Banned Book Challenge Giveaway Winner Announced

Tanesha of CraftyGardenMom and I had a ball co-hosting the Banned Book Challenge Giveaway. Let me just start by saying, however, that Tanesha definitely wins on having the best blog posts about it! I was so tied up in my travel schedule during the challenge that I wasn't able to hold up my end of the stick as capably. However, never fear: We're already making plans for next year! Woot woot!

So, get out there and start reading some banned books!


I want to point you in the direction of Tanesha's blog post announcing her winner, and she also gave a very nice list of all who entered. Be sure you read it!

Meanwhile, my winner is (using the random number generator): SewExcitedQuilts! Jackie, woot! And I guess you were probably wondering what you were winning. Jackie, I'll be sending you a...

$25 gift certificate to EQuilter.com


As always, my rule is you have to send me pictures of whatever you make with the fabrics you win in any of my giveaways. I'll expect those pictures next week. Tee hee.

It was so much fun seeing how everyone interpreted their books and the inspiration for this challenge. I want to thank fionaogre, cyprium_misty, marisa-dot-onebyone, sewexcitedquilts, marissa_l (give the kids hugs from me!), jenny, and landscapelady (Tanesha's winner) for playing along. I also want to send a huge big thank you out to Tanesha for jumping on this idea and really running with it. It was so much fun working with you on this, Tanesha. and I've already got next year's on my calendar. Yes, we WILL plan ahead next time!

Okay, I've been brewing some thoughts about my 2013 challenge giveaways. So be listening in on my next few podcast episodes as I start giving you information about the next one. You can probably guess what it is--it's almost a new year, hint hint.


Banned Book Challenge Giveaway

Woohoo! Another giveaway! Tanesha of CraftyGardenMom podcast and I are co-hosting a challenge in October, inspired by Banned Book Week. Tanesha's living is based on books, and I'm just a book-a-phile in general, so neither of us is particularly keen on the whole idea of banning books. I fully support your right to read what you want and to make decisions for your own children, but in return I'd like to make decisions for myself and my kids. (Or, at least, I did when they were still young enough that my opinion mattered!)

So Tanesha and I have created a challenge for you. Create a quilty project of any type that's inspired by a book that you've read and loved that appears on the list of banned books. Haven't checked out the list? You may be surprised by some of the books that appear on it! This is the list for banned books in the last decade; this one is the list of classics that have been banned. Thanks to Tanesha for providing those links.

Your project can be big or small--it can be a wallhanging, a totebag, a mugrug...whatever you're inspired to do. The only guideline is that it needs to be "quilty" and be inspired by a book on the banned book list.

When you've done your project, post a picture of it in the Flickr group that Tanesha created just for this challenge.

On November 1st, Tanesha and I will go into the group and each draw one winner from the people who have posted pictures there. Tanesha has already announced what her giveaway will be. I'm still trying to figure mine out. (Give me another few days...I'll post an update here.)




I'm already working on my Banned Book Project. Go ahead--just try to guess what it is and what book it's based on. Go ahead. Dare ya.

Paint Chip Challenge...the story continues...

Kona Solids charm packs to the rescue! I ordered three charm packs of Kona Solids from Fat Quarter Shop: Brights, Pastels, and one in grays and blacks that I think was named "Silent Movie" or something like that. Even though I technically only needed three colors, I decided it wasn't such a bad idea to add some solid charms to my charm stash to help round out charm packs for projects. As I've talked about in past episodes, pre-cut packs are always way heavy in the mediums and struggle a bit with lights and darks; plus, solids in small pieces can sometimes provide a nice counterpart to a whole lot of pattern going on.

In any case, I matched my paint chips pretty dang closely, don't you think?

I also got another fabric to go with this too--but can't show a picture of it because it would completely give-away what my plans are for the challenge project. And I want to keep that a surprise...at least, until I know if I can actually pull it off!

By the way, don't forget to leave your own thoughts about what you'd make from these colors on the first post on this topic to have your name entered for a give-away. (Please do leave it on that first post--can't guarantee I'll catch your name for the drawing if you leave it on a different post!) Thanks to everyone who has already commented--I've really enjoyed reading them!

What Would (a) Quilter Do?


Paint Chip Challenge Chips
Originally uploaded by sandyquiltz
My guild is doing another paint chip challenge--one of my faves! We draw three paint chips at random from a jar. We then have to use fabrics in those colors, add a black and a white, and make it work. We're not supposed to use fabrics that have any other colors in them--and no shades or tints. It has to be as close to that actual color as we can manage to get. I'm thinking it would be virtually impossible to avoid having any other colors at all in our projects unless we all only use solids--I'm trying to remember what I did last time we did this a few years back. However, our guild can be quite forgiving, shall we say. And there's really nothing at stake--it's just for fun. So although I'm interpreting it pretty darn closely (yes, I am using predominantly solids), I may veer just a hair off the path.

I know what I'm doing--I immediately saw it in my mind when I looked at these three colors in my hand. I just went online this morning and bought the fabric I'll be using; although I've got plenty of black and white in my stash, I didn't have anything distinctly any of these colors.

I'm curious: What would you do with these? What do they say to you? (Leave your own response by November 27th and I'll draw one lucky commenter's name for a fabricy gift! *Editor--I've extended the deadline a few days because of a glitch in my podcast that meant I couldn't give listeners as much lead-time as I'd like. So you have a few more days to respond!)

Quilt Design Progress

Color palette Remember these?

Finally. Phew. After poking away at it here and there all summer (well, okay, more "here" than "there" since I was on the road so much), I have finished my stash mystery challenge design for this quarter--the one using warm colors. I've had the design in my head since a couple of weeks after I announced the challenge itself last June, but wasn't able to take the time I needed to learn what I needed to learn in EQ7 to finally get the design done. Last night did the trick--I brought my laptop down to wrangle with EQ while my husband was watching "Top Shot." I could be companionable while still quilty, and mostly ignore what was going on on TV. Admittedly, some of their shots are pretty impressive, but I'm just not a ballistics kinda gal.

In any case, I got the design finished last night and just completed the process of printing off all the requisite rotary cutting and template pages this evening. Lots of templates. Dang applique. What am I doing to myself? Oh well--won't be too futzy; planning on doing it raw-edge-style by machine. I'm also still leaving a bit of room for design changes; I have the overall outline done, but may continue to tweak it as I go.

I should be able to start getting some of the cutting done tomorrow night, but I'll be gone this weekend. That being said, I still have some hope I might be able to make my own deadline for the challenge! How are you doing on yours? Remember, there's a fabricy prize awaiting!


...and a new project begun!

In the interest of "the process pledge," I thought it was time for another post about a project in process rather than just pics of a finish. So here 'tis--the very early stages.

I've mentioned the UFO Challenge that I'm co-facilitating in my guild a few times over the last few months. The other challenge I'm co-facilitating is our "Use It or Lose It Challenge." Participants list three items (or books) they've had on their shelves for a year or more and have never used. We are to use each item for its originally-intended purpose before the end of the challenge, or any items we haven't used will go in our guild silent auction. We don't actually have to create a finished product--we just have to show proof that we've used the tool in some way. (Yep--this was another idea of mine because I inherited a boatload of stuff from my Mom that I knew I needed motivation to try out or it'll still be sitting on my shelves 10 years from now. Not a surprise that several women in my guild were happy to join me in the challenge--apparently buying things and not *ahem* using them right away is a common ailment.)

I only have one item to go, so since the deadline is coming up (November), I decided I should take advantage of the break in action between one UFO and the next and, well, create another UFO for myself. So tonight I pulled out my last tool on my list and started to play.

My final tool is Marti Michell's Log Cabin rulers and the accompanying book. I inherited these from Mom. I think she'd only bought them about 6 months before she passed away. She and I had talked about these rulers a lot--we're both huge fans of log cabin quilts. The first quilt Mom made me when I was a kid was a log cabin, in fact, and I still have it today.

That being said, I'm not waxing particularly sentimental about these rulers. If they work for me, I'll be jazzed. If not, I'll be willing to put them in the silent auction.

I was just going to make a single block to test the rulers, and decided that might actually take almost as long as just having at it. I chose the first pattern in her book--not so much that I needed a pattern but just to have the fabric quantities and instructions for cutting easily laid out in front of me. The fabrics I have laid out are all from my stash: fat quarters and one strip. (The red on the top will eventually just be the little center square--it's a little dominating in this picture.) It'll make up to be about 54" square. If it turns out at all nice, I have a someone in mind who might enjoy a cuddle quilt. Meanwhile, a great way to use up 17 fat quarters!

I may get some sewing time in this weekend so I'll try to remember to post more pics as I go. It's fun to do a project that I'm not emotionally invested in--if it turns out, it turns out. Otherwise, I've just created space in my fat quarter drawer for the future!