Little Boy Blue: The Quilt So Nice I Made It Twice

Little boy blue,

Come blow your horn,

The sheep's in the meadow,

The cow's in the corn.

But where is the boy

Who looks after the sheep?

He's under a haystack,

Fast asleep.

–Mother Goose

Early last fall I made a really fun scrappy quilt, Pinkalicious for my sister's sweet new baby girl. It was so much fun to make and I thought it would be just as much fun to make one in blue. It was.

When I found out a dear friend of mine, who had married in her mid-thirties and had struggled with infertility, was expecting her first baby, I knew that's the quilt I wanted to make for her. She was due in late November, but he was born about six weeks early, which makes this quilt three months late. About my usual, lately .

I've had the top finished since the beginning of November and have had so much going on I haven't had a minute to quilt it. Also, I was kind of dreading working with the Ultra-Cuddle {fuzzy on both sides and stretchy} on the back. Getting the back to work with the Pinkalicious quilt was an adventure/learning process and even though I knew what I wanted to do {fuse the layer of flannel that I used instead of batting directly to the Ultra-Cuddle to help stabilize it}, I still lacked the momentum {motivation/desire/time} to do it. You know how you put off a task that you anticipate being unpleasant, right? The Ultra-Cuddle combined with the satin blanket binding, which is an absolute pain to work with, made a combination I was not looking forward to. But I just can't resist putting that oh-so-soft-and-silky edge on baby blankets. The texture is especially nice with fleece or Minky or Ultra-Cuddle, so it really wasn't optional for this quilt.

The quilting was really fun to do, once I finished the stitch-in-the-ditch to stabilize the whole thing. I found an image of a star I liked, sized it to fit in the 4" squares and the 1" setting squares and printed them out. Marking is not my favorite thing, so used some glue that is like a sticky note when it dries on the back of my paper templates and stuck them to my quilt, but the points kept coming up and they shifted. Lane mentioned he was going to use freezer paper to do the same thing, and I thought that might work better than the sticky note glue, but he reported back that he had corners popping up too, that he didn't like it much, and probably wouldn't try it again, so I bagged the idea, traced the stars onto a light-weight cardboard {think cereal box}, cut them out and then traced them onto the quilt top with the old blue marking pen standby. Again. {Sidebar: I'm looking for new, less expensive way to mark quilts. The cost of marking pens is ridiculous, even with a 50% off coupon. I know that the Frixion gel pens are fairly inexpensive, but after reading this review, I don't think I'll use it to mark my quilts. I thought Geta's suggestion of the Bic Kid's Couleur Washable Markers was an interesting one. They are not sold in the US, but you can find them on eBay. I wonder if Crayola's Washable markers would work as well? Perhaps I'll experiment.}. After I did the stars, I did loops in the sashing. This quilt goes in the mail tomorrow to it's new little owner, who I hope will cuddle and drag and love this quilt until it falls apart.

Today's post brought to you by:

Something New: Mission Impossible Style

Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others. –Jonathan Winters

A couple of years back, I made a section of Double Wedding Ring and framed it. It was a wedding gift for a girl in our ward {congregation}, who I didn't know very well at all. Another woman in the ward made the wedding dress and contacted me about making something keepsake-ish with the left-over wedding dress fabric. She had the scoop on the wedding colors and flowers. The planets aligned and the perfect line of fabric in those colors fell right in my lap and it worked out beautifully.

In a few weeks, another girl in our ward is getting married. She comes from a wonderful family and I know this girl a lot better. She was my favorite babysitter, when I could get her. You sometimes had to book two weeks out. When I heard she was getting married, a single thought fluttered around in my head for a few minutes about doing something special for her and then it fluttered on its way.

When I received her invitation in the mail, I started thinking seriously about making something special for her, realizing that I only had a month until the wedding. After all, I went to a lot of trouble for a girl I barely knew, at someone else's suggestion. I wanted to do something equally special for this sweet girl. I decided to recreate the Double Wedding Ring in a frame.

I started asking around about my young friend's wedding colors and flowers and if she was having her dress made. She bought her dress. No problem. I could just use white fabric for the background fabrics. Her flowers are white roses with a bunch of other random flowers. Again, no problem. I can do white roses and random. And her wedding colors are Eggplant and Lilac and Sage and Lime Green. And that's where things got sticky. Purple is the hardest color in the universe to match precisely and my ideas of lime green and sage green don't go together. I wanted to keep this a surprise from the girl and her mother, so there were a few days of debate in my head on what to do about choosing the right colors of fabric. I shopped on-line because it is convenient and I can do it after the Not-So-Little Bugs go to bed. But matching colors on line, especially when you're going in blind, is a crap shoot.

I started by searching "eggplant." I found a pretty Joel Dewberry floral and looked for fabrics to go with it, in shades of dark and light purple in the eggplant and lilac family.

I agonized for ages about which fabrics I'd picked and kept shopping carts open for three days in two on-line stores, taking things out of the carts and putting them back in. It took a week for all the fabric to get here and when it did, I started to worry about the colors all over again. I worried that I'd missed the mark, especially with the lilac I'd chosen. Then there was the fact that some of the fabrics didn't match at all. The dark solid fabric on the far left is more raisin than eggplant. And those polka dots are way too pink. Some of the greens were a little off too.

With no small amount of further internal debate, I decided to see if I could get color swatches without arousing too much suspicion. I called the mother of the bride-to-be and she was most obliging and didn't ask too many questions, presumably because they were right in the middle of dinner when I called. She sent one of her boys over with the swatches, and I was relieved to find that most of what I ordered will work.

I did a little stash diving to flesh out the color ranges {I'll show you later; it was too dark to get good pictures} and threw the new fabrics in the wash.

In the meantime, I've been doodling quilting designs. My pencil sketches kind of remind me of blue prints. When I quilted the first DWR, I did what I knew, which wasn't much; echo quilting ¼" away from all the seams. My quilting skills have improved since then, and I want to do something really special.

I'm pretty sure this needs a little more work. Perhaps just a single half-feather?

And I'm not really sure about this. I love how the curved lines converge in the corners, but I don't like the uneven gap it leaves in the center. Mr. Bug says it looks like a Crusaders' Cross and I can see what he means. He also said it looks too "plaid," but that I can't see, because what I see in my head is solid white fabric, quilted in white, with little crystals in each of the small squares that are created when the lines intersect. If only I could get rid of that gap and still keep the cool corners, but I might just have to quilt this in straight lines. Opinions?

I don't even have an idea of what to quilt in the rings. If you have ideas or have seen something spectacular quilted in a DWR, please point me in that direction.

The wedding is February 16^th. That gives me 19 18 days to get this finished. It will probably take a week to get it framed {remind me to call on that tomorrow, so I know for sure}, so that gives me about 9 days to cut, assemble, quilt and mount this little project. It will be cutting it close, but I think that will give the framers enough time to get it back to me so I can get it to the bride before the wedding.

Mr. Bug asked me if it was even possible for me to get this done, knowing that the last week and the first week of the month are my busiest times at work and I often work 40 hours during those weeks. I told him, probably not, but I'm going to try anyway.

A little theme music, please.

Sunday Sermons: Drops of Awesome

Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. –Alma 37:6

How many times do you do something good while beating yourself up for all the times you weren't perfect? I borrowed that question from Kathryn Thompson at Daring Young Mom. I know I do it all the time and her post, Drops of Awesome, really hit home for me. It's something I want to share with you. I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks and would really just love to include her post, word-for-word, here. I've decided to include just half the post a couple of highlights to whet your appetite so that you'll want to click on over and read the whole post.

Do not rob yourself of this moment’s joy because of what you failed to do yesterday or what you fear you might not do tomorrow.

Every time you do something good, something kind, something productive, it’s a drop in your Bucket of Awesome. You don’t lose drops for every misstep. You can only build. You can only fill.

When I started thinking about my life in terms of adding these little Drops of Awesome for every tiny act of good, I found that I was doing more and more of them because it’s a lot more fun to do good when you’re rewarded with joy, rather than being guilted about every failure in your past.

As I added up these Drops of Awesome, I found that in those moments I actually became the person I had always wanted to be.

In the end, it’s really about allowing yourself to feel joy and allowing yourself to be proud of the small victories of life. This builds momentum and you want more drops in your bucket and when you don’t get as many, you pick yourself up and say, “What can I do next?”

When we are in a relationship with Christ, striving as God’s sons and daughters to do His will, He pours more into our buckets than we can ever hope to imagine. He can fill us to overflowing with peace, with joy, with perfection, with Awesome. And then what do we do if our bucket is overflowing like that? Where does the Awesome go then?

Our capacity for joy and light increases. And we just keep working, one tiny drop at a time. And we don’t compare today’s drops to yesterday’s or tomorrow’s. And we live and we love and we repent when we do wrong and we allow ourselves to be glorious, beautiful, and dare I say perfect in Christ, children of God.

I believe in a God who loves us and roots for us and cheers for every Drop of Awesome we can manage. Our victories are His victories and He wants us to feel joy. Not later, when we no longer make mistakes, but right now.

Small and simple. Tiny drops. Go forth. Be Awesome.

Thank you, Kathryn. I think your post is truly a Drop of Awesome!

Stitchy Kits: The First Finishes of 2013

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. –Moliere

I've had my two Stitchy Kits finished since Monday, but haven't had a chance to post pictures of the finished project. I'm really excited about how they turned out. I absolutely love all the rainbow-y-ness.

This little kit by Lori Holt is the cleverest little thing for keeping all your hand sewing supplies in one place {click here for pattern}. You can lay it over the arm of a chair or couch while you stitch at home or take it with you when you take a project somewhere to work on. There are two Stitchy Kits here, shown at the top left. The components of a single kit are show across the bottom and up the right side in the photos above. One is for me and the other was for my birthday/blog-a-versary giveaway earlier this month and is on it's way to Martina in Switzerland.

I used Indie by Pat Bravo for this fun project and love how the fabrics worked together. I've got another little project in mind for this great fabric line.

Today's post brought to you by:

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway: Winner's Roll-Call

Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity. –Edwin Hubbel Chapin

I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaways this past week-and-a-half. Thank you for the birthday wishes as well. I spent the day simply and it was just what I needed; a quiet day at home spent with the people I love and doing what I love. For those of you who are dreading 40, you don't need to worry. I feel the same as I did at 39 and 33 and 27 and 18, except perhaps, I am a little wiser.

And now it is time to reveal the winners. This part always kills me because I only have four prizes to give to four winners and I'm rooting for all of you. I wish I had a little something for everyone, but that's not the way it goes. I had the No-So-Little Bugs help me with the random draw. Based on the number of entrants for each giveaway, I gave them a range of numbers and let them pick one. I didn't tell them which giveaway they were doing or coach them in any way to pick the winners. It was completely fair and absolutely random.

• Quilter's Care Package Winner:

Drawn by LadyBug

Congratulations to
Shay
at Quilting In My Pyjamas


who said: Happy Blogiversary E! I always enjoy reading your posts.

And as for your actual birthday...shouldn't we be giving you presents instead of vice-versa? I hope you have a wonderful birthday no matter how you decide to celebrate. My 40^th is a little hazy because it was a number of years ago.

My favourite sewing tool are my flower head extra long pins. Did you know you can usually sew right over those suckers with no side effects? Note I said “usually.”


• Chocolate Sundae Batiks Fat Quarter Bundle Winner:

Drawn by Grasshopper

Congratulations to
Hafza
at Hook 'n Needle Creations

who said: My favorite colors combination are red, pink, brown and yellow!

Special thanks to The Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this giveaway.

• Indie Fat Quarter Bundle Winner:

Drawn by LadyBug



Congratulations to
Richard
at Richard and Tanya Quilts


who said: My wife has bought the full Ticklish line and Twirl and Amelia all from the Me and My Sisters collection. I did not buy the full line but almost the full line of Architectural and Reunion. But mostly I just buy random fabrics that interest me. I am all over the place but I do love when I can make a quilt out of a full line of fabrics.


• Stitchy Kit Winner:

Drawn by Grasshopper



Congratulations to
Martina
at Sunshine Quilting

who said: How lovely! The kit looks just great! Happy birthday to you! Be very much blessed and enjoy your day.

I remember my birthday as a child. My favourite cake always was the Black Forest cake. It has a lot of whipping cream and cherries in it. So on my 10^th birthday we went on a little hike into to forest and had the birthday celebration there. And my mom just brought this cake in her backbag with it. Wow, I don't know how she managed to do this but this was such a sign of love for me which I never forget.

Thank you again to everyone who entered and to my sponsor, The Fat Quarter Shop. The winners have been notified by e-mail and prizes will be mailed out shortly.

Stitchy Kit Giveaway: Update

When all is said and done, more is said than done. –Lou Holtz

Remember this?

It's the Stitchy Kit that I'm giving away in conjunction with my 3-year blog-aversary and my 40^th birthday. Well, it's pieces of it anyway. Since I posted the giveaway, I've managed to take matter unorganized and create this.

Pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The pattern is by Lori Holt and the fabric line is Indie by Pat Bravo {some of which I am also giving away}.

Pictured above are two partial Stitchy Kits. One is for me and one is for the giveaway, but I wanted you to see both the outside and inside of the kit, as well as the needle book. I'm not quite finished yet. There will be a little patchwork drawstring bag, which will complete the kit {I opted not to do a covered measuring tape because I don't use a measuring tape that frequently}, but I wanted you to have a better idea of the giveaway, in case you didn't enter because I just posted a bunch of random parts.

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on the giveaway post. Comments left here will not counted count as an every in the giveaway.

Cold Snap

Mike: I am stuck in this frozen wasteland!
Yeti: Wasteland? I think you mean "Wonderland!" I mean, how about all this fabulous snow, huh?
–Monsters, Inc.

Just for the record, I'm with Mike. Because it is cold {said with a shiver}. Over the past three weeks, the temperature has only been above 32˚ once. It's been as low as -8˚, and mostly hovers at plus or minus 10˚. Farenheit. I know this because I have a nifty little weather app on my iPhone. I can see the temperatures in all kinds of places, and we've been colder than all of you most of the time. Moscow, Russia is warmer than us. People are actually building igloos.

At a certain point, you can't get any colder. Once you hit freezing, cold is cold and you just can't warm up. Our furnace has been running non-stop. I don't even want to see the next gas bill. We've had to have it repaired twice and our fix-it guy is coming back next week to do a little preventative maintenance to hopefully keep the thing running a little bit longer. It's getting old and has almost reached the end of it's life. More money out the door.

My car has been acting up too; it has made a total of 4 trips to the repair shop, has spent 14 out of the last 27 days there and had to be towed three times. First the starter went out, which is not related to the cold and I kind of have to allow it. After all, a car needs a new starter every 18 years or so, right? I have my mechanic on speed dial {you have to, when your cars are older than your children} and luckily was less than half a mile away from his shop when the starter went out. He came and had a look at it {just to make sure} and then towed it away {we were on a flat surface, or we could have popped the clutch to start it}. But the mechanic did something goofy when he replaced the starter. He may have had one of his kids help, which I'm Ok with. It's kind of like a teaching hospital; you have to learn somehow, right? Anyway, it would stall every time I took my foot off the gas. I got about six blocks from the repair shop and turned back around so he could fix it, which he did without charging us again.

It was running really well, no problems, but a little less than two weeks ago, I went out to get the car warmed up and to scrape the windows before taking Grasshopper to school. It was a particularly chilly morning, and as I pushed the clutch in to start it, there was a sort of snapping noise and then there was no more resistance in the clutch. I reached down with my hand and it moved in and out, but it was clearly not working. Tow number two. We replaced the master clutch, which sounds expensive, but wasn't as bad as I'd imagined it might be.

Tuesday, another chilly morning, Mr. Bug went out to start the car and the clutch again had no resistance and there was a big puddle of fluid on the driveway. Tow number three. Fortunately, our insurance has covered all of the towing. So far. This time it's the slave cylinder for the clutch.

Dad {and probably the rest of you}, I know you're shaking your head and wondering why we keep going back to this guy. The most obvious answer is that you live too far away for us to call you. And, we know his family. They're in our ward {congregation} and I know for certain he's not getting rich off us. He's honest and hard working and gives us the best deal possible. I think he just fixes what's broken and hopes nothing else goes wrong to give us the best deal. Our car is just old. And breaks. A lot. It's kind of like asking your 85 year old grandfather to stop all his medications, turn his thermostat down to 60˚ and continue to function at normal levels.

Getting around with only one car hasn't been too much of a problem. Mr. Bug works four nights a week, so there's not much conflict for us needing the car at the same time to get to work. There have been a couple of week-day mornings that he was at work and I had to arrange for rides for the Little Bugs to get to school, but it hasn't been too bad. I just really hope that essential things will stop falling apart for a while.

Coincidentally, our mechanic and our fix-it guy both have the same first name, so when someone from the fix-it shop called to schedule an appointment for the preventative maintenance on the furnace and only used his first name, I was confused for a minute, and wondered why the mechanic wanted to set up an appointment when the car was already at the repair shop.

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway, Day 4: Stitchy Kit

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
–Norman MacEwan

I don't think I've finished a project on a deadline since my sister got married in July of 2010 and I made a quilt for her as a gift for her wedding shower. Today is no exception. My giveaway for today is not ready. I've been sewing all day, ignoring the chores {guilt-free, I might add. It's my birthday. I'll sew if I want to} and I still only have unassembled pieces to show you. But we'll get to that in a minute. It's my birthday and you have to indulge me by listening to the back story.

When Lori Holt released her adorable Stitchy Kit pattern in early December, I ordered it the same day. I always take some hand work with me when I go someplace I know I'll have to wait and I thought this would be the cutest thing to have to carry my supplies. When the pattern arrived in the mail, I took it straight to the super secret Christmas present stash without even opening the mailing envelope, which took an amazing amount of restraint. When I did open the envelope to put the pattern in my stocking {which is very large and takes some creativity to fill; socks and underwear usually fit the bill, but this was much more fun}, it was wrapped in some cute tissue paper, which was a fun surprise and made all of my earlier self-control unnecessary.

Since Christmas, I've been thinking about what kinds of fabrics I wanted to use to make my Stitchy Kit. In the end, I decided that I wanted to do something rainbow-y because I love stuff in rainbow order. When I saw the pillow that Amy over at Diary of a Quilter made using the Indie fabric line, I knew it would be a perfect fit. I loved the way the fabrics looked together. I also decided that a Stitchy Kit would be a really fun thing to give away and I could kill two birds with one stone if I orderd ½-yard cuts of the Indie fabrics {see also, Indie Fat Quarter Bundle Giveaway}. I ordered my fabric two weeks ago and it was all here by last Monday. I washed and pressed fabric for days and in between washing and pressing, I worked on the embroidery for the pincushion of this adorable kit. Last night, I cut most of the fabrics out and this morning, I started sewing. I've got lots of pieces together ready for assembly and nothing else to fill in for this last day of my giveaways, so I'm going with it. I love how it is coming out so far and think it will be awesome when it is done. And I promise to have it done by the time I draw the winner.

Without further ado, then, I give you today's prize, a Stitchy Kit for keeping all of your hand sewing supplies in one place, good for traveling, or to put over the arm of a chair or couch while you stitch.

Stitchy Kit includes:
• Cover with inside pockets and pincushion
• Scissor Cozy
• Drawstring Bag for supplies or floss
• Needle Book

Note: this stitchy kit will not include the covered tape measure, unless I change my mind.

UPDATE: I've almost got the Stitchy Kit finished. Pictured below are two partial Stitchy Kits. One is for me and one is for the giveaway, but I wanted you to see both the outside and inside of the kit, as well as the needle book. I'm not quite finished yet. There will be a little patchwork drawstring bag, which will complete the kit {I opted not to do a covered measuring tape because I don't use a measuring tape that frequently}, but I wanted you to have a better idea of the giveaway, in case you didn't enter because I just posted a bunch of random parts.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me your favorite birthday memory. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter each day's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted. Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Friday, January 18^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by noon on January 19^th.

Good luck!

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway Directory
• Quilter's Care Package
• Chocolate Sundae Batik Fat Quarter Bundle
• Indie Fat Quarter Bundle

This giveaway is now closed.
Winners can be found here.

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway, Day 3: Indie Fat Quarter Bundle

Have you had a kindness shown?

Pass it on;

'Twas not given for thee alone,

Pass it on;

Let it travel down the years,

Let it wipe another's tears,

'Til in Heaven the deed appears.

Pass it on.

–Henry Burton

A couple of weeks ago, a project by Amy over at Diary of a Quilter really caught my eye {sidebar: I really should quit reading her blog. Every time I go there, it costs me $150. See also, Sparkle All the Way Christmas Quilt}. She made a pillow using the Indie fabric line by Pat Bravo. I really loved how the fabrics worked together. I try to be sensible about spending money and for the most part don't buy things just to have them. I have to have a project in mind when I buy fabric {unless is it absolutely spectacular} because if I'm actually going to use it, then it is OK to buy it, right? {Never mind if it sits in a storage bin for two years until I get to it.} I'm not really a modern quilter. I'm more of a calico girl, but something about this fabric line just really called my name and my brain started working on ways to justify a purchase.

In another part of my brain, I was working on ideas for my blog-aversary/birthday giveaway. And suddenly it clicked. I had the perfect project for this fabric and I could use that for one of my giveaways {you'll see it tomorrow}, and since I'd be ordering ½ yard cuts anyway, I'd have enough to play with and enough to give some away.

I'm happy to announce today's giveaway; a fat quarter bundle which includes all twenty of the Indie Prints.

Please note: the fabrics have all been washed, pressed, starched and squared up because I wash everything before I use it and I'm using my share of this fabric for a little something fabulous. This means that the fabrics have shrunk a little and depending on how generous {or not} the various shops I ordered them from were and whether they were pulled off grain and required lots of squaring up, the fat quarters range in size from 16½" to 19". Then there's the matter of the Afro Fusion in Dusk print, which I didn't quite order enough of and has ended up being an odd size, but is roughly the same volume as a fat quarter.

I'm off to play with my new Indie fabrics. Here's how you can win your own fat quarter bundle.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me if you like to buy an entire fabric line, or if you pick and choose your favorite fabrics and it doesn't matter what line they come from. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter each day's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted. Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Friday, January 18^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by noon on January 19^th.

Good luck!

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway Directory
• Quilter's Care Package
• Chocolate Sundae Batik Fat Quarter Bundle
• Stitchy Kit

This giveaway is now closed.
Winners can be found here.

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway, Day 2: Chocolate Sundae Batiks Fat Quarter Bundle

This life is for loving, sharing, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving. I choose to live life this way. –Steve Maraboli

Happy Thursday everyone! Yesterday was my three-year blog-a-versary, and to celebrate, I kicked off four days of giveaways, which will end on my birthday. My 40^th birthday. Cue the ominous music ? I don't think so. Age is just a number, and 40 is as good as any other.

I have something really fun for you today, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop. I can't think of a better way to brighten up the short, cold winter days than with fabric. Unless you're in the southern hemisphere and the days aren't short and cold, in which case, you all need something to do on summer break. Right? It's the perfect prize for any time of the year.

Today's giveaway is a fat quarter bundle of Chocolate Sundae Batiks by Hoffman Fabrics. Aren't those colors amazing together?

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me what your favorite color combination is. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter each day's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted. Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Friday, January 18^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by noon on January 19^th.

Good luck!

Today's post brought to you by:
The Big Four-Oh Giveaway Directory
• Quilter's Care Package
• Indie Fat Quarter Bundle
• Stitchy Kit

This giveaway is now closed.
Winners can be found here.

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway, Day 1: Quilter's Care Package

To give and then not feel that one has given is the very best of all ways of giving. –Max Beerbohm

Today is my three-year blog-aversary. In a few days I will turn 40. In honor of the occasion, I've given up dairy!

Wait. That's not right.

I must be getting forgetful in my old age.

I actually did give up dairy, but that's not my idea of a celebration.

Let's try again.

In honor of the occasion, I'm having a giveaway. That's what bloggy peeps do to celebrate, right? I'm having four days of giveaways; one giveaway for each decade I've been knocking about the planet. How does that sound?

Let's get right to it.

Today's giveaway is a little quilter's care package, but you probably guessed that already .

Up for grabs today:
• A Sew Taxi {a nifty little tool case which contains 12 tools: thread cutter, magnifying glass, seam ripper, piercing punch, punch needle, stuffing tool, knit picker, tweezers, safety pin, measuring tape, needle threader, long needle threader}
• A row marking kit {for after you've laid out your quilt, but want to stack your rows for easy transport to your machine or storage for later}
• A package of Schmetz size 80/12 universal machine needles
• An 876-yard spool of Gutterman 100% cotton 50-weight thread
• A three ounce misting bottle filled with Magic Starch {note: the color of the misting bottle you receive may vary}.

The Fine Print:
• To enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me about your favorite quilting tool. Or just leave a comment. Whichever.
• You can enter each day's giveaway only once.
• Non-blogging/non-Google users and international entrants are welcome.
• If you do not have a Google account, use the name/url {url optional} commenting option and make sure you leave your e-mail in your comment in the following format: address (at) domain name (dot) com.
• Comments with no contact information will be deleted.
• Google account users: not sure if your contact information will be attached to your comment? Click here:


• Duplicate comments will be deleted. Comment moderation is on, so don't panic when your comment doesn't show up. I'm notified of new comments and will approve them periodically each day, after which they'll show up on the post.
• The giveaway will close at 10:00 pm {MST} on Friday, January 18^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by noon on January 19^th.

Good luck!

The Big Four-Oh Giveaway Directory
• Chocolate Sundae Batiks Fat Quarter Bundle
• Indie Fat Quarter Bundle
• Stitchy Kit

This giveaway is now closed.
Winners can be found here.

Mormon Messages: Words With Friends

Learning, pondering, searching, and memorizing scriptures is like filling a filing cabinet with friends, values, and truths that can be called upon anytime, anywhere in the world.

Great power can come from memorizing scriptures. To memorize a scripture is to forge a new friendship. It is like discovering a new individual who can help in time of need, give inspiration and comfort, and be a source of motivation for needed change.
–Richard G. Scott, The Power of Scripture

A Stitch In Time: December Finishes Giveaway Winner

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials. –Bruce Lee

I apologize for the delay in announcing the winner for December. The site that hosts the linky just sort of evaporated for a bit yesterday, and all the linkies went with it. I was kind of sweating it. I assume that there was some sort of testing or upgrade or maintenance going on because everything is back today in working order. And so I am excited {and relieved} to announce the winner. Grasshopper drew our winner for this month and he picked #17.


Congratulations to
Bente
at I Like to QuiltBlog

Bente will receive a Fat Quarter Bundle of Amour Pam Kitty Love by Pam Kitty Morning from The Fat Quarter Shop. If you haven't had a chance, make sure to check out the fun quilt-along that The Fat Quarter Shop is hosting with this adorable fabric line. Besides the sweet little Julemus {or is the plural Julemi? } Bente made, she had seven other finishes. If you have a minute, see all of the other fun things she was up to last month: #6, #7, #8, #9, #15, #16 and #19.


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 in the January post. The giveaway, sponsored by The Fat Quarter Shop, for the January drawing is a a charm pack of Comma by Zen Chic.


Today's post brought to you by:

A Stitch In Time: Buttons

It is necessary to try to pass one's self always; this occupation ought to last as long as life. –Queen Christina of Sweden

We've just kicked off another year, with plenty of potential do knock a few projects off those WIP, UFO and Ph.D lists. I'm excited to host a monthly linky party again this year. I'd like to send out a special thank you to The Fat Quarter Shop, who will be sponsoring the giveaway each month. As I did last year, there will be a new button for each month, which links back to that month's specific post. The month-specific button should be included in any post you link up during that month.

New for this year, I've made a general-purpose button for your sidebars. It is a link to the main linky party index page on my blog {the A Stitch In Time tab, above}, which always shows the current month's linky party and includes links to previous months. Just copy and paste the code into an HTML gadget on your layout page to save it to your sidebar and you can always find your way to link up when you have a finish.

<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/p/a-stitch-in-time.html" target="_blank" title="A Stitch In Time Linky Party"><img alt="A Stitch In Time Linky Party" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZUqnmB6necy2Gd3KS_n1ayAOXnnDALFBCWnG2u4QKgrxh1gJaWIeYGBf9Z4NQRmn5eHPnu3ZT6nlkM9tgtZV-zgjDM2mqSPjc9J-qnFI-qNjTFieKnX5T8HzSwrGdINdVX7TYNCJWz-A/s255/A%2520Stitch%2520In%2520Time%25202013%2520Sidebar.jpg" /></a></center>
I like to keep an index page of my finishes each year. It is nice to have one place to keep track of everything. Plus, I can't link up to my own party {although I really wish I could. The Fat Quarter Shop always has something really nice they are giving away}, so I have to have somewhere to show it all off, right? Keeping an index page of your finishes is not required to participate in the monthly linky parties, but if you'd like to keep track of your finishes on your own blog feel free to use this button, which you can put in your sidebar and have it link back to your index page.


Here are instructions on how to do make the button link to an index page you create on your blog:
• After you have posted your index page, click on View Post {instead of View Blog} so that only your index post is open and showing on your blog page.
• Copy the code below {the button is 165 x 255}.

<center><a href="PASTE YOUR URL HERE" target="_blank" title="My 2013 Finishes"><img alt="My 2013 Finishes" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjluwef1kR0yX7sMsxuXEcuO3l4MgwVdEoKhUE1S-BQ9_890UGw1cvGHKf-2I2RSyCRdFN8I0toUBPDo0moSd7fo3wtTvbBMfVdo2KRuw3WWnFKOmzMkPtBo2uX5BZyPM_sNoDq6CufnflR/s1600/A+Stitch+In+Time+2013+My+Finishes.jpg" /></a></center>
• In a new tab or window, open up your blogger Layout page.
• In the sidebar area, click on Add a Gadget and select HTML/Java Script from the menu that pops up.
• Paste the button code into the text box.
• This is the important part — your button won't work as a link to your index page unless you do the following: go back to your index page and copy the URL {starts with http://} from that specific post and paste that over top of the text in the button code that says PASTE YOUR URL HERE. The URL should sit directly in between the quotation marks in the code, with no spaces before or after or any other characters in that area.
• Save the button to your sidebar. When visitors to your blog click on your button, they will be taken to your 2013 Finishes index page which {hopefully} has a list of everything you finish this year.
• Make sure to update your index page as you post about your finishes this year. If you want, include links to each individual post for easy reference back to your finishes.
• Leave me a little note in the comments with a link to your blog so I can come and visit you and see your finishes.
• Have fun with your finishes!