Giveaway Contest! Happy Birthday Mom!

This was my mother, Margot and me (with my baby cousin) in 1974 at age 30.


And this is my mom 35 years later! Not bad, huh? Don't you hate when your mom is cuter for her age than you are for your age??? That's okay mom, I don't hold it against you. So anyway, happy birthday! In honor of your 65th, I'm having a giveaway of pre-cut Amy Butler triangles!


You will win at least 75 triangles of EACH of four Amy Butler fabrics (I didn't count). Plus, I'm throwing in about 75 slightly larger triangles in various shades of white on white. You could make a heck of a cute table runner or baby quilt, especially if you add more of your own white. You could make something great, like this or this. The 375 triangles i'm giving away will make at least 187 squares at 2 1/2 inches square when sewn together, so a 2 inch finished size. The fabrics are from this quilt and this quilt. Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but i'm also going to throw in a special surprise of the winner's choosing! Could be a vintage feedsack, could be fat quarters, could be a soft toy, no one knows!

I present - the Cavalcade of Dresses!!! Here are the rules: This is a contest for fabric lovers. You must name as many of the fabrics and designers used in the below dresses as you can. My mother made all of the below dresses for Gigi, so it's a tribute to her work! I will not approve any comments with guesses in them until the contest is over so no one can see your answers. On Saturday at noon I will look over the comments and count how many fabrics each person got right, then select a winner from the group with the highest number correct. Want extra entries? If you become a follower, add me to your google reader, or add me to the side of your blog as a clickable link, I will give you two extra correct points for each! Just comment to let me know. So even if you aren't a fabric expert you can at least get a few points there, plus you can probably get dress #5. Ready? Go!


Ok, dress #1. What's the name of the fabric and the designer? 2 points. (Click any of these photos to enlarge.)


Supercute dress #2 - What's the name of the fabric and the designer? 2 points.


Dress #3 with satin flower pocket - What are the names and designers of both fabrics? Hint, the red one is the same as the dress above! 4 points.


Dress #4 - What are the names and designers of both fabrics? 4 points.


And dress #5 - Alright, on this one I don't expect you to know the names or designers. On this one, just give me a general fabric category for each of the two. An example of a fabric category would be "30s reproductions". 2 points.

You can also tell me which one is your favorite or say happy birthday to my mom. Enjoy!

The Quilt That Almost Broke Me

Of all the quilts that have tried to break me over the years, this one almost did it. I came very, very close to allowing it to win, but I stuck with it and eventually emerged triumphant! Nice try Grandmother's Choice block - picking on a poor beginning quilter! Sorry for the poor photo quality, I had to scan these in.

I made this quilt for my step daughter Heather's highschool graduation six years ago. I chose this block so I could transfer photos to fabric and feature them in the nice open center square. Being a self-taught beginning quilter, I just jumped right into all these billions of triangles. I also used whatever materials I felt like: recycled clothes, crappy cottons, linen, polyester, etc. Yeah....hmmm...probably going to regret that. But I just happily sewed along, by hand of course, and ended with 20 blocks consisting of 34 triangles each. I was tired but happy.

Happy, that is, right up until the point where I tried to make rows with the blocks. They were not all the same size. Hmmm, guess those bias edges stretched a bit. I measured them and, no joke, the smallest was FOUR INCHES smaller than the largest! Horrifying. So I almost let the quilt win. But I finally decided to pick a measurement from the middle and make everybody match that one. The larger ones I cut down a bit (without cutting off knots) and the smaller ones I added fabric to. When all was said and done, you can't really tell! Go ahead and enlarge the first one and see if you can tell where the mistakes are.

That's Heather on the left in the first one, me and her dad in the middle with a pie, and Heather and her paw paw in the last one. Enjoy!

Wendy

Lydia's Flying Geese Quilt

Today i'm featuring a flying geese quilt I made for my sister Heidi's daughter, Lydia, wayyyyyy back in 2001. These photos (except the one with the girls) were actually taken this week, so it's nice to see that my workmanship held up! Holding up nicely also is the flannel from Hobby Lobby that I used to make it. This was very early on in my love affair with fabric and I hadn't yet met quilt shop fabric. Lol, maybe my love of designer fabric is misplaced if this flannel is such a performer!

This is one of my top five favorite quilts I have ever made and i'm proud to say that Lydia has loved the heck out of it. Heidi reports that over the years it has been with her through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, and she still loves it.

Go ahead and visit heidi's shop to see her cool minkee items for sale!

Wendy

Come Sail Away With Me! Ty's Sailboat Quilt and pattern share offer

Hi All,Today for your viewing pleasure I have a quilt I made for my sister's son Ty. Be sure to click on the photos to see them full size, they look a lot better that way! I wanted to make him something 'boyish' and had been wanting to try this pattern for some time. I changed the pattern from the original by making the top row of boats sail in the morning, the second row sail at dusk, and the last row sail at night. All those triangles in the 'water' took me forever, and as you can see, I cut off many of my points!

PS: I have the pattern scanned in, so I can share the pdf of the pattern if you like. Just send me your email request.