Such a Sew and Sew

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

A Week of Giveaways Day 2: Fat Quarter Bundle

There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
–George Santayana, "War Shrines," Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, 1922

I'm really excited to announce today's giveaway, sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. It is a Backyard Baby Fat Quarter Bundle. I wish I could enter my own giveaway.

A great big thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop!

To enter to win this cutie patootie fat quarter bundle, just leave me a comment.

The Fine Print:
• You can enter each giveaway during the week only once. However if you spread the word about my week of giveaways by posting on your blog and sending people on over to check it out, you can have one additional entry on one giveaway of your choice. After you post, leave a comment on my giveaway post for which you'd like a second entry with a link to your post. Please make sure to include my giveaway button somewhere in your post.

• 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 Thursday, January 19^th. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and notified by e-mail and announced here by noon January 21^st.

Good luck!

Week of Giveaways Directory:
• Embroidery Gift Pack
• $50 Long-Arm Machine Quilting Gift Certificate
• Polka-Dot Quilt
• Machine Quilting Gift Pack

Monday, January 9, 2012

A Week of Giveaways Day 1: Embroidery Gift Pack

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you. –Annie Dillard

Welcome to the party! Today is my 2-year blog anniversary and later in the week it is my birthday. So I'm celebrating with a week of giveaways! Let the festivities commence!

Today's giveaway is a collection of things to either get you started with embroidery, or to add to your existing embroidery tools.

Included in this gift pack:
• 22 skeins of DMC embroidery floss
• 28 floss bobbins
• DMC floss number stickers
• One flexible thimble {small and medium pictured here; we'll work out the details for fit later}
• Thread Heaven thread conditioner
• A pair of embroidery scissors
• Twenty size 10 embroidery needles
• A fine-point water soluble marking pen.

The Fine Print:
• You can enter each giveaway during the week only once. However if you spread the word about my week of giveaways by posting on your blog and sending people on over to check it out, you can have one additional entry on one giveaway of your choice. After you post on your blog, leave a comment on my giveaway post for which you'd like a second entry with a link to your post. Please make sure to include my giveaway button somewhere in your post.

Good luck!

Week of Giveaways Directory:
• Backyard Baby Fat Quarter Bundle
• $50 Long-Arm Machine Quilting Gift Certificate
• Polka-Dot Quilt
• Machine Quilting Gift Pack

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sabbath Songs: Nearer My God To Thee

If you have problems in your life, don’t assume there is something wrong with you. Struggling with those problems is at the very core of life’s purpose. As we draw close to God, He will show us our weaknesses and through them make us wiser, stronger. If you’re seeing more of your weaknesses, that just might mean you’re moving nearer to God, not farther away.
–Bruce C. Hafen, The Atonement: All for All, April 2004

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Saturday Summary

Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again.
–Bill Morgan, Jr.

Life At Its Best
Last night we had our first real snowfall. Snow has come down a few times, but nothing that required shoveling or that stuck around for very long. So, the Little Bugs and I dragged our shovels outside to clear the walks and driveway. We face north and the driveway becomes on huge ice slick if the snow isn't shoveled right away. So we were on it.

LadyBug loves snow. Like a lot. As soon as I said we were going out to shovel after breakfast, she was on the hunt for her snow things. She was ready and waiting for the rest of us to get our gear on and go out. When we got outside, she shoveled with gusto until she couldn't stand it any more and then she just had to play in the snow. She plopped down half on the sidewalk still and made a snow angel. The look of simple felicity on her face melted my heart.

When the world is cold and white, the best thing to do is make a snowman. The snow that came down this time was really good packing snow—the best I've seen in a few years. LadyBug made this snowman mostly by herself. I did some of the heavy lifting, and Grasshopper helped out too, but she rolled most of him by herself.

	InsideOut a Cappella - In the Sun They Melted (Snowmen II)

Jilly Bean's Book Club
My cute sister, Jill, is hosting a book club of sorts. This first book she's doing is Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. I'm trying to figure out how to fit in a little reading time, because I think it will be really fun. Click on over and check it out.

A Week of Giveaways
January 9^th is my 2-year blog anniversary. And January 12^th is my birthday. So I am hosting a week of giveaways because I can't think of a better way to celebrate! I'll announce a new giveaway each day, beginning on Monday and running through Friday. I have lots of fun things planned, so I hope you'll join me!

I've Been Pinned
OK. I admit it. I've never been to Pinterest before this week. And still, I've only barely dipped my toe in. I'm trying to keep my curiosity at bay because I know that I will get sucked in and spend hours and hours pinning cool stuff. This week I noticed that I had quite a few hits from Pinterest. I clicked on the link and found myself on a page with a collection of my stuff on Pinterest! I'm not sure how it got there, but I'm kind of excited that people like my stuff. The cool thing is that I'm not just getting pinned, I'm getting re-pinned. Wow! If this is my 15 minutes of fame, I'll take it.

Friday, January 6, 2012

A Stitch In Time: Make Your Own Index Page

Stick to your task till it sticks to you;

Beginners are many, but enders are few.

Honour, power, place, and praise

Will come, in time, to the one who stays.

Stick to your task till it sticks to you;

Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too;

For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile

Will come life's victories, after awhile.

–Jack M. Lyon and others, ed.,
Best-Loved Poems of the LDS People, (1996), 255–56

Starting a project is easy. Working on something new has a momentum of its own. But when the excitement wears off or you hit a snag, it is easy to set it aside and move on to something else. There is something to be said for seeing a project through to completion. So, I'd like to offer you a little motivation, some encouragement, a place to show off those finishes and an opportunity to win some goodies each month that you have a finish!

I like to keep an index page of my finishes. It is nice to have one place to keep track of everything. Keeping an index page of your finishes is not required to participate in the monthly linkies, but if you do an index page please include this graphic, which links to the index page for this linky party. For best results, click on the Edit HTML tab when you paste it in and then you can switch over to the Compose tab to position it left, right or center in your post.

If you'd like to include a button in your sidebar, which links back to your index page here are instructions on how to do that.
• 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 you want to use {the small one is 150 pixels and the big one is 220 pixels}.

• In a new tab or window, open up your blogger Design 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 2012 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!

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