blogs are slogs

Every once in a while I receive newspaper clippings from my Dad that address a topic that he thinks I might be interested in (or that he thinks I should be interested in).   I love getting newspaper articles from my Dad!  

I got this one earlier this year and honestly didn't read it in it's entirety until recently.  The gist of the article is that large companies have started giving up on blogs because they just aren't working.  To that I say Hooray!!  I have never really enjoyed the "corporate blog".  You can usually tell that there is a staff person whose job it is to make the corporation seem more "human".  Over the years I have slowly weeded those blogs out of my blog reader.

I am happy to have a blog where nine real humans commented on my last post.  That may not seem like much, but it is fantastic to me.  I've never been one for big parties.  I really prefer the more intimate gatherings where people can actually get to know each other.  I truly enjoyed hearing the winter plans of those nine people.  Here's to all ten of us finding the beauty of this coming winter!  And congrats to lucky number seven (Chris C.) for winning the Constellations Charm Pack!

Finding Winter's Beauty: Part #1 of Hopefully Many

While walking around my neighborhood lake this morning, I spotted this sight.  My First thought was "F@#$%*#  Ice!!!"  My next thought was "it's kinda pretty".  I have always had a love-hate relationship with winter.  I love the beauty.  I hate the cold.

I plan to spend most of my time this winter in my cozy warm studio sewing up things to help keep us all warm and cozy.  But, I will set aside some time this year to focus on the beauty of winter and I hope to share it here.  Photography has always been an interest of mine and I am planning on taking a class or two this winter to finally learn how to use all of my fancy camera's "bells and whistles".

If all else fails and I can't find anything beautiful about winter to take photos of, I can just hang a quilt in front of the snow and snap a few of that instead...

...and thanks to the kind folks at Andover Fabrics I will have some fun fabrics to play with.   I came home yesterday to a box of goodies that included 2 lovely charm packs of Lizzy House's new collection called Constellations (and yes, it does include a couple of the new pearl bracelet colors).

I am being greedy and keeping one for myself, but am giving away the other one.  Just comment on this post with something you are looking forward to this winter (sewing related or not) for your chance to win.

Let there be light & a giveaway winner!

 The electrician came by today and we have power!!  

 I agonized over which white to paint and am very happy with how it looks so far.

The flooring will be delivered tomorrow and installed "soon".  After that I can start MOVING IN...

I'm feeling pretty lucky right now, and so should Annik because she had the lucky # 2 comment on my quilt market posts.  I was hoping to post more often about market, but got distracted by trying to decide between  swan wing white and moon rise white...

Surprise, Surprise!

I just returned from the whirlwind that is Quilt Market.  WOW!  is all I can say right now, but once my brain stops spinning, I will start a series of posts with the highlights.

 I was especially surprised and excited to receive a charm pack of the much anticipated and yet to be released new collection from Lotta Jansdotter for Windham Fabrics.  They call it Bella for a reason.  It is beautiful and it can be yours, because I am giving it away.  Just leave a comment on any of my posts labeled "quilt market" in the next two weeks for your chance to win.  I will pick a random winner on June 4th.

I got another big surprise when I arrived home from Kansas City last night.  STAIRS!!  No more climbing up a ladder to visit my soon-to-be dream studio.  The guys from Minneapolis Garage came by on Saturday...Yes Saturday! to work on my palace (some call it a garage).  Drywall is going up today and things are really taking shape.  Electricity, painting and shelving for fabric storage are just around the corner!

A winner!

Well, It was so great to hear about all of your completed and in-progress goals. Very inspiring! My new mini-goal is to figure out how to get the random number generator image to upload to my blog post... I gave it a good effort and have decided that you will just have to trust me that the winner of the Moda bag is lucky #8 who commented...

lroghair/lparksJan 27, 2012 01:19 PM

Good job on completing your quilt!! I'm glad I found your blog. I'm in Mpls area too!! Always good to find another quilter in Mpls/St Paul. Other people have pointed out that it's Dell Fabrics. I'm working on completing a bunch of projects and admittedly, I started another one today instead. Oops! I call it ADHD quilting. Can't complete one project before moving on!! :)

Mission Complete!

There was one last quilt at the bottom of my basket. I started this quilt in the 90's! I bought this beautiful piece of fabric from the shop that used to be in St. Louis Park in Miracle Mile. The batik flowers were already on fabric, all stitched with beautiful bright thread. I remember that it was spendy, but I had to have it. I couldn't bring myself to cut it up at all and I didn't see the point in getting too crazy with it. I decided to put a simple border of batiks around it and call it done. It has been sitting (sandwiched and pinned!) since 1999. Yikes! Talk about UFO's.
So now the basket is EMPTY!! All of the unfinished quilts are finished!! Except for the ones in the next basket, which are finished tops without backs. That is my next challenge for myself. But before I move on to the next challenge, I want to celebrate the accomplishment of this one! So...
...I would like to have a giveaway. For a chance to win your very own moda messenger bag, leave a comment about a recent goal that you have accomplished (sewing or otherwise). I will randomly chose a winner next week.

P.S. I also have a fat quarter for the first person to remind me of the name of that fabric shop in SLP!