Random notes from this quirky quilter . . .

Just a couple of random notes here . . . 

Oh! Don't forget, if you haven't signed up for our TWO fat quarter bundle giveaway, click here and enter to win.....then come back here to catch up!

I wanted to link up with Barbara at Catpatches, who is having her August NEWFO linkie party.  What? You don't know what a NEWFO is? Well, I'll give you a hint -- it is something that many of us excel at. It's a new project that you have started! (Grin) I bet there are a lot of guilty looks out there, right? Well, shed the guilt and join the party!

Hop on over to Catpatches and link up -- show the world that you are a compulsive, er wacky, er super-creative person and you are not afraid to have several projects going at once! Me? I'm delightfully quirky, remember? (Wink)  I think right now my project count stands at five!

I'm linking up with a project that I can't even show you yet -- my Christmas wall-hanging! It started with this cute Jacquelynne Steves' panel, from her "Oh Holy Night" line, and morphed into a whole 'nother project!

Have no fear! One of my favorite nieces is allowing me to borrow a camera (did I tell you that she is one of my favorites? I have two nieces; I love them both to bits!) so I will soon be able to post photos! Yay!!! Padsworth is crossing his little flippered feet in hopes of the camera making a safe trip across the fruited plains...

On another note, I received this wonderful book from across the Atlantic....the lovely Kerry at Pennydog drew my name and I'm excited to read and yes, you guessed it -- add another project to my list! (Grin)  Kerry gave our final art quilt winner a run for her money with the gorgeous quilt she entered in the Pet Show featuring her two pups.
The book is called Carefree Quilts, by Joy Lily.

There are thirteen different projects in here, and I have my eye on these two:
A new tote:

and reversible place mats!

(Waving) Thank you, Kerry! If you haven't made acquaintance with Kerry yet, you should hop over there and see her . . . she has some uber-cute Iphone cases in her shop, and her blog is a fun stop on your world tour!

I'll be back soon! We'll choose our winners for the fabric bundles and announce on Labor Day!

Love,

Reveal and Giveaway! (TWO fat quarter bundles!)

UPDATE:
Thank you for your interest....this giveaway is now closed.

I know that I've been AWOL for a few days, and I do apologize to all of you --- it really is inexcusable that I've left you without a word, and I'm really quite contrite. I actually have a good excuse, well, I have eight of them . . . they've taken more of my time than I realized.  See?

I'm getting back to my sewing, though, so I hope my apology is accepted?  I saw a few nods -- I'll go with that. No use flogging myself any further. Here, will you take this wet noodle and toss it?

(Grinding noise)  Changing gears, now, would you like to see the Christmas project reveal? Oh, good, I was hoping that at least one of you would say yes!!  Here is my new Christmas wall-hanging!!

(Sigh. I tried several times to get a picture to upload here, but I'll try again later . . .)

It's made from Jacquelynne Steves' (The Noble Wife blog and web store) new fabric line (and it is in the stores now!) called "Oh Holy Night" --- these are dreamy fabrics in luscious colors from Jacquelynne's palette. 

(Waving) Thank you, Jacquelynne! I enjoy her fabrics and projects so much -- she shows lovely things on her blog, and I routinely drool over the fabrics and kits in her store! Check out these pretty prints and solids:

The panel is adorable --- think of your elementary school Christmas pageant, with all of the kids and the animals helping out!

When I was trying to decide what I would design with this line, I kept coming back to this panel. To me, this is the heart of Christmas, and I was loving all the mousies and squirrels hanging up their ornament balls and stars around the edge of the panel. I wanted to showcase the gorgeous fabrics, so I decided to make "ornaments" from them and have them wind their way around the scene . . . then, you know me; the 3D bug bit me again - but I'll show you that later! (Wink)

After cutting strips of the light green, I cut out circles of the others, approximately three inches in diameter.

I fussy cut some strips from her striped fabric:

See there?

 . . . and made tubes from them -- I have these cool plastic tools from Clover so that I can press the seams where I want them, like so:

 and then use the tubes for stems for flowers --- or garland for balls!

Once the garland was stitched down, it was time to blanket-stitch the balls onto the garland:

Love those colors!

This is the point at which my camera died, so I won't be showing you the details on the stitching, etc!

I've got the balls on the garland, and assembled the body of the wall-hanging. Remember the 3D part of the project that I mentioned? Well, each ornament needs something that attaches it to the garland, so each one will receive a red ribbon bow. Then, there will be holly leaves, cut from the lovely green print from the line.

I found a great tutorial on "quickie" 3D leaves, at this link. I'm going to be making those and tacking a couple at each ribbon!

Oh, and I forgot to show you --- I gave one of the mousies a cameo role on an ornament --- I fussy cut an oval with him in it, and another oval of the red print; I put it all together with my trusty Lapel Stick and here he is:

Sorry about the picture quality --- that's my seven-dollar-wonder-with-no-flash! I'll pause for a moment to allow you time to ooooh and aaaah about my serious bargain hunting . . . (Grin)  It will do just fine on outdoor shots of quilties and projects until I get something better!  (That mousie was the one indoor shot that I tried.)

Now, whilst I am working on putting my 3 dimensional touches on my project, I think we should have something fun for you Lilypadquilters.  Hmmmmm, what can we do?

I know!  A giveaway!!

Jacquelynne is providing not one, but TWO fat quarter bundles of these gorgeous "Oh, Holy Night" Christmas fabrics for you Lilypadquilters to try to win!

I'm trying something new this time --- I hope you will let me know if you like this or not! I thought I'd see how the Rafflecopter thingie works . . . 
Now, you do NOT have to do everything listed here, OK? You can pick and choose --- you can do one, two, or however many you would like to! I tell you the truth; you will love these pretty fabrics!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I sure hope this works! Let the entries begin, and good luck! 

Love,

"It's Dead, Jim!"

Remember all the times "Bones" uttered those words? Well, that is what you would hear if a band of intrepid Trek crew members were to scan my desk for life signs right now.

Sniff.

What is dead? Bwaaaaaaaaah! It's my camera. If it were a cartoon instead of real life, my camera would be here lying on it's back, with its little feet up in the air, and big X's for eyes. 

I can't get it to do a thing. New batteries won't revive it. It already had issues where its upload cord went, so I just always took the card out and accessed the photos.

I would be happy to receive a camera to review and give my opinion on how well suited it is for quilting bloggers . . . our needs are varied, you know. We need to have cameras that will handle outdoor shoots, as well as indoor when the weather doesn't cooperate. We love to see sharp, clear pictures, especially at macro level --- ya know, I always show you my mistakes as well as my successes! 
I promise to even post tutorials on how to use said camera to make all of these quilt-y photo dreams come true . . . 
Any takers?  Canon, Nikon, Sony, are you listening? 
Rest in peace, my devoted friend.

Love,

Gratuitous duckling cuteness!

Hi again! Peep! Peep!

It's us, the ducklings! We heard that some of you liked seeing us, so we thought we'd bring you an update on our adventures . . .

Several times a day, Snoodes and her family let us out to "graze" and find tasty bugs and grass seeds:

This is a lot of fun, especially because we can run like lightning and make the humans run to keep up! We are also very brave, see?

Actually, the big doggie didn't make a move toward us!  They fixed up a bigger pool for us, and we have a ball in it, after running like mad around the yard:

But our absolute favoritest game is "How Many Ducklings Can Fit on a Mountain" and we play it on the rock inside our pen. We have had six on there before -- that's a record!

Well, we'd better close for now . . . we heard Snoodles say that she is going to post some quilt-y stuff as soon as she can. (She asked her family not to share the nasty ole virus with her, but they did it anyway. That's a bummer.) So she'll have something pretty for you to see, soon!

Love,

The Eight Muscovy Ducklings

Taken over by . . . ducklings!

A few random notes for today . . . one of our Pet Show winners has graciously passed along her prize to another --- seems she is a cat lover and a sweet person, but not doing much quilting. So, we had another drawing and Colleen of Lucky Duck Dreams is the winner of a sampler pack of Heat Press Batting Together! Yay! Congratulations! Your prize will be on its way soon!

I also had a sticky note here to let you know about my progress on of my current Christm --- Peep! Peep!

What?

Peep, peep, peep!!

We are the ducklings that Snoodles and her family rescued!! Aren't we cute?

Our mom had fourteen of us. Yup. Fourteen. We heard Snoodles say that she thought our mom was amazing. We think so, too, but we can't find her now. She hatched us out about four days ago, and they said we looked adorable following mom down to the lake .... but this morning she wasn't here. Sniff. Six of our bruvvers and sisters were missing, too. Peep!

We don't know what happened, and I heard Snoodles and her family talking about it, and they are not sure, either. It could have been a coyote or turtles or snakey, but there's no clues to be found. Just the eight of us, peeping our heads off, trying to get mom to come back.

They watched over us all day, to make sure none of the big bad snapping turtles eated us. Then they said they just couldn't stand it if something happened to us, so they picked us up very gently and put us in a big box. We peeped a lot. Pooped a lot, too, but hey, we were nervous!

They brought us home to their screened porch and fixed a pen for us, with newspapers in the bottom. But before they put us in there, they brought us a wonderfully big washtub and let us swim around and get clean. We did mention there was a fair amount of poop in the box, right?

Anyway, we have a nice clean home, and they say we will stay here for a few days, while they make us a pen at the lake. We heard them planning it, and they are going to try to keep snakeys and turtles out until we are big enough to fend for ourselves. We like the sounds of that.

OK, we'll turn the blog back over to Snoodles and that froggie, now. Bye! Peep! Peep!

Ahem. You see what happens when you allow animals a little leeway? They walk all over ya! We'll be back soon and show you some quilt-y progress!

Love,

Mortally wounded . . .

. . . but still soldiering on. Yes, you came to the right place for the "Bowls Blog Hop" today! (Grin)

Some of you may remember the post that I wrote a few months ago, about Snoodles the Dragonslayer. If you would like to check it out, you can click here and jump over there to see it.

I, Snoodles the Dragonslayer, was mortally wounded this past weekend. How? A vicious attack from the Noskill-ceratops was almost my undoing.

Let me tell you my story . . . here is my completed project using the fantabulous pattern provided by Regina, and so beautifully executed by other bloggers this week:

You see, paper piecing and I have always agreed to disagree. We tolerate each other, and for all practical purposes, have very little to do with each other. 

But I was determined to change all that.  I was feeling gracious and benevolent and opened my arms to embrace paper piecing. I even got some freezer paper from the pantry and devoured Elaines' great tutorial over at SewWeQuilt. Hoooo-weee! I was prepared, ma'am!! 

Or so I thought.

Old Mr. Noskill-ceratops was snarling, and had me so apprehensive that I was jumping from my sewing chair and dashing over to the PC to refer to the tutorial again, and again, and yet again. I tried to follow each step just perfectly.  (And you know, it's not Elaine's fault -- her tutorial really does make perfect sense, and her pictures are clear and helpful.)
I had pictured my bowls in my head --- I was using my favorite Mary Engelbreit fabrics, and I could just "see" them, all stacked up so prettily . . .a dozen or more of them!

Well, I have digressed.  After lots of re-dos and quality time with my friendly seam ripper, and re-drawing the pattern and starting again, I decided that paper piecing and I were going to go back to our old relationship. We'll agree to disagree. We will keep a respectful distance from each other, if you know what I mean. I got ONE BOWL done, albeit wonkily, and so I decided that the smart thing to do was to play in my stash, eat some chocolate, declare victory. 

I wish I had had someone take a picture of me, with one foot on old Noskill-ceratops' head, but I forgot.  I was too busy planning the applique that would finish my project!
I used some of the adorable M.E. scraps that I had, and made some flowers for my bowl:

I did some outline quilting and used a cute stripe for the binding. (Me loves stripey bindings!)
So, my bowl project turned into a mugrug. Not what I had envisioned, but still, I put ole Noskill-ceratops in his place, I did. (Grin)

This one is headed across the United States inside a Pony Express rider's pack, and I have just time enough to show you the back of it, too:

See why I love Mary Engelbreit fabrics? So cute and cheery! Be sure to check out all of the other blogs that are featuring "Bowls" today:

August 17th

Elizabeth

Beate

Marion H.

Sharon-Quilt Sheddy

 Lilypad Quilting

Searching Out Simple

Scrapbook Chick A Doodle

Ark Angel Creations

Polka Dot Classic

PRSD4Tim2

Little Mushroom Cap

I Have A Notion

And if you want the whole list, so you can backtrack and get some of them that you missed, here is a link to the Bowls Blog Hop Head Cheerleader, Carol! She and Madame are doing a super job keeping us busy, aren't they? (Wink)

Enjoy the hop!

Love,

The winners of the Pets on Quilts 2012 show!!

Ribbit! Ribbit! Can you hear the trumpets? See that red carpet being rolled out? It's time to announce the winners in the fabulous Pets on Quilts show for 2012!!

We had some Terrifically Tightly-contested Tussles going on in our viewers' choice voting! (Dontcha love alliteration?)  Here are the ones who won their categories:

Drum roll, please!!

For the Dog on Quilt or Dog themed quilt, will Archie the Wonder Dog please take a bow!! Congratulations on your honor! (Make sure that She Who Controls the Biscuits gives you an extra one for all that cuteness!)

For the Cat on Quilt or Cat-themed quilt, it's the amazing KruseKats, whose fan club propelled them to victory! Take a victory lap around the milk bowl, KruseKats! Everone loved the tail, er tale of how the quilt was made!

For the Other Pet category, we had an entry that galloped away from the competition! (Grin) It was Sherry's Sky Horses quilt! (Sullivan the Hedgehog was in the lead, but lost in the end. I think it was because his legs were shorter, but that's just a froggy opinion.)

For the EQ category (quilts designed with the wonderful EQ software) QuiltSue designed the winning quilt! (And if you think it was chosen because of the name on it, you're wrong....I'll show you the vote tallies -- she topped the others by more than ten votes!) Great work, Sue!

Taking top honors for the Art quilt category is a contestant who entered the very last day -- Lucy the Llama was the crowd favorite -- congratulations to Landscape Lady, who entered Lucy's portrait in our show!

I hope you will join me in giving these winners a big round of applause --- they have braggin' rights for the whole year! Ribbit!

Now, let's divvy up all these wonderful prizes from our super sponsors, OK? I know, I know, this is the part that you tuned in for! (Grin)

The Quilted Kitty is providing an adorable tea set to Jennifier

They also are providing a gift certificate to Archie the Wonder Dog! Archie's mom can select from their great variety of fabrics!

The third prize the Quilted Kitty is gifting is a fabric bundle, and it goes to Kirsten!

The generous gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop is going to My Sister Made Me Do it!  We can see lots of fun in her future, trying to decide which of the delicious fabrics to choose! The Fat Quarter Shop is one of our sponsors here at Lilypadquilting, and we've always loved their customer service and fast shipping, not to mention their dreamy fabrics!

LandscapeLady is the winner of an online shopping spree from Martingale Books! It can be used for e-books, or ones you can hold in your hands and drool over! (Wink)

Quilt Sue will be enjoying a pattern and all of the kitted supplies from the Raspberry Rabbits! Everything she needs to complete this darling project! Harrington and Hannah gave it bunny approval!

 

IHAN will be sending a beautiful quilted handbag to Sherry, at the Adventures in Life blog!  Now she will have to decide, whether to carry her projects, or make it a purse!

Marianne will be receiving the download of Margaret Bucklew's awesome Quilty Clip Art! Lots of great designs from a talented lady!

Carole M, Gene Black, Catachresis, and KitzBitz will all be receiving a sampler pack of several types of Heat Press Batting Together! Different colors, and different widths!

The KruseKats will be having a spree at the Cotton Patch, with their prize, a gift certificate! Have fun deciding what to use the lovely fabrics for!

Amy and the Bad Cats will receive a lovely kitty bed from Ronika Lee's Etsy shop! Sweet dreams!

Diggity Dawg Etsy shop sponsored two winners: Heartsease54 and Debbie will both receive a cute pet placemat of their choice, from the Diggity Dawg shop!

Another of our wonderful Etsy shop partners is Pat's Designs, and Quiltmom and Karen will be choosing a keychain or pet tag for their prizes!

Karen Brow of Java House Quilts will be sending the fabulous Cat-Acatemy BOM to Vrooman's quilts! She'll have fun with that project!

PopDoggies Etsy shop will be sending Christine her prize --- the magnet of her choice from the incredible selection in the shop!

Thimblemouse is the winner of the adorable wooden puzzle from the Wooden Giraffe Etsy shop! They have so many cute things to choose from - be prepared to spend a while looking, Thimblemouse!

Marcia's Crafty Sewing and Quilting sponsored three gift certificates for $30 off on her amazing free motion quilting, and here are the three lucky winners! Amy's Crafty Shenanigans, Catpatches, and Miss Peach are the happy quilters who will receive these prizes! They'll be able to look over the gallery and choose just what they would like to see on their project!

Abbi May's online fabric store sponsored a generous gift certificate, and the winner of this shopping spree is Pennydog! Kerry at Pennydog is the creator of the art quilt that gave Sherry a run for her money; and that blog is the home of the afore-mentioned Sullivan the hedgehog. (Waving) Froggy greetings to you!

Another Etsy shop that teamed with us this year was PupsEtc. They sponsored a prize, and it's Shelle who wins it! Yay! You'll receive a collection of pet toys!

Inchworm Fabrics sponsored a prize, too, and it's a goodie: Dana will receive a copy of Pieced Applique Weekend Projects from Inchworm's fabulous selection of books and fabrics!

Let's have a huge round of applause -- heck, how about a standing ovation? For our fantastic sponsors!!  Yay!!! Hoppy froggies, but they've been wonderful to work with, and ever so generous with the prizes for our show!

I think all of us are winners, because it was so much fun to hop around and view the show! And Snoodles and I were so happy to see some pups and kitties that have been rescued and given happy forever homes! Please be sure to consider that, the next time that you are looking for a pet. You can find some sweethearts at the shelters, and they  will put lots of sunshine in your  heart!

And speaking of Snoodles, she has put aside the bucket, and is getting the patient some clear liquids, so we are making progress! Thanks so much for all of the good wishes!

Congratulations to all of our winners! I'll be emailing you with your prize information soon!  I'm already looking forward to next year's show! Ribbit!

Love,