tap, tap. . . is this thing on? (new winner picked)

I didn't hear back from the first winner for the pincushion kit giveaway, so I'm picking someone new!

Candy! I'm emailing you right now!  Congrats!!

And while I'm hear I'd love to show you another (late) bee block!  String block for Allyn!  Love it.

Be sure to come back tomorrow Saturday, March 5, for the final stop of the Modern Basics Book Tour!

Kaaaaaate! where are you??

You said you check in regularly - see you even said so in the comments!

Please leave me a comment with your email by tomorrow afternoon or I will have to announce a new winner tomorrow night. 

Another giveaway coming Friday as part of the Modern Basics Blog Tour!

long overdue quilting bee blocks and IS YOUR NAME KATE? (read this)

Actually if your name is Kate and you commented on my giveaway then go read THIS and get back to me, or I'll have to pick a new winner. 

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 These are a couple of blocks I did for mommymae for her month of A Notion or Two (laaaast year).  I'm not even going to tell you when they were due, it's too embarassing.  But know that this is one of the reasons I opted not to join in the fun again this year.  I was terrible with the deadlines!

She asked for drunk love in a log cabin a la Denyse Schmidt and sent some cute orange and turquoise fabric along with the writing paper fabric.  She asked that we embroider a wish for them on the block.

There was a small scrap of this cute Heather Ross alien print and decided to fussy cut two squares to use as centers.

How could I pass up a great Beatles quote (or Moulin Rouge, if you'd rather).

Besides peace = love, right?

and I could NOT fight the ET reference on this one!  Would you have been able to resist? The wish on this being that phoning home is a reminder of where your heart is.

I love the aqua and turquoise together. And I totally enjoyed the embroidery on these. Do you like my former-cursive-teaching-self's handwriting?

Are any of you participating in bees this year?  Where do you find your inspiration for your month?  I love working with others' ideas and fabrics!

pincushion kit winner!

Sorry I'm so lame and forgot to do this earlier in the week!

I really enjoyed reading your comments and hearing about those of you who have made bloggy friends! They are super awesome, that's for sure!

And the lucky winner of the pincushion kit is

Yay Kate!

only one problem - you are a no-reply blogger so I don't have anyway to contact you! Please contact me so I can get your shipping info and color preference! Penny is going to put this together just for you!

Speaking of no-reply bloggers - some of you mentioned you don't have two way communication with the blogs you read/follow. You see, I have (as do most bloggers, I think) all of my comments emailed to me. When I hit reply on the email, if you have an email attached to your profile I can email you right back! If you don't, your email address says no-reply. The best part is you don't have to have a blog to do this. Just a profile!

If you go read THIS POST at Pleasant Home (THANKS JODI!!) you can change your settings so that you have an email attached to your account! It's so easy and makes it really fun to be able to continue a conversation started in the comments section.

Okay! I've got lots of bee blocks to share this week! See you soon!

sew & tell - february 2011

Well hello there!  I'm so happy to be back for a sew & tell today!  I have learned that I shouldn't tell you what I'm planning to post because sometimes it doesn't work out.  I have that bird quilt almost ready - but the biggest problem is that I don't have any good pictures of it!  I was going to take some pictures this morning, but it's wet and rainy outside and the quilt has a lot of white in it.  Need I say more?

I also want to wax poetic about the loveliness of the people who made the blocks for me and all the things I learned on my first real foray into free motion machine quilting.  I know, you can hardly wait!! ;0)

I've been sewing up a storm working on a few projects, including the kitchen swap and some bee blocks.  But I wanted to share this with you today!

I love this bag! If you haven't heard of V. and Co. you need to get over there now! She's got so many ideas in her head it's amazing. Therefore she has a ton of great tutorials and patterns not to mention awesomely funny and entertaining blog posts! I made this bag from her pattern, The Favorite Bag.

It also came with the pattern for this detachable flower.

I've always wanted to make some fabric flowers but have been too intimidated to break out my glue gun.  It wasn't really that bad.  I need to get over my unsubstantiated fear of hot glue and it's little stringy off-spring.

I haven't made a bag for a while - I kind of had bag burnout after last year.  But I think I'm going to be making some more.   And definitely more of these little flowers!  They are on a bar pin so I can take it off and wear it on my favorite cardi!

So what have you all been up to the last month or so?  Link up a finished project below and remember our Sew & Tell linky etiquette:

PLEASE READ THIS POST IF YOU ARE NEW TO LINKING UP!  :)

NEW RULES FOR LINKING UP!  Please read carefully.  The delete monster will be eating non-compliant links.

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button.

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

awesome mail day #3

I got this in the mail from my friend Amy at Amy's Creative Side!! Woohoo!  I consider myself lucky to have received a preview copy!

I will be concluding Amy's book tour in early March.  The tour started yesterday and she'll be sending you to a new blog each day with reviews and a chance to win your own copy.

I'll share more about my impressions when it's my turn, but these quilts are awesome - and approachable!  When I was visiting Utah last January I got to see most of these quilts in progress.  It's fun to see them all finished up and even better to have the instructions on how to make them!  I have my eye on one already...

I realize I posted the pincushion kit giveaway on a Saturday of a long weekend.  So here's a reminder to go to this post and leave a comment for this darling kit!

And then while I was sewing today 2 of my crumbsnatchers were watching a movie. I heard them trying to get a blanket, thinking they were going for the down throw that they always use. When I went into the other room, this is what I saw!

Warmed my heart, for sure. It's still needing a little bit more quilting and a wash. But I plan on sharing it this Friday for sew & tell. Are you ready with a finish?

lucky penny + pincushion kit giveaway

Do you have a lucky penny? I do! And she blogs over at sewtakeahike! If you were around this summer you got to read several of her guest posts as she helped me out when I was birthing and moving. Oh yeah, that sounds way more glamorous than it really was.

She was part of A Notion or Two quilting bee with me last year.

Backtrack. I wanted to tell you one of the things I figured out while I was 'away' was that I need to not over-commit. It's not fair to the people that are constantly waiting for me to make good on my end of the deal. And it's not fair to me not enjoy making something because I of the worries that comes with it - guilt for being late, nervous if they will like it, making things because I HAVE to not because I want to. I'm not saying that I didn't want to be a part of such a fun group, but with my life getting so crazy this last year, I couldn't in good conscience continue with the bee and I dropped out. It was a fun group for 2 years. It turns out a lot of us had run our course and it's practically a new group. And I'm a little bit sad that I'm not still in it, because I recognized a lot of sew & tellers in the new group and how fun would it be to quilt with you!! So I've been playing catch-up on bee blocks the last few weeks and have 5 to show you and one more to make.

Okay, back to Penny! I just got the bee blocks she made for my month. I had wanted to make Rachel's Pinwheel Sampler quilt but couldn't do the quilt along, so I decided to have my group make some of the blocks! And they all turned out so cute!

Penny designed this asterisk block for the pinwheel quilt and I love it!  She is a pro at paper-piecing and this just makes me happy! I know it was made from her heart.  That is one important lesson I've learned from Penny.  If it's truly made from your heart it will be perfect and creative and unique!

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#2

And if that weren't enough she also included a sweet flannel blanket for babylouwho.

She knows how to rock a crochet hook that's for sure!

She's so sweet she also gave me one of her footstool pincushion patterns to giveaway!

Actual kit will mostly likely differ from the photo.  But knowing Penny, it will be equally awesome!

Isn't it adorable?!

Just leave me a comment and tell me about a blogging friend you've made.  I'll leave the giveaway open until, oh, I don't know, Wednesday 22 February?  Remember Sew & Tell will be back next Friday! (24 Feb)

I ♥ all of you, my dear blogging buddies!

*fine print - no compensation was received for doing this giveaway.  Penny's just nice and wanted to share!