Winner Winner !

I had to work all day and am now feeling a cold coming on, so no witty post today, but I used the Random Husband Numerator to pick a winner for the Charming Travelers giveaway.  The winner is Dana, of  Old Red Barn Co.  I sent you an email Dana. 

I will be back tomorrow with a proper post for the Traveling Stash Giveaway.  Stay tuned.

Quickly

Just dropping by quickly to let you know I will draw for the Charming Travelers tomorrow, and to let you know I was also lucky to receive one of the Traveling Stash Boxes that is making it's way around the country.  I will be posting pictures and a giveaway of that over the weekend too.  See you then!

What's a blog post without a picture?

Charming Travelers and a Clean Sewing Room

You may know by now if you are a regular reader, that I generally sew most on Sunday and Monday when I am off from work.  I only dabble a bit during the week.  Saturday, when hubby picked me up from work, I came home to find out that I won the Charming Travelers, which is a Charm pack that travels the country.  It is awarded by giveaway and when you receive it, you can take what you want, and replace that number with charms from your own stash of charms.  This was started by Diane at From Blank Pages.  I will get to the giveaway in a minute.

I went into the sewing room Sunday to look at the charms and do my selections and replacements.  It was a mess!!  I could not think, work or create in there.  So I had to clean and organize first. (warning: lots of pics)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Sorry, just an After here.  I guess I forgot to take one of the stack of stuff that was the Before.

And now, what you were really waiting to see...The Charming Travelers.  This is what came to me.  There are 56 Charms in here.  This came to me from Christina at Dolci Deleria.

 I spread them out and looked at all of them.  There seems to be lots of dark colors and purples in here.

 These are the ones I chose to keep.  Most of these are very different from my charm stash.

 And these are what I put back in the pack.  I felt like it needed to be lightened up a bit.  And yes, there are a couple of what I considered ugly pieces in there, but you know what they say 'one man's trash is another man's treasure".

And here they are, all ready to go out again.  If you would like the Charming Travelers to come visit you, just leave me a comment here on this post.  Tell me what you or your kids are going to dress up as for Halloween.  I will pick a winner Saturday, October 20.
The Rules, as written by Diane:

• winners must be active bloggers
• you must reside in the US
• before sending the charm pack off to the next winner, there must be 56 - 5" x 5" squares of fabric inside - please no yucky fabrics
• to help keep Diane's map updated, winners must fill out the quick and easy form to let her know where you are!
• if the charm pack arrives full of unwanted charms, let Diane know and she'll clear it out and fill it back up with more beautiful fabrics!

If you want to see where they've been, Diane has a map on her blog that is tracking them.
Have a great week.

23 Minutes

I wanted to get some sewing time in yesterday.  Madame Samm, of Sew We Quilt says you can get lots done if you do it in 23 minute blocks of time.  That is apparently the amount of time our focus is at peak performance level.  So I thought I would give it a try. 

I went into the sewing room and sat down at the machine.  I checked the clock.  I turned on the machine.  Oops, left the wrong color thread in there.  Changed that, got the pieces I was going to sew together.  Took a few stitches...oops, machine needed oil and dusting, too dirty to run smooth.  Did that...tried again...oops, needle broke on small metal part of zipper that should not have been where it was.  Checked clock again, 15 minutes gone.  Started again after changing needle.  Finally got those few pieces together in 35 minutes.  Then I quit for the day to go fix dinner.

I was so frustrated.  I hope to try again on Saturday after work.  We'll see.  Meanwhile here are some pics from last Monday's sewing session:

            October's bee blocks for Sunday Morning Quilts Bee

             Two more bandanna bibs for drool monster baby B

               More long pants for the same little drool monster

corduroy

flannel

more corduroy

inside out

Hope you have a great weekend and get lots of 23 minute things done.

What's on YOUR couch?

I had a couple of comments last week, during the Leafs Me Happy blog hop (which is still going on this week) about the couch in my header.  I love the couch, and the header.  Since we have been busy painting our livingroom, there was less time for sewing this weekend and I decided to dress up my couch and show off some of my quilts.  Here is the story of the couch.

Her is the naked couch.  We had been living without one, with only two IKEA chairs in the livingroom for the past year.  This summer, we found this couch at Crate and Barrel when they were having a clearance sale of floor models.  This is their silhouette sofa, which they still carry.  We loved it and got it for about $500 less than retail price.  The only possible down side...it's off white...we have grand children.  Hmmmm...what's a quilter to do?

 This is the way the couch looks now.  I love the way it displays this great quilt.  One of my newer finishes, the 36 Patch I did with Amanda Jean's QAL last year that I just finished this summer.

 Here is a shot with just the pillows.  I mad the two cathedral windows long before we had this couch, with just this in mind.  I was inspired by the pillows I saw in blogland.  The two nine patch pillows are made from charm packs of California Girl by Fig Tree Quilts.  The other two was me playing with some of my favorite fabrics I had been hesitant to cut into.

 Here are two smaller quilts that I recently made and blogged about.  You can see that it takes two to cover the seat of the couch.

 An older quilt that was one of my first attempts at a modern strip quilt.  Love the colors on this one.

 An older quilt from the early 2000"s  I believe this is Kansas Twister.  I found it in a book and just had to make it.  I still love the color combo.

My Winding Ways quilt, made in 2005.  It was the first quilt I made with all green fabrics, as my husband told me I never use green.  Also my first with curved piecing.  I am proud of this one.

So there you have it for today.  Hopefully there will be more sewing and I will have something new to share soon.  Have a great Monday.

My Turn to Leaf You Happy

I am so happy to say it is my day on this fun hop.  Autumn is my absolute favorite season.  I love the cooler temps, the great food and snuggling up in all those quilts I make.  Sow without further ado, here are my blocks.

The first thing I did was to pull a pile of fabrics that reminded me of fall.  I do not collect theme fabrics for the holidays.  I have bought one or two over the years, so I went with some color choices.  Then I spent a couple of weeks looking at them waiting...then it came to me: disappearing 9 patch.  I have long wanted an excuse to try this out for myself.

 First, I made a 9 patch block and just cut it into 4 squares.  I flipped them around and sewed them back together with the center orange block in the corners.  Hmmm, nice, I thought.

 Then, I tried to figure out placement to try and visualize where they would end up.  I couldn't really do it, so again I made the 9 patch, cut it into 4 squares and just flipped and spun until I was happy with the placement.  Very different, yes?

 Then I made a third one and thought "what if I chopped off the four corners instead, and rearranged them?"  This is what happened!  Pretty cool and only about 1/4-1/2 inch smaller than the other blocks.  Then I hung them on my block clothes line and there they stayed...until last Thursday when my daughter walked in and saw them.  "Wow what pretty fabrics.  What are you going to do with them?"  "They are for a blog hop and I just had to make the blocks.  Want me to make you something with them?"  "Yes please!"

 Sew I sewed them together with the diamond in the center, quilted them with straight lines and bound them with some dark brown that is almost all gone now.

                            And here you have my daughter's fall table runner.

 This is the back, pieced together with bits of the only fall fabric I have had in my stash.

                                                 Here is a closer look at it.

                                 On the picnic table.  Just perfect for fall.
Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy the rest of the hop.  Here are the rest of today's lovely quilters and their works:

Wednesday 3

Plum and June

The Recipe Bunny

VroomansQuilts

It's Sew Kiki

PigTales and Quilts

Quilting fiesta

GrammieQ's

Nancy

Just Let Me Quilt

Selina Quilts
The Learning Curve~Quilts and Such

 

Thanks again to Cherry and Madame Samm.  Another stellar experience here.

October !

It is October, finally and the Leafs Me Happy Blog Hop begins today.  If you haven't seen any of the blocks yet, you need to get hopping!  My day is on Wednesday, so I am saving my pictures for then.  Come along with us and be inspired.  These are all blocks, sew you can make some of your own and come up with quilts, pillows ore bags to make from them.  Enjoy!
Leafs Me Happy Day One:

Fuzzy Hat Quiter

The Cuddle Quilter

Quilts My Way

Country Cabin Thoughts and Crafts

Dream quilt create

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Needled Mom
Quilter in Motion

Sunshine Girl

Meadowbrook

 

http://www.cherryblossomsquiltingstudio.com/

Go to Cherry's site to get the complete schedule and I will see you here on Wednesday.

Have a great Leafy Week!