🎄12 Days of Christmas in July 🎁 with *2* Giveaways!

*giveaways are now closed*

Hello friends, Merry Christmas in July!

Since the last time I was on the blog the temperature has turned a 180 on us, it is blazing outside now!  Which makes it nice to sit and sew and think of cooler days to come.  😁  I was super excited when Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict invited me to participate in the blog hop again because I had some projects to get done.  Thank you Sarah for organizing all this goodness!  In addition to all the inspiration you will see on this hop there is a giveaway sponsored by FIGO Fabrics that you can enter to win on each participating blog, and I am also having a celebratory giveaway!  The giveaway links are near the end of my post.

First, I completed a couple pillowcases for my nieces.  I love the "burrito" method with French seams, it makes such a nice gift.

Secondly I completed this quilt!  A bit of back story on this:  I was picked by Henry Glass for the Desire to Inspire Challenge in May 2019, and got to work with this beautiful collection of fabric called Jolly Ole Soul by Barb Tourtillotte (visit here for pictures of my projects) and origionally planned to use this as the backing of the quilt I made.  I ended up liking it too much to part with, so instead made it even larger and quilted it up for John and I to snuggle under!
I made this quilt with the panel that is part of the line and then made some simple present blocks using flying geese for the bows.  I made my "presents" different sizes and alternated the background for added interest!  I also used a couple prints from last year's Challenge with the Just Beachy fabric.  And I decided to quilt an edge to edge pattern with the swirls as they mimic the swirls in the white around Santa, and it was relatively quick to stitch out.  Sometimes you just need your project to be finished!

I backed it with flannel, fyi
RED FLANNEL BLEEDS
and you should wash it before doing anything else with it.  I washed mine twice with 3 color catchers each time, and I think I will be comfortable sleeping under it now.

I had to get John to take a photo of how much taller the quilt is than I am, I'm so excited to have it cover my toes and nose at the same time!

I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog today, and guess what?  This is my 100th post and in celebration I am offering a giveaway in addition to the one from FIGO Fabrics (entry form below my drawing)! I am offering a pair of handmade beaded Christmas earrings!  Your choice of either snowmen or Santa earrings if you win.  My giveaway is open until July 27th and I will announce the winner shortly after.
(I have to limit this to US only due to ridiculous international postage rates, but I will figure out an alternate prize if you are overseas!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And here is the beautiful fabric from FIGO Fabrics (a fat quarter bundle!):

Make sure to click SUBMIT!

I hope you have lots of fun exploring the posts on this blog hop and get a ton of inspiration!

Brandy

Thomas and Belle say "hello" too!  They really love this rainbow quilt, I am guessing it's the wool batting.

I am also linking to

Sew Fresh Quilts

Happy 4th Blog-iversary to me!

Oh wow!  I started blogging four years ago, how amazing!  I love being able to come on here and share my quilting and life adventures, and I love that you visit and take part in them.  My most recent project has been a last-minute decision to make John's father a quilt for his 60th birthday.  That was 2 weeks ago and today I am getting the binding put on!  Here are some progress photos:

 

I taught John how to make his first EVER quilt block.  We felt it was a good time since this quilt is for his dad.  John also picked out the elk panel and all the fabrics used.  I just told him where we needed certain lights and darks to create contrast.  We are loving the tree fabric.

I quilted this on my Bernina 150QE.  Once I got the first row done I texted my mom and said "This will be so much easier on my longarm when it arrives!"

I think Thomas will be sad when he doesn't have freshly quilted piles of quilt to snuggle into though...

Another thing I want to share with you today is some shops John and I visited on our last trip to Montana in August.

 

First we stopped at Regal Fabrics in Spokane, WA.  I was blown away by all the amazing embroidered pieces they have in their shop!  I even got to meet the lady who does them all, her name is Michele Eickerman , she was really great to talk to.

Oh my gosh, isn't this amazing?!  It's a Crabapple Hill pattern (turns out the designer is from an hour from my home) and is called the Mystery of the Salem Quilt Guild.

 

Gotta have a snack table!

Our next stop was in Bonner's Ferry, we had time to check out the second shop we have seen there.  This one is called A Little Comfort Quilting and is on a really amazing Main Street.

I always enjoy seeing the Sweet Onion Cat outside Walla Walla, this shop had a lot of items different than what we've been seeing most of this summer.  I am always glad to see variety.

John was eyeballing the ruler selection, probably glad he doesn't have to worry about keeping rulers organized.

Then we got to go to the Quilt Cottage in Libby, MT.  I was so excited to visit here because when we came through last year it was after hours.  We had a lot of good conversation with the lady working this day as well as a couple other customers who were in while we were.  And we hung out for almost 45 minutes because there was lots to see and talk about!



The next day I convinced John to drive with me down to Kalispell's Sew & Vac so I could show him the classic machines they have there.  John ended up buying 6 yards of fabric and we learned all about the longarm they sell (but it's not the one we are getting, we just like to try out all that we can).

It was fun to play around!

 

I will have to take my mom in to see this wall of batiks next year when we visit my grandma again.

We went crazy with the black and white fabric, but all that on the right is John's.  Hahaha!

Our other stop in Kalispell was at the Quilt Gallery.  I have been in there 4 times now and have such a great experience each time.  This was John's first visit and we spent an hour and a half in there talking to the ladies about the Handi Quilter machines (thus I have no photos of our visit, sorry).

On our way home we were able to stop in to Bear Paw Quilting for our second visit to that shop, and man, I just love going there.  HUGE selection and great customer service.  I am super excited about that floral print on the left side of the photo below, I bought enough to make myself a Hawaiian shirt! 

 

 

You may have noticed a theme in the photos above, there are blue and green fat quarters in almost all of them!  That is because I collected those up for making a quilt for my good friend's son who turns 5 this year.  I have the top finished, actually, it has been sitting for almost a month now waiting for me to make up my mind about backing.

 

His birthday is mid-October so I really need to pull this one together!

Well, thank you for catching up with me, I hope you are all still enjoying the Christmas Caroling Row Along, there are another couple weeks to go yet and then there is a show and share!

 

Hope you have a wonderful day!

 

~Brandy

 

Belle and Thomas are very good at reminding me that it is important to take a break occasionally when free motion quilting... they full-on stopped production!