#100 - It's Give-Away Time!!

(This would have been up first thing this morning, but I failed at finding my camera, and then failed at finding the memory card for it.  Hubby had it, of course.  So then, I had to borrow a memory card from my mother-in-law.  Anyway..)

*cheering*

I made it!

ONE HUNDRED POSTS!

And I didn't even have to come up with filler content.  Who knew I was so verbose?  (Well, maybe my husband, lol!)

To commemorate the occasion, I've spruced up my blog.  You guys can finally see the logo that's been decorating my buttons.  In addition, there's a give-away!

Drumroll, please...

You, yes, YOU, have the chance to win this mini-quilt made by yours truly.  I call it "Exuberance".

A close-up of the metallic thread quilting:

I love it!  I loved it back when I came up with the idea, and started buying fabrics over a year ago.  I'm still collecting batiks, actually, because I want to do a bed-sized one for myself, just without the metallic thread.  Methinks that would be a little scratchy for sleeping.

But I digress, again.  I'm good at that.

This is the classic and ever popular Double Wedding Ring, done up almost entirely in batiks.  The solid is Kona Charcoal.  I've quilted it with a combination of black silk thread and a multicolored metallic.  It will all be done on my trusty Bessie, a Brother PC-210.

I'm attempting my first pieced binding, as you can see from the pictures.  I promise, I will totally have this done by the time I send this off to the lucky winner.  (Another batch of firsts for me:  first use of  metallic thread, first use of silk thread, first double layer of batting, first pieced binding, first give-away...)  Work kept getting in the way of my self-imposed deadline... Darn that having to pay the bills thing!

A small warning for those of you wanting to win this quilt...  If you are allergic to cats, you may want to reconsider entering.  I have three cats, and, well, they're magnetically attracted to my quilts.  I will wash this quilt, and once done with being photographed, it will be put into a large Ziploc bag.  Still, I feel I should warn you.

You have several ways to enter:

1.) Become a follower of my blog, and leave a comment.  For the purposes of this contest, adding me to your Google reader does not count.  Use the Followers widget in the sidebar on the right.

2.) If you are already a follower, leave a comment to that effect.

3.) Blog about this give-away on your own blog, and leave a comment with a link to your post about it.

4.) Post about this give-away on your facebook page, and leave a comment with a link to it.

5.) Put my blog in your blogroll or blog list on your sidebar, and leave a comment linking to your blog.

6.) And for a bit of impishness on my part, your last chance for an entry is to email me privately at greycatgiveaways [at] hotmail [dot] com, and tell me which batik was used a grand total of ONCE in the top of this mini-quilt.  Leave a comment saying that you've e-mailed me.  (This one I will be verifying against my e-mail account, so be sure to use the same e-mail address linked to your comment.)

Here are pictures of each individual quadrant, to give everyone a fighting chance at finding that one batik:

That's five chances to enter!  FIVE!  Please ensure that each entry is a separate comment.  I'll be choosing a winner via random number generator, so if you follow that simple guideline, you'll have a better chance at winning.  (**DISCLAIMER -  Due to the manner in which blogger displays comments, which is 200 to a page, the coding for the numbering system restarts the numbering with each page.  So, if your comment is on page 2, add 200 to the number shown by your comment, or 400 if you're on page three, and so on and so forth.)

Here's a picture of my son giving the quilt the sweetheart seal of approval before it's even done:

I will be posting the winner on October 15, 2010, along with the rest of the bloggers participating in the Fall into Fall Quilter's Blog Give-Away.  I will give the winner one week to contact me with their mailing information.  If contact is not made, a new winner will be selected via random number generator, and the cycle will begin anew.

And, just to share a little something else...  Today is my husband's and my sixth wedding anniversary.  That's right.  Six years ago today, the poor man got stuck with me permanently.  I love you, JohnPaul, and I look forward to many more anniversaries to come!

UPDATE:

Anyway...  The random number generator gave me this:

...which means that the winning comment was:

Congratulations, Brooke!  And to answer your question, this actually a fairly easy quilt to make.  The curves are actually very gentle, so it's just a matter of finding your centers (easy with the notches from you GO! die) and taking your time.  Keep your eye on this blog.  Somewhere in the last couple of weeks in January, I'll be starting a Double Wedding Ring Quilt-Along.  

E-mail me at gyrmalcyn [dot] go [go] pop {at} gmail [dot] com with your shipping information, and I'll get this quilt by the end of the week.  I still have to wash and photograph the final product, but I should be doing that tomorrow evening.

Actually, working on finishing up the binding was part of my Friday Night Sew-in project.  I did a lot of "unsewing" taking the binding off, and then figuring out where I'd gone wrong.  

And, for those of you who are curious, the batik that was used just once: