Adding a Button to your Sidebar in Blogger

When I started my blog, I was mystified by how people were able to add cute 'buttons' that bring you to other blogs on their sidebar.  I am pretty brave when it comes to just trying things with different software programs, but this one was beyond me.  I finally had to search help to figure it out.

So if you are new to blogging and want to add a button, 

here is how I did it in Blogger.

I am doing the Quilt A Long (QAL) at Sew.Happy.Geek.  I wanted to add the button for that to my sidebar.    

First I went to the Sew.Happy.Geek  blog.  I found the button on her sidebar and underneath it you will see a bunch of words and symbols 

(this is HTML).  Copy that by highlighting and clicking copy with your right mouse button.  This is the actual HTML for this particular button so you can see an example.

<center><a href="http://sewhappygeek.co.uk/index.php/sewhappyquilt/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1197.photobucket.com/albums/aa424/sewhappygeek/QALbutton1.jpg" alt="SewHappyGeek" /></a></center>

Next, go to your blogger website.  Find the option to make your Layout.  You will see an area that says Add A Gadget.  Click on that and different options will be available.  Find the option that says HTML/Java Script and click on the plus sign.  You can put a title in (or not) for your link.  Then paste the HTML you copied into the content section, and hit save.  Save your updated Layout, and then take a look at your blog.  Hopefully you are able to see the button!  To rearrange the order of the buttons, go back to your Layout and you can drag the boxes containing the info for different gadgets to the place you want them to be.

I plan to have other little lessons on working with 

Blogger as I learn new features.  

Happy Blogger Designing!

Karen

Cute Little Entry

For fun, I entered the first quilt I amde into the 

'Winter Landscapes" contest at Quilt Gallery.  

Now that I see the other entries, I feel kind of silly.  

But I love this first quilt of mine and wanted to share it.  As Sharon 

said below in my comments, we all had to start somewhere.

Here is the link to my post about this little quilt. 

"What Got Me Started"  

Although it is a simple quilt, I still smile every time I look at it.  

All those images that were on the panel for the fabric line 

convey winter in Minnesota so well.

Thank you for coming to visit!

Karen

Quilt Show, Anyone?

Raffle Quilt - Frosted Window Panes

Last fall, a Coworker told me about a large quilting organization here in Minnesota called Minnesota Quilters.  They have a large show every year in June - moving year to year to different cities.  She knew that I was a Newbie quilter, and  told me they have a scholarship each year that makes it possible for one beginning quilter to go to the show, take a class or 2, go to the banquet, and it covers the hotel room.  To apply, I had to submit photos of 2 quilt tops or quilts I had made.  You could not have started more than 4 quilts at the time of application.  I also had to submit an essay about what quilting means to me.

I am sure you guessed by now that I won the scholarship!  I will be going to Rochester, MN in June.  The class I signed up for is taught by Debby Kratovil , and it is on paper piecing.  It was so hard to decide on a class.  Darlene Zimmerman will be there, and her class is at the same time.  In the end, I went back to my essay and reread what I hoped to learn at the show.  And paper piecing was one of the items. 

The quilt I will be making is called Snow Crystals.  Isn't is lovely?  

I will be searching for some very special fabric for this.

The great thing about it is that I will be going to a lecture by Darlene - "From Ho Hum to Wow".  

Trunk show included!  

It is going to be hard to wait until June.  I am going to be there for opening night - Meet the Teachers, and  preview of the quilts and the vendors, 2 lectures on Thursday, Class and banquet on Friday, and another lecture on Saturday.  I hope some of my favorite 

designers/fabric companies/etc. will be there!

Have you been to a show like this?  

What was your favorite part?  Any advise?

Blessed Sewing,

Karen

Full House Schnibbles...Check

I sewed a lot (for me) over the weekend.  Lots of cutting, sewing, trimming and sewing. I made my first flying geese, that turned into
roofs for houses.  I made my first Schnibbles, Full House.  

It was so fun.  The fabric I used was Modern Workshop from a layer cake I bought last fall.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it.

Then I found out about Schnibbles.  When I started to look at the patterns, I found out you need 2 charm packs or 2 layer cakes for them.  What to do?

I ended up cutting that layer cake up into 2 charm 'sets', and left the other half uncut.  I gave one of the charm sets away for the SMS giveaway in December.  That was so fun!

When I was cutting the pieces for this Schnibbles, I left that 1/2 layer cake as is while I cut off the pieces I needed.  That made it possible for me to have a little bit larger piece left of each fabric for another project since I didn't need the entire 5".  

So, here is the quilt:

For the sky, I used one of the fabrics from my thrift store 

bonanza - it has little flowers and butterflies on it.  For the lighter colored sky fabric, I found a pretty print at S.R. Harris.  This is a warehouse style fabric store where everything is 1/2 retail.  

So I can find Riley Blake, Studio e, etc. for 4.50 - 5.00 a yard.

Believe it or not, the yellow border and sashing is a Modern Workshop print I found in my 'stash'.  I had bought some 1/2 yd cuts of some generic fabrics at Burgandy Buttons for a great price and that was one of them!  loved the process of making this quilt, and the chance to do my best at arranging all those colors in an eye catching and balanced way.  I like it better than I expected.  I was thinking this would be a good baby quilt - you could call it "Coming Home".  Now I just have to get over my fear of quilting!  Although we can put just our tops in the parade,  I really want to finish mine up each month so I don't end up with the dreaded UFO's I keep reading about.  :)

Question, have you sold baby quilts?  If so, what price would you put on one like this?  

Material cost is at least $20.00.  Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Linking up to Manic Monday Linky Party at Sew.Happy.Geek.  You can find the link on my sidebar.

Happy Sewing, Karen

Blessed by Giveaway Wins

I have been so blessed to have won several giveaways.  Although I thanked the wonderful folks who sponsored these, I wanted to publicly thank them all for their generosity.  I am going to post about them all here and then tell you about a fabulous one at one of my favorite blogs.  My son says I cheat to get these, but I assure you I used one ID to enter!  He also thinks I am bragging - if it seems so, please forgive me.  I truly feel very blessed.  I am a new quilter, and money is tight, so these wins have been wonderful.

First up, a pattern and FQ from Sandi at A Legacy of Stitches - my first giveaway win.  I won the pattern on the left, and Sandi tucked in some fabric from the designer 'The Noble Wife'.  The fabric has adorable mice on it.  I have not made the quilt yet - But I will!

 

My next win was from CeLynn at The Sunflower Patch.  You will see this fabric being used sometime this week - I am using it for one version of the Sew Happy Quilt Along at Sew.Happy.Geek.

My next win was from It's Sew Kiki - more about that blog below.  It is the Christmas Gift wallhanging I posted about here.

On the very same day, I was astonished to find out I won the Jelly Roll that could be used to make this from Pauline at Quilt N Queen

each winner will receive a Moda Sherbet Pips Jelly Roll

I have been combing the Moda Bakeshop trying to find the right pattern to use, and now that I have pulled Pauline's post up again, I realize it would be very fun to use her tutorial and make something like her gorgeous little quilt.  At the time I won this, I was too new and felt intimidated looking at this.

I entered some stocking giveaways and won this darling little stocking from Carol in Australia.  Make sure you look for the bird on the stocking.  Inside was a darling purple bear, rose scented lotion, a FQ of fabric with Australian animals, a FQ of fabric with Australian birds, and some pretty handmade ornaments in a handmade round paper box.

Next up, an amazing handmade recipe box with the quilt block Tumbling Blocks featured on top.  You can go here to see all the beautiful things he makes.  This will bring you to a post about the exact box I won - here is a picture.  I won this through a giveaway on Quiltmaker Magazine's site/blog.

Somehow, I won again on It's Sew Kiki (which gives me high hopes for her fantabulous birthday giveaway!).  That win was a $25.00 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop!  It took me 3 weeks to decide, but I finally settled on a Rolie Polie of Daisy Cottage by Lori Holt.

This lovely win is from Linda at Stray Stitches.  This table runner is going to look wonderful on top of my 1920's buffet.  I am hoping to start it soon, but have a couple of other things in progress right now.

Last but not least there is this win from Rockgranny during the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway.  

I am looking forward to receiving this all the way from Croatia!

So, if you made it this far, I will tell you about the great giveaway.  But you need to hurry!  And if you are new to It's Sew Kiki, please mention that I sent you there in your giveaway comment - KOcanquilt.  I appreciate it.  Here is the link.  There are many things in her giveaway!  I especially love the Veranda FQ pack and the handmade items that Kiera has made.   Good luck, and may you be blessed too!

One Thing, One Week Challenge Finish

Yesterday I discovered that Amy at Amy's Creative Side had a challenge going on to complete something in the past week.  Although I was late to the party, I did challenge myself to finish my 12 Days of Christmas Mini Quilt (just the top) at the beginning of the week - and I made it!  So I am linking up.

 

So what do you think?  Very 1930's repro fabric.  :)  The only thing I don't like about it is that my 2 predominantly red blocks ended up next to each other.  I guess that is the risk with a Mystery Quilt!  But it makes me smile.  Maybe it will be a doll quilt someday.  But for now I am going to hang it on my bedroom wall once it is quilted.

The colors are a little bit washed out from the flash, but I think you can see it pretty well.  If you click on any of the pictures, you can see a larger version of it and see the detail better.

My other big project is the weekly blocks for the 

Sew Happy Quilt Along.  I am doing 2 sets - one in children's prints 

and one with a few FQ from my 'stash'. 

The children's quilt will be donated somewhere.  

Week 1:

The 2 yellow 'buggy' prints and green fish print are from a giveaway I won!  So cute.

A little bit washed out from the flash - various FQ's of fabrics I have collected.  Love them all!

I have a big huge post started about all of the giveaways I won last year.
It will be up tomorrow.

I pray that you all had a great MLK Day.  It is a great chance to reflect on someone who was very wise and influential.

Last 4 Blocks & Thrift Store Bonanza

I have really loved making the little 12 days of Christmas blocks.  I have always been fascinated by mini quilts and now I know I could make one!  Here are my last 4 blocks.

I assume that we get directions tomorrow on how to put these together!  

I will probably work on it at Quilter's Night Out tomorrow.

Last weekend I hit the bonanza at a thrift store.  

All the fabric in this collage cost less than $10.00.  

Most pieces are at least a quarter of a yard, and some are larger or FQ's.  

I don't have much fabric and can't buy much, so I am pretty happy with these.

Upper left picture, I like the 2nd one from the left the best.  

Upper right, 2nd one from left and last one on right.  Lower left I like the blue Christmas print on the left.  Middle right I love the 2 on the right.  

See the ladies heads?  Bottom right I love all of them. 

 The one on the far right is my favorite of them all.  

The one next to it will be used for my quilt a long at Sew.Happy.Geek.

I thank each of you who read my little blog.  I can't believe I am up to 33 followers!   

I will have to do another giveaway when I hit 50 followers.

The 12 Days of Christmas Mystery Quilt

I came across a quick little mystery quilt on one of the blogs I read.  

It is called 12 days of Christmas and I am waiting for day 9 to be posted.  

The link is here - Temecula Quilt Co. I did Days 1-8 last night as well as sewing the binding on to my Son's quilt (I still have to attach it to the back - going to try doing it by machine).

Here are the first 8 blocks for the quilt a long.

Twelve Days of Christmas - Days 1-4

Twelve Days of Christmas - Days 5-8

It has been fun to get back into my 30's fabric
(I will have to show my original project later).

Each block is only 3.5 inches unfinished, so I have had to be very precise.  

For Day 7, the purple flower in the middle wasn't even planned.  

I find I really like little quilts.  But then again, I like all quilts!!

Later today I will be doing my first post on the Losing Weight page of my blog.  

I am a little scared but I think putting my journey out in blogland will help me finally make the changes I need to for better health.  And out of that better health I should lose weight and feel much better.

This part of my blog will be much more personal, and is mostly just for me.  

But you are welcome to read those posts also if you are so inclined.     

Oh, and I found out what the January Schnibbles pattern is.  It is "Full House".  

I fell in love with this pattern on Carrie Nelson's site when she had this post.  The bummer is that I don't have this pattern yet so will have to order it online unless I can find it at my LQS.

I hope everyone is having a Happy New Year!

Small Blog Meetup

Linking to Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet.....

If you are visiting from Lily's Quilt's,

 you might be interested in reading the following posts from my very new blog

TNT Thursday.  My New Thing?  Blogging!

What Got Me Started - Little Wall Hanging

Christmas Finishes

2012 is here!  I have been anxiously waiting to learn more about "Another Year of Schnibbles".  Hopefully the info will be out soon today as I really want to get started right away if I can.  :)  Meanwhile I will work on the blocks for my monthly block exchange with a great group of ladies.

I pray you have a very blessed New Year!