Kari from New Jersey whose blog is “Little Gray Dog” is the winner of the give away. Kari e mail me at k@pddoc.com and give me your address and your package will get in the mail soon. Congratulations. I will be having more give aways in the upcoming months as I have more books and quilting items to pass on that I no longer want or have duplicates of – the basket still has a lot of things in it.
First I want to thank all of you that have stopped by to enter into the give away – and thank you to all that have blogged on your blog about it. I have had several ask if “foreigners” are allowed — yes you all are welcome. Good luck to all of you. Remember if you still want to enter–the drawing will be held on October 7th. Please enter on the blog post that I started for it yesterday.
Finally I have been making some progress on my first Dear Jane quilt “Insanity”. I have been busy quilting the last two days and have six more blocks completed. I’m not sure if I started photo’s at the correct spot but I believe I have picked up from where I left off before traveling to Colorado and Wisconsin the month of September. I’m getting excited the end is drawing near!! only 2 rows and one border row left plus a little on this row #K. I hope to be done quilting within a couple weeks so that I can get my Christmas Baltimore Album quilt on the frame. If I mainly only work on that in the upcoming months I just might be able to have it for part of or all of the Christmas season — if not it will be added the Christmas spirit to my quilting room 
Row K (#11) Blocks 6 & 7
Row K blocks #8 & 9
Row K # 10 & 11
Continue reading about Back to “Insanity” (Dear Jane) (Give Away continues)
I promised a give away and here it is. I didn’t think I would be ready to do this until later but it didn’t take long at all. I went through my sewing room back in August when I remodeled and found so many duplicate items, books not being used ect. I have a basket full of things. For this give away there is a Christmas Book of patterns, a package of Thangles (possible some where used but it looks full to me) a necklace pendant that you can bring on the plane with you when flying to cut threads – would you believe I have 3 of them – one I bought – others were given to me and last but not least a 6 1/2 inch square ruler. I will include a couple fat quarters or pieces of fabric that I do not want any more – taste change you know — what I do not like someone else might. Fabric will be a surprise as I haven’t picked it out yet.
the give away items
The rules:
1 – leave me a comment and make sure I have your e mail address to let you know if you have won – that gives you one chance.
2- post on your blog about it also and it will give you two chances.
Drawing will be one week from today – October 7th.
The top is finished!! and it only took me since February to make it – 180 hours total. Not bad considering I worked on other projects at the same time. It isn’t hanging really well here where I took the photo, but I couldn’t get it to hang any better. I have a curtain rod that I keep hung up above the closet doors on the end of the sewing room and then put it to that but 
then I can’t get a straight shot without one end of the quilting frame in the way. Then when I was cropping the photo a little I noticed that the pull cord knob of the ceiling fan is dangling in the way. The next photo will be when I am working on it after it goes on the quilting frame. Hopefully that will be by the end of October so I can get it quilted in time for Christmas.
It sure was nice working in a nice clean reorganized room today. I was so busy though finishing up the 4th border and then sewing the borders on to the quilt that I didn’t work on anything else. I do plan to work on Dear Jane “Insanity” tonight when I get done with this.
I managed to get this basket full of items for future give away’s – books, rulers, patterns, notions, etc. I never realized how many duplicates I have of different items. Next giveaway will be when we return from our vacation, not enough time to concentrate on it right now. I will most likely have a give away every other month for a little while to get rid of these things! Even though I don’t want them I’m sure there are others who would like them. (the basket is not part of the give away, I have had that one for awhile and will keep it )
Thanks for all the comments on my sewing room I had so many e mails and comments of how nice you all thought it looked. Now I must get busy with “Insanity” – talk to you all later!
Elaine is having another give away, she just had one a short while ago and had fun with it and decided to do another. I’m cleaning out my sewing room and just might come up with some things to have another one myself this fall.
It was actually nice outside yesterday, dark & cloudy which meant the temperatures 
stayed down in the mid 80’s. Much better than the 90’s. I still got some quilting done though off and on yesterday and then this morning as well.
I have six more blocks finished on “Insanity” (Dear Jane) and have Row I (#9) almost finished!! Maybe that row will be finished tomorrow. It depends on how much I get myself doing on it tonight. I normally like sitting outside in the evenings but lately the mosquitoes have driven me. I can only spray so much and when they keep attacking it is time to call it a night and go inside.
The zipper broke on my Omnigrid black tote bag that I normally use for storing the Dear Jane blocks in progress and keep all that is needed to work with it stored inside. I saw these plastic boxes at Joanne’s when I visited the store last week but didn’t need them 
at the time – the zipper was still working at that time a couple days later it broke. I had been having trouble with it for awhile so it wasn’t a surprise. After all I have had the omnigrid bag for four years now and it has traveled a bit and has been overstuffed at times! I could have gotten another to replace the original but I got the two boxes for less then the price of one black bag (on sale). I think with the clear boxes I will be able to grab what I need easier.
I went ahead and ordered two of the boxes and they came today. Two boxes to keep two different projects organized. It should work out ok I think. And, they were on sale! I keep a 12 1/2 inch square ruler and sandpaper board inside to help keep the squares flat while I work on them and have a piece of felt that sticks to the sandpaper board. It all works out really well. I might go ahead and get another sandpaper board set and ruler for the second box as well.
For those who have noticed I do tend to get a lot of work done on the quilts when it is hot outside – I tend to wilt outside in the heat and I do not get much done so better to be inside for part of the day.
I now have 3 of the borders done on the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt. It has been so hot the last couple of days that I have been in the house more than normal and therefore getting a bit of applique and quilting done.
In the photo of the Christmas quilt I need to turn one of the borders around as I 
realize the greenery is pointing downwards on two borders and up on one if you see what I mean. I will need to remember to check that when I sew the borders on to the quilt.
On the “Insanity” quilt I have 6 more blocks quilted! Yes I have been in the house a bit. I tend to wilt in the afternoon when it gets in the 90’s and have not been out on the 
porch much the last two days other than first thing in the morning. Evening the evening is not pleasant outside, I think it was still 80 degrees last night when we went to bed. This morning it was 75 when we got up. The mosquitoes have been horrible all summer and we have been going through one can after another of repellent.
The top right photo are blocks #1 and 2 on Row I. The photo on the bottom left are blocks # 3 and 4. The blocks on the bottom right are # 5 and 6. I think my block photo’s are not perfectly clear as I can’t see all the quilting that I put in to them the block with the purple “windows” # 3 does have quilting in the sashing areas and the block #6 has quilting in the brown area that doesn’t appear in the photo. My little digital camera does not do close ups well.
A give away at Marie-Madeline Studio is under way – they are giving away a pretty pink/blue quilt if you want in on the action get on over there!
A give away at p.s.i. quilt is going on, run on over and see what Rachel has to offer.
And another give away at Mama Spark’s World. Go on over and see what she has to offer.
So many give aways lately – they are always nice to see and always nice to win!
Today a friend and I traveled about 35 miles over to another town (Clarksville) to see a quilt shop that we had heard had opened. I had never gone to her shop before – she started out a few years ago in her garage and then moved “up” to a shop. The inventory is not real extensive but she hopes to add more things as she can. For those of you over in Johnson County, Arkansas and near by here is her web site if you haven’t been to the shop. Sew Kountry Fabrics. I got lucky and she had the exact same red batik that I am using in my second Dear Jane “Insanity Revisited” I think 
I have enough of the fabric but when you are making a quilt that you know will take you several years to complete it is always nice to have a little extra for “just in case” — you know what I mean the scissors slip, you cut wrong – you do a block wrong and have to do it over – those kinds of just in case! With these two extra yards my mind will be more at ease
I also got two different kinds of neutrals – one is a very white and the other is more of a white with a bit of beige and very light gray in it. These two will go really well with scraps for scrap quilts. I am hoping that she will be adding more batiks and moda marbles to her selections and of course a whole lot more 
notions as she was really low on that. It was nice to see what she had though and find a few things that I wanted.
Last night I got busy and quilted more blocks on “Insanity” and I am getting towards the end of another row! It is moving along quickly once I set my mind to it. The block on the left is Row H block 9 and the photo on the right is block 8 & 7.
Several weeks ago I entered into a give away that Deb over at Quilt Gal was giving and I won! My package arrived in today’s mail. I got a book that actually included a pattern ( photo on the right) that I have been looking at from the Piece O’ Cake people how cool is that. I had no idea the patten
was in that book. I also got some fat quarters and a little thingy to put clippings of thread in by the sewing machine or work basket. Thanks Deb for the neat gifts.
Tomorrow I will announce the two winners of my drawing that had been going on for most of the week so make sure you come to check it out.
Now I am going back to the living room to sit down with a coffee, a piece of my delicious cake and a book that I am almost finished with. The book is by Karin Slaughter – have any of you read her? I have all of her books. The one I am re-reading is “Blindsighted” her first book. I thought she had a new one out and I was looking for it today only to find out on a search on the computer that it will be released on July 14th! Her new book is called “Undone” and she is combining characters from the two series that she has into one book – I think that will make it very interesting. I will have to wait until Tuesday and then see if the local bookstore has it – if not that is ok, I will be visiting my mom again soon and there is a Barnes & Noble and a Border’s Bookstore in her area – I’m sure one of them will have it. Melanie we will be going to the bookstore when we visit
Several blogger buddies of mine have posted links to two ladies who decided they wanted to see a parade of quilts – your first quilt that you made and the last quilt that you made. Go to either of these links to see what it is about. Simplify and LaVieEnRosie
I no longer have my first quilt or second, third whatever. I’m not sure how many I had made before I started to keep track of quilts and the history of them. I didn’t know about doing that for quilting. I am self taught and learned the “rules” along the way. The oldest quilt that I have a photo of I believe is the Lone Star quilt that I made for my daughter Melanie in 1991. I only have this one photo. Like I say this was not the first but I no I had not made much more than baby quilts before this and the few large quilts I made were poorly done. This quilt was made with cheap fabric, was not pulled tight enough when quilted, and I remember the center of the star puffed up a lot in the very middle and had to be really quilted to hold it down It is hand quilted by me and I actually did the binding with all the colors of the star, I didn’t know not 
everyone does that at times.
My last quilt that I finished is one of my own design, ( I believe I finished it in April) some of it is hand pieced, some needle turn applique and a little was machine pieced. It is all hand quilted. “Walking the Primrose Path” I have come a long way in the 18 years in between quilts and I have made over 75 quilts since then, at least 30 to 35 of those have been queen size – all are hand quilted by me.
I don’t know if this means I have too much time on my hands or what! LOL I do no that I enjoy quilting very much and have come along way with my quilting. I still have never taken a class and remain self taught.
This is the last evening for the give away. I will accept all comments through the evening and in the morning when I wake up it is closed. I will then set out to put everyone’s name in the cap – some of you one time, some of you two times if you left a comment on your blog. The winner will be announced on Saturday – come back and check – I will send an e mail to the two winners.
Continue reading about Parade of Quilts and last night for give away
I wasn’t going to blog this evening. I am tired. I left the house about 9 this morning and drove to North Little Rock to 
spend the day with my daughter. Melanie has been growing some cucumbers and wanted pickles. She had never made them so wanted a mom/daughter day – “show me how to make pickles mommy” LOL, ok not quite those words but kind of I had the canner, the jars, the lids, the recipe — she had the cucumbers, spices & vinegar. Kind of an even trade. When I arrived we first went to the river market area as the farmer’s market is held there. We checked to see if they had some small cucumbers to add to hers – they didn’t and turned out we didn’t need them. But they did have tomatoes and we got some to try our hand at ketchup – I had never made that but thought why not give it a try. I left most of the pickles with her but I did bring home 3 jars and a jar of ketchup. We only got 2 pints out of the tomatoes so we split it.
Here is Melanie on the left working on the pickles.
I got home a little after 7 this evening! I spent some time approving all of the entries that came in today for the drawing - my god people – I have got over 70 of you to pick from and there is still tomorrow!!! That is way more than I ever thought would come on over to this. What fun it will be seeing who the two winners are on Saturday.
My daughter’s dog was feeling somewhat neglected during the day as we were too busy to play with her. Here is the dog
Patty on the couch and on the couch is a quilt I make Mel years ago and a wall hanging on her wall. She doesn’t quilt but she likes them! She will be posting about our 
day on her blog with photo’s – her DH took a bit of photo’s and I will have to wait until tomorrow to see what they are like. She will probably post later tonight or tomorrow.
I managed to get in a couple stitches on the “Insanity” quilt last night on the quilting frame but not enough to bother taking a photo of – maybe later in the week. This morning before I left I did work on the border a little more of the Christmas quilt. It is coming along!
