Last Giveaway in Birthday Celebration!

Giveaway #7

Thanks to everyone for helping me celebrate my birthday. Are you ready to participate in my final drawing? Remember, you're still eligible to enter the drawing even if you won one of the previous six prizes.

I think I saved the best for last.  I'm giving away this jelly roll friendly quilt pattern, a Garden Inspirations jelly roll by Moda, and a packet of Christmas applique designs!

To be eligible for the drawing (which will be held on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at noon EST):

• Leave a comment on this post for 1 entry.
• Be a follower for a second entry.
• Post on your blog for a third entry.
• Link back to me for a fourth entry.

I wish all of you good luck!



CONFETTI

Here's what we're working on.

This quilt is called Confetti and is from a terrific book called Four Patch Frolic.  The quilt calls for 98 four-patch blocks. You can see all of them in strips here on the sewing table. The next step is to even up the strips, then put long sashing strips between the rows.

I'm trying to get Momcat over here to iron. I've found that the ironing board provides me an excellent strategic supervisory advantage. Plus, it keeps me away from you-know-who (picture below mine, also in the sewing room.)

Staying in Shape

I may have mentioned before that Maggie is half-boxer (her other half is black lab, which makes her a full mutt).  We all know that boxers do all kinds of things to maintain their physique. Running (Maggie is great at that), jumping rope (she's an expert at jumping on people and her doghouse), and using the punching bag (named Philip). Here's how Maggie does her push-ups. She's developed her own clever way of getting that upper body strength just so.

 


(Note from Momcat: Piwacket is high on catnip again. This is just Maggie's funny way of getting off the couch. She drags her upper body down to the floor and looks almost boneless in the rear as her back legs follow her to the floor.)

Have you created for 15 minutes today? If not, get to it!

Hugs,
Piwacket and Linda

Just Kitting

The first day working at the quilt shop yesterday was terrific and Linda returns today, so I guess she didn't make too much of a mess of things (other than taking the entire shop off-line thanks to hitting the wrong button in spite of Jill saying ,"No, hit cancel!" Or taking a ruler away from Jill because she was too lost in her own little world. Or folding the fat quarters wrong and having to redo them. Just why is she allowed back today?)

The St. Jude's retreat is just 18 days away and there's still so much to do in preparation!

This morning we worked on preparing another PIG to take along. The pattern is Fiddlesticks by Kansas Troubles Quilters.

I'm using two Wild Rose jelly rolls by Brannock and Patek for Moda. This pattern would also work well for all those 2 1/2" strips from your stash.

I'm cutting it using one of my favorite tools, June Tailor's Shape Cutter. It has slots every 1/2" up to 12".


I've had mine for a couple of years and use it tons. In fact, you can see that I've taped one corner due to traveling and having SOMEONE (with human hands, so take a wild guess who it was) accidentally bend it when putting a heavy object like, say, a sewing machine on top of it. You can also see that it's been marked with numbers on both sides. That's so that we don't wear out the slotted openings on only one side.

It's a marvelous helper when you're cutting lots of 2", nickels or other similar size pieces. I layered 4-5 jelly roll strips on top of each other, then went down the line cutting my rectangles and squares. It was so much faster than lining up the ruler each time.

I still need to pick out the fabric for the sashing, inner and outer borders and binding. Shopping from my stash is a job for tomorrow.



Your feline friend,
Piwacket

Bargain Day

You gotta love a bargain. Lately our home has been undergoing some difficult changes so Linda is thinking positively about moving forward and turning the house into one that is a comforting refuge for her, and welcome place for friends and family.

She wants to repaint and reorganize some areas, and add accessories to others. But with this economy she needs to do it on a very skinny shoestring budget (ahhh, shoestrings...such fun to play with!) One of her friends recommended shopping at thrift stores, Goodwill and estate sales to get some great deals. So today Linda took the plunge and visited the Goodwill store for the first time.

It was a bit different going into the store instead of dropping things off to be donated, but she quickly got over the trepidation. Look at what she found!


This old tea box had a few little dead and live bug-a-boos in its crevices. Think that's why she was able to pick it up for only $2? It's all wood and after a good cleaning and disinfecting it's just the perfect size to hold charm packs and jelly rolls.








Take a look at it filled. I'm having a blast batting at the ribbons around the jelly rolls!

As if that weren't enough, she was hoping to pick up a couple of interesting (non-quilty) items for the built-in bookcase in the family room. With some books and pictures going to a new home, there were some definite bare spots that needed to be filled.

So she moved most of our quilting and cross-stitching books down to the family room. Then she wanted to add something that would bring height, color and/or inspiration. She finds a country palette soothing.

She was delighted when she found this mustard-colored crock at the Goodwill store. In the picture it's on the right shelf, second from the top, right next to a small tilted mirror. The tag on the bottom says it was made for Target in 2007, so not an antique by any stretch of the imagination. But it adds the color and height that she needed in that spot.

So no sewing for today, but we did accomplish some rearranging and organizing. It's all good!