And the winner is ....

Ooops!  I shut the computer down and forgot to write down the number I generated. 

Ok I will try again.  

And the winner is.... #64 Rhonda who said

"I have two sewing machines: a Necchi that I bought in the mid 80s and a Janome that my hubby bought me last year (after he got tired of listening to me "talk" to my older machine when it decided to become cantankerous!)  Thanks for the opportunity to win fabric -- one can NEVER have too much fabric!"

Congrats!  Email me your address and I will ship it right out!

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I know I have been a little quiet, I have a lot to share but last week was Spring Break!  I was camping in the mountains with no iphone service.  It was wonderful!  Despite there being rain and fog! More to come!

****

When I got back Friday, if I was home I was finishing my DQS10 quilt.  I did a lot of hand quiting and some beading.  But it is finished and I think it turned out great.  

Monday I boxed it to ship with some goodies to ???? Then Monday night we had a vicious storm that had me up half the night.  I was too sleepy Tuesday night when I got home to blog.   I will share latter when I get my pictures upIoaded so I read a few blogs and went to bed early. 

***

I got a present in the mail today... a beautiful DQS10 from The Bella Modiste.  Check it out!  I will blog about it later.

***

I hope every one has a great rest of the week. 

Please take a moment to say a brief prayer...

for those in Christ Church, New Zealand

where no lights and port-a-loos are still the norm...

for those in Japan

dealing with radiation and rebuilding and loss still not confirmed...

For a solider named Dustin in Stone Mt, NC

who is going back soon to Afghanistan to hunt terrorists...

and a prayer for a blogging friend

whose mother was diagnosed with lung cancer last week...

Keep Dreaming...Colleen



Sock monkey puppet of Amelia Earhart 
hanging out in my library with Al Einstein and Abe Lincoln.



Quilt blocks for Cancer update

I have been overwhelmed with the support I have received for my Relay for Life Shining Stars quilt.  Including the block I made I have 13 blocks so far with some more enroute.  I even have 150 five inch squares coming from Australia!

Thank you to everyone who has sent me blocks.  I will assemble it in April and get it quilted.  The raffle will be in May with a winner being picked the beginning of June.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



My three Block Swap Adventure blocks for Jan, Feb, Mar.





DQS10 and One thing One Week Challenge!

I am sooo happy to have my DQS10 quilt top finished!!! I really should have had it done weeks ago.  I had a bit of a block about it.  Has that ever happened to you?  You have a project that is creativly challenging, you know what you want to do, you WANT to do it but every night when you come home something keeps you from working on it?  Friday I started working on it and it just went!  Saturday and into Sunday!  I even basted it, and machine quilted the blocks and borders outling and in the ditch.  The rest will be hand quilted using pearl cottons this week during Spring Break before I send off to??????.  Shhh, its a secret I cant tell you where it is going...yet!  Below is the tale of this quilt.

Once upon a time there was a quiet quilter who learned to sew on her grandmother's old White sewing machine.  Her teachers were the shows she watched on PBS, the quilt books she read, and the Quiltnet emails she exchanged.  The quiet quilter created wonderful quilts that told the stories of those she gifted them to.  Then change and upheaval came and left our quiet quilter sleeping in a closet, packed away with her fabric and threads and scissors. 

 After many years and more upheaval and illness, change again came to the quiet quilter.  She was awoken as her fabrics, threads, scissors, and other tools were unpacked into a beautiful blue green space.  The quiet quilter relearned her old quilting ways and found new ones in quilt stores and flickr groups and blogs.  And she again began to create beautiful quilts, this time telling her own stories.  

Inspired by her new world she created The Dream.  She paper pieced a woman representing herself and all quilters, climbing upon the blocks of traditional and modern, past and present, pattern and fabric.  A rainbow of stars made with fabrics from the past, set on a Kona gray background, swirl into innovation.  The woman, the quiet quilter, wearing a modern dress in the newest fabric with fabulous aqua heels.  The Dream shows the quiet quilter as she was in the past, who she is in the present, and who she may yet become in the future.  And through it all the quiet quilter realized that a quilt is a dream made in fabric and thread.

The Beginning..

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Now aided by her faithful companion Kalli.



Swap blocks

I just wanted to share two blocks I'm sent out to my March swap partners for Block Swap Adventure.  Yes thats plural I was asked to take a second partner as we had a new member.

Theresa asked for a star block in spring/summer fabrics using modern fabrics.  She especially liked large florals.

She also said dots so I gave her everything she asked for.
*****
Brenda is new to swapping and said she was up for almost anything but batiks and flurescents.  Though she added she would like farm related blocks so I made her a Sawtooth star too.

She seemed receptive to modern fabrics so I think she will like it.
*****
I finished the top for my DSQ10 quilt. 

 I m thinking of using the  deep purple as a narrow border between the rainbow fabric.

I will finish it up and baste it tomorrow.  I plan on hand quilting it next week during spring break using pearl cottons.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



Ahhhh, my happy place.



Foto finish--Pink

Pink

This is from my peony bush.  I love peonies and wanted one so my parents got me one for my birthday two years ago.  These are beautiful flowers just not what I asked for.  I told the person at the reputable garden center I wanted an old fashioned large full petaled dark or light pink peony.  She was said I would love this new variety, it gets beautiful pink petals.  It does its just is not a nice full peony like I wanted.  Of course I did not know until it bloomed months later.  I live in a town home so there is really no place to plant another one.  Oh well it is beautiful.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



These pink and white striped phlox gound cover are some of my favorite spring flowers.