Winners for the drawing!

We have winners!  Sorry to keep you waiting so long, but I wanted to give lots of people a chance. As you'll recall, you were trying to win this- a book on alterations, written by my friend André Williams.  I bought 2 extra copies so that I could give them away here. 

All the cats were outside and I was home alone so I did the drawing the old fashioned way with bits of paper and drew out #11 and #9, which means our winners are Dolores and Rafael's Mum!  I'll be in touch for your addresses, ladies, and congratulations!  I hope you get a lot of use out of your books.  More use out of the books than I get out of my lazy, do-nothing cats, that can't even be bothered to help me to pick winners!  LOL

I've got copies of André's books in my Etsy shop if anyone who didn't win is still interested in having one.  :)  I'm not making any $$$ off of them, so don't think I'm in this for the moolah.  LOL

Time for a giveaway! A book on basic clothing alterations.....

One of my very best friends, André Williams, has written a book on alterations.  For the last 27 years, André has been doing alterations in Northwest Arkansas and I know from personal experience that she is great at it.  Writing a technical book is not easy and she's worked really long and hard, even thru the death of her husband, Kenneth.  She got the book finished, though, and last weekend had her book signing party, which was a lot of fun.  She was very sweet and gave me a free copy for myself as I had helped her a little bit by proof-reading the book and offering opinions, but I also bought 2 books specifically to give away to my bloggy buddies.  These books sell for $20 each, but I'm going to give these 2 signed copies away to 2 randomly picked readers who leave a comment here.  I'd really like them to go to someone who wants to do her own clothing alterations, or her family's, not just to a book collector, so please leave a comment only if you think you'll actually USE the book, OK?  Thanks!

Here's the cover of the book- it's spiral bound so you can lay it open right next to your sewing machine and read the instructions and see the photos without the book closing on you!  Isn't that a clever feature!?!

 And here's a great photo of André, my lil' Cajun friend!

 Just a peek at the great photos....

 ...and the Table of Contents.

 I even got an honorable mention in the credits!

Leave a comment for a chance to win- you can even tell me a funny story about trying to alter something yourself and botching it up (or succeeding!).  I know I've done it, so my copy of this book is going to be treasured.  It'll be hard to not ask André to do something for me, though.  She's so good at it and nothing seems to faze her, except for rude customers.  LOL  I used to work in the frame shop right next door, so I heard the occasional story!  People are just weird sometimes.  Fortunately, though, most of the people around here are really, really nice.  

Good luck to you!  Oh, I'll be selling these books in my Etsy shop, too, so if you don't win one but still want one, come to my shop.  FlossieBlossoms

Thanks for reading all this.  I hope you're all having a fun weekend!
This drawing is now closed!  

Thanks so much, everyone.... and I'm ready to move forward, to quote a friend...

I very much appreciated all the kind comments from you all, I hope you can understand why it's taken me so long to get back to you and say thank you.  Honestly, I spent so much time here bragging on my Nosey Parker, I feel like this blog was more about her than anything else.  But I'm going to try to get back to doing things like I did, even though it won't ever be the same, not even close.  

OK.  

I've been a little busy these days with helping with my mother, but I've also had some time to sew.  I've made a few bitties and a lunch bag and a couple of mug totes.  Let me show you.  Bitty Block Committee is on hiatus for the summer, so I don't have as many as usual to show you.  

We did another go-round of the beach/underwater theme- I think this one fits quite well, since it's half underwater.  The message is their last will and testament and leaves ME all their fabric and quilting supplies.  Heh!

We also did a Farmer's Market theme and I made zucchini- you know how you get so many that you can't hardly give them away?  LOL  And I made one block to commemorate a funny occurrence I had with my mother at the store once when the clerk had spelled cucumbers as "cucmumbers" on the sign.  The laughter from my mother could be heard throughout the entire store.  ;)

 We also did a side swap called "Bitter Bitties" and I made a "You are the spinach in my teeth" block....

 and another one- "You are the gum on my shoe."  I did this one especially because Kimmie and Ruthie love the Wizard of Oz so much, and I thought it was pretty funny that Dorothy would step in it, even more than she already had.  LOL

 I made a couple of mug totes, for someone who goes to classes or work and wants to bring her own favorite mug with her.  This one turned out really well.... from this tutorial- by {me} and my thoughts....  I added the inside pocket.

 And this one is just adorable, from this tutorial- by Red Brolly, but honestly I think it would be better as a little purse for a kid, it seems awkward for a mug, too cube-like. The butterfly wasn't on the flap once a mug was inside, it covered part of the top of the bag.  I guess the flap could be made longer, but it would still be very deep at the top, not tapered like it is in this photo. 

I sent the first one to my partner in FLiRTS, she wanted  a mug tote or a lunch bag... So I made her a lunch bag, too, using this cute Edgy Veggy material that I had.  I found this pattern on Etsy. 

And I included a matching condiment wallet... I've sold tons of them in my own Etsy shop.

 

 I also made myself a new bag out of selvages.  I had worn my old one out, it was threadbare and shabby.  It has pockets on the outside but it's plain inside, since I use a purse organizer that fits right in it. I did this in a "quilt-as-you-go" style so I wouldn't have to make a lining.  I covered the inside seams with binding.

Thank you all again for understanding our loss and sympathizing with us.  We do appreciate you all very much.  Bizbee and Gravey have been getting a tremendous amount of attention lately and we really are treasuring them even more than ever.  A smooch/rub/head-butt from a cat is a gift, one we need and really enjoy.  

Hardest post to write-

On April 11, Nosey Parker was killed by a coyote.  We are truly devastated and distraught and miss her so much.  I've cried buckets of tears and it doesn't help at all. 

I'm not in the mood to sew or post or try to be light-hearted and I don't even want to read a lot of sympathetic responses because I know I'll just start crying again, so don't feel like you need to say anything.  I just wanted to let you know, if you didn't already.

I'll probably have to change the photo at the top of the blog because just seeing it makes me tear up again. 

Thanks for understanding. 

Bunches o' Bitties! And a great swap all finished up!

Lots of bitties to show off, since it's been so long....

This is for my friend in Brazil, Sil, she chose doors and windows for her month in the bee swap- I made her a little tree trunk gnome house, the doors open up to reveal the occupant.

And her other one is a taller block, a screen door that opens on to a nice beach.

In the bitty block swap, we did chickens one month- these are mine, everyone got to choose their color. 

 And one month, we did bees- this is my bee. 

 And in the interest of keeping it real and showing what a dumb butt I can be- I give you this- a perfect example of how reliant I have become on spell-check!  I made this block for the Sept banner for my perpetual calendar and after making it and writing the words on the test and giving myself a big fat red A+, I realized the next DAY that I had spelled "committee" incorrectly!  I showed this to my husband and we both
had the best laugh we'd had in a while!

 I ended up remaking the tiny notebook so no one would be able to rub my nose in it forever.  And then, I ended up putting the tiny pencil right over where the mistake would have been, anyway.  Geez.  I hope you're laughing at me, I know I would be if it was YOU!

Then, Ruthie picked Harry Potter for her bee month- I made her Luna Lovegood's SpectreSpecs....

 ...and Harry's cupboard room, under the stairs.  This pattern is from fandom in stitches, a great site full of fun free paper-piecing quilt patterns.  I shrunk it down to fit a 3.5" block.

 And I made the door 3D.

 And I received this wonderful package of goodies in our swap- FLiRTS- a quilted tote bag made by Julie, jgmehlin at Flickr.  She went crazy making me the most wonderful things in the whole swap!  Tote bag, sketch book with quilted cover, tissue holder, a piece of manatee fabric, just so much great stuff!  Thanks, Julie!

I love both sides of the bag!  Little cats are all over the place!

 The top zips shut.

 Inside, my initials!  No, I'm not into S & M!   And pockets, 4 of them!

 Sketchbook with pencil!

 The bag hadn't been out of the package for 10 seconds when Bizbee jumped into it!

 And this is what I made for the same swap, for my friend Kimmie.  She wanted a sewing machine cover really badly, and loves Wizard of Oz.  So my friend Jennifer thought I should adapt the Sew Out Loud block by badskirt amy block and make it a ruby slipper instead of a boot, a brilliant idea on her part, and that's what I did.  And I love how it turned out.  We had found some great pin fabric in TX in January and we knew that this would be the perfect use for it. 

 Pockets on both sides- in the rainbow spectrum.

 And the little electrical cord attaches to scissors and they store in the purple pocket. 

Kimmie really likes it and it fits her machine so all is right with the world of quilting and swapping.  :)

Thank you all for the nice words about my mother.  I was over there this morning and gave her a shower, she now has a really cool sliding chair/bench that sits half in the tub and half in the bathroom, making bathing so much safer, it even has a seatbelt.  My brother and her caregiver Nancy were both there, too, so we all had a nice visit after the shower, while Mum napped.  We kind of wore her out.  

Sorry for the marathon post and million photos! I think I'm caught up now, so I won't put you thru this again!

The Perpetual Project- :)

 Long time, no blog!  Life's been a little busy around here lately, my mom is not doing very well, she's 92 and having major issues so I've been spending a lot of time over there helping out my dad, and trying to help her.  She's had appointments and exams and an MRI and a neuro-psychological exam.  Still waiting to see the neurologist, but the preliminary diagnosis is Alzheimer's, but maybe with Parkinson's thrown in.  Home Health Care is doing a great job by sending over therapists to help us learn how to deal with the physical issues and troubles with swallowing, weakness, etc.  It's very heartbreaking to see her going thru all this and it's exhausting for all of us.  Needless to say, free time has dwindled away so while it seems like there isn't too much to show off right now, I haven't blogged in so long, that there turns out to be quite a bit.  

Here's the newest big project, I started this a couple of months ago- a perpetual  calendar using some of my precious bitty blocks from the group I'm in on Flickr, The Bitty Block Committee.  I made one big background piece and then made a monthly banner for each month and an extra one for birthdays.

 This is how I'll denote special days, with a wire embellishment.  I need to add some beads to it!

 I had so much fun with 2 girlfriends when I was with them last, going thru all the bitties I have accumulated and picking out 5 for each month's banner.  We were up til about 2 AM going thru them over and over, then willowing the bunches down, it was wonderful seeing all the bitties together like that, I have hundreds and hundreds of them, and I broke up a lot of sets but it's worth it. 

I'll make a new post soon to show you what else I've been working on in my sparse free time.  I received a great package in a swap called FLiRTS- Fab Little Random Treasures Swap, where we pick a difficulty level and then choose 5 things from that level that we might like to receive, then our partner picks one thing and makes it- I SCORED big time and got a great tote bag, I'll show you soon!  Can't tell or show you what I made yet, as it's still in transit.  

Anyway, I hope you like my calendar!  I have it hanging in my office near the computer and I love looking at it.  It's an original design, I kind of made it up as I went along and built it from the inside out, to fit the banners.  Big thanks to all my fellow Bitty Blockheads, I couldn't have made this without them!