Sunday, July 31, 2011

Tomorrow is the BIG day!

Tomorrow is the big day!!


What happens tomorrow?  You haven't heard?


Madame Samm from Sew We Quilt at Stash Manicure is assembling an amazing pile of prizes from a wonderful list of 49 sponsors.  There is fabric (fabric and more fabric), quilt patterns, SEWING MACHINES, irons, rotary cutters, books, .... the list goes on and on!


The giveaways will happen 5 days a week for THREE whole months.  Amazing, isn't it?


Entering is easy.  You need to contact a blogger displaying this icon on their side bar and ask them to sponsor you.  




I would be honored to sponsor you.   I need an email from you to a.stitch.in.time.blog@gmail.com (or leave a comment on any blog post - comment won't actually be visible on the blog) with your name, email address and phone number.  (Your contact information will only used for this contest.)


Brand new quilters have chances to win each week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.   On those days, make sure to leave a comment at Sew We Quilt at Stash Manicure.   In your comment mention that A Stitch in Time blog is your sponsor.  (I would have already registered you.)


What qualifies you as a brand new quilter - a brand new quilter is someone who does not have a sewing machine, tools, notions and a fabric stash.  You may have made a quilt before - perhaps with a family member or friend - but you don't have your very own pile of stuff.


Not a brand new quilter but still want to enjoy the chance to win?  Don't despair - novice to experienced quilters can enter on Tuesdays and Thursdays by leaving a comment at Sew We Quilt at Stash Manicure.  


An amazing list of guest bloggers has been lined up for these 3 months so besides opportunities to enter the contest, you can learn and get inspired.


For us bloggers, Madame Samm is doing her part to support the very active quilting blogging community.  If one of our sponsored people wins - we win something too!!  (How great is that?!!!)


The small print - Winners will need to pay for shipping for their winnings which   will be sent the most economical way possible.   That's it.  (And very reasonable when you consider the volume of wonderful prizes collected that needs to be distributed!)


Look at this ever growing list of sponsors






To get started, an email to a.stitch.in.time.blog@gmail.com (or a comment to any blog post) is all it takes.


Come join the fun and good luck!!! 


Happy Stitching!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Sandcastle

Finished building my sandcastle quilt and am very pleased with how it has turned out.

Tried for a photo op today.

First, tested out the hammock (I've managed a nap here EVERY day of our vacation so far!!).



Then tried holding it up but the sea breeze kept blowing it.


As much as I wanted to take it down to the beach itself, I decided sand would not be the best idea.  Therefore, we've got one final closeup:


I will add some black stitching for the flagpoles for my flags.  I am still trying to decide if I should add an outer border.  The quilt now measures probably 50 x 50.  I want this for a wall hanging so decided I'd better measure the space I want to hang it before I add the border.  I'm pleased with the border-less look as it currently stands.

The house we rent is very small and I've found the kitchen table works as a fine sewing table.  This is the view just a few steps away from where I sew.


Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Happy Stitching!

Monday, July 25, 2011

We have a winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway and left such lovely comments about my guest post and quilts.

I really loved reading all the comments and votes for the favorite Toy Story toy.   I am pleased to announce that the winner is:

Gotta love the angry eyes!!!


Mr & Mrs Potato Head!!  

Sheriff Woody got the most single votes but he is such a gentleman that I'm sure he would be pleased to see the votes for the lovely couple combined.

And, probably the contest you are more interested in, random number generator picked

and the winner is:

Congratulations!  I've sent you an email so get me your snail mail address and I'll get you charm pack in the mail.

I started on the border for my sandcastle quilt (yes, that means we are at the beach!!!!).  Here's what I've got so far:

The picture doesn't do the colors justice.  These will frame the sandcastle in the center.  More photos to come!



Happy Stitching!

Friday, July 22, 2011

The hills are alive...........

My daughter and I are off tonight to a sing-a-long Sound of Music style.


The movie will be shown outdoors on a big screen with the lyrics to the songs displayed.  Not that either my daughter or I need the lyrics.

Ever been to one of these?

Should be fun.  (Not much time for quilting but I'll find a little time.)

If you haven't yet entered my giveaway, please comment on this post.   I've a charm pack of Hullabaloo up for grabs.  I am really enjoying reading all the votes and endorsements for favorite toys from Toy Story movie.

Thanks for all the nice comments about my guest post at


Happy Stitching!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Celebrate Summer and a Giveaway

I'm a guest blogger today at Sew We Quilt @ Stash Manicure.  For those that are visiting from that blog post, Welcome to A Stitch in Time.  I hope you'll choose to become a follower and join me on my quilting journey.  Check my sidebar for links to my 2011 finishes.  Scroll down to see the quilt I just made that will travel with my son as he goes off to college next month.


On my guest post, I shared a great idea for your summer visit to a theme park. Instead of buying an autograph book, collect those character autographs on fabric!  My daughter and I collected two dozen autographs during our last trip to Disney World.

I even collected an autograph from this guy.


And used that autograph to create a small quilt to hold my growing pin collection from my favorite movie Toy Story.



I found a coloring page picture of the Pizza Planet alien and turned it into an applique.  (For those fellow Toy Story fans, doesn't the cloud fabric I chose remind your of the wallpaper in Andy's room?)


To celebrate summer and my guest blog post, I am having a small giveaway of a charm pack of Hullabaloo.  Very cute fabric!  There are two chances to enter:
  1. Leave me a comment on this post and tell me your favorite toy from the Toy Story movie. 
  2. Become a follower of my blog and tell me that you did so or are one..
Contest open through Sunday, July 24th 8pm EST.  Winner will be chosen by random number generator. 


Happy Stitching!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Quiet weekend

Spent a relatively quiet weekend at home with some time for quilting some smaller projects.  (Photos to come when I finish.)


I brought my Fractal quilt to my LAQ on Saturday.  I've been working with Cathy Kirk for a long time and she does wonderful work.  It took us longer than usual to figure out how to best quilt this one.  I usually have her do an quilt pattern from edge to edge but I was worried that this would take away from the quilt center.  Thread color would also be an issue.    We decided that she will stitch the design in the ditch to help it pop.  In the big area that surrounds it, I chose a pattern called 'squares' which is this cool pattern of intersecting lines.  Thread color will be gray.


On Wednesday, I have the chance to do a guest blog post and will have a giveaway later in the week to celebrate so be sure to stop back.

Have a wonderful week.

Happy Stitching!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Fractal Finished!!!

All done!!


Once I solved how to put it together, this was easy and fun to assemble. Templates were the key! I will drop this off at my long arm quilter next weekend.  Still thinking about the best way to quilt it - she will have plenty of ideas.  One thought is to stitch in the ditch around the pattern so that it will show on the backing fabric and then some kind of overall print for the rest.




Now it is time to move onto some smaller projects and plan for my next project.  We will spend a week at the beach later in July and I always manage some quality quilt time while there.  This was a small block I was playing with to see if it offered inspiration   


Happy Stitching!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Almost done

Making more progress on my son's quilt.  If you look carefully, you can see a photo of the pattern I am going for sitting on top of the quilt.

At this point, most of the rows are sewn together.  I then have to decide on final dimensions and sew the large 'borders' of blue and gray to get the effect I want.

To keep the rows organized, I used a small piece of fabric with the row number written on it.  It became my 'leader' and then stayed attached to the row until it was ironed and pinned to the quilt.  This worked great!  In the past, I've used pins to represent this but using a small piece of fabric was much easier.



Happy Stitching!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy 4th of July!!

On today's agenda is pool, picnic and fireworks.    (Oh, and perhaps some quilting!)

My daughter painted her toes for the holiday:


Christmas in July!!  Several months ago during SewCalGirl's quilting awards, I won a $50 gift certificate for the Fat Quarter Shop.  I've spent endless hours figuring out which wonderful fabric bundle to purchase.  I decided to get some Countdown to Christmas (by Sweetwater) yardage.  Thinking of making new Christmas stockings for the family.



Enjoy the 4th!

Happy Stitching!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Back in the USA

Back home from China and happy to have a long weekend to recover.  I hope you enjoyed my photos from my tour of Shanghai.  They were all taken on Sunday - the only day I was not working.  I also spent a day in Beijing but other than a brief glimpse of the Olympic stadium from the cab, didn't have time to see anything.

I had no trouble accessing blogger from Shanghai but in Beijing, Google was 'not available'.  I would get a message to "try again."  I had my son check back home and blogger was alive and well.  It seems that the Chinese government makes Google look 'unstable' so it won't become popular.

Today, I went back to work on my son's quilt for school.- making great progress.

Here are my templates that I made for the blocks:

Here are all the rows assembled but not yet sewn together.  Each row is 2 1/2 inch strip.

Happy Stitching!