Warning! Some paper was harmed in the making of this post!

First things first.  I can't believe I'm typing this!

Stephanie over at A Ditchin' Time Quilts wins sweetheart of the day!  She so helpfully posted a link to an Amy butler "Love" giveaway! 

That's like someone handing you a lottery ticket that hasn't been scratched off yet for a Ferrari!

Okay.  Maybe not a Ferrari...but at least some of this scrumptious eye candy:

Go to

http://mrsschmenkmanquilts.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/love-stack/

 and follow the prompts to sign up to win...............8..............Oh my goodness, what was that number?  8 fat quarters of Amy's new line.  I'm giddy at the thought!  I mean, I just won a breakfast sandwich from McRondald...the win mojo must be on for me!  LOL

Don't delay!  While you're there, wander through her blog.  She's amazing!

A doll quilt she sent to her swap bud!

Secondly, this is what happens to tracing paper going through the copier:

I'd like you to notice the paper behind the mangled victim says "sew easy".  Ahem.  Luckily, tracing paper doesn't have an advocacy like PETA or Greenpeace on its side, or this post would have been written from the remains of a bombed out home or jail...my preference is jail because at least there are 3 squares a day, fresh laundry and a walk outside without kids and the dog peeing everywhere.  The dog peeing, not the kids.  Sheesh!

I'm involved in STUD.  I know.  It's exciting for me too!

Swap Til You Drop.

The star block, which I pulled off quite nicely, thank you (and now won't be able to replicate because I've been cocky!) was a prototype for my October bud's quilt.

I went to the local UPS store, home of the gods of copying machines to humbly request 25% reduced size copies of the pattern.  After a small sacrificial offering of one sheet (seen above), the copy gods were appeased and granted my wish.

 

If you are going to do paper foundation piecing, I highly, highly recommend tracing paper instead of regular old Staples kind of copy paper.  Much easier on the needles and the hands when you tear the foundation layer away from the block.

I bought this fabric:

on a summer vacation trip (as I read through my blog, I notice we seem to take a lot of these...hmmmm...)

and it's been living in a repurposed wire mail/paper basket waiting to tell me what it wants to be.  Yesterday, the stars aligned after the copier gods were appeased and the fabric spoke.

"Use me for the STUD quilt."

Really.

Just like that.

So, wanting to keep my winning streak going and hoping brown nosing the stars and copier gods works...I'm thinking they will reward me (sorry you won't win LOL, but I might be persuaded to share!  maybe scraps ha ha ha!) by letting me win the "Love" stash!

More on paper foundation piecing tomorrow...or maybe later if the gods decide I'm being irreverent and strike me with a lightening bolt!

Piece out!

Paper Pieced Block and I Won!

This is where I live a lot of my life right now-

I'm parked right next to the kitchen and dining room and have a yelling distance of everywhere but hubby and I's bathroom.  LOL  It's definitely much warmer in here than in the sunroom where it was about...oh...41 degrees this morning.  Brrrrr!

This:

and this:

led to this:

and this:

wow...

Toby Lischko's quilt "Isabella" inspired me to try a new block this weekend.  I delved into the scrap bin, box and bag and ended up with my interpretation of her design.  It's foundation-pieced points and curved piecing for the arc.  I went a little bit further and used the technique for piecing string quilts to make the inner ring.

For the most part, I think I did a good job.  If I hadn't string pieced that inner ring, I think that seam would be smoother.  I used many of the same fabrics from the string quilt since they were just kinda layin' around looking lost and lonely.

One of my first flowers I loved as a little girl were dandelions.  Several years ago I found this fabric

 

and fell in love all over again.  Four or five years later, it told me it wanted to be the outer ring of this block.  I have to admit, I cried cutting the fabric.  Silly, I know.  But this fabric has so many memories it brings back to me...so many hopes, dreams, fears, joys and pain.  I've been saving it for something special and I really didn't want to waste it on a quilt I didn't like.

This block will be the center of a new quilt hubby would like for our bedroom.  It goes together pretty fast, and unless I'm really messed up...the instructions and sizing were a bit, well, incomplete in the magazine, so I had to fudge the outer edges of the quarters that make the whole block.  Pretty innovative even if it is me that's messed up, not the book! 

Another happy thing is that after entering every giveaway on blog land...I won!  Well.  Sort of.  Yes.  No.  I've entered to win yarn (I don't even knit and would have gifted the fuzzy furry stuff!), fabric, notions, table runners, wall hangings, purses, bags and even a quilt!  Today was the day I won....

a free breakfast sandwich from McDonald's!  Hooray!  For a girl who never wins anything, I'm pretty pumped!  I'm thinkin' that next Monday, when we're on our way to co-op, ole Ronald's gonna see my smilin' face at his window claimin' my prize...'cause it's all I've won.  No purses.  No bags.  Not even yarn that wouldn't live at my house.  No bitterness here.  No regrets.  Just hope.  Optimism.  I've broken my losing streak...and surely another win is just around the corner!

Cheerio!

Sunday Sales and a Giveaway!

Well, it gets better than this, but not by much!  LOL

Two very fantastic bits o'news for us all.  #1 is that Audrie from "Blue is Bleu"

http://blueisbleu.blogspot.com/

 is having a giveaway!  A festive table runner perfect for fall!

So, hurry on over to her blog for a chance to win and look through her other posts to see some beautiful, inspirational and very hip quilts!  Her enty for this Fall's Quilt Festival is a favorite of mine!  She has a very cool story and is an exceptional quilter!

Another bit of happy news is that Randi from "I have to say"

http://ihavetosay.typepad.com/randi/2009/10/shop-notes-sale.html

is having a 25% off sale!  Until Wednesday, all fabric posted in her store is on sale...she's making room for more scrumptious bolts of beauty coming to her shelves!

We had a blast yesterday at parents/alumni vs soccer team day!  LOL  Too much fun!  One dad came dressed in drywaller's elbow and knee pads, shin guards and a boxer's headgear.  He sported a huge 80's style boombox blasting the theme song from "Rocky", to the delight of the kids and parents who weren't brave enough (ahem...pronounced living life safely!) to play.  Those of us not wanting to break a bone, tear a tendon, pull a muscle and need healing at the alter today, sat in camp chairs and cheered them on!

Our team colors are yellow and black.  At the end of the game, the ref (former player and current crazy man!) called all of the elementary and junior high teams on the field to do battle.  They looked like a swarm of angry bumble bees!

We're not really sure who won...who lost, but the dad who "spanked" his son for stealing the ball from him was redcarded and ejected from the game!  Only to keep sneaking back on the field.

Pitch-in dinner with tableful tons of tasty food!  Oh my.  Potato soup chowder, bar-b-que meatballs, chicken and noodles, pasta, green beans, potatoes, chips, sandwiches, fried chicken, cake, brownies, cookies, rice crispy treats...we know how to cook!

The awards ceremony rounded out the evening.  Middlest came home with "The Big Stopper" award for his playing keeper all season long.  We have two more games that were reschedules for rainouts and sickness.  Next year he heads up to the more intensive senior high team!

Go Strikers!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

So much going on today!  So much happy news and exciting things to do!

In order (drumroll please)...

Humpty Isaac update.

We are now nine days post op for baby Isaac aka Humpty Dumpty.  May I introduce you to his friends?

Isaac is in the bottom, left corner and his monitors are taking up all this space!  But the good news is that yesterday, Isaac was doing everything...everything...on his own! 

Here he is awake and oh so cute.

His tiny little hand and his turtle.

It's Friday, October 9th and the Quilter's Festival has begun!  You can click on the link to see such wonders of color, design and quilting!  Spring's festival was inspirational and incredible...plus you get to meet so many new friends and hear about their lives and see their creations!  Way too much fun!

My submission is our "Summer Vacation" quilt I finished this summer.  We courageously loaded up the CRV with boys, boogie boards, swim trunks, suntan lotion, flip flops and sandals and headed to the beach!  One glorious week and two wonderfilled weekends of vacation.  We swam with dolphins, saw sharks of all sizes and shadows, jellyfish, crabs, Blue Angels, clouds, and water of the most crystal clear blue and the green emerald waters of Destin.

I wanted a quilt that was cuddle-up-on-a-cold, winter night-and-remember size.  So I dove into my stash and scraps and pieced away.  I was inspired by this quilt:

by RedPepperQuilts, who is also participating in this fall's festival.

Some other pics of our quilt.

Below is the pieced back.  One block (blue) for hubby dearest, one block (green, 'cause it ain't easy!) for me and the blocks that are the centers of our lives...the boys.

and my favorite block

Mimi held onto fabric scraps from outfits she made for my sister and I when we were little girls.  This robin's egg blue flower is a cherished block and I like to pretend that when I cuddle under the quilt, that my mom's arms are wrapped around me!

Lots of giveaways and astonishing quilts at the festival...so go take a look and enter your quilt too!

Two in One Day! (Wait, that doesn't sound quite right!) LOL

Ahem.

Just saw the dangedest, cutest way to hold and display bobbins!

Kathleen of My World

http://myworld-kath.blogspot.com/

is so stinkin' clever and romantic that I am...

can't wait to get out our goblets!

Tee hee!

A Give Away Blog Spotlight, New Skin and Holidays!

A really cool day is shaping up for us all!

First off:  a give away link and awesome blog I just found!

This is Andi and I love her smile and happiness here!  View her blog here:

http://bigredwedding.blogspot.com/

to see why she's smiling, and here: 

http://patchandi.blogspot.com/2009/10/happy-blogiversary-to-me-and-something.html

to see why you (or me!) might be smiling.  She's having a give away of a personalized, reversible bag in colors of the winner's choice.  You can read about the give away and then take a view through her incredible blog for happy, inspirational ideas and quilts.

This is one of my favorites, even though it probably doesn't exist now!  See her blog and you'll know why!

Onward and upward.

Allow me to introduce you to Squishy.  First off, Squishy is a "he" no matter what hubby says about the matter.  LOL

Here Squish wanted to pose with his new favorite quilt that he met on our end of summer vacation trip at the hotel.  Squish has been with me since...well...as long as I can remember.  Here he's modelling a somewhat old, tired, faded and wornout lace pillowcase  he once looked fabulous and "oh so shabby chic" in.

Unfortunately, being the lovey of a 40+ year old woman throughout her living memories has put some wear and tear on the old boy.

Squish began his life way back as a pillow.  School days, college, honeymoon, marriage, numerous trips to the hospital while I was giving birth or sick, family vacations, get-away vacations, plane rides and long car rides do tend to get the better of one, don't they?

Now, before the whole dust mite thing grosses you out, he gets washed regularly (or frozen or air dried outside) and reclothed with a fresh new pillowcase as soon his current one wears out.  The last two incarnations of him were lived in pillowcases my great-grandmother had embroidered and my mom gave to me.  We know he needs a new "skin" when he starts losing bits and pieces of himself in the bed covers or on the floor next to the bed.  I sleep with him every night, and he doesn't snore!

Hubby started tenderly laying bits and pieces on my bedside table last week.  Squish has felt a bit neglected since the quilting bug has hit and said bedside table is sporting a new catch-all mat.

So, he politely asked to have something different...out of the ordinary...unique to reside in that reflects our history together and the quirkiness of our relationship.

The new and improved Squishy!

I started piecing from the middle out with fabrics that made me smile, happy and cheerful at the thought of using them every day!  Lots of my favorites in there.  Squish, knowing the almost total lack of pink in my life, is not one of those males who is afraid pink might hurt his masculinity...and allowed me free reign on the color in exchange for me not saying anything about his lumpy middle and the need for a roomy pillowcase.  Ahem. 

I was afraid all the seams would prove a bit bumpy and leave huge imprints on my face, but never fear, the backside is a soft, white flannel and I slept like a dream last night!

Today and tomorrow we're on Fall Break!  Sort of.  Kind of.  Middlest helped me move furniture around yesterday so my sewing obsession could come inside.  So, a little catch up for him today and science class this pm at our local middle school and tomorrow is an all day field trip for him.  So just Javi, Bean and I on Friday.  What loads of no good can we get up to in just two, short days?

Stay tuned!

This Is The Day!

...that we've been given.  Full of promise.  Full of hope.  What will we do with it?

 

I wake up every morning with a list of things about a mile and a half long that I know I have to do...should do...would like to do.  I've angsted over them the night before and they fell asleep with me closer than even hubby can snuggle on a cold, fall evening. 

But, most of the time, the day takes me where it wants me to go, and not the other way around.  And for that, I'm thankful.  I learn new things.  Meet new people.  Ask new questions.  Fall down.  Get back up.  Fall down.  Get back up.

The responses from you all amazed and encouraged me.  You lifted me up after my falls...because all I had to do was remember your kindnesses when I was feeling a little lost, or neglected or needy.  And the day got brighter.  So on a post where I was hoping to challenge and encourage myself and others, a tremendous blessing was gifted to me.  You.  Your hearts.  Your souls shining through the dark forest. 

Thank you!  One little corner of the world beamed a little bit brighter!

Things I'd like to share back:

http://thedottydline.blogspot.com/

You need to read Dotty's profile.  She is an amazing woman! 

And this:

is my part of this week's Sew and Tell for Friday Finishes at Amy's blog. 

http://www.amylouwho.com/

Hubby's old building has lots of "treasure" in it.  This is an old, walnut book case way in the back, upstairs, lost in an empty room.  Lonely.  Left.  Unloved.  Unused.  Until....

the boys carried it off in a huge truck and brought it to our house to live!  Hooray!  On top are color coded flower buckets for my scraps from the Sweet Pea Sonata quilt.  The old, wire paper basket was also found at the building and cleaned up.  Now it holds a jelly roll and some yardage for a quilt that's yet to tell me what it wants to be.  A cd/radio player for music and the much needed talk radio.  LOL

My growing collection of quilt books and magazines.  An old, wire post office basket (I have this thing for old things that can be repurposed!) with more yardage that's too yummy to keep stuffed in a box.  And, don't laugh (well, you can laugh if it makes you happier!), but Wal Mart has these awesome stackable cubes that are see through plastic with little holes.  I can see my "babies" and ogle them lovingly every time I look at the book case.  Mostly fat quarters and some snippets here and there.

We have a three season sunroom that does triple duty as playroom, sewing room and get away from it all room.  Windows on three sides let in lots of sunlight and I can see the kids playing in the backyard.  I can also watch squirrels, chipmunks, hummingbirds, other birds, butterflies and whatever else happens to wander into the garden.  Most days I'm there with a kid or two who wants to be where Mom is.  I love that!

Woke up yesterday morning and it was 44 degrees outside.  Which meant the unheated sunroom was about 50.  LOL  Soooooo, yesterday was spent bringing a lot of my sewing stuff inside to the den.  Which is now Mom's sewing room until spring.

Hoping to finish the move and clean up in time for Amy's Friday Finish and in the meantime, I'm working on some new "skin" for an old friend.

Blessings!