And the Winners Are....

Congratulations to....

Brittainy!! Britt is the winner of the 3 Accuquilt Go dies. I am so thrilled that she won, check out her wonderful blog HERE. Britt is Mommy to an adorable 4 month old baby boy, and even cooler she is stationed here in Washington,(Air Force) just a short distance from where I grew up, best of all, she just recently ordered the Baby Go, and as the Baby does not come with any dies this is PERFECT for her! Again, Congratulations Brittainy!

The Charm Pack winner is one lucky woman. Matter of fact I ask Shelley if she would come for a visit so I could get a little of her luck, you see not only is Shelley a 2nd time winner on my blog, yep she actually won my VERY 1st give away ever! Shelley has been a reader for a long time. The coolest thing, she just won a Go cutter too, yea I need her luck! LOL bet she wished that she had chosen the dies now ;) (oh and a side not to Shelley, the charm pack is all three stacks, I just wanted to show a variety of the fabrics that is why I had three stacks.)

So congratulations to my winners, Thank you all so very much for visiting my blog and entering, I do and did read every comment, sadly I rarely have time to respond to all the messages, I bow down those those amazing bloggers that do!

Oh I also wanted to share the final name of the quilt that is being donated to the Cancer Center, OK well the 2 quilts actually, you see I decided to donate both the bright one and the pastel one...

The final name for the bright batik quilt is A Dream of Flutterbys. My husband came up with the name. Yes he really is a romantic that and I have for years referred to butterflies as flutterbys. I like it and think it is pretty.
The pastel batik quilt is being called Las Mariposas, that translates to "The Butterflies" So there you have it, winners picked, quilts named, and I am kitty sitting tomorrow so Darlene can have a day off, it has been a full week!

Have a lovely and quilty weekend,
Ginny

TheTale of 5 Little Kittens. A Rescue....

It is no secret that I am a cat lover, I know I post a lot of pictures of the Pooch but that is because he is a total camera hog! I do in fact have 5, yep 5 cats.. and I love them all!

This is Bambi, she is actually Torrie's cat. She is old, mean, and as you can tell by the look on her face she does not really like me. She really is Torrie's cat! We adopted her from the humane society when she was just a kitten.

This is Jack, he is our youngest cat, he just turned 4 in June. Jack was part of a litter that we had from a rescued cat. As soon as the kittens were born and it was safe to have her fixed we spayed the Mama and found her a good home. We ended up keeping a couple of the kittens.

This is Groucho, the oldest of the "Kittens" he is MY baby, he loves me, sleeps with me (as in under the covers) and use to shower with me until someone tipped him off that cats are not supposed to like water!
This is Mittens, our second oldest cat, she is Morgen's but really she is her own person. She likes to be outside a lot and only comes in to eat get a bit of love then back out to the back yard she goes. She was also a rescue cat.This is Lucky our newest addition, He was dumped in our neighborhood, got stuck under our house for two weeks, we got him out, called animal control to come get him (I CANNOT have 5 cats!!!) They took him to a KILL Shelter, we got him back! OK so maybe I CAN have 5 cats! Lucky has been with us for 2 years exactly. He was very very skittish and he only sits on my lap, he runs from every one else. He is the biggest love bug!

What may you ask does this have to do with anything... it leads me to a situation that totally and completely PISSES me off! Yep I swore on my blog!

3 weeks ago I get a phone call from one of Morgen's friend Cassy. Cassy and her Mom Darlene were asking for help with some kittens they rescued. They have never rescued cats before and needed serious help!

5 baby kittens about 2 weeks old were left at a bus stop in a box, the little girl that found them ask her dad if they could save them, he said NO and put them out in the woods to die. Darlene and Cassy found out and rescued them. I have been helping out ever since. Here is there story in pictures....
Three days after rescue and 1st trip to vet, vet verified age at approximately 2 weeks. Treated with antibiotics and flea meds as they were infested!

Darlene has put her life on hold, she feeds all 5 with syringe and then uses a cloth to wipe bottoms to stimulated bowel movements, she does this every two and a half hours!

At first Weigh in 5 days after rescue weights range from 7 oz. to 11 oz. Yes they are that small.

And they will all need a home! Our local rescue groups have been almost no help.

Week 2 of the kitten rescue had its Ups and Downs...

Feeling safe and secure in "Mommy's loving arms"

Often this is how they sleep, the good thing about it, these little guys will be VERY people friendly!

Almost lost two kittens this week, another trip to the Vet, they offered to put two of them down. Darlene declined and worked even harder. This in Monty, he was one of the two that they did not think would survive!

Week 2 Weigh in... They ALL weighted within ounces of each other! All were right at 18 oz.! in one week they doubled in size!

Kitten Rescue Week 3! So the little guys came over to play today! Look at how they have grown, They got to explore on the table because the Pooch thinks they are squeaky toys!
This is a good picture of "Mama Kitty" it is so sweet to see the kittens, if they are on the floor and she speaks, all five little heads swivel to look at Mama! She should be so very proud she has done a wonderful job with them all!

The weekly weigh in.... 23 - 24.9 oz. and yes I use my weight watchers scale, it works really really well.

Their personalities are really starting to show... plus he did not like the bright flash, they all had a blast with the fall decorations and the quilting materials!

Except J.J. She was learning by osmosis!

"But Mommy I WANT TO HELP MAKE A QUILT!"

Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us!

If you live locally (I know I have some local readers) Please consider for a moment helping Darlene and her family. Not financially but if you know someone who might be able or willing to adopt one the these lovely little creatures it would be a huge help. They are currently 5 weeks old and will be ready for a new home in about 3 weeks. The family has decided to keep one of the kittens (they currently have 2 adult cats in the home) So they still need homes for 4 of the kids!

Thank you for hanging in so long!
Happy Quilting,
Ginny

The Miricles of Facebook... A sweet story.

The wonders of face book. A short story...
When I was a teenager I moved from one parents house to the other... I lived with that parent for 15 months before I escaped and was placed into foster care. (my father liked young girls...in a bad way)

During that time I also lived with my step mother, my two half brothers and a step sister.

For years I had no contact with any of them.. like... 25 years... two years ago my father died. (we went to dinner to celebrate) Last year via face book my stepsister contacted me. We have talked a little since then but never REALLY talked... But nice like, so that's OK.

Now fast forward to last week, Becky (the step sister) was looking at some pictures I put on facebook and ask me if I would be willing to make two quilts, one for her Mom (my Step Mother)
and the other for her Daughter Alindsey, well after some thought I agreed... We talked some more and I came up with some design ideas using the colors she said they like... she picked her favorite two.. So this is what I am working on this week.

For Karen, lavenders, and yellow and dark purple for kind of a country feel.

For Alindsey (who is 6) pinks and yellows.. OH and butterflies on each of the dark pink squares and butterflies flying off the edges too!


A close up of Karen's block, yes this is the fabric I am using. I LOVE EQ 7
I simply scan the fabric I want to use for the quilt and get a very accurate idea of how it will look.


And Alindsey's block, notice the butterflies!
Getting ready to cut...
A little note here, I was able to cut Alindseys quilt (it measures 85" x 85") entirely on the GO. (I have not cut Karen's quilt yet) I used the 3.5" strip cutter for the dark yellow and light pink sewed the strips together, then layers them across the strip cutter and cross cut, each block set is very accurate. Again that is what really really impresses me about the Go. The same for the Half Square triangles everything on this block lined up perfectly, to the point that I only used pins once and that was on the final seam, just to hold it together while I got started. These are 12" finished blocks!
And look, it looks exactly like the print out from EQ!

And it got the Poochy stamp of approval! I am almost done with this top, just don't have pictures yet. I have to sew the 12" blocks together, put on the boarders and then the butterflies and it will be ready to quilt. Will be quilting it with the Mariposa panto.


Well that's all for today, don't forget to enter my Giveaway (next post down) for the Go dies or the charm pack. As of this posting I only have 8 entries...so the chances of winning are GOOD!

Happy quilting
Ginny

Help Me Name a Special Quilt PLEASE!

You all might have noticed that I changed the quilt picture at the top of my blog, it is no longer Magic Hour. I changed it to (gosh this quilt don't have a name! HELP it needs a name!!!) OK back to what I was rambling about, So I changed the picture because I LOVE this quilt it is probably the most "me" quilt I have ever made... and I am giving it away... WELL, not just giving it away.... You see the story goes like this, I am part of our area guild but not really I have never been to a meeting, I do however get the emails they send out and the other day they send this....

Good evening quilters …

This evening I had a call from a volunteer for the Cancer Center. She graciously asked if we would be willing to donate a quilt or two to be auctioned at their November 13 fund raiser. I told her that time was her biggest enemy, but that we have supported the Cancer Center in the past and might be willing to help out.

She understands the time constraint (I think). She indicates that a large bed-size quilt, although a nice option, would not be necessary – a throw or even a wall hanging would be acceptable. It (they) should a quilt(s) that would attract bidders, though.

Do any of you individually or in your friendship groups have interest to make a quilt for this event? Please respond back to me this week if you do. As you know, I will be out of the country for two weeks, so I very much need to hand this off to someone else (volunteer???).

Well, I responded back with pictures of both the pastel and the bright batik quilts I had just finished, I offered one of them and let them choose which one... they chose the bright one. Now let me say we have a fairly large and active guild, they had many many people offer quilts.

Mine was one of 3 chosen!!! I was thrilled, I mean here I am giving away one of my all time favorite quilts and I feel like I won the lottery! Plus I am thrilled to be able to help out such a great cause!

So the lady from the Cancer Center will be here next week to pick up the quilt, I am going to make a label for it just stating the maker (me) and the date, I would also like to add the quilt name so PLEASE help me out and suggest names! If you want to see more pictures and a close up of the quilting just click the link.

http://ginnysquilts.blogspot.com/2010/09/catching-up-1st-half-of-september.html

Well that's all for today,

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny

A Baby Quilt for Aidan.

As many of my long time readers know I operate an in home daycare. I love my job, some days more that others :-) but I do love my job. Last spring I started a new family, we have little Amelia, she is 15 months old and a happy beautiful child, I just adore her! Well, last week Amelia became a big sister! Baby Aidan was born at 1:09 p.m. Thursday Sept 30th. And as always, we celebrate with a quilt! This family is a little bit different in their tastes, I like that. So no traditional cute bright primary colors for this little guys although I did do traditional blue, blue batik that is, all different ones... And I got to use my Go cutter. One of the very first dies I got was the 8 1/2" Rag die. I knew I wanted it due to the fact that we make a lot of rag quilts for donation, I was a bit leery as some of the things I have read about the rag die were not complimentary. Here is the making of Aidan's quilt.


First off and a lesson learned, the rag die is 8.5 inches square, I cut my fabric to 9.5 and had a lot of waste, next time I think I will cut a bit closer to finished size. Also many people don't realize that even though you are using the Go to cut you still need to pre-cut your fabric with a ruler and rotary cutter
Just a small sampling of the colors I used.
These are the dies as I said before the 8.5 inch rag die and the 6.5 inch square to cut the batting.
I layered the fabric on the die and pleated it back and forth to get six layers. I think I was only supposed to cut 4 layers with the rag die, but could be wrong, six was a pretty good arm workout.
Here are the fabrics again, you can see the layering.
And pleating... Yep repetitious I know. Let me take a moment to share a thought, one I will say again when I post about the quilt I am working on now. All the stuff I read about the go tout that it saves you time and to a point yes, especially if you are cutting something like a drunkards path or applique there is a MASSIVE time savings, but for simple squares and triangles, I would say that between the precutting you often have to do, and the layering on the die there really is not much of a time difference BUT and here is the big BUT...The accuracy of the Go is amazing, every single point and corner matched up so well that I did not have to pin... I hate taking the time to pin but do when I have to fiddle with not quiet the same size blocks... cutter error (me) So that is my two cents.. not really faster is some cases, but way more accurate in the long run.
Rough layout, I drew this up on EQ before I even began to cut, then once I layered them out decided it was not large enough so I added another round.

Back to the GO, one of the big complaints about the rag die is the fact that you have to clean it due to all the little strings that come off on the short rag cuts. Again, what I think... having snipped about 150 rag quilts... TRUST ME cleaning that little die is way faster and easier on my hands than snipping!!! Well well worth it!!!
Here are the strings I am talking about, I tried using the pick they sent with the GO, then quickly got into my tool kit for my bent head tweezers. (no I don't have a picture but can upload one if any one cares/or wants to see it) Anyhow I take the little bent head tweezers and run the tips on each side of the little blades, dragging the thread to the outside edge, and giving a little flick of my wrist the threads just pop out! It took me just a few minutes to clean the die after I finished cutting the entire quilt, did I mention WAY faster than the hour or more it takes me to snip a quilt.
As the threads come out I periodically roll a lint brush across to clean them up.

Here is some of my waste, like I said before I need to cut smaller cuts for less waste. But then it did not all go to waste, I see a ton of butterfly bodies and dragonfly wings!
This was one of my favorite parts, I have BAGS of scrap batting left over from when I longarm, these are the side strips that get cut off, I can never bear to throw them out, they are perfect for rag batting, I used the 6.5 inch square, layered the batting on ran it through, pulled more batting on, ran it back the other way back and forth I had the batting cut in minutes! After that is was construction as always, a 1 inch seam allowance, edge of the foot against the end of the snips and away we go!
This is the finished quilt, feel free t click on the picture to get a closer look.

Oh and the back, mom really likes green so I made the back totally scrappy did not pay any attention what was going were!

So there you have it, one baby quilt, start to finish less than 4 hours! (yep that includes wash time) Oh did I mention that the rags fluffed beautifully I was a bit worried because of the batiks and how tightly woven they are.

Hope you like it, I have two more posts I will be making soon, one to tell about my quilt that is going to be auctioned, the other to talk about my welcome back blog give away... just waiting for a package to arrive in the mail to announce that one!
See you again soon,
Ginny

Shhh.... I have a secret....

I am going to do a give away... stay tuned... more to come in the next day or so...Pass it on!

I Got A Go!

I Got A GO! Seems like those short words have been shouted all over blog land! Sadly I did not win my GO, nor was I given one by Accuquilt which means sadly that I will not be giving away a GO, I wish I could but alas I just don't have the hard cash to buy one and give it away. (maybe with any luck the nice people at Accuquilt will see my blog and offer one...) But in the meantime I wanted to share the very first cool project I did with my new cutter... I made BUGS!!! Lots and lots of bugs!

This is the cutter in action... I was very pleased with how easy it is to use, I ironed on heat and bond to the back of the fabrics I wanted to cut, layered them on the die put the mat on and cranked the handle, wow so easy a kindergartner could do it. Actually she did a few days later! The nice thing was how easy it was to turn the handle, some days my hands hurt so badly that even typing hurts, this did not hurt!

Look Pretty pretty dragonflies! Wait till you see what I did when I put them on their blocks... it was super cool.

And bumble bees... my favorite is Bernie the Backwards Bumble Bee. You will notice one bee is solid yellow, here is a trick, I cut the main body first (the yellow in this case) then I used scraps and I mean TINY scraps to cut the black antenna, then I used fairy frost white and cut just the wings a little nip with the scissors to give it a nice round/heart shaped bottom and viola on bee with shiny wings!
And Butterflies, you will notice that on the flies... both dragon and butter I changed the body color, there again like the bee's I used scraps left over from the main body cuts, layered them out JUST on the body segment of the dragonfly and cut contrasting bodies. I like the added visual impact.
Another look at the dragonflies using the double fabric... fairy frost for shiny wings, bright colors for the body... PRETTY!
On the blocks I decided to add a bit of punch, notice the dragonfly with black body and blue wings. He is pretty boring, now look at the other three, much much more interest and depth, (I will use the red and white as an example) I cut a red and a white dragonfly, cut the wings off the red one, ironed the red body on top of the white one, then when I put the DF on the block, I too the red wings and placed them UNDER the white offset a bit and ironed everything down at once.. I love the dragonflies the bestest!
And butterflies, some with bodies some with out so you can see the difference.
Bumble bees! Whew I am all bugged out! The Blocks are 6 1/2 inch blocks also cut on my GO!
And of course Torrie immediately claimed it as hers, although she may have to wait a while as I just got a commission for two queen size quilts, thankfully I have my GO to make the cutting go faster!
Off to sew...
Ginny