More Souvenirs

NOTE:  If you haven't entered the Milestones Giveaway, go here.  

Giveaway ends Wednesday, August 15, 2012.  

Winner will be chosen Thursday, August 16.

One day last week, I posted the souvenirs from my vacation a few weeks ago.  Yup!  All fabric!

And adorable photos of my grands.

 Oh, yeah - and an antique sewing machine.

 But I digress....  Anyway, my Flickr friend Krista (and now friend in real life!) and I met up in Seattle and went to a little quilt store in North Bend, Washington that was going out of business.  Fabric there was ON SALE! and you know I can't resist that, and bought some souvenirs.  These souvenirs were not in my original post.  Krista wondered where they were.  Frankly, I had to go hunting.  They weren't with the other fabric and random things I had brought home. 

Aha!  I found them.

So here are the REST of the souvenirs from my vacation.

 Pretty, huh?  

I actually have plans for a couple of these pieces.  The rest?

Well, I'm sure they will come in handy for something!

First Finishes for August!

If you saw my post from August 1st, you will know that I have proclaimed August to be Finish It month. Well, here it is the 13th already and until now I didn't have a thing to check off my list.  I still don't, really, since these bags weren't on the list, but they WERE languishing in the WIP pile, and they are now finished, so I'm going to count them.  It is, after all, my list, and I can count them if I want to, right? 

My list, my rules!

I found several pieces of decor weight remnants at JoAnn's and brought them home.  I thought they were pretty fabrics (although you would never see them on a chair at my house...  pillows?  maybe.)  Anyway, I brought them home and then one night after work they were staring at me and just screamed to be made into bags.  So I got busy and cut them out.  I even made two of them and sent them on to new homes.

But the other two were just moping there in the WIP basket all this time.  So finally, I sat down yesterday and finished them up.

It's really not difficult when the pieces are already cut.  It's just a matter of getting them out and doing it, isn't it?  They are a variation of my One Hour FQ Tote, so they don't even take that long to make.  My One Hour FQ Tote pattern is really my go-to pattern for tote bags.  It's easy, it goes together quickly, and I always like the results.

So I don't have an immediate need for these bags.  The first two were sent out with swap items, and I may do that with these.  My friend Krista suggested that I put them in my Etsy shop and see what happens. 

What do you think?

Coming Soon: Bowls with Borders Blog Hop

A year or so ago I was participating in a fun kitchen swap, and one of the swappers made an adorable wall hanging with some really cute stacked bowls.  That particular swap item did not come to me =( but if it had, I would have given it a good home.  Still, the seed was planted, and I really wanted to try these bowls.

Enter the Bowls With Borders Blog Hop!  Madame Samm and Carol of Just Let Me Quilt have put together a fun blog hop with more than 160 bloggers and their interpretation of Regina Grewe's Piling Up Pattern.  You can purchase the pattern here.

I'm so excited to show you my interpretation of these delightful bowls, so drop in on Friday, August 17th to see what's cookin'.  In the meantime, click round to Just Let Me Quilt and start hoppin'!

Think Christmas Blog Hop {Choosing Another} Winner

NOTE:  The Milestone 300th post, 200 follower giveaway is still going on - if you wish to enter that giveaway, go here.

As promised, on Thursday, I let Mr. RNG choose a winner in the Think Christmas Blog Hop giveaway from the previous Friday.  But alas, that winner was a No-Reply blogger and didn't respond to the winner post.  It is so disappointing when a no-reply blogger wins.  It just seems sad.  I really wanted to give the winner this gorgeous bundle of DS Quilts fabrics, but she didn't respond, and somebody should win it.  If you go to all the bother to have a giveaway, someone should win, right?

Awhile back, I read a post on Pleasant Home.  She mentions that some folks don't even know they are no-reply bloggers.  I have to admit, when I was new to the blogging world, I was a no-reply blogger for awhile.  I wondered why I never won giveaways and no one ever responded to my questions.  I don't think I even knew there was such a thing as a no-reply blogger.  

 Well, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel in this post.  Pleasant Home has done a great tutorial on how to see if you are a no-reply blogger and how to fix it.

Anyway, today I was going to let Mr. RNG choose another winner but I got a server error (doesn't seem to be my day), so I let WH choose the number.  I said, "Honey, pick a number between 1 and 199." And he looked at me like I had two heads and said, "OK, 100."  Just like that, we have a winner.    That's pretty random, right?

Lucky #100 was...

100. Courtneysews August 3, 2012 2:07 PM

We love decorating! Thanks for the great give-away!

I've already checked to see if Courtneysews has an email address, so I'm off to send her an email.

Congratulations, Courtneysews!  I hope you enjoy your FQ bundle of DS Quilts fabric.

 

Milestones!! A{nother} Giveaway

I know that I just finished a giveaway yesterday, and I really had something else planned for today, but when I logged on this morning and found that this will be my 300th post I just couldn't resist.  That seems like reason enough to celebrate, but I've been promising a 200th follower giveaway for awhile now, and reached that lucky milestone last week!

So here it is.  Another luscious bundle of DS Quilts fat quarters - 2 full yards - for a lucky reader.

 You have a maximum of three chances to win:

1.  Just leave a comment telling me what you like best about fall.  (Personally, I'm really looking forward to cooler temps and less rain - but no hurricanes!)  Please make sure I have a way to contact you!

2.  If you are a follower of my blog, you get another entry, so leave a comment to let me know.  If you become a new follower, that counts too - just be sure to leave a comment.

3.  Leave me a comment my Facebook page.  You can even "Like" me if you haven't already.   I'd love it.  Facebook "page" is kind of a new medium for me, and I'm trying to figure out how it works, and the comments there last time were very helpful.  I'll count the FB entries at the end of the blog entries.

Please, please, please, make sure I can contact you!  If you are a no-reply blogger, I will immediately choose someone else. The winner of the last giveaway was a no-reply blogger, and I find that a little frustrating.  The waiting is killing me.

That's it.  Comments will close on Wednesday, August 15, and I'll draw a winner on Thursday, August 16.

The giveaway is now closed.

Announcing: The Think Christmas Blog Hop Winner!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit during the Think Christmas Blog Hop.  Wasn't that fun?  Lesley and Madame Samm did a GREAT job of putting together a wonderful hop, and I, for one, am inspired to get started on my Christmas sewing.

I had so much fun reading about your favorite Christmas traditions.  I am so grateful you all shared such precious memories with me.  So many of them sparked memories of my own Christmases.   It was a marvelous trip down memory lane as I tried to respond to all your comments.  Thank you so much for sharing.

So are you ready to pick a winner?  We had 183 comments on this post and 16 on FB, making a total of 199, so I asked Mr. RNG to pick a winner for us.  He picked

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

59 

Timestamp: 2012-08-10 03:03:55 UTC

who is

aiah23August 3, 2012 10:29 AM

I am a new follower now! My favorite family tradition was wrapping last minute gifts on Christmas Eve. My mom would always give me my sister's gifts to wrap and she would have to wrap mine. I'd go into my own bedroom, put on A Christmas Story, and do that:) Still to this day I think back fondly on that although my sister lives in CO with my 7 y/o niece and I have my own family and home now.

This particular tradition reminded me of a time when one of my daughters was about 12 and was left to babysit her siblings as mom and dad went Christmas shopping or to a holiday party or something.  She usually helped at Christmas by wrapping all the gifts except her own.  Apparently this was a boring (and very quiet) evening because she unwrapped every gift, tried on all the clothing, examined everything else, then wrapped it all back up and put it under the Christmas tree.  

But of course, when Christmas morning came, there were almost no surprises for her and she didn't enjoy it very much.  I remember thinking that I hadn't done a very good job on her gifts that year.  She was well into adulthood before she shared what really happened on that Christmas so long ago.  The memory always gives me a good laugh.  To this day, this particular daughter swears she doesn't like surprises, but you should see her go after her stocking on Christmas morning.

Aiah23, you are a apparently a "no-reply" blogger.  Please email me your mailing address and I will get your lovely DS Quilts fabric off in the mail to you.  If I don't hear from you by the end of the day tomorrow, I will choose a new winner.

Too Many Swaps?

Mosaic for Fab Little Quilt Swap (FLiQS)

NOTE:  The Think Christmas Blog Hop/Simple Merry Christmas Quilt Giveaway ends TONIGHT at midnight.  If you are still thinking about entering the giveaway, leave a comment on this post.  (Note that the prize is 8 FQs of Denyse Schmidt's DS Quilts fabric, not the quilt itself.  Sorry.)

I got a little bit behind last week when I was making the Merry Christmas Quilt, which had to be finished and posted by midnight Thursday.  I almost made it.  The blog post came at 1:15 am or so, but I doubt I had anyone jumping up and down to read it at that time of day.  Should you want to make this little quilt yourself, the tutorials are here (part 1) and here (part 2).

Then I had hoped to spend the weekend sewing but I volunteered to help a friend organize a swap, so I spent the weekend partnering up swappers (who knew it would take me so long???)  This swap mama stuff is more difficult than it looks, but I finally came up with a method that worked for me after about the 4th try.  And then there was the fun of sending 45 emails...  But overall, it was a good experience and will serve me well the next time.  There's a first time (and a learning curve) for everything, right?

Mosaic for DS Quilts Mini Quilt Swap

So Sunday evening, after all the emails were out, and when I should have been sewing but I was watching the Olympics instead, I sat down to make some mosaics for some swaps I've joined.    We all know that I'm a swap addict and apparently have no self control when it comes to these things.  Is it the fun of making something for someone else?  The fun of getting a little present in the mail (and even WH likes that part)?  The fun of stalking my partner?  The fun of trying something new?  All of the above?   I have no idea what motivates me to do these things, but at least it's not a self-destructive addiction.

Is it?

Mosaic for my new colors for Q3 of the 3x6 Bee

And I made 4 mosaics.  Is that a ridiculous number?  To make in one night?

I always use Big Huge Labs to make my mosaics, and it made the mosaic just fine, but I can't get it to download the credits for the yummy pictures I choose, so all of my mosaics are credit-less.  I'm sorry creative Flickr people.  I really tried.  I even disconnected Flickr from BHL and reconnected it, and it still doesn't work.  I see on Flickr that it works OK for other people, so I'm not sure what has gone wrong.  People put so much time, effort, and creativity into these lovely creations, I like to give credit where it's due, you know?

Mosaic for the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap

So I'll be swapping like crazy for the next couple of months.  But I'm still determined to work on the list.  August is, after all, FINISH IT month.  It has been proclaimed!