A Winner and Some Other Stuff

My hollyhocks are finally blooming!  The purple flowers in the background are some of the foxgloves that are blooming now - and they're everywhere in my yard!  


As promised, Random Number Generator picked a winner for the giveaway today.

And the winner is Audrey of Quilty Folk blog!  I'll be contacting you for your snail mail address and will get the book in the mail to you as soon as possible, Audrey!

Recently my DH took a business trip to Taiwan.  When he asked me what I'd like him to bring back for me, guess what I answered?  Fabric, of course!  Well, little did I know that it would be a big adventure for him!  Long story short, it involved many stores, finding people that could speak some English (DH doesn't know Chinese), taxis and a lot of trust in strangers!  Here are the directions he received from a shop owner to give to a taxi driver to get to where there was fabric to purchase:

And here is the beautiful fabric that he brought home:

There is a yard of each fabric!

Look at the cool selvage!

And look at the fun, dotty plastic bag it came in:

full

empty

What an awesome gift!  He's definitely a keeper. *grin*

Some other sights around my yard:

Last year's (or possibly farther back than that) hanging basket got put on the side yard, hanging from the fence.  Whatever was in the basket died over the winter, and I hadn't gotten around to tossing the basket yet.  Today I discovered that it's now a fern nursery!  Yay!  I love ferns.  Now I have to find their permanent homes in my yard.

And in the back of the house, on the corner, is a bird's nest.  She's not too happy when we're out on the back deck.  I can't see her well enough to tell what kind of bird she is.  We think perhaps some kind of sparrow.  I have no idea if there are eggs or babies in there.  Time will tell.

the photo is straight, I can't pin things to the design wall straight!

Here's what I'm working on lately.  This is my Witch's Pantry from waaay back, when Lazy Gal Tonya was having the House, Home or Pantry Quilt Together.  You can see my beginning on this here and here.  I think this has "marinated" long enough.  I finally now know what I want to do with this.  I was thinking of what to do, and I had a sudden flash of what it could look like.  I love when that happens!  I want to get it finished, so it'll be ready for the quilt show in early October.  I made some more jars because I thought I needed more variety in the jar shapes/types and also the lids to the jars.  Then I edited the jars to a number that will work for what I want and decided on the layout, so now I'm ready to sew it together.  Photos soon!

Happy quilting!

Giveaway!

Gee, I think it's time for a giveaway here at Indigo Threads.  I haven't done one in a long time.  I missed my blogiversary this year (4 years!).  And just recently, I passed the 200 posts mark, and also passed the 100 followers mark as well!    So, in celebration of all of these milestones, here's the giveaway!

A copy of "Back to Charm School" by the ladies of Country Threads, Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene!    These ladies are just about my most favorite quilt designers!  And their patterns are so well-written and easy to understand and to do.

People Will Find You Interesting If You're Interested in Them
I love this pattern of Baskets or partial Bear's Paws.  This may be the one I make first! 

The patterns in this book are for small quilts, table toppers, table runners etc. that are made with charm squares, those cute little packets of 5 inch squares.  And each quilt pattern is named for some element of "good manners" that we were supposed to learn as children/young adults.  This is Mary and Connie's 2nd book of charm square patterns.

Never Wear Gloves at the Table
But the simplicity of this pattern is also calling to me. 
   

I don't know about you, but I find charm squares almost irresistible!  Kind of like penny candy.  Just delectable little packets of fabrics!  But then, I get them home and they sit there on the cutting table because I don't know/can't decide what to do with them.  This book will answer that question and help you use those charm squares.  And the best part?  If you don't have any charm squares, Mary and Connie were nice enough to include alternate directions for using scraps, fat quarters or yardage!  I love that part!

Better to Be Overdressed than Underdressed

So, now to the nitty gritty: To be entered in my giveaway, just leave me a comment.  Please make sure, if you're a No-Reply Blogger, that I have an email address for you so you can be contacted when you win!  (or you could go here and learn how to change that setting.)  You don't have to be a follower, but if you want to do that, it would be nice!  I will leave the comments open for one week and will draw a winner on Monday, July 16th.

Here is my latest small quilt.  Well, it was made quite a few years ago, but I just found it again and decided that I need to get it quilted up.  This was made as a test of a template that I got at a quilt show -  The Magic Triangle template.  And I think it was very successful!  Quick and easy, with no fabric waste!  I used Fat 1/8ths to make this, and I went with scrappy within the black, red and the white/cream fabrics.  I think these were the very first reproductions I ever bought.  The scrappiness is subtle within the body of the quilt, and a little more obvious in the border.

Note: This pattern is NOT included in the giveaway book!

look how nicely everything matches up!

I haven't gotten this basted yet.  I'm still trying to decide how I want to quilt it.

I really like this method of making the Magic Triangles.  I have plans for using up some of my Christmas fabrics making this block, but I'll  probably use a different setting.  That's one of the things I really like about this block - there are a number of different ways to set them together.

Good luck in the Giveaway!

Happy Birthday, U.S.A.!

To all my readers in the U.S., I hope you have a fabulous 4th!  Here's an iconic American image - Betsy Ross showing off her handiwork to George Washington and friends.  Don't we all love to do that?  Well, maybe not to George.  hee hee!

We're having a quiet day here.  Just the 2 of us here - The Kid has to work - but we're having a good day.  Going to BBQ some steaks and veggies, and the neighborhood will have plenty of fireworks this evening.  Everyone has been "practicing" the fireworks for the last week, and the poor dog is just about beside herself.  She'll get crated this evening before it gets too crazy.  The cats will be hiding under the beds.  ;)

And here's another iconic American image - the classic Schoolhouse block.  As promised, here is a finished shot of the charity quilt with the binding all done.  I decided that red plaid would go real well, and I really like it!  Still wishing I could keep this one!  

Close up shot - of course I cut the binding on the bias!

I finally got the back for the Halloween quilt all pieced, and now it is at the long-armers waiting to be quilted. Sorry, I totally forgot to take a photo of the back.  I couldn't wait to get it sent off!

When the new Block Lotto block was announced for July, and I was all through with the Halloween quilt project and had some time,  I had to run and try those Silly Strings!  So, here's my first block.  Hopefully more to come.  This was a lot easier than I thought it might be.  Next time I may cut my curves a little more curvy.  We're supposed to use a light fabric for the background that is not white or cream, and I don't think I'll be using any more of this pink.  It's kind of blah for my taste.

Here's a sneak peek of what I'm doing now . . . putting the binding on String Thing 2!  It's going slowly, as my arthritic thumb is complaining pretty loudly right now.  So, only a few minutes a day of progress. But I'll get there!

We got good news the other day.  The Kid has been accepted into the University of Washington and will start there this fall!  I'm so proud of him!