brrr! winner

The random number generator chose #32 Katy to be the winner of the the Brrr! fat quarter pack.  Congrats Katy!  You are going to love it.  I will send you an email soon.

I managed to sneak a little bit of Brrr! into some of these quilt blocks I made for a new virtual quilting bee I joined recently.  I’ve resisted joining a bee for at least four years, but I made the leap and it is turning out to be so much fun.  By coincidence, Katy is a member of this bee, although the blocks pictured were made for another member of our six-quilter group.

this blog is old

Three years old, in fact. I could say a lot about this little space of mine, but if I go down that road, I’d likely wear out my welcome and bore you to tears. Here’s the long and short of it. My blog, and it’s readers, have given me a great deal and for that, I am grateful.

To express a bit of that gratitude, I thought I’d do a modest giveaway. {I have a love/hate thing with giveaways, but I’m going to ignore the pessimist in me and do it.} Up for grabs is a custom bundle of five fat quarters of fabric from my stash. I will chat with the winner about likes/dislikes/colors etc and do my absolute very best to create a little package of something special that s/he would be thrilled to receive in the mail. This is open to anyone, anywhere and I will choose a winner randomly sometime Friday evening, January 14. There is no catch to this — no need to promote it on other means of social media. In fact, I’d prefer to keep things quiet. Just say hello in the comments and you’re in. I will send an e-mail to the winner.

*Pictured above is a Christmas gift I put together for a young relative who is interested in learning to sew. I am posting the photo to demonstrate the type of fabric bundle that could be won in this giveaway. I could come close to replicating this one if it was of interest.

Thank you for reading this silly little {old} blog. It plays a fairly important role in my creative life and I very much appreciate that folks swing by here to learn about what I’ve been making and read whatever it is I have to say. All my best to you in this New Year!

NOTE:  GIVEAWAY CLOSED. #9 CHRISTINE M. IS THE WINNER.  I WILL SEND AN EMAIL NOTIFICATION.

cookbook + fabric bits + bird = giveaway

Here we are. That ubiquitous milestone. The 100th post. And this is the package of goods I will give away to one commenter to celebrate the occasion.

First up is a cookbook, made by me, that celebrates my mother and the wonderful contents of her recipe box. The photos are of my copy, which you can see is well loved and frequently used.  The chocolate cake recipe is my go-to cake for birthdays.  Can you tell?

The winner will receive a new copy, all 181 pages, replete with fantastic recipes and embarrassing family photos, packaged in a handy spiral binding that lays flat while you cook.

I love that photo of my eldest brother in lederhosen.  I wonder if I will torment my son in a similar fashion.  It’s likely.

My mom’s parents provide a handsome introduction to the dessert section.

I will also throw in a set of 5 inch fabric squares equal to a half yard of fabric, similar to the ones pictures below, if you like them.  Otherwise, the winner can let me know what they like, and I will try to get my fabric stash to cooperate.  This part of the giveaway was inspired by Juliette and her brilliant Spare Change Swap.  This is the kind of swap that I can handle.  No pressure to actually create anything.  All I had to do was stare at my fabric selection, pick out my favorites, cut them up into little squares, and ship them off.

And finally, in case you need something to do with those 5 inch squares, the winner will also receive a little birdie similar to the one pictured below made from the excellent pattern provided over at Spool Sewing. Do you need more convincing that making these birds is a good idea? Check this out.

So, just say a quick hello in the comments section and I will send these silly prizes off in a nice little package to one winner. Please don’t sweat it if you haven’t commented before and thanks so much for checking in on this little corner of the internet.

P.S.  I’ll ship internationally, so Olivia no seas timida! And Rebecca, don’t you be shy either!

UPDATE:  Contest closed.  #21 was the winner.  I will be in touch with Vanessa by email.

prizes, finally

At last. The name-that-fish prizes have been sewn, sealed and delivered. The pillow pictured first is for the sixth grader who gave our new family pet the name Creamsicle. The fabric is mostly Tula Pink’s Flutterby mixed with some solids and a fish print that was imported from Japan. I used the disappearing nine-patch pattern, but took it one step further by cutting the blocks in half two more times than is standard. I did this because I wanted smaller squares of fabric in the design. I first learned about the disappearing nine-patch here. The border and backing fabric is chocolate brown corduroy.

This second pillow is for Barbara, the winner of the random drawing. The center flower is from Amy Butler’s Lotus collection and the rest of the prints are Freshcut by Heather Bailey. I used scraps leftover from this quilt. The off-white material framing the patchwork is cut from an old tea towel. This pillow is backed in brown corduroy as well.

This was my first attempt at pillow making and I was happy with the results. It was particularly rewarding to be able to give the pillows away to two wonderful people. Thanks again for playing my silly name-that-fish game. Creamsicle is doing great and is loving his new name.

prize in progress

Not a lot of time this morning so the little guy and I took a quick snapshot using the funky features that Photobooth has to offer. He is holding a prize in progress.

The good news from yesterday is that we had a visit from the Italian pastry fairy. (Thanks Godmum!) Sometimes on weekends we have visits from the bagel and blueberry muffin fairy.  (Thanks Grandpa!)  Have you had any fairy-godmother moments lately in which someone has been super sweet to you for no reason at all?

Have a great weekend!

creamsicle

I had the perfect birthday a week or so ago. The Cydermaker took the 6 a.m. shift with the kiddo and made pancakes for breakfast. Grandmama took me to lunch, accompanied by a trip to the bookstore. I was greeted later that evening by three bouquets of flowers, some extra special chocolate, and a bottle of my favorite potatoes…from Poland…in liquid form. We had a nice family dinner at a local restaurant and shared a delicious piece of chocolate mousse cake from a local bakery. My kind of day! I was also treated to an on-line fabric shopping spree. The Cydermaker ordered up a bunch of Japanese imports and Grandmama treated me to a whole bunch of fabric squares. The pile of goodness is right there in the top photo. Do you see those cute green hedgehogs at the bottom peeking out?

I am really loving this new line of fabric called Flutterby by Tula Pink. I think it’s my favorite thing to stare at right now. I do that. Just stare at fabric. The Cydermaker catches me in the act all the time. I suppose I could have worse quirks. Oh wait. I do. But I won’t get into that right now.

These “fish cakes” may seem a little odd, but I have something in mind for them and they should do the job nicely.

And this sweet fabric is populated with the most adorable apple trees. A yard or two flew over from Japan and landed in the home of a gal with a blog named apple cyder. It only makes sense, right?

So now you are saying to yourself, “Nice fabric lady, but why the heck is this post titled Creamsicle?”

Because Creamsicle is the name of our new fish! Now go back to that original post and have another gander at our first family pet. I think you’ll agree it’s the perfect name. Thanks to the “C” Girls for the suggestion. Something handmade will make its way to you soon. Barbara was the winner of the random drawing. Her name, Jeremy, was also a good one, but we felt like the little guy would have gone with Creamsicle if he could have had a say in the matter. So Barbara wins as well. I will be in touch when the prizes are ready. Thanks to everyone who played along. I appreciate all of the great name ideas and love getting those comments.

Speaking of contests, I won one recently and a very talented woman named Mary (a self-professed craft addict) sent me these beautiful tea towels. Check out her blog if you have a chance. I am so impressed by everything she creates and was thrilled to find such a beautiful gift from her in the mail.

One last thing. We just returned from a really fun (yet slightly soggy) ski weekend in Vermont with Grammy, Grandpa and the Aunties and Uncle. More on that soon.

name that fish. win a prize. woo hoo!

Our little guy needs your help. He received this spunky goldfish on Valentine’s Day from his Grandmama, but we haven’t decided on a name yet. We considered the obvious holiday-related name, Val, but it’s just not working for me. Not sure of the gender, but I think he’s a he. If you’re so inclined, post a comment and name that fish. (If you are an email subscriber, you can post a comment by clicking on the “comment” link at the end of the email message. This will bring you to the website where you will be able to type in your comment.)

There is a handmade prize in the offing for the person whose comment is picked from a random drawing. I can’t tell you what that prize will be exactly, but I will try to take the winner’s tastes into consideration. For those of you cruising the internet in far-off places, I will ship wherever you are, so don’t be strangers. I will keep this silly little contest open for a week and will draw a name the evening of Monday, March 10.

Thanks for the fish, Grandmama! We love our first family pet.

 **********UPDATE************

Our fish now has a name!  We decided to go with Creamsicle.  Congrats to the ”C Girls”, who named the fish, and Barbara, who won the random drawing.  I will get to work on those prizes and be in touch.