Leap Day Drawing Time!!

Are you ready? This evening is drawing time for the winner of the Quiltmaker Magazine issue, and the Moda Summer Breeze charm pack from me in my joint Give-Away with Pat Sloan!

I hope I’m not jumping the gun on her –when we discussed drawing for winners she said “Thursday Evening” And by my watch – that’s any time after 6pm!

478+ Entries! This was SO unexpected! This whole Leap Day thing kind of snuck in and when she emailed saying “Wouldn’t it be fun if ----Why don’t we ---“ I said “Why not – lets!” and here we are. WOW!

So here we go:

The winner of the charm pack and the Magazine is JAN! She wrote:

I am a faithful follower of both you and Pat Sloan and remembered listening to her podcast interview with you while I was on the treadmill.

I also had the priviledge of attending one of your workshops a couple years ago in Indiana. You will also be at my guild in Plainfield, Illinois in May where I get to take the Night Flight class with you.

This is a great giveaway as I have done many of your quilts as well as Pats!!! Thank you!

Congrats Jan! I've sent you an email asking you to send me your snail mail address so I can send these off to you.

Tomorrow I’ll be drawing for the winner of the “On Track!” magazine from the International Machine Quilter’s Association. Those of you who attended Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival this past weekend – this cover quilt was on display at the show! Did you see it? I would have loved to have seen it in person, the quilting looks AMAZING! Head on over to the post, leave your comment, and I’ll draw for that tomorrow evening.

And just because I can ((HA!! I wasn’t going to, but can’t let this one pass me by!)) Here is tonight’s kindle freebie:

May Day ,the first title in the Murder-by-Month Mysteries series by Jess Lourey, is free in the Kindle store, courtesy of Midnight Ink.

Book Description:

Minneapolitan Mira James has been taking it easy since college graduation--too easy. Due to a dead-end job and a cheating boyfriend, the Twin Cities have lost their charm, and Mira decides to begin a new life in rural Battle Lake.

Right away she is offered jobs as an assistant librarian and part-time reporter, and falls into an unexpected romance with a guy who seems to be the perfect man until he turns up dead between the reference stacks her tenth day on the job.

Anxious to learn more about the man who had briefly stolen her heart, Mira delves into the hidden mysteries of Battle Lake, including a old land deed with ancient Ojibwe secrets, an obscure octogenarian crowd with freaky social lives, and a handful of thirty-something high school buddies who hold bitter, decades-old grudges.

Mira soon discovers that unknown dangers are concealed under the polite exterior of this quirky small town, and revenge is a tater-tot hotdish best served cold.

A hip, humorous, and gripping account of small-town murder, this novel is the first in a series of cozies featuring Mira James, an urban woman with rural Minnesota roots.

I had to post it! I had to! You can take the girl out of Minnesota, but you can’t take the Minnesota out of the girl, and once it mentioned Tater-tot hot-dish, I knew I was going to grab it and post it. Pass it by if you want, but if you want it, grab it while it’s still free.

Happy Thursday Evening!

((Smiling brightly with clean and shiny pearly whites and NO CAVITIES!))

Afternoon Edition….Questions, Answers and a Very Pink Tree!

My afternoon of miscellaneous appointments is flying by.

What a LOVELY day! I was talking to my friend Randy on the phone while driving --- and I stopped her mid sentence and said “Gotta go! I need to stop the car! I need a picture of this tree—I’ll call you right back!”

Can you see why this tree stopped me dead in my tracks? Oh I love pink trees even more than white ones! They just don’t last very long, so I’m happy to be out and about in the sunshine where I can ooooh and ahhh and get giddy over each one I see.

I’ve had a couple emails with questions and I think the answers might be helpful to others out there.

The first one is from Paul, he writes:

Bonnie,

I have read on your blog that you are a tea drinker. Do you drink hot tea while you are on the road? And if so, how do you heat your water in your hotel room? No matter how clean they are, the coffee makers always leave a taste of coffee... Just wondering if you have a secret...

I am an avid tea drinker. I definitely have my favorite kinds, and I travel with it – or risk being faced with the ghastly lipton in hotel rooms, if that! I use a immersion water heater, in my aluminum travel mug. It looks like this:

You can find it on Amazon HERE.

This little coil will boil water right in the cup. You have to be careful though, I’m on my second one of these because I killed the first one by not paying attention, getting distracted, and letting the water boil away leaving the coil exposed --- at which time it decided that it was “HOT” and killed itself never to be hot again. In other words, as a safety feature they are programmed to self destruct if you ignore it.

You just have to read the directions, don’t leave it unattended, and use it carefully. I’ve had the one that has been traveling with me for about a year now, and if and when it dies, as all electronic gizmos tend to do—I’ll get another one. I love my tea time!

Several have asked about the Easy Angle and the Companion Angle Rulers:

Depending on where you live, these could be found in quilt shops near you, at larger chain stores like Hancocks Fabrics or Joanns, but if you need a place to get them from the internet, I suggest Soft Expressions. Anything that I’ve ever ordered from them has always been in stock, and they are listed at 10% below retail, which helps cover your shipping costs. These tools are worth every penny --- I wouldn’t be caught dead without these rulers.

The Easy Angle comes in 3 different sizes. I find the 6.5” one to be the most versatile for me ---- the 10.5” one is too big, unweildy, and the markings stop at 2.5” so you can’t use it for really small stuff.

The Companion Angle comes in one size, and I use it for all my quarter square triangle units – Flying Geese, Hour Glass Blocks, etc.

Tonight I’ll be drawing the winner of the Leap Day Give-Away with Pat Sloan, so be watching for that! Tomorrow is also the drawing for the “On Track” magazine issue.

Saturday is Yard Sale Saturday! Get those items cleaned up, tagged, and ready to be listed and linked up on Saturday’s post!

And I think that catches us up for now…I’m off to the dentist!