Winners All Around

I'm very impressed that so many of you have made an effort to get things finished up in August. It's been great knowing that I'm not alone in postponing the "new" in favor of finishing the "old." And I know that for some of you, life has intervened and you weren't able to play along--a time will come, though, when you'll get to it. There's no deadline or penalty involved.

I'm also quite pleased with having gotten the Sweat Shop cleaned up and sorted. A month ago, my quilt rack--the place for unfinished projects--looked like this:

Now? It looks like this:

There are only five or six projects on it, all of which need applique. That table runner on top? I won that at Thimbleberries Club last year--someone hadn't felt like finishing it and was doing the same thing I've been doing--cleaning out! My plan, though, is to pin it for quilting and add wool applique while I quilt it--a fast method that will "dress it up" quite a lot. Maybe I'll get to it before I leave for quilt camp in a week.

I've visited all of the "Finish it in August" blogs and I've added "stars" next to the name of each blogger who has finished three or more projects--click on over and see what they've gotten done. It's really amazing to see all these finishes. If you're on the list, have finished three or more projects, and haven't posted them to you blog yet, please email me to let me know you're posting and I'll add a star next to your name too.

Now, for the winners of my last giveaway--remember, if you see your name here, e-mail me your mailing address and I'll get your "prize" in the mail to you.

Giveaway #1 (manly quilt book)--Winona

Giveaway #2 (Thimbleberries panel)--Marylin Tucker

Giveaway #3 (foundation piecing book)--Anonymous/Sue S.

Giveaway #4 (patterns)--Fiesta

Congratulations ladies! Oh, and I DID hear from the "missing" winner of the quilt designs book, so that will be going out this week too.

Tonight, on the last evening of August, I finished organizing all of the patterns I had ripped out of quilt magazines. I wanted to show you how I keep them in case anyone is in need of an idea.

I have binders labeled "Series Quilts," "Applique Quilts," and "Pieced Quilts." With so many tote bags and various other miscellaneous things out now, I can see I'm going to have to add another binder labeled "Miscellaneous."

When I rip a pattern from a magazine, it goes into a clear plastic sheet protector, and then I put it in the appropriate binder. I try to do this every six months or so, but sometimes I fall behind. Each time I sort the magazines and rip out the patterns, I flip through all the older patterns in the binders and take out any I'm no longer interested in--it's funny how our tastes change over time!

A few of you asked for a tutorial on the ruffled binding and someone also asked awhile back if I could do a tutorial on the Halloween treat bags I made for my last Buggy Barn class. I'll try to do a few tutorials soon, so if you were interested, please check back.

Thanks for stopping in.