Fat Quarter Idol Round 2: Meet Me at the Picnic

I hope you're taking your shot at the Fat Quarter Idol contest. Here's mine for week 2. The theme is "Meet me at the picnic." It sure is hard to pick and choose with all the great fabrics but here is what I'm entering...

And entry #2 - I chose a warmer palette and it reminds me of lemonade on a warm (possibly hot), sunny day.

Fat Quarter Idol Round 1 - I'm a finalist!

Wow! I can't believe I'm actually one of the top 10 finalists in the Fat Quarter Idol contest!!

I'm not asking you to vote for me (unless you truly like mine), but I do hope you go cast your vote for your favorite. Don't forget, Round 2 has started and the theme is "Meet Me at the Picnic." It's so much fun!

Win an Aurifil Thread Color Chart!

Hiya folks! I am so excited, because today I'm having a giveaway for an Aurifil Thread Chart! It has 252 colors of real thread displayed. Wouldn't you like to win one? I sure wish I had one...

Shopping for thread and fabric online is not as accurate as it is convenient. Every monitor shows color differently, making fabric and thread shopping a hit or a miss when trying to match colors. I'm very grateful to Jean from Pumpkinvine Corner for graciously providing this prize for me to give to one of you. Her store carries all sorts of goodies from patterns, and notions to decorative wire hangers...and of course, a goldmine of Aurifil threads. By goldmine, I mean a huge selection of colors, weights and spool sizes. Unfortunately, I do not have a local quilt shop. If you happen to have the same misfortune, you know how hard it is to find a good selection AND a great price on the supplies you need for your sewing projects. I was super impressed with Jean's selection of Aurifil. She even sells the LARGE cones! Very few online stores sell the 6,452 yard 50 wt. cones and the 5,140 yard 40 wt. cones. Just check out Pumpkinvine Corner's selection of Aurifil threads from the links below and you'll see what I mean. Oh, and Jean will even special order Aurifil cones if you can't find the color you want. Super cool huh? One last thing...orders over $50 qualify for 1/2 price shipping and orders over $99 ship for free!

50 wt Cones (on orange spindle) - 50 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 6452 yards
50 wt Large Spools (on orange spool) - 50 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 1422 yards
50 wt Mini Spools (on orange spool) - 50 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 220 yards
40 wt Cones (on green spindle) - 40 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 5140 yards
40 wt Large Spools (on green spool) - 40 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 1094 yards
40 wt Mini Spools (on green spool) - 40 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 164 yards
12 wt Mini Spools (on Red spools) - 12 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: 54 yards
Large Bobbin Spools (on white spool)- 60 wt. Aurifil 100% Cotton: Bobbin Thread: 1531 yards

Aurifil Color Card - Aurifil "Real Thread" Thread Chart

I'll bet you must be wondering how you can win this Aurifil Thread Chart, huh? 

Required Entry: 

1. Become a follower of my blog, either by Google Friend Connect and/or by subscribing to the RSS feed--links are on the top of my sidebar. (I do check to make sure, and if you aren't, then I have to pick another winner it's just not fair to those who follow the rules.)

Optional entries:

2. Tweet, Blog, or Facebook this giveaway. If you do, leave a comment with the link, so I can check it out. (You can one or all of these, just make sure to leave links for each method in separate comments.)
Tweet

3. Visit Pumpkinvine Corner, have a look around and then come back and tell me something you found there that interests you--besides Aurifil threads. For example: I just noticed she carries those John James Pebbles that some bloggers are giving away recently in the Colonial Needle Blog Hop!

4. Leave a comment on any non-giveaway post. I always enjoy hearing your thoughts and opinions.

5. Come up with a new creative name for your favorite color of Aurifil thread. Just tell me the number of the thread and the new name you want to give it. If you need to see all the thread colors just go to Alex's Thread Gallery. Example: One of my favorites is #4658 and I would call it Orange Dreamsicle.

6. You can tell Jean "Thank you" in the comments for her generosity and providing this great prize!

There ya go! You have up to 6 chances to enter. I will choose a winner randomly on May 1st and announce it here on the blog. International entries are welcome. 

We Have A Warm & Natural WINNER!

Many thanks to all of you who entered! I hope you stay tuned. I'll be having more giveaways and the next giveaway comes courtesy of Sullivan's Cutting Edge Rulers. I can't wait for that one! Without further adieu...

Are you the next Fat Quarter Idol?

In case you haven't heard, Sew, Mama, Sew! is having a contest. I think the contest name--"Fat Quarter Idol"-- is quite clever!  Just pick out 12 fabrics that you believe would make the best bundle from the shop. They even have a theme to inspire you. Check out the rules and contest here! And here is my entry:

Giveaway: Warm & Natural batting Queen size! (Closed)

I've been holding out on this giveaway for a while--not that I wanted to. I just didn't want to do a giveaway until I could get my comments numbered on blogger! Less work for me when trying to figure out who wins! I finally figured it all out and now I can start doing my giveaways! I have had a couple of wonderful companies willing to provide stuff for me to review and for you to WIN! You'll have to stick around to see about those...

My sincerest thanks goes to the wonderful folks at Warm Company who provided me with batting to review and this great prize to give to you! This batting is absolutely wonderful, and I mean top-notch! Not ALL battings are created equal. I'm sure many of you more experienced quilters know this by now, but not long ago, I didn't think it really mattered because it was just filling, right? Um, wrong! It can totally make or break your quilt, not to mention frustrate you. The Warm & Natural batting is needle punched which means the fibers are held together nicely (without glues or other substances) and they aren't coming apart! If you've ever seen needle felting, it's kind of the same principle. It's like the needle interlocks neighboring fibers together. This process creates a strong batting material, not like that nasty loose polyfill. You won't experience any bearding, shedding, or just all-around "unpleasantness" with this batting. It's almost like a blanket straight out of the package. It's lightweight and oh, so soft! I had no idea how soft battings could be until now. I just wanted to cuddle it, pet it and whisper "my precious..." When it comes to batting, I have learned my lesson: Don't go cheap, go with quality--and if you ask me their battings are just as affordable as they are wonderful! Quality doesn't necessarily mean paying top dollar.

Let the GIVEAWAY begin! (This giveaway is open to everyone. I will ship internationally.) 

PRIZE: One winner will receive this Warm & Natural Queen Size Batting. 

To be entered to win:

Required Entry: Follow this blog via Google Friend Connect and/or Subscribe to RSS (both are at the very top of the sidebar on the right side for easy access.) Leave a comment on this post saying you did.

Optional Entries: 

1. Comment on one other post on this blog (besides this post) Come back and leave a comment saying you did.

2. Tweet about this giveaway using this button and come back and comment with the link. Tweet

3. Blog about this giveaway and come back and leave a comment with the link to your post. (I love checking out new blogs!)

4. Like Warm Company on Facebook They only have 51 likes. I'd love to help get their fan count up a bit. because they are awesome! 

5. Tell me what kind of batting you use or what your favorite batting is for your quilts.

6. Tell me how long you've been quilting. 

*That's it! You'll have up to 7 chances to win. Just make sure you aren't a No-reply or anonymous so I can contact you, or I'll have to pick someone else. I'll pick a winner randomly on April 17th.