Our Flower Pot Is Full!

As much as we want to let everyone play, there just

isn't anymore room left in the garden. Dang it!

I do have a waiting list going, just in case someone

has an emergency and needs to drop out.

We've got people from all these places just

ready to show their creations in May:

UK

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Norway

USA

Brazil

Belfast

Germany

Sweden

Poland

Canada

Malaysia

Australia

Italy

France

Switzerland

I can't wait to see what blooms from this hop!

If I Weren't Afraid....

....what would I do?

You know (I know YOU do) how you go to one blog that has an

interesting link, so you click. It takes you to another blog that

has a link...and so on, and so on, and so on.

Somehow I ended up HERE with no idea which blogs I was clicking

on or what links were taking me there...just a mindless wander

(that's fun to do sometimes...I love doing it!)

I saw this question on that blog

 that totally caught my attention:

What would you do if you weren't afraid?

I've been afraid of a lot of things in my life:

What people think of me

Flying (big time on this one)

The sound of an ambulance

The dark
Tall, tall buildings
Ski lifts

Failure

Confrontation

Prison movies (I wish Walking Dead would get out of that prison)

Anything less than perfection

Making friends

Crowded elevators

Bridges with water under them
Blog Hops

blah, blah, blah...other stuff

I did get over a fear of blog hops...really, they terrified me!
I worried that I wouldn't get in, then I worried that I would.
I was afraid to show my "oops" stuff (totally over that now) or
thought my stuff wouldn't be good enough.

AFRAID is a scary word...we need to get over it.
Join a BLOG HOP...it helps.

A Charmed Winner Has Been Chosen!

Farm Quilter

CONGRATULATIONS!

An email has been sent to her.

Thanks to all of you who follow me around!

What's Happening? Stuff...Lots Of Stuff

 It's my anniversary, so I'll be doing a little

celebrating today. It's been 41 years... unbelievable!

The Say It With Flowers Blog Hop has had an amazing turnout

 and I'm still working on answering emails...lots of them!

My anniversary is kind of important, so HE wins my time today.

I played with my new "toy" a little this weekend, but

I had four Monkey Boys hanging around so they were

just a little more important than that Light Scoop Deluxe.

This is Monkey Baby without using the Light Scoop Deluxe. 

Notice how dark the wall is behind him. If someone were standing

behind him, their face would have been dark.

I just LOVE his chubby cheeks!

 

This is Monkey Baby with the Light Scoop Deluxe.

The wall is lighter which means that if someone were

standing behind him, their face would have been lit up, too.

 

 This candle was taken without the Light Scoop Deluxe. The colors were 

washed out and there is no depth to the rag rug below it

This is with the Light Scoop Deluxe 

which gave it a little more warmth.

I definitely will use this toy, but I need lots

more practice and time to learn the best way to use it.

Tomorrow is the start of....trumpet sounds here....

It's the last day for my Follower's Giveaway, so if you

want to enter click HERE.

New Blog Hop Alert!

I'm pretty excited about this one because.....

I'm the cheerleader for it!

Whoohoo!

Check out the RULES over at Sew We Quilt

then send me an email:

Monday's a big day for April Showers!

With The Showers There Came Flowers

Look what's coming!

Sew We Quilt has a new blog hop that will

start taking sign-ups tomorrow. I'm so excited!

Who's Fault Is It? Not Mine, Of Course!

All I said was that I was having a hard time getting

into making a mug rug, because I'd never made 

one before, yadayadayada....something about mojo.

So, I went shopping at Home Goods after work....

BECAUSE 

Daryl over at Patchouli Moon Studios said 

"make your mug rug match your mug."

THEN

Karen over at KaHolly said, "Maybe you could go mug shopping, 

find a couple of really great ones, then let your creativity flow!!"

See...it's their fault that I went shopping for mugs

and found FOUR...yep FOUR fun mugs to play with.

When I got home this fun little toy had arrived in the mail. 

It's a Light Scoop by Professor Kobre.

My sister saw it over on Tater Tots and Jello and said she was thinking of buying

one...so of course I had to buy one because she was going to buy one. 

(Someone else MAKES me do that, too, and she knows who I'm talking about.)

ANYWAY...

It attaches to your camera to make your pictures better. There are

other mirrors available for different tones, but I'm giving this one a try before

I jump in and spend more money (unless my sister says she's 

going to buy them and then, well, you know.)

This photo was without the attachment 

 This one was with the attachment (there's the back of my mug.)

I'll play with it some more later to see what else it does

and the REAL way I'm suppose to use it.

If you made it through all the jabber above, how about a 

Follower's Giveaway

for TWO of those cute little Moda mini charm squares of Comma by Zen Chic.

They are so dang cute!

All you have to do to enter is:

Be a FOLLOWER by one of the gazillion ways to follow me.

Leave one mini/charming comment.

Only one entry per person.

The Follower's Giveaway will end on April 7th at 6 p.m. PST

(comments left after that time won't count.)

Make sure I have your email address or you can't win!

I'll ship Internationally.

Don't forget this is coming...it has to do with mug rugs!

Just Have A Happy Easter!

May your day be filled with peace, love, family,

and maybe a purple Peep or two....or three.

The Winner Is Stitched Up!

SHARON 

(from Dancing Thru Threads!)

Thanks for your sweet comment and for entering my giveaway!

I've sent you an email just to let you know you won.

What's Your Quilt Worth?

I just visited a blog,

and read a post, 

that had a link, 

that went to a blog, 

that had a fabulous view on

what a quilt is worth.

Loved it!

Click below to go see the interesting view

of Sam Hunter from Hunter's Design Studio:

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT

It's nice to think my quilts are worth something...

even if I don't plan to sell them.

I'm All Stitched Up...Want To See?

Has this hop been a blast or what! Of course it has!

Jane's the queen cheerleader of Stitch Me Up and she's

done a royal job of ruling this blog hop...way to go Jane!

Madame Samm is stitching away with big plans to sew 

more than me--she always beats me, dang it! 

I'm not competitive at all, but has anyone heard how many what she's making?

I have heard she's planning more hops for the future...what a woman!

There were so many fun patterns to choose from, but I went

for the ones that weren't too complicated and (hopefully) weren't going 

to embarrass me as I attempted these embroidery things.

I think I LOVE embroidering!

This little flower was created by Cyndi from Stitch, Stitch, Stitch 

and was perfect for the bib pattern I wanted to make.

This bib pattern (that I sorta-kinda-followed-but-not-exactly)

is by Wimzee Fabric Arts, Designs by Steff Tiffin

Little Girl's BIB-A-FORE 

Since I had dug out all my Mary Engelbreit fabric for that bib, 

I thought I'd go ahead and make a matching quilt using the 

cutest little girl from Madame Samm's Wee Tots collection.

My Sweet Cherry Quilt

I just love how shy she looks.

My Monkey Boys helped hold up the quilt for the first few

pictures I took, but chose to remain anonymous since it was a GIRL quilt 

and they didn't want their friends to think it was for them.

I did my own quilting on this, nothing fancy, just straight stitches.

One thing I love to use when I do those straight stitches is blue

painter's tape...it doesn't mess up the fabric and I can 

stitch right along the edge for perfect lines. 

I can lift and reuse it multiple times and in multiple directions.

We all remember that cute purse pattern from the UR Priceless blog hop

(weren't they all just the cutest things!) Well...I just made it a little bigger 

(okay, a lot bigger) and created a sewing bag to be able to 

grab-and-go whatever embroidery project I'm working on at the moment.

For this project, I embroidered Madame Samm's French lady and 

used melted purple crayon to color in her beret, scarf, and shoes.

Mines not so perfect, but check out Quilt Whimsy's blog for more details.

It was fun melting those crayons!

There's one pocket in the front.

(The beige fabric looks stained, but it's not...it's the print on the fabric)

Two pockets on the back.

And one big pocket inside.

This was so much fun! I really want to try stitching

some of those other patterns because they are just amazing.

Now on to other important matters...

MY GIVEAWAY!

Five fat quarters of Audra's Iris Garden by Brannock & Patek

SILLY LITTLE RULES:

1. Leave a short and sweet comment. Don't know what to say? Just tell me what part of the world you're from.
2. This one is important! Make sure I can contact you if you're a no-reply blogger. Typing out your email address like this helps avoid spammers: iblog at aol dot com. If I can't contact you, you can't win. 
3. You don't have to be a follower to be entered in the giveaway, but if you do follow me around, leave a separate comment that says "I'm a follower" for another chance (plus, if you're a follower I'll throw a little something extra in the package if you win.)
4. I'll mail it anywhere.
5. Giveaway ends at 6 p.m. PST on March 29th. Entries after 6 p.m. PST on March 29th will not be included in the giveaway.

Want to see all the blog hop creations in one place?

Check them out on Madame Samm's Pinterest page

Look who's blogging with me today:

TUESDAY MARCH 26th

 Isabel @That Other Blog

Jeanette @That Other Blog

Just Let Me Quilt

MacDonald’s Patch 

Pots Pans Pins and Prayers

GrandMama's Stories

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch

Needled

Tomorrow's Treasures Today 

Lemur on a Stick

 Life In Every Breath

Zellerwear 

 Bumbleberry Stitches

threads on my socks

Hanging On By A Thread

Fresh Cut Quilts

The whole schedule is

HERE