V and Co. Giveaway!

Everyone needs to check out this awesome giveaway over at V and Co. sponsored by csn mattresses for a chance to win this gorgeous decorative pillow!

Our new logo

I'm thrilled that we have finally settled on a new logo! I so love the stone and flower title border on our blog that I will be keeping it for just a while longer (the whole yin/yang thing), but we will be debuting our logo on everything soon!

July Giveaway Winner Is...

Congratulations Angela!

Now, Angela, you posted your entry anonymously on myquiltblog.com (well, with your name, but no contact info), so I don't know if you have an account here or there and just didn't use it for the comment or if you were just visiting us...please send me an email or comment here how I can get in touch with you to get the details of your custom choices! To avoid any posers, you will need to tell me who taught you how to make soap when you were younger (I've deleted that portion of your comment for ID purposes...hehe)

If I do not hear from you within 4 days of this announcement I will have to move on to the next randomly chosen name, so please contact me soon!

Good luck to all entries in my August giveaway!

Marie-Madeline Quilt Giveaway!

If you're interested in this quilt giveaway (and let's be honest, who wouldn't be??) then click here for instructions on how to enter!

TIME & MONEY GIVEAWAY

*ENTER BY AUGUST 16th*

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A $50 VISA GIFT CARD AND CLOCK!

This is not a Jayce's giveaway,

you must click here for details and to enter this contest!

August Giveaway!

Ok, folks...here we go for August....(the case is squared up and flat, the picture just looks a little wonky or misshapen because it's sitting on the lumpy quilt behind it)...

Sign up Now for a Chance to WIN A FREE Cellphone Case!!

Awesome orange batik...

Equally awesome "Gone Fishin'" button...

Luscious lime green satiny lining with a sturdy magnetic closure!

Leave a comment here to enter with the answer to one simple question...what color and design (if there is one) is on your cell phone now? I've found the a person's chosen color of cell phone can tell a lot about them!

For a 2nd entry, become a follower and let me know in your comment!

For a 3rd entry, post a link about this giveaway on your blog and let me know in your comment!

Contest will run for the month of August 2009 and winner will be drawn Sept 7th.

Good luck!

Embroidered Hearts

I had fun playing with the embroidery on this one. There is a color-coordinated embroidered heart in the center of each block. Then, FMQ around the embroidery. Such a fun crib-sized quilt!

Plain Jane Series

This is the latest in the Plain Jane Series. The Plain Jane Series was created because sometimes I just want to do something simple. Simple block, anway. Letting the FMQ speak for itself to add dimension and depth.

I love the blueberries and flowers in this fabric! It's just so "summer picnic"!

Cross Stitched Pillow

I finally finished this embroidered pillow this weekend. I loved working with the blues and yellows in this! If I had the patience I might have done several of them and made a quilt of some sort, but taking a break and doing something other than a quilt was kinda nice, too.

$50 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

Click here to enter this Giveaway!

Just one more day...Final Reminder

Don't forget to sign up for this month's free giveaway! There's just one day remaining until contest closes...

www.TheQuiltedCastle.com: June / July Fabric Giveaway

http://thequiltedcastle.blogspot.com/2009/06/june-july-fabric-giveaway.html#links

Cell Phone Case

Continuing saga of the phone-chewing pups. This is the original offender, my dear Beagle. She got the antenna...

This is the 2nd offender that resulted in the need for a new phone, my lovely Australian Shephard. She cracked the screen and ate a button...

Luckily, I got some crafting out of it for my new phone. My old one was a flip, so I couldn't have worried less about scratches. The new one isn't a flip, so I had a great excuse to come up with something for it.

I love ceramic buttons and the satin lining is a coordinating lime green. I always think that lime and orange are a great combination and I use batiks whenever I can. I'm thinking of making another version of this for next month's giveaway, but we'll see.

I hope everyone's having a great week!

Dern pups!

Have you ever had your dog chew on your cell phone? One of mine had done this about a month after I had just decided not to replace the phone, but to just replace the battery. She destroyed the antenna, scratched the screen and sent the poor phone in a downward spiral of misc keys no longer wanting to work. This was over a year ago.

Unfortunately for my carrier, but fortunately for my pocketbook, I have an aversion to signing new contracts and upgrading my phone just cuz I can. Well, my poor puppy decided for me that I needed to get a new phone cuz she got a hold of it again. This is just after having gotten home from an in-laws wedding in Mobile AL.

Friday when I got off work we left and drove 6 hours from FL to AL, blah blah blah, went to the wedding, went to the reception, drove back home to FL and got in at about 2 am Sunday. Somehow in my blind stupor of just wanting to sleep I left my phone out on the table within "puppy reach". It was when I woke up and was picking up the pieces that I started to seriously ponder whether or not I might need a new phone. As I thoroughly enjoyed a rare calm-down-and-don't-be-mad-at-the-dog-cigarette out on the porch and looked at all of the pieces spread out on the bar, I finally came to the conclusion that there was no craft or Crazy glue in the world that was going to put this Humpty Dumpty phone back together again. And while the last thing I wanted to do was drive around to see what cell store had Sunday hours, that is exactly what DH and I did, bless his heart (he was a wee bit tired of being in the truck as well).

Once the purchase was made and a new contract was signed (you know, sign the contract and you'll save $7,970.01 on the price of this phone and get it for the more realistic price of $29.99 BS) I got my new cell phone home and decided to make a case for it. As my camera is still packed in my luggage (yeah, we haven't unpacked yet, what of it?!) I don't have pics yet, but I will post them and a bonus one of the offending pooch. I also managed to finally finish making another pillow sham using the log cabin blocks I found in Shipshe for the bargain basement price of 10 for $5...and the fabric supposedly is late 1800-very early 1900's, but I'll need some opinions on the accuracy of those dates when I post the pics.

Whew, what a weekend. I'm (almost) glad to be back at work. Have a happy day, everyone!

Congratulations!!

Congrats to the winner of our June Giveaway! Debra is now the proud owner of 6 Reproduction Print Fat Quarters.

Many thanks to everyone that signed up and we wish you the best of luck in upcoming drawings.

Enjoy them, Debra, and we'd love to see what you do with them!

July Giveaway!!

Sign up Now for a Chance to WIN Custom Made Soap!!

Fill out your contact information in the space provided at the link above to be entered to win Custom Made Soap. The winner will be contacted via email and we will make designer soap to their specifications from a choice of multiple shapes, colors, and fragrances!

Last day to register is July 31st and the drawing will be held on August 7th. Winner will be notified by email.

Another UFO completed...

My poor father had to wait until after Father's Day to receive this as the blind stitching along the border took longer than anticipated.
Along the bottom row you will see a pic of his beloved 60-something 'vette that he never fails to remind us he had to get rid of because it did not have the ability to carry the requisite car seats once we were born. I remind my brother that since he was born first it's more his fault than mine. He loves us, but boy he misses that convertible...




This is my brother way back when and below that is him and my grandfather shortly before our grandfather passed.



My dad's fisherman at heart so I had to go with blues and fish prints along with a big, soft, denim-y border. I used verigated thread that ranged from dark navy to light sky blue.

I kind of posted out of order, but this is the 2nd FMQ I've done and I think I'm getting the hang of it. Not perfect, but I quilt by the Amish philospohy that only God is perfect and you will make at least one, even if intentional, mistake on anything you create.

My next planned quicky project is a pillow sham from some of Cheryl's butterflies. I've got it planned out and am using a Donna Dewberry rustic bark background and it should look like the butterflies are just "fluttering around the woods"...we'll see how that works out for me. I'll try to get some progress pics up later.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Trina

Surfboard Quilt - Completed

One down and many UFO's to go...

Ok, I threatened to do this one next and against the advise of others (you know who you are!) I decided to go with the flannel back even though I was warned that it was more difficult to FMQ. Turns out that I didn't have that much trouble with it.


For some reason I still much prefer the wide, swoopy meanderings to the tight, perfect, tiny stippling. The ones that have the tiny stippling feel so much stiffer and smooshed than the wider, fluffier alternative. But that's just me...

I had to go with the red thread, which was certainly taking a chance...every little stitch shows, but I do kind of like the below block if for no other reason than it started to look like a dog outline as I stared at it...you know, like when you stare at the clouds and shapes appear?

The red thread did also help fill in the many blanks areas, too.

The seams really aren't as noticable as it looks in the pics, but between the new "true daylight" halogen bulbs I just replaced and the camera flash it picked up EVERYTHING in detail. It's a little wild, a little off-kilter, and of course not traditional fabric choices, but it was fun!

Texture Magic

This is a new product that I saw online called Texture Magic by Superior Threads. Has anyone seen this used?

It looks pretty cool and easy to use. Here are some pics of going through the process starting with after you have sewn the grid:

Pretty neat, huh? I can think of several projects I'd love to try this on, but I haven't found it at any of my LQS and I'm certainly on the lookout for it now. If anyone has used this, please comment as I'm interested to see if it works as easily as Moda says it does here (they made a Patriotic Pillow using this technique).

Surfboard Quilt

Here is the next one to go under the FMQ needle...

I saved that pic kinda small, so here's closeups of the fabric:

I was thinking of going with a matching red flannel backing, but now I'm not so sure...I'll have to think on that for a bit...

My first...

This is my very first ever attempt at a quilt. I saw the book. I bought the book. I made the quilt. It was a long time ago and to this day it is my favorite of all I've done. I oh, so carefully picked out the fabrics and cut the blocks. Every stitch is by hand. It took about 2 months to finish. When I was done, my mom actually said of my Amish raised grandma, "well, you know that even your grandmother used a sewing machine to piece the blocks...". I think she said that only because I was mentioning that I didn't think my fingers and shoulders were ever going to feel the same after that much handwork. It was a lot of work and it definitely has a beginner look to it, but it was well worth it and I treasure it. Every time I look at it, I keep telling myself that it's time to do another sampler, but I'm afraid the next one just won't measure up to this one!

So, thank this little gem above for giving me the quilting bug and, as they say, the rest is history! Luckily for us quilters, history is always in the making...

Oh, happy day!

Quilty Giveaway!

Sign up Now for a Chance to WIN FREE FAT QUARTERS!!

Fill out your contact information by clicking here to be entered to win our Retro Fat Quarters. Last day to register is June 30th and the drawing will be held on July 7th. Winner will be notified by email.

Good luck!

Funky Chicken

I love this dorky little guy! Instructions can be found here.

Enjoy and let me know how he works out for you!

I'll be here

There was another wonderful community I had been involved in over at http://www.myquiltblog.com/. Though, if memory serves, there have been regular issues with their site or server, depending upon whom you choose to believe. In 2008 some time they had a server crash that lost everyone's information, blogs, etc. Everything. Everyone had to start from scratch. What a pain! So much for everything on the 'net being permanent. To have had over 100 posts on a blog and several hundred comments to and from friends on the blog just disappear with no warning was tough. But several of us persevered and came back.

It just happened again. All those posts and files and pictures. Gone. Poof! Luckily, I had been copying some of my posts over into blogspot for just a couple of months so I haven't lost everything, but still lost 30 or so posts and corresponding pictures and comments and links. And the contests! Oh, the contests...all gone. Who knows who will sign back up once this little crash is fixed. Do we really want to set up again and try to rebuild? From zero? Oh, my. Not a small undertaking by any stretch. I don't know who the site is built through (who controls the server), but it sure sounds like it's just in some guy's basement. Who sets up a community blog site hoping to attract lots of people, but doesn't have the capacity to support? Ridiculous, if I'm being honest.

Anyway, lots more to come with patterns, ideas, examples, and maybe even some free quilting stuff, too!

Shipshewana Quilt Pics

I took these pics throughout Shipshewana area buildings. I took several, but will just show some of my favorites here. The work is nearly impeccable and certainly something to aspire to. The pics do not do the hand stitching justice, but the colors and blocks are really nice.






And a closeup...



They kind of hid this one behind the stair railing, but since I like blues and browns, it still jumped out at me...





This one I thought they did a really good job in color selection as it is so 3D...



Given the angle that they hung this one it was more difficult to crop, but it is still nice!



Beautiful quilts all around - ENJOY! Trina

Circles and more circles!

I love the fabrics and have spent the time hand piecing. I only had enough of the block fabric for 42 x 42 and wanted this to be larger, at least a solid 70 x 80, which means adding at least 14” to each side and 19” to the top and bottom. I’m leaning towards a lush dark brown border to really make the pinks and blues pop and to tie in the brown that’s in the blocks to assist the cohesive factor. But I’m tossed up between that and a great white minky polka dot embossed fabric I found in bulk.

This will be ditch quilted with some probably more geometric stitching along whichever border I end up going with....Trina