Think Christmas!

Hello...or should I say HO, HO, HO! It's time for Think Christmas! I'm ready to show you what I've been working on and I'm excited that you're here. This has been alot of fun and I've enjoyed getting things ready to show you. I love Christmas, so I decided to participate in the hop. I enjoyed the last Red, White and Blue Hop through Madame Sam but I didn't participate. I just enjoyed. I saw alot of blocks I want to make and those will be forthcoming. This hop is red, white and green and focuses on all things Christmas, my favorite holiday. I am not the only one showing blocks off today, there are several others and at the end of this post, you will see a list of the other bloggers participating. Of course, you can hop on over to Madame Sam's blog and she will be posting all of them to Pinterest so you can see them all over there. But, to see the tutorials and participate in the drawings, I think you need to go to them individually and leave your comments. I will be having a drawing and I welcome your comments. Thank you, Madame Samm for being our cheerleader and for Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter for hosting this and motivating us and keeping us in line along the way. I'm glad you have come to my blog and I hope you enjoy seeing what I've done. Ok, I've rambled enough, now I'll show you what you've come to see...enjoy the hop!

Here's my Christmas corner!

I finished this Santa wallhanging for this blog hop. It's been a UFO since 2003...at least that's the date on the handout that I had!  I should be ashamed, right?  Well, I am kinda.  I'm so excited it's finished and I  love it and wish I had finished it a long time ago but my grandkids will love seeing it this Chrismas!

I love the little hangers that you can display your blocks with.  I fell in love with those after seeing all the previous hops, so I went out and bought me two of them...I love them.  I was going to have another block to display with Santa but I didn't plan well enough, I ran out of time....
So, here's my Santa Face block.  I got this block from Marcia Hohn's amazing site, The Quilter's Cache. Click here for the instructions to the Santa Face block. I used her pattern and loved it.  I made a few modifications to it to make it easier for me and I'll show you those in my little tutorial...

If you'll look close to the right under the tree, I have a present for you.  I'll show you a close up further down. 

Pick your fabric and print your pattern

I picked two different white on white colors. One for his hair and one for the cap cuff.

This pattern is easy and once you print it out, you can follow along.  Due to copyright issues, I cannot put it on here but you can follow the link above to print it out.  I'm not going to show you all of the steps because they are so basic. I'm going to show you the steps I took that helped me with this pattern. 

The biggest problem I had with this pattern was the cuff of the hat, the hat itself and the background.  Her instructions are on page 2.  I cut the 3 7/8" squares as indicated. Her instructions said to take one of the Color 4 triangles (white cuff) and measue it up one right angle side from the bottom and mark at the 2" line. I did that.  Then take one of the color 2 (red) triangle, lay it facing in the same direction, measure this one from the top and cut off 2". Sew the red top on the white bottom. This is the piece you may have to finagle a bit.  Her words not mine...I never could get this part to work so this is what I did....

I took a white triangle and measured up 2" from the bottom and cut it off. I took a red square of fabric with a straight edge and sewed it to where my cut off piece was.  I did this for both sides. 

Then I laid my background triangle on the red and white piece I just made and used it to cut my triangle to match....(This was a 3 7/8" square cut on the diagonal.)

Yeah, I know you should get accurate measurements and use the ruler and give you a certain measurement to go by, but this is what works for me....

I pressed toward the blue background and attached to the each side.

That is the hardest piece in this block.  By doing this, mine matched up perfectly. 

The next thing I did was make his mustache. I didn't want to just use Steam A Seam or Wonder Under, I wanted his mustache to have some dimension. So, I drew a mustache like I wanted.

I put two pieces of white fabric together, right sides together and sewed all the way around.

I took off the paper, then made a small cross slit  (don't make it too big) in the back of one. 

I used a bodkin and straw to turn it out. I found this tip out from Eleanor Burns years ago when I took a class from her on her dimensional applique.

It's hard to tell what I'm doing but you insert the straw into the slit of your fabric, put your bodkin in the fabric on the outside and push into the straw.  It will help you turn your fabric inside out easier.  

Do both ends of the mustache and straighten out the curves and press it.  Then get some left over batting and cut it the same shape as your mustache and use your forceps to insert the batting into the slit.

Work with it a little bit to straighten the batting out.  There is no need to sew the slit up as it will be on the back. 

Then, I decided to do a yo yo for the nose. Use your large yo yo maker or just make a yo yo or use a large button for the nose. I put a little bit of stuffing in his nose to give it a little more dimesion.

I closed up the nose and sewed both the nose and mustache on at the same time.  Then, I sewed my buttons on. I put my backing and batting on and quilted it.  If I make this block again, I will quilt it first, then sew on my buttons, nose and mustache.  I was in a hurry and thought this would save time.

Anyway, here's the Santa Face block and I hope you like it and make one for your little ones to enjoy...

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I hope you could follow this little tutorial and make one.  I am having a drawing so please leave me a comment to be entered in the drawing. 

I'm giving away 6 Christmas fat quarters and a wonderful Christmas book from Janet Kime.  This book is for all you dog and cat lovers and is a great book.  The drawing is open until August 5th.

Now, as I said earlier, there are several other bloggers showing blocks today too, and here is a list for you to visit them too.  I hope you enjoy the Think Christmas blog hop and come back and see me soon.  Merry Christmas!

July 30

Cotton Addiction

Vroomans Quilts

Kris Loves Fabric

Moosestash Quilting

Paws for Stitching

Threading My Needles

Just Let Me Quilt

Doodling in my Mind

Quilt Doodle Designs

Show Some Love Blog Hop Winner!

Hello, everyone, I'm sorry, I forgot to announce my winner yesterday for my tablerunner kit.  I got so busy looking at all the blogs and sewing, I just didn't remember.  I hope you enjoyed the blog hop, I know I did.  I guess I didn't win anything because no one has emailed me, darn!  You know what that means, I have to buy all the items I saw that I lusted after!!!!  Oh my, there will be a dent in the old checking account next week from my quilting purchases.  LOL, I sure enjoyed  the hop and I can't wait to make the projects I saw.  I hope you found some inspiration and learned some things along the way too!  Ok, for my lucky winner, of the kit I created for the tablerunner, Lee Ann L of the blog, Unfocused!  Lee Ann, if you'll send me your snail mail address, I'll stick your kit in the mail to you.  Thank you to all for entering and I hope you come back to see me soon.  til next time, happy sewing!  Linda

And now for a winner!

Yes, it's December 1st and time to give away this wonderful book by Jennifer Chiaverini!!!   I used the Random number widget to pick my number but I don't know how to get it to display on this post.  (It's on the bottom of my blog)  I'll figure it out eventually but don't have time to mess with it right now....Mr Random picked number 16 which ended up being Jackie from It's a Wonderful Life. Her blogsite is this:  http://quiltytreasures.blogspot.com/... Jackie is a local girl and a Longarm quilter too. I won't even have to put it in the mail to her.  (This gives me a chance/excuse to go over to her house and see what she has on the quilting frame!) Congratulations, Jackie!      For all the others that didn't win, thanks for participating.  I will be having a few more drawings this month of various things, mostly books but maybe some gadgets, patterns, or who knows what?!   So, please come back and visit me again and enter the December drawings.  Merry Christmas!

Busy, busy, busy...Quilt sales and a surprise!

Ok, I haven't posted in awhile and it's not because I haven't done anything.  I have been hard at it...I just haven't done anything pretty...I've been getting quilt backings together and batting gathered up for my projects.

  I have finished  the last two rows on my Row By Row quilt but I didn't take a picture. I finished those yesterday.  I'll take a pic tonight and show you...This has turned out to be really cute and I have enjoyed doing this little quilt.  We will get the final border instructions at our quilt meeting this Thursday.

I have put together 10 backings for quilts.  The quilt tops, batting and backing are all ready to be quilted.  I didn't even have to go shopping for this. I got all of this together out of my stash!  I will be starting to quilt these this week. I still have several ready and am still pulling fabric out of my stash for the backs.  I will have to buy batting as I don't have that much batting on hand.  I hope to show you some finished quilts soon. 

In the past two weeks, I have been very fortunate to go to two different quilting sales.  One was sponsored by my Quilt guild and the other was with a friend.  The one sponsored by the guild was for a man that his wife died earlier this year.  He contacted our guild and asked if we could help him with the disposal of her quilting supplies.
 I think she won!  She had a very extensive stash.  She had all different kinds of fabric not just quilting fabric and she was a knitter too. She even had double knit fabric.  One of our members took this and will be using this for backings to small quilts for nursing homes.  Our guild had a sale and sold most of her stash.  It was open to the guild first for two days and then open to the public.  All  of the proceeds were given to the husband and the leftover fabric was kept by the guild to make community service projects.  The husband was very grateful that we could help him out this way.
I got a pretty good amount of fabric. I bought this fabric and intend to do community service quilts with it too.  Nice fabric at reasonable prices. 
I also went over to my friend's house. Her sister (Louise) was also my friend.  Louise died earlier this year.  She lived with Sandy and her husband for the last seven years. She had a stroke and was bed-ridden.

  She was a prolific sewer.  She mostly did community service projects. She was our Community service person for years in our sewing group.  We made quilts for kids, hats for premies, all kinds of things for hospitals and shelters.  Louise was a knitter, crocheter and crafter.  I met her and her sister  about 25 years ago in a sewing class...She and I had the same taste.  Sandy is a sewer but not a quilter.  She had a crafter's garage sale and I bought a car load (my back seat was full and so was my trunk) of books.  Quilt, embroidery, sewing, crochet, knitting...all kinds of books. I have been going through and looking and enjoying these books.  Now, you know as well as I do, the more you have the more organized you have to be, (that is if you want to be able to find anything), so I have been moving my sewing room around again and making room for all the new to me stuff I bought.  I have several friends and a niece that are taking up quilting so I am getting some stuff together to give to them. I'll be donating some stuff to the guild too.  It has been alot of trouble but has been alot of fun too. Sandy gave me a few unfinished projects too.  More to add to my list of things to do but I'll be thinking of my friend while I'm doing these. I know she would like to know that her work is being finished.. I might have a few giveaways too from some of this too.   That brings me to another subject. 
 A giveaway....I love to have giveaways.  I'll be having a very special giveaway soon.
A new book is coming out by one of my favorite authors....Come back and see my post tomorrow....you will get a preview too of the giveaway!!!  Until then, stay tuned for the surprise!!!!

My winners....

Thanks for entering and celebrating my milestone. Here are the lucky ladies from my giveaway.  Please send me your addresses and I will forward your prizes to you.

  Here's Kelli's prize:

A great book, washable quilt markers, a new Frixion marker (removes with ironing) and  a little red value finder.

Here's Winona's prize:

A great book (one of my favorites), quilt markers (these have to be washed out), the new Frixion pen (iron this one out) and some Thimble Its to protect her fingers.

Have a great weekend and I hope you get lots of sewing done.

Friday night sewing with friends, Pick 4 Giveaway, My Giveaway and weekend sewing coming up!

Last night, I went over to the church and sewed and hung out with my friends. I took along my OBW to work on and got alot farther along on sewing all the blocks.  I think I might have twenty blocks left to sew now.  I'll be ready for next weekend by this afternoon, I hope.... It was fun to see all my friends and see what they were working on.  I try to take something with me that's easy to sew or work on because I just can't concentrate and have fun visiting at the same time.  These OBW blocks were just the trick....I'll lay this out on my design wall later for you to have a sneak peek but I won't be putting these together until next weekend when we all get together and play with the layout of the blocks... 

Yesterday was also the last day of the Pick tour but you still have time to enter the giveaways on some of the blogs participating in this book review/drawing.  Go here (Sue's blog) and you will see a list of all the blogs you can still enter...So far, I haven't won any of the drawings but I've still got my fingers crossed.  Believe me, it's been really hard to do things with them crossed too!   Anyway, hurry over to the other blogs and comment or follow them to win this great book.  Good luck to you....

Before you go though,  comment on my blog a few posts back,( here's a  link to get you there quicker)  I'm having a drawing for my followers. Today is the last day to sign up.  I was going to show you what you would win but everyone seems to like a surprise so I'll just keep that to myself until the drawing.  I'll show you what you win before I package it up and mail it off.  Now, go comment on my blog to win some surprises. Be sure and let me know where you live, I'm just interested to see where everybody is from, no big deal...just curious.

I don't have the grandbaby today but my DH is off today. We are going to go do a little shopping then I'll be back to work on several items this afternoon.  I want to finish my OBW blocks, I have some naked snowmen to dress (very sexy, I'll show you those later too!) and I have a very cute stuffed doll to make for two wonderful granddaughters.  Beth over at Love Laugh Quilt posted a tutorial of a rag doll she made that I just can't resist making. She just keeps calling my name.  I saw her yesterday and dreamed about her last night.  Since little Carmen isn't with me today, I'll have time to go to my sewing room and pick some cute fabrics for her a sweet dolly.  I can't make just one as I have two sweet granddaughters.  Alayna is six , so her dolly will need to be a little bit more sophisticated, I'll have to really work on hers.  And, I love dolls too, so I'll be making a third one for me!  Oh well, I'm just a big kid at heart.  I have big plans for today so I have to get busy, have a good day sewing and being with family. Come back and see what I've done later and I'll be drawing tomorrow morning for my winner so stay tuned for that.   Happy Labor Day!

I won The American Patchwork book drawing. Pick 4 and enter my 200+ Drawing!

I'm so excited. Pauline from Meemaw loves to Quilt emailed me and told me I won her drawing!  Woo hoo, what a way to start the day!  I posted about this earlier in the week and am so excited about it.  Thanks, Pauline! 


Don't forget the Pick 4 drawing, this is Day 9. You have today and tomorrow to get in on the drawings...Go check out Trudie over at Happy Daize for today's review. 

And, don't forget, I'm having a drawing for my followers too.  In my previous post on August 30th, (2 posts away) go leave me a comment that you want in on the drawing to celebrate my 200+ Followers and tell me where you are from.  It's that easy.  I'll take entries until Saturday and Sunday, I'll pull a winner.  Come back Friday, and you'll see what you will be winning! Good luck and go comment, please.

Pick 4 Giveaway and my giveaway.

Hello, today is another great day to go and visit another great blog and register for Sue's book giveaway.  Today, Paulette over at Sweet P Quilting is reviewing the book.  Everything I have seen out of the book looks great.  Paulette is showing a cute table topper quilt she made from Sue's book.  Here's a link for you to go look at it and leave her a comment so you will be in on her drawing.  She's giving away one of Sue's autographed books too.   I have had so much fun this week looking at all the blogs telling about this book.  I think every book published should do this...The authors can advertise their books this way and we get sneak peeks at the book to wet our appetites..  I want to win a book but I plan on purchasing one if I don't win.  Go on over and look at Sweet P's blog and comment. She's a hand quilter and does some lovely work.

Before you go, please enter my (right now it's a surprise but won't be for long) drawing. I'm having a giveaway too.  Yesterday, I reachedd my 200th follower and I was thrilled.  I've been at the 190's for awhile now but Kelli signed up to be #200.  She will win a prize as well as some lucky follower too.  So, go to my post from yesterday (08-30-2011) and leave a comment to enter my drawing. I'm closing the drawing on Saturday, Sept  3rd and I'll announce the winner on Sunday afternoon....I'll show you what I'll be giving away by Friday.  So far, everybody seems excited about a surprise but I know they won't mind me showing what they'll be getting too....so, leave me a comment on yesterday's post and be a follower to enter, also, tell me where you're from...that's it.  Have fun.

I'm having a giveaway to celebrate my 200th follower!!!

Ok, I've told you all week (I know it's just Tuesday, but it feels longer than that!) about giveaways.  Well, I just had my 200th follower sign up,  and I'm going to send her a surprise for doing that but I'm also going to have a giveaway to my faithful followers too.  I haven't decided yet what the surprise will be but I know it will at least be a book and maybe some other goodies too. As soon as I decide what it will be, I'll post it and show you...I'm going to start today to take entries and I will close the deadline out on Saturday night, Sept. 3rd.  Please leave a comment on this post and tell me you are interested in winning a surprise.  I'm not going to make you do anything special, but this drawing is only open to my followers. When you comment, just tell me where you're from. No particular reason, I just wonder where everybody lives.  Ok?  So, have fun and sign up to win a prize!

Book Giveaways!

Hey, I just love blogland!  I have been hopping around looking at all the blogs posting about the new book called Pick 4 by Sue Abry. I love the way Sue tells about where the bloggers are from. I have had so much fun reading her blog entry then hopping over to the blogger reviewing her book for the day.  It's been fun and educational too.  Today's blogger is Lynn over at Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting Blog.  Here's a quick link to go over and visit her and leave a comment.  She's having fun with a Beatles theme to her review and I loved it.  I'm a big Beatles fan and this was really fun!  Go check her out and leave a comment to be in on her drawing for Sue's new book....

Another giveaway I just found out about is on Meemaw's blog. She's giving away this great book:

Here's a link to her blog. Her drawing happens tomorrow so hurry on over there and enter....(Please tell her I sent you.)  Happy sewing and hopping!

Pick 4 Blog Hop with Bejeweled Quilts

I got up early and couldn't wait...I just had to see what Barb over at Bejeweled Quilts had to say about Sue's new book.  I love Barb. She always has something fun and different on her blog. She made the cutest quilt out of Sue's new book. Go look and see what Barb has to say and leave a comment to be entered in the drawing for the book. Have fun and happy sewing!

Pick 4 Blog Hop-Day 2 and the Accuquilt Camp Quilt Along

Here's two chances to win great prizes, go check 'em out and enter to win....

Ok guys, it's day 2 of the Pick 4 blog Hop and Quilt Hollow is showing off her lovely quilt made out of Sue's book.  Go check it out and comment to enter for a chance to win her new book. She's signing these for you too...I hope I win but if I don't, I'm planning to buy this new book. The more I see, the more I like and I think it will be a great addition to my quilting library.    You will have 7 or 8 more chances to enter and you can visit (maybe a new to you) a different blog each day. I'm enjoying looking around the blogs to see what they are working on.  I've even learned some state history about North Carolina I didn't know. 

I have an Accuquilt Go Cutter and absolutely love it.  I haven't used it as much as I would like as I've had other obligations lately.  But, I wanted to let you know that Accuquilt, Fabric.com and Fons and Porter have all teamed up for a wonderful giveaway.  It's called  Accuquilt Camp Quilt Along and it's over on Facebook.  If you go to Facebook and Like each one of these, you will get clues to enter the contest.  They are giving away some great prizes and the deadline is coming up quickly.  I think it's August 30th...here's a link to the page for you.  Once you are on the page, click on each little name and it will take you to their site and you can Like them, and get a code to enter....very easy.  Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/accuquilt?sk=app_10467688569...  Good luck! 

Pick 4 Blog Hop and the chance to win a great book!

Pick 4 Blog Hop started today....A new book by Sue Abry, aka: Quilt Sue, and is being reviewed by several different bloggers with a chance to win a copy of the new book.  Go meet some of these great bloggers and see what they have to say and what they are working on....

Today is Hazel's turn over at Hazel's Quilts. She's a new quilter. Go on over and say hello, leave a  comment and you'll be entered in her drawing for a chance to win this new book....Every day there will be another review with another chance to win.  It will be interesting to see what other quilters have to say and what they are working on.

To see who is on this blog hop and will be posting about this book, you can visit Quilt Sue's blog and she will guide you to the next blogger....Here's a link....Quilt Sue. 

Button, button, whose got the button? Barb does, that's who.

Ok, I'm a little late in getting this posted.  So sorry, I've been distracted lately with the new baby to get ready for....

Barb, over at Bejeweled quilts has some of the sweetest birdie buttons to give away.  Ten lucky people will be the winners of these but you have to hurry as today is the last day to enter.  Click here and it will take you to her blog to enter.  But please, go over to the website that gave these to her and visit them too.  This is to help empower other women, so, please take a moment and check them out.

Elizabeth is celebrating her birthday with some giveaways!

Look at this cute snippets bag and pincushion. If you want the chance to win this, hop on over and tell Elizabeth at  Such a Sew and Sew Happy Birthday and you could win this or some other cute little something she has.  You see she's having a whole week of  giveaways to celebrate her birthday.  I'm a pin cushion collector and this is my favorite but she's got alot of cute stuff over there.  Hop on over and tell her I sent you, please! Click here and it will take you to her blog to sign up...Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

A Great Giveaway...A Subscription to Fons and Porter's magazine

(Click on her name and it will take you to the post to sign up for her giveaway-couldn't be easier than that, huh?)

Quilt Frenzy is having a wonderful giveaway.  Hurry, go sign up, she's giving away a one year subscription to  Love of Quilting magazine by Fons and Porter!!! How neat is that?!  You have to hurry, the giveaway is this Friday, so rush on over and sign up.  Good luck and happy holidays!

Milestones....and a giveaway.

I was reading Peg's blog over at Pieces on My Mind and she was talking about milestones.  So, I thought I would share a big one for me....today, is my 5th anniversary of being cancer free!  Yes, I am a breast cancer survivor and 5 years ago today, I was in surgery...I am thankful that I am alive today.

If you will take just a moment and click on the pink cancer button on the side, it will give someone a free mammogram. Merry Christmas!


P.S. Peg is also having a giveaway to celebrate.  Use the link to hop on over to her blog and congratulate her on her milestones.

A Go Giveaway over at Alderwood Quilts

I had a great time with the Fall Into Fall Giveaways and I don't want the giveaways to stop.  So, go check out  Alderwood Quilts and sign up for a chance to win a GO Cutter....

She's cutting out a Double Wedding Ring and she's attempting to have it finished in a month!  Go follow her and see if she can get this done.  Let's all see how quickly these Go Cutters can work. Ok, Sue, I'm watching and wondering if you can really do this in a month. That's alot of cutting and sewing!  Good luck, girl and I wish all of you good luck in her drawing...

Winners for my drawings in the Fall Into Fall Giveaway!

I had alot of responses to my giveaway and I just want to say thank you. I wish all of you could have won.  This has been so much fun to read all of your entries and I tried really hard to say hi to everyone but if I missed responding, please forgive me. Please know that you were still entered into the giveaway.   I hope you had as much fun entering all the giveaways and looking at all the great blogs as I did.  I have alot of new to me blogs to go back and visit and I don't know when I'm going to get in my sewing time!!!  My giveaway is now closed and the lucky winners have been randomly drawn using the random generator widget. 

If you didn't win in this one, please come back and see me soon.  I will be having another drawing before Thanksgiving and that's just around the corner.  So, without further ado, here are the winners: 

Item 1 goes to  Quiltingnana of Creative Urges

Item 2 goes to Kathleen of Churchville Lane

Item 3 goes to Apple Blossom of Scraps of Life

Congratulations....I will be sending you an e-mail. Please contact me and give me your addresses so I can get your prizes in the mail to you!

What a weekend!

I have not been able to pull myself away from the computer this weekend, thanks to the Fall Into Fall Giveaway!  It has been alot of fun going through everyone's blog to see what their giveaways have been but that is all I did.  No sewing, no cleaning, nothing..nada, zip, zero.  My eyeballs are bloodshot today because they say once you start looking and concentrating on the computer screen, you forget to blink.  I believe that!  I had to add eye drops this morning to soothe my poor, tired, red eyes.  It has been so much fun going through the blogs, I'd do it all again.  Well, actually, I will be doing it more because I haven't gone through all of them yet.  I have really enjoyed this though and I have seen some pretty fantastic giveaway prizes and some pretty incredible things going on all across the country.  This is so much fun!!!  I hope everyone is enjoying it as much as I am.  Good luck to everyone and I'm off to look at more blogs now.  Only a few minutes to do this during my lunch break.  Til next time, keep on looking at those blogs and entering the giveaways!  Click here and it will take you to my post to sign up for my giveaway.... Fall Into Fall Giveaway
Happy Fall!