Beat the Winter Blues! Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hello everyone! If you're new here, welcome to my blog! If you're returning, welcome back! This is my first time in participating in one of the Quilting Gallery's blog hops and I'm excited to check out the line up.

I'm going to highlight some of the projects I've completed over the last couple years and link you back to those posts. Otherwise, feel free to browse around my blog. I hope you're all inspired to create!

My blog is called The Recipe Bunny because I initially wanted a place to write down the recipes I was trying out (and my husband's nickname for me was/is Bunny). As you will see, I quickly turned from recipes to crafts, but I still do a savory or sweet post every now and then. My favorite recipe so far is my Roasted Garlic and Sausage Pasta. I tried to recreate my husband's favorite meal at our favorite Italian restaurant here in Madison - Lombardino's. It turned out really nicely, but still can't beat the original.

One of my favorite craft projects is the hallowed-out book safe. My husband actually asked for this to be completed. Actually, he helps me come up with ideas for lots of projects and is usually the one I ask for a seal of approval. Anyway, we needed a place to store a flask his parents brought home from Ukraine. So - the book safe was created. We bought the book from the thrift store. It was a thick biography about Colin Powell. Probably not a book we'd usually have on the shelf, but thick enough to hold the flask!

My favorite knitting project so far has been the kindle case I made for my sister. It looked like a little monster and was the first knitting-in-the-round I had ever done. I still need to make one of these for me sometime now that I have a smaller kindle too. I originally had a large kindle and made a quilted case for it. Alas! That kindle broke and so I gave the case to my friend who was visiting for a weekend to fit her nook. She was happy to have it even if it was used. :) Otherwise, I'm pretty new to knitting, so I make a lot of scarves. I have one I'm still finishing up for a friend, even though I hope she doesn't have to use it any more this year (I'm ready for spring!!!). I also did my first cabling on a scarf for my mother-in-law for Christmas. She was the person who originally taught me how to knit and purl and I'll be forever grateful!

Now, on to the quilts! I made my first quilt at summer camp when I was in grade school and I'm pretty sure I've been hooked ever since. I made one with my mom for a wedding present in high school, and I did make 2 in college during finals week my Junior year. Yes, I was a little crazy but it really helped me wind down in between all that studying! Now it's much more of a regular hobby.

My most popular and probably crowning quilting achievement is my Super Mario Brothers quilt. This quilt was 9 months in the making. My husband and I sat down one night and drew up the pattern for most of the blocks. Some I had found a pattern for out of perler beads or cross stitch - like Mario and Luigi. But others like the Piranha Plant, Thwomp and Angry Sun we designed ourselves. A lot of the characters in the quilt were pretty tricky to fit in a 16x16 grid. I had to scale down Cheep Cheep the fish and the Koopa Troopa turtle quite a bit. Then, lo and behold right after I get my quilt finished I see there's a Mario Quilt-A-Long! If I had just waited a few more months someone would have done all of that designing work for me!!! I did share my quilt with the QALs flickr group and I've loved seeing my patterns put into different color combinations. I'm happy other people have enjoyed my patterns/characters as much as I did! It was a lot of fun to figure out the blocks with my husband. It was also probably the project he's been most interested in. He was involved with the pattern, fabric choice, quilting, and now we sleep with it just about every night. It's cold here, and we have basically every blanket we own on our bed. :)

But, the Mario Quilt is special and I don't want it to get too much use, so I'm making more quilts. Please stop by my Quilt Projects tab at the top of the blog to see some things I've come up with. Most things I've given away, but this year I have several quilts planned just for us (and I'm sure I'll throw in a few for other people too - it always happens!). I've had a Double Irish Chain planned out for a couple years. I've got a Fall Leaf Quilt with about 1/3 of the blocks done. I've also got my longest WiP ever all pinned and ready for quilting. Hopefully that will get finished this month, and I started that when I was in 8th grade!! (I'm 26 now...too long to keep it in a box!)

Besides that, I love to design and dream about quilts. Sometimes I even post my sketches. Maybe one day I'll make one into a real quilt! :) Here's my favorite, so maybe this one will be next... Sun, Moon and Stars

Well, if you've made it through this long post you deserve a treat! I've got just the thing for this Quilting Gallery hop - some fat quarters!

So, I'll definitely have at least one drawing, but let's try to make it 2! I'm really close to 200 followers on my blog. If I get to that level, I'll give away 3 fat quarters to 2 different people. If I don't then I'll just have a giveaway to one person.

So, what can you win?

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

These:

 Or these:

How do you enter? Please leave just one comment. You don't need to be a follower, but if you like what you see here, please sign up! And, let's make the comments fun. Give me an answer to this question: What is your favorite quilt pattern?

If you are a no-reply blogger, please include your email in your response. If I can't contact you, I can't send you your winnings! I'll pick a winner on Saturday, March 16th.

And, last but not least, please go check out the other blogs on the hop! I know I'm going to be very busy going from one to another and I hope you have fun with it too!! Just click on this button to be directed back to the main page for the hop. The list of participating bloggers should be up by late afternoon on Friday, March 8th, so if it's not up when you stop by, come back later! Happy hopping everyone!