Living in a small sleepy town is really nice and I don't think you could pay me enough to move to a big city.  But sometimes you just have to get out of town, because well....there's not much happening around here.

Some of us girls headed down to the Twin Cities (aka Minneapolis/St. Paul) a couple weeks ago for a little culture.  We kinda, sorta got dressed up and went to the musical, "Grease". Minneapolis has a wonderful theater district and it's exciting to see all the lights and people.  We had awesome seats and the performance was tremendous. I'm admitting it here and now...I'm a big American Idol fan. Taylor Hicks was Teen Angel... his singing and harmonica playing was great... but his pants were so tight I was hoping they'd stay on...geeze...not sure how they didn't split?!?!

Something else that doesn't happen every day...the lights went down for the play to start and a side door opens up...in comes this guy and a whole entourage. Do you know who this is?  Well, if you're from Minnesota you had better!!

About 7 rows (alright, I counted, it WAS 7 rows) in front of us was Brett Farve!!  You could just hear the whispers grow across the theater. Let's just say I made my whole male family jealous with my text message.  You can be sure there was a lot of texting going on during the first act!

There also isn't a good wool store close to us. Yet, that is.  It will be nice when Farmhouse Woolens opens in a few months.  So on another trip to the Cities four of us went to LJ Fibers.  Karen went to make purchases for the store. She was the first one in (& I think the last one out) and you can see she was thinking mighty hard on what she should buy.

Faye, Denise and I didn't do too bad ourselves!!

Getting a package from France doesn't happen every day either. But today was the day that "Quilt Country" magazine was delivered.  I promised I would share what the article was like.  I was totally surprised to find that there were 5 pages!  Now I just have to find someone who can tell me what it says!!

I also said I'd choose someone to receive the pattern, "Breezy".

Uh la la....Arlette you won!

Please email your address. Hmmm... isn't Arlette a French name?

kari@newleafstitches.com

I have a couple nice surprises... one for you and one for me!

I just found out that my quilt, Breezy, is on the cover of the premier French quilting magazine, "Quilt Country"!  The quilt was sent over in October, but I had no idea it would make the cover...I love how they photographed it. 

Now, on to the surprise for you!  Gudrun drew a winner from the Flickr group of those that made and posted pictures of projects that were made from the Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop. It was fun to see everyone's work.  I always think it's fun to see the different color ways!

The winner of this special drawing really out-did herself... she made every project...so you can probably guess who it is...bro3ther!  Congratulations & make sure to send Gudrun your email address.

If you'd like a chance to win the Breezy pattern, leave a comment below & I will draw early next week for a winner.  And I promise... the directions won't be in French!  

Well, you waited all day for this and here it is!  It took us a while to get all the logistics to finding winners togehter, but now we have names of 3 terrific blog hop participants that religiously commented on every blog.  There was a huge pool of participants to choose from.  So Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for spending the last couple of weeks with us. 

It has been so rewarding for us to read all your comments about our stories, hear your own stories sparked by what we wrote, see your excitement about the projects and then actually see how many of you have gotten to work and finished many of the hop projects and loaded your photos on the Flickr site.

This is what the winners are getting!!! Isn't this incredible? These are books, patterns, kits, tools and fabrics that all of us have designed or companies that we work with have graciously donated.

So here they are.....the big winners:

1st grand prize goes to: Thea M  www.theamccurry.com

2nd grand prize goes to: Arlette from Costa Rica http://arlette0521.blogspot.com/

3rd grand prize goes to: What Comes Next   http://round22.blogspot.com/

Congratulations girls!! Please send Gudrun an e-mail (gudrun@gequiltdesigns.com) with your shipping adress so she can send you those awesome prizes.

Another Chance to Win!!

Yes, we are giving you another chance to win some of the prizes in the picture if you post a picture of your finished project on the Flickr site. You will have until Tuesday December 1st to upload your photos. We will then draw a name of one lucky person to receive some goodies. Instructions on how to upload a photo are on the Flickr page. This gives you an extra week to get some of these finished and snap a photo. 

Thanks again!  And make sure you check in with each of us once in awhile to see what we are up to and leave comments on what you have been doing.  Merry Christmas to you all!

Kari 

Well, I wish I could tell you who the winners of the blog hop are, but we are still trying to find qualified winners.  We have a surprise for you that I think know you will like.  Make sure to check back.

I do need to find a winner for the Winter Blooms pattern and Clearly Perfect Angles!  I never heard from the first name drawn, so as I said in an earlier post I would draw another name.  At least I can tell you one winner.  That person is:

Pat, from the blog "A Little of This and a Little of Pat"

Please email me with shipping info.

kari@newleafstitches.com

Oh my goodness!!  It's the last day of the hop. Can you believe it??  First of all, make sure you stop at Linda LumDeBono's site.  I haven't met Linda, but I sure am impressed with her creativity and work. 

How about some "house cleaning" items? 

1. To be eligible for the grand prizes, make a comment on each designer's project.

2. Stop back next week to find out who won.

3. Take a picture of your projects and post them on the Flick site for all to see. 

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Orders over $20, I'll pay the shipping for you!

Roseann, from Rosebud’s Cottage is the featured designer today. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know her a little bit over this last year.  I’m sure her project will be fun and lively... just like her!!  Make sure to stop by her site!

Just an FYI:  Sherri!!  I haven’t heard from you.  I’d sure like to send you the “Winter Blooms” kit and Clearly Perfect Angles!  If I haven’t heard anything by Monday I will draw another winner....

We have two designers named Terri/Terry and two Carrie/Kari.  Today Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co is the featured designer.  She has shared stories about her brother Mark... guess what?  I have a brother named Mark too!! I wonder what she has made?

Today's topic is a favorite gift from kids.  My favorites are the things the boys made over the years.  These are some ornaments, made out of the usual kid crafting materials.  The salt dough ornaments are sort of disintegrating, so I'm glad I took these pictures...

One of Brandon's memories was "buying" us gifts.  I remember how proud and grown up he felt.  There was a fund raiser at the elementary school and a "store" was set up in one of the classrooms.  Basically, I gave one of the "elves" money at the door, they took the little ones in and they could pick out gifts.  Brandon, I still have the pretty white bud vase (with decal roses) packed away. Unfortunately, the "Best Dad" mug got broken.

My sweet sister-in-law is an elemtary teacher. She loves getting the home-made gifts too. How sweet is this note she got?  "U R a Speshal techer" 

What child's gift do you cherish the most? 

I am so impressed with all of you that are hanging in there and still following us! There's only a few more days left and the end is in sight.  We are back to a Minnesota designer today.  Sherri, of This & That fame is sharing her talents. Don't forget to leave a comment!

As a thank you to all you loyal followers,  orders over $20 receive free shipping.  It's a good time to buy Christmas presents for friends, family or your Secret Santa! Or place a group order.

Late last night I picked a winner for my drawing.

Sherri (A Quilting Life) won the Clearly Perfect Angles and "Winter Blooms" kit.

Please email me off list with your address. Congratulations!

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I cannot believe I am sharing this wierd thing, but when I sent emails out to everyone in my family to help with topic ideas, every single one mentioned this. So here goes...

Do you remember how it felt like a rite of passage when you were moved from the kid's table to the grown up table?  Well, we kind of have something like that with our family. Only it involves glasses.

When we were little we each had our own little Santa mug.  I remember how fun it was to get to use those.  My mom always got them out for my boys when they were little too.  Now, you have to understand that Christmas Eve dinner was a pretty formal ordeal.  My mom set the MOST beautiful tables.  You know, the 3 times a year you got all the "good" stuff out...

Anyway, when you outgrew the Santa mug, you got to use a glass goblet.  A little fancier (you knew that because it had a stem!) and it was a sign you were movin' on up.  Well, of course the next step was to get to drink out of the crystal goblets. There came some responsiblity with these. You had to make sure you wiped your mouth before you drank out of them and you must handle them with care.

But really how you knew it was the real deal,  was because........well, you could make them sing!!  Now, my mother (aka Miss Manners on these occassions) has to take some responsibility for this.  She is the one who told us the way to test if it is real crystal is to get the tip of your finger wet and rub it around the top edge of the goblet.  Lo and behold, it creates a sound (squealy, squeaky and irritating, but a sound).

We all just KNEW this wasn't appropriate during the meal. But there always came a time (& still does) after dessert that we'd get the glasses all tuned up (Not really tuned...just different amounts of water to change the tones) And boy oh boy, off we'd go.  I can still see Miss Manners (aka Grandma) helping hold the goblet and gently guiding a little boy's finger around the top... squeaks and giggles... yep, music to my ears.

Now that I'm thinking about it... it is more like glass regression than progression!

Oh please, tell me your family does wierd, crazy stuff like this too!! 

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I can't thank all of you enough for the kind comments on the snowflake pillow.  Some comments were just a hoot!  Here are two of my favorite sayings when talking about different embellishments:  "...just puts tinsel on the tree" and "... melts my butter".  Too funny.  I enjoyed the "I can tell you're a teacher" ones too.  Just keep me in mind when planning quilt guilds, retreats or shows!!!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I have a few kits for the pillow, so please contact me off list if you are interested. Make sure you comment if you haven't already and check back tomorrow for the winner of my drawing.

Don't forget to leave comments on all the designer's project pages to be eligible for the grand prizes.

Remember the Cutie Patootie on my site when we announced the blog hop?  Well, it's Terri's day today.  She will have something fun, after all, she is Whimsicals! 

We are having some technical difficulties: If you want to sign up for my newslettter OR have questions about a kit, please email me directly: kari@newleafstitches.com

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What is the best thing to find in your stocking??  Leave a comment so I know!

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Can you believe it? We are starting the second half of this cross country adventure.  I'm glad you stopped by today to see what my project is all about.

We were asked to tell a little about ourselves, so here goes. (You can read more in the "About Us" link).  I am married to my high school sweetheart and I feel like I am the luckiest person in the world. We have 2 sons that have grown into fabulous young men. The most exciting news at the moment...our oldest son & his wife are going to have a baby girl in January! I'm sure this granny will keep you posted, so keep stopping in to hear about our little sweet pea!

I really enjoyed designing this project.  But, I have to say, it turned out differently than the one dancing around in my head for a few weeks.  What I didn't plan on was finding fun buttons in Grandma's button jar, incorporating beads & coming up with a simple, fun back.  I guess you will have to take my word for it... this one is better.  I hope you enjoy making this winter pillow!  Oh yeah ~ read all the way down to the bottom to learn about what I am giving away in a seperate drawing.

 Clearly Perfect Angles

Yeah, you made it all the way through.  Monday night I am going to draw from those of you who left a comment and post the winner Tuesday.  A lucky someone will win a kit for the "Winter Blooms" pillow pattern and also a Clearly Perfect Angles! 

Please visit your local quilt shop for the Clearly Perfect Angles and patterns (Yes, they are in stores internationally!) And I know Roseann (Rosebud's Cottage) has the CPA's!   My friend from "My Red Farmhouse" also has the Winter Blooms kit and other great wool projects at her store, Farmhouse Woolens.  Or feel free to shop on my site.

A few of you are getting "log in" requests when posting so it seems like your comment isn't registered.  Most of them, however are.  Please refresh the page and hopefully you will see your comment!  Thanks.

To sign up for the newsletter, please email me directly: kari@newleafstitches.com