Blogoversary Giveaway Day 4

On to Day 4 of the Blogoversary Giveaway. Today we have this lovely if unfinished tote bag.

I made one for my wonderful mother-in-law and had enough fabric for two. As I have learned, though, making two identical projects is not a good plan for me. I get bored and never quite finish.

So some lucky person who loves this fabric as much as I did will get the almost completed tote, the fabric with the freezer paper templates ironed on to the handle fabric, and instructions for how to complete it. This purple bag needs a good home, and my UFO pile is not it!

Remember to link to your blog, follow me to be entered into the drawing twice, and today please tell me in your comments how many UFOs you personally have. "Too many to count" is an acceptable answer and the approximate number at my house. But now I will have one fewer!

Blogoversary Day 3

Behind door number 3 of the Blogoversary Giveaway is this terrific little paper piecing pattern of a lighthouse. I made it on retreat for a guild challenge several years ago, and had so much fun learning to paper piece.

Here is my finished miniature quilt:

I hope someone will enjoy this pattern as much as I did. I've included a 6" strip of my favorite sky fabric, which is enough to make the background out of if you choose. Remember to link back to your blog, follow me in the box at the right, and today tell me your favorite guild challenge idea. Since I'm currently the challenge chair for our guild, I love new suggestions for the future.

Hope you all have a great week, and keep reading to see what will be next on the list!

Blogoversary Giveaway Day 2

It's Day 2 of the Blogoversary Giveaway, and today's winner will receive the Discovery Toys Playful Patterns. It's a fun, educational game to introduce early geometry and pre-reading skills to young children (ages 4+), and the perfect way to stimulate the imagination of your quilter-to-be.

Remember to link to your blog, add your name to my followers list, and leave a comment. Today, in honor of my abysmal lack of knowledge about geometry, I'd love to hear what your biggest hurdle in quilting might be!

I hope this is as fun for you as it is for me. Enjoy your lazy Sunday and have a great week to come.

Happy Blogoversary!

Wow! I can't believe I've been blogging for a year. Although there have been some BIG gaps when life got in the way, I've managed to average about a post a week. Not too bad for someone who has no actual mission or purpose and is just throwing random stuff out there for you to read.

But in the tradition of my favorite bloggers, I've decided to host a giveaway in honor of the past year's internet fun. I have 7 items - one a day for a week - and will randomly choose from those who post here and link back to Quiltin' Jenny on their own blog. If you add your name to my followers (see the sidebar), your name will go in the hat twice. (No, I'm not above bribery. Isn't that what these things are for?)

Today's item is this lovely 6-pack of Moda fabrics. I'm sure that when I bought them, I was imagining some prissy quilt for my daughter (who was probably about 3). Little did I know that I was not raising a pink girly girl but a bright orange tomboy with bruises on her legs from lacrosse sticks. Sigh...I know someone out there will love these!

To enter your name, please leave a comment. It won't affect the outcome, but I'd love to know what other people might do with these, so if you have an idea please share.

Don't forget to click on the "follow" link at left to get your name entered twice!

Friday Fill-Ins #117

Friday Fill-Ins - my answers are in bold. I had fun figuring out the correct words and the books they are from. I am proud to say I have read 4 of the 6 books (the first four) and loved them all.

This week, I took the first sentence in 6 of my favorite books...you fill them in...with the right words or even better, ones of your own.

And...here we go!

1. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." [The Hobbit]

2. "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter." [The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]

3. "After dark the rain began to fall again, but he had already made up his mind to go and anyway it had been raining for weeks.." [The Story of Edgar Sawtelle]


4. "A wild, ringing neigh shrilled up from the hold of the Spanish galleon." [Misty of Chincoteague]

5. "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."
[The Graveyard Book]

6. "Accidents ambush the unsuspecting, often violently, just like love." [The Gargoyle]

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to dinner with Mom and Dad, tomorrow my plans include LAX if the rain ever stops, and Sunday, I want to see if I can get my computer and printer to play nicely together!

Have a great weekend!

A Day Out with the Wanna Bees

From Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

Today the Wanna Bees went on a field trip. Since nothing good ever happens on an empty stomach, we started our lovely day at the Fickle Pickle in Historic Roswell. There is nothing quite so yummy as their chicken salad and homemade potato chips with a heaping side of chit chat and endless discussion about fabric. The only thing that would have made it better is if we could have sat outside in the sunshine to eat, but it is raining. Again.

From Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

Once we were fortified, we were ready to move on to the main course for the day (to keep a metaphor going). Just down the street is the Bulloch Hall Quilt Show, also known as The Great American Cover-up. If you have a chance to get there before it closes on Saturday, you should make the effort. Especially fun to see are the challenges. I loved the ones with vintage blocks, which went well with the theme of "Recycling Traditions."

Ben and Jackie had lots of quilts in the show. Here's Ben with his quilt "Starry, Starry Night." It is so cool to see a finished quilt that I remember just being an idea and some computer doodling Ben shared with us at a Wanna Bees meeting less than 6 months ago!

From Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

...and Jackie with her "Midnight at the Sorbet Cafe."

From Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

They had/have a raffle quilt for sale, which wasn't so much my colors but gorgeously hand quilted, as always. Then there are always a couple of ladies demonstrating hand quilting and working on next year's raffle quilt. Now this one has my name all over it! Look at those blues! Of course, the blooming 9-Patch behind them is so gorgeous. I love those blues and yellows, and have always wanted to try this pattern.

From Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

We took one last glance off the veranda and wandered back out into the rain to rejoin the world in 2009; louder and so gray...but with the memory of those beautiful quilts forever.

For more, you can watch a slideshow of all my pictures from today. I tried to put as much description in the captions as possible to make sure the quilters got credit for their work and so you could find the ones you love again. Have a great day!

Just 'Cause

You can thank Melissa (again) for this meaningless drivel...

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes!

2. Have you ever been drunk? Yep, but not as often as a lot of you.

3. Do you own a gun? Me personally or in our house?

4. What flavor of Kool Aid was your favorite? Blue. What do you mean blue isn't a flavor?

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No. Just irritated at how long I'm going to have to wait. But if I'm 5 minutes late they act like I've ruined their whole day!

6. What do you think of hot dogs? guilty pleasure.

7. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee and diet Coke.

9. Can you do push ups? The girl kind.

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My Madonna necklace from GraceMary

11. Favorite hobby? Quilting (duh!)

12. Do you have A.D.D.? probably

13. What's your favorite shoe? none

14. Middle Name? Gillen, my paternal grandmother's maiden name

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I should be working, I should make the boys go to bed, and I can't forget to take the trash out.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Diet Coke, coffee, Tazo Wild Sweet Orange tea

17. Current worry? getting everything done

18. Current hate right now? the federal government, specifically the IRS

19. pepsi or coke? Diet Coke

20. How did you bring in the New Year? At a New Year's Party...playing Guitar Hero on the Wii

21. Where would you like to go? Atlantis, Bahamas

22. Do you own slippers? somewhere, but I don't wear them

23. What color shirt are you wearing right now? white

24. Do you like sleeping on Satin sheets? I guess so

25. Can you whistle? Not really

26. Favorite color? blue

27. Would you be a good pirate? no

28. What songs do you sing in the shower? no singing, just talking to myself and reminding myself of everything I can't forget to do today

29. Favorite Girl's Name? Grace

30. Favorite boy's name? Cullen

31. What's in your pocket right now? nothing

32. Last thing that made you laugh? my kids

33. Best bed sheets as a child? who remembers that???

34. Worst injury you've ever had as a child? when I was about 7 a small TV fell on my head and caused a pretty nice gash. I remember my parents calling a neighbor who was a dr.-type who came to determine whether or not I needed stitches, and me putting my hands over the gash and swearing that I wouldn't let them stitch me. No stitches. I had a scar in my part for years!

35. Do you love where you live? yes. I hate the idea of moving.

36. What did you want to be when you grew up? A lawyer or an actress, but always a mom.

37. Who is your loudest friend? Hard to say - they have to compete with me!

38. How many dogs do you have? 1

39. Does someone have a crush on you? Can't imagine

40. What is your favorite book? Recently, The Middle Place by Kelley Corrigan. Ever? So hard. Maybe The Red Tent.

41. What is your favorite candy? Chocolate and caramel

42. Favorite Sports Team? Florida State University Seminoles - Go 'Noles!

43. What song do you want played at your funeral? Go Light Your World, Amazing Grace, Blessed Be Your Name

Mail Time! (with a nod to Blue's Clues)

I just got a letter! I just got a letter! I just got a letter! I wonder who it's from!

It's from Dionne at Sew Many Quilts, who sent her blog's public followers a memento from her recent island vacation. How sweet is that?

I had nearly forgotten all about it when a lovely "soft present" (as my kids call them) arrived in the mail. What joy to find such summery fabric when spring is just peeking out of the ground in our neck of the woods. My Gracie has already asked for a bit of the lighter one, and staked her claim to the puka shell necklace. I love the charming little turtle keychain with the Hawaiian islands on his shell - the perfect thing to keep up with the dock key that I can never identify!

You should visit Dionne's blog. There is a lot more sewing going on over there. (I assume her sewing machine actually WORKS.) Then come back here and tell me what kind of machine I should be looking at!

Watch this space for my blogoversary giveaway coming up this week.

Whoopsy Daisy!

In all my whining about my miserable March, I forgot to tell you about the wonderful new addition to our family. In between bouts of disease, we got a phone call about a puppy who needed a home. She was lost and every effort had been made to find her owners, but after more than a week went by, the foster family couldn't keep her any longer.

So we are the lucky new family to live with Daisy! The vet thinks she is about 6 months old with a lot of Golden Retriever and who-knows-what-else in her. She is such a sweet girl, housebroken and very loving. She is typically energetic like any puppy, but not obnoxiously hyper. She loves to ride in the car with me and, since she has some separation anxiety, I have been spoiling her rotten by taking her everywhere possible. Last week she got to go with me to the dry cleaner, gas station, Goodwill, bank, and to get the oil changed - not to mention 101 lacrosse practice carpools!

All of the kids really love her, but since we got her right before Gracie got the flu, my two girls have truly bonded. I love this picture taken one day when Gracie had just had enough. Daisy was obviously feeling sympathetic and wondering why her favorite girl couldn't go outside to play with her as usual.

I'm sure there will be more Adventures of Daisy in the days to come. I hope you all have a bright spot in your day!

Unfortunately (Part 2) - Or March Madness

WARNING: Whining ahead.

It's been a long month. First, while I was living on caffeine and Nature Valley Yogurt Granola Bars, my coffeepot had the nerve to die on me. One minute I was sitting at the computer, happily sipping my crack, I mean coffee, and the next I heard this rattling noise of glass on metal and smelled smoke! Luckily the coffeepot realized that death was imminent and turned off all by itself before it killed us all. But no more coffee. :(

(Note: Cuisinart is kindly sending me a new one for the low, low price of shipping, even though it is no longer under warranty. And I didn't have to wait on hold for an eternity to speak to a real live human person. Excellent customer service!)

Then my darling Grace got the pukes. In the middle of a charity bowling event. With 100 of her closest friends and schoolmates in attendance. Nice. Nothing says sharing the love like spewing puke germs all over the people you care about most in the world.

Her brother felt the need to get in on the action, so he started coughing up gunk like an old smoker. After a few days without school he recovered nicely, but not before sharing it with the rest of us. My oldest is still hacking up a lung after lacrosse practice, but isn't interested in missing a game long enough to see an actual doctor.

In the midst of all of this joy, I realized that everyone's pants are far too short. This could disqualify me for my Mother of the Year Award, so I decided to use my dusty sewing machine for some trivial task like hemming when the worst happened: the light came on but nothing happened when I pushed on the pedal! Alas! (And stupid me, I checked to see if it was plugged in.)

So now I'm coughing and mourning and I have no coffee. We are in the middle of a fundraiser at the restaurant and getting ready for the biggest event of the year at my children's school. I am trying to suck it up and get through the week. Somehow I survive the big evening on Luden's cough drops and a few other (*ahem*) home remedies.

And Gracie gets the flu. And my computer dies. The same week.

Finally I dragged myself to the doctor to get meds for my own bronchitis, found a new computer, and saw the sun. (Oh, I didn't mention it had been RAINING this whole time???)

So, I think everyone is now healthy (except, possibly my oldest who is in denial). I have replaced the coffeepot and the computer. Spring is officially here. Now all I need is to think about a new sewing machine. I need input. My previous model was a New Home that my husband bought me as a surprise 17 years ago before I was even a quilter. It has been good to me, but I want to put some more thought into this purchase.

Suggestions? Comments? Links? HELP!

Hope you've been having a better March than I!