If anyone is local... or semi-local? Come to a QUILT SHOW!

I attended the last show put on by the Northwoods Quilters- this is a local guild. I live in a "twin cities" area (that's tongue in cheek- really they are "twin towns") so this guild has quilters from both towns (Marinette, WI and Menominee, MI) as well as from the surrounding small townships and "country folk". There's a lot of talent in this area! In these "twin towns" of about 20,000 people we have two thriving quilt shops. That says something about the quality of work you will see at this show.

I was VERY impressed by the range of work that was displayed here. There truly was something for everyone. I am not a member of the guild- with the boys being young, I just can't add another thing to my plate, but in the future I can see it becoming a large part of my life. If you are within driving distance I highly recommend making the trip. 

And I WILL have one quilt entered. They accepted some entries from non-members so if you go you can see my pride and joy, Cherry Surprise, hanging. I'm gonna wash it- we've been sleeping under it during this cold winter, and get her all ready to go soon. THEN I get to work at the LQS right by my house while the show is going on. So if you DO come to town for the show, you have to come to Quilter's Haven and say hi to me! :)

(I'll be the one with the goofy smile petting the fabric.)

Conversation with a 5 yr. old

Luke (as we drive past a soccer field): "Hey, they are praxticing."
Me (vacantly): "Mmhmm"
Luke: "I'm not good at that."
Me (still vacantly): "Well, you just keep kicking it and kicking it and you get better."
Luke: "No, I mean saying it. Practicing. HEY! I said it! Practicing, practicing, practicing."
Me (not as vacantly): "You're practicing saying 'practicing'!"
Luke: "Haha!"
pause
Luke: "Practicing, practicing, practicing, praxticing... AH, MAN."
Me (vacant again): "Just keep practicing."

By the time we got home I didn't think I could say it anymore... I guess that's where all the vacancy comes from. If you pay attention all the time you'll go nuts.

Seriously? Seven Entries? Well, you guys had good odds...

I know that a lot more than 7 of you looked at the giveaway... does no one want free things? Does no one like my stuff?? Were people just really busy last week? I guess next time I'll have to give away some fabric.

So... I used a random number generator where I put in 2-8 (one person had added to her comment) and it spit out number 7, which is Naomi! Naomi is my Husband's Cousin's Wife, so is a kind of shirt-tail relative by marriage kind of person. We have a similar sense of humor and share a love of crafting, writing, thrifting and decorating. She is working on her THIRD quilt ever and it's absolutely freaking adorable.

Naomi's oldest daughter loves the movie Wall-E. Like, LOVES it. So Naomi found a tiny scrap of Wall-E fabric and built this entire work of art around it. There are bits of everything in here: vintage sheets, textured fabrics, new fabrics, old, everything. I JUST LOVE IT. 

The center is an applique she designed and made herself. Each piece in this is appliqued or sewn- nothing painted on here.

Not too shabby for a first try at applique, no?

The back is mostly a vintage sheet with some cute appliqued and thread painted squares on it.

This square has two hands on it- the green one is Sydney's version of tracing her hand, and the orange one is Mommy's version of Sydney's hand being traced. How absolutely awesome is this idea? And what stellar execution! Naomi is basically self-taught, too. She thinks of something and just dives right in to it. 

 

This gal is crazy good. I am so proud to call her my Husband's Cousin's Wife! Naomi, I will contact you for your snail mail addy. Or maybe someday I will just surprise you and show up on your doorstep... well, ok, I wouldn't do that to you. Unless I called on the way or something... :)

100 posts!!!!! HAPPY giveaway DAY!

Yep, this is it! The big 100th post... and we all know what that means! GIVEAWAY!! 

I will be sending a set of personalized magnets to the winner, as well as a vintage sheet pennant banner in spring colors! And maybe some other fun stuff... you never know what might fall in the box.

To get your entry in, just tell me what kind of magnets you would choose if you won. Like, flowers or butterflies, quilts or roosters, mandalas or cherries, photographs, whatever you think would be cool.
(ETA- I WILL ship internationally! This is for anyone.)

These were a good seller for me, as well as the crayons. I packaged them individually and in sets and the individual ones sold much better. And the crayon totes went like hotcakes- I had them at $10.

Here are some pics of my booth:

Next time we will know a little better what we have for space and stuff. I think we did well with this for a first try. The pennants really drew the eye. I took in $250, which of course is not all profit, but I thought it was respectable for a first try. IT WAS A BLAST! I had a grin on my face all day. I had a wonderful helper. Jenn lives a few minutes from me and I found her blog and we have now become pretty good friends. (The Internet ROCKS.) So she decided to put a few things in (prints of cute/funny sayings) and kind of see what the fuss was about. I would NOT want to run a booth alone, I can tell you that! So, thanks, Jenn!

I will leave this post up til Sunday. Today is Wed, so you have a little time to get your entries in. Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you if you are set to no-reply. You can send people over and if they put in their comment that you sent them and they win, I will give you a set of personalized magnets just for sending them here!