And the winners are...

pass the envelope please! The Random Number Generator picked the numbers, although it would have been really cool if I could have used some kind of sorting hat like the one used at Hogwarts. Anyway, without further ado the winners are

Marilyn R of Piece By Piece for the Snowman Collector pattern

and Cathi of A Quilter's Christmas for the Thoughts of Christmas pattern

Congratulations ladies! Please email me (link is here) with your snail mail addy. Look for the patterns by USPS.

Quilt Show Prep

I entered two quilts into the upcoming quilt show. One is the Homespun BOM and the other is Maggie's Flower Garden, pictured above. Homespun BOM, which I call Helen and Baby Hannah is totally machine pieced and quilted. Maggie's Flower Garden is totally hand pieced, appliqued and quilted.

I have been making hanging sleeves for the two quilts and in the process of stitching one onto Helen and Hannah, I decided that I really did not like the way I did the binding so, zippp! The binding is being redone.

I had to put labels onto the outside of pillowcases that included my name, the quilt's name and my telephone number.

I still have to make labels for the quilts. This isn't to say that these two quilts are without labels, they do have them. But the rules say on the lower back. Both of these quilts have the label information written right onto the quilt, one on the front and the other mid-right. So now each quilt will have two labels.

Christmas In July

Instead of throwing out these patterns I decided to be green so to get you in a holiday mood, I am having not one, but two giveaways. Up for grabs are two Christmas themed quilt patterns: one pieced called Thoughts of Christmas and one applique called Snowman Collector. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me which one you would like. This giveaway will close on July 31. Both of these BOMs were purchased from a LQS and (can you believe it?) made. The applique is the one I pull out every year for Christmas and the pieced one was given to a friend.

You may only enter once and must have a way for me to contact you. Merry Christmas in July, ho ho ho!

Do you thimble?

Recently, I found myself in want of a thimble. A thimble is such a small thing and when one is used to using a thimble, trying to sew without one is almost impossible. A thimble is so comfortable to me, that sometimes I find one on my finger when running errands. *grin*

A John James Magnet Top thimble is the favorite around Casa del Quilter. This one stays in the stitchery/embroidery case as it is a great thimble to use when away from homebase. A dropped needle stays on the thimble and not in someone's carpet. Then there is the quilting thimble with the recessed top that makes the rocking motion so easy. Neither one suitable for the job at hand. Surely there is a thimble in the sewing room that would work for plain sewing.

Nope, nada, ziltch. There are the porcelain ones, the silver ones, the Cloisonne ones, the wooden ones, the leather ones, the rubber ones, the big ones and the little ones. But not one thimble that would comfortably fit the ring finger of my right hand.

EBay! to the rescue! I bid and won a lot of ten thimbles from a gentleman in Illinois. One thimble was rusty and another had a strange partial patina. Those went to work with me and were cleaned up by experienced metal workers. The thimble pictured above was one of two in the lot that fit.

A Single Thread

Want a good read? I highly recommend A Single Thread by Marie Bostwick. It's like attending a quilting bee with all of your best friends. This is a novel populated with people you know: the quilt shop owner, the older friend with the crusty exterior, the young novice quilter, the unemployed marketing manager. As they gather together, you will feel like you are right there with them sharing theirs fears, anger, sorrow and triumphs. Be sure to read this one.

Medicine Bow

We went camping. We camped in a lovely high (9200ft) mountain meadow in the Medicine Bow National Forest with tons of alpine wildflowers in the meadow: penstemon, lupine, mountain aster, yarrow, flax and wild strawberries. The average daytime temperature was about 72 degrees F and the nighttime temps dropped to about 38 degrees.

The face of the forest is changing and it is sad to see. The grand sweeping green vistas are now mainly brown because of the pine beetle; every now and then the green of aspen trees pops up. The western lodge pole pine forests are dying.

Projects in the Works

The computer projects

• Now that Blurb can slurp Blogger, I've been working diligently on Blurb books of my blog. So far Year 2005 and Year 2006 are printed and Year 2007 is in the works. Year 2008 waits in the wings and Year 2009 will be done in January. I have found that I need to keep the original raw photo file for printing, otherwise the photos are so stinking tiny you can hardly see them. Year 2007 will be a better book and years 2008 onward will be okay because I still have all of those photo files.
  
• CorelDraw had to be installed at work so the cdr files I have could be converted to a file format that could be imported into InkScape. It is such an old version of CorelDraw that it will not work under Vista, hence using the work computer. I downloaded InkScape onto the home computer and like it but it cannot import cdr files yet. Now that I have converted all the files I no longer need to use CorelDraw. But I still need to learn InkScape.
  
• Grandmother Martha's two handwritten cook books are being scanned, page by page. These books not only have recipes but poetry and a list of Christmas presents she was giving to family and friends. These will be used in a future project that involves digital scrapbooking, recipes, photos and family items.

The fiber projects

• Thrifted yarn has resulted in 10 knitted hats for a local charity, a stack of crocheted afghan squares for the ShipsProject, a preemie crocheted blanket and a crocheted Project Linus blanket. Any suggestions where I can donate the preemie crocheted blanket?
  
• Gail Pan's A Christmas Wish BOM stitchery is currently caught up.
• Prepping of the over 300 applique pieces for the Iris quilt continues.
• The Firewood quilt has stalled mainly because I have been working on the Roman Shades.
• The Roman Shades (Warm Window quilts) are mostly done -- at least the sewing bit of them. I am ready to add all the rings. Once that is done we can cut the mounting boards to size. O and the metal rods that will be used for weight at the bottoms of the shades need to be cut too. I need to remember to stitch the ends of the rod pockets closed: don't need to have metal rods hurtling down upon us. Mounting these things still needs to be orchestrated.
  

10 Ways to Save Time for Quilting

1. Turn off the television. You can record the shows you want to watch and then skip through all the commercials. Or sit and do handwork with the family if you don't want to be sequestered in another room.
2. Turn your waiting times into useful times. Once again with the handwork: carry it with you for those waiting instances in the doctor's office or other appointments. I have found that knitting socks is highly portable, it's not quilting but IS fiber related.
3. Ignore the housework. This one will be hard, but learn to look the other way when the dust bunnies come out to play or when the dishes pile up. Maybe it will get so bad that someone else in the household will do it, but if that doesn't happen then maximize your housework time.
4. Shop less often. Every weekend I make a menu for the upcoming week and then shop accordingly for that week. It has reduced my trips to the grocery store to once a week.
5. Make a to-do list. Isn't it fun to mark an item off of your list? Admit it, it feels good.
6. Stop cruising the internet. Limit your computer time and turn on your sewing machine. The time (sometimes hours!) spent blog surfing could be spent putting a quilt block together.
7. Every meal does not need to be fancy. Learn to love your slow cooker. On hot days, I have even been known to set it on the patio table so it does not heat up the kitchen.
8. Stop downloading and organizing those free Block of the Month patterns and start making the ones you have. Quit procastinating!
9. Utilize those small moments. If you only have 10 minutes at a time, then break your big projects down into smaller, do-able chunks. You would be surprised at how much gets done this way.
10. Make a date with yourself. Block out several hours or a morning and write it on the calendar. You do not miss other appointments so don't miss this one.
You are worth it!

What'd you have for breakfast?

Me? I had bran cereal, key lime pie fat free yogurt and mixed fresh fruit. Yum.

Double Rainbow

On July 4, we were beset with rain storms. The last storm moved out into the eastern plains about 5:00pm and this is the result of a lowering sun and all that moisture. Do you see the double rainbow?

Happy 4th of July

A happy and safe Independence Day to all my friends and family in the US.

This applique is made with UltraSuede™ and adorned the back of a denim jacket. Now it hangs on the wall in my sewing room.

Refrigerator