Wednesday Giveaway

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SB-Bento-Cupcake

Congrats to this week’s winner of the Cupcake Bento Box, Connie J. Martin.

If you are not Connie, you can click here to find all of the bento boxes at Piece O’ Cake. It’s not just me who thinks these are dandy boxes. Here is a recent review:

I actually purchased 5 of the Bento Boxes— 3 for grandchildren, one for my daughter in law, and one for me. Most of them are being used for packing lunches, but I will use mine for sewing supplies. They are darling and very well made. I love how tightly they close—no chance of anything leaking out to damage anything else in a backpack.

Click here to find all of the bento, sandwich, and pencil boxes at pieceocake.com.

Leave a comment to enter the drawing. If you can’t find the comment box, you might see a little icon that looks like a thought bubble at the upper right at the top of this post. Try clicking that to open the comment section.

I’ll use a random number generator to choose a winner Thursday, May 25, 2017. It might be later in the day as I will be out of town teaching.

Good luck!

Be nice.

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Dr. Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, spoke at the Austin College commencement this year. One thing he said has stuck with me: Be nice.

He went beyond that to say that when you aren’t nice, people won’t like you. And if no one helps you [when you need it], it’s because no one likes you.

That’s harsh! But take a moment to think about people you don’t like. Are you going to go out of your way to help them? Not so much. Which takes me back to the top: Be nice. Build relationships with people. We all need friends.

I could stop there, and would have if I had not read this post from Generation Q yesterday. It appears that there is a ‘secret’ facebook group of quilters that is not being remotely nice to people who are different from them. Who knew?! There are unhappy people on facebook! Deep sighs all round, right?

I shy away from politics and religion online and in classes and I’m not going to spout opinions here. That said, my mom and grandmother taught me early on that if you can’t say something nice about someone, it’s best to say nothing at all. It’s better to make friends than it is to make enemies. It’s never nice to intentionally hurt someone else’s feelings who is doing nothing to hurt you.

So, please, let’s all do what we can to spread niceness in the quilt world, and beyond!

BeNice

Hexie Squeeze Punch

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A student told me about these Fiskars hole punches. Now that I have tried them I can tell you how they work. 


All sizes squeeze easily on card stock if you cut 1 sheet of paper at a time. You are can recycle paper (like heavier magazine inserts) or use pristine sheets. 

  • Medium = 1/2″ on each side
  • Large = 3/4″ on each side
  • X-Large = 1″ on each side

The X-Large grip is too big for my hands so I’ll ask Steve to do those for me if/when I need them. 


The same student also told me that if you punch a hole in the center of each paper it’s easier to remove them with a toothpick or awl which makes sense. I couldn’t find my normal hole punch so I used the one that cuts 1/8″ holes, 1/4″ would probably be better. 

Honestly, I have very little spare time for cutting hexies so I won’t use these often. But I’m happy to have them in my drawer, just in case :-).

FYI: I couldn’t find them from a quilt supplier so I looked on Amazon. 

Wednesday Giveaway

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Congrats to this week’s winner, Shirley Morgan! If you didn’t win, you really should treat yourself to a sandboard. I use a sandboard every time I sit down to my hand sewing. The sandpaper keeps fabric from shifting as you trace or pin and the board itself is handy to set your stuff on, on your lap, as you sew.

TravelSandboard-Cover-500

There are 2 sizes of sandboard. I use the smaller Travel Sandboard when I am away from home.  I use the larger, Essential Sandboard at home. Click here to find them both.

Leave a comment to enter the drawing. If you can’t find the comment box, you might see a little icon that looks like a thought bubble at the upper right at the top of this post. Try clicking that to open the comment section.

I’ll use a random number generator to choose a winner Thursday, May 18, 2017. It might be later in the day as I will be out of town teaching.

Good luck!

Show and tell…

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This cute quilt was made by Diane Pfeifley who sent me the photo and the story of her quilt. Isn’t is great!

DianePfeifley-SantasVillage

Diane said:

I saw your “Welcome to the North Pole” design book many years ago on “Simply Quilts.” When I saw the design of the buildings all I thought was Whoville. My niece loves Dr. Seuss so after many years of thinking about this project I finally was able to put it together. This project I hand appliquéd and hand quilted.

The snowflakes came on a Christmas card. I peeled them off and put them in my embellishment stash. They were perfect for Whoville. I used the design in the blue background to echo quilt. In some places it looks like a ski run. Not intentional. I used buttons for door knobs and shell belt buckles for the windows in the doors.

You might wonder why there are several wildcats tucked here and there. My niece’s husband is a graduate of Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. So the wildcats are for him as is the Whocat Alumni Center with KSU on the building.

Your designs were so unique and fun. I really enjoyed making this, even though it took me years of thinking about it before it finally “gelled”. Truly enjoyed using your designs. Now I’m thinking I need to use these patterns to make me a Santa version.

Thanks so much for your unique designs.

I love it!

Wednesday Giveaway

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This week’s winner is Dotti Jones. Congrats to Dotti :-).  If you are not Dotti and still want to make Welcome to the North Pole the book is still in print and is available here. Happy stitching!

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Scroll down and look for the box to leave a comment. If you can’t find the comment box, you might see a little icon that looks like a thought bubble at the upper right at the top of this post. Try clicking that to open the comment section.

I’ll use a random number generator to choose a winner Thursday morning, May 11, 2017. Good luck!