Introducing...

My newly named sewing machine...

Adelaide (or Addy for short)!

Many thanks to Carrie from Delaware who first suggested the name. She wrote "I like the flower power purse. How about Adelaide. You can call her Addy for short :)"

So, the flower power purse will be on its way to Deleware.

As for the other two prizes...I used a random number generator and the winners are...

Kim, who wrote" I love the patriotic table runner- SO CUTE!!! I think your machines name should be Sally."

(Kim, I can't access your blog profile, so please e-mail or leave a comment with how I can get in touch with you! If I don't hear from you, I'll need to find a different home for the table runner.)

And...

Mommyof2Girlz who wrote, "Hi, i'm Stephanie from San Diego, CA...she looks like an "Adeline". It means "Noble". Thanks for the giveaway :)" (And it's kinda ironic that she picked a name so close to the one I ultimately chose! But I promise, it was random. )

So, the black and white and red all over bag will be heading to San Diego!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in my giveaway. The response was overwhelming!!! I really enjoyed reading through all your comments and checking out some of your blogs (and I'm definitely going to check out more as I have time!)

It was tough picking just one name. I sat in front of my sewing machine for a while trying to figure out which one just felt right. But, with my love of Broadway musicals, I couldn't resist Adelaide, one of the leading ladies in Guys and Dolls. However, if it was up to the BF, my sewing machine would now definitely be Mr. Winklebottom!

Well, it's getting late, and it's back to work on Monday for me!! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

Name Game Giveaway

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who entered. This giveaway is now closed. I am combing through all of your wonderful suggestions and trying to figure out which of the great names calls to me! I'll post soon our winner(s)!

Well, it's giveaway day here - as hosted by Sew Mama Sew! I'm really excited about the giveaway, and I promise, it's in this post, but first humor me for a very short story.

For my 24th birthday, my parents gave me my first sewing machine. Up until then, I'd only used my mother's when I was at home. But as I had just graduated with my Master's and was moving to Boston for my first job, getting to that machine was going to prove difficult. Armed with now much more free time (no more required readings, no more papers), I decided I wanted to take up quilting/sewing. So with my new trusty sewing machine and a Better Homes and Garden book on quilting, I gave it a whirl.

Immediately, I was hooked and me and my sewing machine have bonded over the years. As I was working on my giveaways on her, I came to realize that unlike pretty much everything else I own my sewing machine doesn't have a name...which just won't do. (On a side note...my car's name is Dr. Talbot, which is a story for another time, but does involve a late night infomercial and a cat) .

Thus brings me to my giveaway.

To enter, what you need to do is this...tell me your name, where you're from, which of the three giveaway items you like best and suggest a name for my sewing machine.

Entries will close on Sunday, May 31st around 10 am-ish EST (or whenever I can get myself out of bed!). I'll pick my favorite name, christen my sewing machine with it and the winner will receive their favorite of my giveaways. Everyone else's name will go into a drawing to win the remaining gifts!

Here are your choices of giveaway items (the colors aren't great - I took these fairly late at night, which means no natural light!)...

Patriotic Table Runner (in honor of Memorial Day just past and 4th of July coming up)

Flower Power Purse

Black, White and Red All Over Bag & Coin Purse

And to tempt you even more, I just recently went to a quilt store garage sale, and picked up bunches of fun things for future giveaways - so become a follower if you want to get in on some more upcoming giveaways!

A Little Early or A Little Late?

I'll let you decide. A little while back, a few women from my quilt guild taught me some basic embroidery. I came across Gail Pan's block of the month a while ago, but just recently thought I'd try my hand at it.
For my first real embroidery block, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm looking forward to trying the others she has - I'm 4 months behind (soon to be 5), but at least I'm ahead of the game for my Christmas gifts!

Busy Day Ahead...

Today's a big day! One of my former employees, who delightfully has transitioned to being a very good friend is getting married today! She and her soon-to-be husband live in town, and are getting married at a local church, so I've had the pleasure of being involved in the wedding. As I speak there are hundreds of bubbles currently sitting in my living room having been recently tied up with ribbon in her colors. Thank goodness for the BF, as he was a significant help in doing all of those last night - otherwise I'd still be tying and curling ribbons.

There are also four dozen cupcakes just waiting to be iced and loaded into the car to take over to the church. The bride and groom decided they didn't want a traditional cake, so their family and friends are baking funfetti cupcakes with white icing. She's got a cute cupcake tower that I've been made responsible for - so wish me luck!!!

Before I head off to ice cupcakes and load my car and get dressed myself, I thought I'd leave you with a photo of a past project. Since I haven't been doing much sewing myself right now (too much baking and ribbon curling!), at least I can show that I do quilt sometimes!

In honor of the wedding today, here are photos of a quilt I made for a very good friend and his bride for their wedding in October 2007. They met, went to school and were married in Williamsburg VA, so I couldn't think of a better use of all the Teresa Kogut "Williamsburg" fabrics I found on a shopping expedition. It was machine pieced, but I did all the quilting by hand.

It ended up being much larger than I anticipated - almost covered a full bed.

Here's some detail of the end - I didn't realize how blurry my photos were.

The block was called "Peace and Plenty" - I think. I figured it was a good wish for newlyweds.

Hope you all enjoy your day!

May Giveaway Day

The wonderful Sew Mama Sew Blog is hosting a May Giveaway Day! I happened to stumble upon it by my newest hobby - blog-hopping!

This Giveaway Day is the second one they've held - the first being in December. It's a day for bloggers everywhere to host a give-away. The giveaway can be anything related to handmade goodness and needs to be up until May 31st! All the details can be found on the link above.

I'm planning on participating - I've wanted to do a giveaway to give back to all the ones I've entered since I joined the blogging world. So, I've got a couple ideas of what I may giveaway and I can't wait to see all the others offered. They'll have a full list of everyone participating!

Spring Wear

It's starting to get hot down here in the South. Just a few weeks ago, I switched out all my winter clothes for my summer clothes - though living down in SC, my real winter clothes never really make an appearance.

My wardrobe is in need of some updating, so how could I resist when I found the Spring Top Tutorial from Made by Rae over at Sew Mama Sew, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I've never made any clothes other than some pajama pants (well, there was that sweatshirt I made in 7th grade home ec. class...though that one is probably best still suited for simply gardening or never leaving the house). But anyways, with very little practice, I took a stab. Here's how it turned out...



I couldn't get it to hang flat anywhere that had natural light...so...off to the grass we go...

I really like the contrast of the two fabrics.

It was definitely a learning experience, and I don't know if I'll be starting another one soon. It's a wonderful tutorial and very easy to follow - I may just stick with buying my clothes and spending my sewing time on my other crafting. But, perhaps, if I learned as much as I think I did with this one, I may try it again!

I Think I Need A Checklist...

...for when I finish a project. I'm not sure if it's because I'm usually cutting it close to my deadline, or because I'm just so excited to send a project off to the recipient, but I seem to always forget to take a photo of my projects.

Case in point...I made a basket for the May basket swap, yet taped up the box, and then realized I had no photo.

So, you would think I learned from my mistakes? Nope.

What did I do this week - finished up a project late at night, fell asleep with the best of intentions of photographing it in the morning light and then sending it off. But, looks like I missed a step. I ended up wrapping the project up, put it in the mail and then on the walk back from the post office only then realized I had no photo.

Oh well. It's a mother's day present for my mom, so I guess I can get a picture of it the next time I'm up visiting the folks!

So, I guess this brings this to my checklist idea. Maybe I need a visual reminder (more than my camera sitting on my desk just asking to be used) to remind me of what needs to happen before the tape goes on the package!

Happy May...Basket

Susan over at Blackberry Creek Home Arts hosted a "May Day" basket swap, which I participated in. We were paired up with another swapper to create a "May Day Basket" for our partner with all of her favorite things.

After a bit of deliberation and some shopping, I put together my package for my partner who loves reading, birds, gardening and kayaking. Here it is all packaged up and ready to go...

Well, wouldn't you know it...as soon as I put the tape on the box, I realized I never got a photo of what was inside. But, basically, I got a couple of great reads, some gardening books, and made a basket from Pink Penguin's tutorial out of the Moda "Celebrate Spring" line.

My basket arrived in the mail this past week, but I waited to open it until last night. It was such a lovely package, that I hated to cut through that butterfly. Even the lady at the post office, who handed me my package commented how cute it was.

Inside, it was chock-full of goodies! A lovely basket with a note pad, tissue pack, fabric, needles, a pin and some tasty looking chocolates!

My partner has an etsy shop where she sells thes adorable little birds - don't they just scream (or should I say "tweet") spring?

And such a lovely basket. My partner also is a paper artists - I know that's not the right term, bu the appropriate one escapes me, so this cone basket is just wonderful.

I had never heard of the tradition of May baskets, so it was lots of fun to participate. Thank you Susan for organizing and thank you Ginny for my treats!