Quiltville's Quips & Snips!!: 02/01/2012

Sunday, March 18, 2012

And The Winners Are!!!

The show is over --- it’s been a great time ---and I think I’ll be in bed by 8pm.....I am SO toast!

I know I said that I’d do the drawing tonight for the two copies of “Quilts from 100 blocks” ----and I better do so before I fall asleep!

Also -- -this west coast time thing is still throwing me for a loop, It’s only 5:30pm here as I write this – class was over at 5 – and I look at the clock on my computer and it says 8:30pm and it had me confused too! Of course, the computer says on East Coast time, it doesn’t change automatically like my phone does!

I’m waiting for the gals to get their quilts picked up from the show, and then we are off to dinner, so I’m writing this while waiting ---

Our first winner is:

Two Girls and a Garden!

They write:

Hmmm they all look wonderful! I really like the darker version of your block- its more to my usual taste.However, after really going on your blog and looking at quilts you have made or patterns of old quilts I really want to do some brighter one- with lots of yellow and blues. Such a huge step for me! Thanks for all the inspiration! I will put the giveaway on my blog.

The next person drawn is Robert – he writes:

Love the opportunity to enter your give-away. Thanks you - love all the quilts. Robert, in beautifully warm northern Iowa.

Congrats to the winners! I’m contacting you via email to get your snail mail addresses and these magazines will be mailed off to you this next week as soon as I can get myself home and to the post office --- AND ----give myself one well deserved Jammie Day!

And for those who couldn’t read the words on the M&M package yesterday – here is a blown up version for you. When I send via iphone-o-gram, that is live from my phone and the pics aren’t as nicely cropped or biggie sized as I can do them from the computer – so this should help!

As for me --- I ate them all --- all at once…LOL!

Gifted Gadgets!

I can’t get enough of looking for and seeing all the cool accessories that quilters bring when we gather!

One of my jobs when teaching a class is taking on any un-stitching that needs to be done so that the students can continue to make progress --- not feel like they are going backwards by having to rip out should the need arise ((And it arises --- we all know it does!))

I had asked if someone had a seam ripper I could borrow to help unsew for a student while I was walking around the room --- I tend to talk and walk and seam rip at the same time. I bet you didn’t know that was a well honed Bonnie Skill!

Wanda handed me her seam ripper….and…OOOOOOOOOO!! I need one of these!

Slide the little bar --- out comes the ripper part! No cover to lose!

But LOOK! Slide the black bar the other way ----tweezers on the other end!

Not to mention it’s PINK, Y’all! PINK!

I looked all over the show to see if I could find a pair of my own just like this ---no such luck. So guess what Wanda did at the end of the day? Gifted them to me! Isn’t that sweet? I’ll think of her every time I use them, and the fact that she so freely parted with them just touched me deeply.

Speaking of seam rippers --- I had a student in class yesterday who had one that just would NOT cut the thread when I was trying to help her unpick. I asked how long she had had that seam ripper --- "OH, since JUNIOR HIGH!" LOL!! I’m not sure on this gal’s age or the year that she was in Junior High School, but I am pretty sure she is at least a few years older than me. The older I get, the harder it is to judge people's age -- but let's say she is MY age -- I started Junior High in September of 1974. That's one old seam ripper....

We held a funeral with a moment of silence for her 40 year old ((At Least!)) Seam Ripper.

If your seam ripper doesn’t easily slice the thread --- it’s time to let it go. That blade in the curved edge should be nice and sharp --- it’s like a rotary blade. They get dull ---and then they are seam pickers only, not seam rippers and it takes more than twice as long to fight with the seam to get the un-stitching job done.

Treat yourself to a new one. Throw the old one away. Keeping it is like holding on to a ball point pen that no longer writes just because it might start writing again at some point down the road if we wish it too hard enough! ;c)

Just a Lil’ Bit Star Struck!

Full class, full day, full of laughter, full of machines humming –all while it poured outside and was completely nasty.

I completely forgot it was St Paddy’s day until Melinda brought in our little mascot!

It may have made it a pain for people to get to the show, but once they were here – and all of the “class stuff” was out of the car, in the class room and everyone was drip drying, we agreed that there was NO BETTER PLACE to be on a day like this!

The show is humming along, and today is the last day. I took some time to walk the show yesterday, but it was hard to get pictures there were so many people standing in line in front of the quilts.

I spent quite a bit of time at he scissors/gadgets booth! Every kind of scissor and implement under the sun ----I may go back today with some thread in hand to see how things cut – that’s the crucial point for me. It matters not how cute things are, but that they make a good clean “Non frayed” cut on the end of the thread so I can get it through the eye of the needle.

This pair? It’s for trimming bird beaks and talons. see how blunt those points are? As in --- WHAT POINTS?! I want to know if the circular part will cut thread cleanly. with those blunt tips, these should be safe to fly with --- but who knows?

Little bit blurry, I got too close --- but se the circular part? It’s bladed on both sides ---so back I go with the thread today!

These little cute plastic things are touted to be totally TSA proof. They were only $3 but I want to go back with thread today to see if they cut too. If they mangle the end of the thread, I don’t care how cute they are!

So let’s get onto the class pics, shall we?! I tell you—some of these gals are dedicated! I’d had them for 3 days in a row by this point, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know each and every one of them a bit better! Enjoy the pics ----