See You in September and Giveaways!

It's Day 2 of the See You in September, which means it's my turn to participate. YEAH!

Thanks to Mdm. Samm of Sew We Quilt! who continues to amaze me with her creativity, charm and organization. You ROCK!

And to Shari of Living with Purpose, you have been an awesome cheerleader!

Thank to two very special ladies!

I'm not the only one who gets to have fun today. Here's the list of today's participants and I am positive you will find eye candy and inspiration.

Thursday, September 4

Jane's Quilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Sew Many Yarns

Gracie Oliver Arts

Everyone Deserves a Quilt *ME*

Be sure to read all the way to the bottom to learn about the two awesome giveaways!

I was so thrilled when this hop was posted and I jumped at the chance to participate. The idea of creating something using Riley Blake Designs gingham was very exciting and it didn't take long for me to make a decision about what I was going to make. The challenging part was going to be deciding what other two projects to showcase. I can't tell you how many times I almost posted a project that I was making for this Hop and the Rush Hour Blog Hop. That would have been a real spoiler! (I did post part of one of the quilts. Oops!)

So, what did I do during the Summer? I created lots of things!

Let's start with a couple of bags. A girl can never have too many bags, right?  

I made two bags using Fig Tree's The One Piece Bag pattern. These are being used as shop samples for M & E Quilt Shoppe and I'll be teaching a class also. 

Each of the owners picked fabric for me to make their bags and when I took them to the shop, we laughed really hard when we realized how they matched their featherweights. The bags are just a tad to small to be used as cases for the machines, but I think I'm gong to play with the dimensions to make it work for mine.

Here's a close up of each bag.

I couldn't decide which quilt to show here so I decided to post both of them. I provided a sneak peek at the Equal Rights quilt a couple of weeks ago, but remembered to not show the finished product until today. I love Swirly Girls Designs patterns! They are easy to follow and always produce wonderful quilts.

This will be great quilt to use while sitting on the patio on a cool evening.

I love star quilts and made this Charming Star quilt using shirting fabrics for the backgrounds and Kansas Troubles for the stars. This is another shoppe sample and is a variation of a Disappearing Nine Patch. Click HERE for a tutorial I posted on how to make this block.

Here's the quilt hanging in the shoppe. I have a class coming up on this quilt and I love t when students "get" how it works. The floating star points makes this very forgiving and very stress-free. Check out the tutorial and you'll see what I mean.  :-)

OK, it's time for the gingham project!

I decided that since Fall is right around the corner and that means rainy days, I'd be less likely to mind them if I had a fun umbrella.

I used orange gingham and I love it! I thought it needed a little pizzazz so I added a black trim. Now I can use this for Halloween too.  :-)

This pattern and umbrella frame is from Umbrella Joan and it is awesome! My sister Pat showed all seven sisters how to make these during our annual sisters weekend. We had a blast and this is just a sampling of our creations.

So back to my gingham sample....

I had a helper while I was taking pictures. Quinn absolutely loves this umbrella and didn't want me to stop taking pictures. Shhhh, don't tell her that I'm making a kids version for her.  :-)

She so badly wanted it to rain and kept checking the sky for clouds.

So, remember way back at the beginning of this post when I said something about two giveaways? 

Well Umbrella Joan and M & E Quilt Shoppe have both provided prizes for me to give away. How awesome is that?

One lucky winner will receive the pattern and a frame kit for the classic 48" umbrella from Umbrella Joan.

You may not believe me now, but trust me. Once you've made one of these umbrellas you will never look at fabric the same way again.

And thanks to M & E Quilt Shoppe, I have a fat quarter pack of fabric to give away. (I am thrilled that the shoppe will be receiving their shipment sometime next week with ALL the gingham colors! I asked it they would take phone orders and of course they said yes. I may not be able to get there fast enough and want to be sure to get some of each color.  hehehe)

Isn't this scissor charm just adorable!

So, what do you have to do to win? 

You have four ways to earn a chance to win. 

1. Leave a comment here for one chance.

2. Become a follower and leave a message here telling me that you did that or are already a follower.

3. Like Umbrella Joan on Facebook and leave a message here telling me that you did that.

4. Like M & E on Facebook and leave a message here telling me that you did that.

Winners will be chosen and announced September 19th. 

That will give everyone enough to time catch up on visiting all the blogs.