Please contact me Margaret

Hi Margaret
Your email won't work for me.  I would love to send your gift! Can you email me?

If you aren't sure if you are the correct Margaret - this is your post:

Hi Vicky-I am a follower.
I have been sewing for 41 years, my first quilting project was a hand pieced pillow when I was 17, made a lot of quilts the wrong way when my kids were little (they loved them anyway-they didn't know;))))-and have finally started to get the hang of things and make quilts I feel really good about giving away within the last two years. In between I've sewed a little bit of everything, and have done the most of English smocking and heirloom sewing- that was my specialty till the kids outgrew wearing it :)
Thanks for the opportunity to win this great giveaway.
Margaret

You can reach me at

VickyKCreating@gmail.com

If I don't get a reply by Monday, I guess I will have to pick another winner. :(

Thanks

VickyK

Messy Room

Good Morning All
Today is going to be a busy day for me again and probably stressful.

First my little girl is going for OT (occupational therapy) assessment for the pre-school that we are trying to get her in.

And then I'll most likely be stressing about tomorrow.   I have to go to court for a lawsuit for my Mom's estate.  She was having a house renovated and the contractor put in an outrageous claim.  The house was also given directly to my brother.  So he made the decision to fight the claim but I'm the one dealing with the lawyers and the courts.  I'm hoping and praying that the judge is fair.  We are willing to pay, just a fair amount.

So today I thought I would show a before picture of my Dad's desk that I have in my sewing studio.

I had such plans when I moved the desk in to have it organized and pretty.  But after my retreat and the rush to get the Twins' quilts finished, it ended up being my dumping ground.

The middle pile is the projects I took on retreat - that I didn't even open.
The right is the leftover fabric from the quilts and something else, not sure what.
The left is empty plastic containers that I want (need lol) to fill and my King Tut threads for machine quilting.

I hope to get some stress relieving time today by cleaning up the desk.  Does cleaning/organizing help you to de-stress?  What things do you do to relieve stress in your life?

Have a great day!
VickyK

Winner Announced for Giveaway Day

SewMamaSew GiveAway

Again I have to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
You guys made my blogging year with all the comments and followers joining up.  It surpassed my wildest dreams.
I used a Random Number Generator to pick the winner. and it was
Number 311 - Margaret

Hi Vicky-I am a follower.
I have been sewing for 41 years, my first quilting project was a hand pieced pillow when I was 17, made a lot of quilts the wrong way when my kids were little (they loved them anyway-they didn't know;))))-and have finally started to get the hang of things and make quilts I feel really good about giving away within the last two years. In between I've sewed a little bit of everything, and have done the most of English smocking and heirloom sewing- that was my specialty till the kids outgrew wearing it :)
Thanks for the opportunity to win this great giveaway.
Margaret

I have notified her via email.

It was taking me so long to pick the winner as I wanted to reply to all the comments before picking the winner.  I finally realized at 11:00 pm last night - Not possible!  I'm still working on checking out all the blogs of my commenter's.  Don't be shocked if you hear from me in a few weeks.  I'm sure it will take me that long LOL.

Thanks
VickyK

Bobbin Thread Run Out

Good evening Ladies
Little girl is finally asleep.  I might even get 3 - 4 hours in my quilting studio tonight.  I'm excited!  I have so much to do.

I have to finish a challenge quilt for my guild meeting on June 18.  I have the fabrics matched and some cut.  The pattern calls for appliqued flowers, but I might just skip that step.

I also have to finish a Quilt for a Quilter and I'm hoping to have it finished and mailed by the end of May.  I have the blocks finished.  The border is a checkerboard.  I'm hoping and wishing that it will go quickly and with no errors or do-overs.  I seem to have those a lot when I quilt hahaha.

When I was sewing the binding on the Twin's quilts - yes both of them - I ran out of bobbin thread.  Can you guess how much left I had to sew?  Well I took pictures.  Look see here :)

This is the first one.  I forgot to measure it but I think it was around 12 inches.

This is the second one.   Again I didn't measure, but guessing its about 4 inches.

Has this happened to you?  What was the shortest distance that you had to go when your bobbin ran out?

Or have you been chain piecing when you ran out of bobbin thread.  How many pieces did you sew without thread.  I think the most I've sewed with just the needle would be about 10 chains.  LOL.

Have a great evening
Vicky K

Oh My! What Responses!

Good Evening Everyone
Hope you've had a great day.

Its been raining for 2 days straight where I live.  I just want to curl up on the couch and veg. But of course, life doesn't always let us do what we want.  We had to show our new rental place twice yesterday and then drive across the city to meet with our new tenants.  Then today I had to drive an hour each way to show another house of ours and take painting supplies to our contractor.  Thank goodness my kids are great in the truck.

Hoping I can get downstairs tonight to my quilting studio so I can clean up after making the twins' quilts.  I need to clean off my desk to set up my laptop and answer all the responses.  I didn't even think in my wildest dreams that I would get the response I did. I'm in shock and utter delight.  :) :) :)

I thought maybe I should answer the question myself:

I've been quilting for 6 and 1/2 years.  And I've finished 8 quilts, 2 bags, 3 sets of coasters, 3 mug rugs, potato bag, 3 doll quilts, 3 table runners, and more I can't remember.  I have 2 quilts that are sandwiched and ready to be quilted.  I have many UFO's and PIG's to finish.

Have a Great Evening!
Vicky K

Giveaway Day May 2012 - Now Closed

Edit May 27, 2012 11:20 AM My Time:  Winner of Random Draw:  Number 311!

Hi Vicky-I am a follower.
I have been sewing for 41 years, my first quilting project was a hand pieced pillow when I was 17, made a lot of quilts the wrong way when my kids were little (they loved them anyway-they didn't know;))))-and have finally started to get the hang of things and make quilts I feel really good about giving away within the last two years. In between I've sewed a little bit of everything, and have done the most of English smocking and heirloom sewing- that was my specialty till the kids outgrew wearing it :)
Thanks for the opportunity to win this great giveaway.
Margaret

Margaret has been notified by email!  Can't wait to hear from her.

 
Edit May 25, 2012 7:05 PM My Time:  Thank you all who came to visit and enter my giveaway.  I'll be working hard this weekend to pick a winner. Good Luck to All!!


Good Evening Ladies
Hope your day was wonderful!
I have decided to join Sew, Mama, Sew's Giveaway Day May 2012!  I'm pretty excited.  My wish is to grow my blog.  And what better way to do that then to give something away :).  You need to make sure that you check out the giveaway linky party.  There are some amazing gifts out there.

I will be giving away.......

 
 40 strips 2.5" X WOF.  Aren't Black and White the greatest?

In order to be entered into a random draw, you can leave a comment about:

1.  I love getting to know people - Please tell me how many years you have been quilting and how many quilts or projects have you made.  You can give a guesstimate if you don't know the exact number. ;)

2.  All my followers will also be entered into the draw.

So if you answer Question 1 and are a follower - you will be entered into the draw twice.

The Giveaway will be open till May 25, 2012 5:00 pm PST.

Good Luck Everyone!

Have a quilty evening!
Vicky K

Finished the Doubles

Yea, Yea, Yea

I've finished the "Doubles" quilts.  The ones for my niece's twins.  Today was their Baby Shower.  The quilts were a great hit.  My niece actually received a lot of blankets from the shower.  She will not be short of comfie blankets.  The quilts are large especially for baby quilts.  My niece loved it and she said that it would be perfect for her and hubby to use while cuddling with Babies.  I designed the quilt in EQ7.  I just love that program.  Do you have that program or one that you use?

Here are the quilts.  I made a mistake on one of the quilts - Can you pick it out?

I only showed the back of one of the quilts as they are both them same.  In the centre blue square, I hand embroidered their name, May 2012, with Love, Auntie Vicky

The quilt is made from flannel and is soooo soft.  I'm really happy on how they turned out.

Hope your weekend is wonderful!  It's a long weekend for me and has been great.
Vicky K

Friday Night Sew In - Doubles

Good evening Ladies
Again I was on the computer instead of sewing tonight.  While browsing, I found this Sew-In.  As I need to finish the 2 quilts for the twins and the panel wall hanging for Sunday.  I'm gonna enjoy the sew in.  Is there something you are working on that has a tight deadline?  Come join us.

Off to bed.  Have a great evening!
VickyK

Save the Scraps

Good morning Ladies!
Hope you have a wonderful day!  Mine is gonna be busy.
The public health nurse is coming for a couple of hours this morning to work with me and my daughter.  She had a speech delay.  They come every couple of weeks to check up and give new strategies if needed.  I'm really appreciative of the program.  We are making slow but sure progress with little girl.
Then its the normal routine - get little guy from school, lunch, naps, supper.
Then in the evening, my little guy has soccer pictures.  His jersey is green and we have green temporary hair coloring.  The kind that sprays on.  Hubby really wants little guy to have green hair for the pictures.  The only problem - can't get  the green off his scalp for weeks on end.  Hubby has been the one to spray his hair so far.  I told him that I will spray it this time and see if I can't miss his scalp. :)

And I still need to find time to finish the twins' quilts.  The baby shower is on Sunday.

When I was sewing my outer borders together (and I didn't sew the angles backwards like the inner border LOL), I sewed a second line to try to save the scraps.  Not sure if I would do this again while sewing the borders as I ended up with a HST of the same fabric.  It ended up working out great as I added the blocks to the back.  I also made some extra sections by mistake when making the top, so instead of ripping out the sections, I just cut new fabric.  I put those mistake sections in the back too.  But I digress.....

Here are the pictures of my seams, extra pieces, and HST ready to be trimmed.

Are you a scrap saver or a thrower-outer?  I save everything.  Anything bigger that 1/2 inch goes into my stash, anything smaller goes to the dogs.  :)   For dog beds.  LOL

Have a Quilty Day
Vicky K

Domino Block and border test

Good Evening Ladies
How was your Tuesday?  I had another good day today.  Must be on a roll, hopefully it keeps going.

I purchased a new office chair for my new sewing studio about a month ago.  I put on the arms without realizing that the chair might not fit under my table with them on.  Yep that happened.  I finally got around to taking off the arms.  Boy does it take some getting used to - to sit on the chair without it taking off behind me.  I almost ended up on the floor twice today.  LOL  It probably doesn't help that hubby purchased (what he calls) Racing Wheels for the chair.  We bought special castors that won't wreck the new laminate flooring.

Here is another block in the quilts that I'm making for my great-nephew twin boys. The name of the block is "Domino"

When trying to decide on how big of a border to put on a quilt, I like to take pictures.  Its helps looking at the pictures.  Have you done something like this?  Do you have another way to figure out what size of borders to put on?

These were two of the options for my quilts.  I ended up doing 3.5" or 3" finished.

Notice the cornerstones?  I fussy cut those cute little critters.  As soon as I saw the fabric, I knew I had to put them as cornerstones.

Have a great Quilty evening.
Heading to bed
Vicky K

Border Error

Good Morning Everyone!  Hope your weekend was wonderful.  Mine was great.  Last night my SIL hosted a BBQ and we had perfect weather for it.  I spent the rest of the day cleaning and playing on computer.  What did you do?

Have you ever sewed the joining seams the wrong way for borders?  I did and I didn't catch it until all 8 seams were finished.  I have made the mistake a few times, but I always catch it after the first seam.  Not this time.  Had to rip out lots, good thing, the boarder was only 1.5 inches wide.  :)

Here are some pictures to show you what I mean:

And you can bet I didn't make the same mistake with the outside 3.5 inch borders.  LOL

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!
Vicky K

Mother's Day and new site

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying the day.  I've had a really good day so far and am sure the rest of the day will be just as nice.  I was able to sleep in till 8:30.  I woke up in a good mood and it feels like its been forever since I have.  Hubby is gone all day to update the newest house so we can have 2 legal suites.  So I thought today would be the perfect time to clean the house.  Its always easier when he's not home LOL.  I picked up my little guys room while he was eating breakfast.  What a reaction when he noticed his clean room.  It was priceless.  He didn't know how it happened :).  I'm taking a break from cleaning to catch up on my blog and other blogs I have found recently.

Have you heard of Quilting Gallery?  I have seen the button on quilting blogs for a while, but never really had the time to check out the website.  I still haven't had the time to see all the ins but it looks like a great website.  Hope to check it out fully in the next little while.

 

I've taken some new pictures.  Hope to get them uploaded soon.

Have a great quilty day!

Vicky K

Retreat Works

Good Morning
I've had a pretty successful morning so far.  Its feeling really nice since I've been sick for the last 2 weeks.  I had a sinus infection that hit me hard.  My teeth hurt like the dickens, fever ever 2 days, achy, clammy and so on.  I thought I had a cold and you're not supposed to go to the doctor for a  cold.  But last Wednesday, I couldn't stand it anymore and finally went to the doctors.  I had to wait for almost 2 hours to see the doctor for 10 minutes.  My poor house and family.  I could only get the energy to do one thing daily, either dishes, vacuuming, cleaning up after kids, make supper.  So my house has suffered greatly.  We also got possession of a rental house on May 1, and hubby is obsessed with doing the necessary renovations to make it contain a separate legal suite.  So he was too busy to help with the house and kids.  But I'm on the UPSIDE!! 
We are going to Mexico in June and I would love to lose some weight before we go.  This morning I started an exercise routine.  I'm hoping that doing the program will help with my energy and motivation around the house LOL.  I'm a terrible housekeeper and an awesome procrastinator.

Sorry for the ramblings.  Back to Quilting:

Two weeks ago I went on retreat for 4 days.  I brought 5 projects to work on.  The first project I worked on was 2 quilts for my nieces newborn twin boys.  She fell in love with the panel  Forest Friends from Northcott.

Northcott's website lists all the store that purchased their fabrics and has a download for EQ7 for their fabrics.  I downloaded the fabrics into my EQ7 and played around to come up with a quilt.  Well I actually came up with 4 different quilts.  I couldn't decide what to make so I printed all of them with the fabric requirements to take to the store with me.  I found a store, Snow Goose Quilting that purchased all or most of the fabrics in the line.  I had the ladies at the store help me decide which one to make.  I will post a picture of the quilts when I finished but here is a little sneak peak.

The pile on the left is my yardage for the quilts and the pieces on top are for the quilts too.

 Here is a picture of one of the blocks I came up with.

I really hope that she will like the quilts.  The fabric and backing is flannel.  Ohhh so soft.

Do you have EQ7 or a program like it?  Do you like coming up with your own quilts.  I would love to know and see some that you have done.

Hope you are having a great Monday!!
Vicky K

The Cutting Gizmo

I love notions and here is one that I use quite a bit.  Its called

The Cutting Gizmo

It has a blade in the middle at the top.  

When I'm finished chain piecing, I just place 

the little bit of thread between the pieces 

on the blade and it cuts the thread.

Here is a picture of the thread hanging on the blade.

This stack of chain pieces took me less

 than a minute to cut apart using 

The Cutting Gizmo

 

Last year at retreat, I brought the Gizmo, which my friends tried out.  I think at least 2 out of 3 bought it after.  It works that good.  There are replacement blades when it dulls.  I didn't have any blades with me at this retreat but we were playing around with it to see what kind of blades it takes.  I just pushed the blade over enough to get a sharper edge.  I could probably get at least 3 full uses out of the blade doing that going the other way too.  I love when notions have a double use or you can get extra uses out of them.

Have you tried The Gizmo?  If so, what is your opinion?

Hope you have a wonderful Quilty weekend!

Vicky K

Small Blog Meet

Lily's Quilts is hosting two linky parties this month.  One is Fresh Sewing Day and the other is Small Blog Meet.  In her post, there is an amazing quilt that she'll be creating a pattern for and a sew-a-long.  You should check it out.

I'm linking to the Small Blog Meet.  My goal this year is to be a consistent online participant.  I haven't been as successful as I had hoped but am thinking the more people that follow me, the more incentive I have to post.  And if I have to do more posting, I have to do more creating.  LOL  I would love to put more hours into my quilting and to get back to some card making but there always seem to be some reason (excuse) for me not to head downstairs.

Back to the linky party- I have to play with Blogger to remember how I put a button in my post.  Here's looking to success!!

I did it!  I did it!  Woo Hoo!!!

 Hope you are having a Wonderful Crafty Weekend!

Vicky K

Ruler Hanger

I'm pretty excited about my ruler hanger.  But, boy, did I have a heck of a time putting it up.  I tried for at least 1/2 an hour.  And the first thing that hubby says when I'm proudly showing it to him - "Its crooked".  The stinker.  LOL

I love that my rulers are off the floor, off my desk and are clearly visible.  I had the rings in my stash but I'll replace them with S rings - when I can find them.  I have a lot more rulers to add to the bar.

Hope you are having a great quilty weekend!
Vicky K