Pincusion Swap and a Giveaway!

Queen of the Unfinished Projects  won Santa!!  And I am going to have the pleasure of meeting her face to face to present him to her!


Thanks to everyone who helped make this first blog swap of mine a success!  All of the pincushions sent in were top quality and that made me very happy! I am hoping you will share photos of the one(s) you get back on your blog and come back and comment again to let us know you did so everyone can see what you received.  :)


I have checked delivery confirmation numbers and this is how we stand...


Needledmom - delivered on 16th at 2:11 pm
Nickilee - delivered on 17th at 10:37 pm
Ruby - delivered on 15th at 3:08 pm
Gerry - Delivery attempted Dec 18th - Notice left
Tonya - Delivered on Dec 18th at 2:32 pm
Carin - Your item left the United States from ISC MIAMI FL (USPS) at 1:58 pm on December 18, 2010
Marie - picked up her pincushions on 17th
Stephanie - Meeting to deliver her pincushions and Santa! 
Me - got mine. :)

I have hosted many swaps on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum over the past 7 years (forum nickname Quiltaholic) and I want to take the plunge and host my first ever blog swap!

I would love to host a PINCUSHION SWAP!

 Due date:  Pincushions should be to me no later than December 9th! This date is FIRM as I will swap that evening and mail everyone's new pincushions back to them on Friday, December 10th!

Rules:  You can make anywhere from 1 to 6  pincushions to swap and you will receive the same number of pincushions back in return.  Please use good quality fabrics in your creations.  You can use any design and any type fabrics (cottons, wools, fancy fabrics etc...) as you wish.  You can piece them, cross stitch them, use applique, make wool pincushions..the choice is yours!  Please be considerate in creating your pincushions and only send in pincushions that you would want to receive from each participant yourself.  If you send in sloppy made pincushions, they will be returned back to you.

This is a centralized swap..... You will send your completed pincushions to me and I will swap them all out sending you back pincushions made by different ladies.  This ensures that everyone receives their pincushions.

Sign up by replying to this post.  You MUST have a way for me to contact you so I can give you my mailing address in order to be in the swap. Postage rules will be included in my reply email when I send you back my mailing address!

Also:  After you sign up, please grab the Pincushion Swap button on my left sidebar and place it on your blog so others can know about the swap.  I would love to see at least 20 participants for my first swap!  Please help spread the word! :)

If you need to use Paypal to send me your return postage fees, that is absolutely fine with me.

International friends are welcome to play too!!

The GIVEAWAY!!

Everyone who completes the swap by sending in their pincushions will each get their name in a hat to have a chance to win this awesome Santa!!!  He will come to the winner along with their new pincushions!!

Please help me have a successful first time blog swap by signing up and telling your friends to come and play too!  If you send a friend to play, have them tell me you sent them and your name will go in the hat for Santa an extra time for each friend you send to play that finishes the swap! The more the merrier! :)

So!! Who wants to play?

Quilt Presentation to the Central Children's Home!

Quilters have hearts as big as Texas!!! :D

Marie was sick so my husband went with me tonight to present the quilts that came in from my The Big 5-0, Birthday Wishes and Charity Quilts quilt collection!

I received 24 quilts but as of tonight their enrollment had dropped to 13 so Butch and I measured all of the quilts and took the longest ones because these children are 13 - 21 years of age.

We gave quilts to 5 boys and 6 girls tonight.  3 of the girls are not in the photo because they asked not to be.

You should have seen their smiles!!  I wish I could post the photo of their faces with the quilts but the privacy laws prevent that. It is for the safety of the children.

But I can show you this photo and you can all envision what a big smile would look like behind those quilts because that is exactly what is going on!

They just kept saying thank you!  I had pinned the name of the quilt maker to each quilt and asked the children to say a prayer for each of them tonight!   :D

I want to say a HUGE thank you to each quilter who made this presentation possible!!  We should always show our children that they are loved and what better way to do that, than with a quilt!

Secret Santa Stocking Swap

I joined a swap on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum and have my things ready to send out tomorrow to my friend *****!!  Can't say her name just yet because we aren't supposed to know who got our name until we receive!

I sure hope she likes what I made for her.  The rules of the swap were to make a handmade stocking for your intended!  I downloaded a free pattern online.  I then loaded a backing, batting and the stocking fabric on my longarm.  I drew around the pattern shape with chalk and then quilted feathers up both sides.  I cut it out leaving a good 1/4 inch allowance so that when I sewed front to back that my quilting would not be cut off.  I clipped all of the curves and then turned it right side out.

I then sewed a lining together and slipped it inside.  I made it longer at the top so I could fold it over and whipstitch it to the quilted piece.  I then added a hanger using gold ribbon tape.

Do you think she will like it??

I also proceeded to make her something extra special!  I have met this sweet lady in person and I really like her a lot!  So, making her something special was a piece of cake!

This was a fun little Christmas wallhanging!  It was supposed to have snowmen appliqued in the blocks but I wanted to quilt words pertaining to the holidays so that is what I did!  I hope she likes it!

Pincushion Swap Update!

Look what's ready to go to the post office tomorrow morning!  I was to mail on Friday but our Netherlands friend mailed back in November and it took her box until yesterday to get here.  I hated to swap without her since she made the effort to mail so early to make sure they came in time.  The postal service can be quite slow sometimes.  I am so glad her package came and she is too! :)

I made one pincushion for the swap and this is the one that I got back!  Isn't he just adorable!  he has crushed walnut hulls in his lower base for sharpening your needles!

You all will really like what you are getting back too!  Thank you so much for joining my first ever blog swap!  It was on the small side but I am hoping that next time I host that you will play again and bring a friend along for the ride. :)