Pattern Giveaway

I was going through and visiting and reorganizing my stash of patterns and came across several that I no longer love so I figured I might as well have a giveaway, because someone else might love them. I thought I would make it a surprise grab bag sort of giveaway, it has an assortment of pieced and applique patterns, I'd say mostly applique though. If you want to get in the drawing, leave a comment on this post and I will have the drawing after I come back from my fast turnaround trip to Bend, Oregon to visit family (and Sew Many Quilts). How about I hold the drawing on November 11. Here's a picture of the surprise package. Important: If you want to be included, you must make sure you are not set to no-reply or include your email address in your comment where I can reach you, if I have no way of getting hold of you, your name will not be included in the drawing.

Yes, I know, I still need to go buy that new camera!

Tootles.

Here it is almost the end of October, amazing how fast this month went! Tomorrow is my daugther's 23rd birthday, amazing where THOSE 23 years went! Ugh!

I haven't been doing much in the way of quilting. I am doing a 9-patch swap with a couple of my bloggy friends, totally fun, but that's about all the sewing I've done lately, at least it's something. I've been doing a lot of organizing in my sewing room, but what good is organizing doing me? I have been organizing my patterns and good grief are there a lot of great ones that I forgot I had. My bloggy buddy Colleen and I are challenging each other to get a few Cheri Saffiote-Payne quilts done next year since she is our all-time favorite designer. I think we both have just about every one of her patterns. Is this a lot of patterns or what? These are ONLY her patterns! Not the greatest picture, it was with my phone, my camera died and I still haven't bought a new one.

I need to make some of those! I don't even want to think about how much money is in that pile of little brown envelopes!

Next Friday, I'm making a quicky road trip up to Bend, Oregon to visit family. My mom had her 90th birthday this year so I need to visit her. And, my sister-in-law is already telling me we have to go to Sew Many Quilts. I love that store, I can really get in trouble there. I went there last year during the Sisters Quilt show and I left them a lot of my money! LOL

Well, got to run, I don't want to miss my train because I was blogging!

Tootles.

We went to the air show out at Edwards Air Force Base yesterday, man was it hot on that tarmac, probably 100 out there at least. Well, after sitting in the huge dry lake bed they use for the parking lot for FOUR HOURS to get out when it was over, I looked over at my husband and said if he EVER asked me to go to an air show with him again, I'm going to beat him within an inch of his life! You'd think he'd learn, after two years in a row going to see the Blue Angels at Miramar down by San Diego and waiting for 3 hours to get out ... I guess it's a guy thing. Well yesterday was horrible, it was bad enough that we couldn't find my truck, after he was SURE where we parked it. After wandering around for an hour we finally found it, then to sit and wait to get out, goodnight. Never again!

I had this cute little Peeping Tom looking in my kitchen window this morning. Not the greatest picture, I had to take it with my phone, I MUST go today and get a new cheapy camera for blogging. My old one finally died.

Well, I'm going to go do some house chores now, then I'm going to try really hard to get up in my sewing room and work on some 9-patches for a swap I'm having with a couple of friends. They are sewing me into the ground and I haven't even made one yet, yikes! And I'm the one who suggested it!

Tootles!

October half gone already??

I realized I haven't blogged in a very long time, here it is the middle of October already! It's going to be Christmas before we know it! Scary.

I wish I had something to blog about but I really don't. Just still doing odds and ends around the house to get fully settled in, so that's consuming a lot of my free time. I have done some quilting and stitchery here and there but nothing to put pictures of, not to mention, my poor old camera finally died. Now I really do need to buy a new one. Oh, and my Kindle has pretty much consumed any little free time I have, I love that I'm getting a lot of reading in, especially now that my train commute has doubled to an hour.

Well, this is probably the most boring blog entry in history, so I'll finish up here. Maybe next time I'll be back with something more interesting.

Tootles.

Today is the Autumnal Equinox. I wish we had leaves that changed color like this here in Southern California. Sadly, our summer is still going strong even though the calendar says autumn. We're supposed to get hot Santa Ana conditions again this week, hopefully that doesn't bring any more brush fires. My husband who usually likes the heat is even saying he can't wait for cooler weather.

I took a vacation day yesterday just because, and it sure was nice having that extra day off. I did finally break in my sewing room. After rearranging it, that is. It just wasn't feeling right to me the way I had it, so I moved a few things around and now it's working, I had to have my ironing board on the right, and now it is, and I can also see out the window now. I had started out really good on the Simply Sophisticated block of the month when I first started getting it, then about Month 6 I completely fizzled out. So this weekend I got in there and worked exclusively on that and am now on Month 11. Month 12 is the finishing kit, I am going to try really hard to get it done by the final drawing. I need a finish to keep me motivated. It's not wowing me from looking at the picture included, but hopefully once it's all put together I'll like it better.

In other news, I got one of these. I have wanted one for years, and when I saw Amazon lowered the price on them, well, I had to have one. I think several people at my work bought them when the price went down too. They are pretty nifty. I haven't used it much yet, I have a book I want to finish in paperback before I start getting more books. I have a longer train commute now that we moved, so I am getting a lot of reading in. I even joined a local book club, our first meeting is this weekend. I'm looking forward to that. I used to read a lot, I want to get back into reading more.

I keep forgetting, on Sunday hubby and I have to go to his company picnic at Disneyland. Ugh, I'm hoping the weather has cooled down by then, I don't feel like schlepping all over Disneyland in 100+ degree weather.

Hubby took the stepdaughter up to Northern California over the weekend for school, so you don't have to ask me twice how much I'm enjoying having the house kid-free after all these years! It's wonderful!

Well, that's about all I have to talk about right now. Sure wish I had this whole week off!

Labor Day Weekend Loot

Saturday I drove on down to Temecula to hit up Temecula Quilt Co. and get my Back to School kit that I had reserved. They are featured in the Fall Quilt Sampler Magazine. I got that and got out. Apparently Vicky and Jane saw me out in the parking lot, but I just got the kit and ran over to a fast food joint next door to get a soda and took off, sorry I missed you guys! After that I headed up to Quilter's Coop and there is when I got very, very ugly. I got a bunch of stuff there and said ok, I better get out of here before it gets even uglier. Headed on up the freeway and just at the last minute I decided to take a detour and stop off at Stars & Scraps, since it's so close to my house now, just to get some black yardage I told myself. Well, you can probably see where this is going, I was pretty bad there too. Got 4 small table topper quilt kits and got out of there before I did anymore damage. I am a bonafide quilt kit collector, I just love them, but I really need to start making some of these gorgeous kits I keep collecting!

Well, got home and started going through my stuff and . . . hey! Where was that cute table topper kit I bought at Quilter's Coop? I looked and looked, thinking it may have fallen out of the bag in my truck, nope, nowhere to be found. So, I went down there again today because apparently it just didn't get included in my tab. Well, of course, I got the black yardage this time around, and ACK I got 2 more kits! You see, when I was there on Saturday, I didn't make it over to the other side of the store! My gosh, I was sooooo bad this weekend. I am so glad these places are a drive, or I'd be in serious trouble. I am a little closer now that we moved, but it still takes about 45 minutes to get down there. I ran up the stairs and dumped everything in my sewing room before hubby could see it.

Here's a picture of all my loot, from all 3 stores, both trips.

I think I don't need anymore stuff, what do you think?

I just finished a little something quilting related, finally! I recently got the Hocuspocusville kit from Primitive Gatherings and I just finished one of the stitchery blocks tonight, I still have 11 more to go. I stitched it with #12 DMC perle cotton (didn't know they had it in #12, love it), and I used some Sulky Solvy for my pattern, I found a tutorial Anne had written about it on her blog. Well, I am sold! I hate using a lightbox, I just have too hard of a time seeing the lines to trace probably because I like to use heavier fabrics for my embroidery (and maybe a little has to do with my 50 year old eyes). So this stuff is perfect for me, I stocked up on a bunch of it from Overstock. I highly recommend it. Only thing is, it is glue based and it needs humidity. By the time I finished this block it was getting pretty crisp and delicate, and it was starting to rip, so next one I need to either move faster and get it done or figure out a way to keep some moisture in it. I think I have seen ziploc bags that have tiny holes in them, I might get some of those and put a damp paper towel in it to keep inside my project bag and see how that works. Anyway, here's a picture, I think this must be the candy shop. I love this pattern, it even has a quilt shop! And the fabrics that Primitive Gatherings put in the kit is gorgeous. Colleen and I were discussing maybe starting a blog for a Hocuspocusville-along, so if anyone is interested, drop me a comment or an email and maybe I'll set one up.

Well, I think I'm going to go read for a while instead of tracing the next block. I'm reading the book called The Help and I can't put it down. Now that I have a little longer train commute, I have been reading more. I even joined a local book club. I decided I need a little bit of time away from my husband now and then! LOL

Tootles.