Three happy things and a giveaway!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) laughing over old pictures
(2) sweet potato fries
(3) sharing your good fortune

Hi everybody, especially my followers!

A couple weeks ago when I went blackberry picking with Charlene, Renea and Pat, I also picked a container for my neighbors across the street.  Matt and Rachel are very nice, and they have a little munchkin named Isaiah who's cute as a bug!  Anyway, Matt has shares in a farm "down in the country" with a buddy, and when I gave them the blackberries they handed me some corn on the cob and a tomato.  Well, I'm not usually a corn eater but my sister told me how she fries hers; I tried it and it was  delicious - I think I'm a convert!  A few days later Matt came over with two slices of super-delicious watermelon.  A few days after that, he brought me a whole melon - my cup runneth over!

Last week I was given an entire box of sweet potatoes - now that's a lot of taters!  I took lots and lots of them to guild meeting on Saturday and shared with the members ... I was glad to see they were all taken, I can just smell sweet potato pies!  Sweet potato souffle with marshmallows on top - yummy!  Anybody ever had sweet potato cake?  I think it's made the same as carrot cake; I used to find them at Costco in October-November... but I digress.

And now for the giveaway, thanks for being patient!

I have a 2-1/2 yard piece of Daisy Kingdom fabric in my stash that's cute as can be, but I know the only way I'd probably ever use it would be as a backing. 

It's called "Tea Party" and seems to be one of those sweet over-printed designs that have the outline of the teapots shifted just slightly from the colors ... is that what over-printing is??   Anyway, the teapots are blocked out in very light blue squares as if they're meant to be cut apart.  There's even a shelf to perch them on!  Sorry, no cups  :o)




This can be yours if you like fussy cutting!



On almost all of my posts I list three happy things ... they're hardly ever related to me or to each other, just random things to be happy about!  All you have to do to win is:

(1) leave me a message listing three things to be happy about - they don't need an explanation, they can just be one-liners; and

(2) announce the giveaway on your blog (if you have one)

That's it, no other requirement!  I'll pick a winner and post it by 9 am on Saturday the 25th, good luck!  I usually post by 5 am but hey, sometimes this retired lady likes to sleep in!  ;o)

Sew forth and sew on, have a great Monday!

Jelly roll fun!

We had a great time at guild yesterday, doing our jelly roll race!  I think there were a dozen people participating, and quite naturally someone started off by sewing without thread, it was a scream!

This is what mine looked like after I finished (sorry, I didn't win!); next time you see this it'll be a real quilt with borders!

This is one made by Jocelyn (she was quilter of the month with the trunk show this month) - good inspiration!   I think Jocelyn made this one when we had our jelly roll race at our WeeBee Quilting bee a few months ago.  She did a beautiful job finishing her's, didn't she?

Here I am working away diligently... what a tangled mess my strips were!  I don't think there's any way to keep them from tangling, unless you stretch all 800 inches across a roller. 

At this point I think I'm on my first round of five, LOL.  I had to decide early on that in a jelly roll race, the strip edges don't have to meet up EXACTLY ...

And now, in no particular order, we have a few winners!

Azalia (left) and Serita!

Natalie (left) and Chloe!

Jackie (left) and Linda (me)!

The fabrics combinations were awesome!  I saw one other person using blues, there were several batik sets, two people had black-and-white combinations...

Nadine chose African fabrics for her's...

I think it will be simply beautiful when she finishes, she does such lovely quilts!

We had a great time doing this jelly roll race, there was laughter all over the room.  My next one will definitely be black and white, they looked so good sewn together.  Of course, black and white is a classic combo anyway, you can't miss with it!

Sew forth and sew on

behind the scenes

Three things to be happy about:
(1) solving a riddle
(2) crinkly laugh lines
(3) autumn shopping sprees

It's guild day again - already!  Where did the last month go, the time just flew by.  The saying goes "time flies when you're having fun" but I think it flies whether you're having fun or not! 

But thank goodness quilters know how to have fun, whether we're working on our projects or just doodling around some other way.

Today in our workshop we're having a jelly roll race, yaaaay!  Because I've been on a strict fabric diet lately, rather than buying a jelly roll (or two) I decided to shop my stash and cut my own.  Let's hear it for the stash! 

I needed 40 strips and I'm really pleased (and feeling like a clever girl!) that I was able to pull enough fabrics to get those 40 strips... I'm using blues this time, cutting three strips from each fabric.

I took my strips to the quilting session at the senior center on Thursday and trimmed off those pesky selvedges.  I had to laugh, because I also took my new favorite trail mix and everybody was getting hooked on it!

I got this trail mix from Costco and it's a great snack because it's not sweet ... but it's HOT!  There's a liberal amount of wasabi in the mix!

I trimmed off all the selvedges at the center, so I was able to start sewing the ends together when I got home.  Some people sew their strips at a 45 degree angle which is pretty - but I take the lazy way out and just connect em straight on.

I decided not to worry about matching fabrics or which ones got hooked onto which, because when we do the jelly roll race there won't be any way to control the colors anyway.  So, I just let them fall where they may!

So here's the finished product, rolled on a paper towel roll to keep them from tangling...

let the race begin - wish me luck!

Sew forth and sew on