My First 2011 Giveaway

Note: Edited to bump this post to the top. Be sure to enter by Monday night!

Well, two actually. Something for the quilter and something for the cross-stitcher.

First, for the quilter: a new Tuffets Schnibble pattern and a darling 37-fabric charm pack of Mary Engelbreit fabrics (Baskets of Flowers for Moda).

For the stitcher: a gently used Homespun Elegance pattern Home is Where You Hang Your Needlework with a gorgeous 14X17 inch piece of 28-count Kansas City Blend by R&R Reproductions that will work perfectly for the design.

The rules of the road—up to 4 chances to win!

• One entry if you leave a comment on this post. You will automatically be entered in both drawings unless you indicate you are interested in only the quilter or stitcher giveaway.
• One additional entry for becoming a follower (or if you are already a follower). Just add another comment indicating you are a follower.
• Two additional entries when you link to the contest from your blog.
• Deadline for making a comment (and becoming a follower if you aren’t already): Valentine’s Day, Monday Feb. 14th, at 10 pm mountain time
• If you don’t have a blog, please leave your e-mail address so I may contact you directly if you’re the lucky winner

Good luck everyone! It feels good to be a part of the quilting and stitching blogging community again.

P.S. And as far as giveaways go, I’m just about to mail in my Publishers Clearinghouse entry. It says I “may already be a winner”. Who knows? Someone’s going to win. It might as well be me!

(I did add the final sticker to the front of the envelope after I snapped the photo -- so  they'd better not disqualify me!)

A Moda Fabric Designer in the Family

Reminder: 

4 more days for the giveaway. 

Be sure to join in on the fun!

I just learned that one of my cousin’s daughters, Rachel, is a fabric designer for Moda. Her business is “Basic Grey”. (Technically Rachel would be my “first cousin once removed”.)

How could I not know this? After all, I talk with her mom, aunts and grandma -- all quilters! -- every summer at our family reunion. In my defense, I did know that Rachel designed wonderful scrapbooking papers and supplies. I just didn’t know that she is just about to release her eighth fabric collection with Moda.


Being the fabric “collector” that I am, I realized that I have two charm packs fabric from a Basic Grey collection called “Blush” that was released about a year ago. I had also purchased some chocolatey-brown fabric with aqua, pink, yellow and red dots from the “Blush” collection to be the backing for Emrie’s baby quilt (being quilted at last) and have about a half yard left over.

I did a quick online search and picked up a little bit of yardage (on sale) of two more fabrics from the line, the pink one below to use as a background and the brown stylized flowers to use as backing.

So, between the charm packs, leftover backing fabric, and the two new purchases, I will have a great “kit” for a future quilt. I just need to figure out just the right pattern to make good use of these beautiful fabrics. I have loved this collection since I first saw it – just didn’t know that the designer is part of my extended family.

I just checked out Basic Grey’s new fabric collection, called “Max and Whiskers”, being released this month. It’s equally wonderful.

Any suggestions as to the best quilt pattern to use with these luscious "Blush" fabrics?

Stash Reduction Report

I’ve noticed several quilting bloggers keeping track of “stash in, stash out” – that is how much new fabric they acquire vs. how much of existing stash that they use.

So I decided to do the same thing for my fabric stash. Based on January numbers, I’m not doing too well as far as using up stash:

Added to stash in January: 22-1/2 yards
Stash used in January:        5 yards
Net:                                  -17-1/2 yards

Yep, I added a lot of new fabric to the stash in January. But when you consider that I hadn’t purchased any fabric for probably 10 months (other than the two block-of-the-month programs I was part of that have now completed), that really only averaged about 2 yards per month.

I will be updating my “STASH IN/STASH OUT” report every week or so moving forward, so here is February through today, as well as year-to-date numbers.

Added to stash Feb. 1 through Feb. 8: 10 yards (40 fat quarters of Bonnie and Camille’s fabulous new “Bliss” fabrics.

If you haven’t seen this wonderful fabric, here are a few photos. I’m loving the aqua and red, which has become a quilting standard hearkening back to the 30s.

Because I have 5 quilts being quilted, that definitely bumped up the “stash out” numbers. I’m counting quilts that may have been completed in the past, but that I finally got around to getting quilted (as well as their binding and backing fabric). So far I haven’t had to purchase new fabric for the backing – I had either already purchased backing fabric or was able to make do with something I had on hand (or even pieced the backing from leftover fabrics from the quilt).

Stash used Feb. 1 through Feb. 8: 30-3/4 yards (yes, those 5 quilts that are being quilted helped here!)

Year to date:
Stash added: 32-1/2 yards
Stash used:    35-3/4 yards
Net:               3-1/4 yards

Yippee! I’ve used 3-1/4 more yards this year than I’ve purchased. We’ll see how well this trend continues.

PS: don't miss out on the giveaway in the previous post!

Antique Fair: I Was the Winner

At the Heritage Quilters retreat at the end of January, I was lucky to win a door prize in one of Carrie Nelson’s classes. And I couldn’t have been more pleased with the prize: a layer cake of Moda’s Antique Fair fabrics by Blackbird Designs. I love the soft colors of the fabrics. Once they are incorporated into a quilt, it will truly look like a beloved antique from years past.

Photo credit: Blackbird Designs: One Stitch at a Time

As I was blog-hopping over the weekend, I discovered that Barb Adams has published a free pattern using the layer cake pre-cuts. And it’s a basket quilt – so what’s not to love?

Photo credit: Blackbird Designs: One Stitch at a Time

All I need to add are 3 more light prints and 3 more dark prints, plus 1-1/4 yard of the red print for the alternating blocks. So, add this project to the to-do list. I even have yardage of their Rhubarb and Ginger sampler fabric that will be perfect for the backing.

You can find the Blackbird Designs free pattern here.

Enjoy!

Seeing Double

A couple years ago I subscribed to a block-of-the-month from Homestead Hearth of Lori Smith’s Golden Memories Sampler Quilt

Homestead Hearth was doing the BOM in two colorways, and since I couldn’t decide which I preferred and bought both. The first uses Kansas Troubles fabrics; the second uses shirtings and 19th-century reproductions.

Kansas Troubles Fabrics

Reproduction Fabrics

Since the blocks are fairly involved, it has been easier to work on both combinations at the same time. I’m making slow progress, but I’m loving the outcome. There are 32 sampler blocks (or 64 considering the two colorways) – plus 31 pieced alternating blocks and 18 setting blocks per quilt.

So should I keep going at this pace -- working on both quilts at the same time, or aim to finish one before working on the other? Which one do you like the best? I still can't decide which I like better.

Time to finish the munchies I'm taking to my brother's Super Bowl party.

IRS Tax Audit and More

What a week! I was audited by the IRS. My meeting with the auditor and my accountant was on Thursday afternoon, but the auditor spent all day on Friday going through my paperwork etc. Late yesterday my accountant called to say they needed a couple more pieces of documentation, and that after I drop them off on Monday, I most likely will get an additional refund. So the joke’s on the IRS!

Believe it or not, this was my second time being audited – the first time was when I was about 24 years old. The previous year I had worked as a graduate teaching assistant on a study-abroad program to Spain. I taught European humanities to BYU students for six months, received full room and board, plus a small monthly salary. Since I travelled throughout Spain and Europe with the students – teaching about art history and humanities wherever we went, I had deducted all of my travel expenses. I was sure that the IRS was going to disallow those expenses and I would be stuck paying additional taxes. It turned out that I had paid off my car that same year and they were questioning the interest expense deduction I had itemized. I had legitimately made a mistake, ended up paying about $35 in taxes, and that was it. But it probably cost the IRS much, much more in time to do the audit.

On the quilty side of life, I finished sewing up the top of one of the quilts I did at last week’s quilting retreat. This was the “Mystery Schnibble” that Carrie Nelson taught last Saturday morning. I only sewed one row during the class and was surprised at how quickly it sewed up. It may become one of my go-to designs for a quick baby quilt. And like most of the Schnibbles, it is perfect for charm packs – although I used some 10-year-old Debbie Mumm fabric from my stash that I cut into my own charm squares. The quilt uses 80 squares plus several 2-1/2 inch strips of background (plain old white in my case). This may be a baby quilt for one of the babies to be born this spring to two of my nephews.

Some of you may have seen the story about the girls' basketball team that lost a basketball game by more than 100 points (the actual score was 108 to 3).  As it turns out, the losing team is from West Ridge Academy, the boarding-school for at-risk kids where my brother is the executive director. There are only 33 girls at the school, and about a third of them are on the team. Not only have they never played as a team before this school year, most have never even played basketball before. But the girls took the loss in stride -- and now are famous for their great attitudes. Here are links to some articles and videos if you're interested in "the rest of the story".

Fox News story about the game.

Former NBA star Shawn Bradley is on the West Ridge Academy board of directors. He took time out of his busy schedule to do some coaching with the team.

Link to newspaper article following the rematch (which they also lost).

Enjoy!

Quilting Update

It feels so good to be sewing quilts again. I took five classes at the Heritage Quilters and Needlework Association (HQNA) retreat.  I've nearly completed two of the Miss Rosie's quilts -- both were Schnibbles taught by Carrie herself. She was a hoot to take classes from. The projects were simple -- and just what I needed to jumpstart my quilting after a 6+ month hiatus. I'll post photos when I get the borders on them.

After I returned home, even before I began working to finish the class projects, I stitched up the backing for several quilt tops that were already completed. My sister-in-law took two of them to machine quilt on her sister's Gammill, and I dropped off the other three at Cat's Attic Quilting, the long-arm quilter I typically use.

The first quilt is for a nephew and wife's darling daughter Emrie. She turns one in about 6 weeks -- and in fact, I noticed that it was exactly one year ago yesterday that I finished the quilt top. I feel horrible that I never got it quilted, but at least I'll have it ready for her first birthday. This is the link to the original post showing the photo of her quilt.

The next quilt is for my mom -- and like Emrie's quilt, it too was a gift (for Christmas 2009!) I wrapped it up, she opened it, and then I took it home after the Christmas festivities  -- only for it to sit in my sewing room gathering dust. When I showed the quilt to my mom on Sunday before I gave it to my SIL to take to quilt, my mom couldn't even remember that I'd given it to her because she only had it in her possession for such a short time. It's a cozy throw for her (or my dad) to use in their family room during the cold winter months.The colors are perfect for her decor.

The third quilt is my first attempt at a blended quilt. It too is a throw that I'll use in my office (walls are painted red, so it will be a nice match):

The fourth quilt is a folk art applique design by Primitive Pieces by Lynda called "A Tisket, A Tasket". It's one of my all-time favorite quilts. It's been finished for several years -- don't know why it's taken so long for me to have it quilted. I can't wait to see how Catherine quilts it. She does a great job, and does the quilting on Barbara Jones' quilts (Quilt Soup). The backing is a golden plaid flannel.

The final quilt that I dropped off is for my nephew who got married last November. (I'm only behind 3 wedding quilts -- so with this one,  it's one down and two to go.) I hadn't been able to figure out what to do for him, but while I was sorting through the piles in my sewing room, I ran across this quilt top (complete with matching backing). The colors reminded me of khaki fatigues the Army soldiers wear (except perhaps for the pink!) It clicked. This would be Mike and Emily's quilt.

It feels good to be back quilting. I've been on CPAP therapy for two months and I'm starting to feel like my old self with the energy to be creative. Now I just need to dig out my cross stitch projects!

Back From Oblivion

When I started this blog, I wasn’t going to be one of those bloggers who started off with a boom, but then fizzled out. But, unfortunately, I haven’t done a stitch either by hand or by machine for about 6 months. So I haven’t had anything worth blogging about – not to mention that real life got in the way of writing (and reading your wonderful blogs). Thanks to those of you who sent e-mail to make sure everything was okay. I didn’t even have time or energy to properly respond to your e-mails.

I could blame it on my work schedule. More travel than usual. I surpassed the 75,000 mile mark for 2010 and will be Platinum Medallion for 2011 – meaning, hopefully, more upgrades when I travel next year. We also had a major product launch at work that involved using my creative energy on marketing deliverables rather than samplers and quilts.

Perhaps I could blame it on health issues. My energy level had been gradually dropping over the past year or so, and I have now been diagnosed with sleep apnea, on top of low thyroid. The sleep doctor promises that once I get used to sleeping with a CPAP machine at night (tonight will be the first time), that I will feel like a new person. Let’s hope so – because I am tired of being tired all the time.

I have registered for a quilting retreat in January 2011 to kickstart my creative juices. Carrie Nelson, of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. and Schnibbles fame, will be the headlining teacher. I have signed up for three classes by her, one of which is a “mystery schnibble”.  These are two of the three projects from Carrie I have signed up for:

Here’s hoping my creative energy comes back – because I definitely miss my stitching, quilting, and blogging friends.

Stitching Progress

I’ve made some stitching progress on my family history sampler.

I also have nearly finished the final block in honor of John Billington, my notorious Mayflower ancestor. I want to do a bit more tweaking, but the design inspiration has been somewhat lacking. It's the 3rd block in bottom row.

I don’t think I’ll have time to completely finish the first two blocks this week because so many other things are going on – a boatload of work for my full-time job that pushes into my personal time, a baby shower, getting ready for a business trip next week, and a couple days at my brother’s ranch on Friday and Saturday. I’ll hopefully have time to post some photos from the time at the ranch to show the cattle branding and sheep shearing that is planned – not to mention some dutch oven cooking, lots of gardening, and trying out my solar oven.

A note to Linda (aka Dreamquilter): Linda, if you have sent me your snail mail address for the magazine subscription, I haven’t received it yet. Please re-send asap! My e-mail is on my profile page.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring weather. Our weather has been erratic at best – snow in the mountains is predicted for later this week!

Bye for now.

We have a winner!

The odds were pretty good -- a 1 in 3 chance of winning.  Congratulations to Linda -- aka Dreamquilter!   Linda, please e-mail me your mailing address and I'll get the subscription underway.

It's been a hugely busy few weeks, which is why I've been away from blog-land. Our fiscal year begins June 1st, which means all of the planning for the next year is underway (my team works on go-to-market strategies, plus I'm part of our overall strategic planning team ultimately responsible for putting the plan into a format for presenting to the rest of the organization). Plus it seems like I've had commitments nearly every afternoon or evening, which takes away from stitching, quilting and blogging. Not to mention trips to Las Vegas and Philadelphia for work.  Oh, and I'm doing a final copy edit on the family histories my mom has assembled of her ancestors -- about 80 pages of 10-point type! (My weary eyes!)

I was able to finish one stitching project amid the chaos that has become my life. The pics below are the first ones taken with the new camera I received in recognition of my 25 years working in this hectic, computer software business! It'll take a while to figure out all of the bells and whistles.

It's hard to believe that it is  May 1st, especially since it has been getting into the 30s at night and we even had new snow in the valleys over the past couple days.

Once again, congratulations to Linda.

I hope you all have a great weekend, a fabulous May, and can find some creative stitching and quilting time.