August is Flying By

August is just zooming by.  School starts this week for the rest of the metro Atlanta area which means traffic gets 10 times worse and I'll have to stop hitting snooze a million times get up earlier.  I am working on three gift quilts at the moment. One just needs a label, one needs binding finished, and one I am quilting myself.  I'll have photos soon, as I hope to get these all out this month.

Oh and a big day is coming at the end of this month.

Someone is celebrating his one-year-old birthday on August 29th.

In honor of not-so-little-anymore Remy's upcoming birthday, I'm having a little giveaway for my faithful readers, who have followed his antics since November.

There is a choice of giveaways.

 Choice #1 is eight fat quarters of batiks.

Choice #2 is nine fat quarters of an older Kansas Troubles line called Strawberry Jam.

Just leave a comment on this post and let me know if you would like choice #1 or choice #2.
Drawing will be held on Mr. Remy Mischief's Birthday August 29th.

Fine print:  Random drawing. Please make sure I can get ahold of you via email.  Thanks!! Remy thanks you too.

UPDATE:  Giveaway closed!  Thanks for entering & for all the birthday wishes for Remy!!!

Luck All Around

Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday weekend.  I had a busy week so it's great to have a couple days off to get some fun time in.

Yesterday I finished the top for this month's Schnibble parade.  This may be one of my favorite Schnibbles ever. I used Kate Spain's line called "Good Fortune" and the solid is Moda Bella solids Zen Gray.  I just love the colors in this line and also like the play on the theme of the card trick block (Good Fortune = Lucky; Card Trick block = Cards) 

Speaking of luck, I was super lucky to be a winner in Fabricworm's weekly giveaway. The line is called "Grand Hotel" by Jenean Morrison.  This line just says late summer to me with the great graphics and saturated colors.  Big thank you to Fabricworm!!! 

The cats are enjoying the warm sun and gorgeous weather we are having in metro Atlanta this weekend.  Here is Gomez lounging on a pile of quilts on the back of the couch in the late afternoon sun.  

Ahhh the life of cats.   This black cat sure lucked out adopting me.

Remy, Royal Mail, A Gift, and a Block

A very awwwww photo of Remy with some of his favorite toys just because he is so darn cute and don't you just love those little toes???!!?? 

I was so very lucky to win a fun blog giveaway from Katy at I am a Ginger Monkey and this wonderful little bundle of mod fab goodness was sent all the way from England via Royal Mail.  I LOVE getting mail, especially fun mail, and Royal Mail with a gold sticker well that is even more better. Katy has a really cool, fun blog and she also is one of the designers/writers for the Fat Quarterly e-zine.  I signed up for a subscription and have a quilt all planned for these fat quarters--an out-of-my-box bright and solids mod quilt for when winter doldrums hit. 

    

I was so touched when I received a package from a sweet blog reader in south Georgia who sent me the most lovely note of encouragement and these gorgeous Civil War fabrics.  Quilters are the most generous thoughtful people ever. A proper thank you is coming and here's a public thank you too!

And to answer the big question, did I get to sew today?  Yes I did! After sleeping in for eternity and then I had to hem four pairs of pants (hemming is not sewing! I hate hemming pants!!!) And then I got to sew this one block LOL!

Don't look to close because it's rather wonky with 50-11 set-in seams but here is another Civil War block of the week block. This was a difficult block but it's staying the way it is because I'm not revisiting it.

Well it's back to work for everyone in the U.S tomorrow. Lots of rain and colder weather is headed towards Atlanta, which means it is going to be really hard to get out of bed in the morning.

Giveaway winner!

Congratulations to #17 Scottylover aka Ms. Sandy A. Please email me your address and I'll get the goodies right out to you.  

Big thanks to everyone who commented and entered!!  I wish I could send something to everyone but never fear, I'll have another giveaway soon.  And let's all hope it is in celebration for something fun and not for surviving a crazy house electrical fire.

It's a Special Friday

Today is the day to comment if you would like a chance to win the

We Survived the Crazy Electrical House Fire of Friday May 13th, 2011 Giveaway

If you are just tuning in, I had a super crazy-pants, ongoing insane, endlessly frustrating, but we-are-all-happy-to-be-alive-and-in-one-piece experience that you can read more about here and here and here and there's more if you are interested. 

To celebrate nearing the end of all the repairs, phone calls, yada yada yada... I am having a giveaway for you, my blog readers, whose wonderful comments helped me through all the craziness and kept me company in the endless 90F degree days and not-much-better dark nights for 25 days. 

Now for the details:

Giveaway is for nine bright happy fat quarters, three 1/2 yd cuts of pink fabric, a Moda Quilt Pink charm pack, five or so patterns, and the book Clever Quarters, Too. 

Drawing via Random Number Generator on June 30th at 8:00PM EST.

Comment on this post only.

 Since I am all about disaster and emergency preparedness, please leave a comment on your plan for getting your family, pets, loved ones, and/or yourself through an emergency or what you have packed in your disaster kit (if you don't have either one of these, now is your chance!!!)
If you need some tips, here's a link to the ASPCA's disaster preparedness info for your pets.

Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your profile is set to "no-reply." 

That's it.  Be prepared and be safe!
 

Adorable Giveaway!

Please visit the lovely blog of Kimber at Heirlooms by Ashton House to enter a giveaway for her cute-as-can-be owl pincushion.

Then please send it to me if you win hee hee :)

Kimber is super talented and has a fabulous historic house and fabulous black cats too.

And the Random Number Generator Goes to....

We have a winner!  Congratulations to Tiffany at This Crafty Fox!!!  Tiffany, please email me your mailing address and I'll send out your package. 


Thanks everyone for entering.  This was so much fun that I'll be holding another giveaway for my blog-iversary coming up in December.

My Best Team...

As you can see my best team of assistants is overwhelmed by the response so far to my giveaway. I have met so many new bloggers and discovered so many new inspirational blogs. And there is still a week to go woo hoo! Thanks everyone.

This is a quick post because I am heading out to my monthly sewing group, Silver Thimble Quilt Co. or Thimbles for short. Edgar Poe and Stella will have a afternoon of napping until I get back when I'm sure they will want to help with a report later on.  Happy sewing Saturday!

A Treat...

Hope everyone is not worn out from the Fall Into Fall Giveaway and Fall-O-Ween Blog Hop and all the other fun things going on in blogland this month. Not to mention the upcoming Bloggers Quilt Festival. If you have just a little more energy to leave more comments...

....you can help me celebrate my upcoming b-day!

I'm having a giveaway (with a vaguely fall theme).  There are 10 Moda fat quarters of autumnal colors (mostly Kansas Troubles), Pat Sloan's Crooked Cabins book,  a Little Quilts booklet called My House, Quick Flannel Quilts book, and an assortment of patterns including little bags, charm-square table runner, pillow, scrappy lap quilts, and a jelly roll quilt (and maybe more stuff if I can fit it all into a flat-rate package).

10 fat quarters, 3 books, and bunches o' patterns...no tricks :)

I'll make it super simple to enter, just leave a comment on this post. 
Comments will close on Saturday, October 23 at high noon EST and winner will be chosen by random number generator.
Please make sure I can reach you through your post (if your blog post says "no-reply" I won't be able to reach you!)
Open to quilters from near and far.
 Thanks for helping me celebrate!.

Vickie's Giveaway

Vickie is having a great (a seriously great) giveaway for her 600th post.  Here's the link:
http://www.spunsugarquilt.com/2010/10/600th-post-giveaway.html

Good luck!

Becky's Giveaway

My good friend Becky is having a giveaway over at quiltingbooklady.blogspot.com. Here's the post if you want to enter.

Labor Day Weekend Rambles

Warning: Long rambley post....

I have been celebrating my first Labor Day weekend off in eight years. I used to celebrate three-day weekends by being happy to only work one job for three days. This not having to work at all for three days is really great. I did all my errand running, grocery shopping, and housework on Wednesday and Thursday so I could stay home the rest of the weekend.

Let's catch up on the past few days. The new fridge didn't arrive until 6:30PM Wednesday evening. I was the last delivery of the day and I felt really bad for the delivery guys having to deal with my crazy old house--steep granite stairs to the back door, sloping ceiling in the back hall because it is an enclosed rear porch, and galley kitchen with maybe an extra 1/8 of an inch to squeeze in the fridge.

The guys were so nice and professional, I called their supervisor on Thursday to give kudos where kudos were due. Good karma is a good thing.
So here is the new fridge. We have cold and unspoiled food again. I love the fridge except for one thing...
magnets don't stick to stainless steel. Who knew? Not me. So I guess I can't cover the front of this with Mutts comics, postcards, souvenir magnets, and photos of Mackenzie. Oh no! What is an aunt to do?
Cover the side. Here are new photos sent from my mom.

On Thursday, I received the giveaway I won over at Thelma's wonderful blog Cupcakes n' Daisies. Thank you again Thelma!! I can't believe how quickly it arrived all the way from Green Fairy Quilts in Utah. I think there is a fleet of green fairies that zoom all over delivering fabric goodies. If you are as addicted to Moda pre-cuts as I am, go visit the Green Fairy shop.
For the giveaway, I chose a Luna Notte layer cake and Arcadia honeybun.Luna Notte is another winner from Moda. There are some luscious grays in there and I am all about gray fabric.

Saturday was the first meeting of the Groovy Girls club at Sweet Home Quilt Co. I am excited about this new club by Terry Atkinson and even more excited to have another reason to visit Melisa at Sweet Home. The focus of the club is small projects and new techniques.
I was there bright and early (8:30 AM is early for a Saturday) on a gorgeous morning. Melisa had a groovy-themed breakfast table.
Click on the photo for Melisa's cool idea to make flowers from buttons and a table full of projects for neat gift ideas.
During this session, Melisa demo'ed bags and zippers. I've never tried doing zippers but our homework challenge is a bag with zipper so I will tackle this. I love the display of Terry's brightly colored zippers. Wonderful colors you could just look at all day. Melisa lived up to her Bad Melisa nickname so I came home with some patterns to use up some stash.

The rest of the day, I worked on Double Delight (ugh I wish this quilt would hurry up and finish itself!) and watched/listened to marathons of "House" and "Burn Notice". It was so nice out, I turned off the A/C and opened the windows. The cats hung out in the windows and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.
Gomez looking sweet
and Gomez and Morpheus artistically posed.

Hurling Through December....

December is when the year goes from busy, to hectic, to zooming around at the speed of light and doing 2 million things while trying to be cheerful about it. (it's that whole cheerful thing that's hard isn't it???).

Take a mini-break right now and hop over to Pat's blog and enter her great giveaway. She also has a very funny post. I'll wait here for you.

Back? OK now where were we? Oh yeah, ending the first week of December. On Saturday, Melisa at Sweet Home Quilt Co. had a holiday open house. I went early thinking I would beat the crowds. It was packed!!! Only a Sweet Home sale could get all these Georgia quilters out on a freezing cold morning--me included. I picked up a book called "Jelly Roll Inspirations" and some odds & ends fabric and some sale fabric. Just a wee bit. Visited with a bunch of friends and then I hightailed it home to get some sewing time in.

I did finish this top
called "Hidden Stars" from this book. The fabric is a layer cake from Barbara Brackman's Civil War Homefront line for Moda.

Did I mention it was freezing cold? A lot of places around the country had snow. It was cold enough for snow here in GA this weekend although we didn't get any in the ATL. It was 28F at 6AM this morning when I left for SBux. That is really cold for GA at the beginning of December.

The first big cold snap of the year brings swarms of people to Starbucks for hot chocolate and lattes, and everything else. The first big cold snap also is the start of the "Cats sleeping on the heat vents" season at my house.
Here is Morpheus and Gomez demonstrating why it is freezing inside my house too.

So how is your December so far?

Fabulous Halloween Giveaway

This is a very popular giveaway among the blogs I read. Visit Pumpkin Patch Primitives for your chance to win and entire bundle of really great fall fabrics!!!

Oh I hope I win!!! But if I don't, I hope someone wins who likes to share LOL!!!

Jolly Jabber Giveaway

Have you signed up for the great giveaways over at Fat Quarter Shop? Check out their blog and then check out the most fabulous Civil War BOM. Unfortunately I have to pass on this BOM but it is a beauty.

Giveaway Links

Some great giveaways going on in Blogland:

Faithful Quilter is having a Civil War reproduction fabric giveaway. (Let's just ignore the fact that I have oodles of CW fabric and hope I win anyway :)


Pattern and fabric designer extraordinaire (I LOVE her stuff!!!!) Heather Mulder Peterson is having an unbelievable giveaway on her blog Trends and Traditions. (I hope I win this one too, aren't I the greedy one today!)

And there's some layer cake goodness over at Green Fairy Quilts. This would be a wonderful prize too. So many great giveaways!!!

Keeping fingers and toes crossed over here....

Bunny Hill Giveaway!

Mama Spark along with Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs are having a fabulous giveaway. Go visit Mama Spark here for your chance to win.

Link to a Giveaway

Becky over at the Quilting Booklady is having a great giveaway in honor of cleaning up her sewing room and reaching 200 posts.

And the Winner is...

Random number generator at random.org picked #10! Dianne at A Month of Sundays please email me your mailing address and I'll get the goodies sent to you.

Dianne said she wanted to spend the summer in "Dinky Creek, California - i spent two weeks there when i was (much, much) younger and it was incredibly cool (as in far out, not as in temperature)"

Thank you all for entering my giveaway and for sharing where you would spend the summer. Everyone had great ideas and I think I would be happy with any of your choices. Where would I spend the summer if money was no problem?
I would spend the entire three months touring around England,

Ireland,

and Scotland! I have always wanted to go and I think I would need at least three months to see everything I want to see cities, countryside, shores, castles, ruins, battle sites, cemeteries, museums, shops, pubs, and on and on. I would probably take 5 million photos at least. Well, it is nice to dream....

One of My Favorite Places in Michigan

Why has this short (three day) workweek seemed like a five-day workweek? I have tomorrow off from both jobs (woo hoo!) and am going to...guess what.... (not clean house)... sew all day! When I was in Michigan last week, I got to spend some time sewing with my mom, aunt, and SIL, who all quilt too. I worked on "Glory Bound" and have all the blocks made and tomorrow I'll work on sewing the quilt together. Karin already has hers done (maybe because she has such a great helper).

I still need to get some photos together of my Michigan fabric purchases so that will be another post. I do want to share another one of my favorite places to go
Cook's Farm Dairy! Cook's is located out in the country and is a family-owned working dairy farm (soapbox alert: please support your local family farms and family-owned businesses--I did, we went there twice!!!!).
Cows! Admit it, the word just makes you smile. It was feeding time when we were there and the ladies were too busy to turn around and pose for pictures.
You can also see new cows! How cute is this little sweetie.

Cook's produces their own hormone-free milk and butter and unbelievably delicious homemade ice cream. I think it's the best I've ever had. Actually I'm glad Cook's is located in Michigan and not anywhere within driving distance...especially since their version of a single scoop is huge!
This is my favorite ice cream (yes, this is a single scoop)
It's dark chocolate with caramel sauce swirls and chocolate-covered cashews. The name is very tongue-in-cheek funny...

...it's called Cow Pie! I kid you not.


PS: Don't forget, the deadline for my post #250 giveaway is tomorrow!