November 28, 2013

November 27, 2013

Blog Hop Party Winner

By    5:11 AM // 8 comments
Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways
It is time to announce the winner of my Blog Hop Party Giveaway.
Thank you to all that entered. I did enjoy reading all about your fabric genre preferences.
As a Quilters Public Service Announcement:  I want to say that I had a LARGE number of No Reply Bloggers post comments without including their email address. Unfortunately those folks weren't entered into the giveaway.
Are you sure that you aren't a No Reply Blogger?
It doesn't hurt to double check.
Click on your Profile, click on Edit Profile and make sure that you've checked the box that says "show my email address" and then make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click "Save Profile". I've found that many NRBs don't realize that they are and it is a shame that they don't get the chance to win too.
Ok so that is my good deed for the day.
Onto announcing the winner.
Mr. Random picked #40 who is

my goodness Michele! What a generous giveaway :) .... I'm really going to have to up the ante when I finally figure out what to do to celebrate my milestones!! I do follow you any which way I can ... normally I click your link from my blog to yours, but I do follow you through Bloglovin' also ... :) :) Thank you!

Congratulations Wendy! I've sent you an email.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I have some prep work to do. I might go out at some point this weekend and get some shopping done, but then again I might not.
No matter if you are a weekend-after-Thanksgiving shopper or not, I hope you enjoy your days and savor each moment of the coming holiday season.

November 25, 2013

6,272 Kate Spain Charms

By    3:34 PM // 20 comments
That is how many charms I have handled in the past week.
56 swap spots x 112 charms each = 6,272 charms
I took a few pictures along the way to share with you.
Here are all the packages that arrived.
When it came time to sort them, I had some help. Sunshine had a blast emptying each envelope.
I stacked them all up to see how it they'd look. Isn't this a pretty site?

So what does 6,272 charms look like?
Well....here you go.
112 stacks of charms each containing 56 pieces.
It is a good thing that I have a big dining room table.

I love this view. Ahhh the possibilities this vision evokes!
After this last group picture, they were sorted into 56 piles of 112 charms each, packaged and then sealed in their return envelopes, ready to fly back to their new owners. Sunshine and Jammer helped with that too and they did a great job. The final batch was dropped off at the post office this morning.
It took me a couple more days than I thought it would to get them all ready to mail but while I was doing it, I was able to formulate a better plan for the whole process go quicker for Round 2 in the spring.
My charms already are planned for a project (two actually) but I need a solid to coordinate for both so I set them all together so that I could get a good overall view of the colors.

You likey?
I do!
Unfortunately I have a few deadline projects to get done before I get to play with these beauties so I'll just enjoy the picture for now.

Thank you to all who participated. I truly enjoyed organizing this swap and am looking forward to hosting Round 2 sometime around March once Daydreams arrives in stores.

November 21, 2013

Blog Hop Party, Blog-Aversary Giveaway and The Primary Bee Final Call

By    5:50 AM // 238 comments
It is that time of year again! Time for another fun Blog Hop Party hosted by Quilting Gallery.
This party is all about sharing the quilty love and finding lots of new-to-you blogs to follow.
Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways
If you are new to my blog, welcome!
If you are a regular reader, terrific and I'm glad that you're visiting again.

I love sharing my quilty projects here on my blog and I also love hosting great fun events. To date I've hosted quite a few including the Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin in 2012 and 2013, The Halloween See Saw Swap, The Quilt U Be Mine Mini Round Robin and the It's A Sister Thing Swap.

I also post a regular series Stunning Stitchin Sunday where I showcase great quilting, done either by hand or machine (domestic or longarm) and other terrific stitchery such as embroidery, cross stitch or even knitting or crocheting that I come across in quilt blog land. From the responses I've received in the past 4 months since I started this series, I know that it is becoming very popular, my readers look forward to seeing the spectacular work and gain inspiration for their own quilting project.

The current swap just now finishing up is the Kate Spain charm Swap.
 All the charms are sorted and I'm working on getting them packaged and out in the mail to their new owners. Let me tell you, the participants will be receiving back one gorgeous stack of charms. I can't wait to see what everyone makes with them and I can't wait to start sewing with mine. Plans are already in the works for Round 2 after Kate's newest line Daydreams comes out sometime in February.

Update: The Primary Bee is full!

My newest hosting gig just getting under way is The Primary Bee.
This is a quilting bee for the elementary school set, boys and girl, to teach them the foundations of simple and basic quilt block and quilt making and hopefully have them make a few quilty kidlet friends along the way.
This week is the Last Call for the sign ups so if you have a child or grandchild that you think would love to join in, head over to the intro post to read all the details and then email me all the needed info before the end of this coming weekend.

So not quite 2 weeks ago, my blog Uncelebrated it's 2 Year Anniversary (uncelebrated because I didn't actually celebrate it with all of you).  Since I had hosted a bunch of giveaways recently and also knowing that this Blog Hop Party was coming up, I decided to wait and have a belated celebration instead in the form of a really awesome giveaway opportunity for you.

To one lucky winner I will be send this copy of material obsession two by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. 
It contains the authors' interpretations of a ton of great traditional blocks in modern settings. Here are just a couple of examples of what is contained within the cover.

The giveaway details are as follows:

Each person can have up to 2 chances to win.

1) Leave me a comment and tell me which genre of fabric is your favorite - Civil War, 1930's, Solids, Calico's, Primitive, Bold and Modern, Floral, Asian, Christmas, Halloween, Novelty...whichever floats your boat the most.

2) My readers have a 2nd chance to win, just tell me which way you follow. And Yes I do check.

Entries will close at Midnight, Tuesday November 26th.
As usual, if you are a No Reply Blogger include your email address in your comment or it will be removed from consideration. Better yet, solve the problem once and for all (I know you Wordpress folks aren't able to). Info on how to do that can be found here. It's easy peasy and you'll be glad that you did.

I hope you enjoy hopping around to everyone that is participating in the Blog Hop Party and a huge thank you so much goes to Michele for hosting such a great event again this year. Good luck to all! I hope to be lucky and win a couple of giveaways myself.

 I do love to read all of your comments and I'll attempt to respond to as many as I can but knowing the volume of comments that result from this Blog Hop Party it isn't likely that I'll be able to reply to them all. I do appreciate each one though and look forward to reading them.

November 20, 2013

Quilters Public Service Announcement - Quilter's Blog Hop Party is coming

By    10:57 AM // 4 comments
Tomorrow another great Quilter's Blog Hop Party starts, the brilliant idea of Michelle from Quilting Gallery. Her site is chock full off quilty goodness including the quilting bloggers directory, a listing of quilt shops & services, a world-wide directory of quilt guilds and much more. If you haven't checked out her site yet, you should jump over there and do so.
You don't know what the Quilter's Blog Hop Party is all about? It is a chance for me to thank my regular blog readers, to host a fun giveaway and to fill you in on news and events happening here on my blog.
It is also a chance for you to find great new-to-you blogs to follow, to enter hundreds of giveaways and potentially to win some great quilting goodies.
Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways
Winning is never a bad thing, right? So far myself, I've had a pretty lucky season. Recently I won this great tote bag from Kathy at Kwilty Pleasures when she celebrated her blog-aversary. Love it!
Then just last week I got an email from Deonn who blogs over at Quiltscapes notifying me that I won this fabulous wristlet from her Pin It Blog Hop giveaway. This will be perfect to use when I'm down on the floor pinning on long borders or bindings.
And then to make this month even better, this week I heard from Heidi who blogs over at Red Letter Quilts congratulating me for winning the Art Gallery Spellbound Girl FQ bundle. Aren't they so pretty!
So you never know if you will be lucky and will win a giveaway or two too. But you have to enter to win.
Be sure to visit here sometime between tomorrow (Nov 21st) and Tuesday evening (Nov 26th) to see what I'm offering up and to enter for your chance to make it yours. Michelle will post the entire list of participating blogs in her website tomorrow afternoon. There will be hundreds of blogs to visit and hundreds of chances to win so you won't want to miss the party.
In other fun news, all of the packages have arrived for the Kate Spain Charm Swap. The beautiful stacks of charms have all been sorted into 56 piles and I'm working on getting them all packaged up and back out in the mail to the participants. I have some pictures to share soon of all the pretty goodness.

I'll see you tomorrow!
 

November 13, 2013

The Primary Bee and new stash additions

By    6:32 AM // 2 comments
Update: The Primary Bee is full!

Have you heard?
Have your kid(s)heard?
There is a new quilting bee just for them.
The Primary Bee
Simple basic blocks, only 1 per month, no paper piecing or applique, no mailing out fabric for bee mates to use, they work from your stash, they pick the colors, and in the end they will have a quilt that they made themselves (with a little grown up help of course).

All of the details can be found here. There are still spots available. Hurry....you won't want to miss out.

  I have to say that today this makes me happy.
This most certainly does not!
I know that it is only a light dusting but it is a preamble to what is to come and those that have been visiting here for a while know that I do not like winter one bit.
Yes the snow is pretty but when you have fingers and feet that are perpetually frozen, at times to the point that they hurt and it is really hard to work, winter doesn't thrill you much. My faulty internal thermostat ie. my thyroid is to blame.

Anywho last week all of my LQSs were running their annual Shop Hop Customer Appreciation Sale where you could fill your bag from any of the past hops for 20% off. On Friday after I picked the kidlets up from school, we headed over to see what goodies we could find.

I let them look around and pick out 3 FQ to use for their Primary Bee blocks. Jammer chose the Royal Blue stars, the cool Red batik and the Daffodil Yellow solid.
Sunshine's picks were no surprise. She found the pretty Pink floral, the Purple dot and the swirly Pink tone on tone. The colors are a bit off in both photos but that is what I get for taking the pictures before the sun even came up.

I was pretty restrained in my purchases. Honestly though there were some fabrics that I liked, there weren't a ton that called out my name loudly. I did find this awesome Asian print by Studio E and I got half yards of each colorway. I was seriously tempted by other prints in the line but I did resist. I have a large stash of Asian fabrics already.
This stack of Valentine's prints caught my eye and I got a half yard of each also. It is Sending My Love by Marie Cole for Henry Glass. I don't have plans for it yet but I'm looking for ideas.
Lastly I picked up a yard of each of these Swirly Girls Designs for Michael Miller. They are from the delightful line. The main print on the top kept calling to me until I picked up the bolt and carried it to the cutting table.
Of course, once I got home my mind churned with what to do with these new procurements. Looking at the Sending My Love prints led me to think of my Always & Forever charm pack. I pulled that out, flipped through my pattern binders and came up with a plan.
It goes without saying that I wanted to start putting that plan into action immediately but other pressing events took precedence. Soon though, very soon. 

I hope you have a great day. It is going to be another chilly one here and I've got a cold brewing no thanks to a coworker. No fun!

November 8, 2013

Announcing The Primary Bee - a quilting bee for the younger set

By    8:45 AM // 4 comments
Update: The Primary bee is full!

In an earlier post, I told you about a recent conversation I had with the kidlets.
They want to make quilts too.
I want to teach them and foster their love of creating.
After a bit of brain churning time, I came up with the perfect idea.

I am happy to announce and open for sign ups

The Primary Bee
A quilting bee just for kidlets, so they can learn about sewing, rotary cutting (with help of course), putting blocks together and combining their blocks into finished quilt tops.

As always, the key to any event is in the details and here they are:

* This bee is specifically and only for kidlets between 5 and 10/11 years old, the elementary school age group, basically Kindergarten through 5th grade.

* There are 11 spots open for boys and 11 spots open for girls (my 2 kids are the 12th in each group) and it is open to international participants (one 12" block in an envelope isn't too costly to mail).

*Each month there will be 1 Bee Princess
 and 1 Bee Prince
 who will choose the block they want their bee mates to make. The emphasis will be on the simple BASIC blocks. A page of suggested blocks are on this page. A different block can be chosen but please make it very simple and only basic piecing techniques. No paper piecing and No applique. If blocks of that nature are chosen I will request that you choose something else. You will email your requested block name and fabric colors to your child's bee mates on the 1st of the month.

  *Bee mates will not send fabric to each other to use, they will work from your stash. They will be making 12 1/2" unfinished blocks.

                        *Bee members will choose ideally up to 3-4 colors they want their bee mates to use in making the blocks. Please, no focusing on specific characters, only colors. I don't want anyone to have to hunt down fabric in a specific character theme.

*Each child will only make one block per month and then send it off to the Bee Princess or Bee Prince for that month.

*When it is their month to be the Bee Princess or Bee Prince, they will only make their block to keep for themselves. They will receive 11 blocks from their other bee mates. Then they can work to put them together into a quilt top.

*Because life with kidlets can get hectic at times and plans can get changed in an instant or because there can be scheduling issues because of vacations or other events, there will be 2 "open" months at a time, meaning there will be a current month Bee Princess and Bee Prince as well as a future month Bee Princess and Bee Prince. This way if you know in advance that you have things coming up, your child can work ahead and get the next month's block done early. 

*The main focus of this Primary Bee will be a dual one...to have our kids make their very own quilt with their own 2 hands and to have them make online quilting friends just as I have done. So ideally I'd like blogger's kids to participate. It isn't a steadfast rule but each month I'm hoping the kids will post about the blocks they are making and the blocks they receive so obviously they'd need a blog to post on. I'm going to let my kids write their posts themselves, with a little help of course.

*The bee will start next month. Yes I know that it is the holiday season but I for one will have 2 weeks between Christmas and New Years when the kids are home from school so that will be the perfect time to get some sewing time in with them.

**Now here is the biggest part of all these details***

This is a 12 month commitment for both you and your child. If you won't have time to work with your child to make the blocks, please don't sign them up. If you think your child will lose interest after a couple of months, especially if it isn't their turn yet to be the Bee Princess/Prince, don't sign them up. This isn't about you making the blocks for your child and fulfilling their commitment; it is about your child actually making them, sending them out and hopefully making some online quilting kid friends too. If in doubt, don't submit their name. If needed, talk to your child first.

But after thinking this over carefully if you think they would really enjoy this year long project, then email me:

1) Your full name
2) Your child's full name
3) Your mailing address
4) Your phone number (just in case)
5) Your normal email address (not one that you don't check regularly)
6) Your blog address

My other one big request is COMMUNICATE! Emergencies happen but not knowing just makes everyone else angry and I don't want any of that. I've seen way too many post on others' blogs about being months and months behind in Bee commitments and that should not be the norm here. If it is, you will be put on my list and possibly restricted from other events. I know this may sound a bit harsh but I've had some issues in the past with a select number of people and I want to prevent that again as much as possible.

Once your child has been accepted into The Primary Bee, I will send you a confirmation email and you should add the Bee Button to your blog.

I'm really excited about this event. My kids are even more excited. They keep asking me "When can we get started Mom?" I'm truly hoping that through this Primary Bee our kidlets can learn just how wonderful the online quilting community is.

November 5, 2013

Charms, lots of lovely charms

By    11:37 AM // 4 comments
The envelopes with the Kate Spain charms for the swap are coming in. I received 5 packages yesterday alone. I'm sure my mailman is wondering what is going on. There are a few more expected and then I can show you a picture of them all together.
I've managed to get the 2nd Blue round and half of the 3rd round on the pile of blocks for my Mom's quilt before an emergency phone call came in around dinner time on Saturday and I ended up with some nice but unplanned house guest for the rest of the weekend.
Hopefully I'll get some uninterrupted time tomorrow so that I can finish up the Blue and move onto the Green blocks.
 
That new idea I mentioned and teased you about a few days ago? Well with the house guests I didn't get the opportunity to get the post written. It is started and should be finished and live within the next day or two. You won't want to wait though as it will be really limited and I know it will fill up quickly.
 
Enjoy your Tuesday!

November 3, 2013

Wicked winner and a bit of this and that

By    6:02 AM // 8 comments
A number of people have asked me how I made my Ghastlie sewing machine cover. I'm so glad that I have inspired others to make covers for their sewing machines too.
I basically followed this tutorial by Vanessa of Crafty Gemini.
It was super easy to follow and I loved the results.
I had to make a few modifications for my version.
Yes I had to enlarge it quite a bit to enable it to encompass my extension table. My cover finished at 28" wide x 16" deep x 12" high.

Vanessa used fusible fleece to line her cover but I did it a bit differently.
I needed it overall to be a lot stiffer so that the extension table end wouldn't sag. I used a fabric lining and both the front fabric and the lining fabric had Pellon medium weight fusible interfacing added.
The additional bulk made it a little more challenging to sew but certainly not impossible, I just used my walking foot to sew all the layers together, and the extra stiffness was just right to keep the left side up properly.

For those of you that think I made this as a seasonal over you are soooooo wrong. I am beyond infatuated with the Ghastlies and this cover will be used year round on my Lucy.

The charms for the Kate Spain Charm Swap are coming in and by this time next week I should have a great picture of all the pretty charms to share with you. There already is a lot of interest in a Round 2 and that will definitely happen in late February/early March, dependent on when her new line comes out.

Those that know me well know that I can definitely be a tease at times,especially with hints about plans I have in the works. What I've got up my sleeve just for the kidlets is going to be great. The big announcement will be made on Monday so if you have some kidlets in your life, you won't want to miss it. 

Whew! That is a lot of bits to catch up on.
Now onto the fun part...announcing the winner of my Just Wickedly Ghastly giveaway.
Mr. Random picked
Love to see Ghastlies!

Congratulations Kris! As soon as I hear back with your address, the package will be on its way.

Happy Sunday!
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