It's Guest Blogger Tuesday (aka A Day Off For Me) and we're going to kick it all off with a post from Meg Murray of The Works of Our Hands, whom I met when she helped created my KS cover quilt (she made the yellow block with the bees which is the favorite of everyone) and participated in my DaGMT challenge in February. Her blog is full of musings about quilting and sewing and contains just enough dry humor to make me love her. It's also where I found this fabulous button and while I don't know if she created it or not, it always makes me think of her.

Meg is a girl after my own heart and a choir to whom I can preach, as you will see. Enjoy!

"There are a million lists to think about at three in the morning. In my head there's a housework list, a schoolwork list, a sewing project list. There's a list of Shakespeare's Hamlet characters and potential costumes for each one that I have to design and create in the next few weeks. There's a list of places I should stop by and see if they'll hire me for a 'real' job since we've been unemployed for a while now and things are uncertain.There's even a list of places I want to run away to when I think about trying to do everything on all the lists.

Of course, when I get up in the actual morning, the lists go *poof*! My day doesn't have an organized checklist that I smugly check off, item by item, as I serenely accomplish each task. My days are a frenzy of "What's next?" , "Can it wait?" and "Really? I said I'd do that?"

The only constant in my day, besides eating and sweetened iced tea, is sewing. I have to sew something. If I don't actually sew it I have to at least organize it. Cut something out, lay out a pattern, read a quilting magazine, fold some fabric--- anything that gets me in touch with my sanctuary.

I can joke about my stash or being a fabricholic but really it's no different than one who curls up with a book or takes a walk or watches Lifetime movies to escape for a little while. We all need a refuge. We need to think about something else besides work, school projects, what's for dinner. But quilters/crafters need something more to break the routine of everyday life. We need an outlet. We see beauty in scraps and love in a finished project. It doesn't take much. We get a feeling of accomplishment in the small things--- we can take just as much pride in a quilt block as we do the completed quilt--- because it's not the product; it's the journey where we find joy.

A perfect day is one when I can sew all I want and what I want without the nagging feeling that I'm supposed to be doing something else. For years I put off sewing because there was housework to do and I felt I shouldn't be sewing unless everything else was "perfect". Guess what I finally figured out? It's never going to be perfect! It's amazing what I can accomplish now that I let go of perfect. I am a happy person. Everyone around me is happier too! I often don't want to leave my sewing 'cave' but when I have to I can face my tasks at peace because I've grounded myself. I fed ME.

Sew something everyday, even if it's just a few minutes to feed your seamster soul. Your peace of mind will thank you."

Thank you, Meg!

So now what?

You are either in withdrawal from my daily posts during the month of February, or you are disgusted to see me back so quickly. Either way, HI! Here I am again!

The "Drop and Give Me Twenty" challenge, aka "Sew Your Face Off in February", may be over, and you may think I gave my sewing machine a much needed break, but no. This weekend my husband earned his daddy stripes well and pretty much took over so I could (almost) finish another top. Man my studio is an utter disaster again after all this sewing. I think my next challenge will be "Who Can Clean Their Sewing Studio the Fastest" as that is the only thing that might motivate me.

But my biggest excitement this weekend was learning that the April/May issue of Quilter's World had softly begun creeping onto newsstands, and since I had not yet gotten my hands on a copy and therefore had not yet seen the actual article, Saturday afternoon I went out in search of this elusive beast. Imagine my joy when I found a stack of them at Shaws supermarket. I'm imagining your shock when I tell you I actually left a few there.

Did my little happy dance in the magazine aisle, then decided I would pay for them (I'm not a criminal, after all) and drive over to Barnes and Noble where I could get a tea and read it at my leisure. A lovely plan.

Reality: I barely made it to the car before I had to tear the thing open and gaze at my pattern in there.



I apologize for my geekiness, and I promise that by my ninth or tenth time as a cover girl, I'll cut it out. Maybe.

"Quite Contrary" was written as a "stash management" project and as much as I love the fact that I made it onto the cover, I also really really love the project, which is unbelievably easy, uses supplies you likely already have at home (hence, stash management), and is great for showing off big, fat, modern prints. I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think!

So on to March and what is next. My major February project of getting my group quilt blocks made up into a cover quilt for my next pattern and writing said pattern will all result in a pattern debut next week. Stay tuned for the "Kickin' Stash" Kickoff blog-a-round March 12-17 (see blog button above), and you'll get an opportunity to check out some blogs by some of the quilters who participated in the group project and find out how much fun they had. I've got some really cool blogs lined up, and you won't want to miss them!

Also in blogland, I'm planning to have guest bloggers here at QHH during the month of April. (Side note, everytime I write QHH I think it looks like a home shopping network. Not a line of work I want to get into.) If you might be interested in being a guest blogger during the month of April, please email me at evapaigequilts@charter.net and let me know. We'll work out all the details!

Thanks for your continued reading!

Party it up, Hotties!

It's Quilting Gallery's 4th birthday (http://quiltinggallery.com/quilters-fun/quilters-blog-hop-party/), and we all get presents! Fantastic! By now you probably know what's going on, but if not, here's the scoop:

To celebrate, Michele Foster of Quilting Gallery is hosting a Blog Hop Party, with something like 300 quilting bloggers participating! And not only will you find some cool new blogs, but you'll have a chance to win something AT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Feeling lucky? Just comment on the individual blogs for a chance to win their giveaway.

For those coming to hang at the haven for the first time, welcome! I started this blog a little over a year ago as an outlet for my incessant need to overshare of myself with the quilt world, and I've had so much fun with it. I do try to keep it quilting related for the most part, but now and then it's also been cheaper than therapy for me. I consider myself a quilter who likes to let loose my goofball side and that's what you'll find here. I've been very lucky to have been chosen AQS Blog of the Week back in August, and was also Michele's guest blogger back in May.

I've often said, here and in real life, that my favorite part of my design career is sharing my designs in person through my trunk show lectures. I'm currently hard at work to finalize the details of my second trunk show "Plays Well With Others", which will be available to guilds at the beginning in April. The show focuses on group quiltmaking of all sorts beyond your basic round robin, because over the years I've discovered that I am no longer that control freak third grader who never wanted to work in a group in school because no one was quite as good as she was. I now leave that role to my daughter Paige. I've found a lot of joy in working on projects along with other quilters and quilt designers, and I want others to discover how fun it can be to give over a project to someone else and see what they might add to it.

To that end, I now and then will call for participants in a group project here on my blog because I always want new fodder for my lecture, and I am currently planning a new group quilt project for January. The basic block we will be creating is shown here, and I promise that in real life it is totally square so I have no idea why it looks so wonky here, and can be made from scraps you already have - in fact, that is what I am going to WANT you to do. More details will follow, so you'll want to come back in January, won't you?

Another way to keep apprised of the goings on of my random thoughts is to become part of my facebook EPQD community. I try to update it daily with just a Twitter-like statement or link to my newest blog post, and I've really tried to make it a fun place to be to exchange ideas and inspire each other. I also give away a gift (often patterns, kits, fun notions I love, once even a table runner) at the end of every month from a drawing of my new members for the month. To get to my FB page, click here. I'd love to see you there and have you join the fun, and joining this month will give you yet another entry in my giveaway!

So, you've sat through my intro/sales pitch and by now you are surely wondering if I will ever tell you what I am giving away. After all, you have 299 more blogs to visit, and I have taken up plenty of your time. To celebrate winter and all it's splendor, I am giving away a copy of my "Blizzard Buddies" pattern, along with a spool of light blue iron-on braid for embellishing your snowmen. In the snowman close up (also the profile photo for my FB page this month), the hair was made from this stuff. It's way easy to use and totally addictive. You'll be ironing braid to everything and we'll have to call you fancy.
To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment below. In it all I ask is that after you tell me how this is your favorite new blog site (totally kidding), you let me know what your favorite and least favorite colors to use in your quilts is.

Have fun at the Blog Party and good luck! I hope to see you back soon at QHH.

Quilting Hotties for Hooters

A couple of months ago, I received an email from Tracy Szanto, quilter and friend of a friend, who had seen my Quilting Hottie buttons at a show and wanted to incorporate the Quilting Hottie name into her Breast Cancer walk team's name. Was this okay, and could I get her some buttons for all of them? I could not answer yes fast enough. My first sort of corporate sponsorship, and for a great cause. I mean really, let's be honest, who doesn't like hooters?

Thank you to Tracy for being my second guest blogger in 8 days. Keep this up, hotties, and I may never have to write a blog post again!

2011 Quilting Hotties for Hooters. Tracy is third from the right, reddish hair and big smile.

On October 16th 2011 our team Quilting Hotties for Hooters joined over 5,000 others in Concord, NH to participate in The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. My daughter Sharon Zimmermann and I started the team for my business "DREAMLAND Machine Quilting" (http://www.dreamlandmachinequilting.com/). This was my daughter's 7th year and I think my 5th year of doing the walk, but our 1st year of having our very own team.

In 2010 at our annual quilt show my daughter and I met Terri Sontra of Purple Moose Designs and who also belongs to our guild (The Belknap Mill Quilt Guild). Terri was a vendor at the show and she was selling these buttons that said,"Quilting Hottie!" It turns out that Beth Helfter of "Quilting Hottie Haven" (the blogspot for Eva Paige Quilt Designs) created these buttons. We had been planning to start our Breast Cancer Team and thought it might be fun to incorporate that into our team name and so that is how our team name came about.

Sharon and Tracy on registration day

The team enjoying some breakfast before a nice long walk.

Sharon showing support for her friend who was recently diagnosed.

Beth generously donated her buttons to our team which helped us raise money. I'm proud that our team raised around $2,400. The Concord, NH event raised a record breaking $568,089. We are proud to be a part of this very important event and thank everyone who donated and walked with us. I would like to thank my special team captain who kept us all in line to meet our goals, that would be my daughter Sharon Zimmermann, I couldn't ask for a more wonderful and giving daughter. Also our whole team would like to say thanks to Beth for her generous support.

Ladies, it was my honor.

This group just goes to prove what I have always known: Quilters as a whole are just really awesome people.

My HQ story by guest blogger and hottie extraordinaire, my friend Michelle Banton

Please join me in welcoming my very first guest blogger, my friend Michelle Banton, whom I met about 9 years ago when she became a Squanicookie. Michelle recently was a national winner in the "My HQ Story" contest (you can read her winning entry here: http://www.handiquilter.com/myhqstory/story/326/) and graciously accepted my begging her to tell us her story of the retreat weekend as a guest blogger. I know you will love it like I do!

The 14 national winners themselves

I feel like I just won a beauty pageant! After years of considering it, I finally bought a long arm quilting machine - test drove them all at MQX in Providence, RI last spring and decided on the Handi Quilter Fusion. Handi Quilter likes to use real people in their advertising, so I entered My HQ Story and was a national winner! Notice, I said "a" national winner, not "the" national winner. Fourteen total strangers were flown (ok, to be honest, the winners from Utah actually drove) to Handi Quilter's headquarters outside Salt Lake City for 4 all-expenses paid days of instruction and fun. In less than 24 hours, we felt like we'd known each other for years.

http://www.handiquilter.com/videos/my-hq-story-2011/ (--- Editor's note: This is a fabulous video that will make everyone want to enter this contest just to have silly string thrown at them. Our guest blogger Michelle appears at 3:31 in the video, as well as being that gorgeous thing in the red top in the front row in the photo at the top.)

We were treated like royalty from the moment we arrived. Every time we turned around we were given gifts. Cool gifts. Quilt-y gifts. Rulers. Gadgets. Fabric. Quilt Magazines. Batting. Instructional DVDs...even an Accuquilt Go! Baby. Things we'd buy ourselves if we hadn't already spent all our money on those really nice HQ long arm machines. It was truly better than being in Oprah's audience!

http://www.handiquilter.com/videos/my-hq-story-2011/?id=139 (--Editor's note - Seriously. Oprah's got absolutely nothing on this company.)

We each had our own Handi Quilter machine to work on as we were instructed by HQ's fine team of educators: Vicki, Mindy, Marie & Cheryl. Mark Hyland, HQ's CEO took us on a behind the scenes tour of Handi Quilter where we got to meet most of the HQ "family". He gave each of us a copy of his book, "Help! I Married a Quilter" (it should be required reading for any quilt spouse). He and his lovely wife, Suzanne Michelle Hyland, hosted us for dinner in their beautiful home. Suzanne gave us a tour of her "to-die-for" studio...maybe if I emptied the main level of my house, my studio could be as nice as hers. Then, because she knew we liked gifts (It doesn't take long at all to become accustomed to receiving gifts), she gave us her set of instructional DVDs. It's like we got to bring her home with us!

On our last morning there, Suzanne gave each of us a personal assessment on a quilt top we had brought - offering suggestions on how to quilt it, based on the design and colors of the top. She told me that my top would have to hang on her design wall for several weeks to inspire her. Maybe it was her polite way of telling me "It's really waaay too busy and bright. Perhaps you should keep your day job." Unfortunately, I don't have a day job that pays me money.

How should I quilt this? Or should I throw it away and try my hand at pottery?

The 14 of us will appear in Handi Quilter's print ads during 2012 in major quilting magazines. But, what's really exciting is that we'll get our picture on the side of a truck! Ok, maybe I'm a bit weird, but I think that's really awesome. I'd like to think that I am now contractually bound to appear at any and all quilt shows that the Handi Quilter truck will be driving to. At least maybe I can tell my husband that I HAVE to go - it's my duty as a HQ spokesmodel. I'll make sure to wear my tiara - look for me at MQX, Paducah, probably even in Houston next year.

Michelle Banton

mabanton@gmail.com

http://www.littlepupdesigns.com/ - longarm quilting service and retreat planning

Thank you, Michelle! I cannot wait to see your truck on the highway and scream at the top of my lungs "I KNOW THAT FAMOUS PERSON!" I am so proud of you and so glad you agreed to blog about your experience for us.