Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

I love Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. It is so much fun to visit new blogs! It is a great way to make new friends and also a chance to win great giveaways. I keep thinking I will blog more but I am so busy reading other folk's blogs that I forget to post on my own. This week though has been a posting fest for me! So look around and see the little things I have been doing!

 I finally decide what my giveaway would be this spring...a Moda Scrap Bag! Never seen one? They are great. Here is the description from Moda:

These bags contain the leftovers from Modas production of layer cakes. Near the print plant, they were being discarded, until Moda swooped in and came up with a great way to save a scrap!
Each bag contains 1/2 pound or more of fabric in strips that vary from 2 to 4 in width. Each piece is 32 long. Each bag includes ONE beautifully color coordinated Fabric collection. Who Can resist

All fabric is 100% cotton

All you need to do to win is leave me a comment about what you will use these strips for.  I have had so much fun with the ones I have had, it will be interesting to see how others will use them!!!! If you want an extra chance, you can friend me or if you already are, tell me so in a second post.  I will ship internationally.

Don't forget to check out all the other great giveaways  from Sew Mama Sew. The giveaways start on Monday May 6th  and end on Friday May10th. Come on and join the fun!!!!

I will end my giveaway Friday night May 10th at 8 PM and randomly draw a winner at 9 PM. I will notify the winner by email so be sure that I have a way to reach you!

My son's trip to Russia

Would you believe 3 posts in one day? From me, the person who always means to blog but somehow never quite does it regularly! But I had to add another post when I saw this headline....MSU historian awarded Fulbright Fellowship to Russia!!!! I, of course, knew about the fellowship but it wonderful seeing this in print!

My son Chris(OK, he goes by Stephen now but he will always be Chris to me!!!)

Here is the link to the article about his Fulbright and all it entails:

Fulbright Fellowship to Russia  I am so proud of him. He has worked hard to be where he is and so deserves this honor.

Easter with the Grandkids

I am going to set a record for me and post again! Right after I finished my grandson's storage buckets, it was time to start work on Easter Baskets. For these I used Noodlehead's divided basket pattern. These were so much fun to make. I used glittery Easter fabric for both baskets, but lined my granddaughter's in pink & white fabric and my grandson's in bright orange. I filled both with all kinds of cute little Easter toys(and I snuck in a little bit of candy, too!) They had no problems telling who's was whose...Teddy in his cute little 3 year old voice told me his was orange....NOT pink!

Here they are with all the eggs they found at the Easter Egg Hunt at the University where their father teaches.

Maddie discovering eggs in her own front yard!

Look! I found a bright blue egg!

I had fun making the baskets and the kids had fun filling them! The baskets are quite sturdy and can be used for lots of fun things!

Happy Birthday Teddy!

Well, like usual it has been forever since I have posted! I have good intentions but you know what good intentions get you! Anyway, I was busy the middle of March making some wonderful round bottomed storage buckets for my grandson's birthday. I found the tutorial on Film In The Fridge by Ashley. I had so much fun making them but of course, I failed to take photos. Actually this was probably a good thing since I had my daughter-in-law take some for me so I have pix of Teddy with his buckets. His Mom says he loves filling and emptying them. Glad to hear he likes filling them and hope he keeps on doing it!

Here are all 5 of them lined up.

Here is Teddy selecting a toy.

I was really lucky finding some great "little boy" fabric! All primary colors with dinosaurs and space ships! Who could ask for more?

I'm a winner and some cute little pouches!

I'm finally writing about the wonderful charm pack that I won from Terry at Quilting with Terry and the Cats from the In Your Words Blog Hop. It had 40 charms of small floral prints. At first I wasn't sure what I would do with them but then I found this great tutorial from Terabyte Farm for boxed pouches! Once I started I could not quit making them! Thanks to Terry I had loads of charms to use!!! Here are some of the ones I made. I still have one more cut out and several charms still left after that. What fun!

I love how this one turned out! And the cute little pull from Zipit on Etsy was just the right added touch.

Here is a view of the bottom of the pouch.

Here is a very bright elongated pouch.

A view from the end. I love blue and green!

A navy and red creation!

Another bottom view.

I do want to add that if anyone needs zippers of any kind, length or color this is the place to check out!!! Zip it on Etsy I have been going to her store since she first opened. She also has the cutest zipper pulls you could ever want to add a little "zip" to your clutches, pouches and purses...Sorry for the bad pun!

Great Fabric find and I mean great!!!!!!!

Good thing I never claimed to be a great blogger! I really meant to post several weeks ago about my great fabric find but as per usual for me, I procrastinated!!!!! My roommate called me a couple Fridays ago to tell me there was a fabric sale going on in the Mennonite section of town. He didn't know how much anything was and could only tell me there were tables of fabric filled with rolls of it. I told him they were actually called bolts and that I really didn't need anymore fabric. Did that stop me from driving over there? Heck no! At first I didn't think there was too much to my liking since a lot of the fabric was geared to Mennonite dresses, etc but then I looked closer and found several pieces that "spoke to me"! The fabric was from liquidation sales and each bolt seemed to be marked down to quite reasonable prices. Then I spied the prices on the tables...everything was marked down by 30% to 75% more! I picked out several "foody" pieces, a red checked daisy piece and an "almost ticking" piece. Along with that I bought 2 yards each  of 5  solids.  I ended up with 20 yards of fabric(yes, I know I said I didn't need more fabric) that cost me an exorbitant $17.83! Yep, you read that correctly! 20 yards of fabric for under a dollar a yard. The "almost ticking" piece is 60 inches wide and I got 4+ yards of it at 62 cents a yard!!!!. I have already made a cute little bag with it and I figure it will make a great quilt backing.

Here is the complete purchase.

These are the prints I bought. 4 yards plus of the striped fabric and 2 yards each of the other prints.

These are the solids I bought. Not great color on the pinks. The one on the far left is a soft pink, the one on the right is a rose color and the piece on the far right is a lavender.

 Can you believe what a great buy I found? So much fun and less than $20!!!!!!

Have you heard that Mrs. Pickles is having a Quilting Secrets blog hop ?

Starting Monday December 31st, Mrs. Pickles is having a Quilting Secrets blog hop. She has 6 wonderfully talented quilters joining her  in sharing a few of their Quilting Secrets! She has also arranged to have some spectacular prizes, too! So be sure to drop by on Monday for the fun!