14th Blogiversary Giveaway!

*Sorry, this giveaway is over.*

Good morning, my friends! Are you feeling lucky? Today marks the 14th anniversary of Cat Patches. Today's post will be my 5,653rd 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. With the passage of time, 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 a 9-fat quarter bundle of "Sunray Day in the Life" 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.

The kitties and I went out to feed the birds and water the annuals. As it turns out, the annuals didn't need water, but the birds for sure needed feeding. Sadie and Smitty were on the hunt for some non-dandelionized grass. Sheesh...the gardeners around here. Slackers. That's all there is to say about it.

Sadie agrees completely. 

Oh well. You can't please everyone. 

Today is the day we've decided to pick the cherries. They've turned more red than orange, and I'm tired of waiting for them. 

As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that we could go outside this morning and find them all gone, having been absconded with by raccoons. (I don't know if that sentence is correct grammatically, but you know what I mean.) Let's hope not. I have a couple of ideas of things I'd like to do with them. On the menu for sure are a skillet cherry crisp, cherry sherbet, and a cherry galette. Also, I have an interesting-sounding recipe for a black rice salad that I'd like to try. It uses cherries and plums. I have cherry pie filling and cherries in syrup left over from last year's canning, and so I won't be canning any cherries this year.

Checking in on the rest of the garden, the echinacea have finally opened. There are only a few flowers so far, but many more are coming.

I have three colors of echinacea. The ones above are standard pink. The ones below are "Powwow Wild Berry." There's another called "Cheyenne Spirit" that is more yellow and orange, but it has yet to make an appearance.

With the temperature cooled down some from last week, the variegated hydrangea is much happier.

The blue one is still going strong.

Recently, I replaced our hummingbird feeders for these new fancy ones. I'd been using the "Hummzinger" style of feeders. They finally drove me crazy because they required almost daily attention. These will be easier to clean and they'll require filling only every 3-4 days. I like the humming birds, but those feeders nearly did me in. This style was recommended on one of the Facebook bird sites I follow. I'd been watching for the hummingbirds to actually use them, and I was able to capture this guy while I was out yesterday.

Back inside, I finished sewing together the Amish Sampler quilt. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and I'm glad I remembered this block setting.

From there, I went to work making a back for it. This was the fabric I selected. I was sorry it wasn't a solid, but I was determined to use something from my stash.

When I opened it up....whoa! I could use the wrong side of the fabric!

Oh...but upon closer inspection, I could see where some of the dark dye had come through. If it's not going to be a pure solid, then I'd just as soon use the prettier side.

So that was done. And, hey! Remember those black binding strips I cut for the Blackwork Baskets, and then lost track of them? They'll work for this quilt, and I had the exact number of strips I needed. It's almost like it was meant to happen that way.

So for the last gasp of my sewing day, I got Eliza set up for quilting the Catnip quilt. I'm using a black thread top and bottom, and I'm quilting a straight line diagonal grid. I checked the tension, and then left it needle down for today's sewing. 

There's quite a bit on this morning's agenda. We're going to mop the kitchen floor, and then we're going to pick cherries. Since I didn't water yesterday, I'll need to water the annuals today. Also, I should get in a Bowflex workout. I was going to do that yesterday, but then my Photoshop Elements class put me in a bad mood when I couldn't figure something out. By the time I gave up, I was feeling too pissy to exercise. I posted a question in the discussion area, and that's all been settled now. I was able to accomplish the assignment this morning before I sat down to write to you guys.

Okay, but enough of this useless prattle. Let's get on with the real celebration. Would you like to win some fabric? 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 some 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 Wednesday, July 17th and announce the winner sometime on Thursday, July 18th.