Due to a little misunderstanding on my part…my winner for the Sweet Celebrations tour hasn’t been announced yet. I’ve got a bunch of stuff to show and tell about the book and my trip to quilt market, but I’m going to have to make this post quick–the preschool trick-or-treaters will be here any minute.  :)

In the meantime, Lovie Ball, you’re the winner of a lovely Fat Quarter Bundle and a copy of Sweet Celebrations!

Talk to you soon!

xoxo

April

Hi everyone! Welcome to mine and Vanessa’s day on the Sweet Celebrations blog tour! I’m just overjoyed that I get to be a part of this fun group of designers and can’t wait to talk a little bit about my project–first though, a quick introduction for those of you who are new here (Hi! by the way, and welcome!).

My name is April Rosenthal. I design quilting patterns for my little business called Prairie Grass Patterns. I am a work-at-home mama to my sweeties: 4 year old twins, a boy and a girl. I’ve been married to my high school sweetheart (awwww) for over 10 years, and I love the traditions that we’ve created together–which brings me to my project!

When I was told that the book would focus on celebrations, I was SO excited to see that they were looking for a Hanukkah project–I couldn’t wait to get started. One of our family traditions each holiday season is to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. My husband’s father grew up in a Jewish household, and though he later joined another faith–he always taught his children about Judiasm and celebrated some of the holidays with them. We’ve continued the tradition in our home, and love the added depth that these holidays bring to our more Christian-oriented celebrations.  We love lighting the menorah candles, singing songs, and playing with the dreidels. We love the reminder that miracles happen, and that God is merciful. We also love the potato latkes. Seriously.

So, I made a Hanukkah quilt.

I adore it.

And although I would wager that a majority of you don’t celebrate Hanukkah–don’t count this design out. It is remarkably versatile, and would look so fun in traditional Christmas colors, if that’s more your style. In fact, I mocked up a little example to show you what I mean.

See? Told you so. (Those fabrics? Aneela Hoey’s Cherry Christmas. So cute.)

And besides my fun quilt, you also get about a billion other projects in the book too. I can’t wait to get mine!

Oh, just for fun, I’ve got a couple questions to answer:

What is your favorite apron? My husband and I got matching white canvas aprons for our wedding as a gift. Monogrammed with our names and everything. It’s old, it’s stained, and it works like a dream. So even though there are much, much prettier ones out there–I wear this one most because I don’t feel bad getting it dirty. In fact, it’s a must when making those latkes I was talking about.

Do you prefer to celebrate with cupcakes, cake pops, or just plain old cake? Spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Every birthday. Yum.

When you picture Oda May, what does she look like? A hip chick who’s always mixing up something great with her precuts, her hair tied up with some scrap fabric, wearing a really great Tova top, and possessing some ninja-like skills with a rotary cutter and a 1/4″ seam allowance.(See Vanessa’s post for more about the ninja skills.)

SO. If you want a copy of Sweet Celebrations hot off the press, before anyone else, you should enter the giveaway here on my silly old blog. Because one lucky person will win not only a copy of the book, but also a Fat Quarter bundle, which you’ll want to use to make this really cool star quilt. Just saying.

If you want to win, here’s the deal:

Comment on this post answering this question: What is a tradition or belief your family has that is uniquely yours? It can be something fun, or serious, an activity or a food. Anything really.

For another entry (but just one extra) you can be my friend on Facebook , Twitter, Instagram (amrosenthal), Pinterest–whatever makes you happy. Make another comment to tell me which kind of friend you are.

You have until the 14th to get your entries in at each blog on the tour. Winners will be announced on the 19th.

As a final yahoo, I’m going to share the highly coveted Potato Latke recipe that I use every year for our annual Hanukkah party. Trust me, you’ll want to make these ASAP, and only when you’re ready to be worshipped by everyone who tastes them. Heh. Make sure you’re wearing a cute apron for all that attention.

You can download the card here.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Hanukkah!

xoxo

April

Thanks so much everyone for participating last week in my contest, it was so fun to hear from so many of you! I love comments!

Here they are, the winners of my One Year Anniversary Contest! I’m not going to draw it out, because I know you are excited to hear…so drumroll please…

The winner of the Beginner Basics pack is

Stephanie G.!

The winner of the Stash Builder is

MoeWest!

and the winner of the Quilting Queen is

Gill!

and just for fun, the following 3 win a Max and Whiskers charm pack!

Linda

Judy

Deb

Ladies, email me your shipping addresses ASAP to april at prairiegrasspatterns dot com and I’ll get your prizes sent out right away!

Thanks to everyone for supporting me in my first year, here’s to many more to come!

Stay tuned this week for some new pattern previews…

xoxo

April

My gift to you this anniversary week? (Besides the giveaways, of course) Free printables!

I scoured and searched to find a Halloween banner that was me, you know? But I just struck out all over the place. So I thought, hey! How’s about I make my own!

(Duh.)

Of course, I thought it was way too fun not to share, so here it is for you too.

Halloween Printable Bunting Banner

Just right click and choose save. (You’ll need to download the newest Adobe Reader if you don’t have it already. Don’t worry, it’s free.)

Open it on up, print, cut out, attach to string, and VOILA!

Something to hang in front of the TV that will drive your family crazy. (Kind of like the fingerprints all over the TV. Could you ignore those? I have 2 3-year-olds, yo.)

Heh.

Also, there are these fun matching gift labels that I designed for my mom’s blog, Gracious Rain, a couple years back. They’re even fillable, so you can put your own name on them! I printed these on standard 30-to-a-sheet labels, but you could put them on regular cardstock and just cut them out, too.

I printed my banner on matte photo paper, using the “photo” setting on my printer, if you wanna know.

xoxo

April

PS Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

PPS Day 5 of Quilt Uber-fest is over at Mrs. Schmenkman’s Quilts. Don’t miss it! (And if you’re following along, remember to upload pictures of your blocks to the Flickr group. We’d love to see them!)

Monday morning.

I know a lot of people have a hard time with Mondays.

Turns out I really like them. I mean, of course it’s not fun to clean up from the fallout of the weekend. But I enjoy being able to have a fresh start, see how much better this week can be than the last one. I guess it’s like starting a new year, only on a smaller scale. A more manageable scale.So! Today, my plan is to take back some library books, return a swimsuit (or two!) that just don’t work (thanks Costco!), dream up some new projects in the hammock while the kiddos ride some bikes, and hopefully (crossing fingers) put a few plants in the ground. I know it’s crazy late, but the weather has been so ridiculous around here, I’m only now starting to trust that the snow might not come back for a few months.Send some good weather vibes my way, would ya? I’d really like some flowers in my flower beds, and a few veggies in my garden. (And NOT what happened last year.)

What are YOU doing on this lovely Monday?

Mwa!

April

Thought that would get your attention.

I’m so excited to be able to work with Josephine Kimberling’s Just Dandy (Robert Kaufman) for one of my upcoming patterns. It’s beautiful! I mean, I love it in the pictures online, but seeing it and working with it in person is another thing entirely. It’s simply intoxicating. The prints play so nicely together, and there’s just enough unpredictability in the colors to make it really, truly unique. (That yellow? Swoon.)

So, to celebrate spring (yay!) and to reward you lovely people for being patient with my lack of attention around here, a fat quarter bundle, just for you.

I’m not above bribery.

To put your name in for this little pretty, leave a comment telling me what your favorite color (or colors!) are to create with. If you want more than one entry? Follow me on Twitter, like on facebook, subscribe to the newsletter, or the feed, tweet about it, blog about it. Technically, my friends, you could get in to win this thing 7 times. Oh, and if you’ll leave a separate comment for each entry (and link me to your post/tweet if you did those), that will help me make sure you get counted the right number of times. If you’re already following/friending/liking/subscribing/whatever, just tell me that in the comment. Totally still counts!

Winner will be chosen Friday, May 6th.

In other news, I’ll be listing some of my extra precut fabrics in the shop in the next day or two. Gotta do some spring cleaning in my studio. Seriously. The place is overflowing. Besides, I’m fairly sure you guys can always find a place for Bliss, Fandango, City Weekend, Simple Abundance…just to name a few. A couple of these lines haven’t been easy to find of late. You could get lucky! Keep your eyes peeled.

Next week? New patterns! I can hardly wait to show you the amazing work Natalia did on the quilting. Honestly? That girl is a machine quilting goddess.

Mwa! (And get those entries in!)

April

Quiet and calm

After all has been seen

Gifts unwrapped

Little bits of love

Exchanged

In carefully wrapped

Packages.

All is calm

And bright.

Children sleeping

The longest day

In threehundredandsixtyfour

Now behind them.

The lights still

Twinkle

But nostalgically now

As if they know

They’re now a part

Of memory keeping

And not anticipation.

The music plays

Quietly

Fading as the evening

Draws to a close.

And when the light

Rises

We will welcome

December 26th.

Merry Christmas.

Seriously.

I’ve been thinking about finding joy in this holiday this week, mostly because a sweet friend of mine taught a wonderful lesson in church on Sunday about finding joy in our lives. It got me thinking all about when I feel joyful (not nearly often enough), why I feel joyful when I do, and how I can feel it more often.

My conclusion? I am the stifler of my own joyful experiences.

Of course, I think all of us will admit to being more stressed than we should be, too distracted from the “important” things, and generally living the crazy life: kids, jobs, bills, keeping things afloat. And while certainly the execution of daily events can make or break a joyful experience, that’s not what I’m talking about. When I say I stifle my own joy, this is what I mean.

When I find a solution to a problem that seemed completely insurmountable only hours before, but I don’t allow myself to feel the all-encompassing relief and divine gratitude for my answer because I’m afraid I’ve misunderstood and something will still go wrong.

When I refuse to smile and laugh with my toddlers and their silliness because minutes before they were being stubborn and disobedient and I’m still angry about it.

When I get ready in the morning and ignore makeup or earrings (which I love) because I don’t like that my jeans are a little on the snug side.

When someone surprises me with something thoughtful and I refrain from reacting enthusiastically in order to avoid looking silly.

When I pout for hours (or days!) about an assumed slight, which of course I later find I completely blew out of proportion.

I could go on, and on, and on–and I don’t think I’m the only one.

You don’t have to raise your hands, or confess anything here, but think about it. Are you having a Merry Christmas? Are there things about your attitude that could change the way your world looks right now? Because even though my shopping isn’t done (or even started!), my Christmas tree is a bit lopsided, and I have yet to make goodies or dance with the kiddos to a rousing rendition of Jingle Bell Rock, I happen to know that my Merry Christmas starts right here with me. My head. My willingness to be joyful. To feel joy.

No one is going to make my life joyful, my Christmas Merry. Except for me.

I appreciate the reminder.