And the Winner is...

 I had my youngest son draw the name and the winner of my hand dyed fabrics is....

*ytsmom* who's comment was:

"I enjoy staying inside where it is air-conditioned, and sewing! We have been having terribly hot weather here,with temps up to 106F, so I have gotten somethings finished!"

Congratulations ytsmom!! 

Check out her quilting blog at Downstairs Quilting

I have sent you an email so I can get your name and mailing address.

I was excited to see so many people enter my draw, I had a total of 75 comments with great stories so I guess I found the right topic and type of item for a giveaway! Glad you are all finding ways to keep busy and cool this summer.  I unfortunately don't have air conditioning in my house or a basement to keep cool but I do have a small air conditioner in my Shack so once I get my new Bliss upgrade I'll be back at my quilting!!

Lazy Angle Ruler

This is a guild comfort quilt that was made for a demonstration using the Lazy Angle Ruler at one of our meetings.  We cut out the blocks to make the Hugs and Kisses by Jaybird Designs but then started playing with the layout and changed it to this.  Thanks Audrey for reminding me of this, nice to know your still there to help me out as your traveling across Alaska! 

I took a few guild quilt tops home this summer to quilt for free as it is the perfect time for me to help out when I'm not so busy.

I used Popcorn for the panto and white So Fine Thread.

I also got another package in the mail from Desley in Australia. We have been having a lot of fun with our 'Goodie' exchanges and hope she like what I sent her this time! :)

Note the fabric roll of Japanese fabric, just as yummy as the candies!!!

Thimballina Bag

When I was at Gruber's Quilt Shop in Minnisota I found this cute bag pattern called Thimballina designed by Aunties Two.   On Tuesday I finally sat down at my sewing machine and made this little bag.  I changed the closure on it and used a magnetic snap instead of a button and ties. I used a Fat Eight bundle I bought at Sew Batik and it went together very quickly. 

This bag is very similar to the clothes line bags and bowls but you use batting instead of clothes line and sewing it is much gentler on your machine. Ask me how I know?  :)

Here is one of many clothesline bowls I had made alongside my worn out needle shaft from my Janome 6500!!  I'm sure all the quilts I quilted on my Janome before getting my longarm might have something to do with this needing replaced.  But if your at a retreat making these bowls and your machine is making a terrible banging noise and all your quilting friends question the condition of your sewing machine.....stop sewing!!  Don't just say "yeah my machine always sounds like that when I make these bowls".  They would agree I definitely worn that part out with a BANG!

I have really enjoyed reading all your comments on my Summer Giveaway post, thank you to everyone that entered, I honestly wasn't expecting this great of response after boring you with my vacation pictures :)

  If you haven't entered yet you still have plenty of time to leave a comment on that post, I'll make the draw on July 30.

I wanted to take a minute to point out that many of you that used your Google accounts to leave a comment are No-Reply Bloggers. That means you do not have your email visible on your account so I can't contact you if you win.  If you like to enter other giveaways and have never won this maybe why.

So here is a great tutorial to check if your a no-reply blogger.

Summer Giveaway!

 There's not a lot of quilting going on here as the weather is so nice and I am spending more time outside than at my sewing machine.  So I though why not have a Giveaway to celebrate the lazy days of summer.

The prize is this colourful Rainbow fat quarter bundle of my hand dyed fabric.   These fabrics definitely shout "Summer"!

So all you have to do is leave a comment and if you want you could tell me what you enjoy doing on a hot summers day besides quilting.  I need to know I'm not the only one slacking in the quilting department this summer.

If you comment 'anonymous' please just add your name and email so I can contact you if you win.

 I'll mail the fabric bundle international too and make the draw next week on July 30th.  :)

*Giveaway is now closed*

Fabric Shopping

I did manage to do a bit of fabric shopping on our trip and stopped at three quilts shops on our drive home from Minneapolis.  (We flew from Minneapolis to Orlando).  The first one was Gruber's Quilt Shop in St. Cloud, I had been here before and it is one of my favorite shops. Then we stopped in Mayville, North Dakota and shopped at Sew Batik and Faye's Henhouse.  The picture above shows all my fabric purchases.

 For local guild members that are doing the Double Trouble Mystery Quilt that I am teaching, here is what I have picked for my two fabrics.

I found one quilt shop when we were in Florida and only bought fabrics to make Daniel pajama shorts.  I thought that would be a good way to remember our trip without filling up my suitcase with fabric. So I have been sewing just not back into quilting yet.

The reason I have not being quilting is I have decided to get an upgrade on my Millennium and get the new Bliss rail system, I ordered it today!!!  I was very lucky to have the opportunity to try Bliss on our trip.  I have some wonderful online quilting friends and Linda is one of them. She lives near Winnipeg invited me over to try her new Blissed Millennium. I was so excited to finally meet Linda as we have known each other for a few years from the APQS forum but had never meet.  She also invited Mary, another APQS forum member over so I got to meet two online friends and it was so much fun!  We talked nonstop for 2hours while the boys waited patiently upstairs :)   Thank you Linda for letting me try your machine and for a wonderful afternoon. The three of us will definitely have to get together the next time I am in Winnipeg, but without the kids!

Legoland

Legoland Florida just recently opened last fall and I was really glad we could take Daniel to a place that was special to him on this trip.  He loves Lego and it is the gift he asks for when his birthday and xmas roll around.  As you can see behind him there were no line ups!   The heat kept people away so we rarely had to wait more than five minutes for any rides, if we had to wait at all.

Legoland was built in the old Cypress Gardens so there was lots of shade and made for a beautiful setting for the park.

When I saw this sign below I thought what a perfect photo opportunity :)

It is hard to believe that a whole theme park could be created around one toy but I think Lego is one of the most brilliant toys ever invented.

We had to check out the Miniland displays a few times as there was so much to see.

Life sized animals all made from Lego.

Kids actually get to drive boats and cars....which can provide a lot of entertainment for the adults! 

Getting ready to hit the shops!

And of coarse a picture with a Lego Minifigure...that's not so mini.

Race Day

Number 24 Jeff Gordon has been Andrews favorite driver since he watched his first race when he was 9 years old.  Back then he asked me who my favorite driver was and I didn't know any of them so asked him to list a few names for me.  When he said Jimmie Johnson I asked what number is he, "48", what color is his car " blue and silver", I said he can be my favorite.  Well if you are familiar with Nascar you know how unpopular I am in this house :)   Jimmie Johnson won his first championship that year and went on to win a total of 5 in a row, very rarely done in any sport.  I also now know a lot more about Nascar than I ever thought possible but I think it is important to take interest in your kids interests.

I do not have many pictures of me or my 48 car as they were on Tim's camera which was stolen on our way home!  That was very upsetting and the only down side to our trip.  It was taken out of our checked luggage in baggage handling in Orlando so lost half our our trip pictures.

We got passes for the infield and the boys got to see the garage and inspection areas and spotted a few drivers and crew chiefs.

One other special moment in our trip was Andrew was able to meet up with a few of his online buddies as three were coming to the race.  He has found a great group of friends online with the same interests that he has and they talk online everyday.   I totally understand this as I have a wonderful group of online quilting friends as well that I would love to meet one day.

This was Friday's Nationwide Race which had about a third of the people than the Saturday Sprint Cup race, I don't like crowds so really enjoyed watching this race.  The race was at night under the lights and we watched a thunderstorm to the west and never got a drop of rain.

This next picture was taking at the Saturday race when there wasn't an empty seat.   There were 115,000 people at that race and I was impressed at how well they organized the buses to shuttle people back to the parking lots.

I did have one picture of me on my camera, just to prove I was there!  :)

It was 100'f during the day with very high humidity, but this Canadian girl survived.

Daytona Beach

We left for our summer vacation the day after the boys finished school (June 29) and flew down to Daytona Beach, Florida.   Yes we went to Florida in July....call me crazy but we had a reason.  My oldest son's favorite sport to watch is Nascar and it is not a very popular sport in Canada so he get teased at school as it seems the only acceptable sport to enjoy in this country is hockey.   We wanted to make this a special trip that they would both remember for life.  So we got tickets to two races at the Daytona International Speedway on July 6th and 7th and then for my youngest son we spent a day at the new Legoland located just south of Orlando.

We booked a hotel in Daytona Beach right on the ocean, here is the view from our balcony.

I had never swam in the ocean so this was a special treat for me as I love being in the water.  Tim and I would go for morning walks on the beach and then wake the boys and we would swim all morning.

Here is the view down the beach at low tide, I loved that the beach was not crowded as most of the buildings you see are condominiums.

I thought it was pretty cool that they allow cars to drive and park on the beach. 

Here are the boys enjoying the waves.

I have a lot of pictures to go through of the trip and will post a few of the race in my next post.