Happy Birthday to CPF! But, the gift is for YOU!

Howdy Hon,

Long time no hear from, right?  Life kind of happened over the summer.  Our youngest son had surgery, both his top and bottom jaw were broken to set them into alignment.  DH had a couple of job situation changes, anniversary cruise, Zumba convention, family trip, family issues, Toastmasters, new chickens, building coop, blah blah blah...  You get the idea, it was a busy time.

But sometimes you just have to live life, and wait for the chance to write about it later.  

I have not done much sewing either during this time.  BUT, dh decided I needed a bigger sewing room!  Soooooooo we did some major room swaps to get me into a bigger room.  Then our son decided while all these rooms were being swapped he too wanted to swap rooms.  Our home is still full of boxes of library books and what-nots that need to be unpacked and put away in their new locations.  I am all set up in my new sewing room studio.  I love being able to move around.  However, after I got it all set up and ready to work in dh suggested a different layout.  Here we go again!  Now I have to pack half the stuff up, again, so we can try the new arrangement.  It sounds like it will work better.  It doesn't matter though, I am NOT packing that stuff up again for a long time.  

That's a little update on what's been happening in the my world.  You did notice the badge in the right column, "Slow Blogger".  Yep, that was me this summer.  Now the fall is coming and I'm going back to the path to school.  As I settle into managing my time the post should follow the original schedule again.  I'm so excited about all the things I have been collecting to blog about and all the new things coming up.  Life does in deed get busy.  Busy can be crazy, but I discovered it's a kind of crazy I enjoy.  Most of the time that is.

Anyhoo........This is indeed a special CPF and the perfect one for me to come back on!  It's our BIRTHDAY!  So please join me in celebrating a whole year since CPF began.  Even better is that it is still going.  I love how no one is obligated to participate every week, because we know life happens.  We all have responsibilities to our families, church, work, friends, and so forth.  But we all enjoy posting and sharing on our blogs.  We also take on that responsibility.  I love the community that on-line environment can foster.  It's a wonderful opportunity to talk with people I would never have had the opportunity to before.  And since I didn't get out much it was a blessed way of communicating with others.  I don't have many comments, but I have enjoyed learning that others have stopped by and checked out the blog, as well as those who have left comments.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share parts of my world including CPF with other viewers.  My small way of saying, "Thank y'all for stopping by" is to share a birthday gift with you!  I guess you can also call it a giveaway.  After all, isn't that what we do for birthdays.  We give gifts to make others happy.  I'd like to think and hope that is what my little blog does, 'make others happy'.  Even if it's just learning from my mistakes while laughing until they turn shades of purple.  LOL.  

What do I have to share?!  Check it out:

 Birthday gift #1:

Several CPF's back I did a post on color wheels, charts and so
forth.  You can see that post here.  Thanks to Lorinda I learned
about a large color map by Spoonflower.  I ordered
 it and loved it.  I also order this Color Guide (and a Swatch
Book, but that's for me).  I have added from one of my
QuiltyBox's a retractable tape measure from a box curated
by The Tattooed Quilter.  Later on I ordered spools of the
beloved Aurifil thread, so I added one of those too.

Birthday gift #2:

While visiting my sons in Ohio they took me to this cute
little quilt shop.  I bought several quilting cotton fat quarters
that just screamed out to me with their yummy, vibrant colors.
This one was so bright, yet I have not found a cause to use it.
I think it's so perky and fun and happy, maybe you can do
something special with it.  Again I added a retractable tape
measure and Aurifil thread to match.  

Feeling lucky are you?  More on those later.  ****Ooops, I forgot to add to original post that I will be including with each gift a "Friends of a  Feather" by indygo junction pin cushion (I will be making the pin cushion and including it, not the pattern.)

Let's talk color!  Again, Color Play Friday was created by Lorinda over at Laurel, Poppy, and Pine and her good friend Trina over at In An Otter Life.  They opened it for others to join the fun every week and here I am today, A Color Play Friday Girl, teehee.  If you'd like to get more details on CPF and how you can join the fun please contact the ladies at colorplayfriday@gmail.com.  They'll give you all the details, including next week's photo.

This week's CPF is very appropriate for the occasion!  It's a Birthday Bash!

Join us in singing, 'Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Color Play Friday!
Happy Birthday to Youuuuuuuuuu!  And many morrrrrrrre.'

See a fabric that you like, well you can find them at these links below:

LakeHouse - Floral with Text on Aqua, Garden Aqua by Pam Kitty

Cloud 9 - Organic Bells Blue, Water Land by Jessica Nielson

AGF Studio– Khaki, FloralElements

 Cloud 9 - Organic Lime Looped Lines

Art Gallery - Honey House Sunflower, SWEET AS HONEY by Bonnie Christine

AGF Studio - Tangerine Tango, Oval Elements

I used Moda Fabrics Palette Builder 2.1 Powered by Playcrafts to decide on my color palette for the photos.  The builder gives me a selection of Moda Bella Solids, Aurifil Threads and Hex Values for each of the photos.   Then I change them at will and play around until I found that wacky pallet that suits my mood.   I then use those selections to search for my fabric bundles.  I like finding "different" styles of fabrics.  Yes, sometimes wild, but hey, that's the beauty of loving fabric!  I'll also be using their hashtag #modapalettebuilder, per their request.  It's the least I can do to say thank you for providing a great tool.

Now the Birthday gifts I am giving away!  

The giveaway rules are as follows:

1. This giveaway is open to US participants 18 years and older (sorry if you’re outside the US, but thank you for stopping by)
2. There will be two winners chosen from the comments on this post using Random.org
3. This giveaway will be open until Wednesday, September 14^th, at midnight central standard time. 

• The first name selected will receive Birthday gift #1.
• The second name selected will receive Birthday gift #2.
• Winners will be announced on next Friday’s CPF post on September 16^th.
• You only need to comment/enter once; duplicate entries will not be used.

This is how you enter:

1. Simply leave me a comment on this blog post!  About what?  Whatever you want me to know or any request for future blog post, your favorite post, your favorite color, what you would do with it if you won, special plans…anything you want.

• You also want to ensure that I will be able to get in contact with you should you win.  If your contact information is blocked you may want to post your email address in your post or send it to me through the contract form, AFTER you make your post.
• If you win and I have no way to contact you a new winner will be selected.

Guess who else is doing birthday giveaways this week, Lorinda and Trina.  They are giving away bigger prizes to celebrate their success with CPF, so be sure to stop by for their rules and entries!  

There you have it hon!  Now please go check out the other participants who are playing this week.  It's exciting to see the same picture from different perspectives.  If you would like to join us (that would be so awesome!) you can contact Lorinda and Trina @ colorplayfriday@gmail.com for all the details and next week's photo.

This week's players for ColorPlayFriday are:  

             Steph @ Shimmy and More (thank you so much for stopping by) 

                     Lorinda @ Laurel, Poppy, and Pine

                               Trina @ In An Otter Life

                                       Sarah G. @ http://www.goer.org

                                                   Sarah S. @ 123 Quilt 

                                                                                                                         

You can also do a social media check for our palettes by using the hashtag #ColorPlayFriday.  You can check out my previous Color Play Friday posts here!


Love and Shimmies,