And the winners are...

I am telling you what! Even though my trip was only a single overnighter a couple hours away it has thrown off my whole week. I had a million things to do today and only got half a million of them done. One thing NOT on my list was forgetting to pick my 7th grader up from school. He has a short day on Friday which is normally not a problem. But today, because I had been gone the last two days and not done carpool, I forgot it was Friday. So there I was having lunch with a friend (it was business people! She's sample sewing for me :)  when I realize my phone was buzzing. I answer a moment too late and notice 3 missed calls and several texts from my husband. Lunch cut short and I drove home as quick as I could to get him. UGH! He was fine but I felt horrible. Still do. Worst Mom of the Week award goes to me today.

 

Now that I've confessed my goof up today let's get on to bigger and better things!!!

 

I've divided up the goodies into 7 bundles. Then I went through and as-randomly-as-I-could picked some winners. But here's the problem peeps- TONS of you (and I really do mean tons!) aren't even followers. So sadly, I had to pass on your name as a winner and pick someone else. FINALLY I found 7 followers and now you will be rewarded with some goodies!

 

The Hall of Fame FQ bundle and 

a cone of Signature cotton thread goes to-

BGreene

 

2 patterns from Fishsticks:

The Everyday Camp Shirt and

The Inside or Out Pocket Pants go to-

Paulette

 

A pack of Steam A Seam 2 sheets and

2 patterns by For the Love go to-

Sue

 

A signed copy of my Geared for Guys book goes to-

Barbara

 

The ModKid pillow trio pattern and

a lovely charm pack of Bella by Lotta Jansdotter goes to-

 Johanna

 

The Jack and Jill hat pattern by Izzy and Ivy and

the Kitschy Corset Apron pattern by Brassy Apple go to-

Candice

 

And the Drunkard's Path ruler by Creative Grids

along with a back of 50 Flower pins goes to-

Ann

 

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for being such wonderful followers.

(You will recieve an email from me shortly)

 

In other EXCITING news- tomorrow I am kicking off the Geared for Guys REMIX blog tour.

 

Come back here tomorrow for more information and look for this button on your favorite blog!

SURPRISE!!!

Thank you all for the kind Birthday wishes. I had a FABULOUS birthday!

My Girlfriend's Quilt shop is amazing. And the staff there is to sweet. The trunk show and class went smoothly and then we spent the rest of the day and yesterday slowly making our way home stopping at every quilt shop we could.  :o)

 

But I promised a surprise party today and here it is:

 

 

I have all kinds of goodies to give you. I'll let you look at the picture and drool for a bit. I have tons of errands to do and deliveries to make so I'll be back this evening with a list of the winners and what they will be recieving. So if you haven't commented yet- you have a couple more hours!!!  :o)



This post is brought to you by the number-

 

 

 

 

Yes folks, today is my BIRTHDAY!  Can you guess how old I am?  :o)

I was going to put 35 pictures of the number 35 but I figured that would be a little much.

 

I decided I'm going to throw a SURPRISE PARTY in honor of my birthday.

Leave a comment (make sure you're a follower!) and on Friday I'll randomly pick several followers to receive a surprise gift from ME!

 

Now go on eat some cake, or some ice cream, or both and celebrate with me!

Update

So obviously I've worked on the blog a little. Here we are into week two of school and I feel like I'm settling into a routine. I even started working out in the mornings! I shouldn't have said anything- I might jinx it.  :o)

Anyhow, I just wanted to give you a little heads up on a couple things here. I've added a couple new pages just below the header: Pattern Corrections and Events.

Here's the deal- no matter how hard I try to be perfect (sometimes a lot, other time not so much- depends on the day :o)  I often fall short. Listed here are some minor and some major corrections to a couple patterns in my Geared for Guys book. PLEASE take a look so you don't get stuck.

As for events, I thought it would be fun to let you all know when and where I might be teaching and what-not in case you're in the area and want to come hang out. Tomorrow I'll be celebrating at-

In Logan, UT doing a trunk show and a workshop on Improv Piecing.

 

Take a peek at the Events page to see other places I'm teaching and click on the links for info. on how to sign up.

 

Ok, so I know this was a boring post.

 I've got to get my rear in gear and pack up these quilts to show tomorrow while I still have peace and quiet in the house. The countdown til school gets out begins....

 

NOW!

1 Week down!

Well the kids started school this week and we've all made it to Friday. It's been a really good week overall. The kids like their new teachers. My 7th grader "Loves" Jr. High but hates P.E. (he's the Gamer in the family and not used to so much activity). My 5th grader is pulling together his recess basketball team. And my 2nd grader happened to get the same class as her 1st grade crush and they sit in the same group - FACING each other! The hubs isn't taking it so well.  :o)

 

I, on the other hand, have reached levels of productivity that I haven't reached all summer.

 

 

I've been playing with a little 'Candy'. This one is Simply Color by V and Co. LOVE!!!

 

 

I've also been playing with some Cotton Couture from Michael Miller Fabrics . These little guys came from the color card that I had (and incidentally took apart :o) 

 

I also managed to finished up a couple months of Bees Knees blocks.

 

And check out the Sewing Summit blog today where their 4 Favorites 4 Friday is featuring: ME!

 

Lastly- for all those that have ordered patterns either from my Etsy shop or wholesale - half of the orders that were placed while I was on vacations were shipped yesterday and the rest are going out today. And now I'm all caught up!

 

Better run- I'm already late for my hair appt.

how CRAZY are you!?

Several markets ago I had shirts printed with 'Crazy Old Ladies' on them. I never thought they would make such an impression but I get asked for them all the time.

One of the things I did for the retreat at Around the Block in Canada was have some of the shirts made.

Everyone got a plain white t-shirt and then made it their own. Some dyed them (like Lyle, Fay, and Erin), others drew, painted, colored, even appliqued on their shirts.

A couple of my favorites were Deb and Linda's tie-dyes!

 

I've decided to list the extra ones that I have in my ETSY SHOP.

They're all white with 'Crazy Old Ladies' printed in black. Perfect to wear just how they are or ready to be 'fancied' up any way you want.

I only have 8 left,so if you want one- you better hurry!

(who knows? if I have a good enough response maybe I'll print more  :o)

Freebie for YOU

The kind folks over at Universal Magazines have asked me to offer up a freebie to all of my followers.

If you don't know who that is, they're the parent company of several magazines in Autralia including my favorite :

 

They are offering a FREE digital download of one of their mags and you get to choose from 11 different titles. Just click on the link below and you'll be directed to their site.

I, for one, am super excited about this because I LOVE Australian Homespun and can rarely find it in the states. I usually end up ordering online and paying the shipping. This time it only took me a couple of seconds and it's already in my inbox!

Have fun reading!

P.S.- I'm going to be doing some minor site maintenance over the next week or so so look for exciting changes and more information at your fingertips!

There's no place like Home!

We finally pulled into the drive of our little home sweet home yesterday evening. Although it's wonderful to be home after a long trip my mind was flooding with all the thing I have to catch up on.
Number one is this poor little blog. I hadn't anticipated taking a break from blogging this summer but as I look back at my posts that's pretty much what it looks like I did. But the kids are going back to school (Monday!) and I'm getting back to work. So let's play catch up and get back on track.

Almost a month ago I posted THIS and promptly forgot to choose a winner. So why don't I do that now!?

Thanks for playing along! If you didn't win check out Konda's Blog for details on how you can purchase your own book.

Another thing I said I would do is post in Instagram (@crazyoldladies) while I was gone. Of course I forgot to think about that fact that I would be out of the country and maybe not have cell service. Duh! Anyway, here are a few pics I would've posted had I been able to do so.

Lyle, Fay, ME and Erin

Me and the 'Crazy Old Ladies' :o)

Mmmmm....Saskatoon berry bars. YUM!!!

Believe me- when you're in Beaverlodge you have to have your picture taken by the giant beaver.

The hubs driving an old tractor (30's I think) Makes me think of when Mater goes tractor tipping. :o)

Some of the most GORGEOUS countryside I've ever seen.

I better go do some laundry. After that- more laundry.  Don't worry, I'll be back soon.  :o)

Greetings from CANADA!

I really had planned on posting a few times while I was here in Beaverlodge, but I get so busy in the classes or site seeing that this is the first I've sat down at the computer.

Canada is BEAUTIFUL and the classes have been SO FUN!

Here are a couple pics from that last few days.

Can you see my pants!?  They belong to Lyle- the man of the shop. :o) We joked about me having something "crazy" to wear on the first day of class. When he brought them out I was praying they'd fit. I think they might accidentally fall into my suitcase. :o)

Here I am with Deb. The shop had the girls decorate their shirts for class and she had the wildest of them all. :o)

Here's a shot of Linda working on her 'Clambake'landscape. She picked several different fabrics and will have a whole scene when she's done. I hope she'll email a pic because I really want to see it finished.

And here I am talking about one of my quilts making a goofy face. Now you can feel like you're here with me because I often make goofy faces. :o)

I only have a few pix right now because I happened to forget my camera cord in Cali. I've taken TONS!

Hope you're having fun and sewing lots. See you soon!

Wrapping up

We're getting ready to leave on a sort-of vacation. We'll go see my parents (vacation) and then the hubs and I are heading north to Beaverlodge Alberta for the Around The Block quilt shop summer retreat. I'll be teaching 'Switchback' from my GEARED FOR GUYS book and 'Clambake'. I am so excited to play with these lovely ladies!

Before we go there's lots to do- including tending to my sad little blog. This summer has been tough so I thank the 3 of you who've remained faithful readers. :o)  How about a little eye candy before I leave?

I've managed to squeeze in a little sewing this summer. This project has been on the TO-DO list for a long time. I used 6" squares from a pack by Dena Designs for FreeSpirit and added a few scraps I had laying around. I just sewed the squares together in simple fashion.

I had some Tuxedo Rufffle from Michael Miller that I used on the seams. I sandwiched everything together- top, batting, and backing (I used minky- my first time!) and pinned. Then I used my walkin foot to stitch down the rufffles and quilt at the same time. It turned out really cute and was SO simple to make.

I also managed to finish piecing and quilt the little beauty I talked about here. 

I started quilting and immediately had second thoughts but by then I was already in too deep. I decided to finish and I'm still not in love with the quilting. But it'll do. I used a varigated thread and quilted in a boxy pattern.

I used Washi Tape by Rashida Coleman Hale for the border. It's perfect!  Now to get it bound. The whole point of this quilt was to do something new-to-me. Overall I'm happy with the results.

I hope to visit with you now and then throughout my trip but if you really want to stay on top of my adventures follow me on Instagram @crazyoldladies  

See you soon!