My Sleepy Owl Studio win is here!

Ok over a month ago, I won a set of fabric from Sleep Owl Studio, and it is now in my hands!

Look at the presentation! I love it! Ok, maybe, I don't get out much, but I was so excited to realize that the 'bag' was one of the fabrics I won. She added a ribbon and two simple pins to hold it on - So I really got bonus gifts too (heehee)! One can always use ribbon and pins!

When I make a star or two from Fat Cat Patterns' Chocolate Stars from these beautiful fabrics, I will post it for sure!

*hugs*
Jackie

Stone Soup Art Quilt Top

In April of this year Art Quilts Around The World, a group of women artists from The Netherlands, Australia, and the USA, took up the challenge to make this quilt top from a photo one woman in the group sent us all. We each interpreted it in our own way. You can see more of the tops by the others on that blog HERE.

click on photos to enlarge and see detailsOnce finished the tops were all sent to her and she will now cut them up into fifteen equal pieces to be sent back to us so each person will have a section of all the other artists' quilts. We will then sew them together to make a combined sandwiched art quilt.

This was made by first tracing the pieces on my glass slider door from the blown up photo. Then I backed the fabric with a stabilizer (Steam a Seam II) and cut out the pieces from my fabric stash choices.

I used heavy thread painting, embroidery and beading to embellish the top.

It was quite the challenge

Once I get all the pieces sent back to me I will post

the final stage of the challenge with

all the combined artists work and one piece

of my own.

Two Giveaways!!!! hurry!

Heaven and Nature Jumper Panel Giveaway (currently no entries!)

or

Animal Fabric Giveaway (currently one entry!)

Go and enter!
Deadline July 2!!

*hugs*
Jackie

My win at Sew Journal

I am finally home and able to receive my prize from Sew Journal! It's fun to open the package and see it in person! Yeah!!! Thank you Munaiba for posting me the win all the way from Australia!

When I make something with it, I will do my best to post it and showcase my win! :) heehee I encourage you all to enter those giveaways if you want to WIN! :)

*hugs*
Jackie

The Color Purple

I am in a block swap and July is my month to decide what kind of block I want the other members to make. After looking at swap blocks from other bees and changing my mind from day to day, I finally chose a variation of Red Pepper Quilts' scrappy quilt.

Instead of scrappy, I have decided to go with a "color wheel" theme. Each member of the swap picked a color, and going out in the mail today is a 6 1/2" square of white Kona cotton and a little stack of ten tone-on-tone prints in a specific color, and each person is encouraged to add some fabric from her own stash. (Yep, two people picked orange--hooray!)

I had made a sample block in purple, which I then tried to photograph. It turned out to be really difficult to get a true representation of purple. It kept photographing as blue. I'm sure it had to be fabric, not the photographer. So then I tried playing with the white balance settings on my camera. These are the crummy pictures I came up with.

I finally did something I hardly ever do: photograph with the flash on. Whew. The white really got bleached out, but the purple looks a little better.

I'm pretty happy with the block and I think the quilt will be awesome.

But is there someone out there with photography hints?

Giveaway: Heaven and Nature Jumper Panel

Ok Quilt Community!
As you may or may not know, I have been blessed with winning fabric on other quilt blogs so now it is my turn to post a giveaway!

I am giving away this fabric that was donated to me in boxes of other donated fabric. I just do not see me using it anytime soon, and I do NOT like to have things collect dust. I believe things need to have a purpose and be used, not sat around.

To Enter:
So this will be easy... Just leave me a comment and you are entered. I will do the random thingy and send the fabric asap! If you want to be prompted on what to comment... What will you be cooking/baking, for the 4th of July?
Deadline:
IT IS QUICK..... Midnight EST July 2, 2010. I need the winner to send me their info asap, so I can get it in the mail July 5th! I will be traveling again and not able to do mail it anytime after. International entries are welcome!

There you go.... now enter, only if you think you will actually USE IT!!!

Oh and here is a photo of the Printed fabric pattern! Enjoy!

Look even bonus applique included on the panel:

(sorry, I didn't rotate it)

Please only enter if you KNOW you WILL USE it! :) Thank you! If you want to go to my other giveaway, you can... see my previous post.


*hugs*
Jackie

Animal Fabric Giveaway, hurry!

Ok Quilt Community!

I have been super blessed with winning fabulous fabrics from the Quilting Community out there, so now it's my turn... I am giving away this fabric that was donated to me in boxes of donated fabric. I just do not see me using it anytime soon and I do NOT like to have things collect dust. I believe things need to have a purpose and be used, not sat around.

To Enter:
So this will be easy... Just leave me a comment and you are entered. I will do the random thingy and send the fabric asap! If you want to be prompted on what to comment... we just went to on a road trip with the kids. It was quick but still over 6 hours each way, so tell me about a road trip you've been on... like it? not like it? you do them often? you never want to do them? was it alone or with family or kids!?

Deadline:
Midnight EST July 2, 2010. I need the winner to send me their info asap, so I can get it in the mail July 5th! I will be traveling again and not able to do mail it anytime after. International entries are welcome!


There you go.... now enter, only if you think you will actually USE IT!!!

Oh and here is a photo of the Animal silkscreened fabric... Sorry my photography was NOT the best on these and I have not pressed them...

Please only enter if you KNOW you WILL USE it! :) Thank you! If you want to go to my other giveaway, you can... see the next post!

*hugs*

Jackie

My prize from "Swim, Bike, and Quilt!"... Thanks Kate!

Do you remember all those Giveaways!!??? I had an 'honorable' mention win on Kate's "Swim, Bike, Quilt!" Blog giveaway! She is too sweet! See my post here about my 'win'.

I wanted to share with you what she was so kind in sending me!

Isn't it beautiful!!! I sure think sew! I like posting this, too, so I can remember who/what/where the fabric came from. When I make something with it, I will know! :) So be encouraged to document (journal your quilts and fabric online!).


*hugs*
Jackie

Fourth of July Sale on all my Art

I'm having a sale on all the art work that is for sale in my Etsy shop. This sale starts today, June 28 and ends at the end of the day on Monday, July 5.

All art work will be sold at 10% off the listed price and there will also be FREE SHIPPING within the USA.

Thanks for looking!

Accomplishments??

Well I've sort of been busy the last few days. It has been almost a week since my last post here. In some ways I feel like I've accomplished many things and then again, I also feel like I've accomplished nothing. What's with that??

Well here is something that is getting done. I have finished the quilting on this BOM quilt. Now all I have left is the binding. I quilted a portion of this on the HQ16 at the quilt shop and then I brought it home and quilted the remainder of it on my domestic machine. This quilt isn't overly huge so that helped with quilting it at home.

And then, because a quilter just can't have only one project going at a time... I started on a new project. I figured since I have finished the two BOM quilts, well almost finished, that it was acceptable to start a new project. Here are the main colors in the new quilt.

And here is the beginning of it up on the design wall. I have no idea how big this will end up.

I've also completed another journal painting. After I took the photo of this face and was preparing it for Internet viewing in my PhotoShop program, I noticed that she looks like she is sporting a black eye on the left. I always find it interesting what I see in a photo of my work compared to looking at it in person.

I'm not sure how much sewing I'll be able to do this week. My sewing machine started blinking at me over the weekend. It is time to take it in for a service/check up. I could always dig out the old, back up machine.....I guess.

Driving...and other random thoughts

Some people really enjoy doing the driving. I am not one of those people. Mark does nearly 100 percent of the driving when we are traveling out of town. Since we became part of the owner group for Lakeview Cottages, we have made many trips up and down. The first time we took the "short cut," which saves us nearly half an hour, it involved a road that is mostly just wide enough for one car, with a steep drop-off. Freaked me out. Even with Mark driving, who is an excellent driver. In the length of 3.5 miles, it climbs from 5,000 to 7,000 feet elevation. Last year, a couple of the Lakeview cabins had not been rented and I wanted to spend some time up there, not working or managing, but just enjoying the beauty and serenity of Huntington Lake. It was midweek and that meant driving up there myself. Including that last four miles. Yikes!

Here is what I learned about myself. Driving slowly and steadily for 1 1/2 hours in mostly foothill and curvy mountain roads is something that I enjoy, something I even look forward to. For someone who has always had the car in "drive" and never learned how to drive a standard transmission, I now know when to shift to the lowest possible gear and when to use the other gears inbetween. Because it is necessary to drive more slowly and cautiously, it allows me to slow down in other ways as well. I rarely turn the radio on. Instead, I just enjoy the journey and with each passing mile, I feel myself relax.

So here's a question: how would you like this make this journey on a bicycle? Every June, bikers attempt the Climb to Kaiser, which is a 155-mile round trip that starts in Clovis, and ends at the top of Kaiser Pass, 9,200 feet elevation. It has been described as one of the toughtest rides in the United States, tougher even than any of the stages of the Tour de France. That 3.5 miles from Big Creek to Huntington Lake has an average grade of 10%, with some sections as steep as 20%. When we came down (very cautiously) from Lakeview yesterday, we passed over 100 bikers going up this road. Does this look like fun to you??

To  totally change gears (because I simply couldn't resist that one...), Amy from Diary of a Quilter  has recently returned from a trip to New York City and has started posting about some of the things she saw and places she went. As a quilter, of course the fabric destrict was high on her list. A few years ago, Mark and I went on an East Coast cruise and spent a couple of days in NYC.

We went on a walking tour of the garment district.

We did some shopping at Mood, where the Project Runway contestants get a lot of their supplies. Amy mentioned the high prices, which made me remember the most pricey thing I purchased in the garment district. I was looking for quilting cotton and didn't find a lot of that, although I was able to find a few pieces that I really liked. Our guide had cautioned us not to even ask about fat quarters because (a) the sales clerks probably wouldn't have a clue what we were talking about and (b) they usually didn't sell under yard-long cuts anyway. As I was walking around the store, I found the softest fake fur in a beautiful limey green color and when you ran your hand over it, it had turquoise undertones.

The problem: it was $75 a yard! I got the courage to ask the sales clerk if they ever did half-yard cuts and she said not usually, but in this case they could agree to sell me half a yard. It was 54" wide, but still, $37.50? And really. What do you do with a half yard of nearly-neon green fake fur?? I brought it home. And here is the answer to that question:

Worth every single penny.

Peeping Castles

A little girl had been born to one of my father in law's dearest friend's son. I ordered my fabric from overseas and within the week the fabric had arrived. With very little time before the party to introduce the baby to everyone I decided to just sew simple strips of colours into a cot quilt.

Thank you to Michele of Betwixt the Betweens!!!

I came home today from a friend's home with my son--so nice to be on vacation; stopped to pick up the mail and there was a package for me!  It came from Michele of Betwixt the Betweens blog!  She had a giveaway not too long ago, and I won  five fat quarters!  Yes, I love fabric--now who doesn't, that is such a silly statement on a quilter's blog, but I just had to say it anyway--just in case anyone might be wondering!  Well, back on track--here is the size of the package--now I know there is more in there than just fat quarters!

So I open the mailing pouch and take out not one, not two, but three cute wrapped packages with a lovely note!

I am pretty sure that the package in the center, down front, is fabric--it is soft and squishy!  But the two in the back--well, hard and rectangle!  Just look at the wrapping, presentation is everything and this is fantastic--the attention to detail with the gorgeous ribbon bow is just too much, Michele you are beyond words (and that is something for me)!  Now are you ready for what is inside?  Just take a look--beautiful fabric, adorable recipe cards (ok, who told Michelle that I LOVE birds and need recipe cards) and of course chocolate!  Now mind you, not just any chocolate, but Ghirardelli Dark Raspberry chocolate!  I love chocolate, what quilter doesn't, but I absolutely love Ghirardelli's!  I will buy at my local Costco's Ghirardelli's brownie mix and it is the best ever--my family will tell you that and so will my FBLA and FFA students--(yes, I do make brownies for my competing teams; it is a proven fact that teenagers learn better with Ghirardelli's brownies!)

Well, with all that shown, thank you, thank you Michele!  You are too kind and too generous!  I am very fortunate!  Michele has the cutest named blog, link on the name above and check it out--it is truly great! 
Until tomorrow, happy quilting!

The "Mo-tivator"

How about this!  Three projects finished this week.  My friend Mo arrived from Florida for the summer and once he had made his tour around my place changing lightbulbs and stopping dripping taps, etc. he got down to the "jobs"!  First on the list was my holiday block that needed to be framed.  This CQ block represents my three-part vacation last fall beginning in Breckenridge, Colorado, on to New Orleans and finishing up in Florida.  While he was working on that I got on with the tea cosy which I had stalled on when it came to lining and finishing.  The other is a beaded velvet camera pouch for my friend Jan who recently was visiting from Victoria, BC.  It is very satisfying to have these items crossed off the to do list 

Weekend Wrap

Last weekend, Mark and I went our separate ways. I went to a cabin near Yosemite National Park for nonstop quilting with three of my friends. It's always an adventure getting all our supplies and food from the car to the cabin. See the car up there on the road? It's quite a trek down to the entrance of the cabin. The first year, we chose a weekend in March and it had snowed. So....our trek involved carrying all our stuff in knee-deep snow, in the dark on a Friday night. We switched to a different month after that...

The first thing I worked on was finishing my Road to Spring quilt-along. I rarely actually "quilt along" with everyone else. I always intend to; I'm not quite sure where the system breaks down (I just had to photograph it with the Better Homes and Gardens because the colors were too perfect...)

Then I finished Baby Geniuses Grow Up. I hardly ever complete a quilt top using a single line of fabric, but I made an exception in this case. It is going to a blogging friend who works with stuff like DNA and this line had some fabrics that were actually based on DNA chains. And she just had a baby...who I am quite sure is a genius...

Next up: another quilt-along. I love the Oz line by Sanae and added a few others from my stash.

The white fabric really gives some breathing space to this quilt top.

We only have two meals each day. Don't worry. We don't starve. Because this is what our midday snack looks like. (In case you are wondering, the swirly thing is a marinated mozzarella cheese rope--yummy!)

And we always always have lemon pie in a meringue crust. Dotty forgot to pack it this year, but did we say, "Oh well...we have enough other things to eat"? No way! We stopped by her house again to pick up that delicious pie.

(Ruth, Dotty and Maggie)

We usually have party favors. Ruth picked up these great scratch pads for each of us. Can you zoom in on that top left corner of the right pad? You can read what it says, right? No? "made with real poo." Really?

Uh, yeah...I plan on getting some of these for stocking stuffers at Christmas....

There is a spiral staircase from the main floor of the cabin to the sleeping quarters down below. So during the weekend, as we finish our projects, we hang them on the railing. By the end of the weekend, it is just a collage of color.

And what was Mark off doing? He was in Pebble Beach, in Carmel, California, at Round 2 of the U.S. Open with Aaron, Christa's father  Ron, and her brother Sheldon. Sheldon was able to score some free tickets as well as all-access passes.They had a great day there.

And Aaron and Mark had their picture taken with the winner's trophy.

This weekend I'm at Lakeview Cottages for a couple of days. I brought Denyse along for company. Well, her Hope Valley fabric and a pattern.

The view from my cabin window...

Hope your weekend is relaxing. I'm off to sew.
P.S. My signal strength is really low up here and I can't pull up the  links, but the Road to Spring quiltalong with was Randi at "I Have to Say" and the hexagon quiltalong was with Julie at Jaybird Quilts.