A Giveaway!

We have a winner!

I did this giveaway because I thought it was time I did one and I knew it would be fun for all of you but little did I know how much fun I would have! The names you all came up with were brilliant and I know I am actually going to use one of them eventually. You peeps are the best! Anyways, the winner in the random drawing is Pat from Bits and Pieces. Her name for the quilt was "Fruits of My Garden". Congratulations Pat. Send me your snail mail address and I'll get this package of goodies off to you (catsonmyquilts@gmail.com). In the meantime my husband and I had a fabulous anniversary dinner last night in a NH inn, the Three Chimneys Inn in Durham, NH. 33 years and counting!

I missed my 100th post, I don't know when, sometime around Christmas. So I have decided on this first full day of summer, after the most horrendous winter we had, it was time for a giveaway.

This giveaway is inspired by the two recent fruit and vegetable quilts I made. Hubby called them "Fruit of the Loom" which is not a good name in my opinion.

For the winner of this giveaway there will be a table runner, a small surprise (think Jello! That's all I'm saying!), a couple of NH treats, and something quilt related.

All you have to do is leave a comment for this post only with a name for the original quilt pictured first in this post. Please make sure there is a way to contact you either through e-mail or a blog. The deadline will be on June 29th, my 33rd wedding anniversary, at 11:00 pm Eastern time and even though I am asking for a name for the quilt, the drawing will be entirely random. The winner will be announced Monday, June 30th. Everyone is eligible, except my family members-that means you Caryl.

The blogging community has been a lot of fun for me. I have found so much inspiration amongst quilting bloggers and have got so many decorating ideas from others and along with making a lot of new friends this whole experience has been the best. So spread the word and good luck.

A Give Away to Check Out

Go to Canton Village Quilt Works to check out her give away. She will quilt a quilt for you, up to a twin size, if you are the winner. That's a pretty good give away!

And stay tuned-if I can ever get my act together here I will be having a quilt related give away soon, very soon.

And this picture has nothing to do with this post. Just baby C watching Nemo in my Mother-in-law's rocking chair from when she was a little girl (she's almost 87).

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my hubby who wanted to have children, I think, so he'd have someone to play with. He has a new little buddy to play with now and having as much fun as he did all those years ago. He's a wonderful dad and husband.

House Renovation

I think with the state of the economy lately people are staying put rather than moving because I have had a few e-mails lately about the addition we put on our house last year at this time. So I thought I would answer the questions I have been asked with this post. The picture below is our house before the work started. We've lived here for 24 years and love the neighborhood. We're the last house on a dead end street and have great neighbors. So we knew we wanted to stay put.

We tore down the small one car garage and had a two car garage built with a room over it.My biggest worry was the transition from the house to the addition. This is the view from our kitchen/living room into the new great room. You have to go up 6 steps but it is a nice wide door and it feels like part of the rest of the house. We have french doors for the winter so we don't heat it if we are not using it.

The view from the great room to the kitchen is just as nice.

In order to save money we did much of the finish work ourselves including all the painting, all the woodwork (we still haven't installed the baseboards), the tiling and finish work on the fireplace, the bamboo floor installation, the house siding on the entire house, the roof and when I say "we" I mean mostly my husband! I did find all the furniture for the room which is all vintage or used.

So here's what it looks like after. We still have some landscaping to do. That's my husband chasing a barely visible grandson, Baby C, up the new driveway.

And after you're done having your 50-something grandparents chase you all over the street it's time for a nap.

To those who e-mailed me all I can say is we are really glad we did the addition. We had really small rooms for gathering before and it's nice to have a big room for large gatherings. We look at it now and it seems like it's always been here. But be warned-it took longer than we expected. We did stay on budget but I think that was due to a good contrtactor.So anyone considering construction, good luck and I'd be glad to answer other questions.

Finally Some Quilting

I have finally gotten something done around here. I've been finishing the "Fruit of the Loom" quilt (I am going to have to come up with a different name) and instead of making one I made two quilts. One is a lap size quilt and the other is a wall quilt. In the above picture I was auditioning borders but ended up not using any.

I did use borders on the smaller one. I love the orange and green together. Who would have thought I would like orange! I don't think I've used much of it over the years unless it's in a Halloween quilt but I love it here. So it's good to try colors you might not think you'll like.

And this is my first post on my brand new computer. I love it! I have never had my own computer and the computer we had in the house was a hand me down from my daughter. I think she had it in high school and she graduated in 1999! My husband says she had it in college. It is an awful computer but hubby doesn't mind using it and I refuse to use it so here I am on my new laptop. Hopefully I'll be able to post more now with this fast computer. Now if only I could finish the UFO's as fast.

An Annie Finds a Home

Who is that sitting in my sewing room? I was the lucky recipient of an Annie made by fellow New Hampshireite, Erin, at Go Doodles 'N Quilt. She has a new website to sell her creations called Hannies Annies. Make sure you go check that website out and see the first picture with all those adorable dolls.
Anyway, my Annie is living in my sewing room and I can't tell you how much she cheers me up. She is holding a spool of thread so she is a sewer like me! My grandmother's name was Annie and she was a seamstress too. Maybe she'll motivate me to get some sewing done as I have done nothing lately. The end of the school year at the college where I work was very, very busy and I can't seem to get myself going now that I am off for the summer. I have a lot of projects nearing completion so hopefully I'll be posting some finished pieces here soon. Until then, happy sewing.