Category Archives: Giveaway

Charitable Donation Winner

Hi Everyone! Happy Tuesday. Wow, as always, summer came quick. Never fails that the temp jumps from mild to crazy hot in a matter of days around here. We were floating along with lovely 78 degree temps and it is in the high 90’s this week. I am not a fan of hot weather. Makes me ever so grateful for the A/C unit. The older I get, the more I dislike hot weather (thank you menopause.)

One positive side to the heat is that my husband’s berry patch is going crazy. We have blueberries and boysenberries that are ripening and they are so yummy. Right now we are picking about 5 pints daily of the two combined (more boysen’s than blue’s). Ray is all about making jam so I suspect that he will take over the kitchen on Sunday and put up jam. When he does this, I happily become chief bottle washer and he does the rest.

Thanks to everyone who entered my blogiversary celebration giveaway by leaving me a comment about their favorite non-profit. I truly enjoyed reading through each comment and found it interesting to see what everyone holds near and dear to their heart. If you haven’t read the post, I offered to donate $25 to the winner’s favorite charity. My sister, Patti, then piped up with an offer to match my donation, bringing it up to $50. Because, you know, she’s awesome like that. 🙂

And the winner is……….. Number 9, Sarah Goer!! Sarah was one of the first virtual quilty friends I made when I began this blog last summer. A talented quilter and writer, Sarah is also a stay at home mom to two little ones. I enjoy her blog and especially love reading about the projects she does with (and for) her kiddos. Her son (about 5-ish years old) is on his second quilting project already! Do yourself a favor and take a peek at her blog, Things I Make. Sarah left a wonderful comment as an entry to my giveaway. See what you think:

“Happy blogiversary! What a special and unique giveaway. And thank you Patti for contributing as well! The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has a special place in my heart as my friend’s 18-year-old daughter (who I’ve known since she was 2 or 3) is living with CF. She just graduated from high school and is on her way to college. I admire how hard she has worked while also having daily treatments and regular hospital stays to deal with her CF.”

In honor of Sarah’s friend, $50 has been donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation!

Finally, here is a peak at the quilting I am doing on the batik Honeymoon quilt. It is a traditional nine patch pattern with each block being made up of nine 5″ charm squares. The center of each nine patch is a blue square which I quilted with a large flower of one sort or another.

I have all twelve of the flowers done and just started the filler pattern to go around the flowers. I am doing a leafy vine.

It is kind of difficult to see the pattern against this particular batik because is it so busy and leafy. This is the only square I have done so far though. I think I should be able to get this finished up fairly soon. Seems like it is going quickly.

That’s it for now. Wishing each of you a wonderful summery week! The season for iced coffee, iced tea, iced water… get the idea? Stay cool and enjoy.

Linking to Freemotion Mavericks, Sew Cute Tuesday and Freemotion by the River. Links to all of these sites are available at the top of this page, under Link Ups.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

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I can hardly believe it, but today marks one year since I first published my first post on this lovely little blog of mine. This post is my 97th. Who knew I would think of something to say 97 times!! I have had such a fun time this year writing posts, tracking my projects, and best of all, meeting so many friends in this on-line quilting community.

I read a lot of blogs. From food, vintage collecting and thrifting, finance information and investing, to humor and parenting (which should go hand in hand, in my opinion!) there are blogs about anything and everything. However, the quilting community of bloggers is unique. This community is caring, respectful, and supportive. Honestly, this is a great group of people. There are all levels of quilters in the blog world – some are experts with endless talent, many are beginners and everyone has a common love of cutting fabric into bits and creating something from it. The philanthropic and caring nature of this group impresses me no end. I have seen so many situations where another quilter is experiencing a hardship and is immediately supported by quilters as a group. Conversely, when there is reason to celebrate, this community is right there cheering you on.

I am grateful for all that I learned this year. It was nervewracking to publish my first post. I was not at all sure anyone would want to read what I had written. I remember thinking, well, I would have at least six readers (my five sisters and my parents!) Here it is one year later and I have nearly 100 followers. Thank you.

Gratitude also goes to my son, Andrew. He set up this self-hosted blog, does the updates and other miscellaneous tasks needed to keep it running. When I come with questions, can I do this, how do I do that, he is so patient with his explanations. Better yet, he often just makes the changes I want. Take a look at those gorgeous social media buttons on the upper right side of the page. Yep, thank you Andrew!

I am truly grateful for this community. Getting involved with other bloggers has enabled me to improve my quilting skills. The tutorials that are so generously provided and painstakingly written are such a great source of learning material (hah – pun intended!) Just this year, using tutorials, I learned to use a Hera marker for quilting, found cleaner methods for binding my quilts, learned to look at color values when deciding which fabrics to use in a project, and free motion quilting – oh, how thankful I am for the endless posts on FMQ! The many link parties that are hosted each week have provided me with exposure so that readers could find my little blog as well as allowed me to find other blogs that I may never have stumbled across.

It has been a blast and I look forward to my second year! In celebration of this milestone, I wanted to do something special. I considered a giveaway of some sort of fabric but it didn’t seem right. Really, don’t we have enough fabric? Aren’t our shelves bursting with it? Be honest now. 🙂 Instead, let’s celebrate in the giving way that our community is known for. I would like to make a donation to your favorite non-profit. Leave me a comment with a link to your favorite charity. Maybe add one or two lines about the charity. (Who knows, maybe others reading the comments will be intrigued by your charity and get involved.) I will pick one lucky winner and donate $25.00 (USD) to your charity. I am looking forward to reading about the organizations that are near and dear to your heart. This type of giveaway also allows me to include international readers. Previously, I have always included only USA readers in my giveaways because the shipping costs are so expensive. But this giveaway is open to anyone! Just give me the link to contact your non-profit. This giveaway is open until Monday, June 8, 2015. I will announce the winner on Tuesday the 9th. I hope everyone will enter so that your charity has a chance for a donation.

UPDATE: The donation to your favorite charity has just been matched by my sister Patti! She is celebrating my one year blogaversary with me and wants to double the donation. Yay!! This means that $50.00 will be donated to the charity of one lucky winner. Isn’t she the best? See her comment offering to make this match. Thank you Patti!!!

I hope you all know that I am thankful for your readership and even more thankful for your friendship.

Linking to Thankful Thursday at Quilting Jetgirl and Lorna at Let’s Bee Social.

Mother’s Day Giveaway Winner

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It was a great weekend! I hope everyone was able to celebrate Mother’s Day in some fashion! I wanted to share a couple of things. One is that I drew the lucky winner for the Sew Mama Sew giveway that Needle and Foot participated in. I had so many wonderful comments to read through and the lucky winner (by random drawing) is number 80!

Peggy wrote that a favorite memory of her mom was “Seeing the excitement on my mom’s face when she was getting ready to go for a long awaited visit to her family in VA. and seeing the photos/video of her visit afterwards.”

When I set up this giveway, I asked readers to share a memory about their mom, being a mom, or really anything to do with motherhood. I knew I was drawing the winner on Mother’s Day so it was perfect to honor mom’s everywhere. Wow, what a great response! I loved all of the comments and thought I would share a few with you. Really touching to read these. Hope you enjoy them.

From Judy: As a kid I always wanted 12 children. My mom told me I should marry a farmer if that were the case. Well, I didn’t marry a farmer but managed to collect 12 children through the years. By the way I was an only child. You always want what you don’t have.

From Gene: My favorite memory of mom comes from a very scary time in our lives. My mom was very sick with pancreatitis and had been in a coma for over a month. She was in an ICU unit and we could only visit for brief periods each day. One day we walked in and were met by her nurse – a guy with a BIG smile – who said ” I have a surprise for you today” He pulled back the curtain around the bed and Mom was awake. She smiled so sweetly at us. Although it was still a long recovery, MOM was back with us and hope was restored. Years later, Mom is still with me and her sweet smile makes my heart sing.

From Kathy: I lived for a time in Seoul, South Korea. My Mom came to visit me, but had not told me she quit dyeing her hair. What a shock to see her so gray! I never thought of my parents as getting older until then. Mothers and fathers should always be here. I just visited her grave for the first time on Sunday (600 miles away). I talked to her and Dad. I miss them so much and can’t believe it’s been 5 and 7 years. I still find myself thinking that I have to tell her this or that and start to reach for the phone.

From Diana: One of my favorite memories of my mom is her helping me fix up my first home – painting the kitchen and planting 2 lilac bushes in the back yard. Lilacs were both our favorite.

From Betsy: The best part is seeing my babies in my grandchildren. It’s like a second chance at seeing a loved child grow

From Linda: I am a coffeeholic! My son learned at a VERY young age (3-4) that the way to mommy’s heart was through coffee and chocolate…so he did both. One morning he used my one cup coffeemaker to make me a cup of coffee. He used THREE SCOOPS of coffee in my one cup maker. Yes, it was MUD. To make it flavored he melted an entire Hershey Bar into the coffee. He brought it up to my bedroom and put it under my nose next to the edge of the bed to wake me up. The best part of waking up…my kid. YES, I drank it….chocolate covered grounds and all.

From Doris: My favorite memory of my mom is when she would bring me lilacs from her yard. My mom passed on Mother’s Day several years ago.

From Karen: My mom loved to sing! She has Alzheimer’s now, but when I am with her, I put on a little Perry Como or Ansy Williams and watch her eyes light up as she sings along.

From Melissa: My mom passed away five years ago. I really miss her especially when I’m sewing because she taught me how to sew . When I miss her the most I create a quilt and give it to the nursing home where she spent her last days .

From Ramona: I have so many wonderful memories of my mom. Unfortunately, this is my first mother’s day without her and I am trying to think of all the fun memories. She loved to sew, knit and create! She passed that love down to me and taught me how to sew which we shared. I will be bringing her 1950’s Singer machine home with me this summer. I learned to sew on this machine so it will be a treasure.

Thank to everyone that left a comment. There are many more memories that were shared. Too many to include here. If you would like to read more of them, check out the comments section on this post.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

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Hello and welcome to Needle and Foot. As you probably know, today is the spring giveaway day for Sew Mama Sew. I love these events. It’s a great way to meet lots of bloggers that I might not have come across otherwise. I know that you are likely hopping from one blog to the next today, checking out the giveaways — so I will be brief!

Having been quilting fanatically for the past three years, I started this blog last summer to further immerse myself in the quilting community. I have a passion for all fabric and lately have been on the hunt for vintage fabric. If you would like to learn more about me, check out my “About” page up at the top of my site. I have pictures of my finished projects available for you on the “Quilt Gallery” page; the link is at the top. To get to know what I am all about, you might like to read some of my more popular posts written over the past ten months that I have been blogging. I hope you will enjoy taking a peek at my world and that I get a chance to get to know you through your comments.

Four Weddings and Four Dresses

Honeymoon Quilt – 16 Years Late

A Finish With a Flange

Paying Homage to High School Home Ec

I am happy to be offering this wonderful collection of Kaffe Fassett fabric for one lucky person.

These are 1/2 yard cuts and will be a fun addition to some lucky person’s stash.

Green is one of my favorite colors and it pairs well with the lavendar shot cotton.

To enter the giveaway, please leave me a comment telling of a favorite memory about your mother or about your experiences being a mom. Actually, anything to do with motherhood since Mother’s Day will be celebrated this weekend. If you are following me, that is worthy of a second entry. Just let me know how you follow me. If you would like to start following me, please enter your email address at the top right side of the screen to subscribe or follow me on Bloglovin and you can also have a second entry. (This giveaway is open through Sunday, May 10th at 6:00 pm pacific standard time.) <THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.>

Thanks so much for stopping by Needle and Foot. Wishing you the best of luck with all of the giveaways today. Happy sewing to you all.

(I am sorry to say that due to the cost of postage, this giveaway is open to participants in the United States only.)

The Holy’s and the Jolly’s – Christmas Cards

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When I was growing up (the 1960’s) it seemed like we received tons of Christmas cards. Maybe my parents were just incredibly popular or maybe, because there was no internet, email, facebook, blogging, instagram, or twitter, that was how people wished each other a Merry Christmas. Actually, it was probably both. But really, we received a billion cards each season. My mom would string them up and display them or keep them in baskets to look at. I loved checking the mailbox across the street and bringing in a veritable pile of cards. (I still love checking the mailbox which is 1/2 mile from my house and usually only contains junk mail or the occasional bill that can’t be paid on-line. Old habits die hard.)

The best part was after Christmas because then my sisters and I got to “play” with the cards. We hoarded them, traded them, and sorted them. Remember, I have five sisters and even so, there were enough cards for all of us to have some. This was a ritual for us and was something to do after the excitement of Christmas had mellowed and we still had that second week of school vacation. When we sorted them, we classified them in two groups; the ‘Holy’s’ and the ‘Jolly’s’. You probably know which cards fell into each pile.

The Holy’s:

or maybe –

These were fine. They were pretty and, attending Catholic school for the first eight years, we knew this was what Christmas was (supposed to be) all about. But then there were these – the Jolly’s.

In large part (no pun intended) isn’t this what Christmas is about to a kid? It was for me.

I wish people still sent cards in the mail. I know that the postage has become ridiculously expensive and usually I am up-to-date on the news and what everyone’s kids look like because of Facebook but I love the tradition of finding a card in the mailbox! Such a simple pleasure.

Christmas is just around the corner. As my family says, only three more sleeps and my boys will be home. Time for major grocery shopping and a bit of house cleaning as well as finishing up the gift wrapping. This will leave no time for sewing or blogging. I have still one gift that I am making and I am fairly certain it will not be done in time for Christmas. It is turning out so pretty and I don’t want to hurry it. The recipient will have to wait patiently and I think (hope?) it will be done shortly after Christmas. 🙂

Before I wish you all a Merry Christmas though, I have one bit of news. I am so excited! This is my 51st post and I just got my 51st follower (between email followers and Bloglovin followers combined.) Doesn’t that seem auspicious? Fortuitous? Just sort of cool? I had hoped to have 50 followers before the end of 2014 – that was a goal I had set when I started posting earlier this summer. I made it! I was so nervous when I first posted on Needle and Foot – that feeling of what if I have a party and no one shows up? But look, all of you showed up!! I have had almost 20,000 page views so far. Yikes!!! That makes me happy.

Giving thanks for the friends that I have made through this little blog of mine, I want to do a small giveaway. If you are a follower of mine, leave a comment as to your preference – tea or coffee? Easy peasy. I will draw a name in a couple of days and send the preferred treat off to a lucky winner. (Be specific – coffee – whole bean or ground? Decaf or Caffeinated? Teabags or loose tea? Have a special flavor that you love?) We have some really yummy local teas and coffees and I am looking forward to treating someone to this. Note: be sure that I have an email address to reach you if you are chosen.

By the way, I am not going anywhere close to the post office until after the holidays. Etsy sales were good this month and I have been going to the post office constantly so I will mail this off after Christmas.

Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday season. Hope you are able to spend it with your friends or family as the case may be. See you in the new year!

Such a fun weekend and a giveaway!

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First of all, you might remember that a couple of weeks ago I went to see my son in the Central Valley. He is all set up in a nice apartment and I left feeling like I wanted to make something for him. He recently bought some furniture and I thought a new pillow for the couch would be a good project. I used scraps that I had and a pillow form that was sitting there waiting to be used. After piecing the strips, I did some quick straight line quilting that is maybe 1/2″ apart. I didn’t mark anything, just eyeballed it. The back is an envelope style backing. It came together so quickly and I bet I have enough fabric left to make another for him.

Last post I mentioned that I was leaving for our annual sisters’ weekend. As always we had such a great time. We don’t see each other often enough, especially considering I don’t live all that far away from three of my sisters. Life just gets in the way. Anyway, the weekend was mostly comprised of visiting, eating, visiting and then eating again. (Really, what more do we need??) One of my sisters lives in Colorado and brought each of us a pair of crazy socks.

On Saturday afternoon we took a trip to a quilt shop in Sunnyvale, CA. It was called Eddie’s Quilting Bee. This was really indulgent of my sisters since I was the only one that really wanted to check the place out. (They’re so good to me!) Eddie’s shop was fairly well stocked. I wasn’t crazy about the way it was organized, or laid out, but I found a few treasures nevertheless.

The really bright piece with the butterfly showing in the center is from a line of Alexander Henry fabrics called ‘Querida’. It has a Latin flair and the colors are amazing. I don’t have a true plan for it but wanted to have it anyway. The piece with the text will be used as the backing for a table runner. Love the wine themed words. Finally there was a little fat eighth in a basket for a buck and I love the colors. Just another addition to the stash.

I have a really challenging game for you. 😉 This is where the giveaway comes in!

My sisters and I took a selfie (and being that all of us are way too old to be taking selfies, the quality is less than perfect) in front of Eddie’s Quilting Bee. Can you figure out which one is me?

Here is a version of the picture with numbers. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment with the number that corresponds to the picture that you think is me. If you want to have another entry, you can follow me on Bloglovin and leave a comment that you did so (or if you already do, just let me know that).

The giveaway stays open until Saturday, August 16th. At that point,I will use some sort of really scientific method to pick the winner. 🙂 I have three really pretty fat quarters for the winner. They are watercolor inspired, muted florals from Kathy Davis’ line called Enchantment that was designed for Free Spirit. Take a look.

Remember to make sure I have a way to contact you if you are selected! Leave an email address in the comment if you are a no-reply blogger. Giveaway is closed (I’m number 4). Lucky winner is Judy V.!!

Linking up with Anything Goes Monday, Sew Cute Tuesday, Freemotion by the River, Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and Let’s Bee Social. Also with Needle and Foot Thursday, TGIFF, and Finish it up Friday. All of these wonderful link-ups are listed in the tab at the top of the blog.