Giveaway Winner and some WIPs...

This weekend has been action packed. I went to a quilt shop in SHolih with a friend and that was awesome. We found some great fabrics including my backing for my Portugal quilt. Saturday we went to IKEA in Pittsburgh. WOW we spent 4 hours there. I found great stuff. But know what? I bought a POANG chair and foot rest. Um there are several wood colors...have you been to IKEA? well I wrote down the aisle and bin # for the chair...and I got a dark wood chair when I got home and a beachwood foot rest. I was sick about it. My hubby says I need to go back and get a beachwood chair (what I REALLY wanted) and a dark wood foot rest. He wants the dark wood chair for the room that has our Salt water aquarium. That's basically his room....and it would look good in there. So not a total loss...but still a bit frustrating.

Despite all the travel, there are a couple of quilts that are in progress in the loft actually. This is made with 2 Moda Layer Cakes of Portugal fabric line done in a pattern from a Design-Originals books for Layer Cakes. I used the starch method of applique for the paisley drops. It's BIG too...88X88 when finished...love it. These blocks are the beginning of a French Roses quilt by Heather French. I am using Darla fabric line and i LOVE them...I have all the flowers cut now I just need to sew them!

Oh and for anyone interested...here's the progress on my braided rag rug..I am at 16 inches...LOTs more to go..I'm hand sewing it UGH...and YEAH! at the same time. I can't wait until it's done.

I did stitch one more birdie for my Big Birdie quilt...so slowly working on that too.

Oh and the winner of the giveaway is........... FINN at Pieces of my scrapbag!! How fitting is that? the scrappy quilter wins a scrapbag....yeah yeah!! Finn please email me your address.

Now I wish I could give you all a scrapbag..but at 146 or so comments that'd be about $1500.00!! So best that I can do is tell you to keep checking my blog periodically as I know I will have another giveaway soon. I have this Spring fever and it's side effect is purging...including yarn and fabric. I have a good friend that I am giving the yarn to but she doesn't quilt. Her loss may be your gain.

I've been Tagged....

By Heather Mulder Peterson....So I have to tell you 6 or 7 random things about me....

1. I don't eat bananas....I gag at the thought...(sorry but I do). With both my daughters...I would cut up a banana and put some in my mouth and pretend that I was loving it, then spit it in a napkin out of their site... All so that they would eat them and not develop a complex about them like I have.

2. When I was 20, I worked at Wal-mart. I was in the snack bar area (when they had them) and I would close down at night. One night while I was cleaning the Icee machine...orange Icee no less, the machine exploded.... ALL over me, up to the ceiling and just ALL over. It was horrible. Anyhow, at the Christmas party they made me a 'special' award for being Icee Queen. I was mortified.

3. I have scoliosis, 2 perfect 17 degree curves in my back so I never needed surgery thankfully.

4. I started quilting when I was in dental school because I loved miniatures and I wanted to make miniature quilts. I did a lot of crocheting then as well. As a result of repetitive motion doing dentistry and then crocheting, I developed carpel tunnel like symptoms. I had to give up crocheting and so quilting gained my full attention. No I didn't give up dentistry.

5. I am the oldest of five children and grew up in Dubuque, Iowa.

6.My favorite chocolates are Betty Jane Candies also found only in Dubuque.

7. My mom took me to a sewing class when I was 8 to learn to sew clothing. She was an accomplished sewer but didn't have the patience to teach me. All the other students were 17, 18 years old. I made a pink dot seer sucker skirt. I no longer have it, I wish I did. I made my first quilt...technically...when i was 8. I used polyester scraps and stuffed it...yes I stuffed it with fabric scraps. I used it for my Barbie Dolls...I think I may still have it. IF I find it, I will post the picture.

Ok so I think I need to tag a few people....I'll tag Marilyn, Carol, Jen, Connie, and Karen.

One Pretty Thing.....

Have you heard? I was featured on One Pretty Thing yet again on the Daily DIY with my Moda bakeshop pincushion. Have you browsed this site? They have links all over the web for crafty projects...I am becoming a HUGE fan.

In celebration, I feel like a giveaway this week. I bought several of the Moda scrap bags while on vacation and one I thought was a great pack...I am giving away. I have soooo many Moda pre-cuts that I can spare a few. I hope to giveaway more in the coming weeks too.

Do you want to see what's inside? An entire jellyroll....40 strips X 2.5 inches...

I'd keep it if I didn't buy 6 scrap bags!! I know why right? well they are fun to see what you might get inside. You know I am a HUGE fan of Moda....so I gotta share. Blog about my giveaway and I'll give you an extra entry! I'll draw next Sunday April 26th...my sister's birthday.....

*****p.s. be on the look out for a new Modabakeshop project by Moi......

Birdies....

Two buttonholed...only 7 to go...making some progress.

I've been sewing a bit this weekend and made a trip to Mrs. Miller's in Berlin Ohio on Friday with some quilting friends. I did get quite a bit of yardage for finishing projects. I was glad I didn't have to order online and wait for the mail...It was immediate gratification. Besides working on the birdies, finishing another Moda bakeshop project, I worked outside, played outside and organized 2 rooms this weekend...and it's not over yet! so very productive on the home front.

I have sewn a bit...I know it's hard to believe..

While I have been down vacationing in Pawleys Island I was able to spend a couple of hours with my friend Marilyn. We skipped down to the Quilter's Cottage in Garden City. LOVE it! While we were browsing...one gal that was working mentioned she was making a quilt with Objects of Desire fabric by Moda. They didn't have the pattern (it was on order). She ran home and brought the quilt back to show us. Of course I didn't have my camera...Geesh! Anyhow, Marilyn and I fell in love with the quilt. I think it is the fabric...the pattern itself wouldn't have done a thing for me. So here are 8 of the 9 fabrics we bought....you only need 5/8 yard of each. The pattern is Big Birdie by Barbara Brandenburg. Say that 3 times fast!

I did get back to the store 2 days later and get the pattern and I took the picture above with my cell phone....it doesn't do a thing for the quilt...as it is cute and fun in person.
So needless to say Marilyn and I spent the afternoon cutting 12.5 inch circles, and 19 inch squares from our fabrics. I have all my fusible pieces made and ready to be fused. I am waiting to buttonhole stitch until I get home so the entire quilt will be made on one sewing machine.

I have sewn many more projects these last few days but I can only show the Fat Quarter Shop's BOM block 10. The rest are kind of a secret...until the projects are complete....

Sugar Cubes...

Check out my newest tutorial on Moda Bakeshop!

not too productive here....

So far I haven't been too productive in the sewing department. I did get the binding sewn for this table topper. It's made with Bleekerstreet fabrics. I hope to have more to show in the next days...we'll see.

A gift for Yash

Another finish in April....I bound this one quick as close friends of ours had a little boy on March 26th...His name is Yash, which means "glory" in Hindi. I hope he likes it!

April Fool's Day....

I have no funny stories to tell about this day..Drat...
It's been busy here and all I have to show for it is one finish....My first finish for April wooohooo!

I had posted about this quilt awhile back...it has made a trip around the world thanks to an address mistake by the machine quilter...NOT my usual quilters keep in mind. Anyhow, as some may recall the quilt was stained and had yellow markings on the borders. Now that I have it bound and washed it appears the stains have washed out. Thank goodness. Now it is bound and resting comfortably on DD1's bed...she loves it.