Checking my list

Just a little over a week before we leave for our Alaskan cruise. Sure wish you all could come with us. So looking forward to cool weather - and even rain - and all the exciting destinations. The most fun for me is hanging out with the quilters, hearing their thoughts and comments, getting to know what they like and long for in the quilting world. I always learn something from my ladies and go home re-energized, ready to tackle the next project.

Congratulations to Paulette - you're the winner of the 25 Yard Dash pattern/fabric this week. Enjoy! For this week's giveaway, in gratitude for finally dropping the book off at the printer, I'm offering a Copper Pennies quilt kit. It will have the pattern just for this project included, but it's one of the projects in the new book, Loose Change. A brand new Harvest Moon charm and mini charm plus 2 fabrics are all you need and we'll include the Spare Change ruler, too!

  Just had to throw in a Mini Table Treats with a few leftover blocks. Note the scalloped edges on the smaller triangles/squares. I'm really loving the effect of the pinked and scalloped edge rotary blades when a standard precut isn't the right size. Still would love to have a smaller pinked blade - we'll see what Olfa can do.

Be sure to check in during the cruise. I'll have a kit for the Friendship Garden quilt that Pam and I designed (mostly Pam) to giveaway while we're gone. And I hope to share a few pictures of our stops along the way if I have WiFi. Follow Pam's blog, too, at Heartspun Quilts. She's much more tech savvy when it comes to blogging than me. I hope to pick up a few pointers along the way.

Loved hearing about your messy/clean sewing rooms. Messy definitely won out. I think organization is the key but I hate plastic totes. My fabric can't breath in plastic, so it's always a fun challenge to find cute baskets/bins that look good for storage and fit on my shelves. My son, Neil, is a carpenter by trade so snag him to help me gain more storage when I can. I found the 4 divided magazine shelves at Hobby Lobby several years ago, but it didn't allow for anything but books. Neil made the open shelves to add in between and made the whole unit built-in along one wall and wrapped around the corner of my studio at the cabin. It filled up quickly, but I still need to edit a bit. Now he's working on a 20 ft. desk top that will fit under my window for the computer on one end and my sewing machine on the other with lots of fold down/flip up shelves and such for the printer and ironing board. Can't wait!

Better get back to work. Hope you all have a great quilting day.