Beat the Winter Blues & Giveaway!

It just goes to figure that the day the Beat the Winter Blues blog hop and giveaway starts we have inches of snow coming down! So in an effort to beat those blues I'm trying hard to look forward to spring and summer. My spring is really busy, with good things of course like Diva's and Little Loo's birthdays, but still I am finding myself skipping spring and dreaming about the lazy days of summer...

There is so much that's great about summer... sleeping in, grilling, lounging by the pool... I thought to get into the mood I would show some photos I took while at the NJ Quilt Show last week.

The quilt below is from the exhibit entitled "Red, White, and Beautiful," presented by the Gold Coast Quilter's Guild in Boca Raton, Florida. It was my favorite quilt from this collection! (Please ignore the Christmas tree on the right... despite the fact that it was beautiful, we are trying to think about summer!!)

I can not even begin to describe how amazing this quilt is. I wish I could remember who made it, but regardless this woman's vision was realized to the T. With help from her son, who engineered the pattern (over 2,500 hours!), this quilt was stunning. Hand cut, hand pieced, and hand quilted with circles spiraling out from the center. Just magnificent.

Ok, I realize that that wasn't overly summery, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. As a heads up, this month you can look forward to progress posts about the auction quilt, and maybe even some progress posts for Diva's big birthday spectacular that's coming up in April.

And now for my giveaway: To enter just check out another post on my blog then come back here and leave a comment. Old and new followers get an extra entry, just check it off in the Rafflecopter.

McCall's Pattern M5838 in size CCE (3-4-5-6)

Good luck! And thank's for stopping by!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Special thanks to Michele who is once again hosting the Blog Hop Party!