Lucky.....and jealous

Just when I thought I would never be lucky in a giveaway, I was selected for Quilt Hollow's book and fabric giveaway, by having the closest birthdate to the draw!  Yay for me, as I love books and I love fabric, so its a double dip.  Thank you so much, Mary, for having the giveaway.  Check out Quilt Hollow and her newest post on a new blog called Stash Manicure.

And now for the jealousy part...I talked to my sister tonight and she said she is going to Kentucky for the quilt show.  "You mean PADUCAH?" I exclaimed.  Yep, the very same.  J-e-a-l-o-u-s spells "I wanna go too, wah!"  Well, living in St. Louis means she's a lot closer to Kentucky than I am so I guess its alright.  But we're looking forward to another trip to the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach in late July.  Anyone else planning to be there? 

On the sewing/quilting front, I have now partially prepped two wool applique blocks for Greenpiece and cut out all the backgrounds.  Some of the pieces are so tiny I'm already getting palpitations about having to buttonhole quilt around them.  Seriously, one looks like a hole punch dot, and there are three stars no bigger than a nickel.  Maybe I'll put those pieces on at the end, after I've gotten a lot more practice with my buttonhole work.  Gulp.

In other news, the following is the last "squishy" item I got in the mail.

These are my received swap blocks for the Jewel Box swap through the Quiltbiddies Yahoo Group I belong to.  One gal who allegedly held up the swap included some fat quarters with her package, so sweet of her!

I'm thinking of setting these blocks in a barn raising style but will need to make about 12 more blocks to get the effect I want of at least three complete rounds.  I have plenty of fabric and they go together pretty quickly.  Isn't there another name for this block?  Sometimes I get it confused with Jacob's Ladder. 

Pardon me if I have shown this pic before of the finished center of the Quilts for Kids.org kit quilt.   Now to get the borders on and get it put together.  I found a perfect sized piece of batting in the leftovers pile so that's sorted.

We spent Easter having BBQ with our kids, my mom and dad and Grant's mom.  Elaine and Chris brought Scully the granddog, wearing his new flannel.  He braved Russell the dog's incessant chasing and barking at him and appeared to have a good time despite that treatment.  I was too tired to sew after our guests left so retired to the bed and read the book Elaine gave me for Christmas, Water for Elephants.  Good story and characters, but pretty graphic in several different ways (sex, violence, etc).  Gritty times and deplorable conditions they had, those circuses in the Depression Era.  All in all, I would recommend it, but only if you don't mind being a little shocked and horrified!  I am a very fast reader and also cannot stop reading once I am into a story so I was through the book in two nights.  The books I won will be welcome addition to my library.  Lucky me.