American Quilting

Guess What?

My friend Amy McClellan is the owner of American Quilting and she started a BLOG for her quilt shop! Yippee!! I've been helping her get started so she can learn the in's and out's of blogging. She's doing really well! Take the time now to add her to your google reader and blog list. You will love getting to know her and seeing everything that she creates.

Amy is a very talented lady!! She use to tole paint back in the day when I was tole painting and she had a business producing and selling her designs. Infact, I bought one of her pieces at a craft fair when I was visiting Utah several years ago not knowing that one day we would become friends. It's been so much fun getting to know her over the years.

Right now Amy is having a Garden Party & Quilt Show in her backyard and front yard. Each year Amy invites her friends & customers to display their quilts. It's a lot of fun looking at all the beautiful quilts, enjoying good company, and eating ice cream sundaes. Go check it out!

Pack to School

My dear friend Rae Ann started the Shadow Light Foundation over 19 years ago now and I've been involved in one way or another for the majority of the years I've known her. She does so much for the community and for those that have great need both at Christmas time and during the beginning of the school year. She calls this program "PACK to SCHOOL" where children in need are provided with a Backpack filled with school supplies and a new school outfit. It's been a wonderful blessing to me and my family to be involved in helping her each year.

Here are a few pictures that I took that day. You can see the entire article printed in our local newspaper on August 15th. Just click HERE to read it.

Lots of Donated Backpacks.

More Backpacks!

My dear Friend Rae Ann is giving direction to the girls who came to help put the backpacks together. There were about 18-20 of us helping and when the service project was done over a 100 kids were given a backpack for school along with an outfit, socks, underwear, and a pair of shoes.

Brand New Donated Clothing for Children in our Community.

Here are the lists of school supplies broken down by grade.

Here's Kenna & Olivia.
They were both so excited to be helping.

Look at all the wonderful donations from friends and neighbors in our community.

What a great way to give back to our community!

Thanks Rae Ann for being my friend!
You INSPIRE ME!

First Day of School

Here we are heading off to School. We were up Early, Dressed, Ate Breakfast, and walked to the Bus Stop. Now I'm doing this quick post before I head off to school in my car. I start at 8am.

Thank you so much for all of your get well wishes. They are so appreciated and I'm happy to report that I feel well enough to go to school and the antibiotics have kicked in and helped me feel a whole lot better.

Have a GREAT first (or second or third. . .) day of school where ever you live.

See ya later!

A Quick Note

It's been a crazy week trying to cram things in before school starts in two days and now I'm down with a sinus infection and a really PAINFUL ear infection. I went to the doctor tonight and got some medicine and ear drops for my ear pain. I'm just hoping to get through the night and start feeling better. I'm sorry I haven't blogged much lately and when I'm feeling better I will get back to it. I'm really hoping to do a post this weekend sometime. Until then . . . keep quilting!! Hugs, Kim

Under Construction

I totally messed up my blog . . . so it's under Re-Construction. Don't ask me how I did it because it would be too complicated to explain. Just know that I can't fix it to my liking so, I'm just going to start over.

It all started because I saw this tutorial and decided to make a major change. I'm liking the changes so far but, it's a lot of work because I lost a lot of my links and gadgets, etc. You can watch this tutorial but do it at your own risk. Please don't blame me. LOL!

I'm hoping it will all work out for the better. Wish me luck on this one, I may need it.

Really Incredible Women Blog

My dear friend Kara Herron is starting a new blog called Really Incredible Women and because I want to support her I told her that I would help spread the word by sharing it with each of YOU, my blogging friends.

The first incredible women to start off her blog is Janie Squire. Janie is a remarkable women and she has faced many challenges in her life with great faith. You will enjoy learning more about Janie this week on "Really Incredible Women"


Here are some of the Weekly Topics you will learn about each Really Incredible Women:

• Favorite Recipes
• Favorite Music
• Favorite Books
• Favorite Destinations
• Favorite Date Night Ideas
  
• Advice on being a Women
• Advice on being a Mom

The following is an excerpt from Kara's Blog. . .

ABOUT INCREDIBLE WOMEN

One day, as I was surfing the internet, I came across a site featuring celebrity moms. Interesting. So, I looked through the site, thinking it would have some fun pictures, maybe some advice, etc. But, no, it just had silly things like what each celebrity was wearing, who she was dating (?!), where she was eating - you get the picture. It was disappointing that a big deal was being made about such ridiculous things. I began to reflect upon the women I know and realized that they are the real celebrities. They have raised great kids, conquered fears, prevailed through trials, and are beautiful, kind, giving women. Why not have a blog that features them? So, here it is - Incredible Women - a blog devoted to women who live quietly, but are doing outstanding things. I know you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

Skirts, Skirts, Skirts!

I absolutely loved this new fabric by Riley Blake Designs and just had to make an outfit for my little Kora Belle. She's nearly 18 months old and is my only grand daughter (right now). I'm sure she'll continue to be a bit spoiled by her grammi. I love making little clothes. When My DD Ariel saw me making skirts for Kenna and Kora she begged me to make her a skirt too but, I will have to show you those later as I haven't taken pictures of them quite yet.

The skirt pattern is by Chelsea Andersen of Pink Fig Patterns and can be made with strips of fabric or without. It's nice to have multiple options.



This is Kora Belle. I've been trying to get a picture of her in her skirt but I haven't found the right moment. Darn! I hate missing the moment when it's brand new and you're trying it on them. I did finally find a darling shirt at Walmart that matched it perfectly. Kora loves her momma's purse so I had to make a matching one to go with her outfit. Isn't it darling?



The Buttercup Purse is designed by Rae of Made by Rae. Both patterns are fun and easy to make. I really loved the buttercup purse and made one for Kassidy and one for Kenna and then a smaller one for Kora Belle. Just so you know I reduced the pattern pieces by 65% and made the strap 2 1/2" wide instead of 3" and the pocket I made 4" x 8" and then I made the length of the strap 17" long. You can adjust the length of the purse strap to the little girl you're making it for.

Thank you Chelsea and Rae for your creative inspirations and these wonderful patterns.

Dirt Magnet

There's something about little boys and dirt. They just seem to attract each other. Benjamin had a great time digging for treasure in Grammi's Backyard today. What a fun time he had outside! Every kid needs a bit of dirt to dig in! Don't you think?

One very DIRTY but very HAPPY BOY!

I just love this little kid. I love asking him a certain question each time I see him and every single time I ask the question he gives me the same answer. It's really cute!

Grammi: "Hi Ben, How are you today?"

Ben: "I'm three!"

I will miss THREE. It's one of my favorite ages of my kids and now my oldest grandson is three and I'm lov'in it!!!

Charmed Gift Bag Winners

I want to THANK all of YOU for entering my Charmed Gift Bag Giveaway.

WOW!

The response was phenomenal.

Here are the giveaway statistics just because it's fun.

Record number of comments on Moda Bake Shop as of this morning was 205! Wow! I was just hoping to break their record (at the time) of 91. I think this giveaway also increased quilter's awareness that Moda Bake Shop existed. Several people commented that it was their first time visiting the Bake Shop. So, this giveaway was a great way to increase their exposure as well as mine. Thanks for your help!

I had 181 comments but, my biggest giveaway generated 462 comments. That particular giveaway dominated my life for a week reading email after email and I learned a lot about what would work better for my next giveaway. That's how I developed my email template. With the information you send me I make a spreadsheet and create a number spread like 1-22 or 23-30 or 100-107 (just as an example) for each person that entered based on how many numbers you earned and then I used the Random Number Generator to pick two numbers. It has worked really well for me and keeps my giveaways manageable.

The total number of entires was a 171 bloggers/readers for a total of 2,560 entry points. With the majority of entrants earning 12 to 22 points. What a wonderful response. Thanks again!!

My followers increased from about 188 to 299. Thanks everyone for even wanting to follow me. It's a lot of fun and I look forward to checking out more of your blogs. It will take me a bit of time but I will get there. I appreciate all of you and hope you enjoyed this giveaway. I wish I could personally make a bag for everyone but that would be nearly impossible but, you do have a free pattern to make as many as you want and that is my GIFT to you. I go back to full-time work in just 20 days (less than 3 weeks). I just can't believe my summer is nearly over. School starts on August 20th.

I'm headed to our cities parade here in a few minutes so I will end with announcing the winners of this giveaway. The response was so much more than I expected so I'm going to pick two winners.

Drum Roll Please. . .

********************

Winner #1 will win the Charmed Gift bag with a charm pack of Snippets and a treat of my choice

And Winner #1 is: Kim from Kim's Big Quilting Adventure. Congrats!!!!

Here are your random numbers: 1158 Timestamp: 2009-08-01 15:10:20 UTC

********************

Winner #2 will win another made by me Charmed Gift Bag but with no charm pack (they're getting harder to come by) but a treat of my choice will be included.

And Winner #2 is: Jackie from Canton Village Quiltworks. Congrats!!!!

Here are your random numbers: 219 Timestamp: 2009-08-01 15:50:08 UTC

Have a great day!

I will be back later with pictures from our Great City's Celebration!