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Monday Design Wall

16 August 2010, 7:30 am

(a little quilt, a little nature, and a little give-away reminder)

QUILT: My latest completion is a strippy baby/toddler-sized quilt.

If you read Mary’s (Heartstrings) blog, I’m sure you’re thinking you’ve seen this quilt before — and you have!  Mary generously offers many free patterns on her blog, including this one (look about halfway down her list on the left — this one is “Quick Strippie”).

This is such a cute, easy, no-fabric-waste kind of pattern, I just couldn’t resist trying it out.  Then when I was looking for a juvenile print focus fabric, I saw the same cute monkeys that Mary used, so of course I knew that green and rust would perfectly complement the monkeys.  (what a copy-cat copy-monkey I am!)

I plan to make more of these quilts (I have a pink one with teddy bears sewn up, and fabric for one with puppies) so I can have some ready to wrap up in a big bow and gift to the new babies in our lives.  Well, I guess that isn’t on my design wall since it’s done, but I hadn’t shown it to you yet. This Quick Strippie pattern is great for those cute children’s novelty prints.  (It would also work great for a holiday/theme/seasonal quilt to throw over a banister or the back of a sofa.  Hmmm….)

Sewing plans for the week:

>  Finish my “quilt on a stick” for the Minnesota State Fair (I can show it to you next Monday)

> Do some catching up on my Farmer’s Wife Sampler blocks

>  My Aunt Bert will be here in a couple of days, and I have two fun patterns (a bag and flip-flops) in mind for us to work on together.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  And we might need to visit a couple of my favorite shops.

NATURE: The heat has taken its toll on the wild flowers behind us.  This purple cone flower has seen better days, but I love how the purple is morphing into orange.

GIVE-AWAY: This is the last day for my give-away.  If you haven’t already entered, click on the Monarch Butterfly at the top of my site to go directly to the give-away post.  That is where your comment needs to be to count for the give-away.  Comments on that post will be closed tonight, Monday, August 16th, at midnight CST.

Have a great, productive week, and to inspire you, pop on over to Judy Laquidara’s blog to see what other quilters are up to.

–Sue

Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***, Monday's Design Wall.
3 Comments

Drunkard’s Path Curves & Give-away

14 August 2010, 9:22 am

The templates I’m giving way are by Elisa’s Backporch.  I have cut up 28 fat quarters using the combination of the 7″ template and the 3.5″ template.  Elisa includes a pattern with each of these templates (the 7″ template includes the pattern I’m using).  If you have both templates, you have very little waste out of your fat quarters — that’s why I decided to give both templates to one winner, along with the little rotary cutter.

Elisa has a great little video on her site showing two methods of sewing these curves.  One method uses only three pins (the method I used), and the other method uses NO pins!  Elisa says these templates are addicting and she is right.  I bought the 7″ one first, and the next day I drove the 10 miles or so to Quilt Cove to get the 3.5″!  Whoever wins these is going to love them.

So, to get to my give-away post, go to the upper right column of my site and click on the monarch butterfly.

To get to Elisa’s videos, click here.

–Sue

Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***, Quilting.
3 Comments

Last-Minute Lucy (& give-away)

13 August 2010, 10:45 am

At least hat’s what my Mom SHOULD have named me! I’m working on an item for the Minnesota State Fair.  We have a fairly new category, a quilt on a stick!. It’s a little 8″ x 9″ quilt with a vertical sleeve on the back to accommodate a paint stick. I can’t show you this year’s yet, because the entry days go through next Wednesday, but I can tell you that this year’s theme is the Mosquito!  Here is my entry from last year (which totally underwhelmed the judges):

Last year’s theme was The Fair.  I liked my little black-faced sheep.  I even used a thin wool batting, and I named her Wool-ma.  (Makes me think of the time when my boys were in high school, and one of them told me, “Mom, you’re not nearly as funny as you think you are”.  Ouch!  Of course he was right, but it doesn’t matter because I keep myself amused!  In a few days I’ll share my mosquito quilt-on-a-stick with you (I know — you’re just itching to see it!)

If you haven’t entered my give-away yet, please go to the top of this page and click on the monarch butterfly button.  She will take you directly to the give-away post.

–Sue

P.S.  Today my Dad would have been 82.  We always loved it when his birthday fell on Friday the 13th.  Happy Birthday, Dad.

Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***, Quilting.
4 Comments

Useless Information & a Give-Away

12 August 2010, 8:38 am

This week I’m celebrating hitting my 500th post.  (C’mon, it’s hot and humid — we need to have a little fun!)

So here’s some useless, but hopefully interesting, information about my blog.  In the admin part of my blog, the counter page keeps track of some data about my visitors.  This is a good time to tell you that, no, I can’t see who you are by just you visiting my site, but it does keep track of things like what people may have searched for to arrive at my blog.

After “Featherstone Quiltworks”, the next most searched-for term is “Fruit Ladies”.  This tells me that a lot of people bought this fabric because it is so fun (that’s why I bought it), but then what to do with it???  Here’s what I did with mine:

I made a picnic/beach “blanket”.  I had been collecting the various fruit fabrics, so it was just a matter of finding the wicker fabric.  If you haven’t seen the “Fruit Ladies”, here’s a close-up of the border print:

And the other half of celebrating is a give-away!  Click on the button below and Mona the Monarch will lead you to the give-away post.  One entry per person, please.

Thanks for stopping by, and good luck!

–Sue

Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***.
2 Comments

New Features…

11 August 2010, 9:12 am

First of all, I would like to remind you of my give-away in progress celebrating my 500th post.  Go directly to the previous post, or click on the give-away butterfly button on my sidebar to take you to the previous post.  (Commenting on this post will NOT get you entered in the give-away.)

I wanted to mention the Moda Bake Shop link towards the bottom on my left sidebar.  If you aren’t familiar with Moda Bake Shop, they have guest designers offering patterns for cute, easy projects.  If you’re like me and like Moda Bake Shop but forget to visit there regularly, just pop on down to the Moda Bake Shop button and you can either click on it to go directly to the site or you can scroll through their little mini menu and see what’s new.

Another new feature is the RSS orange feed button in the top right corner of my blog.  This is an easy way to follow my blog without remembering to check back — you will be notified when there’s new content.

That’s all for now…gotta go sew with friends!

–Sue

Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***.
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Give-Away!!!

10 August 2010, 11:45 pm

This is it, my 500th post! Why a give-away?  Well, this blogging thing just wouldn’t be any fun if nobody stopped by and nobody ever commented.  This is a way for me to say thank you to those who frequently stop by, as well as those who might be stopping by for the first time.

If you’re a quilter in Minnesota, you are probably aware  of the state-wide shop hop going on.  Something fun that they do is make available a Moda line of fabrics created just for the Minnesota hop.  I stopped in my favorite quilt shop, Quilt Cove in Eagan, Minnesota, yesterday.  Even though it was Day 12 of the hop, they had plenty of fabric in stock.

I wouldn’t have thought to mention that, but I was on the Moda site yesterday and people outside of Minnesota were wondering where they could get the fabric.  Well, Quilt Cove would be an excellent place to start!  The prizes — WHAT ARE the prizes, you ask?

“A LITTLE BIT EXTRA” PRIZES: The first 30 people to comment will get a little charm that’s part of the Minnesota hop.  Sue (the owner) at Quilt Cove gave me 30 charms — 5 of this year’s snowflake, and 25 of last year’s bobbin.  Thank you, Sue!  More prizes are more fun, don’t you agree?

3RD PRIZE: Remember a few days ago I asked for suggestions for prizes?  (No, Carol, it isn’t a sports car!)  Candice mentioned my photographs.  So 3rd prize will be an unframed 8 x 10 print of my current favorite photo, a monarch butterfly on a butterfly weed (of course without the copyright info).

2ND PRIZE: Don’t nod off yet — it’s getting better.  Remember that Moda Holly Taylor fabric I mentioned?  2nd prize is a charm pack of forty-two 5″ squares (a very nice mix of lights, mediums, and darks — you’ll like it no matter where you live):

There were a lot of nice comments this week about the drunkard’s path quilt I’m making. A number of you thought this would be difficult to make.  It isn’t.  Really.  REALLY!

I used the Elisa’s Backporch curved acrylic templates, I followed her instructions for cutting and her easy technique for sewing those pesky curves (you wouldn’t believe how easy it is), and followed her layout.  This is a FAST quilt, fat-quarter friendly (takes 20 FQs — not provided — I know you have some in your sewing space)!

1ST PRIZE: The 7″ template set AND the 3.5″ template set, AND a small-diameter rotary cutter needed to cut the inside curve on the small template (you’ll gouge your template if you don’t use a small one):

The fine print:

  • Only your comment on THIS post will count as your entry into the give-away
  • Only one entry per person, please
  • The silver-tone charms will be awarded to the first 30 commentors on this post
  • 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes will be chosen by a random number generator
  • When you fill out the comment form, please enter your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you if you’re a winner
  • At midnight, Monday, August 16, comments will close.  The winners will be determined Tuesday morning and posted Tuesday afternoon, August 17; I will also send e-mails to the winners.
  • Good luck!

Later this week I am going to try and convince the skeptics how easy this curved-piecing method is, tell you what my most-searched-for post is, and update you on my progress on stitching the drunkard’s path blocks together and getting this quilt finished.

–Sue


Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***.
66 Comments

Wednesday’s Puzzle

10 August 2010, 12:00 pm

I was going through Alaska cruise photos trying to find one that looked “refreshing”.  What I found instead is a picture for today’s puzzle.

As we were entering Glacier Bay at about 6:00 a.m. (July 2009), a Park Ranger came on board the ship to answer questions, describe what we were seeing, and accompany us while we were in Glacier Bay.

Here it is as a puzzle (click on it to solve):

Click to Mix and Solve

And this is Post 499!  The next post will be the 500th Post Give Away.

–Sue

Filed under Wednesday's Puzzles.
1 Comment

Heat Wave

10 August 2010, 7:00 am

As most of the country is suffering in the 90s and 100s this week, I thought I would try a little visual aid — frozen crab apples with that crystal-ly, icy snow:

I remember my Aunt Sally (many years ago) draping a wet, lightweight towel (maybe a feed sack type dish towel) around her neck to help keep cool.  I mentioned this to DH last month when he was doing some work in an un-airconditioned house.  He tried it and he said it did help.  I’ve also read a suggestion to keep a second towel in the fridge in a plastic bag so you can swap towels from time to time to stay cool.

By the way, this is post # 498 — in two more posts it will be the 500th Post Give-Away!

–Sue

PS:  Maybe the frosty crab apples are working!  It’s been dark and thunderstorm-y this morning, and at 10:45 am it’s only 70 degrees.  Just hope the temps don’t shoot up and breed more storms.

Filed under Telephoto Tuesday.
3 Comments

Design Wall Monday

9 August 2010, 7:32 am

I’m three blocks behind on my Farmer’s Wife Sampler blocks, following the Yahoo! group schedule.  I did get the bow tie block done:

It’s been added to the Farmer’s Wife tab at the top of this page.  I will have the other three done by day’s end and added in also.

The rest of this week I’m going to be working on my drunkard’s path circles quilt (this photo is a little too orange):

The blocks are made.  I have a plan in mind for quilting it, so now I’m ready to get back to work on it.

An unsolicited not-affiliated-in-anyway plug for Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.  The top photo of the bow tie block was edited in Photoshop.  I was able to get the photo to absolutely match the actual fabric in color.  The second photo was edited in my old software that came with a previous camera.  I remember struggling to get the colors to look right, and just giving up and settling for this orange-ish version.

I need to look around for an on-line class to learn all of its features.  A big THANKS to all of you who recommended getting the Photoshop.

Be sure to check back on Wednesday — my 500th Post Give-Away will be starting then (this is # 497)!

To see what other quilters are working on, check out JudyL’s Design Wall Monday post!

–Sue

Filed under Quilting.
10 Comments

Creating Blog Badges/Buttons/Chicklets

6 August 2010, 5:33 pm

In the past, whenever I wanted to add a badge (see the brightly colored boxes on the right side of this site), I would have to ask my DS#1 (he does have a name, and it is Dave) to do it for me.  I didn’t really understand why I couldn’t do it until I researched it the other day (I mean, it looked like it should just be a matter of copying and pasting some code in the proper spot).  Turns out, my old theme design on my blog didn’t have the capability of using “widgets”, and so it was quite cumbersome and more than a little frightening for a non-code-writing person like myself because that little patch of code had to have “something” done to it first, then go “somewhere” in a big bunch of other code.

I feel there’s probably no need to explain to you at this point that I’m not a computer programmer or techie in any way!  I turn the computer on/it works.

So that is what motivated me to update to a newer theme, and my #1 requirement for that new theme is that it accommodates widgets!  This new Choco theme is a whiz with widgets.  And that got me to thinking, I sure could use a badge/button for my give-away next week…I wonder how scary THAT would be???  Turns out, not scary at all.

Now, this isn’t a tutorial because I’m going to refer you to a site that walks you right through it.  I made one, and it worked on the first try!!!  Here is the link.  I will continue through the steps I took, just because I’m dying to tell somebody that I did this successfully.

First you need the “artwork”.  I went to my photo editor on my computer, selected a butterfly photo because there was an expanse of orange that would be a good background for text.  I cropped it, re-sized it to about 90 x 120 pixels, then increased the viewing percentage to 100% so I could see what I had.  Then I added the text.  It looked a little flat, so I tried for a beveled edge look by darkening the edges with the drawing tool with an opaque setting.  You can put as much or little effort into the artwork part as you want, and of course you could also use a drawing program instead of a photo.  I’m just more of a photo person!

Then I went to the Squidoo site and followed their directions.  Some things to know before you start.  You need a place to put this little picture on the internet.  I put it on Flikr (a free photo album site), but putting it in a blog post or any other on-line spot will do.  You will need to get the location of that photo, plus the location where you want the button to send people.  At this point you are just swapping out text, per the detailed instructions.  You can also replace mouseover words with a message that people will see when their mouse/cursor hovers over the button.

Then *poof* you have the code for the button.  In my (new theme) case, I could paste it into a widget and it was good to go!  You could also make a button and paste the code right into your blog post (under the HTML tab).  Anyway, I’m so proud of my new little baby:


Alternative Name

–Sue

Filed under *** GIVE-AWAY ***, Miscellaneous.
5 Comments
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