Featherstone Quiltworks

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

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

I feel a give-away coming on!  It’s been a while, and I’ve been thinking about a give-away for a while but I have been too crazy-busy to act on it.

Today I noticed that I’m approaching 500 posts (I think this is #494).  Sounds like a good excuse for a give-away to me, so stay tuned.  I’ll put on my thinking cap and try to come up with something at least somewhat desirable for a gifty prize.  Tell you what — you give me a suggestion!  Right here on this post!  It will be like I used to tell our boys (before Christmas or birthdays) when they were little:  you can ask for whatever you want.

Would you like fat quarters, a sporty new car, that cute guy down the street, world peace, a quilting tool, more hours in a day, cooler weather?  Whatever you want!  It doesn’t mean you’ll get it…

–Sue

P.S.  I made a give-away button for my sidebar.  All by myself!!!  (Dave, aren’t you proud of me?)  This way I can have the button up during the give-away and people can find the give-away post — Mona the Monarch will lead you there!  Right now she’s just directing you to this post for practice (you know, butterflies are very difficult to train).  The give-away hasn’t started yet, I’m just getting things set up for a start of about mid-week, around August 11th.  Be sure to stop back!

Well, I have to build a little suspense first.

THANK YOU to all 234 of you who took the time to visit my blog and post a comment.  I read them all, and if you have a blog, I have visited most, if not all, of them as well.

I closed the comments last night at midnight, and by about 12:05 I was at random.org to randomly select the winner of my 14 FQ’s in blue  & blue Peeps (to refresh your memory):

And the random number generator chose:

Number 52!!!  I wonder who that is?  Lucky for me, my comments are numbered, and so a quick check revealed…

52

eileen said,     

March 24, 2010 @ 10:14 am ·

What a beautiful color, looks good enough to eat! Also love the peeps! Hope you have a great Easter. Eileen         

Woo-hoo, Eileen of Illinois!!! 

I hope all of you stop back and visit me again soon.  This has been a lot of fun, but I will now be returning to my somewhat regular “programming”!  Tutorial coming soon…

Enjoy spring!  We are in the 50s in Minnesota, clear sky, calm, with scattered bursts of sewing.  How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?

–Sue

Welcome to my blog!  I’m delighted to be participating in Sandi’s ‘Good Eggs’ blog hop and give-away.  What a fun way to celebrate  friendships and springtime!

THE LOOT:  14 Hoffman fat quarters that are absolutely gorgeous in shades of green, aqua, turquoise and teal, fresh from the LQS.  I couldn’t resist including this package of turqoise Peeps.  You probably have tons of fabric, but I bet you don’t have any blue marshmallow chicks!

THE DEAL:  Leave a comment on this post to be eligible for the “drawing” by random number generator.  I will be accepting comments on this post until March 28th, 11:59 pm CST.  The winner will be posted March 29th. 

THE FINE PRINT:
– Only one entry per person, please.   (I am emphasizing this because I have done give-aways in the past that allowed one entry per day.  This one is one entry, period.)
– Make sure the space for your e-mail address is filled in so if you’re the lucky winner, I’ll be able to contact you. 
– You don’t need to have a blog to enter. 
– Other bloggers participating  in the blog hop are also welcome to enter. 
– And, yes, I will mail internationally.

COMING SOON:  I created a little wall hanging designed to have pieces that swap out to reflect the changes in seasons and holidays.  You can check it out here.  A tutorial will be completed and on this site in the next few days, so if you’re interested in the free pattern, be sure to stop back.  And after you check out the wall hanging, be sure to return to this posting so you can…

VISIT THE OTHER BLOGGERS:  There are 29 other bloggers participating in this blog hop & give-away, so put on your bunny ears and hop on over to Sandi’s A Legacy of Stitches blog to check out the list of sites.  There is a wide variety of interesting blogs on the list, so be sure to take a little extra time and see what everybody is all about.

Have fun, good luck, and stop back and visit me again sometime!

–Sue

Give-away is over; comments are closed.  Thank you for entering!  Winner will be announced on my Monday, March 29th, 2010, posting.   Sue

This is going to be a fun week!

Sandi over at A Legacy of Stitches is hosting her brand-new ”Good Eggs Hopping Down the Bunny Trail“ blog hop starting Wednesday of this week, and she invited me to hop along!  There will be somewhere around 30 bloggers participating (each with a give-away), plus lots of fun for everyone, so be sure to stop back!  Give-aways start Wednesday!

I wanted to offer something to everyone who stops by, so I will post the pattern for my Basket of Blessings wall hanging on Tuesday, so I better get off the computer and finish it up!  (This isn’t an ordinary basket…you will have to come back tomorrow to see how it “works”.)

I have to get hoppin’!

–Sue

I did a random-number generator “drawing” for the winner of my 100,000 visits / Beachy / Wish-You-Were-Here give-away.  I added all the comments from the five days, which totaled 70.  Did a drawing from 1 to 70, and the winning number is…

Lucky Number 13!  Oh, my, somebody from the first day!   

Congratulations, Kerry!

And a BIG thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my blog, whether you entered the drawing or not, I truly appreciate every one of you. 

I will be posting some bird pics later today.  Wouldn’t you know it — we haven’t seen the alligator for almost four years, and only hours after our out-of-town guests left yesterday, GUESS WHO I SAW???  Anyway, I’ll post about it later today.

Congrats, again, Kerry!  I know she’s a Minnesota girl and could use some virtual beach time!  Well, Minnesota has miles and miles of beaches, but they are only being frequented by snowmobilers and ice-fishermen and -women this time of year. 

By the way, Kerry has a fun blog.  She’s an excellent photographer, pianist, scrapbooker, mom and homemaker.  Be sure to drop by!

–Sue