. In the end, they worked together well and I'm truly happy with the end result.

These are all the Tribute to Danny quilt blocks.

Each and every block was made and sent by a bunch of my wonderful blog readers.I could never thank you enough for your kindness and generosity. YOU made this project possible. 

The sashing, border, backing and binding fabrics have been purchased, washed and ironed. I will be piecing them all together next Tuesday. This afternoon Jammer and I are heading to Vietnamese Culture Camp for the weekend. It promises to be a fantastic weekend. Hubs and Sunshine will be hanging together at home. Lots of Daddy & daughter time which is very much needed.

My long arm quilter is again going to do a rush job on this for me. She is such a doll to understand the importance of my recent projects and do whatever she can to make sure I meet my deadline.

I created a draft picture of what the final quilt will look like in Excel to go along with the raffle tickets and the sales of them are starting today.  Everyone involved with the softball tournament and the memorial scholarship fund is hoping this quilt raffle raises a record amount of money this year. It will be a fitting way to help honor my nephew, by raising enough money for the scoreboard and the annual scholarships. Those of you new to my blog, if you'd like to read the original post about this project, it can be found here.

For those of you that contributed to this project, you all should be given an award for helping me make this idea a reality. I could have never have done it without each and every one of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 4th of July, the day that every American celebrates our country's birthday.

I hope your day will be filled with loads of fun and laughter, a bounty of terrific food and wondrous weather. May you be surrounded by those you love.

Remember to visit all the great blogs in today's Celebrate Red, White and Blue Blog Hop. These ladies are your hostesses.

187 comments and still counting. I'm really enjoying reading each and every one of them and I truly hope to be able to reply to everyone but please forgive me if I can't reply to you all. This is a crazy busy week for me and I'm not sure I'll find enough time.

quilt.keep.cook

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Doodle Doodles

Sheila's Quilt World

A Quilt and a Prayer

So hop on over to their blogs and see what they've created for you. A little birdie has told me there are also a few giveaways to enter.