100th post giveaway winner!

here is it folks...what you've all been waiting for this weekend... :)

random.org generated the winner for me and came up with post number 30. so the winner is ann, who said:

"Congrats on the 100th post. Best thing about winter is sledding. At 41 I still love zooming down a big hill with my boys. Second best are the sweaters and luckily I live where I really need them.:)"

thanks to ann and everyone else who stopped by, took a look at my little blog and played along! i'm hoping to have many quilts and other projects for you to see this year. i can promise bunches of QOVs since my brain is on idea overload for red, white and blue quilts. my shipment of 28 yards of glorious fabric should be arriving today or tomorrow from fabric.com that i purchased with some sponsorship. i'm a fabulous shopper... for a mere $125.77, i purchased 28 YARDS of fabric, including 4 yards of 108" wide backing fabric. there's kona cotton, some moda fabrics, an adorable white fabric that has little flags, some robert kaufman and a bunch of others that will be fantastic QOVs.

but for now...i'm back to the daily grind... sewing starts later when i get to work on my block swaps.

happy new year and my 100th post!

happy new year everyone! 2009 was one heck of a year. so many things happened - good and bad. i made new bloggy friends, joined some great swap groups on flickr, made my first QOV (and many more!), bought the house i rented, gained a new nephew, made a wonderful trip to washington, d.c. for the navy and spent waaaaaay too much time in hospital waiting rooms with my family. of course, those events didn't necessarily happen in that order.

yesterday was a long and fun day. i worked a half day, then drove to the other side of houston to meet up with my in-laws, have lunch and then go to the texas bowl to see navy play mizzou.

navy football team entering the field

i got to wear my new navy stocking cap to show my pride.




most of the recruiting district was in the section i sat in. just below us were the midshipmen and the academy band. nose-bleeds, but not too bad. not that i really cared.... i prefer hockey any day over any sport and football is not high on my list.

but just after half-time, we left (whoopee!!!!) and headed back home to get ready for our date night at a fantastic restaurant that we know the chef. we ended the evening at a friend's house and a smidgen of salsa dancing in the garage.

and now on to the 100th post giveaway!

i started this blog just over a year ago. i had been following so many fantastic quilters and had blogged before on my own personal life and quirks...why not a quilty-art blog too? and in the spirit of bloggers, i'm giving away 5 fat quarters to one lucky reader. it's dreary in many parts of the country and cold, so why not some fun and bright spring/summer fabrics to cheer you up?



in order to enter, leave me a comment telling me what you love most about winter. i love sweaters the most, but don't live where i can wear them often...i bring them out as soon as i can. do you follow my blog? let me know in a separate post and you'll be entered in for 2 chances to win.

comment from now til sunday, january 3rd and on monday, january 4th, i'll pick a randomly-generated comment as the winner.

and the winner is....

my may giveaway day winner is: fish in training, who commented "So cute! Currently working on a blue quilt!" congratulations fish in training!! i'll be sending you an email shortly to get your information and tonight i'll pull some extra goodies from my stash to share with you.

thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway - i had fun! 106 of you entered and i got about 900 blog views. i think that's pretty impressive, especially considering i'm not full of tutorials and fun stuff like amandajean or tia. and i more than doubled my followers (thanks to you as well - i hope i keep you interested in the future).

may giveaway day!!

the may giveaway day is here!!! the lovely people at sew mama sew are hosting the next round of giveaway days. i discovered so many of the fantastic blogs i follow and regularly read from their last one in december. tons of fun to participate in - people offered fantastic items in their giveaways.

i'm in the process of getting items together for my upcoming etsy store. since it doesn't look like i'll be able to put jewelry, etc. back in the little store in galveston after ike destroyed it all, i figured i'd put a similar line to the one i used to make for them on the esty store, as well as other jewelry, metal objects and textile/fabric items. i used to make a lot of baby and children's items and will be offering those as well. unfortunately, i did not time the giveaway day well enough to open my etsy store on the same day. drats... it's all because i'm working on multiple QOVs, knitting, supposedly starting a dress, an orchid illustration and hopefully finishing boo's teepee that i started before christmas.

so...without further adieu... my giveaway:

my giveaway is a set of 4 wine glass charms and at least the 4 fat quarters pictured above. i will ALSO INCLUDE some surprise items (could be more fabrics/scraps from my stash, zippers, patterns, magazines, buttons, paper craft items, etc...you never know!) the wine charms are made using milliefori glass beads and natural stones (hematite) and are packaged in an organza pouch.

this technically opens tomorrow at 9am eastern time, but i'm posting it now since i'll be at work and may not get a chance first thing. i will leave it open until may 31st so you have lots of time to comment.

to qualify: since i've got so many projects going, leave a comment on this blog post telling me what project you're currently working on. i'd love to find out what everyone else has going on this spring. don't forget to include a way to contact you - if you don't have a blogger profile, leave me an email address!

the postman came knocking...

and he brought me this box of goodies! do you see how stuffed to the brim this box is?! a little while back, i entered a giveaway on artsymomma's blog and i won. this is what i received today - yarns, papers and stickers for scrapbooking, a ton of different fabrics in all colors, prints and sizes, buttons (you can see the red ones peeking out in the photo), vintage zippers and a gift certificate redeemable at fabricworm. i've never been over to fabricworm before, so i have a new adventure.

it's going to be hard to live up to steph's box of wonderfulness. later this month, i'm participating in SMS's giveaway day and i have no idea what to giveaway yet. hmm...must finish something since i picked my category already.

this weekend was houston's armed forces day -military ball. that's my sweetie giving me a peck before we headed out in the rain. i made the dress and it's the most wonderful turquoise shantung silk. it has a linen-like look to it and drapes beautifully. the dress has a fishtail hem, which you can't see here, but it's pulled towards the front.

spring to finish challenge update: um...nothing much to report. i had expected to finish and ship off QOV #2, but it was returned from the longarm quilter unfinished. QOVF instructed that i go ahead and finish quilting it by hand. none of the borders were quilted - just the main portion was stippled. not sure why and this sets me back on getting it out. QOV #3 just needs borders and that top will be done and ready for the next longarmmer.

sms's may giveaway day

sew mama sew just announced they will do a giveaway day this month like they did this past december. i checked it out in december and found quite a few of the people i follow through it. i had a blast reading the blogs and seeing what everyone had to offer as a prize. didn't win anything, but that was fine with me. i loved it anyways.

i'm going to participate later this month - it opens on may 27th and will end on may 31st. i'll be offering a handcrafted item and some sort of supplies/materials to the lucky winner. i have a few ideas in my head that coincide with some plans for my etsy shop (yet to open...stay tuned). the wonderful shop/gallery that i had my work in closed after hurricane ike this past september and hasn't reopened yet. they were hoping to, but i haven't heard when. with no place to sell locally, i figured i could put items other than my drawings in the etsy shop. i lost my stock in the hurricane and need to rebuild it again.

hmm...maybe i can open the shop and do the giveaway at the same time. we'll see!

goodies i received!

the mailman brought me some goodies in today's mail. it was the only thing that wasn't junk too! a few weeks ago, i entered a giveaway on the homestead quilter's blog and i was one of the lucky winners. as well as quilting, pamela makes soaps and bath teas and balms. she sent me a package of bath teas, romantic rose bath salts (to which my hubby went "ooooooohhh!!!!" upon my going through the contents) and a lip balm. she's having a grand opening of her online store for the soaps and body products on june 1st, so pop on by montana soap works and check it out.

so far, i tried the lip balm. it's lovely and light - goes on thin enough to coat your lips but doesn't have any goopiness that some of the other balms i've tried before. mine is unflavored, but i know she's got some flavors out there. i'm looking forward to the bath salts and the teas. i've never used a bath tea before - you steep it in boiling water and then add it to your bath. i could see it being a calming thing. hmm...i see a hot bath, a good book, and maybe some candles in my near future... now, to put the kid in bed or keep him from going "mommmmmm!!!!!" every few minutes when i want to relax.

as much as april's challenge to complete things instead of start them, i did a great job. in ways, i was hoping to keep that going before i started anything else, but no luck. thursday night, i already had a skirt pattern laid out and free spirit floral fabric cut while i watched grey's anatomy. i haven't started sewing yet - that was part of the plans for today, but that changed to running with hubby and kid (and holy smokes! my 6-year old can run like the wind for a half mile before slowing down for water! i think he'll be a cross country runner), some gardening and lawn work, then battling the eyeglasses place about the wrong lenses and incorrectly put in - an adventure that took me through a sales person and two managers, and then running around getting odds and ends for the house. AND, i washed all the fabric for my dia de los muertos quilt. i figured out a pattern for it. modern and clean lines, although the fabrics won't keep it so streamlined. pictures to come later.