Scary Harry Giveaway Over

Congrats to Jo #101 & StrawberryBlond #122 - you are the winners!

CUTE costume ideas... Mac & PC, princess & the pea, vintage McDonalds uniform... Red Riding Hood, gotta love that.

I need to go to thrift stores more.

Vhat Vould You Like?

We're running out the door to a

Halloween Party...

Today's giveaway is for

2 half yards of

ANY fabric,

(subject to approval...lol,

you know there are a few exclusions.)

We'll have 2 Winners!

To Enter the drawing,

leave a comment about

your favorite Halloween Costume.

Random drawing later tonight.

Be sure to enter the Accuquilt Giveaway -- I'll pick a winner next week!

Harry

(the vampire aka Edward Cullen) & I

are headed to Des' this weekend.

Des, we can't keep meeting like this.

Bento Boxes, Love Squares and Pioneer Woman

What do these 3 things have in common??

They were a running theme to Retreat 2010.
Oh, to condense a 4 day quilt retreat into a post.......

I know I'm getting older.

I use to be able to wax poetic for days................

Now, I just wax my upper lip.

Thankfully, Corrie actually took out her camera and used it for what it was made for.....

....making memories.
My camera sat in the bag I packed it in and I just barely pulled it out and said,
"Hello, I'm sorry I ignored you at the party."
We're not gamblers but we hit the jackpot in Bear Lake, Idaho!!!

A cabin in the wilderness solely created for quilters.

Hey! That's us!!

Rooms filled with Ott Lights and cutting mats.

Irons waiting to press 500- 2 inch triangle squares.

A whole room dedicated to DESIGN.

We were able to hang up all our goodies and stand back and admire our work.

Let's all just admire my spider web for moment.

Thank you. Now back to your regularly scheduled post.

We tumbled and tumbled with the new Accuquilt.

We now have a new item for Santa's list.

Did you know you can get 2 tumblers out of a layer cake square?

Fabulous!

There's still time to enter the giveaway!

A little Cluck Cluck Sew Pillow by Stitchy Poo.

This year's block exchange was a Modified Bento Box I saw on Film in the Fridge.

The theme was blues and greens.
We each made 9 and then exchanged with one another.

Leela and Stitchy poo always over achieve and make more blocks and then actually finish their quilt AT the quilt retreat. Imagine the possibilities.
Some of us are still thinking about the block exchange from 2006.

I feel rejuvenated and ready to attack my UFO pile again.

I have many undone projects still waiting for attention.
Maybe they'll get some attention at the 2011 retreat.

Scrapitty -do dah day~ Giveaway OVER

Giveaway Winners!!  ELP and Nancy #134.  We'll contact you because we have emails!! 

Congratulations.  Don't forget there is still time on the Accuquilt giveaway!

We're having a scrappy-do party today 

as part of Jodi's Sew Scraps Along.

 

Join Jodi for ideas on how to organize and play with your scraps. 

  

Did your mom tell you not to play with your scraps?  

Well, we think otherwise and we want to help!

Today's giveaway is for 2, 

count 'em, 2 boxes of scraps.  

One from Corrie, One from Des.

Jar not included.

 

2 lucky winners.  (US residents only.) 

Leave a comment, any comment.  

No brain strain involved. 

Don't you love those kind??

Corrie and I are off on our annual quilt retreat.  

By the time you're reading this I should be knee deep in projects, friends and chocolate.  But not necessarily in that order.  

AND I will probably be producing MORE scraps.  

  It just kind of works that way. 

*shrug*

My weekend with Patterns.

As a tween, I used to go to the fabric store with my sister. I hated being there. There is nothing more boring than watching your sister flip through a thick, oversized McCall's pattern book and then see her reach for the Simplicity one. ugh.

~

Fast forward many years...I've never liked clothing patterns, but 2 weeks ago, my daughter & I were in the fabric store.

I was feeling invincible.

~

We wanted a shrug &

a Halloween costume for my other daughter (15 year old).

(Alice, but yes, in the larger version, looks simple enough

- thought we could tweak it a little.)

The shrug proved to be a little more complicated than I thought. I made 2 trial ones, they went together quick, but the sleeves weren't even close to the same size as the arm holes.

Plan B = improvise.

No sleeves. Just made the shoulder part a little wider.

She wanted straps too, to "hold it up".

Finished in time for Saturday night's

homecoming dance.

After the shrug fun,

I decided not to tackle the Alice costume this year.

That's why they have all of those Halloween stores,

so you can buy $9.99 wings & be a black fairy, right?

Works for her.
Works for me.

Accuquilt GO! Cutter Giveaway Over

We have a winner!

Congrats to Kim Sherrod #864!

So excited for you -- have fun with it!

Oh, Yes!
Accuquilt is so so SO generously letting us give away a

GO! Cutter to one of you!!

(plus 3 dies & the mats!)

You could be cutting out your own tumbler quilt like this in no time at all :-).

There's a possibility of 2 entries for you. You must leave 2 separate comments or they'll be counted as one entry. To enter the drawing to win an Accuquilt GO! Cutter and 3 dies of your choice --

#1. Leave a comment saying which 3 dies you would pick. You can see them here.

#2. "Follow Us" or let me know if you are already a follower AND tell me if you were to buy an Accuquilt portable cutter, would you buy the GO! Cutter (shown above) or the new GO! Baby (shown below)?

The giveaway will run through Thursday, November 4th at 9pm MST; I'll pick a winner that night! To enter you need to comment on this blog post. Be sure I have a way to reach you, there needs to be a link to your email in your profile or leave your email address.

We are also selling the GO! Cutters, just email me for the pricing & details. It makes a perfect Christmas present for you or someone you love!

(yeah, Des, I know you'd like one. Are you eligible to enter?

That would really be a coincidence if you won. :0)

Bliss Giveaway Over

Update: Congrats to Wendy #11 & Sherril #227.

I'll have to let you know what color won.

Let's say good-bye

to summer with a little Bliss!

Actually had to turn on the heater.

At first, I was saying to the kids,

"No, no, it's fine,"

but my son said he could see his breath.

A little exaggeration, but not much.

So today, we'll have 2 winners, you'll each get some Bliss fat quarters!

To enter the drawing, leave a comment about --

If you could only buy fabric of one color, what color would it be?

Random drawing later tonight.

Bliss is available on etsy & eBay.

I'll Tumble for You ~ Accuquilt GO!

It's here! It's here!

The Accuquilt GO Cutter!

Just so you get the full experience,

the bubble packaging smells like vanilla ? ?

Nice touch :).

Yes, we've seen it everywhere;

now we can see it up close & personal.

The machine comes with one die set -- which has a 4.5" square, 2.5" square, and two 2.5" wide by 2.5" wide triangles. Also included is the cutting mat you place over the fabric; a fabric pick, and a dust cover for your machine.

Accuquilt kindly also sent along the Tumbler, Circles & Rose of Sharon dies for me to try out!

Let me at it.

I opened it up & sat down to read the instruction manual.

It was one page!

Doesn't get better than that.

You can be cutting almost immediately.

~

Decided to try the tumbler die.

~

I marked where the blade is with a Sharpie,

so I can see where to put the fabric.

Here's a tip,

let the marker dry a little bit

before putting your fabric on it. No fear it all worked out.

Cut 7.5" strips of your fabric. I chose Whimsy.

I've wanted to make something out of this fabric forever, but didn't know what. Just found the perfect pattern with this tumbler block.

Here are my strips ready to go.

I quickly became the most popular person in the room.

It is easy to turn, but Harry needed some help. You've got to have a little muscle. I stand up when I cut them out.

I layered my fabrics. I have 6 layers on there.

I put the die with the fabric (& the cutting mat) through the machine. And voila -- there are my tumblers.

Then I cut the excess off...

and flip the fabric stack over,
so that the angle of the die/tumbler matches

the angle of my fabric to minimize waste.

There's my stack, ready to sew.

Just flip one of the tumblers around. I really like that the GO! cuts the dogears/corners off for you. There is no guessing; you start at the point that's 1/4" in and sew down the tumbler with a 1/4" seam allowance to the point on the bottom.

I pressed my seams open.

The top & the bottom match.

Look at that -- perfect.

I'm making a twin size-ish quilt. I cut 225 tumblers this afternoon & got some rows sewn -- a 1/3 of it is finished. I could finish it tomorrow, but I think I'd like to take this project to our upcoming retreat. It's so portable and easy to pick up where I left off. At retreats, I need an easy project, I tend to get a little distracted with my sister, the food & Shelto's stories.

I love it.

The tumbler is so easy, I can see making this one A LOT. Perfect for wedding gifts, baby quilts, picnic blankets and more.

Accuquilt -- "better cuts make better quilts"

I'm a believer.

And if this wasn't enough Accuquilt has announced a smaller machine, called the GO! Baby Fabric Cutter. Super portable. If you are interested in ordering either machine, the GO! is in stock & the GO! Baby will be shipping soon, just contact me.