Happy Mother's Day

 To all who do "mothering" be it to your own children, you friends, or your community Thank You!

My mother refuses to accept that Mother's Day is very hard for me since losing our son almost 5 years ago now so she took my Little Bit out to get me a present and card. I managed to convince Little Bit I had something in my eyes and wasn't crying but seriously it hurts so much sometimes still.
I know now that Little Bit is more aware, it's important for her to be able to take part in these holidays and such so I understand. But some days I wish this day didn't exist, especially now that I can't have anymore children.

Sorry for the moroseness. I don't mean to bring anyone down but I do want to keep this blog somewhat real. These are my real moments.

I can't decide

Fat Quarter Shop has a new BOM coming out in July called Tiny Town that I think is too cute. I can't decide if I should sign up for it or not. It's another of Anne Sutton so I know the instructions are good, with full size applique patterns. The fabrics beautiful and classic.
It would over lap Le Jardin by about two months though.

This week's Cha Cha Challenge is an apron! I'm super excited, though I still don't know what pattern to make. I'm thinking maybe this one from Moda Bake Shop or maybe doing the half apron from the pattern I made for my sister. I know I want it to have good pockets. I'm always wanting to throw things in my pockets, it's easier then setting them down and then not remembering where I put them.

If I do the half apron I'll do the body from charms.
What do you think?

Update

Well I got a bee in my bonnet about getting this apron done and it turns out the apron on Moda Bake Shop would not be close to big enough so I went with the Domestic Goddess half apron.

I used one charm pack and not even a whole yard of fabric. I really like how this turned out.

Le Jardin Block 5

So while you were all lighting up my e-mail with comments from the giveaway I was working on Block 5 from Le Jardin. This block is another multiple in one and is super cute. I can't embroider the clothesline until I have block 6 done, and the middle dress' bow gets added on after quilting so here is block 5 as it will be for a while.

I had trouble getting a good picture but I'm very happy with the block. It's very cute and turned out well.

Fabricland has it's member's save 50% off sale until Saturday.

I picked up Cuddliscious for the backing of Little Bit's quilt. It's pink and red hearts and super soft and snuggly. It's sewn up for backing and packed up until I can take it to mom's and get it basted.

And the winner is...

Oh wait that would be winnerS.
I was a bit blown away by the number of entries, and new followers, many of whom followed in other ways then blogger. So I went back to the stash and cut two more sets of squares.

The wonderful Random.org picked #22, which is tracy_a, to win the 120 5" squares.
The winners of 110 5" squares are....#30 CourtneAl and #45 busymom!
Congratulations!
Please e-mail me your address so I can send them out. If I don't hear from you by Sunday I'll re-draw.

Giveaway!

 I've decided to have a giveaway for followers since I hit over 50 followers, 56 to be precise lol. Don't worry there will still be a 200 post giveaway, probably next week since this will be post 193, and it will be open to everyone.
Before we get to the details I want to say Thank you to everyone for your nice and supportive comments about my class experience. You have no idea how much I appreciate your kind words. I wish I could give you all a huge hug.

Now to the giveaway.
Remember Tagalong? Well I went back to the 30's stash and cut two 5" squares from each of these fabrics. The fabrics are RJR, Marcus Brothers, and some I don't know because the salvedge was already cut off or didn't say.

A total of 120 5" squares are up for grabs. Just be a follower and leave a comment. That's it. No hoops or tricks.
I'll draw the winner using the random number generator on Wednesday.
Good Luck!

And it was good

 Yesterday's class with Beth Ferrier was awesome. She is one talented, funny, and nice lady.

She also had this great projector/camera set-up going so we could always see what she was talking about. It was great.

I'm not going to show you my samples because they're awful but I think I learned enough that with practice they'll be ok. If you ever get the chance to take a class with Beth, do.

She gave out these great little spiral bound books as the class handout just full of information.
The only draw back of the whole class was that I was the youngest one there by 20-30 years, and the looks I kept getting from other students made me uncomfortable with that, and I was the only one without a Berina/Pfaff machine, and the quilt store owner mentioned it several times. Not my favorite way to make someone comfortable in a shop.
But these things can't take away from the fun I had listening and learning from one of my quilt heroes.

I do have a slight probelm with my machine. Can you see it?

The needle clamp screw has a groove worn into it from my free-motion foot. Has anyone else ever had this problem? I'm going to take my machine in to get check out/cleaned this week so hopefully there will be a simple solution, and I'm hesitant to practice any of the things I learned yesterday in case it could actually wear through.

More excitement

 For me anyways. I want to say thank you to everyone who left a comment about Thursday's post and the Bake Shop. I'm so thrilled and so grateful that people actually liked it! I was terrified I have to confess. If you didn't get a response to your comment or e-mail it's because you're a "no-reply@blogger.com" and I couldn't. Check out this post to see how to change your settings.

And now as I come down off having my pattern on Moda Bake Shop I get to take a class with the awesome Beth Ferrier. I didn't get into the her two-day applique class but I am taking her one day machine quilting class, which let's face it I desperately need. Beth's books taught me how to applique and her videos gave me the nerve to try it so I'm looking forward to her quilting class.

And since I can't do posts without pictures here's the thread catcher/pincushion I made up.

And here is some fabric that arrived recently.

The Blush is the backing and binding for Blushing Sunday and I picked up some Frolic too, because, well I have a mini charm and a charm pack and I have to figure out something to do with them. :)
Not to mention Sew Dang Cute was having a sale....you know how this goes, right? I'm not the only one? Right?