And the winner is..........

Welcome to all my new followers! I hope to have alot of good stuff in store for you and many more giveaways in the future. With so many wonderful comments I feel bad that everyone couldn't win. Thank you to all who stopped by and entered.
So anyway the winner of my first giveaway is.........

BonnieJuly 16, 2012 5:10 AM

I am a new follower. Your block is great. After reading through your blog I am inspired by your spirit. Thanks for the chance to win.

I will be emailing you today :)

Red, White and Blue Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!!!!

                                                             




Welcome everyone to the last day of the blog hop and I am so very happy you are here! I am a pretty new blogger and this is my first hop so I would sincerely like to thank Mdm Samm and Jane from Janes Fabric and Quilts  for letting me be a part of this wonderful hop. It has been 16 days of fabulously creative and inspiring blocks all done in red, white and blue and I have had a great time following all of it.
So, anyway, here we go!!
I only did one block ( and I am seriously jealous after seeing Mdm Samms blocks for today LOL )
Even though I only did 1, I hope you like it.

This was super easy and fun to make. It is a 12 1/2" square. I used 4 white on white fabrics for the center. I cut 2 strips of each color 1 1/2 " x 8 1/2" and sewed them together. I then cut 20 2 1/2" squares of assorted red prints to put around it. I found a star pattern in one of the quilting magazines and used it for the center. This was my first time machine appliqueing and I really liked it. I just did a simple blanket stitch on it. I quilted it using a varigaded blue thread. I don't think I would use this thread again though as I don't like the spacing on the color change.

I am currently working on a red, white and blue patriotic quilt for my 7 year old grandson that he requested, so I turned this into a little hanging he can put on his door.

So, now on to the giveaway. I have 3  1/2 yd cuts of Kona cotton in red, white and blue. You will get 1/2 yd  of each color. That way if you are so inspired to make any of the beautiful blocks in this hop you will be ready to go!

All you need to do to enter is become a follower and leave me a message in comments telling me that you did. That's it ;)  
Here is the line up for today's hop, make sure to stop by to see them all !

July 16th
PolkaDotClassic

Patchouli Moon Studio

little bits quilting  ( you are here )

busy as can be

Madame Samm

Thank you all for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the visit, I just loved having you!!

Kate

update and giveaway

Just popping in to say hi and show that I am still here! I have been busy trying to finish a few projects ,one of which just doesn't want to cooperate. I have remeasured, recut, resewn, ripped out so many times I am surprised the material is still whole. LOL I am determined to get it done though as it is for my grandsons birthday and he picked it out. Funny thing is that it is a simple pattern and I shouldn't be having these problems. I think that is the most frustrating part of all.
I am also working on my red, white and blue block for the blog hop. My day is July 16th so stop by and see it, I think its a cute one.

Here is a great giveaway you can enter at Sew whats cooking. It looks like a really fun one. I won last month and cant wait for it to get here.

2012 Monthly Giveaway – August

By sewwhatscooking | July 8, 2012 - 9:39 am | giveaway

For this month’s giveaway, I’m digging into my stash for a big grab bag of kid & critter prints. Some are smaller pieces, some are 1/4-yards, some 1/2 yards. Note – there are a lot of cat fabrics due to the collection I ended up with after making my kitty loving son’s quilt. There are also quite a few not shown – bees, flowers, more critter, ABC-123. Anyway – it’s a good size bag with a good assortment of kid friendly prints! Along with that I have an older special issue of Quilt It – For Kids. All the patterns are still attached inside and it’s packed with kid & baby quilts to give you loads of ideas!

So jump on over there and enter!

Have a great week and good luck in the contest!!

Kate

Get ready to hop!

Get ready to hop!

The red, white and blue blog hop starts Sunday, July 1,2012

There will be lots of amazing blocks all done in red, white and blue along with give a ways and tutorials. With 100 different stops you should be able to find something you are totally in love with :)  I am sure you will all have a great time!!
My day is July 16th! Hope you all stop by for it.
Let the Hopping begin! Click HERE to see all the participants.

Kate

Progress is fun!

Fun Finish

I really enjoyed working on this quilt and completing my second finish. This quilt is also for http://quiltsforkids.org/. This is done in Red Roosters Always Believe fabric. I love the feminine colors of it (I have 2 grandsons so it is nice to get to do girly things now and then ) This is actually a Christmas fabric. I didn't even realize that at first. There are two prints in the line that have tiny little snowmen on them and that's it. The lighting isn't great for these pictures but it is a sweet girly pink in 3 shades light to dark then three baby greens in light to dark. I practiced my straight line machine quilting on this one . ( I really looked for a picture where the lines looked straight but this is about the best of them LOL )

The backing is a larger print from the same line. I  did get alot of puckering on the back so if anyone has any idea what I need to do to stop that , I would appreciate it.  All in all I really enjoyed this one! 

I am working on a set of coasters , place mats etc for a kitchen set that I hope to post tutorials on. Also several quilts in various stages. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Hugs and blessings,

Kate

PS. Have you all voted on your favorites for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival?

Also check out the TONS of giveaways at Sew, Mama, Sew! There are hundreds of them and it runs all week. Have fun!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

A Quilt of Firsts

Amy at Amys Creative Side is hosting the most wonderful Quilt Festival. I love her blog and so much wanted to be a part of this show. If you haven't seen it yet, you should go on over and look at all the hundreds of wonderful quilts entered!

This is my entry into the festival. Though it is simple it is a quilt of many firsts and I am really pleased with myself.

This is my first completed quilt for Quilts for Kids, it is my first straight line machine quilting as well as first machine free motion quilting.It is also my first completed quilt in over 25 years!!  So, I will quickly try to tell you the story of my getting to this point and why I am so pleased with myself.

This is not meant to be a sad story or a story I will repeat, it is just a story of how life happens.

I was a very avid quilter back in the 80s. It was alot different then to say the least. I hand quilted everything. But, as with everything life happens and I ended up having to have carpel tunnel surgery on both hands due to all the damage I did to them crafting all the time. Imagine that, I never would have thought that possible. Anyway after having the surgery and rehabs on both hands, it took a while to get them back up to speed. By this time we moved from NH to TN and life just got busy. After my kids had grown and gone on their own and empty nest settled in, I decided to go back to sewing and quilting. I no sooner got back into it and we had a house fire in 2001 and lost everything. It was devastating to go out one day and find at the end of the day you have no where to go home to and nothing but what is in your possession at the moment. It took a long time to get our bearings and get resettled. This time back in NH near family and friends. By the time we got back up here I began to get ill. I already had been dealing with thyroid disease and narcolepsy for years but this was something worse I could tell. They first diagnosed fibromyalgia and mixed connective tissue disorder and degenerative disk disease in my spine. I was living with alot of pain and went through several medications to try to manage pain along with cortisone injections. But, things got worse and I started to have trouble breathing doing simple things. The mixed connective tissue disease caused pulmonary hypertension , a disease that causes the arteries in the lungs to thicken and makes it hard for the blood to flow through, which in turn forces your heart to work harder to pump the blood and causes it to enlarge and become less effective. So I went from chronic disease to a terminal illness with a 2 1/2 to 5 year life expectancy.Then this past April I was diagnosed with cancer from it and underwent radiation in June. It was my only treatment option due to being too weak for surgery, It seems my days were filled with being sick and weak and many many hospital stays. Last year I was in for almost 4 months over 7 stays!

I felt so useless and unproductive which made me start to feel so depressed. Not about being terminal just about doing nothing all day but being sick!! 

This past fall on a beautiful sunny morning when the sky was a brilliant blue, and the air felt so clean and fresh I realized I was already at the 2 1/2 year mark and I was actually starting to feel a bit stronger! Give an inch and I will take a mile!! Praise God, a little stronger was a milestone. I just needed to decide what to do with myself. THEN  it hit me quilt! Quilting made me happy, fabric, color , made me happy.I needed a plan to motivate myself and feel usefull. I was going to make a quilt for every member of my family and my friends so after  I was gone they would always be able to surround themselves with my love and hugs. It started out slow as I had nothing to work with and a terrible little machine that hated to sew. I also knew I wanted to make Quilts for kids because when I went into the hospital I always brought my blankie and it always comforted me and I want to do the same for them, give them comfort and love. I plan on making quilts for them between all the family quilts.

  So, not having a stash or knowing where to really begin , they sent me a quilt kit which I made into this quilt I am showing. My quilt of firsts because not only am I back quilting and spending my time in joy I have accomplished so many firsts in this quilt. Though it is simple, I hope you enjoy it!!

straight line on the blocks and free motion around the border.



first free motion, this is where I was hanging on like a crazy women with my hair standing straight up!!

Sorry for the blur, this is the backing.

So, my short story has turned way to long so I will end off sending you all

Hugs and blessings

Kate

Some Giveaways for you !

Just thought I would pop in and share some give-a-ways with you. Never know you might be the winner :)
                     Sew Whats Cooking is giving away 3 yards of fabric!

It looks so pretty and summery.

The Quilting Lodge is giving away 13 fat quarters if Jennifer Paganelli Free Spirit fabrics or a layer cake of Good Fortune by Kate Spain!

 

Its Sew Kiki is giving away a ton so scraps from 5" squares to stuff to make string quilts along with books and patterns. This will be a big surprise pack for someone to receive.

Any one of these give a ways would be great to win. Someday when I  get to be a big girl blog I will be doing give-a-ways, I am really looking forward to that.

I have finally finished  2 quilts and a mug rug and 1 of 6 place mats with machine quilting. They are far from perfect but I do not think that the fabric or myself could take any more ripping out so I just had to call it as good as it gets for now. Definitely will be practicing. Hoping for good weather and some nice light so that I can take some pictures to post tomorrow.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday night!

Kate