Quilty Pleasures: Locally Grown Giveaway

I'm all for locally grown foods: my garden (soon to be gardens), the Lazy Boys and our friends' chickens' eggs all contribute to our food chain here in Northern New Mexico. Once I find some pork and locally grown chickens, we should be in excellent shape.

But today we aren't talking food, but fabric--Locally Grown, a new collection from Andover Fabrics by Marisa and Creative Thursday.

Ann at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM, our local quilt shop, is giving away a fat quarter bundle of these cutecutecute fabrics with goats and sheep and fruits and chickens.  Oh, my!

You may enter the giveaway twice if you follow these rules:

1. Make a comment on this blog saying what foods you would like to buy or already buy that are locally grown.

2. Visit Thread Bear's website and after you've drooled over all the fabric there is to buy, come back and make a comment on this site telling us what fabric you liked the best.

So you may make two comments for two chances to win. Oh, yeah. Deadline for entries is Midnight, Pacific Standard Time on Thursday, June 6.

Just remember if you are a no reply blogger and don't leave any contact info, you won't be able to win!

And here is a neat idea:

Cover an empty oatmeal box with cute paper or fabric for a neato thread and scrap catcher in your sewing room.

I Won Some "Color Me Retro" Fabric!

Last week was lucky because I entered a fabric giveaway and I won! That doesn't happen too often. Only once before, in fact.

But I just felt lucky and I really wanted some of this fabric. So I entered and the rest is good luck history.

The package came from Tactile Fabrics, who sponsored the giveaway at Jeni Baker's blog, In Color Order.  So what does "Color Me Retro" look like?

You probably can't tell, but Tactile Fabrics sent fourteen fat quarters and I can't wait to do something with them just as soon as I bring in the skiploader to shovel out the layers of project detritus in the sewing room.

Color Me Retro is designed by Jeni Baker and makes me think of lying on a Southern California beach. These fabrics would make an excellent beach or picnic quilt.

Anyway, thanks to Jennifer at Tactile Fabrics and Jeni at In Color Order for the fabric. I will put it to good use.

International Winner Chosen in Hotly Contested Battle

 Weirdness! This blog had 125 international visitors this past week, but only three entered our giveaway. You big wusses! Or maybe you aren't quilters and had no need for a box of fabric. Sorry, if that was the case.

 Oh, well, too bad for you folks who didn't enter, but good for the contestants, who had a 33.33 percent chance of winning!

The winner is Clare, whose comment is below:

Clare said...

Isn't it amazing when you do something like this and your blog suddenly goes quiet! You know how I found you and you know where I am LOL. I just love looking at your gorgeous photos, especially the dome. Congratulations, Clare! I will be packing up a box of fabric for you and it will be in the mail this week. Yay! Thanks for the comments, people, and I promise to add some photos of Las Vegas, keep up with my recipes, and take some more pics of the Growing Dome and what's inside.

International Readers: Who Are You? A Giveaway Just For Friends Outside the U.S.

When I look at where the readers of The Nickel and Dime Ranch blog are from, I can't help but wonder how they ended up here.

American readers are the largest group, of course, but a significant number of you are from other countries.

I mean, Slovenia? Russia? How the heck did you find out about this blog?

To get to the bottom of this, I am offering a free giveaway, an assortment of fabrics from my ever expanding stash of quilting materials. How much? I don't know, but it will be enough to make a baby quilt or a lap quilt top, for sure.

To enter, just answer these two questions: 1. How did you find The Nickel and Dime Ranch blog? and 2. What would you like to see more of on the blog?

Write your answers in the comments section of the blog. There will be one winner, randomly selected from the folks who entered.

Entries will be accepted until Thursday, April 12 at midnight, Mountain Time.

U.S. readers? I haven't left you out. Check for a giveaway next week!

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday-Announcing the Winners and One Block Wonder Update!

The giveaway winners are #'s 10 and 18, Pattie and Rebecca! I used the Random Number Generator to choose the two winners, but I haven't figured out how you show the results in a blog post. I will have to read up on that.  I will get your fabric in the mail this week.

In other news, I am machine quilting this one block wonder which is a tad larger than a crib quilt. The quilt has been pieced since March (here's the post about it), but I am a big wuss about machine quilting and debated whether to take it to the quilter or to do it myself. I have done small pieces that turned out fine, but I quilted one quilt a long time ago that looked seriously ugly and it has stuck in my brain, "You quilt ugly quilts!" I know it's not true, but I am a "paralyzed perfectionist" about certain things and machine quilting is one of them.

There was a quilt show by the Teatime Quilters at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM a month or two ago and several of the One Block Wonder quilts our Friday group had completed were displayed. After looking at a couple quilts machine quilted by the same people who pieced them, I was encouraged.

It's just straight line quilting, but I am still a nervous wreck. To keep me calm and to pass the time I'm catching up on Breaking Bad, a television show about a chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides to provide for his family by making meth. The moral dilemmas fly about, I am horrified and diverted enough to keep sewing, and I will never use meth or make it after watching this show. I promise!

That's Minkee you see on the quilt at the top and the bottom of the backing. For a baby, I thought that would be a nice touch, soft and cuddly for naps.

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday-Fabric Giveaway: Let's Celebrate!

I love this box. It's the one that holds most of my bright, crazy improvisational quilting fabrics.

Inside this box are treasures galore. I have so much fabric in here I forget what I have.  I bet there are plenty of you out there with the same (ahem) problem. When I start pawing through it, I make amazing discoveries. Making a quilt with these fabrics is an exciting journey because I don't know what fabric I will choose next.

Remember this quilt?
I was totally happy and thoroughly involved when making it. There's another one in the works after a couple obligations are met. They're addicting!

So let's get down to the giveaway: I am pleased to say that our new, three month old blog hit over 4000 visitors the other day! I don't know if that's good or not, but to me it's totally cool! (Sounding a little SoCal surfer chick, aren't I?)

It's time to share some of this awesome fabric with you, the people who have been visiting our blog.

I am putting together fabric packs that will include one Lady of Guadalupe panel, a fussy-cut Freda Kahlo, along with 20 fat quarters of assorted fabric you can use to make a small quilt of your own, or at least give you a start on a larger one! There will be two winners.


Here's how to enter: Leave a comment answering this question: Who is your favorite quilt designer?  I will randomly choose two winners from the comments. The contest will officially close Friday, July 1 at 7:00 pm, Mountain Time. Unfortunately we will only be able to send our fabric prizes to the United States. If you comment anonymously, I may have trouble contacting you if you win, so include your email address along with your comment if you anonymous folks want to enter.

Freda will be waiting for your comments!

Giveaway Winners Announced!

This blog operation is decidedly low-tech: Since there were just nine comments and one was mine, here's what I did:

1. I made slips of paper for everyone except me. Then I placed the slips into an empty gelato carton (Van Rixel Bros. Creme Brulee Vanilla Gelato made in Albuquerque--very rich. I was able to stretch this pint for two months due to extreme guilt).

2. Then I drew two numbers.Do you like my new tablecloth fabric? It's much brighter than it shows here. I may need sunglasses to eat dinner.

3. And the winners are.....Jacky and Pattie! Email me your mailing info and I will get your prizes in the mail Monday. boylecollegecounseling@gmail.com  Congratulations, winners!

It's a Giveaway Day!

Hooray! We have a couple events to celebrate:

1. It's been little over a year since we moved to this Northern New Mexico ranchito.

and

2. We have hit the 1000 visitor mark in just one month! It's amazing and gratifying, all wrapped up in one bloggy package.

We are writing this blog because our family and friends wanted to know what it was like living out here in the wilds of Northern New Mexico. It also keeps us out of trouble and I haven't been arrested even once since I started writing regularly.

The fact that more of you are showing up every day is just plain fun!

This giveaway is a way to show our appreciation for you, the readers. We are using money earned from the advertisements you see on the site to pay for the prizes. Some of you may have, either on purpose or inadvertently, clicked the ads while exploring. That's what's covering the costs. So we are sharing the love. If some company actually does pay for an amazing, spectacular giveaway prize, you will know about it right up front.

Okay, okay! Get to it, you are saying. What can we win?

New Mexico Soap makes handmade quality soap right here in our state. The soap is pretty, smells good, and looks unique. They also sell shea butter, which is the only thing that makes my dry lips kissable. Just ask Ms. Pearl! (and Tom!)

We are giving away two samplers from New Mexico Soap:

GENUINE NEW MEXICO SOAP BODY GEAR.

Each  Kit contains five components: 

1. Save Our Soap Soap Saver in white
2. One .25 ounce jar of Shea To Go
3. Self-draining pine wood soap dish (made right there in New Mexico Soap's wood shop)
4. Bar Soap(Design and scent will vary)
5. Designer Bar (Design and scent will vary)

These are nicely presented in a forest green customized gift bag.

How can you enter?

THE RULES

Giveaway open through April 28, 2011(Midnight, Mountain Time)

You may enter one time by answering this question in the Comments section of this post:

 What would you like to see us write about at the Nickel and Dime?  If you are an Anonymous poster, you will need to include your name and contact information.

And...you may enter a second time if you have a blog. Mention our giveaway in a blog post with a link to the Nickel and Dime Ranch blog. In the comments section, tell that you mentioned us and include a link to your blog.

We will choose two random winners and make the big announcement this Friday, April 29.

Good luck, peeps! Thanks for reading!

A Thank You Giveaway Coming Soon

 It's been a month since we relaunched our blog. Amazingly, we have had close to 1000 page views and visitors from the United States and eight other countries. We want to thank you for visiting and getting to know us a little better.

To celebrate our 1000 visitor milestone, next week we will be having our first giveaway. All I am saying is it's something New Mexico made.

Stay tuned, and have a Happy Easter!