I'm a Guest Blogger Over At Stash Manicure (Sew We Quilt)

I have a guest post over at Stash Manicure today talking about string piecing. To celebrate I am having a giveaway over here. I have most (20 charms)of the Giddy Charm pack left from my Birdie mug rug to give away along with my left over scraps from my owl mug rug.


Look at this, Jack is even pressing them nicely (not) for you. My caption for this is, wait for it...


JACK IN A BOX!!

I crack myself up. But seriously, if you don't mind a little cat hair, and you are never fully dressed with out it, then here is what you need to do to go into the drawing.

You will need to be a follower of my blog and also of Stash Manicure and tell me in your comment. You need to leave a comment here and over at Stash Manicure with this information in it. Tell me something you would like to make with my string/scraps or something about the post at Stash. One comment on this blog and one at Stash. One comment per person.
**Please make sure you are not a "NO REPLY" commenter. ** I need some way to contact you if you are the winner. If you come up as no reply and do not leave me an email addy in your comment, I will just re-draw.

I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I will do the drawing on Monday, Valentine's day. Good Luck and thanks for stopping in!!





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I'm So Excited For Tonight

I would like to take a minute to thank everyone that has left me such wonderful comments both here and over at Stash Manicure. You have all made my week so much brighter with your 365 quilt love!! My good friend, PTM pointed out that I did not say when I would be choosing the winner of the layer cake. Since I know that people sometimes get busy and may not have a chance to read the post until the weekend, I will do the drawing on Sunday January 23. Please be sure I can contact you via email or I will have to choose someone else.

Yesterday was the funeral of a friend's mom. I am not a big fan of funerals as I suppose most people are not. I felt good that I could go and support my friend though. I was walking into the church (this was actually at my own church) when the pastoral associate came up to me and told me that my friend wanted me to be the eucharistic minister. YIKES! A big honor to be sure but very nerve wracking for me. I did it and my friend PTM told me I did a good job, WHEW!!

After the funeral I went to the grocery store,UGH. Then off to play in PTM's basement!!! We had lunch first, her famous chicken salad (you should go and ask her for her secret recipe!) I decided that I needed to pay her back for all the amazing binding she has done for me so I made her first three blocks in the layer cake QAL, with the fourth one waiting to be assembled. I need to finish that one and her last 2 tomorrow for the FNSI. I will also be working on the Over the River quilt for LTW. WOW, you would think I didn't have any of my own things that need working on would you? Well, I sure do but I would like to pay back my friends first. PTM and I will work on finishing our mug rugs too, so I guess that is for me. I bought an adorable owl mug and will use the owls on it for my inspiration.

Photo of Mosen laying in my scrap bin!

Tonight is the meeting of the Plymouth Piecemakers and we get to bring our finished basket quilts for judging. I know you have already seen this but for those that haven't this is my entry.

The criteria was that you had to make a quilt with a basket(s) in it. You had to make the entire thing yourself, piece or applique, quilt and bind it. So this is smallish (29" x 29") since I had to quilt and bind it myself. I have no idea why I am so excited, since you only win the right to select the challenge for next years quilt but I am. It is the first time I have done something like this. I was thinking of sending this to a magazine to publish the pattern. Do you think anyone would like to make it?? Well, wish me luck tonight and thanks again for all your kind words. I love reading each and every one of your comments!

I'M ON STASH MANICURE TODAY!! (There's a giveaway involved!!)

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YESSSS I got to do a guest post over on Stash Manicure! Hop on over and see what the buzz is all about. I had the opportunity to share my 365 Day Challenge quilt. It was a daunting task but I am so glad I did it. Lots of fun. I won't spoil it by re-writing about it here, so you must go to Stash Manicure and read it.

I said I had a giveaway now didn't I? OK here's the dealio. It is for a Moda Bella Neutral Basics Layer Cake that is up for grabs, so you will have a great start to your own 365 Day quilt.

This is what you need to do for a chance to win, you must do all of them.
1. Leave a comment on Stash Manicure and tell me you did so.
2. Become a follower of Stash Manicure, and tell me you did that too.
3. Become a follower of my blog.
4. Leave me a comment about my post on Stash Manicure

I do hope you all enjoy the post and I look forward to hearing from all of you soon. XOP

Castle Peeps Quilt Top

First things first. The morning when I was almost to work my DD1 and I saw what looked to be an accident on the corner we drive past. Loads of emergency vehicles and a BIG bus...with someone laying on the ground. Oh no, someone was hit by a bus! I dropped DD1 off at her entrance and went into the lab. A little while later she texted me to tell me that the person that got hit was her friend, Kelly that she works with!!! I found out, just a little while ago, that there were no broken bones and *only* soft tissue trauma, only? SHEESH!!! She was released from the hospital and sent home. So if you think you are having a bad day just be thankful you are not Kelly!! Please keep her in your prayers, she is going to be one sore girly tomorrow!!

Now on to happier things. I told you I would show you my latest quilt top and so here it is:

I am totally in love with this fabric and with this quilt! Isn't it adorable? Before you all go asking me where I got the pattern here you go. It is a free pattern from Lizzy House (the designer of the fabric). It took me almost no time to make this beauty. I am so excited about it.

I went looking for quilting patterns too and found one called Dragon Riders by Meadowlyon Designs. It will be perfect for the 4 large horizontal areas. I still need to decide what to do in the little one. I am thinking of putting the baby's name. That means I have to wait until he is born (you never know if they will change their name choice!) I also found a castle to use for the outer border that has penants on it and everything! I left that one at home so I can't tell you where I found it (and I can't find it again now when I am trying to do that!!) I will put bricks up the actual castle with some vines. I think it will be awesome!! The only part I didn't like about making this quilt was the roof on the castle. I printed out the templates and measured them but they didn't work out quite right. I fiddled around with it and it turned out alright, but if I make another one of these I will have to figure that template out! Or figure out a way around it, LOL!! If anyone reading this has made this and done something different, let me know!

This quilt makes me happy! I am also happy that my DD1's friend will be OK. I plan to go to the funeral home tonight to be there for one of the quilt ladies who lost her mother on Friday. Hopefully it will help lift her spirits, I think that's the best I can aim for under the circumstances, don't you??

I am so very excited for tomorrow!! I will be the featured guest on Stash Manicure!!! I have an awesome post about a 365 day quilt that I made. Don't forget to check it out. There will be a giveaway associated with that post too so stay tuned. You will have to comment there and do something on this blog as well to be eligible to win Trust me when I say you will want to come back and check it out!! Until tomorrow then.
XOP

Well What Do You Know, I Still Have Something To Say

Those of you who know me in real life know I *always* have something to say, LOL. I was somewhere today where it was really quiet and no one was around me and I started thinking about blogging in general. Then I was thinking about my life and how amazing I felt about blogging every day for a month. Why you ask? (or hopefully you asked). Here is my life at the moment, probably not unlike many of your own.

Get up at 5am, drive to work ~ 30 min to arrive around 6:30am. Work all day. Drive home. Go to the gym 4-5 days a week for 30-60 minutes. Come home, shower, dinner, chores, sew if I'm lucky and then blog, read blogs, leave comments and answer comments. Go to bed. Now sometimes I am lucky enough to be able to read blogs, comment and answer comments at my real job but sometimes not.

I LOVE it when people leave comments. Face it we all do. Who doesn't like to know that someone, anyone in this whole wide world finds us and what we do interesting. It affirms us as people, right? So I have a HUGE (and I mean huge) list of blogs that I follow, mostly in Google Reader. Life intrudes and I get behind in my reading, and commenting and answering my own comments. I read and cherish every one of the comments you leave. In fact I am so anxious to hear from you all your comments go to my email which is routed to my phone so I can hear you all the time! I love it. When I get around to reading I always try to leave comments, at least 1 or 2 . Lately I have been trying to catch up. I feel like I am spending a LOT of time reading and not so much time sewing. So I developed a new strategy for this. I will sew when it is light out and blog/read when it is dark out. I don't like to sew in the dark anyway. This is helping me keep my head above water so to speak.

I am planning on taking some photos of my sewing area as it is now and after it is all put away for Christmas, then decorated for Christmas. I'll be super on top of blogs with everything put away right? I hope so. How do you cope with keep up in blogland? As my DD would say, "and the point of the story??" Is that if I don't happen to respond to your comment it isn't because of anything but life getting in the way, OK?

On an entirely different aside, the infamous Madam Samm over at Stash Manicure has invited me to be a guest blogger!! Isn't that exciting?? My post is not until January 19th so you will have to stay tuned. If you haven't done so already, go and check them out. Lots of great tips!
Tell her Mama Spark sent you! And if you have something you would like me to post about leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do!
XOP