A WINNER announced

Good morning and Happy New Years Eve!  We are tucked in snug at home for the second day of a winter storm that is expected to last into Saturday morning at least.  As long as the power stays on I'm a happy camper to be snowed in for a couple of quiet days.

I've used the random number generator to select a winner from all of the lovely posts on my blog.  And the winner is . . .

• Linda of Little Bits and Pieces blog

If Linda will email me with her mailing address, this Central Park cham pack will be in the mail on Monday morning.  You'll find my email address on my blog profile.  I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.

And in the meantime I'm working on my list of UFO's that need to be tackled in 2011.  I plan to post that list tomorrow.  And I'm already working on the binding of one of the items on that UFO list.  By this afternoon I hope to have finished binding my "Hip Holiday" wall hanging and maybe I will have started working on another UFO item.

200 posts & a giveaway

I'm excited to announce that I have reached my 200th blog post and am offering a little giveaway to celebrate.  It's a charm pack of Central Park, by Moda.  It is so pretty - full of yellows, blues, pinks, etc.  This will be a perfect item to get you motivated on a spring project in the middle of winter. The deadline for entering is midnight on Thursday (Dec. 30), and I'll announce the winner on New Year's Eve.

Here are the ground rulesto earn an entry (or 3) in the drawing to win this charm pack.

1.   leave me a comment on this post for one entry

2.  blog about my giveaway on your blog and let me know for one entry

3.  become a follower and let me know for one entry.


Looking forward to hearing from lots of potential winners!

Merry Christmas!

The stockings are hung, the pumpkin pie is out of the oven, the turkey is smoking on the deck - and my kids are arriving to do all of the cooking. Laura arrived early this morning and got that turkey going. Her husband Jamie will come after work this afternoon.  Jerilyn and Darin are on their way.  It should be a great Christmas.  I hope everyone has a blessed holiday with friends and family!

I'm healing nicely from my surgery and will probably feel like sewing next week.  I have some fun things to show you all.

And I'll be posting my 200th blog posting GIVEAWAY in the next few days.  Can't wait!  Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas stockings

Another pre-scheduled post!

The stocking in the middle is one that I made a couple of years ago. It is hand appliqued and hand quilted.  Looking at it now however - maybe those snowmen need some hats added to their bald little heads.  What do you think?

Christmas hearth

I love the ability to schedule posts even when you aren't able to connect online. 

A quick glimpse of my living room hearth with the poinsettia and the darling mini quilt. I got this last winter from Denise Russart for a mini quilt swap through Quilting Blogs.  I love the colors as well as the design.

It is a perfect fit on the small iron frame that I keep on this hearth just for mini quilts.  It's such fun to switch them around for different seasons and holidays.

Nearing a milestone

I'm getting very close to my 200th blog post since I began in 2009.  Watch for a great GIVEAWAY coming up to celebrate.  I'm guessing it will be sometime around Christmas!

In the meantime, I'll be missing in action for about a week while I have some surgery.  See you all soon!

100 Blocks - not enough time

I finally picked up a copy of Quiltmaker magazine's 100 Blocks (volume 2).  Just like Volume 1 last year, this is full of exciting new block designs and variations of old block designs. Very inspirational.  There is a paper-pieced snowflake block that I just HAVE to try out soon.  I even have tons of scraps of blues from my snowflake quilt from last winter.  If I decide the paper pieced block will be an "orphan", then it will make a spectacular pillow to go with my quilt.

Stash report

I made a total of 38 pillowcases for our charity project, with the final 10 made this weekend.  We gave 50 beautiful pillowcases and 50 new pillows to the area safe house yesterday.  And we plan to give away another 200 pillows and pillowcases at the Love Feast on Dec 16.  We still are a little short on the pillowcases but hope to make our goal before that date.  We had very generous donations from 2 local elementary school faculties to buy enough pillows.

So this afternoon I did a little figuring on how much of this fabric actually came from my bins and closet. The pillowcases average about 1 yard of fabric per case, and of course not all of it came from my stash.  But a lot of it did.  My estimate is that I used up approximately 20 yards of fabric from my stash. Unfortunately that also means I bought nearly the same amount.  But it was for a really good cause so no guilt is involved.

Guess what I'm making!

Guess what I'm making with this cute little jungle baby print?  I have a layer cake to work with.  And the pattern is Ten Cents, by Me and My Sister Designs.  Love their patterns!  And hopefully my first grandbaby will love this quilt when he or she arrives in early June.

Making the house look like Christmas

I put the tree up on Sunday, but have been puttering along with all of the other decorations. Today after work I added this to my family room coffee table. I bought this machine-embroidered little quilt at a fund-raiser a couple of years ago. A former co-worker made it so it is even more special. It has a hanging sleeve too, so some years it may get hung on a wall - maybe in my office.

Two Thanksgivings

On Thursday we spent Thanksgiving with my older daughter and her husband at his parents' house. It was a lovely day - wonderful people and yummy food. And fresh lefse!! What a treat.


Today we had my husband's side of the family at our house. We had 34 for dinner - two of those were babies, but it was still a full house. I love it! Wish we did this more often. It's always fun to have a house full of the people you love.


And tomorrow the Christmas tree will go up. I think putting up the Christmas tree is one of my favorite things to do. And I did get out my Christmas quilts yesterday and my daughter is curled up on my sofa under one of them.


I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.

Happy Thanksgiving

What am I thankful for this Thanksgiving?

1. I get to eat a holiday meal today that I didn't cook. (I'm bringing the veggie tray.)
2. My girls will both be here on Saturday for a late holiday party.
3. The winter storm conditions have ended and the sun is shining.
4. Good health and well-being in my household.
5. And . . . my Christmas shopping is already DONE!

Best holiday wishes to all.

Santa table runner

I have another project finished and ready to wrap for Christmas. This table runner is made from a border print and uses 60 degree cut to make the points. There are several great rulers made just for such a cut, but I was cheap and just lined up the 60 degree mark on my big ruler and then laid a smaller ruler along side to make the cut. It worked perfectly.

I have another border print sitting on my sewing table ready to cut into another of these. Will I get it done before Christmas? Maybe . . .

Border prints

I bought a couple of yards of this border print a year ago but didn't know what to do with it. And this summer I saw a pattern for a table runner using border prints cut at 60 degree angles. This is a really bad photo, but here is a sneak peek at the table runner in progress. I'm doing a little hand quilting on this and should have it ready to bind this weekend.

Another cat picture

My cat loves to drape himself over the arm of the sofa. Sometimes he faces out toward the window and sometimes he faces into the family room. But the funny thing is how he drapes his back legs - over opposite sides of the sofa arm. Here he is watching the birds outside. This is a WIDE LOAD!

Selvage baskets

Here is an experiment from this weekend - a selvage basket. The handle is a bias strip that is machine appliqued onto a black triangle. The selvages were sewn onto a muslin triangle with a smaller black triangle added to the bottom.

Voila - a basket block. It finished at about 11 inches and I finished 2 with a couple more started. I'm not sure what I'll do with these, but they were fun and fast to make.

Cats & quilts

Cats and quilts go together!

Sammy loves it when I lay quilt blocks out on the floor. When I put blocks out to arrange on the floor he immediately comes running. He pounces in the middle and begins to burrow and push the blocks around. Then he sits there looking pleased with himself. He had just begun his own arrangement when I snapped this photo on Saturday.

115 pillowcases

Yesterday I picked up some of the pillowcases that had been made for the Pillows For People project and added them to the box. I just had to count them. 115 - and there were still maybe a half dozen left "decorating" the drop box at the coffee shop. Plus there are 7 smaller pillow covers in this box.

The Love Feast event where these will be given away is coming up on December 16. I'm not sure we'll make our goal of having a new pillow and pillowcase for each of the attendees at the Love Feast. But we'll do the best we can.

I won something BEAUTIFUL

I won something really, really beautiful this morning - 15 blue and white 12" quilt blocks. These were the bonus blocks that people made for Saturday Sampler this month. I almost didn't make a bonus block, but decided that I had lots of blue scraps to use. I am so glad I did that, because my name was drawn this morning. Are they gorgeous? Now I need to decide on the perfect way to use them. Any ideas out there?

Mug Rug is ready to mail

My mug rug is ready to mail to my secret partner. I used the same little package pattern that I previously used for placemats. I hope my partner enjoys it.

Along with the mug rug we are to send an actual mug, a package of a hot beverage such as hot cocoa, a candy cane for stirring, and a favorite cookie recipe. I've got the mug, the hot beverage, and picked up a giant candy cane today. Now I just have to decide on which cookie recipe to share.

What do you think? Molasses? Sugar? Spritz?

Silent auction item

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Big Brother/Big Sister fund raising event I attended. We had a lovely lunch, a fun trunk show, and could bid on lots of beautiful items in the silent auction. I bought this framed applique . . .

Can't wait for the holidays so that I can hang it up.

The same but very different

These two blocks are made with the exact same pattern, but because of the changes I made in where I put the lights, darks, and mediums - it turns into a totally different block. The pink and brown one is block #10 of our Saturday Sampler blocks. Two to go! And the blue block is the bonus block. Each month there is a theme for the bonus blocks, and then one person will win them all. You can only win if you brought a bonus block to enter. I really want to win these blue blocks next Saturday!

Quilting With My Credit Card

Eleanor Burns often says on her TV show that she prefers to "quilt with her credit card" and I have decided to do the same.

Yesterday I dropped off 5 quilts at the Pin Cushion for Carli to quilt for me. Two of them are UFO's from more than 3 years ago. The other 3 are this year's quilts. None were likely to be quilted BY ME in the near future. I could have taken them over to my friend Sylvia's house and used her QBot machine to quilt them myself - but that can only happen if I find the time.

I made the decision this week that I'm going to get these quilts done so that I don't feel so guilty working on new projects. I'm not sure when Carli will get to any of them, but that's OK. The bindings are all ready to put on as I get these back. And then I can either find homes for these quilts or enjoy them myself as finished projects rather than UFO's.

Mug rug sneak peek

This is just a sneak peek at the mug rug I'm making for my secret partner. I signed up for a Mug Rug Swap at Aunt Pitty Pat's blog. You can still sign up until Nov. 6. Check it out at: http://auntpittypats.blogspot.com/.

I just love the anticipation! Can't wait to mail this off along with a few other goodies.

I'm liking this one

It took me a whole year to decide how I wanted to put together my Christmas friendship exchange blocks. But this fall I finally settled on a design and collected the fabrics to use in setting these 12 holiday blocks.

Last Sunday afternoon I put together most of the rows, and this Sunday afternoon I finished it. It is ready for quilting. I am liking this one!

A big thanks to the other 11 ladies who made blocks for this exchange. Each and every block is just beautiful.

Louise & Ruby's Trunk Show

These 2 ladies - Louise & Ruby - have been friends for decades. It shows in their trunk show performances where they dress up in their 1950's style Sunday best and share their quilts, stories, and laughter with audiences.

Louise and Ruby not only create beautiful new quilts, they also collect and repair old quilts. The trunk show begins with showing some of the wonderful treasures they've pulled from dumpsters and bought at auctions over the years. The ugliest old quilt becomes a beautiful treasure once they've repaired and cleaned it up.

And the new quilts they create are works of art. The stories and laughter, however, are the best parts of their trunk show.

Raffle Quilt

This was the raffle quilt that was featured at the Big Brother/Big Sister luncheon on Saturday. It's gorgeous! Wish I had won it! Bummer!

The focus fabric is the black print used on the border and was given to members of Heartland Quilt Guild (I'm not a member) who participated. It was a "friendship" exchange. Each of the 12 ladies made 13 blocks. They exchanged the 12 blocks with each other and the 13th set was put together into this beautiful quilt to raffle off.

It was machine quilted by a gentleman from Prairie Patchworks in Wagner, SD. The quilting is such fun. Every block is unique.

I just know that the lucky lady whose name was drawn is going to enjoy this quilt for many years.

Trunk Show & Luncheon

On Saturday I attended a fun activity for great cause. The local Big Brother/Big Sister organization held a fund raiser that included a luncheon, quilt trunk show by Louise & Ruby, a silent auction, and a raffle. A tasty soup/sandwich/dessert luncheon was served to around 70 attendees.

Our pillowcase project was also a part of the day, with pillowcases pulled over every chair back. We were asked to speak briefly about the project to encourage donations of either cases, pillows, or cash. We're about a quarter of the way to our goal for pillowcases, but have a long way to go for pillows. I have the big tote containing nearly 100 pillowcases at my house. 300 to go!

In the next couple of days I'll post about the raffle quilt and the trunk show.

Green Fairy is having a GIVEAWAY

http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/

You just have to check out the gorgeous fabric the Green Fairy is giving away! It is a Moda "Breakfast at Tiffany" fat eighth bundle. Isn't it beautiful?

Sewing update

I've not stepped foot in my sewing room for over a week now. I'm going through withdrawal. My MIL turned 89 on Friday! Both of my girls came to visit her today while their husbands were busy with pheasant hunting and football. We took her to lunch and then came back to our house for the afternoon.

I did a little rearranging of my fall decorations. This big pot of fall flowers looks better on the fireplace. Now . . . if I could just keep my cat from pulling the flowers out of the pot.

Passion for education

I just returned from the South Dakota Teacher of the Year award banquet, held at the annual Systems Change Conference. First of all, a huge congratulations to the 2011 SD Teacher of the Year - Susan Turnipseed. And also congratulations to the other 5 finalists. These educators are such fine examples of the wonderful educators we have all across this state.

The theme of this year's conference is "Passion & Persistance in Education". These regional candidates all exhibit passion for their chosen career. Our speaker tonight was the National Teacher of the Year and she was inspiring. And passionate about education!

I travelled together yesterday with 2 co-workers, coming home from a school we had been working in. Our discussion in the car turned to the some of the talented teachers we see in the schools we visit. Jack commented that South Dakotans don't know what great teachers they have in this state - and that since we are 51st in ranking for teacher salaries - that the state's schools get Buicks for the cost of a Yugo! I'm thinking there are a lot of Mercedes out there in South Dakota's classrooms!!

Pin Cushion Bake-Off

I spent a fun and relaxing evening at the Pin Cushion Quilt Shop for a "bake-off". Carma and Cindy had a trunk show and demos of all pre-cut fabrics. We saw quilts, patterns, some great web resources, and lots of charm packs, jelly rolls, turnovers, and layer cakes. They've even cut some of their own from fabric lines that don't normally come in pre-cuts.

Check out http://moosequilts.blogspot.com and http://missouriquiltco.com. Or Google "jelly star quilt" on YouTube for a great tutorial.

Thanks for the inspiration ladies!!

Weekend projects

This lap sized quilt top was one of my weekend projects. I cut it out a couple of weeks ago, but just didn't get around to sewing until Sunday afternoon. The pattern is something I drew up after seeing a similar quilt at the Hill City Quilt Show - and it had a big sign saying "no photos", so I sketched instead. And then I figured out the math. I can't wait to see Sylvia, Marilyn, and Pam's versions of this lap quilt. We all bought fabric for this same project.

I'm not so crazy about all of the fabric choices. The medium print in the upper right/lower left was originally going to be a black with a tiny gold squiggle all over. I let the clerk in the Quilt Corral talk me into this purple/gold one instead. I think the black would have looked better with the black background of the large print. Oh well. . .

My other project this weekend was more pillowcases. These 2 have Dr Suess fabric and I have 2 more to finish up that are made with fish fabric. That totals 8 pillowcases so far for the Pillows for People project. I'm making a dent in my stash fabrics for these pillowcases. (But I did buy the striped border for these.)

Fall decor

Today was a good day to put out some fall decorations around the house. That includes putting away my summery quilts and putting out the fall ones.

It literally "rained" leaves today as the wind knocked off the gold leaves. It always intrigues me to see that some trees turn colors early and lose their leaves before others even begin to turn.

Pillows for People

Pillows for People - this is a charitable project that a group of ladies locally are involved in this fall. Our goal is to make enough pillowcases and buy
enough pillows to donate to the Love Feast in December to give to the attendees. The Love Feast usually feeds a couple of hundred people. We are hoping to get enough donations of new pillows, pillowcases, or cash (to help buy pillows) to make this happen.

Matthew 11:28 is the inspiration: "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (depending on which translation you use)

I have 4 pillowcases made, but lots of fabric to make more.

Busting some stash

I plead guilty to having more stash than I will probably ever use, and yet I can't resist buying more beautiful fabric.

But I've made a small effort to work on that stash and to make things that I'm giving away. These Christmas placemats were made from 3 fat quarters and some scraps of white and red fabrics left from another project. I have enough of the white and green center fabrics to make at least one more. And I have some other Christmas fat quarters, so maybe I'll make another set as well.

And today I made 4 pillowcases for a charitable project that several of my friends are getting involved in. I used stash for all 4, and definitely have enough stash to do some more. I know it's only about 4 yards of stash used in these pillowcases, but it is a start. I'll post pictures - maybe tomorrow.

Right now I'm watching the Vikings play and working on some hand quilting. Go Vikes!

Intervention #2 & Spiders

Just a quick post before I head out in the rain to a school in-service.

Last night 3 of us met at Sylvia's for another little intervention. We all cut out a project and have the pieces ready for sewing.

But this darling little spider was Marilyn's show 'n tell for the night. It's a placemat, probably for one of her grandchildren. Aren't the fuzzy legs a hoot? It is all made from random strips of Halloween fabric, trimmed to the right shape, legs added, and bound. The eyes are 2 little ironed on applique shapes and buttons. I love it!

Little Things Giveaway

You really must go to The Last Piece blog to check out the giveaway for a new fabric line called Little Things. It is so very pretty!

http://thelastpiece.typepad.com/the_last_piece/2010/09/a-little-things-giveaway.html

Hill City - last but not least

Not a quilt, but this is a work of art. Zoom in on this horse sculpture and you'll see the amazing details - all made of bits and pieces of spurs, bridles, harness, etc.

Hill City - Part 4

All I could say about this one was WOW! Appliqued leaves and stunning quilting - not to mention a beautiful color palette.

Fussy-cut cardinals were the star attraction in this one. Very simple and all were the same size although the optical illusion was that the framed ones are different.

The third quilt is a work of art. The parrot was applique work and absolutely beautiful. It was for sale and worth every penny of the huge price tag.

Hill City - Part 3

I saw so many inspiring quilts in Hill City this weekend that I don't know where to start in showing some favorites. This was one of my favorites. This one is hanging from the front porch of Mistletoe Ranch just outside of Hill City. It's a kaleidoscope quilt in bright colors and the workmanship was wonderful. Someone was very smart to hang this one right behind the flower bed too so that it picked up on the bright yellow of the flowers.

More of my favorites tomorrow!!

Hill City - Part 2

If you are ever in the historic Black Hills town of Hill City there are a couple of places I would highly recommend for a great meal.

The Bumpin Buffalo is a bar and grill that serves up great ribs, cold beer, and tons of other items in a smoke-free environment. The Buffalo sports a huge old carved wooden bar and a tin ceiling. Great service too!

My other recommendation is the Alpine Inn, which is really a fixture in Hill City. At lunch time there is a full menu. At night the only choice you get to make is how BIG the steak is on your plate. The evening menu is restricted to a steak dinner with all the usual sides (baked potato, salad, etc.). But come early and plan to wait for a table at this popular location. It's worth the wait.

Hill City Quilt Show - Part 1

The weekend road trip to the Hill City Quilt Show was a grand success. I was very fortunate to attend this year with 5 friends - 4 came with me from Mitchell and we met up with another friend who recently moved to Rapid City.

The cabin was charming, the weather was perfect, the food was fun, the wine was tasty - and the quilts were inspiring! And the company of good friends made the relaxing weekend perfect.

Saturday was the indoor show and day 1 of the vendor mall all held at the high school which is at one end of Main Street of this historic little Black Hills town. More quilts could be found hanging in the woods around the Mistletoe Ranch (a year-round Christmas Store) just outside of town. Next door to Mistletoe Ranch is the Quilt Corral shop and the Prairie Berry Winery.

Then on Sunday the fronts of the Main Street shops had quilts displayed outdoors. And a whole new set of quilts were hanging outside Mistletoe.

Star Struck

I have a huge library - of regular reading books and also of quilt pattern books. But I just had to add another volume to my quilting libary. This arrived in the mail on Monday and it has some gorgeous quilts in it.

Stars are one of my favorite quilt designs and you will be "star struck" by the artistry of this designer.

It inspires me . . . but now I need to make some time to try one of these star quilts. But it will be hard to decide on just one of them.

Sewing & a triathlon

I took Friday off and spent most of it sewing. No finishes yet,but I had lots of fun working on several small things. I made a couple of gift package blocks made with pieced boxes and appliqued ribbons. I pieced these from leftover scraps from my stash.

However, yesterday no time was spent in my sewing room because we did a little road trip. My husband and I drove 90 miles to Yankton to meet Jerilyn & Darin. During the drive down (and home again today) I worked on the blanket stitching around my gift blocks. One is done, and a second one is partially done.

While in Yankton, Darin joined us on Fox Run Golf Course for 18 holes, while Jerilyn relaxed and then went to pick up her registration packet for today's triathlon. She - along with a couple of friends - competed today in her first triathlon! My daughter is much braver than I was at her age. The girls (ages 29-37) all finished with better times than they expected. It was a gorgeous day for swimming a quarter mile (it was about 55 degrees when they hit the water), biking 14 miles along the Missouri River, and then running 5K along the Missouri.

They all were pretty excited - and already planning for next year - following the event. Jerilyn is the short one on the far right.

More from Quilts & Vines 2010

I wanted to share just a couple more photos from this year's Quilts & Vines event at the Strawbale Winery near Sioux Falls.

This beautiful row quilt was one of my favorites because I love red and green. But I also just loved the visual impact of the blocks selected.

The other little quilt was a fun Halloween wall hanging with 4 witches spinning off the center. Isn't it fun how the hats all connect in the center? And I think the choices the quilter made for color was so non-Halloween, but worked perfectly.

Hill City Quilt Show

If you are going to be near the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota next weekend, here is an event you can't miss - The Hill City Quilt Show will be Sept 11-12. Check it out!

http://www.hillcityquiltshow.com/

Then there were 3 . . .

We have loved the back yard of this house from the day we moved in. Our family room has a south wall of mostly windows that looked out onto the back yard. It was guarded by 4 beautiful ash trees about 30 feet tall. However . . . now there are only 3. We had a nasty thunderstorm come through here in the past hour with very high winds. Dave and I stood in the kitchen and watched that tree lean more and more - until it finally just broke off at the ground. It is very depressing to lose one of those, but we are probably lucky it didn't fall on the deck or the house.

Interventions are good things

Our little "Intervention" on Tuesday night was a success, at least for me. Marilyn cut the rest of my strips for my X blocks, while I sewed more strip sets, and put together 8 more blocks.

Pam worked on a table topper called "taco salad" with Sylvia's help. And I made a decision (with everyone's help) on which fabrics to use for the sashing and borders for my Christmas quilt.

This weekend I hope to finish the strip sets and put together more blocks for the X block quilt. Half of the blocks are this pumpkin and black combination and the othe half are dark green and black. Once I have the blocks all done, then I'll have to decide on a layout design.

And since I picked up my pink and white New Wave quilt from the quilter this afternoon, I have a binding to do. I should have some pictures in the next couple of days.

OK - Whose sewing room gets an intervention next week?

UFO Intervention

I had an impromptu lunch with 3 friends on Saturday and we all complained about how unmotivated we had become lately. The lack of motivation centers around UFOs in our sewing rooms. And none of us probably wants to admit how many there might really be!!

We decided we needed an INTERVENTION at each of our houses. I'm first. These ladies are coming to my house tonight to help me tackle one of those UFOs - maybe two. There will be wine involved as a reward for our hard work.

My plan is to finish cutting and sewing the strip sets to finish up my X Block quilt top. Then I plan to ask for some advice on the layout of another quilt top that has blocks, but no definite plan.

MMMM - progress will feel so good!

Blocks 7 & 8

I got in gear this weekend and managed to catch up on my blocks for Saturday Sampler. I hate falling behind on these, because then it becomes very easy to just set them aside permanently. And I'm loving these blocks.

Block #7 is Queen Victoria's Crown. The center went together fast - and then the outer rows took awhile. Too many little triangles. And one of the edges refuses to straighten out with pressing. However, I know that when I sew it onto a sashing it will be OK.

Block #8 is called Arizona. This one was much easier. My only bit of panic is comes with wondering how much of each fabric will be needed to finish the final 4 blocks. One of my pink fabrics has much less left than all of the others. But this is a sampler quilt, so substitution may be OK in the end.