Last Day to Enter for DS Quilts Picnic & Fairgrounds Giveaway

Don't forget that tonight at midnight is the deadline to enter my Week 3 Blogiversary Giveaway for the 7 fat quarters of yummy Denyse Schmidt DS Quilts fabric.  I think it is really beautiful.  BD#1 said that these fabrics are reproductions of flour sacks from the 1930s or 1940s (I forget which), but I believe it because last night I was petting my DS Quilts collection and one of the prints totally reminded me of the curtains my mom had on our kitchen windows when I was really little.  I suppose I'll never really know, but there is kind of a retro feel to these fabrics - in a modern sort of way.

And then she said that our Aussie friends are getting a different selection than these JoAnn's prints.  I looked at the photos in the Flickr group online, and there are a whole bunch of the fabrics that JoAnn's did not pick up, including the green leaves above in red and several more gold prints.  Looking at the Aussie selection (you can see it here) I really wish JAF had picked up the whole line.  Those prints really round out the collection.  Oh well, sometimes one must just be content with the yummy goodness that does come their way!

I'm trying to decide what my last Blogiversary Giveaway item will be...  Suggestions?

Another DS Quilts fat quarter selection of different fabrics?

A Hoopla charm pack and a couple of half yards?

A homemade item of your choice from items seen on this blog?  Hmmm... the last one is intriguing.  Maybe have to limit the selection.  How about choosing between

A sewing apron...

A sewing themed hoop...

A messenger bag...

Or maybe a market tote?

Maybe I would even make the item out of this DS fabric.

So leave your vote in a comment for one of these three blogiversary giveaways:
1) A different selection of Denyse Schmidt Picnic/Fairground fat quarters
2) A Hoopla charm pack and 2 half yards of Hoopla yardage
3) Choosing one of the above items.

Please help me decide!  But you only have one day to leave your comment, because I have to decide by morning.

Last Day for Week 2 Blogiversary Giveaway!

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter to win the Jelly Roll Market Tote and Sunkissed Charm pack for week 2 of my Blogiversary Giveaway!  Go here!

And be sure to check back on Friday, because I have something planned that I think you'll really like.

Have a great Thursday!

Diamond in the Rough

You wouldn't think so to look at it, but the funnest fabric store in Pensacola has got to be the fabric store with an identity crisis.

First of all, it is, in fact, a compounding pharmacy.  When you walk in, it looks like an old fashioned dime store, with just about anything you can imagine.  A visit to the back of the store finds all of your pharmacy needs, I'm sure.  Their selection of Little Golden Books takes me back to my own childhood. It was the first place I went to buy little Abby-frog those classics  she MUST have, like The Poky Little Puppy, The Saggy, Baggy Elephant, and The Tawny, Scrawny Lion.

But take a left, and then a right, and fabric junkies, Enter Paradise!!  Who would suspect that the back of the store has bolts and bolts and bolts of fabrics from all our favorite designers?  Moda and Michael Miller are two of my favorites so far, but I can't wait to try some of the rest.   It is the only place in Pensacola I have found Moda charm squares, jelly rolls, and fat quarters.  OK, I'm new to these things, but now that I KNOW about them, I have to have them, right?

When my children were little, there used to be nearly a dozen fabric stores in Pensacola.  I have often joked and said that when I went back to work full-time, I stopped sewing, and they all went out of business.  Too sad, but true?  Maybe?  No, I couldn't have kept them all in business by myself....  Could I?

I used to work in Warrington - oh, 25 years ago now - and I shopped at AandE frequently.  But after we moved away, and moved back, I kind of forgot they had such neat stuff.  Then, in 2009, when Beautiful Daughter #2 was looking for some special trims for her prom dress that the ordinary fabric store didn't have, a lady at the cutting counter suggested we try AandE.  And I had one of those, "You Dummy!" moments.  Of course!  I knew about it all along, and just forgot.  And so we drove across town and they had exactly what she wanted.  And it was on sale, even.  And I was hooked.

But I really didn't appreciate just what a treasure it was until Beautiful Daughter #1 turned me on to how much fun designer fabric can be.  And so I have to wander by once or twice a week on my lunch hour or on the way home from work.  I browse.  I touch.  I imagine.  Too often, I succumb to the subtle charms of these beautiful fabrics.  Like I need more fabric.  But I need to feed my addiction.  Still, it is an innocent enough habit, I suppose.

And the ladies there are so nice.  And (I'm not sure this is a good thing) they remember me.  The other day, a lady and her daughter were buying some of the Michael Miller Lanterns Bloom collection, and when the lady at the counter saw me, she said, "Here's a lady that has already made that quilt," and so I stopped and chatted, and gave them the benefit of my experience (and told them that the pattern is on Michael Miller's website and they don't need to reinvent the wheel, like I did).  Then, when I was in there today after work, the manager of the fabric department told me I should have been there earlier - that they had some quilters come in with "show and tell", and I would have loved it.

And I would have, too.

I plan to spend the weekend finishing projects.  Maybe I'll have some time Monday to do some "show and tell" of my own!

It's Mother's Day!

Well, technically, Mother's Day falls in May, not August, so let me explain.  This year for Mother's Day, Wonderful Husband was away visiting my Beautiful Daughters, and came home Mother's Day afternoon.  For weeks the children had been telling me that Dad and the kiddos had a great gift planned and they were SO excited.  So when Wonderful Husband's plane arrived on Mother's Day afternoon, he took me to dinner and presented me with a card, inside which was my gift - the password for my very own 1 year membership to Ancestry.com..

 That evening, I signed on - and I was hooked.  I have been looking for my Great Grandfather Wheeler since 1975.  My Grandfather died when I was 5, and my Grandmother really couldn't remember very much about his father.  She told me what she knew, but it never got me very far.  Later, my dad told me that he had lived with his Grandfather, Martin Luther Wheeler, in Cody, WY when he was young.  In fact, he said, he was called "Garth" because having two "Martins" in the house was just too confusing.  I had tried an ancestry 2 week trial membership, and had a few successes, but GGF Wheeler was not to be found.

So, Mother's Day afternoon, I signed on to Ancestry.com, typed in "Martin Luther Wheeler" and THERE HE WAS!  Apparently my Great Grandmother Wheeler died when my Grandfather was about 2, and GGF Wheeler remarried - to a woman with 3 children!  One of them was kind enough to include him in their family.  But wait - there's more. 

Not only was he there, with all his vital statistics, but there was a photo of him with his second wife, Sarah.  You know, he looks a little like my dad.

Anyway, for about the next 6 weeks, I spent every available minute at the computer.  It was ridiculous!  Before Mother's Day, I had about 475 names, painstakingly gathered from microfilm, microfiche (whatever that was) and family records.  Over the next 6 weeks I gathered about 4500 ancestors.  Easy peasy!  Those little leaf thingys are so cool!  You can sign up for your 2 week trial membership here.

I finally realized that most good things are better in moderation (really, I knew that, but we all have to be reminded now and again).  Somehow, my comfortable chair wasn't so comfortable any more.  Maybe it was time to return to some of my other hobbies.

Which brings me to Mother's Day gift #2.  When Manda put Daddy on the plane, she sent him home with a second gift for me.  A charm square pack that I had told her that I liked.  Every day or two, while I have been sitting in that comfortable chair I mentioned, I would take it out and play with it.  I ruffled through the beautiful fabrics and imagined what I was going to do with it.  Yummy.  There is something so comforting about fabric and colors and ideas and imagining...

Last night, I was wandering around the net and traveled to Moda Bake Shop (not for the first time), where I found a beautiful recipe for a quilt, made out of the jelly roll of this very fabric.  I loved it.  Would it work with charm squares?  Yes, I think so.  So now, instead of charm squares, I have a pile of quilt squares. Soon to be a quilt, I hope.

So thank you family, for a wonderful Mother's Day - the kind that lasts awhile.  Very cool.