TGIF Blogland Neighborhood and welcome to our Giveaway drawing! Now, as usual, Kitty has to be in charge of the actual drawing of the winner's name and she left instructions for us to meet her outside .....hmmmmm......
......oh no ....she's stirring up something in that caldron ....and she's chanting something about double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and caldron bubble .... witch's brew?!?!??? eye of newt, and toe of frog ?
.....oh (phew) it's just all the names for the giveaway drawing......OK Kitty, do your magic spell and conjure up a winner !
...."Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf; hocus pocus and a big fat POOF !!! ... and the winner is ......"
......Jan !!!! Yahoo for Jan !!!! Congratulations !! (Jan email me your address so I can send you your loot!)
Well, what a relief ... we have a winner AND Kitty didn't turn anybody into a frog! THANKS everybody for entering our giveaway and for all of your very nice comments !!!:)
Good morning Blogland Neighborhood! YIKES !! Has it really been a week and a half since our last chit chat session?!?!?!!!! SO SORRY !!! That darn day job (and the piles of never ending paperwork that need to be done YESTERDAY ) keep getting in the way of anything and everything that's fun .... oh well, can't do anything about that unless , of course, we all of a sudden win the lottery !!!! ANYHOW, in the teensy tinsy little bit of spare time there is around here, the MBIAJ Design Dept and MBIAJ Sewing/Quilting Depts have (at the last minute as usual) decided to join in on ....
....the "Breast Cancer Awareness Month Quilt Block Challenge" being held by The Quilted Crow quilt shop in Lehighton, Pa. So, over the weekend we scribbled out a quick design for the block using the white with pink polka dot challenge fabric and then .....
......slapped it together into the wee hours of last night/this morning.... AND.... NOW I'm scrambling to finish it (before going to work today) because ..... the DEADLINE is TODAY ...... YIKES !!!!
ANYHOW, in the meantime, I apologize to those sweet gals who were in my quilt class a couple of weeks ago because I STILL have not gotten the rest of the instructions posted on here for the alternate construction method (please don't hate me! ... I hope to have them on here REAL SOON!) ALSO, if you haven't signed up yet for our Give Away you still have time (drawing isn't until Friday evening Oct. 15th ).
OK, so while I'm scrambling (and calling the quilt shop for please,please, please an extension on that deadline ).... run along and sign up for our give away AND also, here's something fun to watch ....(you can click the "pause" button on my music playlist over there on the upper right sidebar to shut off Frank Sinatra for a minute)
Happy first Friday of October Blogland Neighborhood! Where the heck did the rest of September go? The MBIAJ Sewing and Quilting Dept was so busy getting ready for and then teaching their first EVER quilting class that the past week and a half just FLEW by!! Anyhow, the quilt class was held at The Quilted Crow in Lehighton, Pa and it was a GREAT experience. A small , but mighty class ! (Hi Vicky, Iris, and Nancy !!! I promise I'll get the rest of the instructions posted on here SOON!)
ANYHOW, in honor of our "FIRSTS" ... (design in a magazine, and then teaching a quilt class) we here at MBIAJ Headquarters thought it was high time for a GIVE AWAY !!!!!! .... AND see that cute scarecrow ? Well, it seems we're not the only ones having a give away! Starting today, there is a HUGE Blogland Fall into Fall Quilt Blogger's Giveaway ..... you should zip on over there and visit all of those blogs listed .... there is the potential to win LOTS of LOOT!!!!!
BUT ... WAIT .....
...Kitty and her scarecrow friend want to remind you to leave a comment on this blog to be entered to win our give away ! but what is it you ask????? Well, it's the Sept/Oct issue of Quiltmaker magazine AND a fabric kit (made up by those lovely ladies at "The Quilted Crow") to make .....
..... our little Halloween wall hanging "Practical Magic" which is in the magazine ! (just click on the picture to make it bigger so you can see those pretty fabrics better)
SO, leave a comment(the drawing will be October 15th evening after Kitty cleans up the kitchen ).
Have fun blog hopping! Be back soon! Toodles, Mary Anne (aka Mare)
Hello out there Blogland Neighborhood! It's still Saturday right? (Well, we figure it's still Saturday SOMEWHERE, so therefore we aren't late with our Saturday report of our Friday Night Sew In project ! (see how you can rationalize ANYTHING ?!?!?!!!!! and we here at MBIAJ Headquarters should know because we are EXPERTS at rationalization !!!!!:)
OK, anyhow here's how we spent our Friday Night Sew In......
....a little piecing .....
...and a little fusing to make .....
.....a little quilt!! ... well, it's a little wall hanging and it's a little not quite finished!
......but it HAS to be finished by Sept 29th! Why? Well because this is a sample for a class I'm teaching (YIKES!) of my wall hanging Practical Magic that is in the current Sept/Oct issue of Quiltmaker magazine . I am scheduled to teach it at The Quilted Crow in Lehighton, Pa. The Quilted Crow is a fairly new quilt shop and the owners, Jane and Cindy , are two of the NICEST gals you'd ever want to meet! So, if you're in the area, you should pop on in for a visit!
Good morning and TGIF Blogland Neighborhood! Well, there's always lots of activity and creativity going on in the Blogland Neighborhood ....and this month is no exception. We here at MBIAJ pride ourselves in having our finger on the pulse of the Neighborhood .... having a nose for the latest news .... (OK, so sometimes we miss stuff and don't have a clue what's going on .... OR we're the last ones to know what everybody else is talking about .... but our motto has always been " Better Late than Never" !!!!) BUT.... this time we're right on top of things !!!!! Look what Kitty discovered on Gudrun's blog while blog hopping last night .....
....she's having a fall themed designer blog hop !! (zip on over to her blog and leave a comment because if you do, you'll be entered into a give away for some FABRIC ..... a big pile of very pretty FABRIC !!!) Kitty is so excited about it (and about fall weather and Halloween) that she even dug out her witch's hat to wear to tell you about it! (before she even gets her glasses fixed!)
....the blog hop starts Sept 27th and runs through Oct 6th.
......and in other news, tonight is the Friday Night Sew In for Sept hosted by Heidi
...the MBIAJ Sewing/Quilting Dept feels strongly that they should participate in this tonight because they are (as usual) WAY behind on a project that has a deadline coming up WAY TOO SOON !!! YIKES !!!
OK .... we're off to try and get Kitty's glasses fixed , along with about a zillion other things .... and hopefully the Sewing/Quilting Dept will get to do some sewing tonight!
Good morning Blogland Neighborhood! One of the things we love to do here at MBIAJ Headquarters (besides stitching, drawing , and eating chocolate) is .....
.....READING !!!
We just started reading this Jennifer Chiaverini book "The Lost Quilter" and are thoroughly enjoying it (which we knew we would since we read and enjoyed alot of her other books).
......and speaking of "lost quilters" ..... has anybody seen Kitty? She went into the MBIAJ fabric stash awhile ago looking for some fall fabrics for a new project she's determined to start (ignoring all the half finished summer projects ...) and we haven't seen her for a day or two .....(sigh) guess we better go look for her.....
....OH LOOK !!!! There she is ..... LOST in a sea of fabric !!!.....
......PHEW!!! She made it out OK ..... but I think she broke her glasses .....
......yes ... Kitty , the original "Lost Quilter" !!!
How about you? Does it take survival skills to enter and leave your sewing room/fabric stash without getting LOST ?!?!???? The "MBIAJ Decluttering Dept" better get busy that's all there is to it !!!!! We should have a yard sale .... but that would require even more time and energy.... ugh!!!
Happy Labor Day Weekend Blogland Neighborhood! This marks the unofficial end of summer .... (officially, it's still summer for 3 or 4 more weeks ... or at least that's what the calendar says). So, the leaves are beginning to change and fall ....
....on the flowers who aren't ready to give up summer yet .
... and the kiddos are back in school (or will be soon!) .....and, the MBIAJ Decorating Dept gets ants in their pants to start making a few little changes here and there to ......
...usher out the season we're getting kind of tired of .....
.....and say "come on in!" to the season we're looking forward to !!!
.... new (so easy to make it's embarrasing) wool felt "sunflower" candle mats up close....
Have a safe and happy last (un)official weekend of summer ! Here comes autumn !!!!
