I Should Buy A Lottery Ticket!

This week, our local quilt guild held a fund raiser to purchase batting for the quilts we make and donate.  It was a lot of fun.

The premise is that everyone with a stash has stuff they know they're not going to use, or they have too much of something.  Everyone brought 'stuff' to donate to the raffle, whether it was one item, a kit, a packet of half yards or fat quarters, whatever a sewist would like to have.  It didn't have to be sewing related.  Someone brought a big bag of chocolates, and someone else donated a basket with cheese and wine.

Wine always goes well with sewing, or sewing always goes well with wine... lol!

The two piece tickets were 50 cents each.  You tore off half and put it in a small paper bag near the item you were interested in winning.  We spent quite a while 'shopping' at the various tables that were set up, examining the wonderful items.

 

After a brief couple of announcements the fun began in earnest!  The ladies running the raffle picked up a bag, showed the prize and drew a ticket.  We had such fun cheering for the winners.  There were a couple of items I wanted that I didn't win, but for the most part I did well, as did my friend Suzi.  She ended up with a quilt kit in purple.  She rocks purple...

I got several kits:



A small quilt kit of cupcakes...



Small kit for a wall hanging including the hanger.  This will go in my kitchen.



This kit is like a wreath or something, I have to read the directions...



These are the pieces, precut, and very tiny!

I also picked up the 30th anniversary packet for the Log Cabin Quilt Guild -- that was the year before I joined.  The booklet is so interesting, listing all the past presidents, where meetings used to be held.  I guess everyone else had one because mine was the ONLY ticket.  I won.  Go figure...

There IS a cute little log cabin pouch and an adorable button flower in here.

 

My favorite prize was this packet of fat quarters.  I make a quilt called Yellow Brick Road, and you need six fat quarters to do it.  There are six pastel fqs on the left, and five black/white/red fqs on the right.  I will add one more and probably make two tops to donate.  Score!

 

Then there was a Ziploc baggie with a bunch of stuff in it.  There were patterns and some rubber stamps.  I didn't really look too hard at the stamps, but the baggies inside were filled with:

 Which is a pattern and these stamps...

 

So after I read the directions on THIS packet, I realized that this was designed to stamp on fabric.  You stamp the shapes, you can cut them out with a scissors and hand sew (yeah, I know, right?) or you can machine piece.  The inside line is the sewing line, the outside the cutting line.

It looks like someone used this stamp for a 60 degree triangle.  It's about 2 inches on a side...  With the dawn of rotary cutting I think this method of piecing went the way of the dinosaur, although I did come across a web site last week where this system was featured.  I thought "how interesting, that someone would have you stamp on the back of the fabric!"  Then, viola!  I win a quilting stamp.  But it might come in handy for other things.

The bag also contained some patterns and other things but the real find was this stamp:


Abstract designs, this is about five inches square and will completely cover a small notepaper.

Also included in the bag were a tiny book and a few miscellaneous notions... check out the little ruler with the scissors handle!  Yes, it's a total of three inches long, as is the book.  The book has a thimble on a ribbon as a bookmarker.  There are all sorts of quotes about quilts and quilters in the tiny pages.

 

Some things still had the prices tags on them.  I spent $20 on tickets and got what I calculate to be over $125 worth of items. 

 

We raised a little over $300 which we will use to buy batting for the quilts that members sew and donate to various charities in the area.  For a group of probably about 50 women, we did well. A good time was had by all.  Only two things didn't go home with new owners.  Those items will be given away at some future time.

 

I want to try and make up a few of those little projects over the next month.  I think I'll take some of them to Friday sewing with my family. 

 

Sew on...

 

 

Oh Pickles!

This weekend was so completely awesome weather-wise that I forced myself to finish up errands like going out to the office supply to pick up tax prep software and going to the drugstore to stock up on toothpaste and mouthwash.

Doing all that made me feel very virtuous, so I rewarded myself with a trip to the quilt shop in Elm Grove, Patched Works.  It didn't hurt that I had a gift certificate for PW either.

I had seen some black and white fabric on someone else's blog that I NEEDED... it was a print that looked just like greenbar accounting paper!  (Only I guess you'd have to call it whitebar since there was no green in it.)  There was also some graph-paper type print, one with words and something that may have been bar codes, I don't remember exactly.

I found the words and what I thought was the bar code BUT I also found crossword puzzle and Sudoku fabric!  Had to have that too.  I passed on the bar code but here's what I did get:

The red added a bit of whimsy to the group.  I'm thinking I need a couple of tablet holders, since my Kindle Fire doesn't fit into the one my previous Kindle used -- I bought the smaller version. 

And then I found Pickles!  I love that cartoon, it's the one thing I miss about not getting the newspaper on Sundays (that's a post for another day).

She's talking to Earl about quilting.  In one panel I think she used his jeans to make a denim quilt. 

In another one, she's discussing the fact that she doesn't have the right color thread to fix his shirt and that means a trip to the fabric store.  At which suggestion he abandons his request!

So add 7 yards to the stash that I am not counting in this lifetime!  But I had a wonderful time... and I'm anxious to get my new tablet keeper started!

Sew on...

Pet Peeves

We all have them.  Why?

 

My daughter calls me the Grammar Queen.  I know I'm FAR from perfect but some things just grate on my ears.  I cannot listen to the local news lately without laughing out loud at the grammatical errors.  A few things that just drive me crazy are:

• On one station, the anchors will make statements and they're not full sentences, such as "A bad accident on the freeway this morning."  What, it happened, there will be one, what???
• The misuse of apostrophes in print -- on signs, wherever:  Martin's Car Wash -- OK,  Car's Washed Here -- not so much.
• The use of the word 'myself' when it is not appropriate.  "Please call John or myself as soon as possible".  Leave out John.  Would you say "call myself"?  That one just blows my mind any time I hear it!

And careless pronunciation  is like fingernails on a blackboard for me.  I know we have a lot of funny place names, but seriously, if you're going to be on the news in Wisconsin, learn to SAY it!  Also learn to say WAU-kesha, O-CON-omowoc, and New BER-lin (as opposed to New Ber-LIN.)

I'm ashamed to say it but I judge performances of the national anthem by any singer or group -- based on whether they say 'per-il-ous' or 'per-o-lis'... 

Ain't it fine over by the bubbler??  (If you understand that phrase you grew up in Milwaukee...) 

I know, loosen up!

I'll try.

Sew on...