Book Blog Tour Day 4

It's day 4- are you still with me? The giveaway today is an assortment of buttons, charms, beads and note cards:

To enter, leave a comment on this post by midnight EDT tonight! Tomorrow you will have another chance to win a different prize, so stop back! (By the way- I will be announcing ALL of the winners here on Monday- so stay tuned to see if you've won....)

Today I am sharing a couple more projects from my book. The quilt featured on the cover is called the House on a Hill Quilt, and it's my favorite project:

 The embroidered border at the bottom says:

A house is built of walls and beams,

A home is built with love and dreams.

Another favorite project from my book is the Sweet Stuff apron. Cupcakes are the latest greatest thing- so why not wear them? It has my favorite colors, red and pink-

 And if you're going to wear them, you might as well eat them, so there is a recipe for chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (and if you eat too many, you really will be WEARING them, if you know what I mean!) When I was testing this recipe for the book, I lost track of how many batches I made. We ate a lot of them.

Today is Michele's turn for the blog hop. I met Michele (aka Mishka) at a Quilt Market a couple of years ago (you see why we all love going to Market- you meet so many cool people!)

Michele is the brain and creative force behind Quilting Gallery- which is pretty much a Quilting Universe! Visit Michele's blog for the weekly contest- submit an entry for that week's theme, or vote for your favorite. This week's theme is Log Cabins- if you'd like to enter, you have until midnight tonight to get your photos in, then voting starts tomorrow. The winner receives a prize from that week's sponsor, such as gift certificates to online shops, and fabric, patterns, and books. Back in April, I sponsored the Applique Contest and gave fabric and patterns as a prize. There were so many beautiful entries... On her blog, Michele also talks about the quilts she is working on and other stuff going on in the Quilting Universe.

At Quilting Gallery, you can find a huge listing of quilt bloggers, quilt guilds, shops, free projects and tutorials,   forums and more- I told you it was a whole Quilting Universe!! You can easily lose yourself on Michele's site for hours at a time.

To visit Michele's blog for the Book Blog Tour, click here. 

Today Michele is giving away a copy of my book, plus an Aurifil thread sample pack and glue stick.

Tomorrow is the last day for the book tour, make sure you stop by all of these great blogs:

Monday: Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt and Gift Company
              Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Tuesday: Pat Sloan of, well, everything!
Wednesday: Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches
Thursday: Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery
Friday: Sandi Andersen of A Legacy of Stitches

Book Blog Tour Day 3

 It's day 3 of the book tour- I hope you are all having fun. Today's prize is a fabric and pattern kit for a table runner and set of 4 place mats for my Joy, Love, Peace, Noel fabric line. To enter, leave a comment on this post by midnight tonight (EDT). Good luck! Be sure to stop back tomorrow for a chance to win yet another prize.

I thought that today I would tell you a little about my inspiration for my book, Fruitful Hands.

The idea for this book started in my head about 4 years ago. I was thinking about a bunch of different projects that revolved around a fruit theme. I was also thinking about the Fruits of the Spirit as described in the Bible, in Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

I thought about the word longsuffering, in other words, patience; and by extension, perseverance. I thought about not expecting everything to come easily and with little effort. And I thought about the women who came before me, who were creative out of necessity. They couldn't just run to Wal-mart when Junior had outgrown his coat and winter was approaching. Maybe they'd have to sell some eggs to raise the funds, or maybe they'd have to patch something together from whatever they had around the house or cabin. I thought about pioneer women making do with whatever they could find. I thought about my own grandmother, making her own clothes, and my own mother, making dinner from whatever happened to be left in the refrigerator (and it was usually pretty good!) Generally, women in the past HAD to be creative to survive. Today, most of us can run to the store to pick up whatever we need. While our foremothers had to sew and quilt and cook out of necessity, we now get to do those things as enjoyable hobbies. We don't have to be creative to survive- but we can instead turn those creative urges into making things just for fun- what a blessing.

One of the projects in my book which is an homage to making do is actually called a make-do. The tag on mine says "patience" to remind me daily that I need to work on that attribute! In the book, you will also find patterns for other tags, such as love, joy, peace, kindness and faithfulness.

How about covering an old binder that you have lying around the house with some bits of fabric, and turning into a recipe binder for yourself, or as a perfect shower gift. In the book, I suggest collecting recipes from shower guests before the day of the party, and then assembling them into a keepsake recipe binder for the bride-to-be:

Do you like to do punchneedle? If so, maybe you would like to work on this Cheery Cherry Pillow:

And the recipe: Cherry Cheese Tart with Almond Oatmeal Crumble. Yum!

Today, stop by and say hi to Natalie of Cinderberry Stitches. Natalie lives in Australia and is mom to a beautiful little blond haired angel- I think we know where she gets some of her inspiration from! I "met" Natalie through blogging, and then got to meet her in person last fall in Houston at Quilt Market.

She has a new book out, also, called Cotton Floss. To see lots of images from Cotton Floss, click here.

Natalie's style is so cute- little fairy girls, owls, toadstools.... She does lots and lots of embroidery- she has such a unique and adorable style. I just want to make every single one of her projects!!

She also just started designing fabric, her first line will be called "Woodland" for Lecien, so be on the lookout for that!

Again, to get to Natalie's blog for the book tour, click here. 

There will be a giveaway on Natalie's blog to win a copy of my book!

Make sure you stop by these fun blogs this week....
Monday: Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt and Gift Company
              Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Tuesday: Pat Sloan of, well, everything!
Wednesday: Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches
Thursday: Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery
Friday: Sandi Andersen of A Legacy of Stitches

Book Blog Tour Day 2

It is Day 2 of our book tour! Today the prize I am giving away is a collection of 5 of my patterns. Comment on this post by midnight tonight (EDT) for your chance to win- then make sure you stop back tomorrow for another chance to win a different prize.

A little more about my book.... I mentioned that is has 12 recipes. I love being creative in the kitchen- in fact, I have a very hard time following a recipe.... I am always thinking, oh this would be good with peaches instead of raspberries, or, I have olives but not capers, or, what if I add BACON...... I am always thinking of ways to do different variations on a dish, or how to combine 2 dishes into one, or, most often- how to turn whatever I happen to have in the refrigerator into something good for dinner. To me, cooking should be about making food with love. You don't have to be a chef or go to culinary school to be a good cook. You just have to love making things that the special people in your life will enjoy (kind of like quilting....)

Some of you have already seen the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes in the book. How about Spiced Pear Upside-Down Cake with Ginger Cream Sauce (I will tell you, I LOVE that cream sauce- I want to pour it over everything). Cherry Cheese Tart with Almond Oatmeal Crumble. Creamy Curried Apple and Butternut Squash Soup. I am getting hungry now.... My husband and I did the food styling and the photography for the recipes in the book. It is fun getting the props together, but sometimes it can be challenging to set up the photo and get the lighting right, and make the food look as good as it tastes.

See some sample pages from the book here.

 Today, make sure you also visit with the fabulous Pat Sloan! Pat is the Queen of Everything Quilt-y! You can find Pat at her website, her blog, and every Monday, catch up with her as she hosts the American Patchwork and Quilting Radio show. I really enjoy the show- it is always so interesting to hear from other people in the quilting and creative world. She also has a monthly crafting radio show.

Pat is the Energizer Bunny of the quilt world- she says she occasionally sleeps, but I'm not sure I believe her. (I may be mistaken, but possibly liberal doses of coffee have something to do with it??) If you'd like to meet Pat in person, check out her events page to see where she will turn up next....
Pat's latest book is called Redwork with a Twist, and the projects are darling! I really love it!

Pat's latest fabric line is called Simple Stitches, and there are 5 FREE patterns available!

 So here is the link again to Pat's Blog for the Book Tour.

There is a giveaway for a copy of the book on Pat's Blog this week.
Make sure you stop by and say Hello!
Pat loves meeting new people!

Here is the line up for the whole week. And in case I haven't said it- THANK YOU to all of my wonderful and supportive Blog Buddies for joining me this week....

Monday: Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt and Gift Company
              Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Tuesday: Pat Sloan of, well, everything!
Wednesday: Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches
Thursday: Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery
Friday: Sandi Andersen of A Legacy of Stitches

Book Blog Tour Day 1

Welcome, everyone! I am so happy to have you here with me today. This week is going to be a lot of fun. Make sure you stop back here every day- I will be giving away a different prize each day. Plus, many of the participants in my blog hop will be doing giveaways, too- You will have lots of chances to win an autographed copy of my book, fabric, patterns, and more.
In case you don't already know, my first book was just released by Kansas City Star. It's called Fruitful Hands and it is loaded with quilt, embroidery, punchneedle, and wool projects, plus 12 wonderful recipes. Later this week I will be giving you more sneak peeks into the book.

Today's giveaway here on my blog is a fabric and pattern kit to make this wall hanging from my Sewing Room Social fabric line. To enter, leave a comment on this post by midnight tonight (EDT).

As I mentioned, I will be giving away prizes everyday. You can enter to win every day for that day's giveaway only (each giveaway will close at the end of that particular day.) So, you have to come back each day for another chance to win (aren't I sneaky....)

Now, let me tell you about my 2 special "guests" today! I am so happy and proud to have both of these wonderful designers participating in my book tour.

Brenda Riddle is the owner of Acorn Quilt and Gift Company. I met Brenda a few years ago at Portland Quilt Market. I had been designing patterns for a while and I decided to visit the show and walk around to see what it was like and decide if I wanted to exhibit the next year. Brenda was so kind to me and extremely helpful, answering all of my zillions of questions! I immediately felt like she was a long time friend. She has always been so generous with her advice. (In fact, you will find her listed on the Acknowledgments page of my book....) She lives in sunny Arizona with her furry son, Bailey:

If you like a soft romantic, cottage vintage look, you will adore Brenda's style. A few of her patterns:

Brenda also designs the most scrumptious fabrics for Lecien. Her latest line, Durham Anew- I just want to roll around in it!! If Elizabeth Bennett or Elinor Dashwood (c'mon, you Jane Austen fans) were around today, this is what they would be quilting and decorating with:

Also today, meet Jill Finley from Jillily Studio. Jill is a fellow Kansas City Star author AND Henry Glass Fabrics designer. Her booth at this past Spring Quilt Market was a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!! She even won a prize! She set up an old fashioned soda counter and was handing out scoops of sorbet on little tiny ice cream cones- so creative, and so delicious. Jill is so nice and fun and friendly- a typical Utah girl, I think! What I love about Jill's style is that the colors are so fresh with liberal doses of RED- my favorite color.

Her latest fabric line from Henry Glass is called Sorbet Garden (so now you see why she was handing out sorbet at her booth!) The name is perfect- totally refreshing!

Stop by all of the blogs this week and meet my friends-


Monday: Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt and Gift Company
              Jill Finley of Jillily Studio
Tuesday: Pat Sloan of, well, everything!
Wednesday: Natalie Lymer of Cinderberry Stitches
Thursday: Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery
Friday: Sandi Andersen of A Legacy of Stitches