Monday, July 16, 2012

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!

10 comments:

  1. That DH of yours is a keeper and now he has a great adventure story to share with friends. Your fabric is beautiful and so are the flowers. The witches spell bottles are very interesting, looking forward to seeing how you put them together.

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  2. Congrats to your winner! Wow hubby is wonderful - that fabric is gorgeous. I'm loving your quilt girl, I can't wait to see this one finished, and yes I love it when you get a clear idea of how the quilt wants to look!

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  3. Oh my goodness! I have never won anything quilty before! What a great surprise to come read your post and see my name as the winner.:) Very sweet of your husband to go to all that effort to get your foreign fabric. Definitely a keeper!

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  4. I was wondering what had happened to that quilt.

    Your DH is wonderful. Mine wouldn't even know where to start!

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  5. What a great husband who brought you that beautiful fabric. Cannot wait to see your Witch's Pantry.

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  6. Lucky you! The fabric my DD brought back from Japan was definitely not cotton. ; c ) Lovely variety of witches jars - so fun! Lots going on in your yard. I love hollyhocks!

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  7. your husband is a sweetie pie! mine would never do all that to get me fabric. Woohoo, your Spell quilt is fabulously coming along. so glad you were hit with inspiration! (I'm still waiting on mine...)

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  8. great fabrics. lucky you! ok that sit a spell quilt I remember it! very fun. can't wait to see more
    no pressure ;)
    Kathie

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  9. W-a-y to go DH!!! Nothing like a man with a purpose!!!

    Good for you with that flash of inspiration! I have just always wondered why it takes so long sometimes for those fabulous ideas to pop into ones head!!

    Waiting to see what will appear!!!

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  10. My husband will be headed to Hawaii soon (yes, without me :P) and I've wondered whether it would be worth his while to try to find fabric to bring back for me. All I *really* want is a real flower lei! Looking forward to seeing how you set your botles and jars. Loved what you did for the back of your other Halloween quilt. :- )

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