AND THE WINNER IS.................

"Quilters aren't greedy, they're just materialistic"

                                        ~author unknown

Before the big announcement, I thought I would share my picture of the day with you.

This hot pink gerbera is one of my absolute favorites.  I have split this plant many times so I have several of them throughout the yard.  It is a very hardy grower and adds so much color to the garden.

I suppose you all want to know who the winner is of my first giveaway.  But first I want to thank you all for participating!  Without all of you there would not have been any reason to have this giveaway.  I hope that you will spread the word and encourage more to follow because once I reach 50 followers (that's not that many more), I will have another giveaway.

Okay, no more delay.  The winner was selected using random.org.  And the winner is.................

Congratulations, jillquilt

I have sent jillquilt an email notifying her that she is the big winner and hope to hear from her soon so that I can send her all of the loot.

So, now everybody but one is let down and sad - sorry - but maybe next time.  What was your weekend like?  Mine was a big blur.  It was both fun and tiring.

Friday I managed to complete another row of my blue and brown quilt.  Five more blocks, one more row and I will have completed the top.  That is my goal for this week.  Do you have a quilting goal for this week?

                                      

                                        One more completed row!

Saturday morning started out with a cup of coffee on the patio while we read the morning paper.  The weather decided to take a cool down and we relished the cooler morning temp.  Then it was on to the local farmer's market.  I definitely needed to go as all that was left in my vegetable drawers was a few new potatoes and half of a red onion.  I needed absolutely everything else.  We picked up romaine lettuce, carrots, potatoes, purple potatoes, strawberries, yellow onion, red onion, broccoli, white corn, and summer squash.

We did our normal out to lunch at The Village Grill.  Luckily, we were able to get a table on the patio because the weather was absolutely gorgeous!  And, of course, the food was great.  Our next stop was Trader Joes to pick up a few things - brown rice, frozen fish, and 2 buck chuck.  After taking the fish home, we headed for Kohls where we made some really good deals.  We headed in with our $10 of coupon to look for a pair of sandals which I found on clearance. They were regularly $40 marked down to $7.99!  I decided I couldn't beat that deal.  Heck, I could wear them twice and throw them out and still felt like I was ahead.  Picked up a couple more things and went to pay.  We spent about $32 after saving $73!!!  We were quite pleased with ourselves.  When I got home and looked at the receipt I noticed that besides the $10 coupon savings, we also received an additional 15% off!  Sometimes you just gotta love Kohls and their deals.

Sunday we headed down to Simi Valley (southern California) for a 40th wedding anniversary celebration.  What was supposed to be an hour and a half drive turned into a 3 hour drive.  Half way there we were completely stopped on the interstate for over an hour.  When the big rigs turn off their engines, you know you are in trouble.  There were people walking up the hill to see if they could see what was happening, someone was blowing bubbles, and we could even see one person flying a kite.  Apparently a semi truck had gone over the side (this happened in the mountains between the central valley and the Los Angeles basin) during the early morning hours and they were attempting to pull it back up to the road.  As a result, we missed the church service.  But we did make it to the restaurant for a great celebration and some wonderful food.  Unfortunately, had to get back on the freeway and head home along with every other nutty southern California driver heading home on a Sunday evening after a busy weekend.  It was a very long day!

If you still haven't won a new AccuQuilt Go! (and I'm still trying!) check out A Quilting Life - they are running a giveaway until Sept 3.

If any of you know of any giveaways you would like me to post, just drop me a line and I would be happy to do so. 

Final Thoughts:
For the rest of the week I hope to share a couple more recipes with you, share my first hand sewn hexagon flower, and talk a little about living with ALS.  I hope you all have a great week planned!