Is it Christmas in July? or a Birthday? or BOTH? ;)

You've heard of Christmas in July I'm sure - lots of times... well this July is just as exciting b/c I'm finding all kinds of blog-give-aways to share with you. Barb has some very cute things she has made and she's giving them away!!! I really love redwork so I'm hoping to win one of these goodies. Go check it out!

And another blog-give-away is from I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts~ He has a variety of some major LOOT - Take your pick, patriotic, 30's and more fabulous prizes! Here's a peek~

Ryan's Birthday isn't the only one in July.... mine is too! and I'm thinking of something fun I can do to celebrate it...

(((thinking, thinking, thinking)))
So visit again soon ;) to find out!

Have fun and have a happy weekend!

Love from Texas!

Maybe one of us will win this beautiful Quilt!?

Amy at Kati Cupcake has a kit to give away. Isn't it so pretty??? Perfect for summer!

A Quilt Kit, with Amy Butler Fabric in it! This is Porch Pots by Quilt Soup, and you could be the winner of this lovely kit. It measures 60" x 68 1/4".

Visit her blog and leave a comment, make sure to let her know that I (bingobonnie) sent you her way. I'm not sure when the give away will happen, she doesn't have a date on it right now. Visit soon!

Hope all of you have a Happy Weekend - I'm hoping to spend some time organizing my sewing/guest bedroom over the weekend so I can work on some projects. I've missed my sewing machine while we were gone to Kentucky on vacation!

Love from Texas!

Granny's Attic Going Out of Business LOOT

Before David and I left on our 4th of July Vacation home to Kentucky, I already knew that I had missed our hometown's LQS's Going Out of Business Sale at Granny's Attic.

They held it the weekend before I arrived but b/c I'm friends with the owner and she's so sweet - and there were still several bolts leftover... Karen and I talked on the phone and she said that she'd make time to open up for Nora and I if we had time to come over the weekend of the 4th.

With LQS quality fabrics priced at a steal of a deal (reduced to only $2.49 yard and FQsonly $0.75!!) of course we could meet her at her shop on her schedule!!! ;) Look at the closeup shot of all the Civil War fabrics she still had left!!! (((My favorites!)))

Also there were a few end of the bolt pieces on a table. The Halloween fabric was one I thought maybe could be used as a backing piece or fussy cut or boarder? The blue and pink fabrics in the above photo were ones that Nora really liked... and that Green fabric with the black print was Gorgeous!!! I just had to have 4 yards of it!! ;) That shade of green is hard for me to find!

Here are a few more that were so pretty. They kind coordinate don't they? I didn't even notice until after we got home that perhaps they could work together in a tote/purse? Not that I make purses or anything...... uham, remember my Miranda Bag story from the COF Retreat? :P

and this one above the photo doesn't show it but there is a tiny bit of lavender in between those red flowers and gold dots. It really is so pretty! (no idea yet on what it will be used for but I love this olive color)

A few of these in the above photo I do have plans for - in the CYOC (choose your own colors) string swaps I participate in often someone will often request Christmas colors so I picked a few bolts of "Traditional" Christmas colored fabrics... wish there had been more but glad that Karen's slae last weekend was a good one!

OH and guess who's loot is in the above photo??? Yep, Nora's! She was as bad as me picking bolts and carrying up to the cutting table for Ms. Karen to cut! Thankfully Karen didn't mind cutting only 1/4 yards for Nora's stash. ;) Nora also choose 11 FQs and I selected 2 yards of that pink on the bottom left thinking it would be a good boarder or backing piece to go with the other light pinks she choose.

Oh and of course I la,la,love neutrals and am always needing them for the scrappy backgrounds I like to use in my quilts. Some of these I had purchased from Granny's Attic before on past visits. These were the only 5 bolts left of neutrals... so I got 2 yard cuts of each. Along with some fusable grid stuff... that I think I will experiment with using for a Halloween project sometime later this year. Anyone have any advice on using this stuff??

And I've been saving the best photo for last... my favorites - 21 Civil War fabrics (2 yard cuts) by Marcus Brothers and Windham Fabrics. Mmmm!

Karen has an owner of another quilt shop from out of town that is coming over soon to buy the rest of what she has and add it to their store. I'm really sad to see our hometown loose this quilt store but understand her reasons to do so. She never had a bolt priced over $6 - most was just under $5/yard but the locals couldn't handle the "sky high" prices. After Walmart pulled the fabric department you'd think they would cling to such an opportunty to buy beautiful fabrics at very fair prices for the top quality... but nope. :( Wonder how far they'll have to drive to even see fabric in person now that Granny's Attic is closed?

Looks like we walked away pretty good don't cha think?

"Ta-Da!" - "Ta-Da!!" - "Ta-Da!!!"

The first of the "Ta-Da" showings we have for you is Nora's MAGIC TRICK she did this morning. Actually I did it and she pretended she was the magician ;) While opening up a new garbage bag I threw it up a couple of times into the air entertaining the twins and on the last go round it stuck to the popcorn textured ceiling and hung there for about 2 minutes before falling.

Just long enough for me to run out to the van and get my camera and come back and take a couple of shots before it fell. :) Just one of the million of things a stay-at-home mom gets to have fun experiencing with the kids.. ;)

And the second "Ta-Da!" I have to share with my readers today are these beautiful String blocks that arrived in the mail box from HGTV Sunshine Quilters ajne and AngelaC

and the third "Ta-Da" is also something else quilty in today's mail. Actually not in my mailbox but sitting on top of my garbage can beside the garage door when I got home from running erands today.... can you guess what?

Yep! A quilt that I had sent off to be quilted a while back. On one of my yahoo lists I read where Joanne had posted about her "Quilter's Stimulus Package" (and her post on her update) as an opportunity to break in her new longarm quilting machine and at the same time allow quilters to get some tops quilted at super great low prices.

I knew it would be a simple all over meander and that was fine for this Bento Box pattern. I did request she use a variegated thread which she did and I really like how it turned out.

Visit Joanne's Splitting Stitches Blog and take a look at all of the beautiful quilts she's quilted for all the people who signed up for her Stimulus Package for quilters ;)

Mail call - more strings are here

06.19.09 from charmingsister

06.22.09 from rstraus

I just love collecting string blocks form our HGTV Sunshine Quilters group to send in to Sue with the Heart Strings Quilt Project later next month. I get to open all the packages and take a first hand up close and personal look at all the variety of fabrics used to make up the blocks ;)

The first year I participated in the Sunshine group I hosted a month and put together two Bento Box quilts from blocks made from the members. And while I'd love to put together more quilts, for me it's been easier and as much appreciated to just "collect" blocks and them mail them into Heartstrings on behalf of all of us in the HGTV Sunshine group. The year I was pregnant I collected for two months... one scrappy around red and then in Oct strings that were all pink and white around pink centers.

Last year and this year I'm keeping it simple sister (KISS) and just collecting one month scrappy around red centers ;) and am so pleased there have been so many Sunshine members participate and send me more than their required 2 blocks ;)

Thanks Sunshine friends! I'll be leaving on vacation this coming weekend but while I'm gone my mail lady will hold my mail so any packages that come during that time will be AOK downtown at the PO ;) I won't mail our blocks until the end of July to Sue at Heartstrings - so you all still have plenty of time to make blocks if you haven't already ;) Thanks!

Love from Texas!

Mail Call - String blocks from Sunshine Quilters

Sorry to keep my HGTV Sunshine friends waiting so long for photos... gosh it's been a long day here - it is already 9:35pm and I'm just now getting to come downstairs from our bath/book/prayers routine... the kids got to be much later than usual and I was so ready to jump in the bed myself... but knowing that the kitchen table was a mess is what pulled me back downstairs.

Above are blocks made by faye that were received last Friday 06.05.09 Aren't they great?

I thought I'd better upload photos before I get started on clearing the kitchen table and distracted. Or maybe I'm already distracted if I'm doing computer stuff first? LOL :P

and look at these made by terrimae (also received last Friday)

They even have a strip of our COF Retreat challenge fabric in them! very cute!!! (The royal Blue with cows)

and if anyone else mailed to me that I should have already before now... let me know. Our weekend mail carrier guy was involved in a wreck last Saturday and it totaled the mail truck and they were picking up letters all over the road...

I talked to my regular carrier today and she told me that he was taken to the hospital. We didn't get any mail until Tuesday of this week... poor mail guy had 2 broken ribs and one bone in his leg broke also...... and if that wasn't bad enough...

A witness to the wreck was brave enough to chase down the guy who HIT AND RUN!! and caught him! Can you believe driving off from that kind of accident? what is wrong with people??so if I should have your block already, but haven't reported it as received... let me know so I can be on the look out for it... It should have arrived by now I'd think... we've received mail everyday since Tuesday... but let me know and I'll look into it.

Happy Weekend everyone!

Love from Texas!

I have my next leader/enders prepared and ready to go!

Edited to add: The first thread over on the HGTV board was so good that there has been another started called "I love Leader/Enders! (Continued) click over to take a look... great ideas and photos being shared over there ;) But be sure and come back here to read my blog, OK? ;)

Do you remember how I mentioned there was some great discussion going on over on the HGTV board about "THE" Bonnie's Leader/Enders system? Well I've been doing some prep work and have my next set of what I'm gonna be using for my own leader/enders. These are the scrappy 4 patch blocks for the Christmas Lights Mystery I'm working on in between other projects. (This is part of 1 of 3 published in Quiltmaker magazine - and I have about 2 months to get them done :) so using them as my leader enders will be perfect)

I have a larger acrylic table that surrounds my machine but I'm not currently using it... but I do have a smaller little plastic shelf like thing attached... (see above) For now I've just pinned a few dozen of these blocks and placed under there - easy to quickly grab 1 or 2 and sew up before I get up to go press from chain piecing on my other current project.... ;)

here is a photo of more 2 piece units that will be next in the leader/ender pile... I don't have enough pins to pin them all up - but that is OK. after the others in the 1st photo get sewn I'll sit and pin up 2 dozen more. :)

It's small steps like this that get the job done! and speaking of small steps... look who were stepping back and forth the opening to the dining room as I was in there... I wish you could hear their little feet pitter patter as they ran up and down the halls.

Can you believe that last week (06/04) Olivia and Paul Thomas turned 2 years old!!!? yep, they sure did! I posted Birthday photos over on our family blog. (click on our family photo at the top right of this page to take you there)

and here is my little man.... sitting here trying to figure out a way to make that rooster fit thru that hole in the gate. :P He worked on that for the longest time.... and then Olivia walked up and distracted him long enough to snatch it out of his hands and she thru it over top of the gate and he got so mad and turned on the water works wanting it back... so he could sit down again and try to figure this out. LOL

and while he is good at being a problem solver... he is even better at being a problem maker! Don't even get me started about the love seat cushions or the speaker wiring in the den :/ BOYS! :P

Love from Texas!

Just a little homework

Who said Homework wasn't fun? I la,la,LOVE doing my homework when I have these super great Triangulations to use for my 2" finished HSTs.

Here and there when I get a minute to sit down to sew I've been chasing the lines on the paper with my presser foot. ;) It sure doesn't take long to zip thru one of these... and before you know it you have a dozen or more ready to cut apart.

In each of these stacks are 8 HST's cut apart and snipped dog ears off of and are now ready to finger press and rip the papers off of... I hear the DVR shows calling my name :) and I'll take these along with me.

Oh and if you don't have a pair of these scissors yet, I highly recommend you look for them and purchase them with one of those handy dandy 40% coupons that come in the mail. They're great! ;)

Just in case you are new to my blog - I've called these my homework blocks, b/c they are for making 8" finished My Blue Heaven Blocks that my friend Crazy'boutquilts and I are making for one another and mailing every so often. :) They are not that hard to make... at least not if you've done you homework that is! ;)

**In case you've missed it the block we are making is from QuiltersCache, designed by Marcia Hohn. ;-)

Love from Texas!

still working

I bet some of you are wondering what happened to me... Last week was a great blogging week for me - I think I posted everyday and one day twice even! :) whoo hoo.. but this week is a different story.

I'm here and I've been busy too just too busy to post photos and blog entries... but I did remember to take a few photos. I sewed noodles into light/dark pairs.

and turned them into these... 2 patch segments paired up with other 2-patch segments ready to become my scrappy 4-patches for Bonnie Hunter's Christmas Lights Mystery (Part 1 of 3)

I have several swaps and projects in the works that I'm gonna be working on soon (soon as my Keepsakes fabric arrives) and so these will become my and since there has been some great discussion over on the HGTV boards about Bonnie's Leader/Enders system I'll share the link here with you if you want to read how it's been working for some of my friends. Gardenpat has really been productive and shared several photos as did a few others :) So enjoy the show-n-tell! ;)


Love from Texas!

Mystery Report

Good news! I had a very productive night tonight... wow after squaring up all of these units I'm amazed at all the many Bonnie fans who have labored to make the past mystery quilts she's created... I thought I'd never get done squaring these boogers up - and this is just for a "throw size"

I really have a whole new appreciation for all you who have gone before me in the Bonnie mysteries ;) WOW! Tonight I kept telling myself, if they can do it - so can I ;)

This is the "Gold" fabric that I pulled yesterday that I thought would go perfectly with the green and black fabrics..... only today I read over the fabric yardage - and it calls for 1 & 3/8s yard.... and my gold is only 35" :( and sadly I do not remember where or when I bought it....? Maybe last year when I was in KY visiting Granny's Attic?? I'll send Karen an email and attach this photo - I'll cross my fingers, legs and toes.... :P

Until I hear back from Ms. Karen - guess I can get started on my unit 1 blocks -the scrappy 4-patches... which I'm hosting a swap for over on the HGTV boards :) the big question for me is... do I want to use those 3 fabrics in the photo above.... in the 4-patches??? or perhaps some of these noodles I have here below???

scrappy - two lights with two dark fabrics... hummm what would you do?

Guess I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow... I'm still waiting on my White on White fabrics I ordered from Keepsake Quilting... so until they arrive Christmas Lights is at the top of my list of things to do...

Christmas Lights Part 1 Progress Report:

• Unit 1 = scrappy 4-patches - what I'll work on next...
• Unit 2 = DONE :)
• Unit 3 = waiting on finding more of my gold or a new gold...
• Unit 4 = DONE :)
• Unit 5 = DONE :)

06/11/09 EDITED TO ADD: My friend Crazyboutquilts emailed me a link to my fabric I'm looking for!!! Whooo hooo! Thanks Sandie! and I'm double excited that it is on the Joann's website - that means I can use a coupon for it too! ;) Thank you!

Love from Texas!