Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Out of Space?

Full...yep, blogger is telling me I'm at or exceeded my limit again.  Time to print the blogs and delete the old post.  I've got the other blog at the printer and scheduled for blog book delivery on December 18th.  I've done this before and LOVED it so it's a no brainer to do it again.  But for this blog I want to take a little more time composing the book before it goes into the 'print' mode. 
 
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
 
Thanks for checking on me,
hugs,
joanne
 
love to hear what you've got to say.......
 
 

Monday, November 12, 2012

Winners!! And if you really want to sell a quilter....

Before I get into my coin purses, I want to tell you a funny...while at my last quilting retreat we had the local shop owner come in and give a demo on something new.   I have NO IDEA what it was I didn't want to get within 125 foot of that table.  I've already got too many things going on (hahaha-like coin purses!!) another gal and I sat at our table and chuckled about the phrase we kept hearing over and over again.....
 
"it can be finished in less than an hour, honest..."
 
YEP!!  that's the phrase!!  You want to sell something to a quilter all you have to do is keep repeating that phrase.  My partner in crime and I decided that sure you can make anything in an hour after you've made 500 of them!!
 
Here's my coin purses...




Here's some things that I figured out....


Sometimes the pattern does not fit the frame, see the gap in the upper right hand corner? Now you can make it fit, but really shouldn't we have thought about this first?  So it does matter what is going into the frame if you want a nice fit.
 

I really did like this one best, the size is just perfect, but it too had it's flaws....
 

 
 
The sides were cut too deep and hand stitching was necessary to close up the holes in the sides.
 

Yes, attaching the fabric to the frame with a basting stitch and beginning in the middle and working your way out I found to work best to center the body on the frame.
 
This morning (since I had nothing better to do) I found this blog on a blog hop and she too made her own pattern but if you look closely it appears she had the same problem I had when I attempted my first crack at making my own pattern...
 
 
 
Thought I was being so smart and not putting the batting in the frame area.....
 
 
Yep, sure looks like it's going to fit....or so I thought!
 
 
Here's the link to the other blog...
 
 
Hahahaha!!  Forgot all about those seam allowances...drat!!  Back to the drawing board.....
 
 
 
Notice the split in my pattern?  That's for the seam allowances I forgot the first time...
 
AND THEN....
 
That darn battery on my camera died....so I stopped.  I wanted to take pictures as I progressed, so you will have to come back and see how I did. 
 
Here's the lucky winners of the 10 frames and fatquarter....
 
Suzan from reluctant quilter
Laura from fabric-ating
Sandie from crazyboutquilts
Martha from averagequilter
Quiltsissy from 15minutesplay
Terry from aquiltingblog
JLVerde from Just Something I Made
Thearica - couldn't locate blog...
And finaly, Pinsandneedle @ quiltingbydawn
 
That's the list of lucky gals, so shoot me your address so I can get busy packing all of these lovely little frames and fatquarters up.  LOVE to see what you all do with them and if you think they are a breeze to make. 
 
OH!!  And don't forget, they can be made in less than an hour...honest...
 
As for me....as soon as that silly battery gets charged again, I'll be back at it.  So check in soon!!
 
Tons and tons of quilts coming soon so look for those also posting in the very near future.
 
Thanks for checking on me,
hugs,
joanne
 
love to hear what you've got to say....

Monday, November 5, 2012

Coin Purse Giveaway!

Here they are.....

 
 Want to win one of those adorable little frames and a fatquarter
to get you going?? 
 
 Kelly has tons of them!!  Here's two styles I got from her, but she has more! Here's a link ... I Have a Notion  so you can see all of the different styles, you really, really should check them out. (hint)

 
I have one just about finished and will post a picture in a later post, but didn't want to delay the giveaway.  I love the size of the coin purse body I found at Craft Couture by T.C. and she has a wonderful step by step tutorial with great pictures at this blog....

 
 
BUT!!   I didn't care for the fitting of the top, you may feel differently.  But when I found Sweet Bee Buzzing's blog and she explains the top, it all comes together!!  Here's a link to that blog...
 
 
Like I said, it all comes together and makes sense!!  Now, I'm here to tell ya, I found the hand stitching is a little tricky. I'm taking the first side out that I did and re-doing it which is why I'm not posting my purse, but promise to do so later.
 
On to how you can win one of these little frames and a fatquarter???
 
1) Comment on this post telling me which frame you would like to have.  I have two.  The Mary Jane go to Kelly's I Have a Notion or the Silver Heart Frame see it at Kelly's.  Also give me the top three choices of fatquarters.
 
2) Leave me a comment telling me which of the frames that Kelly has that you like the best.  You need to hit her store to see the different ones.  I've only got the two, but want to know if you like one that I didn't pick.  Here's the link again to all of the styles....
 
 
3) Just for another chance to win...spread the word.  Write a blog post about this giveaway and I'll toss your name in one more time. 
 
Now for the fine print...I will award the fatquarters and frames in the order drawn. So you may not get your exact choice, but I'll try.  MUST be a follower. I may not have time to reply to all postings, but will LOVE every single one, promise!  I am in no way affiliated or related to the owners of I Have a Notion, just a die hard fan of nice people. Open to US citizens only, sorry.  Fatquarter and frame will be shipped USPS at the end of the giveaway.
 
Giveaway ends....
 
November 11
 
Winners posted on November 12th.
 
Here's a couple more pictures of the fatquarters....
 

 
Let the fun begin...
 
thanks for checking on me,
hugs,
joanne
 
love to hear what you've got to say.......

 
 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Totally Cool!! And a Giveaway Alert

Here's a lazy guy just enjoying the sun in our back yard!!  Managed to snap this picture a couple of weeks ago.  Usually I have about 10 seconds of wildlife viewing before what-ever heads for the woods on either side of the yard.  But on this morning I was bouncing through the house from my quilting room to the laundry room and couldn't figure out what that big pile of stuff was in the lower part of the yard.  Stopped me dead in my tracks when I figured out that it was this guy just lazily hangin' out enjoying the sun.
 
 
I have seen this guy on several occasions and always shared my excitement.  But I don't think the family really believed me... now they have too!!  I've got a picture of it!!  Pretty Cool, 'eh???
 
Now for the giveaway info, I know that's what you'd REALLY like to know. 
 
Well....remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted about how nice
 Island-Batik, SewCalGal, Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio was when I won?  And I also mentioned our wonderful Kelly at I Have A Notion??  In the box from Kelly I had purchased some of those wonderful little Coin Purse Frames.  You can see them all right HERE.  Guarantee these are first class frames and I'm working on a little coin purse using the heart frame.  I LOVE the extra details around the frame, really classes it up!!
 
Well, I bought some of those darling little frames AND Kelly included a few extra since she knew I was going to be hosting a giveaway, because she's just nice like that. Here's the box....
 


I've got to get some more photo's and maybe some fatquarters together before the posting on how to enter.  How's that for a teaser? 
More to come...stay tuned!
 
thanks for checking on me,
hugs,
joanne
 
love to hear what you've got to say................
 

Friday, November 2, 2012

A Small Quilt Show or What I've been doing...

I started this post on Monday and dropped it into my draft file, here it is Friday and I'm just getting back to the computer.  That's pretty much the way I roll these days...ugh.  I'm sure 98% of you can relate.  How does life really get that busy?  So, on with the post...
 
It may have been a couple of weeks since I've posted any photo's so today I'm going to make up for it.  I've got plenty to show and I've been working with some really great quilts.  After posting these I've still got more finished, but not delivered.  Rosie-working on yours, well that was Monday, they are now done.  Karen-done and needing photos and packed, again Monday, photo's done, packed and shipped on Wednesday.  Also shipped Barb's box on Wednesday.  Working on Bonnie and Lisa's quilts, with Sandra and Joyce up next.  Whew...so how about some quilts?
 
Bev, gotta love Bev.  Her quilts are perfect and so wonderful to work with.  This little quilt I believe was a kit from a local quilt shop.  This is the second one that I have had the pleasure to quilt.   
 

Bev's fun little Christmas quilt...

 
Jeannie made this beautiful quilt as a wedding gift and it's headed to Milan! 
Wish I were going with it! 

 
 
This great little quilt was made by a very beautiful young lady Sammy with the help of her Aunt Kitty.  This quilt is going to be loved for many years to come with the batting and the Minky backing it will wrap Sammy on the coldest of nights and keep her snug as a bug.  It was Sammy's first quilt and I love the colors.  Aunt Kitty made all of the quilting arrangements, how sweet is that?
 
 
Back of Sammy's quilt, she went with this fun and funky heart design which is perfect!!
 
 
Next we have Janet's volleyball quilt.  This quilt was made by the volleyball team and will be (probably already has been) raffled off to raise money for the team. 
 
 
Here's a quilt from Bonnie.  Worked it up quick as a wink with a meander stitching.  Currently working on additional quilts for Bonnie so there will be more to come.
 
 
Brandy is next.  I think these are from a while back.  We did an oak leaf with acorn design on this one, perfect for the manly quilt.

 
Brandy also sent this one!  Loved it!!  Used a floral with lots of open space for
the quilting to keep it light and breezy.
 
 
Here's another quilt from Judi.  Love the blues!!
 
 
Mary had me finish these cute little baby quilts for her.  A simple meander s
titch finishes them nicely.
 


 
Here's a couple from Rachel. Look at all of the flying geese on this one...
 

 
New blogger Rosie finishes up the show.  This first one has fabric that she hand stamped with fern leaves add the bubbly batik border and this quilt has so much movement.  It's pretty cool!!  Here's link to Rosie's blog... RMB Needleworks  check her out.  She does amazing crazy quilting too!!
 
 
Talk about a fantastic way to use all of those scraps!!  My boys loved this one...
 
 
You really need to check out the quilting on Rosie's last one.  We decided that circles was the way to go, it was a deep contrast to the quilt design and came out beautiful.

 
Alright, this post is long enough.  Hope you enjoyed the quilts, it is always my pleasure to work with them and sometimes really, really difficult to send them home.  Hope you can take a few minutes and head over to the other blog and see more pictures of these great quilts.  Here's the link....
 
 
 
Have a fun weekend...
thanks for checking on me,
hugs,
joanne
 
love to hear what you've got to say.....