Some Sewing and a Giveaway

It has been some time since I've posted any sewing news but I have been busy...sewing and life in general. I have been keeping up with the blog hops over at Sew We Quilt even though I didn't get signed up. I'm just lovin' the Stacks of Bowls! If you haven't seen them, you can take a peek at the schedule of hoppers here.

Any who...you ask what I've been doing? Well, I finished this new table runner and placemat set (the table runner has been finished for a while but the placemats were waiting to be made.)

The fabric is Hometown by Sweetwater. I just love this line! It is so much fun to look for names of cities/towns from all over. My DH and I have even looked up a few on google maps.

I love the giant rick rack detail.

The pattern is called Riff~Raff by Silk Road Creations. 

I also caught up on my BOM quilting! Here is the August block for BOM with Quilt Story. The theme for August is fussy cut which was a little challenging for me because only one fabric that I am using is able to be fussy cut. The rest are blenders. 

Here are the blocks all together: hour glass, fussy cut, rounded, flying geese, 9-patch, HST

And here are the July and August blocks for the Craftsy BOM with Amy Gibson. 

July blocks: Dresdens

traditional

modern

August blocks: stars

I also made 2 blocks for the Quilting for Kids charity group on Flickr. 

These string blocks were fun to make!

I have a few more projects that I have been working on but you'll have to wait to see them. Here is just a peek...

They are for the Dots on Dots Blog Hop coming in September!

Now did someone mention a giveaway? Yep I did! 

During the Red White and Blue Blog Hop, I was elated to see that I reached over 200 followers! This did not go unnoticed...love the encouragement from my followers! So as a thanks to my followers, I have this giveaway made from my Hometown collection.

A mug rug (mug not included)

A coaster set (mug not included)

Here are the details:

1. You must be a follower of my blog or become one (all are welcome to join). Tell me in your comment.

2. Tell me which gift you would prefer if you should be chosen ~ the mug rug or the coaster set. (1st drawn will get their 1st choice)

3. If you are a no~reply blogger, you must leave your email in your comment or I'll redraw.

4. Giveaway is open to all and will end on Friday, August 24th at 10pm CST. Winners will be chosen by Mr. Random Generator. 

A little bit of quilting

If you read my blog you know that very shortly we will be heading to Norway for some family time, hiking and relaxing (my DH grew in Norway and his family lives there). I haven't started a new quilt since I knew I would be going and didn't want to have a WIP that might turn into a UFO if I lost interest while I was away. Instead I have been working on smaller projects and putting more ideas in my head for when I get home. 

One of the things that I made yesterday was a block for the new Quilting for Kids project on Flickr. This quilt is a boy's I Spy Quilt based on Katie's (swimbikequilt) I Spy 10 Little Things quilt. 

Here is the block that I made ~ very easy peasy!

And while I was rummaging through my stash for boy I Spy fabrics, I found a piece that I thought I could whip up fairly quickly into a small girlie quilt since I needed a project for: FNSI and to meet my personal challenge to sew out of my older stash. Here is what I sewed last night. 

The Sunbonnet Sue cheater fabric was inherited years ago from my mom and was a panel to make a small pillow. Sorry mom, that was never going to happen. The pink with tiny red dots and the muslin was given to me by a friend of a friend whose mother could no longer sew but had a huge inventory of hoarded fabric. Someday I should take a picture of the stack that I received which was only a teeny, tiny bit of the total. But that's for another day.

The purple and green prints are from my stash of 30's fabric. 

I started by cutting out the little panels and framing them with the pink. After putting them together and measuring the length, I figured the width size and then searched my stash to see what I had to coordinate. I sewed the column of Sunbonnet Sue slightly off center and this is how it finished around 11pm before calling it a night. I will probably leave it as a flimsy until I get back from vacation (unless I get antsy to sew something) but I did find a backing fabric from my stash! Not sure what I should do with this quilt. Any ideas for donating it?

Join me here in seeing what others sew this Friday Night. 

Another Friday night

If your looking for my entry in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, it's here.

Last night was the FNSI hosted by Heidi and Bobbie. I had all the intentions of getting a bit done. I had been playing with HST recently and finished this chevron top and wanted to have it sandwiched so I could quilt it on Friday night.

But that didn't happen since I was called into work a few extra days and never made it to my LQS to find the perfect backing.

Plan B was to work on my red, white, and blue blocks for the up coming hop and the block I signed up to make for Quilting for Kids. After work, I took a few minutes to visit blogs on the Bloggers' Quilt Festival when my husband comes home from work. I could tell something was up with all his activity and could over hear his phone conversation.

Swarm! 

He calls to me and asks if I wanted to go with him to get the swarm. 

[one of my hubby's hobby is beekeeping]

So we head off to find this!

So now the bees are safe and sound in a hive box and hopefully will happily go about making honey!

Back at home, there is still time to sew however this little sweetie comes visiting with our DD1.

We is such a sweet little guy and not much gets done when he is visiting except walks, play time, and snuggle time.

But I was determined to do some sewing. So when my DD1 took a little night nap, I headed to my sewing room and worked on this block.

A 12 1/2" Square in a Square block for Quilting for Kids on Flickr. It will be in the mail soon! 

This block was so easy to put together, I had a few minutes to look through my stash to see if I could find a backing for my chevrons before I called it 'quits' for the night. Look what I found!

I think it will work out perfectly! Now to work on piecing the back...sandwich and quilt!

Well, even though it wasn't exactly as planned, my night was quite productive! How about yours? Head over to Bobbie's blog to find out what other's accomplished.