"Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet," and the winner is....

I promised that I would draw a winner today.  I had 26 comments.  I plugged in the number 1 and 26 in a RNG and got 3.

I counted down to comment #3 and the winner is....

Celtic ThistleMay 4, 2013 at 8:11 AM

My favourite sweet is Cola Cubes but it has been years since I had them. A quarter of Cola Cubes in a paper bag was childhood heaven :)

Congratulations Fiona!  Scraps and I will post your prize directly.

Something New!

August 2013 issue #123

I'm not totally surprised that it has happened...but it is interesting that it happened this way.

The layout of page # 88


My Nanny always thought I would be published some day...
 

but I bet she never would have dreamed it would be this way.  (She knew I hate to sew!)

Supplies for my own block of the month pattern - coming soon!

However, it has allowed me to work on my own design projects.  Look for a block of the month pattern featuring these fabrics in the next few months.
 

Blogger's Quilt Festival - May 2013

Once upon a time there was a little boy whose eyes were the color of the Santa Fe sky in February and whose hair was downy soft and golden. 

He was a very serious little fellow...and thought an awful lot about all sorts of things.

And his very first word was "ball".  He loved balls - big balls, small balls, soccer balls, foot balls.  Anything round was a ball - the peas on his plate and the big silver moon in the sky - all balls.

Noah worshiping at the alter of "ball"

Now that he is big his "turrets word" is "balls".  LOL

Unfortunately his body and his true love weren't always in sync....he spent a lot of time on the injured list....but sitting on the sidelines gave him a different perspective.  He discovered that there is a very special job called "athletic trainer" that takes care of the people who chase balls.

Trainers get to be in the middle of the action, without wearing a target on their jersey.

My golden haired boy is now a 20 year old student in training to become an athletic trainer.  Last fall he asked me if I would make a special quilt for his coach - to raise money for other students who want to become athletic trainers.

My entry for this seasons festival is that quilt.  It is an original design.  The appliqued image in the middle is the cattle brand for the Everett Blackburn Rockin' Rodeo.  It is quilted in Kim Diamond's Ropers pattern.

I haven't heard yet how much money was raised with this quilt....but I heard that the coach in charge said that the quilt is "Bad ass!"  I think that means he liked it.

 To return to the festival click here.

"To market to market to by a fat hog...."

This fellow was hanging from the rafters at QuikTrip Park....home of the AirHogs and host to the tournament.

While much of blog land is excited and packing up to go to spring market in Portland, Oregon, I've been cheering on the home team.

 

It started last Friday when my son's team drove into town for the NJCAA Regional tournament.  (Town is being used roughly here to mean within driving distance of home.)  All semester he has been about 6 hours away in Big Spring Texas - out west where there is nothing but big sky and tumble weeds.  The team has been playing away games all over the southwest...but never close enough to go cheer them on....until Saturday!!

The team wasn't expected to win.  They were the last seed in the tournament.  Their first game started at 8:30 pm on Saturday night.
 

By midnight they had soundly beat their first opponent....and I was soundly beat as well!  (How do these kids do it?!)  The next game was Sunday evening at 8:00 pm.
 

The Mother's Day pink jerseys must have been the right choice...they won again!  Next game Monday evening at 5:00.  
 

At this point I was so tired that I was doing good to take a picture at all.  Monday night the Howard Hawks lost in the last play of the last inning.  It was a great game.  They moved into the Loser's Bracket with at least one more game to play but a possibility  of 3.  Next game - Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 pm.
 

I go to the games to support my son.  I don't particularly like baseball.  Noah doesn't even play - he is the team trainer.  I love Noah, so I go.  The games were particularly hard because with each win he was that much closer to having to travel with the team for another two weeks.  That would be a great experience for him...and them...but really I just wanted my boy home again.  As my second son put it, "Noah is the sparkle in our family.  I want them to loose so he can come home."

Four games into the tournament, when they hadn't expected to play at all, they were finally bettered in the field.  I have to say I was impressed by this band of brothers.  They did well.

Now my boy is "home again, home again, jiggity jog!"

I will now return to my regularly scheduled quilty programing.

Give Thanks

Yesterday I posted about my Techno-fail Sunday.  I up played the fact that things were breaking all around me.  What I should have been doing was thanking God for the ability to fix those things in short order.

How quickly I forget that it is all Him and not me.

It is nothing new.  I have often felt ashamed of the good things God has given me and down played them.  I've been ashamed of good grades and handsome sons; relative wealth; even good health when those around me are sick.  So I frequently don't mention my successes.

This article changed that.  It is by Dale Hansen, a local sports caster who feels that it is inappropriate for a player to thank God after a victory.   In his words....

But I don't like it - don't like it at all - when any athlete in pro, college, or high school, points to the sky while celebrating whatever game or play they made.

It does seem to me that they're giving thanks for the winning, which would then have to mean God really didn't like the guys on that other team.  And why didn't he help them?

Even I'm not arrogant enough to think that I'm the chosen one...and many of you think I'm the most arrogant guy you know.

I've never believed that a God would care about who wins or loses a game, and I seriously doubt that He would be wasting his time on that....
 

By extension it would then be wrong to give thanks for anything.  Wrong to give thanks that I was able to replace my broken sewing machine with a new one.  Wrong to give thanks that I was able to replace my broken I-pad with a new one.  Wrong to give thanks that we didn't have a wreck because of the nail in my tire. 

I don't think Mr. Hansen gets it, but I do and I need to act like it.

I give thanks not because I am better - it isn't arrogance that makes me nod to heaven when something good happens.  It is humility.

I know that I do not deserve the things that I have any more than anyone else.   There is nothing that special about me...not more so than any of you.  I know that, so I give thanks.

I know that I do have a loving father in heaven that has plans to prosper me.  His plans are for my good...even when life doesn't look that way...which it often does not.  When it does look good don't I have all the more reason to give thanks?!

I know that God desires my praise.  Glory belongs to my God, not to me.  So I give thanks.  I should do it more often and more freely....even if it does get me kicked out of the big game.

Thanks Mr. Hansen for reminding me.

Techno-fail Sunday

I woke up to this...
 

 



Evidently someone felt compelled to use my charger to charge their phone and left my toy sitting on the kitchen counter.  Let's just say the cats epically failed when they tried to go surfing in the middle of the night.

My sweetheart took me straight to Best Buy after church so he could fix the problem.  Now I have two I-Pads...sort of...if you don't mind glass splinters in your fingers when you use one of them.  I think we will probably get it fixed at some point so we can share the i-Love.

When we returned to my car we noticed a nail in the tire.  Really.  It has been that kind of day.  Went straight to the tire place to get it fixed and had a nice lunch out while we waited.

5 projects to be made by June

In other news...I was working on my fancy scrappy pillow case a few days ago.  (You read about it in my last post. LOL it photo bomb my picture up above.) My sewing machine kept screeching at me.  Not a good sound under normal circumstances, especially a bad sound when you have 5 quilts to make in the next month.
 

I've never had a proper cover before

My husband had some funds leftover from a recent bonus at work and decided to spoil me with it.  (That was before the IPad fiasco.)  Add the bonus to a trade in and some artful bartering and this fella came home with us.
 

My new machine

I haven't used it much...I got to use it a little yesterday.  I'll let you know how it goes.

I hope the day is sunny and quiet where you are!!

It feels like October

I know the calender says May 4...but have you looked outside lately?  In much of the world the weather is unseasonable.

Picture shamelessly stolen from Flossieblossoms on Facebook

They had snow in Arkansas this week.  Even my home town, which is well past traditional spring and working on early summer, has had days in the 40s.  Granted that isn't very cold, but it never really gets cold here.  May means snow cones, shorts, and flip flops....not socks and jackets.

It is almost as if we have all been caught in a crazy time warp and landed in October.  Which is only fitting as today my newest pattern, Wobbly Web, is being featured on Moda Bake Shop.
 

 

Wobbly Web features The Boo Crew by Sweetwater for Moda

 

My pal Scraps thinks it is about time that we appreciated monsterly things in a sunny season.  He loves this quilt....even if it does have some googly eyed spiders on it.

 



 

If you have just come from the bake shop then you know that I promised a pattern for the left over layer cake slices.  Funny story that.....I just finished making the quilt on Monday....ya, 4 days ago.  I haven't had much time to think about what to make out of those extra pieces. 

 

I'm sitting at my computer, munching on candy (at 9:00 am - shh don't tell my mother....or my kids) 

They're like a mouth full of rainbows!

  

which, oddly enough, is a November kind of thing to do. (What, you never had Halloween candy for breakfast in November?!)  and thinking about this dilemma.

 

I had been contemplating a scrappy pillow case to go with the quilt.  The quilt turned out fairly large and would work well on a bed if you didn't need a pillow tuck.  A scrappy pillow would be just the thing.   

 

 

Scraps is really getting into this modeling gig

However, I'm not going to write a set of directions to make something that there are already a million sets of directions for.  I am going to remind you (those that are looking for a pattern for layer cake slices) that if you sew a bunch of slices together....say 15 of them in a 3 x 5 grid...you will have a big piece of scrappy fabric. (If you use 1/4" seams the piece will measure 29 x 48)  You can trim that down and use it for the larger piece of fabric in this pattern...which is what I did. 

For added slumber party/pillow fight durability I ironed all seams allowance to one side and top stitched them.

 

Scraps thinks this is a great place to take a nap.

Now...that I am just a bit buzzed on sugar....I think it is time for a give away.  I have a bunch of layer cake slices left, + a yard of the lovely black texty fabric that I used for the web, + I think you need a bag of Jolly Rancher Bites too. 

 

 

Scraps loves this package...and wants to remind you that he is NOT a part of the prize.  He is a one girl sort of monster.  (Lucky me!)

 

 

Leave a comment.   Tell me about your favorite confection or Halloween memory. I will draw a random winner on May 31 (That would be the closest I can get to Halloween)

 

 

Good stuff

Just had to share the good things happening in my corner of the world...
 

S'more Love by Eric & Julie Comstock

I've decided to do a quilt-a-long on this blog.  Yep.  S'more Rows is going to be happening right here at Tops to Treasures.blogspot.   I'm lining up prizes and working on a sample.  Look for it  begin next Fall...with updates on the sample between now and then.
 

Coco & Scraps are sharing secrets!  Stop by tomorrow for their exciting news.  I'll give you a hint.....BOO!...that is as scary as a fluffy monster and a white cat can get.

AND

 

I'm going on a date tonight.  I can't tell you the last time that happened.  It's been far too long.  My beloved and I are going out to see Andrew Peterson in concert.  I hope you enjoyed the sample.   
 

I made it!

I am now looking at April 2013 in my rear view mirror.  (Thank You Jesus!!)

That has to be the longest 30 days I have ever lived through...and truthfully if that is as difficult as it gets than I am doing very well.
 

This month I turned 50.

 

Quilted 10 customer quilts

 

Participated in 2 swaps

 

 

 

And got to participate in some awesome Moda Bake Shop stuff.

 

 

There are some exciting things on my horizon - can't wait to share them with you.  Stay tuned!!