Mama, Don't Let Your Baby Grow to be a Cowboy

My mama is busy tonight. I thought I'd do her blog for her.
I love these chaps my mama made me for Halloween. She loves that she used all my scraps from my quilt and it didn't cost a cent for my outfit. I guess that is alright by me, yessirreee.

I gotta practice my serious cowboy face. I have some outlaws to catch.

We have had a fun fall for playing outside. Look at this puddle I found. Good thing my mom uses Tide, that's what she said when I came inside.

These boots were made for stompin'.

Happy Halloween everyone. I sure hope you get lots of candy. Love, Lil' Buddy

The Cowboy Way

I stayed up later last night finishing the binding on buddy's quilt for his bed, a cowboy quilt. I love the Benartex vintage cowboy fabrics. They are so sweet and remind me of what every little boy's play should be. Anyway, when I finished I crept into bud's room and swapped the new quilt for the old. He stirred a bit so I whispered, "I finished your cowboy quilt and I just put it on your bed." He smiled. And then went right back to dreaming.

My quilter did an excellent job with the detials . . .covered wagons, cowboy boots, hat, long horns, and cactus. It looks fabulous.

I also finished this quick and easy fall quilt. My mom liked the sample in the quilt shop, so this is going to be a Christmas present for her. I have never been in love with panels, but have found myself purchasing two lately. They have some darling prints and kits out there right now. Has anyone else purchaed a panel lately? What are your plans with it, if you did?

Lucky Me

First of all, it has been a very busy week. I feel like crazy mama on the run! I just want to thank each of you for all the quilt love. I'm so lucky to have all of your great feedback, it keeps me sewing. A gal couldn't ask for better blog friends! You're right buddy was thrilled with his quilt. His friend came over to play the next day, and he took her right in, spread out his quilt, and told her to check out his new quilt his mama made. Of course, I heard this from the next room and I couldn't help but feel like I was the luckiest mama in the world. That little man is such a joy.

Speaking of luck, check out my loot I won over to Pat's blog Bits and Pieces!

She was participating in that huge Fall Blogger Giveaway that was so much fun. I was so excited to see the package on the kitchen counter when I arrived home today, that I almost knocked husband down on the way. Look out when there's loot, that's all I will say about that. The truffles are so yummy. There is a cute table runner kit, some Halloween fat quarters (yessiree!), some Best Press (I love that stuff), and a real cute little decoration for Halloween. I think the DQ photographer forgot that someone already put that in a display around the house. You'll have to trust me, it was just cute. Thanks so much, Pat, for the generous giveaway!

Speaking of giveaways. . .This marks blog number 96, only 4 more until my 100th blog-i-versary. So, keep checking back in and I'd best get sewing on my little giftie that I am going to giveaway!

The big TA-DAH

I finally sent buddy's quilt I made him months ago to the quilter (actually I also sent in his cowboy quilt, too). I was delighted when I had a package in the mail last week, both finished quilts. So, I have been busy binding. Here is the first quilt finished and moments later in use!

Polka Dots and Rick Rack Swap Partner revealed

I signed up for Sharon's Polka Dots and Rick Swap. For this swap you had to make (sew or craft) something with polka dots and rick rack. The deadline isn't until Nov. 15th, but I have so much sewing left to do before Christmas I decided to get it out a bit early. My partner was Barbie Jo from Life With Cleo and Me. She is just the sweetest person! Those of you who aren't familiar with Barbie Jo should know that she designs patterns for quilt, needlepunch, stitchery, and rugs. I was a BIT nervous sewing for her, as I am sure she is quite the expert! At first, I thought perhaps Sharon had cracked her head when she assigned my partner. Didn't she read the fine print at the top of my header, it says BEGINNING QUILTER. LOL, I just put that worry aside and got to sewing. (Actually, I called my mother and she said to quit being so much of a worry-wart as she always likes what I sew.)

I was really pleased with the purse I made. It was my first time using this pattern, Manhattan Handbag by Pink Sand Beach Designs. By the way, it is a great pattern and makes a nice big purse. The directions are easy to follow. I looked and looked for some cute polka dot stuff to go with it, but I had a hard time. I did find some adorable thank you notes with polka dot envelopes.

I ended up making the EASIEST, CUTEST, MOST DARLING-ever tissue cover with some of the purse scraps and a really fast and fun checkbook cover using both of the tutorials I just linked. Let me tell you, I LOVED both these little gifty projects and will be doing more of them in the future. Many thanks to Amanda Jean and Craftapalooza for the tutorials. I love tutorials.

All joking aside, a special thanks to Sharon, for organizing the swap. I know it is a lot of work and I really enjoyed it!

And, that is why they're MODA

Fellow quilters, I know often you seem me sewing a project with Moda material. I love Moda. I would describe myself as obsessed with Moda and I feel they are always a leader in the quilting world. I recently had emailed Moda about a problem I had with a product of theirs. I think I will keep that part of the story to myself as I do not want to create any kind of bad PR for Moda (that is not the point of this entry, but instead to share their response to my email). I cannot say enough about how great their customer service is. They were kind, concerned, and willing to go above and beyond to prove their commitment to their product.

These are some of the replacement goodies they sent me. It was very generous and to me resolved the situation above and BEYOND what I expected it to be.

Hmmm, I wonder what I should do with all of this yummy-Moda-ess? Has anyone done anything particularly cool with jolly patches? I have never done anything with those.

Go buy some Moda today....

Oh, and here is mom's quilt (from our day of quilting).


She just got her binding on (isn't it cool) now that it is back from the quilter's. We just had a lovely visit with them. I hope you all are having the BEAUTIFUL fall we are. Look at these shots from buddy's games this weekend and last. Isn't it gorgeous? We stayed and played in the park following the game, it was so lovely.


Finally, head on over to Pigtails and Snails where Elizabeth is hosting her first giveaway. I just adore the quilt. . .so maybe on second thought, don't hurry so much...I'd like to win! Here is a picture of her wonderful handy work. If you fall in love with it, she is going to be publishing the design very soon to buy.

The new DQ look. . .

Those of you who have been checking in on me this morning may have noticed I have been messing around with my page design...A LOT. I think this is the 4th look it has had this morning. I thank Annie for already convincing to change the page from that busyiness that I had prior to this look.


Do you like my new page design? Is it hard to read? Are there any font colors that need changed? Does it layout on your computer correctly. . .I have no idea what I am doing and I messed with the size for about an hour to stretch on our widescreen computer monitor. I wonder how it shows up on smaller monitors. Please give me some feed back. My layout came courtesy of Allie Brown's Layouts. Thanks Allie.

Please hang in there while I make some adjustments. I was just bored with the other page.

I thought this was cute

You Are a Cherry Flavored Popsicle

You are sweet and friendly. For you, summer is all about doing your favorite things. You are a nostalgic person. You love old fashioned things like ice cream trucks. You savor everything. Every taste of summer, the feeling of the sun, the smell of the beach... Of all the types, you love summer the most.

What Flavor Popsicle Are You?

Look what arrived at my door and some more

What a week! First off, ladies, I won a giveaway at fabric and pattern designer Heather Mulder's blog (Anka's Treasures). I was so excited I had to call husband right away. For a year now I have been a blogger and this is my first time winning a giveaway. It was just delightful! I won this great pattern called Double Takes II (layer cake friendly), which arrived this week. A big special thanks to Heather!

It makes a nice big quilt (77 inch square). If you haven't been to Heather's blog, you should. It is just great. She often displays different color ways of her patterns and helpful tips. Also, she has giveaways all the time because she is just a generous person. In fact, last I checked the giveaway for a quilt pattern and kit is still open. You best just hop on over there!

Then the Fat Quarter Shop missed my business, so they sent me a coupon. How can I pass that up? So, I ordered material to go with my new pattern I just received, of course! I decided to make it in Woodland Bloom. Oh man, we are going to have girly girl in the house....finally. When I said this to husband, he said. . .everything around here has flowers on it and I retorted, but this is PINK!

I also ordered a Fig and Plum jelly roll (you know I am Fig Tree addict) and some of that Lakehouse cupcake print (which is just DANG cute, if I don't say).



Then I get an email from my local quilt shop that it is their first year anniversary sale (which btw, is the only reason that I haven't been spending all my money at FQS because I am trying to support my local, driveable shop). And guess what, they want to give me 20% my entire order. So, buddy and I head over there tonight where I picked up a cupcake bag pattern, fats for that, Amy Butler fabrics for a bag, charms for some yardage I already have so I can make bags for B's teachers, and another charm and yardage of Cotton Blossom so I can make a different colorway of the quilt I just made. Whewwwww.....that was a mouthful, I apologize for the run on sentence!!! We then went to McDonald's so Buddy could have some fun running around seeing that it is a drizzly day here.



I think I am shopped out and I better start sewing more. Sorry the pictures are so dark, of course, it is night time by the time I have a chance to blog. I see some you also were enjoying all of those Fall Giveaways. . .wasn't that a blast? What a great idea. I hadn't heard anything about it until checking in with one of my normal blog reads.

What projects have you been up to lately?

PS- 10 more posts until it is GIVEAWAY time. Stay tuned.