13th Blogiversary Celebration Giveaway

Good morning, my friends! Happy Blogiversary to me! Today marks the 13th anniversary of Cat Patches. Today's post will be my 5,298th post. When I started blogging, it was because I wanted to learn from more experienced quilters (I didn’t learn until July of 2008). Also, there were online groups and events I wanted to join in and participate via blogging. Over the years, it has evolved into my daily “letter to friends.” When I started writing, I never dreamed I would stick with it for so long.

Over the years, I’ve met new friends from all over the world. People from some 145 countries have visited at one time or another. It has become a personal reference manual and a great way to settle disagreements about the ”where and when” certain events took place. Like exercise, it is an important part of my morning routine. The day doesn’t get off to a good start until I’ve emptied my brain of the words that accumulated there from the day before. Daily writing forces me to pay attention and to be grateful for every good thing that happens. And I am so grateful to the many of you who have followed along over the years, and left so many supportive hints, ideas, and comments. Today I'll be thanking you with a chance to win some fabric. I'll be giving away an 8-fat quarter bundle of "Butterfly" fabric.

Pretty, huh? If you're only here for the giveaway, you'll want to skip to the bottom. Before I get to that, I need to empty my brain of the words that accumulated yesterday. No bad words today, I promise.

So I was all in a tizzy yesterday about how much I have to do in so little time. With another day gone by, I'm feeling better. Now I'm realizing that getting the binding sewn onto Pieces of the Past was the thing weighing most heavily. I had just over an hour to work on it yesterday morning. Smitty was my helper cat for that.

Under his snoopervision, I was able to get that puppy sewn on, and a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. Honestly, I don't know what had me stressing about this so much because, really, it would be okay if I didn't finish it to take along. Nevertheless, it's done, and I'm feeling better about finishing up the rest of my to-do's.

There was still a little time left before I needed to get ready to leave. Sadie heard that I was going to make up the next Domestic Affairs block. She considers herself something of a domeowestic diva, and so she stepped in to help. 

We needed to choose fabrics for the dress form applique, and girl cats are way better at that than brutish mancats. With her help, I selected these two:

When those were fused down, I traced out the rest of the design.

When that was finished, I needed to get on my way for a monthly pedicure. When I returned home, I top-stitched the applique, and now this one is ready to be taken along too. 

I'll finish up the current Joyful Journey block before starting this one, but it'll be good to have insurance against a stitching emergency on our camping trip. We'll be in a remote area, and there won't be any quilt shops nearby.

With those finished, I could get to work on Tiny House #26. Sadie consented to doing some papurr-piecing with me. She believes her most important task is to look adorable.

It's one of the things she does best, although it isn't particularly helpful when I have little bits of fabric and paper strewn about.

My timer was set for one hour. When time was up, I had three sections complete, and a fourth well under way. I'll get back to work on this a little later this afternoon.

Getting back to this ruler business with my mid-arm machine, I paid attention to the comments left by my friends, Ann and Anne-Marie. They both felt my foot was too high. I've always felt the foot was too high on this machine too, ruler or no ruler. And so I consulted the manual. It's a really terrible manual. The manual is so terrible, it doesn't even include a good diagram of how to thread the machine. Frankly, I'm still not sure I have it right, but it works, and so I continue on my merry threading way.

So I wasted some time looking at the stupidly-written manual, and I did some Googling. Nothing was particularly helpful. I wondered if I would need to take it in for service in order to get an adjustment. Then...something sparked my curiosity, and I took a closer look. Here's a photo from a previous post.

As you look at that, it's tempting to think you can simply loosen that screw and lower the foot. Unfortunately the screw goes all the way through to the back, and so no adjustment can be made there. 

Instead, I started looking at the hex nut above the screw. I've indicated it with a pink arrow in the image below. See how the hex nut fits snug against the top of the foot?

Well. I went searching through the tools that came with the machine, and I found a hex wrench that fit that nut perfectly. So, I loosened it, and then found I could rotate the whole foot attachment, lowering it down and then tightening it again. It lowered the foot and still gives me a nice solid connection between the two.

So, then I slid the experimental scrap quilt under again, and there was plenty of clearance.

And look at how nicely it seats within the height limits of the ruler now. (That's a new ruler, by the way. It came yesterday.) Yahoo!!! 

This has been a bugaboo as long as I've owned the machine. So thank you Ann and Anne-Marie for encouraging me to take a second look. I've owned the machine for around nine years. During that time I've made a significant investment in rulers and templates that I haven't been able to use because of this too-high foot problem. Now, I'm set to jet with new ruler feet, new rulers, and a properly adjusted foot height. The sky's the limit, I'm telling you.

Okay, but let's keep both feet on the ground and take a walk around the garden. The Powwow Wild Berry Echinacea has opened all the way now. I'm expecting more and more coming along.

There are more flowers on the variegated hydrangea now.

The Checkers dahlia looks just about ready to burst into bloom. I'm hoping it will bloom now or at least wait until we get home next week.

When it blooms, it will look like this:

To its right, I'm better able to see the bud on the Fuzzy Wuzzy dahlia, although it is less mature.

When it opens, it will look like this:

To its right, I can see the bud on the next dahlia. I forget the name of this one without looking.

And Bumble Rumble is looking better and better. Let's hope it continues. I keep reminding myself that it was larger than this when it died the first time around.

And on a note of supreme positivity...look at this:

Remember when we transplanted the poppy and it fainted dead away? This is new greenery appearing beneath the dead stuff. IT LIVES!!!

Okay, but enough of this. Let's get on with the real celebration. Would you like to win this?

Consider this my thank you for your readership, your many kind comments and suggestions, and your encouragement over these many years. Here's what you need to do to be a winner.

1. Just leave a comment...any comment will do. If you can't think of anything, then tell me about any travel plans you might have for what remains of summer. Please leave your comment here on the blog. If you are an email follower, simply click on the title of this post to be taken to the actual web page. You can leave your comment there.

2. Since this giveaway is to thank those of you who have followed along over the years, this prize is reserved for followers only...new, old, salty, sweet, bitter, and twisted...just step on up and tell me how you follow. If you want to become a follower, you can find lots of ways to do it there in my left side bar. Also, I will ship internationally, so all residents of Planet Earth are welcome to join in. 

3. If you're no-reply, be sure to leave an email address. You can't win if I can't contact you.

So good luck, and a big thank you for helping me celebrate the day! I'll leave this giveaway open through Friday, July 21st and announce the winner sometime on Saturday, July 22nd.

And this seems as good a time as any to tell you I won't be blogging while we're gone next week. As I mentioned, we'll be in a remote area, and internet access will be limited. That also explains the delay in announcing the winner. I usually like to wrap up a giveaway sooner than that. So good luck, everybody!

As for today, I'll be working away at my to-do list. Hoeing the garden comes first. But even "firster" than hoeing will be breakfast. Have a good day everybody! We'll chat again tomorrow.