Monday, May 06, 2013

sew mama sew giveaway day!

------------GIVEAWAY CLOSED----------
Randomly chosen winner is #25 -
Melissa Graham said...
My mom and I always wanted to visit Hawaii and Egypt. She didn't live to see either place but I hope to someday at least make it to Hawaii with my family.

Congratulations, Melissa!  Hope you enjoy your pillow!

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Once again, Sew Mama Sew, is hosting a giveaway day.  This time, it's for a whole week, May 6-10!  It's fun to participate and fun to see what everyone else is giving away.

Is there someplace you have always wanted to visit?  This summer, I am traveling to Haiti on a mission trip and am super excited about it!  I have wanted to go to Haiti as long as I can remember.  One of the ways I am raising funds for my trip is by making and selling handmade items.   These pillows are the first of my fundraising projects!



That being said, I am giving away this awesome pillow to one sweet reader!  All you have to do is leave a comment telling me the one place in the world you have always wanted to visit.  The giveaway closes at 8pm EST, on Friday, May 10.  I will randomly choose a winner at the close of the day and email them, so make sure you can be contacted through email when you leave your comment.   I am also happy to ship internationally!

Don't forget to visit Sew Mama Sew for more great giveaways!

Happy Giveaway Day! 

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

handmade holidays::christmas stocking

Each year for Christmas, I love giving handmade gifts to our children, friends and extended family.  I thought it would be fun to show you what I'm making this year, and hopefully inspire you to give a little "handmade" this year, as well. 

It seems as if the seasons come and go at much greater speed now that our children are getting older.  Hard to believe the youngest is already 15!   We received very exciting news a couple of weeks ago.  Our daughter and son-in-law who were married this summer are expecting a baby!  This will be our first grandbaby and we are super-excited!  All of our children have their own personalized stockings we fill with goodies for Christmas, and since we are adding a new little one, I thought I would get busy and make a stocking for him/her!
I used a tutorial which includes a free pattern from fabricworm's website and picked up some fun "Oh Dear!" fabrics from Moda from my local quilt shop, Sew Bee It to make the stocking.  It was so simple and lots of fun to make.  Since we don't know whether it's a girl or a boy, yet, I decided to play it safe and use a simple ribbon and button embellishment.  You can get all fancy and add pompom fringe, rick rack or another trim if you wish.  It's all up to you how far you go with the embellishments!  I plan on making a few for sale locally, so let me know if you are interested in a custom stocking! 
I look forward to posting other handmade gift ideas throughout the coming month!  I would love to see what everyone else is making for gifts this year, too!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

custom fabric camera strap giveaway!

custom camera strap - kaffe fassett's big flowers

My friend, Trudy, over at Mulberry Lane Photography is hosting a giveaway that begins today! I am participating by giving one of my custom camera straps to the winner. Take a look at my etsy shop and see what I have to offer. I also have many other fabrics, so, if you are the winner, you can just let me know what you like and I can make it for you. So, go to Mulberry Lane to enter.

custom camera strap - kaffe fassett's pinking flowers

The giveaway ends on Sunday, July 31 at midnight, EST. So, go and enter, and you could be a winner!

after the tornado...


Where do I begin? My last post was April 23, and I had every intention to begin posting more regularly. I had just finished the quilt I was raffling off to raise funds for our mission trip, and had left it in the quilt shop where I work so everyone could see it and donate to our cause. That was Wednesday, April 27. That morning I had gone in to work to print the raffle tickets and leave the quilt. I had no idea of the devastation that was headed our way.

All morning we kept getting reports of bad weather, and by 8:30am, our children had been sent into the hallways for safety because tornado warnings were in effect. Storms were hitting all around our little town, but every one of them skirted around us. By 11am, the schools had dismissed the children and I went and got my kids. On our way home, we had to take a detour because a tree was across the road. Finally, we were home. I turned on the TV, which is very out of the ordinary for me, to keep an eye on the weather. Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama were hit! Trenton and Sand Mountain and Flintstone, Georgia were hit! Chattanooga was hit! All around us, destruction. But, each storm that looked like it would hit us, kept veering north. By 8pm, I was full of nervous energy and was sewing on a project, but had my eye on the television because the warnings just kept coming. About 8:15, I had my kids and dog in our small downstairs bathroom and saw a storm cell was headed straight for us! My husband said, this one won't miss Ringgold. At about 8:30pm, we heard on the emergency radio that a tornado was confirmed in downtown Ringgold. Upon hearing it, my husband, who is our county manager, had to leave, assuring us we were in the clear now and would be ok.

After he left, we began receiving calls from friends, my son, the kids' dad who lives in town, and my daughter who lives in Atlanta and was frantically trying to reach her dad. Story after story, we heard from my kids' friends about how they were fleeing from the tornado and saw it destroy their home, how they were watching the tornado head straight for them and then it turned and went another direction, about how their dad was in his tub with his dog and heard the tornado go overhead! Ringgold was hit with a storm of massive proportions. An EF4 tornado with a path of 13 miles and a swath of 1/3 mile had wiped out much of downtown and then went over a ridge and settled in between two ridges and obliterated about seven miles. In all, 8 people died. After seeing the damage, it was a miracle more didn't lose their lives.

ringgold tornado :: april 27, 2011

The quilt shop where I worked was destroyed. And my raffle quilt was in the shop under the collapsed roof.

Sew Bee It Quilt Shop
The next morning, my kids and I were able to make it to our church by traveling back roads and we began working with other volunteers, helping clean up and providing meals to people in need. Within a couple of days, our church was designated as a distribution point for those in need on our side of the county. We were cooking 3 meals a day, providing disaster relief to those in need, and sending out work teams to help those in the community with needs. The outpouring from the surrounding community was incredible! We were able to share the love of Christ with those hurting by providing for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. We had so much donated for relief that our gym was half full. We had people coming from as far away as Oregon, Iowa and California to assist, and individual business owners in the area were donating truckloads of food and supplies! We never could have imagined this would happen! We were so thankful we had been spared and could serve our neighbors and friends this way.

We met so many wonderful people, and a storm victim even said to me, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm kind of glad for the storm because I was able to meet so many caring people because of it." Now, that sounds crazy, but I am convinced that the love of Christ will make you thankful for storms in your life!

When the building owner began demolishing the quilt shop, someone was able to save my quilt from the rubble! She has some wounds from the roof collapsing on her, but after a soak, she is still in pretty good shape. Vicki Bedford from Michigan was the winner of the quilt, and after thinking about it for some time, she decided she should let the quilt go to someone in need of it. So, I am prayerfully considering who that might be. We have so many who are having to rebuild their homes and lives, and I know God will lead me to the right person. Thank you , Vicki! This quilt will definitely have a story to tell!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

a chance to win this beautiful quilt!

donation quilt

This summer, my daughter, Elizabeth, and I will have the opportunity to travel with a group of 11 people from our church on a mission trip to the island of Eleuthera, Bahamas! We will be assisting a local church in outreach to their community through a children's Vacation Bible School. Our family has been involved in missions for many years, but this trip is especially exciting to me because my 16-year old daughter is getting to experience an overseas trip with me! I know first-hand how a short-term overseas mission trip can impact your life and look forward to seeing how it will be used in hers.


We will be serving with Caribbean Ministry Association, hosting a VBS through one of the churches there, as well as serving through service projects in the community. Eleuthera is very beautiful, but in many areas of the island, there are third-world living conditions. We hope to be the hands and feet of Jesus and share His love with those we serve.

As you can imagine, we need people to commit to prayer for us and for our team. It is no easy task to step outside your comfort zone and give unselfishly of yourselves. We also need to raise money to cover our travel expenses, lodging and food. We need $1200 each to cover these expenses.

donation quilt

Here is where the quilt giveaway comes in! I have lovingly pieced and quilted this beautiful throw-size quilt and would like to give it away. Every donation of $10 will earn you a chance in a drawing to win the quilt. If you donate $20, you get 2 chances; $100, gets you 10 chances, and so on. All donations will be used toward the expenses for our trip.

donation quilt

You can either donate through the "Chip In" button in my sidebar, or you may give your donation to me.

donation quilt

The quilt measures 63" x 78" and is a wonderful throw size. The colors are bright and cheerful in coral pink and lime green along with aqua and yellow. Such summery colors just seem perfect for this time of year. I quilted it with an all-over meandering swirl design in a gorgeous variegated quilting thread. It is bound in a sweet polka dot that perfectly matches the rest of the quilt. All the fabrics are high-quality quilting cottons purchased from Sew Bee It, here in Ringgold.

The giveaway will be open until Sunday, May 15 at midnight. After the giveaway ends, the winner will be selected through random.org and will be notified. Please consider helping. By sharing in our need, you are sharing with the precious people of Eleuthera!

Sunday, January 03, 2010

2009 coin quilt piece along quilt

I got the inspiration for making this quilt from the Coin Quilt Group on flickr. It has been in the process now for the last several months and just last week, I decided to finish it up. So, on December 29, 2 days before the deadline, I completed my Coin Quilt Piece Along Quilt. I love it! The colors, the snow white sashing, everything about it.

2009 coin quilt piece-a-long quilt
It turned out to be a pretty decent sized quilt, too: about 62" by 76". I can't wait to get it quilted and bound. I'm thinking a pretty Kaffe Fassett polka dot in lavender and lime for the binding. Sounds yummy, huh? Still trying to decide how I will quilt it.

All the coin fabrics were from a fat quarter bundle from an older Plaids & Prints line. The sweet lady I work for at our quilt shop gave me several of the fat quarters that had already been cut into strips, so I worked with what I had and cut the pieces further into strips about 8" long and anywhere from 1" to 4" wide. Then I just started sewing them until I got strips that seemed long enough. After that, I trimmed the coin strips to 7" wide and 64" long. For the sashing, I cut 3.5" wide strips from kona cotton "snow". The outer borders were cut from the remaining fabric and were slightly under 7" wide. So, in all, all that was purchased for this quilt top was the 1 2/3 yards of kona snow.

2009 coin quilt piece-a-long quilt

This quilt along was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see if another one pops up for 2010. I will definitely be in on it. There's something about knowing others are doing the same thing that motivates me and inspires me.