Holiday giveaway..... with a little extra something

Do you like gift cards? How would you like a $20.00 gift card to Barnes & Noble?  Then you'll want to enter my new (and long overdue) giveaway and perhaps you'll be the one to win it.
In this giveaway I wanted to give a gift that everyone can use and I'm sure that you can find something fun there to treat yourself to.

The $20.00 Barnes & Noble gift card will come in a little handmade gift card holder (yes, I made it)  that you can keep, or reuse to give a gift card to someone on your list. (yes, you can even re-gift this gift card - I won't tell).

This is to help celebrate the 4th birthday of QuiltingGallery.com the host of the Blog Hop Party. Happy 4th Michele and thanks for throwing the party!  There are oodles of other fabulous blogs participating in the Blog Hop Party with oodles of other great giveaways. Click here or over on the link box to the right for the Blog Hop Party to join in if you want to have fun hopping around.
But wait there's more......

Also for this giveaway there will be a second place winner. The second place winner will receive a stack pack of 35 100% Wool 5"squares, after all, this is a blog about creative pursuits.
p.s. just so you know, Woolfelt by National Nonwovens is made in the U.S.A. Hooray for that.
If you're not a stitcher or you don't want to win the Woolfelt charm pack just put a note in your comment and we'll draw another winner. 

So how do you win one of these giveaway prizes? All you have to do is answer the question  "what is your favorite part of the Christmas season" That's it. I'm not going to make you jump through a bunch of hoops.  You do need to post your answer on this (Dec. 9th) post but you have until Dec. 17th to do so. The winners will be chosen by random and announced Dec. 18th. 
Good luck and be sweet and share this event with your friends. If this is your first visit to my blog welcome and read on there's more........

An extra little something for all of my creative friends.....

I put a free download on my site for the instructions on how to make these holiday napkins ties. They're easy and you still have plenty of time to make them to add a cute little accent to your holiday table or to give as a gift.  Click here to get the free project download.

holly and sleigh bell napkins tie

gift box napkin ties

 Now I have to go get busy in the studio with some Christmas gifts I'm making and finish trimming the tree.  Have fun and savor the moments of the Christmas season - Linda

Deja Vu all over again....

 I am happy to report that the lights are back on.  LOL
Since my last posting of July 22nd, (OMG not kidding) the lights again went out Tuesday night when our latest storm rolled through.
Now however, we are thoroughly enjoying the cooler temps here in South Florida. Only in the 70's today!
So where have I been all summer?????
It's been a bumpy road....

 it's a long story that I will edit extensively for your sake.

I had been feeling increasingly tired, and lackadaisical, along with a whole host of symptoms that kept piling on since late spring.
After several visits to several Drs. I finally found out why. I have thyroiditis.
The good news is I will be fine and I am feeling better than I did.
I am at least getting my energy and concentration back and will now try to keep up my blog once again and get back to visiting my favorites.

I did go to our summer quilt retreat over Labor Day weekend and took a few pix to share....

My dear friend Cathi is always prepared for fun creative play and this retreat was no exception.
She brought along tons of fun tools for creating journal pages.

lots of fun stuff to play with!

She and my friend Karen have started playing around with creating art journal pages and for a change of pace during retreat I gave it a try. It was fun getting paint all over, we finger painted some, but alas I didn't want to pick up my camera then.
Here are a couple of their pages. I still need to shoot mine.....

this is one of Cathi's pages

one of Karen's pages

unfortunately my camera dies just before retreat and I picked up a cheapie at the drugstore. It is very touchy and I didn't get a lot of good pix. Karen decide to try her hand at making a quilt ala Susan Carlson from her book Serendipity Quilts. She decided to make the sun project and needed lots of yellows and oranges. Can't wait to see it finished. Susan's book and quilts are really stunning. If you haven't seen them check them out here.

Here's the start.....just call him "Ray"

Well, I need to pop over to the grocery store before dinner. But I will be back with more....

no, really I will. LOL

There was a ransom demand that took place at retreat, more on that next time.

until then, be well

a new perspective....and a sad note

I think I need a time management expert to move in. With work (yes I work outside the studio too), designing, writing, sleeping, shipping, eating, socializing, and gardening, I must shamefully admit my blogging has suffered.
I had such high hopes that I would be able to keep a steady flow of interesting posts for you. There are days that I just don't grab the camera and find something to share. Perhaps I'm putting up my own roadblocks in thinking that I need something really special to share, and quite frankly, some days I am just too tuckered out. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

However, I am going to redouble my efforts because I do enjoy connecting with you all and even though I touch base on Facebook, I still like the journal quality that a blog offers.  I enjoy visiting other blogs (when I steal some precious me time) to bask in all the creativity out there.
So anyway.... just to keep from getting bored I decided to shoot some video's to share some tools, techniques, and maybe some squirrel play too. We'll see, those squirrels are pretty quick!
So, hopefully in the next week or so you'll have a video to critique. LOL - what am I thinking!
Anyone know a good director or better yet a screenwriter :)



Oh - speaking of squirrels. Sad news to report in squirreltown - our poor little squirrel Spot has passed away. She has been hanging around our yard about 5 years and she had gotten quite old. She had cataracts and was bumping into things. She would come up on the deck each morning and evening for a bite to eat and would sit at our feet so the other squirrels wouldn't chase her. Toward the end she was losing her fur and would sleep out on the tree limbs in full daylight, an easy target for the hawks. Thankfully, no hawks swooped down on her and we assume one morning she just didn't wake up. We miss her visits to our deck, she was such a sweet little squirrel. This is one of the last pictures I got of her a few days before we didn't see her again.

r.i.p. Spot the squirrel

Quilt retreat wrapup

Back home from another exhilarating quilt retreat and I have finally made some time to download the few pics I took to share with you.

 Welcome to quilt retreat.....
Here's a stunning Southwest style quilt that Brenda was working on....

This is a lovely wall hanging that Marcia started. It is Brodiere Perse applique and done by hand as that is her favorite method.....love the fabrics. She had  moved away from the area but flew in  to join us at retreat.  It was so nice to have her there again.

Jo was busy making quilts  to donate to the Women's Shelter.....Hooray for Jo!

Betty was busy free motion quilting this King size quilt for her home.... she does awesome free motion quilting.

Marlene made this whimsical kitty quilt.... it's so Marlene!

We celebrated Cheryl's (center) birthday and she shared the spotlight with other "near" Birthday friends (Bonnie, Jo, Cheryl, Sandra, Linda) and we all helped them get rid of the cake LOL

Karen whipped up this very cool mini quilt for the mini quilt auction out guild holds annually.
For someone that doesn't paper piece she did fabulous! I will be bidding on this one....

Ferne was working on this very pretty Kaleidoscope quilt.....I love the colors.

Sandra was busy making mountains of 9-patches for a king size quilt..... She got them all done too.

Nancy made this striking red and white quilt ... my birthday is in November Nancy....

Another cute donation quilt by Jo.......

Cathi mentioned she wanted her hair trimmed so I told her I would cut it....she looks awfully worried don't you think???

Grace worked on this fabulous Kaleidoscope quilt......

Bonnie made this adorable Halloween Pumpkin.....

Karen took the plunge and made her first "art " piece....more on that soon......

 

As always the time flew by very quickly we stayed up too late, had ice cream every night, and laughed until it hurt. So all in all it was as it should be - fun.
Can't wait for the next one.
 I confess that on this retreat I was a lazy bones about shooting pics, but I was just having too much fun visiting with everyone and stitching. I had to remind myself to take pictures, so I guess I'm just not a born photographer like my dad is (my pictures speak for themselves).
At retreat I was paging through an issue of Artful Blogging that one of my BFF's brought along and that made my lack of blog skills all too apparent. Page after page show beautiful photos of adorable and inspiring things and bloggers are pouring out their hearts, sharing deep thoughtful insights and writing with exquisite style and grace.
Oh well, I will continue to share anyway and if it brings a smile to your face then that's going to be reward enough for me.
Wish you all could have been with us on retreat.

Sweet Vintage Giveaway

I know, I know,
I have been so bad about blogging with you lately - I think I was suffering from blog block and I think it's becaue I've been buried under loads of paperwork and tax prep.
Hey  -  I still have 6 days. LOL
I told you I was a recovering procrastinator :)
But anyway, while I was working, I was gazing longingly out the window and I was thinking spring and flowers and sweet things like that. So I went into my super special secret cupboard and pulled out some feedsack treasures to share with you. I love feedsacks and have been collecting them for some time. My hubby's aunt sends me some now and then. Leftovers from the family farm and I am so honored to get them. His grandma made him and his cousins all matching pajamas made from identical feedsacks. (I'll try to find the picture) I was also given a box of quilt pieces she had started. They were tumbling blocks and I went to work setting them together in some sort of order and then I added borders. Now I just need to get off my duff and quilt it!

I also made this small wall quilt with my feedsacks using one of Darlene Zimmerman's patterns. This too needs to be quilted. Gosh, I hope I live to be really old so I get these done.

So, on to the giveaway..... If you win the Sweet Vintage Giveaway you will get these eight 8" genuine feedsack charm squares, these asst. vintage look trims (about 1/2 to 1 yard pieces), a few little crocheted flowers, a pretty flowered quilt label, a cute mini quilt hanger, my recipe for yummilicious old fashioned sugar cookies (see April 4th blog) and of course a vintage scottie dog cookie cutter.
Here's how to enter......

To enter the giveaway,  post a comment to this post. If you want to increase your chances of winning.... blog about it or share it on facebook and leave me yet another comment telling me about it. I will be announcing the lucky winner on Saturday April 24th so you have until then to leave your comments.
Good luck everyone!
Now it's time to get into the studio to accomplish some stitching :)

button - button Thursdays

Who's got the button?
Do you like buttons?
Do you collect them, use them, display them?
Do you have oodles of buttons or just a modest few?

I love a good button collection. When my mother-in-law passed away about 9 years ago I inherited her button boxes. I have one tin from her with mostly white and mother of pearl buttons, and then a small cigar box that is filled with all sorts and sizes and snaps etc.

Then recently, sadly, my friend Marti's mother passed away and Marti generously gifted me her mothers button tin. I am still delving into the tin and discovering new buttons each time.



I am going to come up with a unique project for some of these fabulous buttons so they don't languish their existence away in a tin.

In the meantime I am going to declare Thursdays here "Button Blog Thursday" and share all things buttons with you. This weeks button blog is for Marti...... with a big button thank you!

Saturday's guest blogger

Just want to let you know that tomorrow Saturday (Feb. 6th) my blog will feature a guest blogger. 
I am really excited to have my first guest and I hope you will stop by to see her post. 
Her name is Ladipo, she is an interior design student, and she just celebrated her 21st birthday! 

I met her via etsy and I'm glad I did.
So stop by on Saturday and I will have the link to her blog post which will be my Saturday blog.
There may be an easier way to do this but I haven't figured it out yet :) Anyway...
she has an adorable blog and I'm sure you'll enjoy visiting.

Valentine Giveaway winner

Thank you one and all for leaving such endearing comments and for putting up with the extra task of finding the pink thistle. You are all so sweet and worthy of winning but alas the winner for this Hello Valentine giveaway is the Happy Cottage Quilter!
CONGRATULATIONS!
I will be e-mailing you so I can get your address to send out your prize.
Also of note, I will be having a guest blogger on the blog this Saturday and I hope you will stop and check it out. Her blog topic is "you inspire me" and I am looking forward to seeing her post. So stop by Saturday sometime and have a look-see.
I am also working on a free pattern for you to download from my website and I will let you know when it's up and ready. It should be soon, but this week has turned out to be crazy busy.