One Year Blog Anniversary - Cause for a Giveaway!

Shadows of the Blue Ridge is one year old!

 
I knew this day was coming...I've had a mental note about it in my head for the last month. Summertime for teachers is often a time of reflection on the previous school year. This habit of reflection is one reason I began blogging. As I'm sure many people feel, I was nervous writing and actually publishing that first post. Insecurity about writing styles and proper language mechanics whispered into my ear. I am happy to say not a single comment all year has come in referencing either of these areas :o) Apparently none of my errors have been too egregious, or people are very good at following their mother's admonition, "If you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all." 

So, reflection...what has blogging caused me to reflect on? Or maybe, if I reflect on the act of blogging what has it done in my life? I believe the two of these are really tied together. Blogging has caused me to reflect on what I really think. If I didn't take the time to blog I might not seriously consider things such as:

• Why do I make quilts and various other crafted items
• What influences me to make the things I do
• Whose "voices" am I listening to in the quilting/crafting world, and why
• How do I balance crafting with the other important aspects of my life
• How can I use blogging/crafting to honor God and bring Him glory 

This is a pretty good list to start with. I have thoughts and feelings for each of these areas. There is value in taking the time to wrestle with answers to "who, what, when, where, why, and how" questions. Sometimes the answers to these questions are included in what I've written about, or what I've specifically chosen not to write about.

Now for the celebration and giveaway! 

Celebrate Shadows of the Blue Ridge with me for a chance to win this pink and green fat quarter bundle, zippers, and a copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 9 which contains the pattern for my Dashing Geese block. Why pink and green? Where I live we have long been know as the "Apple Capital" and each year we celebrate like no other town with a HUGE celebration called the Apple Blossom Festival. You've never seen so much pink and green in your life! So it seems completely appropriate for me to share this pink and green-ness with one of my lucky blog followers :o) These lovely fat quarters and zippers come from my local quilt shop, The Scrappy Apple. 

There's just one thing you need to do for a chance to win: Follow my blog. That's it, just be a follower of Shadows of the Blue Ridge. If this is your first visit to Shadows of the Blue Ridge and you'd like to follow me you can choose from three different ways: (1) Bloglovin', (2) sign up for email notification, or (3) click Join the site to use Google's Friend Connect. Then, whether you've been a follower for awhile now, or are a brand new follower, just tell me in a Comment  how you follow Shadows of the Blue Ridge...simple as that :o) If you suspect you are a No Reply Blogger please include your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner. 

A winner will be chosen on Sunday, July 20th at 9:00 p.m. EST using the Random Number Generator. 

Thank you for traveling through this year with me! I look forward to sharing more of this crafting journey in the year ahead :o)

Rice Bag Snuggles

Don't you just love a soft, snugly-warm rice bag wrapped around tired shoulders at the end of a long day :o) We use rice bags a lot here at my house.

Over the Christmas holidays my dear friend made two nicely-sized rice bags for her family using a good sturdy fabric. As she was showing me her supplies I told her that I could make covers for them if she'd be interested. I just love fun projects that allow for small bits of creative expression.

My friend picked out this wonderful red plaid (goodness I love plaid!) flannel to use for the covers. I prewashed the flannel just in case of shrinkage and looked through my fabric stash for some fun accent fabrics to add in.

My choices include: Sew by Sweetwater, Rain in cherry by Timeless Treasures, and Dark Blue Color Weave by P&B Textiles. I wanted to add just a bit of fun to each bag. 

I decided on a simple line of pinwheels in blue, and a zigzag in red. I probably shouldn't have a favorite so I'll keep it to myself which one I like best :o)

On the back I did a simple envelope closure. To guard against fraying I zigzag stitched all of the seam allowances. I'm so please with how these rice bag covers turned out! Final measurements for the covers are 8" x 22". I hope they will bring cozy comfort for a long time. 

Exciting Big News...

Okay, okay...it's really little news, but may grow into something big :o)

For quite a while now I've been mulling over joining a quilt guild. Here, where I live, in the heart of Civil War country, modern quilting is really not the vogue. There are several traditional guilds in the area with lovely quilters which I am not opposed to joining. However, most of them meet on weekdays during the hours when I'm at school (I'm a teacher) so that makes involvement with them pretty much impossible. There is a modern quilt guild that meets about an hour+ from where I live (big Shout Out to the NOVA Modern Quilt Guild!) who is just now officially joining The Modern Quilt Guild...Exciting! But, distance can become an issue. 

I've so enjoyed getting involved in the online quilting community and finding my little niche through flickr, instagram, and do. Good Stitches.  But, I would love to get to know some quilters in my own community and enjoy some face-to-face camaraderie. So...here's where the exciting news comes in! 

Yesterday I was talking to my friend, Kelley, owner of The Scrappy Apple quilt shop and we discussed trying to begin a guild for local modern quilters! We are aiming for an inaugural meeting the third Thursday in February. I'll keep you posted!!

Now, since no blog post should be without picture, I'll include my latest picture of the Faith Circle Row Quilt for do. Good Stitches. 

I just finished free motion quilting it in a meander stitch. I am happy to say I actually enjoyed free motion quilting this quilt! Hooray!! It's taken several quilts for me to reach this comfort level and I'm so happy to get to this point in my skills! Next up is some hand stitching around the word "hope" with yellow #8 perle cotton. After that just the binding is left.

Happy stitching!