Linda over at Home Sweet (Quilting) Home is having a give away. She has some Digital Scrapping Software – if you are a scrapbooker you might want to run on over and see what she has!

Before I even get into any more of the great places and rock formations we have seen I want to mention that Chris at Dye Candy is having a giveaway.  She makes the most wonderful hand dyed fabric and jewelry. Drop on by her site and see what she has – also while I am talking fabric you might want to run on over to Judy at Patchwork Times and see what everyone is working on this Monday – I have been extremely lazy in the sewing/quilting department and have nothing to show this week – maybe next week I will!  For my link on Judy’s site I stuck in  a photo of some fabric that I got awhile back and I’m wondering what I will be making with it.

Now back to Utah and Arches National Park.  This is the sign at the Balanced Rock that gives you the make up of the rock.

This is one side of the rock – how that doesn’t topple over is beyond me – I think if they ever have any size of an earthquake here they will loose some great treasures.

and around to another side – looks a bit different

All of these rocks have names – but I don’t remember half of them!  I’m just putting on here some of the rather interesting looking ones out of the many photos that I have taken.

These are quite narrow at the top.

The whole formation of the one preceding

This is the beginning of the trail going to Landscape Arch.

Another hole in a wall

Today (Sunday) we drove over to Canyonlands National Park this park is kind of divided into 3 sections with 2 of them easy to get to.  We covered part of one section today and we are driving over to the other one tomorrow.  It takes about an hour drive tomorrow to just get to the entrance so we will be bringing a picnic lunch with us again as we did today.  We took a 2 hour hike today – 2 miles – amazing how long it takes to walk a mile when you constantly stopping to take photos and look at scenery.  I am caught up on my photos from Arches I think – so I will start on more places soon.

I received my win from 1 Choice 4 Quilting yesterday.  A fat quarter bundle of the Strawberry Fields line and 2 yards of Bella solid – cream by fig tree.  I normally use Kona Cotton for my solids but I have heard such good things of the Bella Solids by Moda that I really want to see what this is like.

Such pretty fabric.  I am not sure at this point what I will make with it of course.  It will sit on the shelf for awhile with me gazing at it now and then until something pops in my head.

I mentioned that I might get more quilting done on “Going in Circles”  if I move it off the frame and put it in the living room to work on – so I did just that yesterday!!

The empty frame and looks like I have a little house cleaning to do while it is empty.  This is my catch all space for this small room – toss it under the frame and it is out of my way.

The quilt on the couch, I got in about 2 hours of quilting on it yesterday – I really need to make a cover for that cushion I lean against it is a memory foam pillow  – I will start quilting in this corner of the quilt today.  I finished the quilting that needed to be done in the blue/yellow/white border area so that part is done now.

I have been having a little bit of arm pain to go with other discomforts when hand quilting at the 3 roller frame – the reaching across and quilting from side to side makes my left arm press again the roller in such a way that I think it has been causing some arm pain in the elbow area – maybe something like carpal tunnel syndrome?  Being on the computer also makes the elbow area sore – so I’m sure it is a repetitive motion problem.  I will be asking my doctor about it when I see him next month for my check up.  I have fibromyalgia besides muscle/joint  problems so I’m sure all of that plays into it.

So anyhow I will try it like this for a bit and see what happens and then take a total break from any hand quilting for about 6 weeks this fall and see what happens. I do want to get this quilt done though!!

I just have to share this news.  Some of you know that Moda sells boxes of “Candy Bars” 2 1/2 inch x 5 inch bars of fabric.  That is what I am using in a hand piecing project.  While for a limited amount of time Moda has included a coupon for $150.00 in a few select boxes (100 boxes out of all of those that they are selling).  My friend Regina (no blog) is one of the lucky few and got one of the winning boxes!!  She had to call me yesterday and share the exciting news.  Now she fills out the coupon and sends it back to Moda and she goes in to the final drawing where the prize is a 2 night stay I believe in Dallas and you get a tour of the Moda Warehouse and see all the wonderful products and how they do things.  She will be sent a $150 goody bag from Moda.  I am dying to see what it will include.

I’m so excited for her but of course I wish it had been me you should have seen me opening my box when I got it searching for the winning ticket!  nope not me – but I am so glad to hear my good friend got one – there were only 100 tickets in all of those boxes that went out at the beginning of the year.

You can find the Candy Bars at numerous places, they are still selling them.  A lot of the on line quilt shops that sell Moda products have them as well as quilt shops.  I believe it goes until August and then the drawing in September I think.

Now on to that giveaway – over at Pigtails & Quilts Thearica is having a sponsored giveaway – run on over and see what she has to give away.

GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED WINNER ANNOUNCED SHORTLY

Tonight is the last chance you have to enter my give away.  I will use a random generator in the morning to select the winner.  The prizes – these 2 patterns and a stack of 10 inch squares of Christmas prints from Connecting Threads.

Good Luck.

Thanks for all the ideas on the patchwork quilt.  I  am not going to do any applique although I did think about it for awhile.  I think I will go with some thin strips of the bright colors and white – not a lot, as I don’t want it much larger than it is now.  I am thinking that I might try to machine quilt this one again like I did that baby quilt last month – just straight stitch so I don’t want any applique in the way.  And no I am not giving up hand quilting  but I have so many large tops waiting in line for hand quilting that I think it will be ok for this “purist hand quilter” to occasionally try the machine quilting method.

Thanks for all the comments on this quilt and for comments on the give away – I have gotten so many comments from all of you telling me where you are from and I have had many from the states, Australia, Canada, Europe, Mauritius (off of South Africa), South Korea and even a comment today from China!  Thank you all for stopping by – the give away continues until Saturday morning.  I usually try to send back a short comment to you for stopping by but I have not been able to keep up – so I’m just saying here = thanks for stopping by.

I am up late tonight.  More storms on the way – there have been so many storms this past couple weeks that I didn’t feel comfortable going to bed the time I normally do around 10 so I decided to stay up a little tonight until I can tell that the storms won’t be here.  At this time of year the tornado season is always here – but worse this year than normal for us.

Earlier this evening I finished putting the patchwork quilt together!  Now do I put a border on it or do I leave it as is?  The finished size is 64 inches by 68 inches – kind of big for a baby quilt LOL, I think it will possibly be for the camper or just plain an extra one for decorating the house What do you all think – would you put a border on this or leave as is?  I actually have some bright yellow, orange, green, blue and reddish orange to use if I want to – it isn’t the same design but the same colors.

A close up of the colors:

These are the fabrics I have – the strips are what is left from the jelly roll and I will use it for binding – the others are in the same color groups (a 1/2 yard of each color) as the patchwork and could be used for pinwheels or stripes or something.  I will think about it for a couple days while I work on the tiny circles.

It was so humid outside today that when I got back from my dental appointment I just decided to continue on with my quilts.  Time enough when the weather clears up to do things outside – better weather will be coming by Thursday I hear.

When I got done with the patchwork I got back to work on the circles for the Red & Green – I worked on and off for 3 hours on them this evening and I got done!!

They are all glue basted in place and ready for stitching tomorrow and the rest of the week:

I have been in such a mood to finish things lately  – I really do not normally work so much on my sewing hour after hour – I don’t know what has gotten in to me lately – I’m sure I will slow down soon – I normally do as the weather warms up and I start to sit outside more on the porch with an interesting book and a nice cool glass of lemonade or something – I think it is because it has been so rainy and cloudy this past two weeks or so.

Don’t forget you still have time to enter the give away for the two patterns and fabric – I have 65 comments so far and still several days to go.  Here for the comments

I was busy yesterday working on both the patchwork and the red and green applique.  Today the work continues on both quilts in between my regular Monday things – like cleaning the house and fitting in time to exercise.  Check out Judy at Patchwork Times to see what everyone is working on.

The Patchwork right now is 44 inches x 56 inches and growing – I have a lot of pieces left to use so this is no longer looking like a baby quilt but I think it is growing to a couch size quilt and might end up being closer to 60 by 70 inches or there about.

Pieces left to use still:

The little “caps” are now on the pineapples:

I lost track of how many circles I needed to cut and I think I have a 110 cut but I think I “only” need 104 – I have to re-count before I start to make them.

A close up of the size:

My Give Away continues all week – I have over 40 comments – I wonder how high I can get that number.  Please leave your comment for the give away here

Thank you everyone for stopping by and letting me know where you are from and for entering the give away. The give away continues all week.  I like seeing where everyone is from and the comments.  I look at the feedjit reader on the sidebar almost every day and see the countries and states you come from and wonder who you are so it is nice to hear from you.

Please continue to leave your give away comment here.

Today it is a dark dreary looking day and we are in for rain or just plain clouds all day from the looks of it.  I will continue to work on my patchwork.  I had several comments from people thinking I was hand piecing these blocks – I am machine piecing this patchwork.  I admit I do more machine piecing than I used to do – it used to be that I only hand pieced now I do both and tend to use my machine more than in the past.

Sometime later this year though I plan on getting back to hand piecing a quilt. I do not know which pattern I will use but I think I will use the batik bundle of fabric that I bought recently from my trip to Wisconsin.   I am thinking possibly a pattern from diamond shapes.  I see it in my head and I know I saw one someplace but can’t think of where.  I will continue thinking on it and start it in the late summer or fall.  I have been doing so much applique this past year that maybe it is time to do something different by hand.

I think I need to start doing more hand piecing so I can slow down and catch up on my quilting!!  3 quilt tops are waiting in line with a 4th (the red & green) almost done.  All of these quilt tops are 85 x 85 inches at least with one being 100 x 100 – it will take awhile to get caught up on quilting.

I did hand quilting yesterday also on “Going in Circles” and will do some of that today also – it is getting close to turning the quilt once again and then I will be able to really see the end in sight.

My patchwork quilt that I have been working on this week — it is at 40 inches x 40 inches right now.

It has reached the point where I will have to keep bending to put my pieces on the wall to see what color I want where so I lowered the square and turned it around (which I did not need to do as I am not following any color or pattern I don’t know what I was thinking) and will be able to keep working from the top side and not have to bend ( I have a achy back right now in the low back area).

This way I can keep working from the top – do you do this too so you don’t have to put strain on your back?  I think I have enough fabric to make this crib size – about 42 x 68 maybe.  I don’t want to go wider than 42 inches so that I don’t have to piece a back.

Have a great day everyone.

GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Time to celebrate blogging 1,000 times in 4 years.  Now keep in mind I am not a sponsored blog – what I give away is strictly from me, from my stash of fabric and patterns.  I have been collecting patterns for such a long time that after awhile I do know if I really do not ever think I will ever make a quilt from one.

So I have chosen 2 patterns from my stash – I bought both of these about 4 years or so ago and have never used.

Also last year I ordered a layer cake of Christmas fabric from Connecting Threads thinking I would have more red and green solids to use in my applique but ended up with a lot of prints that I don’t care for – I do not like Christmas prints all that much – but what I don’t care for others love!!  I am more of a solids or mostly solid kind of person

So if you want to try to win these 2 patterns and 15 – 10 inch Christmas prints please enter my give away.

THE RULES:

For one chance leave me a comment telling me what country or state you live in – just my curiosity at work wondering where my readers are from

For a second chance leave another comment telling me that you have blogged about the give away.

This is an open give away – I don’t mind mailing out of the United States seeing as I do not do it often.

The give away closes one week from today on Saturday morning when I wake up the 28th of May

(You must have a way for me to contact you! I have to have a valid e mail address from you – you must fill in your e mail address when you leave a comment – this is something only I see – it is not there for everyone to see unless you put the address in the comment itself.  I see this happen on so many blogs when someone wins and they have no way to contact someone and the prize has to go to someone else)