Only your friends steal your books lime green thread. –Voltaire A Lime Green Thread Thief
Once upon a time, Mrs. Pyjama's lime green thread was stolen. Although it wasn't a very nice thing to do, the dirty rotten sneak-thief stole it with the most honorable of intentions. She needed it to make a little present for Mrs. P's birthday {clear back in September}. Unfortunately, the thief was unexpectedly detained and the gift didn't get finished until just now. The thief apologizes for the delay and also for not returning the lime green thread because she used it all up. Hopefully, the apron {made especially with Mrs. P in mind and inspired by her awesome Circles Quilt} will make up for some of the loss and trauma the theft of your thread caused.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. –Isaiah 41:10
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. –Helaman 5:12
Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. –John Cotton Dana
I have another finish for January. I used the leftover fabrics from my Pinwheel Sampler to make this scrappy Pink & Brown Abbey Bag. I know. Another one? I’m slightly obsessed with making cute things. You might say I'm into serial sewing. If one is good, then nine is better, right ? This little cutie went to Shay over at Quilting in my Pyjamas. I really love the way these finish up so quickly. The first time I made one, LadyBug remarked, you made that fast. And she was right. You can put one together in an afternoon. It is really fun and rewarding to watch them come together. And they always turn out so cute!
It's a wise husband who will buy his wife such fine china that she won't trust him to wash the dishes. –Unknown
Last spring, I inherited my Grandma's china. I was really excited to have something so special that belonged to her. I received service for eight {minus one cereal bowl} plus an oval serving platter and an oval serving dish. In general, I'm not much of a fan of vintage or antique for me because when I find something I like, I want to have the whole set and not just one piece. Collecting vintage often means that you can only find a few pieces and the missing ones are irreplaceable.
When I got my china set, I poked around eBay a bit and Googled to see what I could find. I came across Replacements, Ltd., whose motto is, We replace the irreplaceable!® I was so excited because they had pieces for my china set which was discontinued about 32 years ago. When I made out my Christmas list, I made sure to include a few pieces that I was keen on getting and guess what? My mom totally came through! She got me a a second oval serving dish and a round serving dish as well. I was really excited about that.
My birthday is three weeks after Christmas. There are pros and cons to that. One of the pros is that if I didn't get everything I wanted for Christmas, I can always ask for it for my birthday. And once again, my mom really made my birthday. She got me the gravy boat I've been coveting from the moment I found out there was one that matched my set. I absolutely love it! She ordered it a week before my birthday and it just got here this week. Obviously they thought the label said slow boat instead of gravy boat because it took three weeks to get here.
It was totally worth the wait. I'm all weak in the knees for this adorable little gravy boat. There are little divots on either end of the bowl to rest the spoon in the rim, and the underplate is attached for ease in transportation. The best part is that it is all shiny and new. I would never guess that it was made in the late 60's {or even the late 70's; the pattern came out in 1962 and was discontinued in 1978. I'd guess my Grandma's set was purchased around 1965, but there is no telling exactly when these 'new' pieces were manufactured}. I haven't put it away yet because it makes me happy to walk by and see it on the kitchen counter. We're having mashed potatoes and gravy on Sunday so we can use it. I'm really excited.
And now I've got my eye on the butter dish and salt and pepper shakers. Too bad Christmas and my next birthday are so far away .
Whatever we worship, short of God, is sure to be our undoing.
–Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960
Today's Bradbury 13 radio drama episode is The Man. It aired ninth in the series and was based on the story of the same name in The Illustrated Man in 1951 and S is for Space in 1966. Of all the episodes, this is the only one with a religious theme to it. The Man is a religious figure without a name, allowing Him to be whomever the reader/listener wants Him to be. As I listened to it again, my mind pondered over my religious beliefs and the way they fit into my life.
The Man They were the first earth men to reach the planet. They had travelled millions of miles through black space and landed in a fury of smoke and flames, but no one in the city noticed. The chances were one in a billion that they'd arrived at this planet, among millions of planets, at this precise moment, but they had. My Rating:
A space expedition from Earth lands on a distant planet and no one finds it even remotely interesting because they've just been visited by a Man. The ship's captain is put out by the non-existent welcome from the people and demands to see the Man or proof of the Man's visit. Frustrated by the lack of solid evidence that the Man has actually been there the captain insists that the people are hiding the Man from him and demands to be taken to him. The mayor tells him to look into the faces of the people and asks if he can see the Man there. The captain replies that he cannot to which the mayor says, Then I'm sorry for you. Religion isn't something that can be quantified or definitively proved. If only he'd searched our faces with his heart. . . It is a feeling in your heart that leads to a knowledge in your mind of things that are true. And sometimes that requires using a little faith.
Why don't you sit with me today? –Edward Cullen, Twilight, page 87
Yeah. I know . It is completely ridiculous to be so be so into a series of books about teenagers — teenage vampires, no less. But I am. If you haven't read the books, you can't judge. And if you have read them and don't like them, well, not everyone has good taste .
In an effort to feed my obsession shortly after first reading the books, I searched the internet for anything Twilight related. Eventually, I found TwilightMOMSTM, where I met lots of other Twilight obsessed people. Those of us who liked to sew and/or quilt kind of banded together and formed a little group. We are each working on our own individual Twilight themed quilts and we've made a few quilts together as a group; we sent one to Stephenie Meyer and the othertwo were auctioned and all the proceeds were donated to charity. We live scattered across the States and we even have a member in Australia. We've been quilting together, coordinating our efforts via e-mail and private messages, for almost two years now. We've become quite good friends. We do a gift exchange at least once a year, we commemorate our anniversary with a little swap, and those who want to send each of the others a little something for their birthdays {tradition is a card and a fat quarter}. And we very often trade in Twilighty fabrics and merchandise.
Last fall, I decided to make Twilighty fabric postcards to send out with my birthday fat quarters. I used this tutorial, with a few minor alterations. I finished my outer edges differently {she did a satin stitch, I used pinking shears}. And I used Pellon Peltex 72F II double-sided fusible stablizer instead of the non-fusible Peltex to save on Heat 'n Bond to fuse the front and back to the Peltex. I still used Heat 'n Bond to fuse the additional fabric elements on top. For the pictures, I used fusible ink-jet fabric sheets.
I had all the supplies necessary on-hand. I bought I don't know how many yards of the double-sided fusible Peltex {with a 50% off coupon, I'm sure} probably a year-and-a-half ago, planning to make birthday fabric postcards to send to family and friends in 2010. I never got around to and I still have a ton of it left. It is all cut and ready to be made into more postcards. Maybe 2012 will be my year.
I started working on these last fall. I was going to make them a few at a time, as the birthdays came up. But life got on the way and the three I started with for October birthdays got set aside. Then two more birthdays happened and I decided that I'd better just finish them all in one go and get the late ones out to the birthdays that had already passed and then be prepared for the birthdays still to come. And while I was at it, I made a few extras.
These are for the girls who are Team Jacob. I used these as an opportunity to to a little free-motion quilting practice. I did pebbles across the brown strip. The first one wasn't much fun, but I'd gotten into a groove by the second one. My original plan was to quilt in a birthday wish using the character's font from the book, but after spending well over an hour on the first one, I changed my mind. This cute little paw print fabric I used for the background came from Angie.
These are for the girls who are Team Switzerland. Again, I did a little FMQ practice — horizontal straight lines on the background, a few flourishes at the corners of the pictures and some elongated loops across the burgundy strip. Sorry about the fuzzy picture.
And these are the Team Edward postcards. I found this fabulous batik with the apples on sale on-line, six or eight months ago and bought a yard, wondering what fabulous project I could make with it. LOVE it for these postcards! The red Moda Marbles came from Wanda. I quilted swirly scrolls along the red accent strip and did flourishes or frames around the picture.
More postcards for Team Edward. I did the same quilting on these; swirly scrolls on the accent strip and frames around the pictures.
Our group is predominantly Team Edward. Iris sent me that gorgeous gold fabric I used for the accent strips. Nothing too original with the quilting on these — elongated loops across the gold strips and flourishes on the pictures. I also did vertical straight-line quilting on the backgrounds for these.
I did stippling on the red background and just a straight stitch across the black accent strip. That fabric is some of the tiny bit I have left from the quilt we made for Stephenie Meyer. I love the swirls in it.
I love this picture of Bella and Edward. I kind of went with what I knew for the quilting and did elongated loops across the burgundy accent strip and flourishes on the pictures.
And this is my absolute favorite — Edward in the meadow. Wanda found the background fabric and sent a little bit to everyone in our group who wanted some. It goes perfectly with this picture. I did little flowers across the accent strips and flourishes at the corners of the pictures.
And there you have it. Fifteen Twilighty fabric post cards. Am I going to count this as fifteen finishes? You bet your sweet Aunt Fanny I am! It is nice to start the year off with a bang, especially since most of what I've been working on are things I started a while ago. Hooray for clearing out projects half-done!
The imagination exercises a powerful influence over every act of sense, thought, reason — over every idea. –Latin Proverb
A long time ago, I decided to do the Free-Motion Quilt Along{which I'll eventually get started on, but that's another post for another day}. Part of the getting ready process was to get a notebook for jotting down ideas and drawing out designs. Well, I had this brilliant idea to make a notebook cover using the gorgeous Double Pinwheel String Quilt tutorial by P. over at The Way I Sew It. I'm a teesny bit obsessively creative and believe that if making one is good, then making two {or a hundred} is even better, right? Right. I decided that if I was going to go to the trouble of making one quilt journal for myself, while I was at it I probably ought to make one for the genius mastermind behind the beautiful design and then for good measure, I probably ought to make one to give away {which I did already}.
I set to work drawing out a design. I used P.'s template for the narrow pinwheels at full-size and cut it down so that it would come out at 2" finished for the entire block, but still use the angle that she used. I rummaged through my stash and pulled out all the bright, pretty fabrics I could find and started cutting strips. And then some other project had to be finished and this projected sat, completely neglected for a good four months. When I realized that I'd planned out a week-long blog anniversary/birthday giveaway in my head, but didn't actually have anything ready to give away, I decided it was time to dust this project off. About the same time I was getting ready to make the three journals, I found out who my buddy would be for this year's gift exchange for an on-line quilting group I'm in, and decided that a quilt journal would be the perfect gift for her. And so my plans for three quilt journals turned into four. Hooray for more January finishes!
My quilting is wonky {I obviously need to get back to that Free-Motion Quilt Along}, none of my centers match and I pieced the black pinwheels wrong and ended up cutting off all the points on them. I only realized that after I had all 12 pinwheels completely sewn together and there was no way I was going to unpick that many little bitty pinwheels and remake the 48 individual squares it took to make them. So I'm going with, I meant to do that. Other than that, I think they turned out pretty OK.
I used the same fabrics throughout, but each journal is a little different than the others because that's just how scrappy works out. I used some A.H. Arvika that I won during P.'s birthday giveaway for the inside cover and back and put in colored, tabbed pages to divide the book up for putting ideas into different categories. Each divider page has a little quilting quote on it.
There are 50 pages total in each notebook, 10 of which are double-sided graph paper, because I like to draw quilt designs out on graph paper.
I put bright red polka-dots on the back cover because that just seemed like the perfect finishing touch.
I really loved P's response to my journal giveaway, because what she didn't know was that one was already in the mail on the way to her house. When she received it, a little e-mail conversation ensued between us and she said she wanted to know the details of how I made it and wondered if I'd guest blog for her. I told her I was already planning a post on it. And here it is, simul-cast on her blog and mine.
Let's get to the nitty gritty. For a downloadable, printable version of this tutorial, click here. Here's what you'll need to make your own Double Pinwheel String Quilt Journal:
• 20 – 1" strings, at least 5" in length
• 45 – ¾" strings, at least 3½" in length
• 3 – 6¼" x 8½" rectangles of fabric for the inside covers and back of the journal
• A fat eighth each of solid black and solid white fabrics {or your choice of a light and a dark solid fabric}
• ¼ yard Pellon Peltex 72F II double-sided fusible stabilizer {I got mine at JoAnn's, but couldn't find it on their web-site}
• Heat n' Bond Lite
• Chipboard Art Journal {Stampin' Up!® item #107065}
• Spiral Border Punch {Stampin' Up!® item #119872}
• Extra-Large Rounded Tab Punch {Stampin' Up!® item #119684}
• Crop-A-Dile {Stampin' Up!® item #108632}
• Craft knife with a sharp blade
• Pinking shears
If you're interested in making a journal with my pattern {which is sized for the Art Journal because I had them already on hand}, I just happen to know the cutest Stampin' Up!® demonstrator you can order your supplies from. Her name is Jenna and she would be more than happy to help you out. If you live in the US, you can place an order through her web-site or you can contact her directly via e-mail. If you live outside the US, visit Stampin' Up!®'s website to find a demonstrator in your own country.
Here is my design layout and the templates for the journal. When you print it out, make sure your printer is set to print at 100%. Double Pinwheel String Quilt Journal
Use the templates to cut out the double pinwheels. Start with six white {or your choice of light solid} squares cut at 1⅞". Cut them in half on the diagonal and then use the template on the left to cut away the portion that will be the dark double pinwheel. If you need clarification, check out P.'s illustrated instructions. You'll be following the same steps, only on a smaller scale. The template eliminates the need for measuring the angle at which you cut away the excess fabric. Use a ¼" seam throughout.
To make the pinwheels, use the smaller template on the right to cut out 12 pieces from your black fabric {or your choice of light solid}. Make sure that you cut them all with the template right-side up. Use the line on the pattern as the grain line and cut your pieces on the grain.
Assemble the double pinwheel following P.'s illustrated instructions. Make sure you read the part about how to line up the smaller black piece on the white piece {hers are red and blue}, otherwise you'll end up cutting off all your points.
To get started piecing your strings, you'll need a foundation. P. used phone book pages and then tore them away when she was finished. I used foundation sheets, with the intention of leaving them in for extra stablity because of the small scale we're working with here. It did help with that, but even though the sheets are thin, they do add a bit of bulk and when you're working with small pieces, that makes things a little tough. So, it's your call if you want more stability with the foundation sheet or less bulk with old phone book pages {or newsprint} that you will remove later. Whatever your choice, you'll need one 3¼" x 8½" rectangle and six 2" squares.
Mark each foundation piece with a line on the 45˚ angle and begin piecing your string blocks, using the 1" strings on the 3¼" x 8½" rectangle and the ¾" strings on the 2" squares. If you need instructions on piecing your strings, refer to P.'s illustrated tutorial.
When you've finished piecing the string blocks, trim around the edges of all of the pieces and square up the squares to 1⅞" before cutting them in half on the diagonal. When you're finished, you will have 12 string triangles and 12 black and white triangles. Piece them together and then square them up to 1½".
Assemble the pinwheels, again referring to P.'s awesome illustrated instructions if needed. You will have three pinwheels when you finish, which should be squared up 2½".
From your white solid, cut six 1" x 2½" strips and four 1" x 3½" strips. Sew a 2½" strip to the left and right sides of each pinwheel. Then lay the blocks out in a column and sew a 3½" strip in between the blocks and on the top and bottom of the column.
The pinwheel section will be 3½" wide x 8½" tall. Sew this to the 3¼" x 8½" rectangle string block that you pieced earlier. Your patchwork piece will now be 6¼" x 8½", which gives you some wiggle room. Cut a piece of Pellon Peltex 72F II double-sided fusible stabilizer to match your patchwork piece. Use a rotary cutter and ruler so that it is nice and square. Make sure that the protective cellophane is on the back, facing the ironing board {otherwise you'll fuse the whole thing to your ironing board} and iron the patchwork onto the exposed fusible side of the stabilizer. Allow the journal-cover-in-progress to cool completely and then peel away the cellophane. Do all the decorative quilting you'd like on the journal cover, except for the outer edges and along the binder rings.
Turn the journal cover over and fuse the inside cover fabric to the back of the journal cover. Use pinking shears on the top, right and bottom edges and a rotary cutter on the left edge, to trim the cover to the finished size of 5¾" x 8¼".
Remove the chipboard covers from the Art Journal by opening the back cover and pulling the rings apart. Place the chipboard cover over the Double Pinwheel String Quilt Journal and mark the center of each hole along the left side of the journal cover. Use the ¼" punch on the outside handle of the Crop-A-Dile {you know, the one that punches through metal} to punch holes that the binder will go through. Then stitch all the way around the edges of the journal cover.
To make the back cover, fuse a piece of Heat 'n Bond lite to the back of the remaining two 6¼" x 8½" rectangles of fabric. Trim the pieces down to 5¾" x 8¼". Peel the backing off the fabric you chose for the inside and fuse it to the chipboard, making sure to put it on the inside of the back cover. Before you fuse the fabric to the other side, use the craft knife to cut away the fabric covering the holes where the journal binder goes through. Cut two parallel sides from the back and then flip the journal over and cut the remaining two parallel sides to open up the holes. Then fuse the outside fabric to the back cover and cut away the fabric that {again} covers the holes.
Using colored card stock, cut five divider pages at 5½" x 7¾". If you want, add a cute saying or quote to each divider page. I used the following:
• In the crazy quilt of life, I'm glad you're on my block of friends. –Unknown
• Our lives are like quilts – bits and pieces, joy and sorrow, stitched together with love.–Unknown
• When life gives you scraps, make a quilt.–Unknown
• I cannot count my day complete 'til needle, thread and fabric meet. –Unknown
• The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary. –Mary Kurtz
Use the rounded tab punch to make tabs for the pages. To help with even spacing, do the top and bottom tabs first, then center the middle tab directly between the two. Center the second tab between the top and the middle tabs and the fourth tab between the middle and bottom tabs. Use the Spiral Punch to make holes for the binder to go through. Insert the divider pages at intervals through the journal {I did 10 pages to a section}.
If you would like to add graph paper pages, right click on the image to the right and then choose Save Image As from the menu that pops up. Name and save the image to your hard drive. Open a new Word document and set the paper size to 5½" x 7¾", with top, bottom and right margins at .25" and right margin at .55". While you are in the Margins settings, go to the drop-down menu under the Pages heading and choose Mirror Margins. This will allow you to print the graph paper on both sides of the page and avoid printing in the area were the binder goes through the holes. Insert the graph paper image file into the document, setting the size at 7.26" x 4.77". Use the Position selector on the Picture Tools tab, to center the image on the printable area of the paper. I suggest printing a test page before you print on the Art Journal pages to make sure everything lines up right, based on how your printer feeds the paper through.
To reassemble the journal, place the pages onto the binder, right side up. Thread the journal cover through the binder, right side up. Put the back cover on top of the, with the inside back cover facing up. Push the binder back together and then turn the back cover around to the back. Voila. Your Double Pinwheel String Quilt Journal is finished. Now have lots of fun filling it up with beautiful quilt ideas!
Live like you believe Live like you know It's one sure way Your faith will grow –Jenny Phillips
I've mentioned before that I'm pretty much on my own as far as religion goes in our house. I try to keep a positive attitude about it, but it is a bit overwhelming to me sometimes and not everything gets done the way it should. I'm in the Primary Presidency in our ward {LDS-speak for volunteer in the children's Sunday school organization} and our theme for this year is I Know the Scriptures are True. I shared our beautiful theme song for this year a few weeks ago. Since the new theme was announced last fall, being a consistent, daily reader of the scriptures has been on my mind and in my goals for self-improvement. That is one of the things I struggle with, both reading on my own and reading with my kids. But since we'll be talking about the scriptures a lot in Primary this year, I've been working on reading every day. I'm still a bit hit-and-miss, but I'm getting better and I've noticed a few extra blessings on my side. I really like this song by Jenny Phillips and I think that it applies to me. Her music seems to speak comfort to all my worries.
I usually keep my Sunday posts specific to religious topics, but today I also have a finish to share with you that kind of relates. I made church bags for all of us in the Primary Presidency. Let me clarify. I bought the canvas bags and personalized them with this year's theme. I used Becky Shaw's super cute binder cover graphics, added our names to each and printed them out on fusible ink-jet fabric sheets. Then I fused some Heat 'n Bond Lite to the fabric strips and sewed them on to make a cute border. I fused the whole thing to the bag and then used a cute decorative stitch to hold everything together.
So, you might be wondering why there are two natural canvas bags and two different white canvas bags. Well,you see, I did four bags similar to this at the beginning of 2010, only I just printed out the binder covers with the theme and ironed them on the bags {I didn't think of adding the borders until they were all done and given away}. In the mean time, two of the girls in our Presidency moved, taking their bags with them and so we got new girls to work with. By the end of the year, the little iron-on graphic was starting to peel off at the corners for the two of us who still had bags, so I pulled them the rest of the way off and re-used our two bags. But when I went to get bags for the two new girls, they didn't have the same style as before and they didn't even have two of the same style of what they did have on hand. So, I just went with it. I didn't care much, because I'd brought along my trusty 50% off coupons and only paid $2.50 for each of them.
I've wondered whether to count this as one finish or four. I didn't even make the bags. And considering the 4± hours I spent on them, I'm not sure how fair that is because it is only a drop in the bucket when you compare that to how long it takes to make a quilt. But these are going to four separate houses to be used by four different people, so I think I'm going to count them as four finishes. Sometimes, it is about the quantity .
Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold.
–Traditional Folk Song
I just love giveaways. They are so fun when you win, but I think it is even more fun to host. You get to hear from all your old bloggy friends and it gives you a chance to meet lots of interesting, talented and kind new bloggy friends. Thank you to everyone who entered . I loved reading your comments, visiting your blogs and I was really happy with the response I got to the prizes I am offering. I wish I could give a little something to each one of you. But that's not how this goes. As usual, I had my adorable helpers, LadyBug and Grasshopper and my handsome husband, Mr. Bug, help me do the drawings. And so, without any further ado, on to the winners.
• $50 Long-Arm Machine Quilting Gift Certificate Drawn by LadyBug
who said: Happy blog anniversary and happy birthday to come! I like Angie's bright Butterfly Quilt, but I really do like them ALL! Such a talented quilter!
I want to send a huge thank you to Angie for sponsoring this giveaway. You are the best . P., I think you'll be very pleased with Angie's work. She is an excellent quilter and an all-around good egg. Check your e-mail for details.
who said: Thanks for the opportunity to win this great apron. LOVE it!
Congratulations, Joyce! I'll make your apron as soon as you let me know which size you want {size chart on giveaway post} and what color of ruffle and pocket {pink or green} you'd like. If this is the Joyce that I know, you'll be hearing from me, so check your inbox. If this is a new Joyce that I don't know yet, you didn't leave any contact information with your comment, so I'm crossing my fingers that you'll check back and see that you've won. Please e-mail me within 5 days to claim your prize.
who said: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope your birthday is turning out wonderful. I figure mine can only get better. My 2 yo woke me up by peeing on me.
Jenn and I share the same birthday and I think it is really cool that she won the giveaway that I posted on our birthday. Jenn, I hope your birthday ended better than it started! Enjoy your new pincushion. Check your e-mail for details.
• $35 CSN Stores Gift Certificate Drawn by LadyBug
who said: Sounds great! I would love to try their store.
I want to thank the folks at CSN for sponsoring this giveaway! I loved being able to include it in my special giveaway week! Brenda, you lucky girl! This is the second time you've won a giveaway from me {how's the pink sleep mask working for you?}! I hope you have a really great time finding the perfect thing to spend your gift certificate on. Check your e-mail for details.
• Double Pinwheel String Quilt Journal Drawn by Grasshopper
who said: Your journal cover is so cute. I just love it!
Patty, congratulations! I appreciate you stopping by to enter! I peeked over at your blog and you do amazing work. I hope you enjoy this little journal for writing down quilting ideas and sketching out designs. Check your e-mail for details.
• Fabric Die Cutting with the Go! Drawn by Mr. Bug
who said: What a lovely giveaway — you are so very nice to do this! I would love to make a sunflower dresden quilt for my daughter! Thanks!
Lee, that sunflower dresden is absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to cut it for you. While I'm at it, I'll probably have to cut one for myself. Congratulations! Check your e-mail for details.
who said: Okay, Elizabeth, here is the prize I'm shooting for with my extra entry for changing to your new button.
Michelle, congratulations! I really enjoyed putting this together and I hope it makes your sewing space {and your winter } a little more cheery. Check your e-mail for details.
? This little cutie went to Shay over at 
.
. It is completely ridiculous to be so be so into a series of books about teenagers — teenage vampires, no less. But I am. If you haven't read the books, you can't judge. And if you have read them and don't like them, well, not everyone has good taste 
. I loved reading your comments, visiting your blogs and I was really happy with the response I got to the prizes I am offering. I wish I could give a little something to each one of you. But that's not how this goes. As usual, I had my adorable helpers, LadyBug and Grasshopper and my handsome husband, Mr. Bug, help me do the drawings. And so, without any further ado, on to the winners.
. P., I think you'll be very pleased with Angie's work. She is an excellent quilter and an all-around good egg. Check your e-mail for details.
