A Stitch In Time: May Finishes Giveaway Winner

A stitch in time saves nine. –English Proverb

So, I looked up the phrase "a stitch in time saves nine." I wanted to know its origins. Also, finding the perfect quote for my posts is a part of my process. Sometimes a quote is exactly what I need to tie everything into a nice, tidy prose package. Sometimes it takes me in a different direction. And sometimes, it just distracts me. There's a lot of information out there, if you know what I mean.

I always thought that "a stitch in time saves nine" meant that if you hurry and do a sloppy job, you'll have to redo. Or in the in the case of sewing unpick and redo. I don't know about you, but I hate unpicking. But from what I read, the saying is meant as a warning against procrastination. A small tear mended now will require only one stitch, but if you leave it and it gets bigger, you'll need 10 stitches to fix it. And if you rearrange the letters of this little advisory, they spell out, "this is meant as incentive." I'm a world class procrastinator. Perhaps I should take the incentive.

Words of caution with subliminal messages aside, I thought it was a clever play on the words to name a linky party for finished stitched projects each month "A Stitch In Time."

The irony of all of this is that I am just now posting the winner of the May Finishes Linky Party. I've been putting it off until I have a chance to click and comment on all of the links. I like to do a thing properly. After all, a linky party is all about showing off your stuff in a socially acceptable forum. And seeing all of your beautiful finishes is something that I really enjoy. But too much time has passed and I need to announce the winner.

Before I do that, I have an item of housekeeping. I cancelled the June Linky and mentioned that I may take the whole summer off. Obviously, the linky is on hold as I haven't opened a July post. At the moment, I haven't decided whether I'll be starting up again after the summer or not. But I absolutely reserve the rights to the name "A Stitch In Time" when I do start back up.

Thank you to everyone who has participated over the last 2½ years and thank you to the many who linked up in May. Without further ado, the winning number, drawn by LadyBug, is 10.

Congratulations to

Beth

at From Chaos Comes Creations

Beth will receive a 30' Playtime Charm Pack by Chloe's Closet for Moda from The Fat Quarter Shop, provided I haven't procrastinated too long and they are still in stock. Make sure you check out the adorable place mats she made for her mom. There were lots of other great finishes in May, too. Since I haven't been able to check them all out, how about if you tell me which, of those you visited, were your favorites?


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Amelie Pattern Giveaway Winner, A Stitch in Time: June, and My Trip to Crazy Town

The human mind is not a terribly logical or consistent place. –Jim Butcher, Turn Coat

I usually reserve Sundays for posts of a more spiritual nature. Today, however, my back is up against a wall. I've yet to announce the winner of the promised giveaway and there should be some sort of linky party going on around here starting today. With my most humblest apologies for not being on top of everything like I always think I can, let's take care of some business.

First, I threw everyone's name who entered for the giveaway into a hat. OK, it was a dish, but you know what I mean. And Grasshopper pulled out the winner.

Congratulations to

P.

at The Way I Sew It

P., check your inbox .

Now, about the June Linky Party. I've debated back and forth and have decided that there will not be a linky party for June. I'm also considering taking the summer off. And maybe not ever starting back up again after that. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I'm juggling a lot and while it is really hard to let go emotionally to the idea that I can do everything, it makes the most sense at the moment to let a few things go. The June Linky Party is one of those things.

You see, LadyBug and I are going to Girl's Camp for the week. It's this thing we do in our Church to torture the girls by making them survive out in the wilderness for five consecutive days without technology and also to make the leaders crazy getting ready for it. I happen to be on the Crazy Town Express at the moment. I still have packing to do, my gluten and dairy free food substitutions to prep and about fifty other things before my self-mandated 9:00 pm bedtime, because I have to be up at oh-five-hundred hours tomorrow morning. I'm pretty sure the No-Bake Dark Chocolate Granola Bites that I made a special trip to the Health Food Store to get Sunbutter for {like peanut butter, only made with sunflower seeds} because peanut butter and I don't get along, and then discovered I'd left my wallet and home and had to run home and back in order to make my purchase are not going to get made.

Our packing lists are about a mile long and we have to make everything fit into one bag. LadyBug and I just spent 25 minutes coercing foam pads into rolls so that we might have some hope of sleep this week. We're not really camping. We're sleeping in cabins and the cabins have bunk beds, but the bunk beds just have wooden bottoms — no mattresses. Hence the need for foam pads. We also have showers with hot running water if you're the first or second in line. And kitchens with fridges and electricity and everything. There's a canoe lake and a ropes course and hiking and the food is fantastic, from what I hear. So, it isn't really camping. But it isn't like home. And it is a lot of work to get ready for it. I'm not ready.

Wish me luck!

A Stitch In Time: April Finishes Giveaway Winner

Time is free, but it's priceless.
You can't own it, but you can use it.
You can't keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you've lost it you can never get it back..
–Harvey MacKay

Time. The one commodity that we all have in equal measure. Even though I try to spend my time wisely, I often find myself wishing for more time and kicking myself for wasting time. Still, some of my "free time" {if there is such a thing} each day is allotted to sewing. When I only have a few minutes to spend it's frustrating. Progress is barely perceptible at that pace. To keep from getting discouraged, "just keep stitching," has been my motto over the last several months. I've tried not to let time, or lack thereof, be a deterrent to working on something, no matter how small, every day. It finally paid off as I finished seven tote bags this month, which I worked on a bit at a time every day for about seven weeks. I felt like I crept along at a snail's pace. Or maybe it was a tortoise. In either case, there were some days I just wasn't feeling it because I knew I wasn't going to finish in the amount of time I had to spend. I tried to keep things in perspective, though, and I used what little time I had each day to work on the project. And when it was all said and done, having seven finishes at the same time was really awesome. In addition to the bags, I finished two journal {Personal Progress} totes. It was a good month for finishes for me. And now I begin the process over again. I won't have much to report in the way of finishes, but I'll just keep stitching until I do. But enough about me. Let's get on to all the amazing things you finished and announce our winner for the month of April. LadyBug drew the winning number — number one.

Congratulations to

Kathy

at Kathy's Quilting Blog

Kathy will receive a Dottie Charm Pack by Moda from The Fat Quarter Shop, which I'm sure she will put to good use. In addition to the awesome scrappy quilt that was pulled out of the drawing as the winner, she also finished a really fun triangle quilt. There were lots of other great finishes in April, too. If you have a minute, check some of them out. I'd recommend Carin's Garden Fence Table Runner or Cynthia's orange and grey Scrap-a-Palooza quilt.


The May Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the May Finishes button {code found in the May post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the May post. The giveaway this month, sponsored by The Fat Quarter shop, is a 30' Playtime Charm Pack by Chloe's Closet for Moda.

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A Stitch In Time: March Finishes Giveaway Winner

If you take responsibility for yourself, you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams. –Les Brown

Here we are again, a good way into the month and I'm just getting to posting the winner for the March Finishes Linky Party. The first of the month has always been particularly busy at work, but more so since we had two software change-overs at the beginning of the year. I keep hoping we'll settle in and things won't take so long, but we're still figuring things out {read: making things up as we go}, so here I am, late again. It is an improvement from last month {by five days}, and my goal is to continue that trend. In other news, I've been enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having and loving all the spring bulbs in bloom. In the category of finishes in March, I did two aprons {Honey Bees II and Groovy Garden} and a baby quilt in March! It was awesome to get a few things done. Since then, I've been working on a few {read: seven, because if one is awesome, seven are beyond spectacular} tote bags. I still have to cut the linings and I'm at about the half-way point in assembly. I have been enjoying puttering along with these. I hope to pick up the pace, though, and get them finished by week's end, because about twelve different quilts are calling my name and begging to be worked on.

And now, what we've all been waiting for, the winner of the March Finishes Linky Party Giveaway, a charm pack of Kona in Bluegrass, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop. Thank you to everyone who linked up! It is so fun to visit the frequent-linkers and see what they've been up to since the last time and to visit bloggers who haven't linked before and see their amazing work. Seeing your amazing projects is a highlight for me. This month Grasshopper pulled the winning number – 19!

Congratulations to

Lisa Maria

at Quilts by Lisa on Flickr

Lisa usually links a quilt or two up each month, but she was extra busy this month. In addition to her winning entry, Geometry School, she linked up and adorable set of hot pads, Shop Cook Eat, and three other quilts this month, Owl, Favorite Colors and Oldies. And if you're looking for some other fun projects, check out this Geese in a Circle pillow at Made With My Two Hands or the Chess and Checkers Game/Pillow at ShannonMac Designs.


The April Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the April Finishes button {code found in the April post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the April post. The giveaway this month, sponsored by The Fat Quarter shop, is a Dottie Charm Pack by Moda.

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A Stitch In Time: February Finishes Giveaway Winner

The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. –Thomas Edison

We're almost mid-way through March and I'm late announcing my own linky party winner. That's how life goes sometimes, and I'm sorry for the delay. Better late than never, right? I've been extra busy lately, but I managed to squeeze in some really cute little totes in February, and I have three finishes under my belt for March already, which I will blog about soon. I've sewed myself out from under any deadlines. It is pretty exciting because now I'm free-sewing, as in, I'm free to sew whatever I want. The possibilities are endless. I have a little project I want to work on over the next week or so and then I'm going to try to catch up on The Princess Bride Quilt-Along.

Speaking of finishes, thank you to everyone who linked this month! Everything was absolutely amazing and it was so much fun to click around and see your projects. Something went awry with Linky Tools in February and all the thumbnails went missing from about October to the last part of February. When I logged in today, I found there was a new option which allowed me to go back in and add thumbnails, so I puttered around with that. There were a few that wouldn't cooperate, but I got thumbnails for almost everything {and they may or may not be the ones you chose; I wasn't an auto-recovery, but I could link a photo from your posts}, which my OCD self is pretty happy about. It is much better than looking at a bunch of blank boxes. LadyBug drew the winner this month and she pulled out #26.

Congratulations to

Mara

at Secretly Stitching

Mara will receive two adorable mini patterns by Camille Roskelley from Thimble Blossoms, Puddle Jumping and Swoon. Make sure you check out her cute Baby Doll Repair. She also linked some adorable embroidery hoop art. If you haven't visited any of the other finishes for February, take a minute and click on a few. {I suggest Grandmother's Garden by P. and Mrs. DeWitt by Shay. Both quilts were once abandoned Ph.D's, but have finally found their way to the finish line, and beautifully so, I might add!}

The March Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the March Finishes button {code found in the March post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the March post. The giveaway this month, sponsored by The Fat Quarter shop, is a charm pack of Kona in Bluegrass.

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A Stitch In Time: January Finishes Giveaway Winner

If you think you're too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito. –Betty Reese

January passed by in a flurry {yes, that was a weather-related pun} and here we are, already a third of the way through February. I'm sorry about posting the January winner late this month. I've had a lot going on at work and at home and it has taken most of my attention. There are lots of good, happy things happening and I'll share in the next little while. In the sewing department, I did have a couple of finishes in January. I finished four of the six luggage tags we used on our Disney vacation. And I have a few more finishes in sight for February. One of my favorite things about this linky party each month is visiting all of your posts and seeing the absolutely amazing things you've accomplished. Thank you to everyone who linked up in January! I wish I had a giveaway for all of you, because all of the projects are worthy of it. But I only have one prize. Grasshopper drew the winner and he pulled out number 5.

Congratulations to

Christine

at MacDonald's Patch

Christine will receive a charm pack of Daydreams by Kate Spain from The Fat Quarter Shop. Make sure you check out her cute Nine-Patch Table Runner. She also linked an adorable pair of plush elephants that are for a new addition to her clan. If you haven't browsed through the other finishes for January, take a minute and click on a few. {I highly recommend Cynthia's Trip Around the World and Lisa's Yellow and Grey quilt.}

The February Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the February Finishes button {code found in the February post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the February post. The giveaway this month, sponsored by The Fat Quarter shop, is two adorable mini patterns by Camille Roskelley from Thimble Blossoms, Puddle Jumping and Swoon.

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Blog Anniversary/1000th Post/Birthday Giveaway: Winners' Roll Call

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. –Oprah Winfrey

It's about time we gave away some fabric around here! I wish I had prizes for you all. Thank you to everyone who took time to enter. I really enjoyed reading all of your comments.

To choose the winners, rather than mess with drawing numbers and then counting through the comments to find the one that corresponds with the number, I printed them all out, cut them apart and threw them in a big roasting pan so there would be plenty of room for them to get nice and mixed up and not get stuck together and then I had the Not-So-Little Bugs draw for me. Grasshopper was really getting into it and drew one of the winners by picking up the slip of paper with the comment on it with his mouth. Here are the results:

• 4-Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway:
A jelly roll of Printemps by 3 Sisters, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop.

Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Sandra
at Sandra's Craft Corner



whose response to my question about favorite things about blogging or reading blogs was: Bloglovin follower here. I most enjoy the ideas, tips and pictures on the blogs.


• 1000^th Post Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle in a rainbow of beautiful colors and prints.

Winner drawn by LadyBug


Congratulations to
The4Rs
at Recycle, Repurpose, Redo and Renew


whose response to my question about favorite things to do in your free time was: Wow, I am the first! I love to read blogs and pin ideas to Pinterest. This year my goal is to actually try some of the ideas I covet! And of course, I love to craft and sew; always looking for inspiration. Love your giveaway, I think a rainbow doll quilt for a niece would be fun to make with it!


• Birthday Giveaway:
A fat quarter bundle of Carnaby Street in the Cool Peace colorway, from Pat Bravo to me to you.

Winner drawn by Grasshopper


Congratulations to
Alida P
at Quilting, Paper Piecing and Crafts


who said: Happy birthday fellow AYW designer I am so happy that I found your blog!! Bookmarked Happy birthday again.

Thank you again to everyone who commented! Winners, check your e-mail to see how to claim your prize.

A Stitch In Time: December Finishes Giveaway Winner

Push yourself again and again. Don't give an inch until the final buzzer sounds. –Larry Bird

I want to thank everyone who linked up in December. There were some fabulous projects finished last month. I really enjoyed visiting your blogs and seeing what you've accomplished. I finished a few things myself, which I hope you won't mind if I share. I made a table runner and a couple of little journal holders that I gave as Christmas Gifts. And even though I didn't make the quilt top or bind it, I did the quilting on P.'s String Ring Dresden quilt. P. linked that as a finish for her this month and I'm counting that as a finish for me too. At 75½" x 95½", it is the biggest quilt I've done, and I think I earned every inch of a finish on it. And now, for the winner of our December Giveaway. LadyBug stayed up waaaayyyy past her bedtime so she could draw the winner. Drum roll please {and LadyBug says she needs tucking in. Can someone take care of that please?} . . . the winning number is #17.

Congratulations to

Shannon

at Quilting for Sanity

Shannon will receive a charm pack of Modern Roses by Stephanie Ryan, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop. Make sure you check out the Diamond Double quilt Shannon made for her son. She also linked one other finish this month, a quilt for her mother-in-law, so check that out if you have a minute. And make sure to click on a few of the other finishes, if you haven't already. {I highly recommmend Renee's The Doctor's Starry Night quilt. It is based on an episode of Doctor Who that involves Vincent Van Gogh. The episode was pretty amazing and the quilt is equally so. Even if you're not a fan of the show, the quilting is amazing.}

The January Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the January Finishes button {code found in the January post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the January post. For giveaway for this month, The Fat Quarter shop is giving away a charm pack of Daydreams by Kate Spain.

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A Stitch In Time: November Finishes Giveaway Winner

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. –Napoleon Hill

November was a little thin in numbers for linked finishes, which is quite understandable. I'm sure everyone was basting turkeys instead of quilts . Nevertheless, what was linked in November was really fun and I enjoyed seeing each finished project! I had one finish in November {which I obviously can't link up to my own party but am still excited about and hope you won't mind if I brag about it a little}, a Drunkard's Path quilt I called Ripples. It was great to have a finish last month! Thanks to everyone who participated and I'm looking forward to seeing what you finish in December. I'm excited to announce our November winner. Grasshopper drew this month and he pulled #6 out of the hat.

Congratulations to

Julia

at Life As A Quilter

Julia will receive a $10 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop! Make sure you click over and see her beautiful Sailboat Quilt. Julia had two other quilt art finishes in November, Sailboat II and a Cardinal Quilt. If you have a minute, check out a few of the other fun finishes in November! {I highly recommend checking out the Hopscotch by Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation.}

The December Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the December Finishes button {code found in the December post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the December post. This month, The Fat Quarter shop is giving away a charm pack of Modern Roses by Stephanie Ryan.

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A Stitch In Time: October Finishes Giveaway Winner

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. –Ernest Hemingway

I'm late for my own linky giveaway. Again. Life has been crazy. I've been meeting myself coming and going for a week now. I sewed in every spare minute all last week to get Halloween costumes finished {I'm only counting Grasshoppers on my own personal list of finishes; LadyBug's was raw-edge appliqué and some cornstarch clay} and then work started in full-swing with the start of a new month. I am happy to say that in addition to the Halloween costume, I finished a quilt in October, too! It was really great to get a few things done, so I'm pushing for at least two more finishes in November. Anyway, a huge thank you to everyone who linked up in October with your fabulous finishes. LadyBug drew out the winner this month and she picked #10.

Congratulations to

Colleen

at Colleen Quilts Too

Colleen will receive a $20 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop! Make sure you click over and see her adorable I Spy Quilt. And check out few of the other fun finishes in October! {I highly recommend checking out the completely awesome Star Trek costumes my sister made for Halloween.}

The November Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the November Finishes button {code found in the November post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the November post. This month, The Fat Quarter shop is giving away a $10 Gift Certificate!

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