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Showing posts with label RWandB Blog Hop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RWandB Blog Hop. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Giveaway Winner & A Cute Story

It's time to announce the winner of my giveaway for the Red, White & Blue Blog Hop -- 

Mr. Random Generator picked a winner for the patriotic fabrics & pattern!   Here's a reminder of what was up for grabs....


So who won????


******  Drum Roll please!  ******


And the winner is:

Cheryl’s Teapots2Quilting!!!  Congratulations Cheryl!!!  An email has been sent to you so you can forward your snail mail address and get your goodies quickly =^..^=

I really want to thank Madame Samm and Jane at Jane’s Fabrics & Quilts for putting together the Red, White & Blue Blog Hop!  I hope you all had as much fun as I did seeing so many creative ways to celebrate America in quilts :*)

I still haven’t gotten a chance to get into my sewing studio and get anything done since before I left to visit family in Carolina last week!  No sewing for me for way too long!  I did buy some new toys for my studio today though, and all at 50% off too - gotta love a sale :*) ….


Jars for my scraps!  Angela at SoScrappy inspired me with her crumbs in jars separated by color which looked so pretty!  Right now I have all my small scraps in this bucket…


They are all jumbled together and it's really difficult to find anything.  In order to work with one color, I have to dump everything out and dig through it.  No more!!!!  I bought enough jars to have one for each color.  Now, on Rainbow Scrappy Saturdays, I can just pull down the jar with that month’s color and get to work creating, instead of spending an hour digging through my crumb bucket for the right color scraps – I love it!!! 

I have larger pieces in bigger bins and I don’t think they will all fit in the jars, but we’ll see.  It will be fun getting this part of my sewing room organized :*)

The other thing I bought is also to help organize me.  

It’s a lazy susan tool organizer!  


Doesn't it look smart sitting there next to my machine?  I had these tools spread out in different places before, most of them in this blue partitioned basket.  It worked okay but I couldn't get everything in it, and it left a little to be desired in the looks department if you know what I mean :*) 


But now I have all my tools together in one place, and right at hand as I’m working at the machine.  Perfect!!!  I’m hoping it works out as well as I think it will.

I also set up my Jo-Lite over the machine, and I am very happy with it!!!  


By the way, I got quite a few requests for more information about the light, so I dug out my card and checked to be sure it was okay to share the info with you here.  Willie Prazak is the designer of the light, and he was delighted that you are interested in his wonderful product!  He designed the light after watching his wife (a quilter of course!) try to get the proper amount of lighting in her sewing area.  She told him the many different ways each light fell short of what she needed, he took notes, and voila!  Next thing you know, he had designed a light that met all of her needs in one compact and versatile package!  You can see more about the light on my post HERE.

If you’d like to contact Willie, here is his contact info:

Willie Prazak
Giles Creek Productions
Phone: 615-355-9564
Cell:     615-427-2746

And now for the Funny Story.....

Before I finish up this post, I’d like to share a funny story from the other day.  Remember I went to the TVQA Assembly Day event last Saturday?  And I told you I had to be at Walmart, ready to be picked up by the bus by 5AM?  Well, when I got there, one other girl was there and neither one of us could see the bus anywhere.  We were concerned because it was only 5 minutes before time for it to be leaving for the next pickup stop, so it should have been there.  I pulled up beside her, rolled down my passenger window and talked to her through the window about what we should do since the bus was apparently not there yet.  We decided to go ahead and park further out to the back of the lot and wait for it.

Once we got to the back of the lot, we were able to see the bus!  All the way over on the other side of the lot where the tractor-trailers park!  We hustled over there and made it just in time!  I grabbed my stuff, made double-sure I had locked the car up, and hopped on the bus.  It was going to be a fun day and I was happy!!!

And yes, indeed, as I shared in my last post HERE, it was a fun day!!!  However, as I dragged myself into to my car at the end of the long bus ride home, I glanced over at the passenger seat and noticed something strange.  The jacket I had left on the seat was sopping, wringing WET!!!  Oh no!  I had left the window down!  I was in such a big hurry to make the bus and never even gave that open window a second thought.  And on the worst day possible too, because we had about 3 inches of rain that day, torrential downpours all day!!!  The passenger side of my car was soaked!  I actually sat there for a few minutes not sure what to do.

All the way home, I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to tell my husband that I was stupid enough to leave the window down.  I knew he wouldn’t be mad at me – he’s the most understanding man in the world.  But damaging a car is a big deal!  When I walked in the door, he was sitting at the computer and knew immediately by the look on my face that something was wrong.  I spilled the beans, waiting for his reaction. 

And then he actually smiled at me!  I was dumbfounded to say the least.  He said, “I’ll come out and look at it in a minute, but first I need to tell you a story.”  It seems, he had been putting new brakes on our other car earlier in the day, and left it in the driveway when he was done.  He went inside when it started raining and spent several hours working on a few projects in the house.  When he went back out to the car to run an errand, he realized HE HAD LEFT THE WINDOW DOWN!!!   LOL!!!  Both of us did it, and on the same day!!!  So instead of being upset, we both had a great laugh and got busy drying out our cars.  =^..^=

Know anyone who would like to buy a used car cheap?  Hahaha – just kidding!  Both cars seem to have come out just fine with no damage - thankfully!!!

Hugs & Blessings!
Teresa
=^..^=

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Hooray for the Red, White & Blue!!!

And a Giveaway too =^..^=


It’s finally time for me to reveal my design for the Red, White & Blue Blog Hop!  I was beginning to think the day would never get here!  Oh my, I’m SO excited!!! 


What do you think?  I wanted to make something that I could put on my Table Topper frame, and it looks just darling there I think :*)


I began the project by choosing a royalty-free clip art for the fireworks (I’m not an artist!) and created a paper-pieced background to frame it.   



I had a ball picking through my stash to get just the right rich reds & blues to showcase the “pop” of the fireworks.  


A white sparkle fabric worked perfectly for the fireworks, but the sparkle is hard to see in the photo.  Cutting out those tiny pieces was pretty tedious, but I just knew it was necessary for the design to work.


I finished it off by quilting with a silver metallic thread to sparkle it up a little more :*)   After all, what’s the Fourth of July without sparkles, right? =^..^=



Isn't that a cute bias stripe binding?

This is my second design for the Table Topper frame.  The first was my Mom’s Sonshine Sunflower which you can see HERE.

I really want to send a Big Thanks to Jane at Jane’s Fabric and Quilts for hosting this amazing Hop!  Hosting one of these is a big deal and a lot of work, and we appreciate you Jane!

And speaking of appreciation, I really appreciate YOU too, my wonderful followers!!!  Remember, I promised a giveaway, so here you go…  If you are a follower of A Quilt and A Prayer, just leave a comment on this post telling me how you follow (GFC, RSS feed, email, etc), and you’ll be in the drawing to win these…..


Since this is a celebration of all things patriotic, I decided to pull a few of my favorite patriotic fabrics and add in a pattern from Buggy Barn – Crazy About Hearts and Stars – 


I just LOVE this sweet little pattern!!!!  Most of the fabrics are close to being a fat quarter, but some are smaller pieces.  I just put in whatever I thought you might like :*) 

I will keep the drawing open until the end of the Blog Hop on Monday, July 16 to give everyone a chance to enter.  Sorry, but I will have to limit the drawing to U.S. mailing only.

If you are not already a follower, I hope you’ll consider coming along for my journey.  I’ll try to have some fun and rope you in for the ride :*)

And don't forget, here are the other bloggers who are featured in the Red White & Blue Blog Hop today… Please be sure to go over and give them some Patriotic Love too!!!

July 3rd
Teresa in Music City (hey, that's me!)


*** Linking up with Applique Thursday at A Quilting Reader's Garden ***

Hugs & Blessings &
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Teresa
=^..^=

Monday, July 2, 2012

Design Wall Monday - July 2, 2012

I loved seeing all of your comments from yesterday's post about my Stash Report adventures!  You are such great friends, and I love the way you all rallied around and helped me feel good about my stash numbers :*)  I've decided from now on I'm going to name it the "Stash Enhancement Report" =^..^=

I’m really not one to worry about adding too much fabric to my stash.  The way I look at it, I need fabric to quilt, right?  And I’d much rather buy it when I can find it at really good prices, than to have to search for it later and pay huge prices, right?  I call it “smart planning” – anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! =^..^= 

So what’s on my Design Wall this week?  Still working on my current UFO Challenge project, Vintage Valentines.  This week I worked on the huge center medallion.



Those pieces kind of look like a cat, don't they?  LOL!!!  I was really kind of dreading this one because of the size.  But as I was putting together the other blocks I realized that I needed this one done early so the other blocks would work well around it and not fight with it. 

So I bit the bullet and opened up the folder to get the pieces for this center block.  Uh oh!  I hadn’t cut out the fusible tracings yet!!!  


Darn!  I thought I had already done that for all the blocks!  And then I looked and realized that none of the TBD blocks had been cut out yet!  That meant that blocks 7-12 and the center medallion had only been traced to fusible, but not yet cut out ready to fuse to the fabrics!  Ugh!!!  LOTS of work yet to be done – work I thought I had already done!!!  Oh well….  Guess what I did while I was watching Tiger win the AT&T National?  =^..^= 

Pieces all prepped for one block

So now you know why I only got one block done this week.  :*)  Here is the Center Medallion block, all fused and ready to applique down the pieces. 


Whew!  It was a big job, but I think I’m happy with it.  I'm still not real sure about that green and white check for the leaves and stems, but I think once I applique them down with a buttonhole stitch in dark thread they’ll stand out enough to work out okay.  The original had this fabric here, so I'm giving it a trial run.



If not, I can always change the fabrics out for something I like better later.  This is what all the finished blocks look like so far on the Design Wall.  




Lookin' good!!!

It feels really good to be getting some of these UFO projects completed!  I have had to carry some of them out into several months, but I don’t really mind that at all.  It has really helped me to be able to stay focused and get each one done.  So far this year, I have completed piecing 3 UFO’s and quilted 6 flimsy UFO’s!  And I’m now half-way through with Vintage Valentines, so I’m VERY happy with those numbers!

…. Now DON'T FORGET to come by tomorrow to see my block for the Red White & Blue Blog Hop!  I just can’t wait to show you!!!  =^..^=   Here's one more little peek.....


These are the blogs that are participating today – go give them some love if you have time!

July 2nd


And to see what others are creating on their Design Walls, go HERE to Patchwork Times.

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

Also linking up with:

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek
Tuesday Linky Party at Quilting by the River
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
WOW at Esther's Blog
Applique Thursday at A Quilting Reader's Garden

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Stash Report Sunday…..

 A story of The Good, The Bad , and The Ugly


The Good Summer flowers are making their appearance and coloring our world with splendor!  Isn't my Crepe Myrtle looking gorgeous?  I just love looking at it out of my bathroom window all through the hot summer months.  I just hope everything survives this massive heat wave we are going through!

Also Good is that today is the day we’ve all been waiting for - the Red White & Blue Blog Hop starts today!!!  

The following blogs are showing off their 4th of July Pride today, so please go over and give them some love!

July 1st


And don’t forget to come back here on Tuesday, July 3, to see what I’ve put together for your viewing pleasure (*smiles*), and you may get the chance to win something quilty too!  You can go HERE to Jane’s Fabric & Quilts to see the Blog Hop schedule.

The Bad:  This picture comes from one of our local news sites out of Clarksville Tennessee. 

The mailbox post melted!!!  That’s right – it MELTED!!!  I’m sorry, but when it’s 112 degrees in Lebanon, Tennessee, there’s something wrong with the weather my friends.  It’s been in the upper 90’s and low 100’s now for over a week and no relief is in sight as far as I can tell.  I can't imagine what it must be like for people with respiratory problems.  And don’t even get me started on what those poor people are going through in Colorado!  My prayers go out to each and every one of them.

The Ugly:  Or maybe, The Beautiful, depending on your point of view :*)  Bottom line is this - THE STASH REPORT IS OUT OF CONTROL!!!  No finishes this week – Again!!!  And to top off that pitiful performance with whip cream and a cherry, I added 28.5 yards into my stash!!!  Yep, you read that right.... 28.5 yards!!! 

There must be something in the chemicals they put in fabric.  I get near it and I just go crazy, lose my mind, and all reason!  It calls to me and I have to have it!  Especially the fabric at Whittles because of the low prices :*)

There were about 15 of us that made a road trip to Smith’s Grove, Kentucky, to visit one of our favorite quilt shops, Whittles.  They have all different kinds of fabric lines – civil war, holiday, oriental, modern bold prints – you name it, they’ve got it, something for everyone’s tastes!  And they have kits and fat backs, patterns and notions.  All at really LOW prices… Yep, it’s quilter’s heaven :*)

I went with the intention of looking for a backing piece for Moonglow and perhaps one for Roll Roll Cotton Boll, and then pick up “a few” other pieces that might catch my eye.  Hah!!!  When have I ever been known to pick up only “a few” pieces of fabric?  Can’t be done!!!  Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you. I’m willing to bet you that more than one friend is nodding her head right this very minute while reading this, saying, “Yes, that’s Teresa!  No stopping her in a fabric shop!”  Add to that the 5 yards I bought yesterday for the Mystery Quilt, and it gets even more Ugly... or Beautiful, again depending on your point of view :*)  Ugly numbers… Beautiful fabrics!!!

So here’s a few pictures of the bounty….  I didn’t dare blow my stash numbers out of the water without taking pictures so you could see why I temporarily lost my mind :*)

Backing for Moonglow

Backing for Roll Roll Cotton Boll

Cutest little Black & White prints EVER!!!

Various Half-yard cuts for the Stash

Fat Quarters for a Butterfly quilt I plan to make - someday :*)
Jim Shore print of quilty cats =^..^=

Maybe my favorite piece - a gorgeous blue batik!!!

Neutral batik for a background I just couldn't resist!
I also got a five yard cut of black with tone-on-tone leaves on it for the background of my Harvest quilt I'd like to make before Fall.  I didn't include a picture because it came out looking like a sickly gray... not the picture I want to leave you with :*)



Used this week: 0 yards
Used YTD 2012: 82.75 yards
Added this week: 28.50 yards
Added YTD 2012: 141.00 yards
Net Used for 2012: -58.25 yards


So what do you say?  Ugly or Beautiful?  I’m thinking I’m going to have to go with the fabric instead of the numbers and say, "Beautiful!" =^..^=

Maybe next week I’ll be able to behave myself a little better.  On second thought - Nah, what fun is that??? 

So how is your stash coming along?  See how others are doing HERE at Patchwork Times!  Until next week….

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Stash Report – Week #26

I apologize for not getting this post up yesterday as promised!  With all the fun going on with grandchildren, I have had to find little snatches of time here and there to take care of the normal routine like blogging and quilting.  Definitely not complaining mind you!  I so love seeing the girls and spending time with them. :*) 

Busy times mean the opportunity for lots of handwork, and I really needed to do some catching up on my current stitchery projects.  I finished my latest Promises and Borders block with the exception of the flower centers. 


I sort of got tired of doing all those little French knots and just went ahead and started the next one. =^..^=  She has released another one that I have not started yet, so I’m really pretty behind on these blocks.  There will be 9 of these blocks in total, and these are the ones I have done so far.  (These backgrounds look blue, but they are really a nice creamy white.)




 Then I finally finished up one of my blue-work Winter Wonderland blocks!!  

Because this is just a “fill-in” project that I pick up when I don’t have anything else prepped and need a handwork project, it is going very slowly.  But I am enjoying watching these quirky little snowmen come to life and it is always fun to start on a fresh, new block! :*)

I'm linking up today with Kathy's Quilts for a new Linky Party she's starting to celebrate "Slow Quilting" - the process of slowing down and enjoying the journey by adding hand stitching of some sort to our quilting activities.  Go check it out HERE to see what others are hand stitching.  Kathy wrote a post about Slow Quilting HERE that really spoke to me about the need to slow down and enjoy life.... and she gives some great tips for ways to start slowing down.  I hope you'll go over to read it when you get a chance.  It is well worth your time :*)

The girls left this morning for a few days, so I packed up and headed out to a sit-n-sew at one of my guilds, Lebanon Piecemakers.  These ladies know how to do a sit-n-sew!  They were there when I got there about 10am, and looked like they’d been there for hours already.  When I left at 4pm, most of them were still there sewing!!!  Yep, my kind of sewing buddies :*)

At the sit-n-sew, I managed to get all of the center 9-patches done for the alternate blocks on Girls Just Want to Have Fun.  


And then I got all these pieces ready for making the 4-patch corners on the outside layer of the blocks.  





These will all go together to make 24 blocks that look like this for the alternate block...



Once they are assembled, all the blocks will be done and the center will be ready to assemble.  I will also need to make the pieced border blocks, but I think I’ll wait on those until I get the center done.  A little “finish-reward” therapy, you know what I mean?  This quilt has a lot of pieces and takes quite a while to complete, so I am just taking it in stages and trying to practice that "Slow Quilting" I referred to earlier in the post, enjoying the journey rather than rushing to the finale.

Also, just a reminder that I am working on my block for the Red White & Blue Blog Hop! 


Don’t forget now to come back here on July 3rd to see what I’ve made.  And for added incentive, I’ve decided to have a little GIVEAWAY too!  Here are a few sneak peeks at my project …  






You can go to Jane’s Fabrics and Quilts HERE to see what the Blog Hop is all about.

I had no real finishes this week, and wonder of all wonders, I purchased no fabric!  So my Stash Report remains the same as last week:



          Used this week:           0 yards
          Used YTD 2012:           82.75 yards
          Added this week:         0 yards
          Added YTD 2012:        112.50 yards
         Net Used for 2012:      -29.75 yards

I'm sure next week will be a different story as the Divas Guild is planning a trip to Whittles Fabrics and I will undoubtedly fall under the siren call of a few choice fabrics! :*)

How is your stash coming along?  See how others are doing HERE at PatchworkTimes!
Also linking up with:
          What a Hoot for BOM's Away!
          Manic Monday at Sew Happy Geek!

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=
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