Thursday, April 30, 2015

Ribbon Candy Quilt Company's Amazing Giveaway

I'm totally crazy about Margie at Ribbon Candy Quilt Company and I just heard she's having a 
GIVEAWAY!
Her applique patterns and Craftsy class just WOW me!

You could win one of three prizes...

ONE FREE ONLINE CLASS - $35 value
ONE $20 OF COUPON FOR THIS ONLINE CLASS
ONE $10 OFF COUPON FOR THIS ONLINE CLASS


DON'T enter this giveaway on my blog...
head over to her website HERE to enter.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Using Glue To Hold That Fabric Piece In Place

I keep my glue close by when I'm dealing with the need to hold a fabric piece in place.
It just makes some things easier for me and I definitely love easy!

The glue was a must when I was sewing my Sunburst Dresden. There were 24 points 
and no matter how hard I tried, they wiggled out of place when I was sewing them.
Out came my glue...loved it!

I glued all those points in place and let them dry before I started sewing them together.
Washable Elmer's Glue works, too. I tried it on my Purple Dresden to make sure. Yep! It works!
It doesn't need much...just a dab or two.



They went together so fast and with no worries about those points slipping.


I use Tombow or Elmer's School Glue when I'm having trouble making some seams meet, too.
Nesting seams usually works, but not always...or maybe its just me not being able to always do it.
Dab a tiny bit of glue, nest the seams together, and let it dry or touch it with an iron.



It stays there while I sew and gives me a perfect match on those seams. 


I'm off to play with Monkey Boys and just enjoy my day.
I hope your day blooms with warmth and sunshine!


Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Let The Brown Bag Voting Begin On My Dresden

I took on the Brown Bag Special challenge at Quilted Works in March and this week our projects
had to be turned in for voting on their Facebook page. There are some really amazing creations
being shown and all they ask is for a "Like" on three of your favorite choices. Voting ends Friday.

I'm #4, so if you like it please click "Like" HERE.


There's lots of other great choices on the Quilted Works Facebook page HERE so check them out.
Help someone win a Pfaff Ambition Essential Sewing Machine!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

The Purple Dresden And The Garden

I've been slowly working on my purple Dresden as I make sure of all the measurements
in preparation of teaching some of my favorite quilty friends how to make it.
I can't wait to go hang out with them for a day of sewing!


For the first time in ages we have have a garden...whoohoo!
It definitely doesn't compare to some of those big garden people, but we're loving it.
Tomatoes, peppers, squash, zuchinni, basil, and strawberries.
Hopefully, some of them will survive and make their way to my kitchen.


Look! Our first strawberry!


There's a baby frog in there somewhere. Maybe I'll get a pic of it someday.

Hope your Sunday is peaceful!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Have A Latte Winner


#2 - Lisa from In The Boon Docks
Congratulations, Lisa!

Thanks to all who stopped by for a latte!

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

There Was Purple So I Had To Stop And Sew

I was moving around and sorting some fabric that has been multiplying like the Star Trek Tribbles,
when I noticed a small container of fabric that I didn't remember I had. It was purple!
I envisioned another Dresden quilt and that did it! I stopped what I was doing and went to sew.
My fabric can be sorted and moved around another day!
After a little over an hour I had it cut out and some pieces sewn.


 Apparently, my attention span is rather short these days because while sewing I looked out
the window and saw that we had some new yellow flowers blooming in the yard.
I stopped sewing and went to take pictures of them. The Dresden can wait!



I'm loving this warmer weather and all the beauty its bringing!

I had a blast at the local quilt show that was held over the weekend. There were some amazing quilts
on display, some that I wouldn't ever, ever, ever take on. Wowzers! Some of them were incredible!
I spent Friday at the show with Barbara, who won 1st place in the modern quilt category.
Way to go, Barbara! Congratulations!
She was in the Rush Hour blog hop with this quilt...see it and her story about the quilt HERE.

I ran into Deonn from Quiltscapes (I love that lady!) and she gave me a signed copy of
the magazine with her quilt pattern in it. I HAVE to sew this cute baby! Thanks, Deonn!



I went back to the quilt show on Saturday and hung out with my best friend, Brenda.
She spent Friday night at my house and we stayed up really late just chatting.
We've been friends for over 30 years, so we never run out of things to talk about!
Thanks, Brenda, for the best time I've had in a long time!

I saw this at the Scrap Apple Quilts booth where Linda was showing us how it worked.
Have you seen this before? Check out the video HERE...it's an amazing tool!


Guess I better go back and work on the purple Dresden...
at least until something else catches my attention.

Oh, wait! There's the Have A Latte Blog Hop still going on.
The whole schedule and my giveaway can be found HERE.
Lots of cool stuff being created in this hop!


Saturday, April 18, 2015

My Brown Bag Sunburst Dresden

A while back I took on the challenge from Quilted Works to buy one of their Brown Bag Specials
which held two unknown fat quarters. Once opened, I couldn't exchange it for another bag if I didn't
like the fabrics and I had to make something using both those fat quarters. Yikes! 
The fabrics were cute, but they weren't what I would normally pick. What a challenge!


With the sun slowly setting in the West, I took this picture of what I created.
I loved how it turned out!


I used the Sunburst Dresden method by Jenny Doan (but with different rulers than she used) and
the one-seam method of making a flying geese, I had such fun making this 45" x 45" quilt.

Thanks, Quilted Works, for this challenge!

The tutorials:
Sunburst Dresden HERE
One-seam Flying Geese HERE and HERE

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Have A Latte And A Giveaway With Me This Morning

It's my day to sit and have a Latte (or cup of tea) with you...COME ON IN!


Madame Samm at Sew We Stitch loves her coffee, so Have A Latte was definitely her style.
Add a spoonful of Joan over at Moosestash Quilting to cheer us on and this is quite a party!

I'm more of a tea drinker, so that beautiful fabric, Have A Latte by Clothworks made me want
to run to the nearest Starbucks to get me one of their Green Tea Lattes and a scone or two. Yum!



I did a little paper piecing (which I love to do) and created a quilt that measures 45" x 45".
It's the perfect size to snuggle under while sipping away at my green tea latte.

A Cup or Two For Me and You!


I found the cup blocks HERE and the coffee grinder block HERE.
The finished blocks were 8" x 8".


I love the striped binding!


The back is just solid colored fabric, but I created it with a method I found at several different
websites. The fabric gets cut on a diagonal and then slides down to make it bigger.
Crazy, but it works!
My fabric was a little less than 43" wide, so using this method added a few inches...very cool!
The link I found and used includes a calculator and instructions - Multi-Patch, Inc. HERE.


Uh-oh! A storm threatened our little photo taking outing.


Another quick shot with the storm in the background...


...and the wind showing us who's in charge. Time to go!


Look who's drinking sewing a cup or two of amazing stuff:

April 13

April 14

April 15

April 16

April 17

April 20

April 21

April 22

April 23

And now....THE GIVEAWAY!
One Winter Wonderland Skinnie Pattern by Margie Ullery at Ribbon Candy Quilting


The Rules
  1. Leave a short and sweet comment.
  2. One comment per person.
  3. The giveaway can be mailed anywhere.
  4. You don't have to be a follower to play along, but of course that makes me smile if you do.
  5. Giveaway ends at 5 p.m. PST on April 23rdEntries after 5 p.m. PST on April 23rd will not be included in the giveaway.
  6. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: If you aren't sure whether or not you are a no reply blogger, LEAVE ME AN EMAIL ADDRESS...pretty please! You can't win if I can't contact you! 
Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, April 11, 2015

A Gazillion Little Pieces Of Appliqued Fabric

I'm taking a two day class that involves a gazillion little pieces of appliqued fabrics.
Not that I EVER exaggerate or anything, but really and truly there are LOTS of pieces going on here.

This isn't even a fourth of all the pieces...yikes! What did I get myself into!


Dave's Bernina has Margie Ullery from Ribbon Candy Quilting doing this class...fun!
She teaches a class on Craftsy HERE.

There were three projects to make over two days. I'm heading back for the second project today,
but the first two projects aren't even close to being done. Yikes! So many pieces, but so cute!
Plus, Margie is hilarious and so fun to have teach us a few of her tricks.
She gave us a mini trunk show of some of her popular Skinnies and quilts. Wow!

I only managed to make four of these panels for this project. 
AND they still need to be stitched...oh, my, goodness...and sew blocks together, bind, etc., etc., etc.
What the heck! I'm usually faster than this!


I won one of her cute books of Skinnies...too cute! Plus, I MIGHT have bought a book (okay, I did!)

I'm off now to applique cute owls and hundreds of leaves. Lots and lots of leaves.

Crazy, but fun!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Where Did Those Blog Comments Go

I love comments on my blog and I rely on notifications of those comments arriving in my
 email box so I can reply to them. Hmmm...where did some of those blog comments go?


Last year I noticed some comments never made their way to my inbox, so I checked out why it was
 happening. A thing called DMARC is what happened. Apparently, in an effort to get rid of SPAM,
some upgrades were made to fix the problem. It did sort of fix it, but it also started recognizing 
comments by users of AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail (maybe some others) as SPAM and just chucked those
 email notifications into the black hole of the Internet...never to be found again! 
Not in the SPAM box, either!

Thinking I was so clever, I changed my AOL email to a Gmail address and it appeared to fix it.
Wait...it didn't?

What the heck! 

I can't believe it's happening again (or was it never really fixed?)
The comments from others still show up on my posts, but I don't get the notifications in my email. 

Seriously, I'm not ignoring you!

I searched the web for a solution. There is none that I could find, but there were a few places
 with some decent explanations. Just so we all know that we are not alone...

Karen from Sew Many Ways posted about it HERE.

Nancy at Wyoming Breezes posted about it HERE
and HERE with a solution that may work for you.

Jo at Riddle and Whimsy posted about it HERE.

Diana at Red Delicious Life posted about it HERE.

Note: On the upside, I found four new-to-me really fun blogs to visit!

So...

If you are a Yahoo, AOL, or other rejected email person, I'm sorry if I haven't responded to your
comment. I try really hard to respond to everyone and have even done extensive sleuthing
to track down no reply bloggers, but you might have slipped through. Sorry!

Hopefully, there will be a fix to this (but don't hold your breathe or you'll turn blue and pass out.)
Count your comments and then count your emails...this might be happening to you, too!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Do All Dogs Go To Heaven?

I'm sure that when my dogs, cats, etc. died, they went to Heaven.
They had to because they were so special!

My "grandson dog", RJ ,went there on Saturday...it was a very, very sad day!
He was 15 years old and deeply loved by my daughter and the rest of our family.


He's helped show off a few of my quilts. I'm going to miss my "model."




It's amazing how much our pets become a part of our life,
and how empty it feels when they leave to cross that rainbow bridge in the sky.

Give It A Whirl Blog Hop Starts Today

It is time to whirl, twirl, and spin with the "Give It A Whirl" blog hop! What was the challenge? Somewhere in or on your project ...