A surprise, flimsies, a challenge, and a winner!

This lovely little quilt arrived in the mail this week as a birthday gift from my sweet friend, Doniene. This woman knows me. Purple reproduction fabric churn dash blocks--love it!! It doesn't get any better than this! If you look closely you can see a bit of the beautiful hand quilting. I tried, but couldn't get a shot that showed the quilting better than this. Thanks you so much for this treasure!

All of the tops for my grandsons' Christmas quilts are sewn up. The baseball quilt got scrapped. I think little brother will want a Star Wars quilt when he sees big brother get one, no matter how much he loves baseball. These two are twin size.

And the youngest of my grandsons LOVES trains, so this quilt will be his. This is a crib quilt.

I need to get my November SewCalGal FMQ Challenge posted, so this seems like as good a time as any. I love to quilt swirls in random patterns, but found it a major challenge to swirl within the lines. First I practiced tracing over the printed design this month's expert, Sarah Vedeler, provided. Then I pounced grid lines on some swirl fabric left from the Star Wars quilts (seemed appropriate). I used a Design With Lines stencil from Pam Clarke.

The quilting did not go well. I tried going very slowly, but it didn't improve the swirls. On the black piece to the left I did the swirls all going the same direction. On the blue piece to the left I tried reversing the direction of the swirl each time. It felt very awkward trying to keep the swirl within the square. I had to finish up with some free swirling on the right, just for fun. I quilted one of my Halloween minis with the random swirls and really liked it.

There isn't more quilting to show because I have been doing too much of this...

...making all of the soap I need to get us through the holiday gift-giving (and supply our family's needs until I find time to make it again in the new year). For a few days after a soap making session the essential oils sure make the house smell nice.

Before I announce the giveaway winner, I want to let 5 bloggers know they are "no reply" bloggers, which means no one can respond to your comments because there is no email address attached to your account. So Dstitcher, Linda, Marcia, Carole in Nebraska and Anne Simonot, your accounts are either on "no reply" by default (that is the setting when you set up your account and it stays that way unless you change it), or you prefer not to be contacted, but that also means you lose out on giveaways where there is no way to contact you if you win. Many people don't know they are a "no reply" blogger, so I thought I would let you know.

Okay, that said, the winner of my "little" birthday giveaway is Mrs. Goodneedle! Since I already have your address, Mrs. G., I will get this in the mail to you tomorrow. Congratulations, my friend!

I will leave you with this photo I took yesterday of the moon rising over the mountains. Interestingly enough, Robin, of Solstice Studio blog (who lives a couple of hours away along the same mountain range) took a similar photo that evening and posted it here. Hers is a much closer, prettier view. Check it out.

Hopefully next post will have more quilty content. I need to get crackin' on my Barrister Sow-along blocks before Randy posts the next batch!

Until then,

Janet O.