Wedding Cake to boot!

I have been very busy in my spare time, preparing a Bridal Shower for one of my co-workers. The shower will be held on Friday, August 29th. It's a suprise to the Bride-To-Be. Anyway, I wanted to do something creative so I made a three tiered wedding cake. Take a good look at it. It is made out of bath towels. What Bride doesn't need two bath towel sets? This way, she will be getting two gifts in one.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

I thought it would be interesting to let my Rat Terrier, Musket, join the fun. I placed all the entries on my bed and Musket picked out the winning entry.

Drum Roll please! And the winner of this GIVEAWAY is.........Julia. Congratulations, Julia! Thanks for sharing your comment and a picture of your first quilt. I will get your package out very soon. Thank you, Musket, for helping Mama pick out the winner. That was a very hard task but someone had to do it.

Thank you to eveyone who commented on my blog. I had a total of 49 entries and loved each and every comment. Wow! Many of you started out by doing hand quilting but it seems as though we are using our sewing and quilting machines today. Such interesting stories and some beautiful first time quilts out there! Thank you again for sharing! This makes me want to quilt even more.

Boxy Star Quilt begins along with my first GIVEAWAY!

Wow! I'm still alive! It's been a month since my last post. I've been very busy trying to get all of my odds and ends done around the house before making a jump into quilting. With that said, along came the Olympics and my quilting got put on the back burner. I love the Olympics: from the opening ceremony to swimming, gymnastics, etc. I love it all! How exciting to see history be made right in front of my eyes. Michael Phelps took home 8 gold medals. Congratulations, Michael! Thank goodness the Olympics ends on Sunday. I have been so deprived of sleep. I watch the Olympics until 1:00 AM and must be at work by 7:30 AM. What can I say...the Olympics only happens every 4 years.

Well, I wanted to share my beginnings with you...my Boxy Star Quilt. I have completed 4 quarter squares to make a larger square. Above is a posted picture of it. I didn't think my color scheme would look right but since I pieced one square together, I am really liking this. It took me forever to start my quilt. Thanks to Diane who sent me a Rotary Cutting Book, I am now couragious enough to continue with my quilt. This book is so wonderful. It taught me how to use my rotary cutter with no cuts. THANK YOU, DIANE! You're a doll!

Since I started my first quilt, I thought it would be fun to have my first GIVEAWAY. To be eligible, all you have to do is blog to me and tell me the name of your first quilt with a brief description. Your name can only be entered into the drawing once unless you go the extra mile and send a picture of that first quilt to me; your name will go into the drawing three more times with a picture which could give you a total of four entries. This GIVEAWAY will end fast so start blogging. The deadline is Friday, August 22, 2008 at 8:00PM (PST). What is the prize??? Let's just say it's a mystery but it is sewing related. Good Luck!

It Arrived!

My Sewing Machine Arrived! I am sooooo excited. I am posting a picture of my new machine. I unpacked the machine out of its packing box and layed all the items out to make sure it came with all the pieces. I must say that I am overwhelmed. It will take me two years to figure out what each gidget and gadget does. I have my first class on Sunday, July 20th. They will instruct me on the care of this machine. I will then have my name put on a waiting list to take the next two classes. These classes aren't available until September unless someone cancels. Yikes! If I want to do some sewing, I'll have to be brave and open my manual and self teach myself. I was cutting the material into 2 1/2 inch strips with my new rotary cutter. I have never used a rotary cutter before in my life. Guess what happened? Yep, you guessed it! I nearly cut off my finger. I cut my material and layed the strips aside with my rotary cutter. I used my hands to brush out the wrinkles in my material and my 4th finger went right into the blade of the cutter. Ouch! I thought I was going to have to get stitches. Now, my husband didn't know how much I paid for the machine and now I cut my finger and probably needed stitches but I couldn't tell him I cut it because he would get upset with me for being stupid. He would probably have yelled at me more for cutting my finger than spending the money on the machine. Anyway, I bandaged my finger and it is healing fine. I'm just afraid to use the rotary cutter again.

This past weekend, I went to Sisters, OR to see the quilt show. It was wonderful. Thousands of people attended and I only got to see a quarter of the quilts as I had to head back home sooner than I wanted. I went with my friend from work and her best friend. We had a blast and plan to attend again next year.

Take care!

IT'S OFFICIAL

It's Official! I purchased my new sewing machine...Bernina QE440. It was such a good bargain that I couldn't resist. The trouble is, I had to place a special order for it and it can take 2-3 weeks to receive it. Grrrrr! I am getting frustrated having no machine. I want to start my first quilt but can't seem to make it happen. :(

In the mean time, I will start cutting my fabric into 2 1/2 inch strips.

A big thank you to all who have made comments to my first post.

Beginners Luck!

Boxy Star Quilt Pattern Layout
Purchased Fabrics

Wow! I'm soooooo excited. This is my first blog. I decided to start it because I am going to start my first quilt. My sister-in-law, Rhonda, is going to help me with my first quilt (boxy stars). I purchased the material, washed and pressed it and now I'm ready to begin. She told me to divide my color of fabrics by color (lights, mediums and darks) and then she helped me by dividing the colors into green, red, and creams. I decided to do the majority of my quilt in green with accents of red and cream. The top picture is an example of what I hope my quilt will look like when completed. The yellow represents the cream color. (I only had hi-liters to use for the colors.)

I am now in the quilting mood and have that quilting bug that has been going around. My only problem is that my sewing machine is not working. Before I begin to sew, I must purchase a new machine. It's been years since I purchased a sewing machine and I haven't done much sewing either. Ten years ago, I purchased my machine for $500. I went to price machines two weeks ago and the average cost for a good machine that will handle quilting is priced at $2,000. Now this seems outragious but I have to admit that the new machines are computerized with lots of gizmos. It will take me ten years to figure out how to use it. When I say ten years, I am not exagerating. My niece bought me a new serger for Christmas last year and it's still in the box. I just took a serging class to learn how to thread it. I was so amazed at what this little machine can do. I just need to find a great project now to put the serger to work.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of my new quilt.

Tootles!

Susan