SMS Giveaway Day

Welcome to the Sew Mama Sew giveaway! If this is your first visit I hope you'll come back, and if you're a regular reader, thank you!

I have four new fat quarters of Laurel Burch fabric by Clothworks and a large spool of cotton thread to giveaway.  I will ship international.  Please, please, please,  make sure I have some way of contacting you ~ no-reply bloggers do not work!

Just leave a comment on this post about a book you'd like to read, or last read, or have heard about that's supposed to be good.  Giveaway with be open until December 12 at 8:00 p.m.  

Be sure to check out the other giveaways at SMS.  Thanks for stopping by!

Comments closed, winner will be notified 12-13-14.  Thanks for participating!

The Last Pictures

The weather warmed, a bit, and the sun came out and every bug in the area, it seemed, leaped or flew onto my quilt.

This large wasp being one of the first to arrive.  And I just read The Wasp Scene in The Bees book last night so this really creeped me out!  (Anyone else reading this book?)  It would not leave!

Here's a close-up of the negative space.  I love the way it turns out though sewing it I was not feeling any love whatsoever.  I was afraid the density would make the quilt stiff, but no, it's nice and soft.  My first time using Aurifil, 50 wt., for quilting and I see why it gets such rave reviews.  I also used it for hand sewing the binding and it was great.  No tangles.

I made a section of binding with all the colors, didn't want anyone slighted!

Pretty pleased with myself at this point, the wasp is gone!  Little did I know it hitched a ride into the house on my hair.

Thanks for stopping by~

Highly Recommended

I just read this book and was blown away by it.  I won't spoil the plot by giving any details away other than to say it's portrayed as a legal thriller but it's much more than that.  You actually get into the protagonist's head on a very intense and personal level.  It's full of twists and surprises that are believable and not just done to move the plot along.  The characters and dialog are real.  And the best thing about the book is it makes you think while reading and long after you've finished.
What's the last good book you've read?

Lazy Kind of Day

It's been gray and rainy all day here I am happy to say!  I cannot remember the last time it rained and with that Florida sun things dry out quickly.  It was a good morning to spend at my LQS getting acquainted with all the new fabric and picking up this luscious little fat eighths bundle of California Girl.  If you have not seen this line I recommend that you seek it out!  It's for a quilt in this book.

The quilt shop chooses one quilt a month and reveals the fabrics but not the project until Strip Saturday which was today.  After a quick trip (with more rain) to another LQS to search for some Civil War repro fabric, it was home to read.

The book is a fascinating account of a woman who pretended to be a survivor of 9/11 for four years!  She became somewhat of a celebrity in the 9?11 community and  had everyone fooled until The New York Times did a story on her and discovered that accepted facts were just not really facts at all.  There's also a documentary of the same name which is also very good.
Talk to you later~

Discovery

If you read my blog you know I truly love the Jelly Roll Quilts book and the followup book, Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by the Mother/daughter team Pam and Nicky Lintott. Well I headed off to Borders last Friday to look for another book, 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts for another project I signed up for. Didn't find that book, but looky what just hit the shelves! Apparently the authors had 'authored' ~yuck, yuck!~ a jelly roll competition and the new book features the winning designs! Number one, I had not heard of this contest (not that I would have entered but still...) and Number two, I had no idea they had a new book coming out, and I had a 40% off coupon and $5.00 in Borders' Bucks to boot. So I got the new book for $10 and change! And it does not disappoint, a dozen new designs by a dozen creative people.

I also found a video about the challenge on youTube. Hope it works.



I hope you had an opportunity to check out the Schnibbles October Parade over at Sherri's and Sinta's blogs. Sinta somehow overlooked my Schnibbles so I was not included in the Parade. I was amazed by all the many different ways the pattern was interpreted.

Put all the qualifying names in a hat and drew Annette for the pillowcase kit, fat quarter and box of tissues. You need to email me your address. Thanks to all who entered and thank you for visiting!

New Book

Wish I could say I've been sewing but this is as close as I've got. This is the new book by the mother/daughter team of Pam and Nicky Lintott. Their first book was just great so I bought this one from Amazon sight unseen, so far I do not think it is going to disappoint.

This one from the book is called Damask Rose, so pretty and feminine. Just one jelly roll, four fat quarters and fabric for binding.

This is another winner, Hidden Stars. I made this one year using Christmas fabrics and a starry-beige for the stars. All in all, there are eighteen projects in the books using jelly rolls, layer cakes and/or charm squares.

This is what has been occupying my free time, getting ready for a vacation. I keep second guessing what to bring for weather so different from here (Florida). And to compound the problem, we are flying a local airline (once we get to where we are going) that puts strict weight restrictions on all luggage. Don't you just hate that when you get somewhere and you ended up leaving something out you should have brought?
Well, decisions must be made as we leave tomorrow. Be sure to come back the end of July as I plan on having a giveaway, maybe with something from our vacation to Russia.

A Good Read

I did not expect to like this book. In fact I was rather smug in my knowledge of just knowing I was not going to like this book. I might add, my daughter is a big fan of the author, Jodi Picoult having read almost all of her books. Even that couldn't inspire me. Well, to shorten a long story, I picked up the book one day in the bookstore and couldn't put it down! It is so well-written with engaging real-life characters. She is a master at capturing the domestic tableau. I really related to the scenes when the parents were accused of child abuse. When my daughter was three and in preschool, a Quaker preschool no less, a boy pushed her down and broke her arm. It broke as if her arm had been twisted and I was suspect. After much discussion and phone calls to the preschool all ended satisfactorily. Anyway, it's a good read if you are looking for one.