501st Post Giveaway and Some Catching Up

So, when I wake up with cold symptoms, apparently the rest of my brain shuts down.  That’s how I came  to hit “Post” on a book review without remembering to save my 500th post for a giveaway.  I’m a quilter, though, and we’re all about flexibility and creativity, right?  (Ok, and I admit, I couldn’t fix this with a seam ripper so I had to adjust.)  I’ve hit my “busy season” at work with kids all day every day except weekends when I try to catch up everything else.  I’ve been having a bit of fabric fun, though, to keep me sane. We had our quilters’ tea with a floral theme and I got these fun fat quarters

 We choose extras to round out our twelve but I just showed eight of the nine traded…aren’t they fun?  I had an extra gift from Donna…she brought me this great scrap bag!  Fun, fun, fun!

  I do, occasionally, make things with fabric that aren’t quilts and I made this for my husband.

The fabric is Michael Miller’s Waterfront Park and features the bridges of Portland.  Since my husband works for an architect in Portland it was a perfect fit.  The fabric, that is…the shirt is oversized and I need to take it in at the shoulders.  At least I didn’t layer up all three fabrics and cut them at once!

I did fly through this little baby quilt last weekend for a shower on Sunday.  It’s made completely from what I already had and the pattern is from “Quilts for Baby, Easy as A, B, C” which has been in my library forever (or so it seems.)  I think I’ve made at least twelve of these little quilts and I love seeing how the fabric choice makes each one come alive!

I also used up (oh how virtuous that word sounds!) all the strings left from the big scrap cutting and made these blocks for my “Love Shack” project from Bonnie Hunter’s class here in Portland.  Strings are addictive…very, very addictive!

Now, on to the giveaway.  To celebrate my 501st Post, I’m giving away a quartet of 1/3-yard cuts of the new American Made Cotton Solids.  I looked all over a nearby mega-shop trying to find something special but settled on these solids because the colors were yummy and, well, we all need a good solid now and again, right?

Why 1/3-yard cuts, you ask?  Well, they are about the same price as a fat quarter but you get more square inches of fabric.  (A tidbit learned from my accounting friend years ago.) How do you attempt to win these lovelies?  Just leave a comment.  If you’re a follower, leave a second one and tell me you’re a follower but please don’t feel pressured to follow (although I really love, love, love my followers!)  I do understand, however, that each of us has only limited hours in our day and can’t possibly read every quilting blog out there!  So, I’ll leave this giveaway open until I get back from the Sisters Quilt Show and draw a winner on July 15th.  Who knows, I might find a little something in Sisters to add to the mix!  And, yes, I’ll ship internationally.  Also, I expect to have a ton of book reviews up in the next few days so I’ll post a link to this post somewhere you can see it.

In the meantime, bedtime approaches as I have a 5 am wakeup call for tomorrow but I couldn’t resist sharing this photo of Gizmo.  Doesn’t he look like he’s laughing?  I imagine him saying to Jack, “And you should have seen her face when she looked in here to see the baby!”  Ah, cats are really the original evil geniuses, aren’t they?

Happy quilting,

Beth