Wednesday Giveaway!

Keeping things organized when you’re working on a project is so important. But you also need things to be easy to see and pick up. This week’s giveaway (going to Velikova!) does both – Dritz’s Bobbin Boat!

The Bobbin Boat keeps up to 12 average-sized bobbins neat and tidy. In fact, it holds them so securely that I use the point of my scissors to pop them out. I love it! (We also sell these in sets of three, because if one bobbin boat is good, three is that much better!)

I’ll be back with another Giveaway next Wednesday. Until then you can shop for all sorts of sewing notions, books, and other fun stuff at pieceocake.com!

More Show and Tell Chickens!

Joan made more chickens, One for her and two to give friends at her upcoming retreat. Joan, you make excellent chickens!

Here they are & they have names…
Chris’s is a Plymouth Rock, then Foghorn Leghorn, Little Red Hen & BlueJay Wannabe!!

She said that tails were her nemesis, until she thought to put in a wedge and sculpt the tails after they were sewn in. Brilliant!!!!

Click here or on the link below to watch my chicken pincushion tutorial and remember Joan’s tip for the tail feathers :-).

Thank you, Joan, for sharing the tip and your cute chickens!

Wednesday Giveaway goes to Janet!

This week’s lucky winner will receive a Silver Point Guard from Blackwing. The Blackwing Point Guard is crafted out of lightweight, machined aluminum and fits snugly on the end of your Blackwing pencil. The Point Guard goes over the point of your Blackwing pencil, keeping it safe and tidy in your bag or pocket. These guards also fit on the General’s Charcoal Pencil.

Click here to view all of our Blackwing products, including pencils (notice how well the Vol 02 pencils would go with this silver point guard), sharpeners and erasers.

I’ll be back with another Giveaway next Wednesday. Until then you can shop for all sorts of sewing notions, books, and other fun stuff at pieceocake.com!

Show and tell: A Sampling of Santas

Cynthia Helton sent photos of this quilt that her mom, Shirley Ray Hatley Alford, started in 1995. Shirley passed away in July, 2007. Cynthia, thank you for sharing her quilt with us, I know you all must treasure it.

I remember Shirley! She was in my North Pole class at Sharon’s Quilt Depot way back in 1995 when the book, A Sampling of Santas, was new. Shirley was a lovely woman and I have a smile on my face when I remember her.

This is excerpted from the very well-written documentation patch:

Shirley hand appliqued the blocks and machine pieced them together. As her health began to decline due to breast cancer, Shirley invited Corinne Lageose to finish the hand quilting. Carolyn MIller sewed on the outer binding by hand. And Shirley’s daughter, Cynthia Rae Alford Helton sewed on the red berry buttons and other embellishments. This quilt was lovingly finished by Cynthia while sitting at the bedside of Shirley in July, 2007. This is Shirley’s Masterpiece!

If you are interested in the pattern, A Sampling of Santas is included in our ebook, A Slice of Christmas.

Show and tell: Chicken Pincushion…

Joan wrote with a story and here it is:

I just had to share this with you. I know you will get a kick out of it!!

So to backup…tonight is our quilt club meeting and we are having a hands-on demo, how-to EPP project. We will be somehow making ❤️ Hearts!! What paper shape it is, beats me. 
EPP is new to me, but I picked up a little kit and made a “Dilly” bag. It’s super cute. Hexagons. I think I may be hooked. Another skill, right?

Anyway, everyone that attends the meeting will get a little packet (to make a ❤️??) and if we want to participate in a gift exchange we can, but it has to have a ❤️ on it. I want to join in but it had to be quick and easy. (Because I just got home from Florida). I also wanted it to be useful but not another mug-rug. 

Enter the chicken pincushion from your last post. I love pincushions, can’t have too many of them (unlike mug-rugs😝)!! So I decided to give it a shot and put a ❤️ on her/his chest. Turned out so darn cute. 

I may have to make one for myself. For sure if my friend Chris Peterson doesn’t get it tonight in the drawing. She loves chickens, has her sewing room decorated with chickens. She made a rooster quilt. And I think she has a metal nesting box outside that she displays plants/flower pots on her patio. She’s a MN farm girl just like most of us and proud of it. Lives in town, so this is next best thing.

But wait! There’s more!

Yay!! Chris got the chicken and she loved it. It will go with her menagerie of chickens 🐓. 😝

Another funny (jokes-on-me thing) that happened while I was assembling the chicken was I sewed up the wrong side 😑 (across from the beak, same side as beak 🤷‍♀️??). They are small, so hard to see what side is what (can I think of any more excuses🤔), mine were 3” squares. Nice size. 

In any case, when I unfurled the chicken, the tail ended up under her chin (beak) and instead of a tail it looked chicken legs!!😝😂

There you go, a new twist on the pattern. Add 2 strips of wool with a knot at each end for funny legs/feet!! Could be cute or weird!! Maybe I’ll try one for real for myself. (Or my sister in Atlanta, she’s a chicken person. She wants the real chickens to feed/water clean up after!! Not me. I’m done with that; pincushions are better!!)

So that’s my chicken report. 

I will make a couple more for friends Jackie & Vicky for our retreat “up Nort” as they say. 

Happy stitches to you,

Joan

Many thanks to you, Joan, for sharing the story of your chicken! And may you, too, have many happy stitches!

Wednesday Giveaway – One of a Kind!

Occasionally, a vendor sends us a sample product. I keep some and pass on others through the Wednesday Giveaway. Today, I’m letting go of a bag from Yazzii. Pretty exciting, huh!? And on Valentines Day too. Showing love to my subscribers! I love you all, but Mary Miglis is this year’s Valentine. (Don’t worry. I have a lot of other great giveaways planned for this year.)

I’ll be back with another Giveaway next Wednesday. Until then you can shop for all sorts of sewing notions, books, and other fun stuff at pieceocake.com!