Wow, it’s Friday already!  We’ve had a typical spring week here in the Midwest — cloudy, rainy, starts to clear, rains some more.  Great for all of nature, and disastrous for my sinuses and my aching wrist!  When we’re in Texas for a time in the winters, we are on the Gulf of Mexico.  The breezes — no, let’s be honest — the winds generally blow in from the Gulf.  The air must be pretty clean because my sinuses don’t bother me at all down there.

Well, I almost went to bed tonight without doing this post.  I nearly forgot!  This give-away has been good for me.  I learned how to prepare my post earlier in the day and schedule it to be published automatically at a specified time (midnight!).  I still have to go on at midnight and close the comments to the previous post, but that only takes a minute.  It has all been working fine, as long as I remember to prepare!

Today’s sur-prize (and sorry, but I don’t have a Wheel of Fortune budget, so no fabulous prizes) is a large spool of Gutermann thread and a regular spool of Mettler thread, both in a light tan (added to the previous semi-fabulous prizes of:  Clover fork pins, Best Press starch substitute, cookies, tea, placemat bag, and a yard of the Fruit Ladies stripe).

Even though I only started quilting in 2000, I’ve sewn since I was 12 or so, and there has never really been a time since then that I wasn’t sewing something — clothes for myself, my wedding dress, my sister’s wedding dress, pajamas and tee shirts for the boys, slipcovers, draperies, drapery toppers — so I have had a lot of thread.  And I used some of that thread for piecing.  All of a sudden this winter, I started running out.  I ran out of white, then I ran out of tan, I ran out of gray (somehow I seem to have plenty of purple).  I had to go BUY thread!!!  So the two winners will get some thread to add to their thread reserves, so hopefully you don’t have to scrounge around for just a little more tan thread to continue sewing!

The fine print:  1.  Give-away runs Sunday 4/26 through Sunday 5/3.  2.  You may enter once each day by posting a comment on that day’s new give-away posting (that’s what THIS is).  3.  Each day I will add an item to each ”basket” (there will be two); to have the most entries in the drawing, check back and add a comment each day.  4.  There are two baskets because there will be two names drawn on Monday May 4th.  5.  Be sure to include your e-mail when you make your comment so I can contact you if you are one of the winners!  6.  I will close the comments on this post at midnight CDT (sorry, West Coast, but that’s the latest I can stay awake).  Also at midnight CDT the next day’s give-away post will come up, so if the comments are closed here, go to www.suehecker.com/blog (unless it is after May 3rd — then you’re too late!).

And it’s Friday, you’ve worked hard all week, and I’m tired and need to go to bed!  So just leave me a comment to this post for an entry in the drawing.  There’s no additional subject matter tonight, but I’ll have to think of something for tomorrow because it’s really made reading the comments a lot of fun.  Two more prize days to go.  Good Luck!!!

Sue

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

My plan this week was to just do one post per day, and it would be on the give-away.  That way people wouldn’t have to look for the current posting to comment on because it would be first.  Than means there have been no Out My Window postings this week.  So I’m going to cheat a little.  I’m going to include a little Out My Window in this posting before I get to the give-away.  Bird photography is one of my favorite things, but I didn’t think of including anything bird related in the give-away, so consider this a post-within-a-post!

There were at least 15 Cedar Waxwings in the next-door neighbor’s crabtree today.  The crabapples have been gone from our tree for a month, and at this rate the neighbor’s tree will be stripped of its little apples in no time as well!  Another neighbor (Hi, Betty) said the Cedar Waxwings have been flying into their kitchen window, so these apples may be a little wine-y *hic*.   They were even eating them off the ground, and I’ve never seen them do that before.

Last Sunday I had a glimpse of a hummingbird.  That’s all it took for me to jump out of my chair and cook up some syrup, get the feeder from the basement (after the syrup cooled) and get into the business of enticing that hummer back into our tree.  Nothing.  Next day, nothing.  Next day . . .

a juvenile cardinal male house finch!  (Thank you, pdudgeon, you are absolutely right.  This guy doesn’t have a crest, and when I checked my book, it’s a very good match to a house finch.  And I learned something else:  purple finches aren’t purple!  They are also rose colored and here in MN, but they don’t have the brown streaks on their tummies and have forked tails.  Correction added 9:23 cdt.)  He sat there for a while, tried to take a drink with his big fat beak, then took off.  Can you guess which little branch is no longer on this tree?  It was in the way in EVERY shot of this guy.  *snip*

Okay, enough birds.  My favorite quilt I’ve done for quite a while is a very simple quilt:  blocks of fruit prints with a wicker-looking sashing.  Here is the unquilted top:

This is going to go into the trunk and will be a picnic/going-to-the-beach quilt.  Here’s a close-up shot of the border.

It’s the Fruit Ladies stripe.  And it made me wonder, how much of this fabric do I have left?  I found it (no small feat, considering the disorder in my sewing room), and I have about 2 1/4 yards.  So each bag will get slightly over a yard of the Fruit Ladies stripe.  If you win it and you don’t care for it, just pass it on to someone else.  I do know it doesn’t appeal to everyone, but it does tickle me.  So each prize consists of the fork pins, Best Press, cookies, tea, placemat bag, and a yard+ of Fruit Ladies fabric – so far.  Three more days of prizes to go!  (Sorry this picture is so bad.  I should have taken it during daylight.)

The fine print:  1.  Give-away runs Sunday 4/26 through Sunday 5/3.  2.  You may enter once each day by posting a comment on that day’s new give-away posting (that’s what THIS is).  3.  Each day I will add an item to each ”basket” (there will be two); to have the most entries in the drawing, check back and add a comment each day.  4.  There are two baskets because there will be two names drawn on Monday May 4th.  5.  Be sure to include your e-mail when you make your comment so I can contact you if you are one of the winners!  6.  I will close the comments on this post at midnight CDT (sorry, West Coast, but that’s the latest I can stay awake).  Also at midnight CDT the next day’s give-away post will come up, so if the comments are closed here, go to www.suehecker.com/blog (unless it is after May 3rd — then you’re too late!).

So for a chance to be one of the two people’s names drawn on Monday, please leave a comment to this post, and also please comment on what thread you use?  Are you faithful to a single brand?  What about color, do you match the predominant color or go with something blendy?  Thank you so much for playing so far this week — this has been a lot of fun.  Good luck!  Oh, and I like Gutermann cotton thread (although I will use leftover dressmaking thread ‘cuz I’m cheap), and I use a lot of tan, light gray and dark gray.

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

One of my favorite categories of things to make and own are BAGS!!!  I love little zippered bags, bags big enough to carry hockey equipment, and everything between.  They are functional, pretty quick to make, and they each have their own personality.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Starting in the back, that’s my “hockey equipment” bag.  I took it with me tonight to quilt guild and it easily carried two wall quilts, a 2-liter jug of diet coke, a dessert tray (I was on the treats committee this month), a ream of paper printed up into handouts (I was on a panel), plates and cups, a block of the month, two pillowcases for a donation project — and I’m sure there was more, but you get the idea.  Next is the tan tote bag I blogged about here; it is completed now, and I added ties to the sides to snug up so the bag doesn’t gape open as much.  The black/red/tan one is a Celine Perkins (Perkins Dry Goods) design; the black and white is a Grids and Grommets; Elvis is on a Kimmy bag deviation; and the two little bags in front are made from placemats.

I LOVE making a bag out of a placemat, and I’ve made a bunch of them.  Well, I bet you could never guess what the “basket” is going to be for the giveaway items???  Oh, you saw right through me.  Here is what you start with:  one placemat (not too thick), a fat quarter of fabric for the lining, and a purchased handle.  And did I mention, NOT TOO THICK???  I never learn.  I broke two needles on the black bag.  Check for the thickness in the corners where all the seam allowance fabric all overlaps.  There are lots of tutorials on the web for making these bags/purses.  To me, this is a bag.  When I put a zipper in, then it’s a purse.

And about three hours later here is what you end up with.  And all the sur-prizes fit very neatly inside!  (In case you’re new to this week-long saga of introducing one gift at a time, so far we have Clover fork pins, Mary Ellen’s Best Press, Bengal Spice tea and cookies, and now a little bag.)

The fine print:  1.  Give-away runs Sunday 4/26 through Sunday 5/3.  2.  You may enter once each day by posting a comment on that day’s new give-away posting (that’s what THIS is).  3.  Each day I will add an item to each ”basket” (there will be two); to have the most entries in the drawing, check back and add a comment each day.  4.  There are two baskets because there will be two names drawn on Monday May 4th.  5.  Be sure to include your e-mail when you make your comment so I can contact you if you are one of the winners!  6.  I will close the comments on this post at midnight CDT (sorry, West Coast, but that’s the latest I can stay awake).  Also at midnight CDT the next day’s give-away post will come up, so if the comments are closed here, go to www.suehecker.com/blog (unless it is after May 3rd — then you’re too late!).

Again, it’s been a lot of fun to read through your comments and see what you collect.  It helps me not to feel quite so odd about having teapots on top of my cupboards!  And now for today’s comments.  (Elvis looking out from the side of the Kimmy bag inspired me.)  If you could only listen to one kind of music (or one artist) all day today, what would you choose?  I’ll start.  My all-time favorite CD is Norwegian Wood.  It is Beatles music done in a classical style, and it’s hauntingly beautiful.  It is so mellow and peaceful, it always makes me feel good.  Your turn!

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

If you were to walk in my front door, it wouldn’t take you long to notice some of my favorite things.  This is part of the top-of-the-cupboards landscape in the kitchen:

I do love my teapots.  I’m mostly a coffee drinker, but teapots are so interesting and every one has a different story to tell.  Some of these are from TJ Maxx, some are souvenirs from vacations, some were gifts, and a very few others are collectibles.  I love the TJ Maxx ones just as much as the rarest ones.  They are all special to me.  Don’t tell DH, but last I counted I have more than 40 teapots.  That’s quite a few for basically a coffee drinker!

When I do have a cup of tea, I have a favorite tea.  It’s a Celestial Seasonings herbal tea called Bengal Spice (no caffeine, so it’s good in the evening).  My Aunt Bertha introduced us to it in Texas a few years back, and at the time we couldn’t find it in Minnesota so she would send it to us!  Now I can buy it at Target.  It’s best with a drizzle of honey.  Which brings us to today’s addition to the give-away basket (still just a virtual basket!):  A box of tea and a box of cookies!

Even though there are duplicates of everything and two baskets will be given away, from this point on I will just show one set.  So far in each basket:  Clover fork pins, Mary Ellen’s Best Press, and tea and cookies for a nice quiet break time!

The fine print:  1.  Give-away runs Sunday 4/26 through Sunday 5/3.  2.  You may enter once each day by posting a comment on that day’s new give-away posting (that’s what THIS is).  3.  Each day I will add an item to each ”basket” (there will be two); to have the most entries in the drawing, check back and add a comment each day.  4.  There are two baskets because there will be two names drawn on Monday May 4th.  5.  Be sure to include your e-mail when you make your comment so I can contact you if you are one of the winners!  6.  I will close the comments on this post at midnight CDT (sorry, West Coast, but that’s the latest I can stay awake).  Also at midnight CDT the next day’s give-away post will come up, so if the comments are closed here, go to www.suehecker.com/blog (unless it is after May 3rd — then you’re too late!).

It was fun to read yesterday’s comments about your projects!  In today’s comment, please share if there’s something that you enjoy collecting.  (Don’t share with the group that you have a priceless collection of the Czar’s Faberge eggs in your home…)   And thank you to all of you for playing along!

Sue

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

Here is today’s sur-prize:

Sunday’s package of fork pins are joined by Mary Ellen’s Best Press (starch alternative).  If you haven’t tried it, you will love it.  If you already use it, this is a slightly smaller spray bottle that is handy to take to classes or get-aways.  It comes in different fragrances.  One of these is Lavender Fields, and the other one is Scent Free.  I like to give finished blocks a light spritz of Best Press.  It makes them lie extra flat, and it encourages a troublesome block to behave. 

The fine print:  1.  Give-away runs Sunday 4/26 through Sunday 5/3.  2.  You may enter once each day by posting a comment on that day’s new give-away posting (that’s what THIS is).  3.  Each day I will add an item to each ”basket” (there will be two); to have the most entries in the drawing, check back and add a comment each day.  4.  There are two baskets because there will be two names drawn on Monday May 4th.  5.  Be sure to include your e-mail when you make your comment so I can contact you if you are one of the winners!  6.  I will close the comments on this post at midnight CST (sorry, West Coast, but that’s the latest I can stay awake).  Also at midnight the next day’s give-away post will come up, so if the comments are closed here, go to www.suehecker.com/blog (unless it is after May 3rd — then you’re too late!).

It was fun to read yesterday’s comments about the commentors’ first quilts and how some of you started quilting.  In today’s comment, please share something that you’re working on now.  I’ll start:  I’m embellishing a jacket for a guild challenge, quilting a customer quilt, and putting borders on a gift quilt of my own.  Next?

Nothing bought, 1/2 yard used.  I’ve been concentrating on working on (and finishing up) some existing projects.

A couple of things going on elsewhere on my blog that you might be interested in:

I’m having a give-away this week (starts Sunday 4/26/2009) here.

I’m organizing a PhD program (Projects half Done) for people interested in digging out a long-forgotten project or one you just can’t get interested in again, check it out here.

Thanks for visiting!

Sue

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

Although I’ve had my web site for three years or so, last week was my one-year anniversary blogging.  And what a fun year it’s been!  I’ve met some wonderful people on line, made some quilts through Judy Laquidara’s site with many of you, and have enjoyed your blogs as well.   I’ve also enjoyed many, many e-mail comments sent by non-bloggers.  A big THANK YOU to all of you!

Last week I also surpassed 40,000 “hits” on my site, which is amazing to me.  I know some of them are robots and spammers, doing what they do, but that still leaves a lot of friendly hits.  Thank you for making this fun for me!

It’s a DOUBLE GIVE-AWAY!  (I feel like an infomercial — “wait, there’s more!”). And there IS more!   I will reveal one item being given away each day starting today through next Sunday, May 3rd, for a total of eight surprises in each gift basket.  Some surprises will be smaller, some will be larger.

Check back each day for you can enter in the drawing one time per day!  (You can only win once — if the same name is drawn twice, I will move on and draw again so we have two winners.)  The theme for this basket is Sue’s Favorite Things.  In looking for items to include, I would wonder, gee, would people want that?  What if they already have it?  Then I decided, who cares?  I’m buying MY favorite things to give away.  Don’t we all do that when selecting a gift? 

Here is today’s surprise: a package of fork pins.  These are great for pinning those nesting intersections together; you get less distortion and shifting of the fabrics.

Leave me a comment telling a little bit about your first quilt and/or how you were introduced to quilting.  I will accept comments left on this post before 2:00 a.m. CST, to accomodate the west coast.  Subsequent days there will be a NEW POST on which to leave a comment for that day.  Go to www.suehecker.com/blog and it will bring you to the current day’s post, not back to this post, on future days this week.

Good Luck!

Sue

PS:   Although everyone has included their e-mail address to me so far, I should  add a reminder here to enter your e-mail address where prompted so I have a means of contacting the lucky winners.  Your e-mail is not visible on the comments, only to me when I log in.

SORRY, THE GIVE-AWAY IS OVER.

First the announcement:  I am going to start my blogiversary giveaway tomorrow (Sunday April 26) and run it for a week.  Important things to know are:  1.  I am giving away two same/similar prize collections; 2.  You can stop by each day with another comment which equals another entry in the drawing (only one entry per day).  I may add another requirement of what you comment about, but that hasn’t been firmed up yet.  So be sure to stop back!

Now the toy!  I have been wanting to try knitting socks using the two-at-a-time method, but with the self-striping yarn, I didn’t know how you could guess at dividing the skein of yarn into two balls, have the pattern start at the same place on the second ball, and have enough yarn in each ball for one sock. 

I did some searching on line (what DID we do before the internet???), and found the key is to weigh the yarn.  A typical two-sock skein of yarn is 100 grams, so (and I’m no big math wizard so this is as complicated as it gets) you need two (about) 50 gram balls. 

We live in Minnesota where Target stores are almost as plentiful as Wal-Marts in Texas.  After a very short trip to Target, this is the kitchen yarn scale I came home with.  It easily changes from ounces to grams, and weighs up to 6.6 pounds.  It also has a large enough surface to support even a large skein of yarn.  PERFECT!

This particular skein of yarn did weigh exactly 100 grams (I test-weighed a bunch of yarns, and they ranged from 95 to 102 grams, without label band).  The yarn pulls from the center, so the yarn doesn’t match on the outside of the ball because they came out to be different lengths.  And aren’t these colors yummy?  This is some “ON line” sock yarn.

The tricky part is to find the exact same spot in the pattern to cut the yarn and start the second ball.  I am pretty sure I did it right, but I’m not winding any more yarn until I get to knit these socks up two at a time and know for sure that I did it right!  And that I even like knitting two socks at a time. 

After winding and checking and winding and checking, I was at 50 grams, which was the half-way point for this skein.  Of course I was nowhere near the starting point of the pattern, so I checked both directions to see which way would waste the least yarn.  It makes the two balls a couple of grams apart in weight (actually 52g and 48g), but that won’t matter.  I have more yarn than that left over after knitting up a pair of socks.

A couples of notes:  make sure you wind your yarn in the same direction so one sock doesn’t have a reversed pattern; don’t wind your yarn too tightly (like I tend to do). 

Sue

Not that I’m any better at thinking on Thursdays than I am any other day of the week — I just needed a title for this post!  So, some thoughts to share:

Thought #1:  Since yesterday was my 1st blogiversary, and earlier today I reached 40,000 visits to my site, I’ve decided to do a double give-away next week!  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  I thought so.

Thought #2:  We all have them:  UFOs, PIGs, PhDs, BOBs.  Okay, I know of a couple of people in this universe who start a project and continue straight to completion before starting anything new.  Then there are the rest of us.

After being laid up for a while with a bum wrist, followed by a little R&R in Texas, immediately followed by DH’s surgery and recovery, I’m really feeling the pressure of  so many Projects half Done.  I’ve been sewing like a mad woman locked in a Janome factory trying to finish up these PhDs, and I am making progress.  There seem to be a lot of us in the same boat, and once a project makes it into my closet (or where ever PhDs go to die at your house), it’s so hard to get excited about it again.

For our Wednesday stitching group, Pam B. and I put together a six-month program for our group.  It is a PhD program whereby you select a PhD from your closet, under your bed, in the attic, that is truly approximately half done (and something significant — not a hot pad), and you have six months to complete it.  We are starting it in June when we have to bring our projects in to be documented by photograph, and we will celebrate with a graduation ceremony in December when we all bring our completed projects and accept our lovely PhD certificates (suitable for framing, of course).

A long time getting here, but here’s my thought:  Could we make this work on line?  Obviously we won’t be “in person”, but perhaps use Mr. Linky once a week to link back to posts on various participants’ sites?  An award to the oldest PhD completed?  An encouragement to repurpose something started that you really dislike (or HATE) and make something else out of it?  So what are your Thursday Thoughts? 

Sue

I just started thinking last week, I wonder when my first post was?  Well, it was April 22, 2008!  And a big thank you to my son Dave who set this site up for me, and has tolerated all my calls and e-mails begging asking for help and demanding requesting tweaking.  What a great guy!  (And he’s single, handsome, funny, employed, treats his mother with respect most of the time . . .).  And he’s going to hate this, but:

here is a picture I “borrowed” from his web site.  Here he’s camping with some buddies; his beagle’s name is Tucson.   (And yes, I know you’re not supposed to “borrow” other people’s pictures, but please consider the fact that I gave birth to this boy and he weighed well over nine pounds.  No all-woman jury in the world would convict me!)

Anyway, I have been thinking about having a give-away to commemorate my blogiversary (no, I’m not giving Dave away!).  I was thinking along the lines of a stack of fat quarters.  Or maybe a nice pair of Ginghers.  Or — you fill in the blank?  Is there a book you can’t quite splurge on?  Or should I put together a basket of surprises?  You tell me, what should I give away? 

This is going to be a quieter week with a lot of quilters at Paducah (boo-hoo, some year I’m going to go too), so those of you who are still out there — make your voices heard! 

I will probably start the give-away in a week or so, the good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise (where did THAT come from???).  I remember — it’s my dad.  He’s been gone for almost ten years, and sometimes his little phrases and sayings pop into my head.  I guess it’s another way of keeping him close to my heart.  My dad was a maintenance guy who could fix anything on earth, and I think that’s his way of telling me I should include some sort of tool.  Thanks, Dad.

Sue