Welcome...

I'm back home from Amish Country and I have much to tell you, but first:

Welcome one, welcome all!!! From where? The Fat Quarter Shop's Jolly Jabber is where. I had the pleasure of being invited to introduce myself to the followers of the Jolly Jabber site. Check out my little blurb by clicking here.

Also, just a reminder the giveaway is still open til midnight of August 2nd. I can tell you there have been many great guesses - several of which I wasn't anticipating... And I can guarantee that as of a few minutes ago NOBODY has guessed the correct cake or fabric....

So, I'll give a few hints (and for those that have guessed already, you can guess again):
1. This cake is "healthy" because of the fruit in it...
2. There's an alternate cake that will count as well that's more of a dessert casserole than a cake... (two correct chances with this one, and neither one has been mentioned)
3. The fabric I'm working with, I've used before - think more style rather than fabric line...

Keep on guessing, I'm absolutely having a ball reading what you all have come up with! Some of you are quite inventive - I love the creativity!

I'll be back with updates from my trip after the giveaway's done, I can't wait to tell you all about it - the shopping, the food, and the people I met!

Keep guessing (over at the other post, not here - they won't count if they're on here) and if need be I will give more hints in a couple of days. Head on over to the giveaway here.

Spreading the word...(for a giveaway)

Contest is now closed, thank you to all who entered!

So, today is my birthday.... Happy Birthday to me! (Sorry, it's that whole Leo thing...) But there's good news for you... Keep reading....

Tomorrow I will be heading down to Holmes County, Ohio, one of the largest Amish communities, to work with the wonderful Moda/United Notions group. I will be demoing the Sewline products (quite divine if I do say so myself). If you are a shop owner planning on attending the show (sorry, not open to the public) stop on by and introduce yourself.

I will also have some of my Moda Bake Shop recipes there and some of the latest goodies from Ruby Blue...

 Here's a peek at my Lilies... They've almost all bloomed. I just love them so... I'm going to miss them while I'm gone...

I'm also going to be missing a few of my quilts, but I know they're in good hands over at the Sew Sweet Quilt Shop in Brunswick, MO. Jessica contacted me about doing a trunk show of my quilts and I'm happy to say they are on their way!!!

The trunk show will be running the month of August and if you are a member of the Pecan Valley Quilt Guild they are to be making an appearance at your next meeting!!!Stop on over, check them out and let me know what you think.

If any other quilt shops would be interested in doing a trunk show, please let me know and I'd love to work something out with you...

Now, onto the good part:

To celebrate my birthday, I'd like to celebrate with you all. There's four ways to enter the drawing...

1. Guess my favorite cake of all time... (I didn't say it was easy...)
2. Guess what fabric you think I'm working with at the moment... (little easier)
3. Name your favorite Ruby Blue pattern (bit easier)
3. Link this giveaway on your blog or facebook or both and comment here to let me know you did so (very easy)

Leave a comment for each answer and all correct answers will  be entered into the drawing...

The giveaway will be open through August 2nd, and 2, yes 2, lucky winners each will receive:
* A Charm Pack
* Their choice of Charmed Living Series pattern
* Their choice of 2 other Ruby Blue Patterns
* AND Their favorite candy bar (for energy to sew with...)

I cannot wait to read your guesses... Good Luck and I will be back shortly. So I've spread the word, now it's your turn...

I lied...

In my defense at the time I didn't know I was lying...

So, sorry I've been a little MIA, but you know how in my last post I mentioned my little issue with poison ivy but it should be all good because I'm not allergic - WRONG!!!

For the last week I have been fighting the nasty-ness that evil weed causes and it's not been fun. I have it all over my forearms and so that's made all sorts of things interesting... so I've been wearing long sleeves to avoid touching just about everything, but we like many people are going through a bit of a hot spell right now and that's not making it any better.

But the good news is I found a medicated scrub that's working wonderfully and it's clearing up...

Also, today is one of my favorite days of the year - my Stargazer Lilies are blooming!!! So, nothing quilty today, but once this poison ivy goes away I'll get something on here to show you...

Take care and I will chat with you soon!!!

How Does Your Garden Grow???

Before I get to the garden, I forgot to show you all this bag I made out of Bliss. Yeppers, it's another Charmed Living Tote (small version). This one is uber girly and I just love it! I made it a few weeks ago and promptly took it to the quilt shop to show it off and forgot to take a picture first!

 And can I say, I am so proud of my garden - it's been so nice to have! And some of those plants are just growing so big! The tomatoes, cilantro, dill, and corn are all waist high on me...

 The herbs have really taken off and it's been wonderful to just run to the garden and grab some fresh whatever for dinner that night. So far the purple basil and cilantro probably have been used the most.

 And the tomatoes!!! They're HUGE!!! Can you see all the green ones in there?

 But the coolest thing of all about this garden are the tomatillos. These are just big puffs right now, but eventually we are going to have Mexican night quite often around here to use up some of these. And I might try and make my own Salsa Verde - any suggestions on a good recipe???

 Look at the corn. It was knee high last week, this week it's waist high. At this rate by next week it'll be taller than me!!! And I thought it wasn't going to grow...

To go along with Mexican night will be our first crop of Cubanelle Peppers!!! I foresee plenty of tacos, burritos, nachos, and whatever else we can think of very soon - which is fine with me!!!

And this all started here on Memorial Day... big difference a little over a month can make!!!

Are you gardening? How is it going over at your place? Also, if anyone has a suggestion for a good focal bush or plant for the shaded area of my yard, ideas would be appreciated. I'm having a hard time finding something "pretty" with substantial size to fill this shaded void of my yard. And unfortunately it's the first spot your eye goes to in the yard and right now it's a pile of dirt...

Oh, and FYI - poison ivy has berries on it for those of who who might not have known that little tidbit like myself. Luckily I'm not allergic, but we have a corner (well, you could see it at the top left of the last photo) that was getting overgrown with this stuff - we had no clue what it was but it looked like poison ivy...

Meanwhile some little berries started to grow, we live in a wine-ish country and we have wild grapes in other areas of the yard, so naturally we thought it might be grapes. To shorten the story, killed the plants anyway, then decided to double check today... It's poison Ivy alright. And the worst part is all 3 of our neighbors at that corner have it in spots that they don't take care of so it grows over, under and through my fence into my yard and I can't get rid of it!!! I'm running out of options...

Do I just let it grow and avoid it at all costs while having this horrid corner to an otherwise well kept yard, or try to kill it and kill it and kill it every time it creeps over from one of the neighbors...I'm feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one...Any ideas on this subject would help too!

Thanks for chatting and please let me know if you have remedies for any of the "stuff" I mentioned above. I thank you in advance for any suggestions you could throw my way.

Gotta go sew for a bit and work on some other projects before heading back to work tomorrow. I'll talk with you later!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Take a moment today to thank those who have sacrificed for their country. Don't forget to thank the friends and families of our heroes as well for all they have done.

Have fun today with whatever your plans may be, golfing, fishing, picnics, spending time at the beach...

Today we will be picnicing with my family and also celebrating my Nana's birthday which also is on the 4th. Maybe we'll even get to see some fireworks tonight...

What are you planning on doing?

Travels

So, on our way home from Shipshewana, Mom and I had nothing on the schedule. We were done with our commitments, had the whole day ahead of us and no rush to get home. So what did we do?

Well, we had to stop at Lolly's in the Davis Mercantiles!

 That building (yes, all of it including the brick parts) is the Davis Mercantile, home of 23 amazingly unique shops. Sorry the pictures kinds blurry, it was raining  and I tried to take it from inside the car...

 All of the shops from the inside have little storefronts and bright colors that make it look so magical. This is a picture from the 3rd floor (there's 3 floors plus a basement!)

 And I got a better picture of the tree inside the building this time with Mom next to it to show scale...it's huge and runs all the way from the basement floor to the rooftop!

 And they have the cutest displays all over the building, not just in each of the shops...

 This is one of the doors for Lolly's from their porch (which I just discovered). I have a funny story - I was going to take a picture of this porch from the inside, but there was a gentleman sleeping in one of the rocking chairs and I thought it would be mean to take the photo...

 But isn't this just the most cozy porch ever?!

 Along with the Quilt Festival is a Shop Hop, so we had to check it out! Our first stop was Caroline's Cottage Cottons in Rome City, IN. It was about a half hour drive from Shipshewana, but look how adorable it is:

 It's the coziest little shop and Caroline, the owner, is such a doll. Mom and I met Caroline at the trade show we participated in a few weeks prior in Shipshewana, but we had no clue this was her shop...

 There's Caroline cutting up a paisley fabric for me I couldn't leave without owning. If you're in the area, you must stop, it's so adorable.

 Then we had to stop at the Door Mouse in Bettsville, OH. I have heard of the Door Mouse for years, but never had the opportunity to visit. Well, there's 2 stories (kinda) in this barn with 17,000 bolts of fabric in this barn. But, it's in the middle of nowhere.

Literally it's in the middle of a cornfield. It was a neat experience and I left with some good buys, but it's almost too much. There's so much fabric in this shop it's everywhere, it's stacked on the floor in front of the shelves so you can't see most of the fabric on the bottom shelf and I wouldn't recommend it for the claustrophobic. But if you're looking for that perfect fabric that you can't seem to find anywhere else, it'll probably be here or something close to it.

So I shopped and bought some more to add to those stacks I showed you earlier, but I have a few other projects in line ahead of that particular growing bundle...I'm hoping to get to it soon.

I have been sewing so much lately and have been enjoying every minute of it. I actually have the next couple days off still and I'm hoping to finish a quilt top in those days. I'll let you know how that goes.

I hope you're having a great holiday weekend and I'm giving it the good ol' college try here... So far it's working! What are your plans for the weekend?