Paper piecing, Summer Sampler Series, and a Surprise!

First of all, I got such a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday!  The above picture was taken at this year's Sisters Quilt Show in Sisters Oregon., and mailed to me!!  It's from last year's winner of their quilt block contest.  The rules have changed this year, but last year, one winner was best of show, and 24 others were picked as "teacher's choice" awards, and the top winner got all of those blacks to make a quilt from, as well as $50.  The rest of the blocks were sent to randomly chosen contest participants.  Long story short, the winner, Ruth Newell, of Michigan, sent me a wonderful handmade pin as a thank you gift (so generous, and totally unexpected).  Imagine my surprise when I got this picture of hers of her finished quilt that she entered into the Sisters show of all of our blocks in a finished quilt!!  WOW!  Great job Ruth!!

Here's the block I entered last year:

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This year, they picked the top 6 and all of the blocks were divided up and sent to them.  I did not make the cut, but got to see the winners (on the Internet), and WOW what a wonderful job they all did!

Next, I was able to catch up on my blog reading today, and was stopped in my tracks by the lovely Minnesota block that Lee of Freshly Pieced Blog had on there today.  One of my favorite parts of the quilt blog-o-sphere is the quilt alongs, but I've resisted joining in this summer because I just don't have the time with my kids home 24/7.  This block, though, caught my attention since it's so pretty and since it uses paper piecing, a technique I've been really wanting to learn / try for some time now.  Lee's directions are clear as a bell, even her computer direction...  I decided that I want to make it.

But the clincher was visiting with Marlene at Kissed Quilts, who lives about 45 minutes away from me.  I had some rare summer kid-free time, and headed over there for a trip to some fabric stores and to see Marlene's studio (she has a long arm quilting and pattern business).  She just happened to have some paper piecing templates laying around, and helped me in person understand how to do it!  Thanks Marlene!  I'm not superstitious, but if this isn't a "sign", then I don't know what is LOL!!  With Lee's computer help, I just now  printed out the templates, and hope to get a block made soon!

Finally, I have a stack of Kindle covers for my Etsy shop all ready to sew up.  I hope you all have a productive week-end as well!!