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.
