Bloggy awards!

I have to confess, this is not the first time I received an award.  Michele from Quilts From My Crayon Box gave me the Liebster award, for "favorite blogs with under 200 followers," back in February, before I was really striving for blog etiquette.  And today I received the Sunshine Award for "Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere" from Priscilla at Thrifty Crafty Girl.  Although these awards are really kind of like a chain letter for blogs, I think it's high time I stopped being a lazy blogger and continued passing along these awards!



First, old business:  The Liebster award.  The Liebster Rules are:

1. Post about your win on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award.

3. Copy and paste the award to your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized.

5. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

I'm bestowing this award upon:

1. JoAnne from The Patriotic Quilter - I love her enthusiasm!
2. Amy at House of Bad Cats.  That name alone makes me giggle.
3. Prof. S at The Enchanted Bobbin.  She finished ALL of her FWQAL blocks and I'm in AWE!
4. Barbara at Chester River Quilter.  She is local to my dad's house and I love seeing what she finds on her shopping trips!
5. Michelle at Michelle's Quilts & Stuff.  I only found her recently but she lives in my home state of Delaware and I like reading about her work!
6. Stephanie at Stephanie Hamilton Designs.  Stephanie is an old friend of my Honey and she creates the most beautiful jewelry from knitting stones into metal.  Her blog is both inspirational and informative.  I am STILL working on a quilt for her in the hope I will get some of her art in return!
7. Susan at Susan Kraterfield's Quilts.  Susan has my vote for the most talented member of our guild and reading her blog helps me see what she's working on in between show & tell at guild meetings!
8. Deb at Deb Cobb Photography.  Deb is one of my sorority sisters from college and one of the most talented photographers I know.  I love seeing her work although too little of it makes her blog!
9. LSL at Long Story Longer.  I've been reading this blog for years as we commented on a mutual friend's blog.  I am so inspired by how she tackles life. 
10. Krista from Need a Latte Mom.  I love seeing how she transforms furniture and she is who inspired me to buy Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for this summer's projects.

Now, new business:  The Sunshine Award.  The Sunshine Award Rules are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
2. Answer 10 questions about yourself.  
3. Select 10 of your favorite bloggers, link their blogs to your post and let them know they've been awarded the Sunshine Award!
4. Don't forget to copy and paste the award on your blog! 

 

The ten questions are:

Favorite Color?  Red.  A bluish red, not a yellowish red.

Favorite Animal?  Big, slow dogs with intelligent eyes, like an old labrador retriever.

Favorite Number? Seven.  I don't know why.  Number of letters in my first name?

Favorite Drink?  That would be either Diet Coke or Guinness, depending on the time of day!

Facebook or Twitter?  Oh, definitely Facebook.  I have not yet seen the point to Twitter.

Good Book or Good Movie?  Generally, I'd choose good book, but I can't sew while I read, so movies have their place too.  Unless it's an audiobook and then I can sew while I listen!  I just borrowed "Brideshead Revisited" from the library yesterday for an upcoming long drive.

My Passion?  Quilting.  I think that goes without saying!

Giving or Getting Presents?  Giving.  I feel more anxiety getting something than giving something.

Favorite Day?  My birthday.  It's nice to have one day a year that's all about me.  :-)

Favorite Flowers?  Lilacs.  I really don't mean to steal Priscilla's answer but I love the scent of them; they bring back good memories from my childhood.

Since this award has no maximum followers I am going to be choosing some famous names here:

1. Kay Mackenzie at All About Applique - I love her passion for applique and all of her helpful tips!
2. Karen from Sew Many Ways - she is always so cheerful and resourceful.
3. Barb and Mary from Me and My Sister Designs.  In addition to creating gorgeous fabrics I think that they've helped Sonic increase their profit margin because I find myself stopping there more often!
4. Pat at Color Me Quilty.  You know I made her Gothic window for the Virginia Quilt Museum!
5. Kim from Magnolia Bay Quilts.  I love her books, and she has always posted such kind words about my quilts that I make from her patterns.
6. Maryann from Domestically Speaking.  Painting furniture is going to be a summer project and she's got so much inspiration!
7. Judi from Green Fairy Quilts.  Her longarm quilting has inspired me to try machine quilting myself. 
8. Pat from Silver Thimble Talk.  I always feel personally touched by her words and enthusiasm.
9. Kelly from The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking.  Great resource.
10. Melissa from Happy Quilting.  She's got a little of everything going on there!

Here's where I admit that I'm going to break from the rules.  I am too shy to let any of these people know that I'm giving them an award.  Most of them are such prolific bloggers with important projects and deadlines that an award from one of their many admiring followers is probably as annoying as a fly buzzing around their face.  But it doesn't mean that they don't deserve the props.  If you're reading and interested in what inspires me, go on and click through.  If you're one of the bloggers I've recognized here then you can blow me away by leaving a comment!

 

As for me, I've been busy.  My Honey is away and I definitely plan to get caught up in my sewing room tonight - I have a new project from the weekend which I should be able to wrap up and post.  I'm all caught up on my test blocks for Quiltmaker.  I'll post some photos in the near future, I promise.

Don't let me forget!!

(This is where I would put an image of a finger tied with string but I am terrified about using photos found on the internet without royalty or permission!)

At quilt guild Monday night I was approached by the programs chair who asked me to give October's presentation.  I had offered, about a year ago, to do a fun and informative session I'd call, "Charmed!  Five easy ideas for five inch squares."  There are so many books out on nickel quilts and other great way to use charm squares, but I wanted to do something that didn't need a pattern - like hourglass, disappearing nine patches, HSTs, flying geese, etc.  I consider charm square blocks to be something like candy ... when a fabric line is threatening to move into obsolescence and I don't own any of it yet, I can pick up a charm pack for under $10 and have it forever.  Or at least until I'm willing to cut into it.  Anyway, Monica Solorio-Snow at the Happy Zombie gave me permission to use her wonderful hourglass block tutorial in a guild class - you might remember the Hoopla baby quilts I made with this pattern, which is around the time I thought to give the class:

But this has been in the back of my mind for so long that I am prone to think of it as a done deal ... despite the fact that I don't have any quilts to use as demos.  So I am going to have to start digging into my charm packs this summer and MAKE SOME QUILTS!  I cannot forget!

I have two blocks to work on for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks testing, both are a bit more intricate than I have been tasked with previously, and so that will have to be the next project on deck.  After Sunday's marathon quilting day I have taken a few days off (yesterday was my birthday and we went out to dinner ... and I've gotten my Honey almost as interested in Downton Abbey as I am so the last couple of evenings have finished on the sofa in front of the big TV). 

I'm going to have to organize my summer a little more intently than I have so far.

Giveaway alert and weekend progress

First of all, Green Fairy Quilts, one of my favorite online quilt stores, is having a giveaway of Lily Ashbury Trade Winds fat quarters!  All you have to do to enter is tell them what your favorite fall releases are from their website.  I bought a charm pack of Trade Winds when I bought Lily Ashbury's Summer House jelly roll a few weeks ago, and I have my fingers crossed to win, but you should enter too!!

I had not yet posted on May's Crafting By The Numbers challenge, so here it is:

Twenty out of 31 days - not bad, considering the slow start.  You can see that I get on a roll of working on something for a few days before I switch to something else. May was spent on sewing for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, 6th edition; finishing Civil War Chronicles; the Shoes wallhanging; and starting Yankee Husband. 

Speaking of Yankee Husband, I realized I planned for only twenty blocks, which would make a pretty small quilt (four feet by five feet).  So I ordered a bit more fabric to be able to make ten more blocks (five feet by six feet).  I worked on it a bit every day during the weekend and almost all day Sunday while my Honey took his girls back to their mother and then continued on to a memorial service near where he grew up.  I have the first twenty blocks sewn and pressed:

He says it looks a little military since the flying geese look a little like chevrons.  I think I spent a total of about nine hours in my studio yesterday, and I wound up the day with hand applique in front of the big TV as I began watching Downton Abbey on Netflix streaming ... loved it!  Unfortunately, I figured out after I put down my needle for the night that I seem to have "lost" most of my Dragonfly Tubing blocks.  I have a pile of finished ones but cannot find the rest that have been cut and prepared for applique.  That's pretty bad when your sewing room starts eating your projects, so I think this is a call to organize.

Along those lines, I got rid of one more sewing machine this weekend - found someone on Freecycle to take the 1960's Kenmore that is so stiff that it will only sew by manually turning the flywheel.  I didn't want to pay to have it serviced, and the lady who took it is excited to get it running again.  It's a little sad to say goodbye to the machine I learned to sew on when I was a child but it will get more love there than with me.

Tonight is quilt guild and maybe when I come home I'll start cutting the Lily Ashbury Summer House jelly roll quilt.  I can't continue on Yankee Husband until the fabric arrives (I've cut and prepped everything else), and I can't find Dragonfly Tubing (embarrassed grimace), but I want to do something in front of the big TV upstairs that gets Netflix so I can continue with episode three of Downton Abbey. 

I nearly forgot to mention - we had a little birthday celebration over the weekend (mine is tomorrow) and my Honey gave me the fat eighth bundle of "Hello Luscious" I'd been aching for!  He is such a sweetie ... but next I need to think of what to do with it!!!