Quilt & Fiber Art Emporium

I have been so busy getting ready to have a booth at my first quilt show that I haven't had time to post. I figured that I better get a post out and tell you about the show so maybe you can come. If you live in the North Carolina area and have this weekend free, you should stop by and say hello, I would love to see you.

The show is called The Quilt & Fiber Art Emporium 2010 . It will be at the Hickory Metro Convention Center in Hickory, North Carolina. The show starts this Friday, April 30 and runs through Sunday, May 2nd. Marianne Fons will be there on Saturday to give a lecture on the motivations of American quilters from 1776 to the present day.
Did you know that Marianne Fons and Liz Porter, founding editors of Love of Quilting magazine have a paid circulation of over 320,000? This makes it the most widely-circulated magazine in the world. Wow! I think that is amazing. We quilters ROCK! (That's me trying to sound young!)

Come on down and see me, my daughter Carol and my DH, Mike at the show!

...and the winner is!!

Drumroll please!!

Patty from Momloves2quilt is my very first winner of a giveaway. Congratulations, Patty.

My random drawing was performed by my husband Mike. He works at home in the room right next to mine. I hollered to him from my office and said, "Mike, please pick a random number between 1-45"  He hollered back  "23". There you go, I think that's pretty random.

As soon as I hear from Patty, she will receive a new Kangaroo Tote and pattern.
Thanks to everyone who played.

Giveaway reminder

Just a quick reminder that I will draw a winner for a Kangaroo tote and pattern tomorrow morning at 9:00am EST.  If you would like to win, add a comment to the April 6th post.
Check back tomorrow to see if you won!

Meeting a customer

Donna from Northern Virginia was in town near Raleigh for Easter and asked me if I had a store because she would like to visit it. I told her that I didn't have a store, but I used to work at the local Bernina dealer and they are a great quilt shop with thousands of bolts of fabric and maybe we could meet there.

Last Wednesday I met up with Donna and she showed me her Professional Tote and Raleigh purse that she had made. She also showed me the wonderful addition she had made to the Raleigh purse. She added a center pocket just like in the professional tote.

Here is a picture of the Raleigh purse with the center pocket.

We had a great visit at Bernina World of Sewing and I want to thank Donna for bringing her bags for me to see. I love the new idea of the center pocket.in the Raleigh Purse. Great job!

Leather Purse

Thank you for signing up for the Kangaroo Tote giveaway! I can't wait to have my first drawing. There is still time to enter, just scoll down or find the April 6th post, leave me a comment or two to enter.

I just finished making a leather Carol's Convertible Purse for my daughter Carol. This is a belated Christmas gift. You know the poor Cobblers family story that have no shoes, well Carol had been carrying one of the first Carol's Convertible purse that I had made. I even forgot to sew up the pocket lining and she couldn't figure out why her purse was getting so heavy. All of her loose change was dropping inside the purse between the lining and the fabric.
She really deserves to have a nice purse after all this time. Her favorite color is purple! This purple leather showed the color better on the sueded side so I decided to reverse some of the pieces so the purse would appear more purple.

Start with one pile of leather cut into pieces

Sew the front sections together

Sew the back sections together

Make and opening for a back zipper

Tape the lining facing down so it's easier to sew in the zipper

Sew the zipper in place

Clothespin the side panels to the front section for sewing, etc, etc.

Continue until you have a finished purse.

Carol loves her new Carol's Convertible Purse. Guess who the pattern is named after?

Pollen-yuck!!

Have you signed up for my first giveaway? Hurry, I'll be drawing next Thursday, April 15th. Leave me a comment to win!

We are experiencing one of the worst pollen weeks I've seen in a few years. It is always bad this time of year, but this year we haven't had any rain to wash it away. Look for yourself!

I wet down the hose to show you what the deck and hose should look like.

This is the mat on my covered front porch with foot prints from the UPS guy. I had to wipe off the box when I got it in the house, it was covered in green yuck!

It makes me feel gritty just looking at it. I guess I'll try a rain dance.

First Giveaway!!

I am very excited to announce my very first giveaway! I also just sent out my very first newsletter, and to celebrate I am going to give away a completed Kangaroo Tote (below) and pattern to one lucky person.

The Kangaroo Tote folds into its own pouch/pocket and is very easy to make. It is lightweight and portable so you can clip it onto your belt loop or purse and have a shopping bag at your fingertips when it’s needed.  It is best to use a fabric that looks the same on both sides like a Batik. All of the seams are finished so there are no raw edges showing anywhere. The pattern includes 3 different styles to choose and is not lined.

Shopping Tote – Use this when you go to the mall and add your purchases to one bag and leave the paper and plastic bags behind. Of course this can be used at the grocery store!

Drawstring Bag – This is great to bring with you on vacation to put your dirty laundry in, or fill with small toys for the kids in the car.

Drawstring Backpack – I use this style anytime I want my hands free but still want carry a few things with me.

Below are pictures of the steps to fold up your Kangaroo Tote for travel.

Step 1. Place bag pocket side down on a table

Step 2. Fold down handles onto bag, and fold each side of the bag over towards the center.

 The folds will be up against the pocket.

Step 3. Fold the top and bottom of the bag towards the center butting up against the pocket.

 The folded bag will be the same size as the pocket at this point

Step 4. Reach inside of the pocket while grabbing all of the folded parts and turn the pocket wrong side out, placing the folded bag inside the pocket.

Step 5. Kangaroo Tote all folded up! This view shows the inside of the pocket, which shows when the tote is folded and I embroidered the Laurel Burch design on it.  

To enter the drawing for a Kangaroo Tote and pattern, do one or all of the following to enter.

• 
  
  Leave a comment on this blog. (1 entry)
• 
  
  Become a follower of the blog (2 entries)
• 
  
  Subscribe to the newsletter (1 entry)
• 
  
  Blog about this giveaway and link to my blog post (3 entries)

The drawing will be on April 15th at 9:00am EST, so you have time to tell all your friends to take a look and enter. Maybe you will get a happy suprise on tax day!

Click on the word "comment" below to enter the contest.