Go! Giveaway

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2011/01/last-day-of-aqeq-design-challenge-blog.html

Check out a chance to win a Go! cutter or some new dies. Good luck.

I was doing so well and then...

Wow, I broke another foot. How many does that make? Well, three broken feet and one that has snags so bad I can't use it. I've gone through 4 feet on my quilting machine since getting it in 2008. Really? How many quilting feet have you used on your machine? I called my mom and she said she has never broken a foot. I called my friend Carla and she said SHE has never broken a foot. Both told me to SLOW DOWN.

But I have too much to do and when I get going, I forget to slow down.

This time I was trying something new. I was trying to make the feathers on the border of this quilt. I was going along and the quilt shifted and twisted and I guess the foot got caught and I watched it and SNAP! Off went the foot. Just glad it wasn't my finger.

Now, I have to wait patiently for another foot to arrive. I'm ordering two this time.

The funny (sad) thing is, on Saturday I was cleaning up the sewing room. The package from the current foot has been sitting on the floor of the sewing room since I got it last summer (or was it two summers ago). I finally threw it out on Saturday thinking, hey, this foot has lasted a really long time. I don't think I will need to buy another one. This is all metal and won't ever break on me. Don't say never around here and don't throw away a foot package in the kitchen garbage because you will have to dig in there to get it back out! Yuck. But at least my son hadn't take the garbage out yet. Thanks kid for not doing your chores yet :)

So, my mouse on my computer is having troubles too and the right click button won't work to let me turn the pictures the right way. Just tip your head :) Don't fall out of your chair.

I got these two quilts done and the third one almost done before breaking the foot. Gotta get back in the groove. I forgot how to load the backing and kept putting it on backwards. Quilting is not like riding a bike!

And my camera was being used to film a video for my daughter's class so this picture is terrible! I guess the photographer was too busy to put the flash on :(

Migraines and Fish Oil?

My migraines haven't been so bad since I started taking Fish Oil again. I ran out a few months ago, could it be around October, when my migraines started up really bad? I didn't think there was a connection between the fish oil and migraines, but then started taking the fish oil about 2 weeks ago and haven't had a bad migraine since.

I did a google search and there are some studies to show there is a connection between the two.

Hmmm. The science teacher in me wants to stop taking the fish oil and see if the migraines come back, but I don't want the migraines to come back so I'm going to count my blessings, talk to the neurologist in a week and a half and see what he thinks.

Hubby's quilt is done!

And he loves it. Success.

Finally some quilting gets done

Will you look at that???

Two quilts quilted, bound, washed and ready to gift! What's going on around here?

The first is for a friend at work who had a hysterectomy and is on the road to recovery. She is younger than me and was having lots of health troubles that the doctors couldn't figure out so they said let's just start removing body parts until your problems go away. They took out her uterus and the troubles didn't stop. I'm glad I don't have her doctor or they would have removed my brain!

The second quilt is for my pastor's wife's teaching assistant's husband. Did you keep all of that straight? He was in a car accident last week and was paralized. When I took the quilt over tonight, my pastor's wife said that he is regaining some feeling in his arms and legs and took some baby steps tonight. Praise God! When my pastor saw this quilt he said, 'Oh, I really like that quilt a lot, I mean I like all of the quilts, but I like the colors in that quilt a lot, I mean I like all of the quilts, but that one, man.'

I have a feeling I am going to be making another one just like it in the near future :) Shhhh, Wendy, don't tell! And he said, it looks big enough for two people! Well, maybe if you liked each other a lot :)

700 post winner

Congratulations to Aleisha! Random.org picked #4.

Aleisha said...
Wow! 700 posts! My favorite teacher was Mrs. Wright, my 9th grade algebra teacher. Thanks for the great giveaway!
January 19, 2011 8:56 PM

Just send me your address and I will get the fabric cuts in the mail this week.

I've been pretty productive today and finished up a quilt that I started just over 2 years ago. I am planning on giving it on Monday to a friend at work who had a hysterectomy.

I am planning on working on another quilt tonight for the husband of a coworker of a friend who was recently in a car accident and was paralyzed. There is always someone to make a quilt for and I'm thankful for all of the fabric that has been given to me and I'm happy to share with all of you!

I'm enjoying playing with my Go! cutter. I wish I could give one away...maybe soon ;)

700th post giveaway

Wow, I've had a lot to say I guess. Since I started blogging, this is my 700th post. Must be time for a giveaway to anyone who has stuck around to read about my quilting and my life :)

So, leave a comment on this post and I will pick a winner on Saturday after I get back from my daughter's tennis tournament. Tell me who your favorite teacher was.

The winner will get some fabric cut with my Accuquilt Go! cutter. Not sure what just yet, but I'm planning on adding some fusable web to the back and trying out some of my applique dies. I'll add to this post as I work through my dies and play some more. I have a lot of dies to try out and just bought 14 yards of fusable web on sale at JoAnn's!

I also logged in today and saw this on my counter. I love it when the numbers do things like this! Wow, 40004 people have been by to visit. Thanks! Or, maybe my dad has stopped by that often. Hi Dad!

(giveaway for North America blog readers please--I can't afford international postage--sorry)

**Update #1: The first group of applique die cuts are these super cute puppies! They are made with the Go! gingham dog die and have a separate ear. There are 4 different blue dog fabrics and ears so you can mix and match the dogs. There are 4 of each and they face different directions. Use them in blocks, or on borders or whatever you decide. Each dog and ear piece already has the fusable web attached to the back so they are ready to GO!

**Update #2 Calico Cats are also included in the giveaway. 16 of these cute little guys in shades of blue!

And look, my baby dies came in the mail yesterday, just in time to get used to make some cutouts for the giveaway! (Sorry, you don't get the dies, just some fabric cutouts :) Various cutouts of each of these dies as I find time today. I have to try them all out you know.

I also will include cutouts from the Funky Flower, Rose of Sharon, Stars, Circle and Critter. Those are all of the Appliquie dies I have and I'm trying out different fusable web. I can tell today is going to be a fun day. Be sure to leave a comment if you want to try out some of these appliques on your quilts or even baby shirts, tote bags, book covers, or whever your imagination comes up with!

Volunteers and Do Over Days

Today was the first day of a new semester. I called today a Do Over Day for my students. There aren't often days like this. Today was a brand new day for my students. Everything is wiped clean. All of their tardies start over. All of their grades start new. Everything is fresh and a clean slate is presented to them. This only happens when you are in school and get to start clean.

We talked about the changes they need to make to do things better this semester.

Albert Einstein defines insanity as doing things the same and expecting different results. We talked about how changing things should expect different results. We talked about my oldest daughter and how she worked really hard every day of her high school career and how she was awarded a full ride scholarship to the college of her choice.

Last week we got a bill in the mail for just over $26,000 that is due Jan 25. My husband and I just laughed because we don't have to pay it. The scholarship pays everything...tuition, room, board, books, everything. All because she worked really hard in high school.

We talked about how choices today affect your future. I showed the kids places they can volunteer and get community service opportunity hours and places to apply for scholarships.

I had some kids interested in helping with Binky Patrol. That's cool!

If you have a charity organization you work with and need some volunteers, I'd like to suggest you contact your local high school. Call the counseling office or better yet, go in and talk to the head counselor. Bring in some fliers and ask to post them in the school office and around campus. Kids are looking for ways to help in their community, but have no idea where to start. Ask them to post your organization on their school website and to make an announcement over the loudspeaker. Ask them to call home and let the parents know about you and what you do.

You will get kids who are interested in helping you. Be sure you are ready for the help. The kids are ready and willing, but probably won't have a lot of skills. But, you might just be surprised! You may get more than you ask for!

I am not a super coupon-er

SO, I watched this show on TLC about people who get their groceries for free or almost so by using massive amounts of coupons and was inspired to start using coupons again. I haven't used coupons for at least 15 years because most of the time the store brand is still cheaper than the name brand even when you use the coupon.

I used to spend hours clipping coupons, carrying them around in my purse waiting for a sale and then pull them out only to find they had expired. I wasn't organized enough to get the savings these people on TV were getting so I gave up.

Well, after watching these people get $600 in groceries for $6, I thought I could save at least $20 on stuff I really need so I clipped coupons and headed out to WalMart yesterday with coupons in hand.

The first problem came up when I couldn't find the products I had coupons for. They had some of the things, but not all of them. Different type of air freshener, different type of pudding, wrong brand of antacid. Ok, they had some of the things I had coupons for, but it sure took a long time to make sure they were the same. And why do they have to make the print so small on the coupons? Do they really feel the need to make me feel so old? The cereal on was really bad. Choose from these different types of cereal and even the pictures were so small I wasn't sure I was picking the right cereals!

So, shopping took an extra 20 minutes just to get about 10 different things that I had coupons for and I wasn't even getting normal groceries, just the things I had the coupons for. Time is money you know.

Then, I got to the cashier. The lady on TV said she always chooses the young guy cashier because he is tolerant of her massive use of coupons. WRONG. He was nice and all, but he didn't know what he was doing with the coupons. Which meant he was extra slow. Which meant the people behind me in line weren't too happy with me :( Most of the coupons were buy one get one free, so he had to put the price in. I got some air fresheners and the coupons didn't work so he tried to put the price in and that didn't work and then he scanned them again and it took one cent off and the other one took three cents off. The guy behind me was starting to look mad so I just said it was ok. Gee, I saved a whole 4 cents and spent $12 for air fresheners I didn't really need.

I think I will leave the super couponing to people who know what they are doing.

I saved $19 and spent an extra $12. I will use the air fresheners eventually. I have a lot of them :) And it wasn't like they were super expensive and if I really wanted to push it I could have just said nevermind on those, but I felt bad for the guy who didn't know what he was doing and the people behind me in line.


Do you use coupons? Do you have any tips for me? I hate giving up on something so easily, but it was pretty frustrating!

The best thing I ever made

My design wall. I'm telling you. If you don't have one, you really must figure out a spot in your house to make one. It can be simple or complex, but having this design wall has really improved my quilting ten thousand percent. Not only am I much more ambitious in my quilt designing, but I'm getting a lot more compliments from my family. I will put a quilt up here and my hubby will walk by and say, that's a nice design. Before, he wouldn't even notice I was sewing. Seriously people!

He just figured out that I have a blog. After 2 1/2 years :) I love that man, but he isn't very observant sometimes. So, to have this design wall hanging in the quilting room where I can work on a quilt has really been a plus. I can pin the blocks up and get them put together so much more quickly.

Now, this quilt isn't a real beauty, but it will serve its intended purpose and that is to keep someone warm. It is made with the Buttonberry Stashbuster's quilt pattern you can find on the sidebar here to the right side. I've probably made 300 quilts using this pattern. Super quick and easy and with borders this one comes out 60 by 72 inches. Great for an adult, which is what I'm aiming for this year and perfect for my quilting machine.

Northbay Honor Band

My son played 1st Trombone today in the Northbay Honor Band. You can see him there, in the middle of the picture. Wow, they were really good! In a month, he goes to the State honor band and plays 2nd trombone. In the WHOLE STATE! Wow. His whole life is music. He has songs in his head all the time. For Christmas we got him a music composition program for the computer and he is always writing music. I'm not sure what he is going to be when he grows up, but I'm sure that music will be involved somehow.

Today I was thinking about when I was in Jr. High. I played in a band like this. I was terrible. I played clarinet. Most of the time I just faked it. When I did play lots of squeaks and squalks came out. One time they had me play the drums. Why, I'm not sure. I was really nervous. I hit the bass drum too hard and it came off the stand and fell over and made a really loud sound. I thought I was going to die! I didn't, but I don't play the clarinet or the drums. I guess I passed along some of my musical talents to my son. I'm glad he only got the good musical parts and not the really bad stuff.

all better

When I told him I fixed it, he was happy!

Would this bother you?

Yesterday I sewed this quilt top together. The blocks have been patiently waiting thier turn in a box in the garage. They were pinned together and ready to go. Why did it take me one and a half years to sew it together? I have no idea, but now it is a top and ready to quilt.

After taking the picture, I looked at it and immediately saw a problem. My picture taker looked at it and saw the problem too. He is 6. He says, that's ok mom, you can just unsew it tomorrow. I said, no, I think I will just leave it. He says, no, mom, tomorrow you will unsew it and fix it. I said, I'm sure it will be ok and that nobody will mind the small problem. He insists that I fix it.

Can you see the problem? Does it bother you?

Forgiving myself and moving on

I just threw away a whole bucket of yarn. I'm having a hard time with this because some of it was special yarn I had purchased for scarves for my daughter. Some was expensive. I had put it in the garage in a bucket without a lid. The mice had gotten into the bucket and ruined the yarn. I can't wash it because it is wool and washing it will just felt it.

I need to just forgive myself and move on and not dwell on the fact that I messed up. I need to clean up the mess, not make the same mistake again and use up what I have that is still good out in the many buckets out there. Nobody died (except the many mice that are out in the garage!) and a lesson was learned. That is worth the price of the yarn.

Now, back to work. I'm trying to clean and organize and make a list of projects that need completing this weekend. I have Monday off (yay!) and finals to grade and quilts to make. The house is still quiet. My two middle kids are off this morning, one to a tennis lesson and one to an honor band practice. The little one is still asleep. He loves to stay up late on the weekends and sleep in late on weekend mornings. I have no idea how he can do that! He takes after his daddy for sure.

MLK jr, political correctness and a 6 year old

So, my son comes home today after learning all there is to know about civil rights and reads his little book he made in school. The book is about Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement. In the book it talked about the movement to get rid of the White's Only signs on drinking fountains and buses.

He says to me, Mom, our whole family could ride in the front of the bus, but not Ariel (his oldest sister) because she is brown. She would have to ride in the back of the bus.

It was all I could do to keep a straight face. I'm sure she would be happy to know her hours of tanning this summer were noticed by her 6 year old brother. :)

Carla's quilting

Ok, so yesterday's post was supposed to have a hyperlink to Carla's blog. I'm lame. I forgot to put the hyperlink there. Ugh. Well, today, the hyper link works :)

If you need any quilting done, I highly recommend Carla. She is super great! Check out her quilting services. And if you are local, she teaches quilting and sewing to kids and adults!

I dropped off my quilt last night and I'm excited to see what she does with it. She does pantographs and free hand stuff and I said do whatever you want.

Today is another short day with finals and the end of the semester :) Yay, that means more sewing time. Monday is a holiday. Thanks Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I love when we celebrate. That just means more sewing time for me! I'll be cutting fabric and quilting. I haven't quilted anything for a very long time. My machine actually has dust on it. For shame.

so big...

I needed help to hold it! Wow, I'm getting brave :)

This is the t-shirt quilt for my husband. I'm taking it to my friend Carla for quilting tonight. If you are looking for someone to do some quilting for you, check out Carla's blog! She is a great quilter and can do pantographs or freehand designs. I can't do anything this big on my machine so off to her house this quilt goes. When it gets back I will bind it and give it to hubby before the weather turns warm. He will be surprised that I got it done so quickly. He has only been asking for a quilt for about 3 years :) Hey, these things take some time you know!

If you click on the picture, you can see the fabric has Superman on it. HE is my Superman, don'tcha know?

Getting Bigger!

This year the focus of my quilt tops will be bigger! My machine can only quilts things up to about 72 inches wide, so we aren't talking king size, but quilts big enough to cover teens and quilts for snuggling on the couch with.

I will still be quilting things for kids too, but I want to make bigger quilts for adults as well.

This one finishes at 5 feet by 7 feet. Yeah, it's too early in the morning to convert that to inches. And my 6 year old took the picture so you get to see my computer screen and lot of other things in my house besides my quilt :)

This was made with my Accuquilt Go! cutter and the 6 1/2 inch half square triangle. Have I told you how much I LOVE that die? Well, I do.

I just got the rest of the dies in the starter set and plan to make lots of different blocks now. There are 8 dies in the starter set and the Accuquilt website has 36 blocks you can make using those 8 dies. I plan to make a block of each and put those together as a quilt. I am going to try and make a video for each block. I've made a video of this block, they call it the mill wheel block, but most places call it the pinwheel block.

The quilts I came up with for this block I just LOVE. It is in all oranges. I should make it bigger and sent it to my baby brother (who turns 39 on Sunday) for his birthday. He is 6 foot 4 inches tall, but will always be my baby brother.

UPDATE to this post: I just measured and I can only quilt things about 60 inches wide on my quilting frame. I guess I will be passing along some of my bigger quilts to my friends, Carla and Jenny who can do the bigger quilts. That's ok, I will still keep making them bigger. And, it is later in the day and I figured out that 5 feet is 60 inches and 7 feet is 84 inches. Nice size quilt!

Ugh

Ugh, ugh, ugh. Frustration. That's how I'm feeling with these migraines. Today is a doozie of a migraine. It started while I was out this morning. My daughter had a tennis lesson and it was about 40 degrees. I had to run to JoAnn for some more fabric for my husband's quilt. What? I'm actually making a quilt for my husband? I've only made 500 quilts and never made one for him? Well, those were all practice quilts so his would be perfect!

I went to JoAnn's and WalMart and then went back to pick up my daughter and BAM, the migraine started. I took some Tylenol/Codeine and the migraine got worse. Got home and took Ibuprofen and had lunch and laid down to rest and watch some Fons and Porter quilting on TV. Fell asleep for about 15 minutes and woke up feeling worse. Took some more Tylenol/codeine, watched some more TV, knitted a little, rested some more.

I've now taken some Flexoril.

I didn't get anything done today that I really wanted to do. So frustrated. This week was good so I guess the headache was just saving itself for a Saturday when I could stay home and not HAVE to do anything. I just wanted to play today. I have some fabric that is calling to me from the other room. It is calling loudly. You can probably hear it if you listen closely. My husband's t-shirts are calling too. They want me to cut them out so I can put the borders on them. He keeps hinting that a quilt in the summer isn't going to get much use.

Oh, well. I guess I will just rest.

Oh, and Happy 77th birthday Mom. Thanks for inspiring my LOVE/Obsession of quilting.

Stars on the Go!

I'm challenged to make some star blocks and this weekend is as good as any! One of my groups, Stashbusters, is making star blocks in 12 inch size for a lady in the group and I plan to make as many different blocks as I can using my Go! fabric cutter. I plan to cut the fabric tonight and then sew, sew, sew!

One of the ladies in the group put together this list of 12 inch finished blocks and I can't wait to start printing out the patterns. After I have a snack :) I hope you find something you like and check back to see what I'm up to this weekend.

I have some grading to do too. It is gloomy out and makes me a little blue. I think I need some bright fabrics to chase those blues away!

I can't believe

Finished size 60x72
I haven't shown you this finished quilt yet!



My daughter and I made this for her boyfriend's mother for Christmas. We just shipped it out yesterday. His mother lives in Florida. I LOVE this quilt. I really shoudl make one for myself, but probably never will. I have too many ideas floating around in my head to make something for myself :)

The pieces were all cut on my AccuQuilt Go! cutter using the 6 1/2 inch half square triangle in about 30 minutes. The top was sewn together in a couple of hours after taking FOREVER to lay out. I can't tell you how many different designs you can make using the half square triangles because we tried about 30 different ones including a robot and alien bugs and finally decided on this one :) Plus if you have lots of colors or only a couple of colors you can make lots or fewer things.

Too much fun!

My 3rd video :)

Do you think I may have a problem?

I'm addicted to making these videos! I even had a dream about it last night. CRAZY!

SO, here is the 3rd video I've made and I'm sure there will be more...free dies from Accuquilt or not. So far they have not replied to my emails asking if the offer is still good :(


I'll keep sending emails asking if the offer for a free Accuquilt Go! die for every video I make is still good and I will keep making the videos as long as you keep watching them okay?

Enjoy. This one is called Reducing waste and the 6 1/2 inch half square triangle. This is my FAVORITE die right now. I'm addicted to this die. It is so much fun to cut and so much fun to sew. The pieces are big, which means the quilts go together quickly. I'm working on the next video :) and hope to have the quilt top finished tomorrow for the next video.

My daughter is my videographer and she is doing a great job. She knows just when to zoom in and out because she loves to sew as well. And I have a handy helper ready to help me in a future video. My 6 year old can't wait for his turn to show how easy it is to turn the handle. He wants his turn to be in a video too!

Enjoy...it's past my bedtime!

The next Go! die video

Here's the second in a series of AccuQuilt Go! videos. I'm having fun making these.

This one is called First Dies to get with the Go! cutter. Seems everyone asks which dies are the best to get. Well, I found a page by accident on the Accuquilt.com site which has 30 different quilt blocks and I plan to make each one. You only need 8 of the dies to make all 30 blocks so it seems to me that having these 8 dies is a great place to start.

I wish someone would have told me this in the first place since I have about 20 of the dies now and needed to get 4 of the 8 to complete the set :)

That's ok, because I'm having fun collecting the dies and using them too.

Enjoy and stay tuned for another giveaway coming soon...

I've gone and done it

Well, there's no turning back now. I've made a couple of videos with my AccuQuilt Go! cutter and posted them to the web. I just hope my students don't find them. Ugh.

Here's the first one, for your viewing pleasure :)

Marking your AccuQuilt Go! dies. I put a new twist on things I believe from what I've seen out there. There are a lot of videos on how to mark your dies. I mark beyond the actual steel blades because when you lay the fabric over the lines, you can't see where they are. By drawing the lines beyond the blades, you can make sure you have the shape of the die fully covered. It is a great way to get the best use out of your fabric. I'm not sure I got the point across in the video, but I hope when you try it for yourself, you will see what I mean.

Enjoy the video and try it for yourself.

And stay tuned for another giveaway coming soon! I'm having too much fun around here, despite the migraine that won't quit!

Finals are next week and then another 3 day weekend! I love being a teacher :)

The winner!

The winner of the fabric for the Stretched Star quilt is...
Mimi. She said

Mimi said...
I love the stretched star pattern, this would be awesome to win!! Thanks for the chance.
January 1, 2011 6:30

Congratulations Mimi. Please email me your information and I will get your quilt kit in the mail this week.

Yuck. I have to go back to school tomorrow. Oh, well, it pays the bills :)

Let me know what colors you like so I can pick through my scraps and find something you will like for your quilt.

Giveaway!

Giveaway is at 3pm Pacific Time...did you sign up yet?

Dead Fish Hat

This is the first of the Dead Fish hats I've made. My little guy wants a shark and so does my daughter. I think they are really cute! Weird, but cute! If you want to make your own, you can find the pattern at deadfishhat.com check it out!

Encouragment for today

“My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.” (Psalms 73:26 NLT)