The Potholder Contest officially begins today. I was going to have some complicated rules, but decided, since I’ve gotten such a large response, to make it simple.
I’m giving away 3 potholders, so there will be 3 different winners. If you’d like to try and win a potholder, just leave a comment saying so. If you’ve already left such a comment, you’re in the contest.
On Tuesday, July 12th at 12 noon I’ll pick 3 names from a bowl. The first person picked gets the first potholder, the second the second potholder etc.
I’ll email the winners and post them on the blog.
You don’t have to live in the US to enter the contest.
I think that covers it all.
Good Luck everyone!
I love your choice of color and patterns. Thanks.
I love your work…all the various varieties..but your potholders are both beautiful and useful. I would LOVE to have one……and i’m glad you love donkeys! i have lived with them before and your photos from Bedlam Farm remind me of those wonderful days.
Kathy
Whenever I see a donkey now, or even just a photo it brings me a sense of joy.
Reading about you, and Jon, and the farm, and the animals and the peaceful life you have made for yourselves brings me more than happiness through empathy! Having something you have created, Maria, would be the ultimate gift!
I would love to win one of your potholders! Your work is so fun and has so much of your positive energy woven in. What an honor to have it in my kitchen. THANK YOU for having a contest! I hope it is as fun for you as it is for us! 🙂
Hi Maria,
One of your potholders would certainly make a great impression here in England. I love reading what you, Jon and Mary write as it gives me a wonderful impression of your lives – so different from my own. Thank you for all your hard work, enthusiasm and generosity.
I would love to win one of these unique and beautiful potholders, even though it would creat a dilemma for me. I’m thinking I would pay my goodluck forward and give it to one of my best friends who loves quilting and I know would truly love having something from a “fellow quilter”.
Thank you for your beautiful artwork.
I think your potholders (and quilts) are so very lovely. It gives me inspiration to do something creative with all the bits of fabric I have collected.
Thank you so much for the chance to win one of your pretty potholders!
Hi Maria,
Many moons ago (in the early 80s) I was delivering mail in Staten Island NY. Some people just took for granted that mail would appear in the box hanging by their front doors. Others had a keen appreciation for the folks who made that happen. Two elderly sisters on my route each quilted a potholder for me. What a wonderful and personal gift. (And they worked! Nothing worse than burning one’s hand with a poorly crafted potholder). Everytime I use these potholders, (yes I have had them all these years) I think of these two lovely and thoughtful women.
I would be delighted if I won one of your beautiful potholders!
Karen Kosky Coker
How wonderful that potholders can remind us of appreciation and generous people.
The potholders are beautiful and I hope I win!
Maria I love what you’re doing! I’d like to win a pot holder.
Your choice of patterns and colors are exciting to the senses! Keep the creative juices going for all of us to enjoy, Maria!
I am a visitor to this website who also never wins anything and rarely ever leaves a comment on any blog but
the chance of winning one of these rogue potholders has fostered bravery! I have followed Jon and Bedlam Farm for years and thus came to love Maria’s work.
This is my BIG chance!
Good for you Sheila!
The moon and the stars and one shooting star reminds me of
the last flight of the space shuttle program. Mankinds great
adventure coming to an end. one shooting star the last shuttle.
Hi Maria,
I just wanted to tell you that your potholders remind me of my great grandmother Minnies work. She was a true recycler. She made quilts and potholders and baked and did all the things a farm woman does and she did it with thought, care, purpose and design.
When she was in her 70s she took the wedding clothes she and my great grandfather wore and made a quilt out of it for her oldest daughter. I was the last grandchild to have a quilt made for me right before she sold the farm and moved to the city close to us where my Mom helped take care of her. She chose bright barkcloth from the 40s, surfer material from the 50s and upholtsry fabric from the 70s. Its one of the things I grab when I run to the basement during tornado weather.:) I love that you are carrying the torch for all those people who love to work with fabric….
Thanks for the great story Suzanne, I’d love to see a photo of your “protective” quilt
I like what you all are doing…continued blessings.
Hi Maria! Love the pot holders! They’re gorgeous, and so are you!
I am a quilter and love to look at the work of other quilters. I admire what you are doing. Please enter me in your offer.
Came over to visit at Jon’s urging, Maria. Will check in again closer to Christmas as I have pretty much decided to give “Church bazaar”-type items this year.
I don’t need a potholder, I would probably only turn around and use it, which would be an insult to your hard work.
I liked what you said about the brown not working in your potholder quilt. We had a brown car once, a hand-me-down from an uncle to my sister, and we certainly would not have chosen brown, but on its own, brown can be quite an elegant statement. Rather surprising to realise that brown is an actual colour…
Good luck with your draw. When you’re rich and famous, and giving away whole quilts, I’d like a brown one, please.
Your work is an inspiration. It would be very exciting to win.
Maria, your pot holders are like little jewels. I would love to have one.
They are really cool. Hope I win!
I’m interested in winning one of your pretty potholders!
Hi Maria!
I love your potholders and all of your work – please enter me in your contest:)
Please enter me in contest. I am inspired to start creating with my sewing machine. Thanks Maria.
Lovely and useful potholders. Thanks for an ordinary contest for real people.
Good Morning Maria (and Jon):
I loved the comment this morning about challenging yourself to do different things, take a chance, be brave. That’s me. For so many years I let being afraid keep me from doing things I really wanted to do. But I let other people and my own insecurities keep me from goals I sincerely wanted.
Enough of that crap. Now in my mid 50’s, I have sadly realized I’ve missed so much time being afraid. While you can’t have it back, you can make the choice to move forward. So, that’s the plan. If people don’t like it, are angry about it, the hell with them. As Jon bon Jovi said It’s my life. So, off to graduate school – someting I’ve always wanted but didn’t think I was smart enough for. Onward and upward!
I”m with you Linda, Good luck in your “new” life!
You do beautiful work! Would love anything made at Bedlam Farms. I use to live there also. Miss it.
Hi Maria,
I have admired your work ever since I first came across it on Jon’s blog. It reminds me of quilting my Mother used to do. We have two large multicolor quilts that she created from scraps. Each piece of material brings back memories of dresses, blouses, Grandma’s apron etc.
Would love to have a potholder.
I too love to take someone else’s cast off and make it my treasure…..love what you do, Maria.
Maria,
I love your pot holders and would love to be entered in the give away. I love to quilt too.
Sally Schill
Hi Maria:
These potholders remind me of my great grandmother who used to make us potholders by hand. She was a wonderful seamstress. Also made quilts by hand — I still have the ones she made for me.
I love your potholders, please enter me in your wonderful contest. Also, I’ve especially loved your blogs from the past few days, especially the one from July 5th, about hiking in the woods. I have those exact same thoughts, but I’m happy to say I still go hiking with my dog by myself, because I love it so much, and so far so good 🙂
I would love to be entered in your first contest. I love all 3 blogs. Mary, Jon and yours.
Please enter me in the contest! The pot holders are lovely. It is really neat that you’ve gotten so many entries!
I would like to win a potholder. I have five miniature donkeys so feel we have already bonded. 😉
You feel the fear and yet you still push yourself through it. I find that incredibly inspirational. I’d love to win a potholder–please enter me in your contest
My current potholders were made by my daughter 18 years ago when she was six! I still use them and they have held up beautifully.
I’m still trying to find my place in my creative part of my mind. I love your art and photos I’ve seen. I have a picture of a shy donkey on my Facebook photos. Wish he was mine. Bless you and yours.
Your potholders are pure joy in material form. As are you quilts and anything you touch. How blessed you are !
Mary and Jon reminded me that today is the final day of your contest.
I do not usually enter contests. However, meeting you in Bainbridge, Ohio last year was great. We talked about sewing and dogs, as though we had known each other for some time. It would be an honor to own one of your pieces of art. Thank you for your blog and all that you share with us.
I love reading your blog as well as Jon’s and would love to have one of your potholders in my house. I think it would make an awesome conversation starter. Thanks!
Hi Maria, I would love to own one of your beautiful pot holders. You are so creative. I love to see what you are constantly cooking up. I am so glad you and Jon got together and it really gives me joy each morning to see pictures of you with the donkeys and now with the sheep. What an awesome way to start my day. Thank you for the joy that you and Jon bring to so many people every day.
I think all of your pot holders (and quilts) are each lovely and unique, speaking to viewers on different levels. However, the pot holder with the hot pink, orange and turquoise sends me over the moon with its shooting star print! Take care and keep making the world more beautiful with your work.
Hi, Maria,
I’d love to have one of your potholders just to see how you make them so I can shamelessly copy the idea. Of course I wouldn’t take it apart to see what the stuffing is.
Be well, happy, and peaceful.
I use a layer of cotton batting and a layer of insulbrite.
Hi Maria, If it’s not to late I would like to be entered in the potholder contest. I enjoy you quilts and quilt art!
These are interesting to view and make a comment to the times.
love your work ! My mother was an artist, so of course, I am attracted to different types of art, including the written forms. Good luck with your contest. Love the pictures your former boyfriend has taken of you grooming Simon, full of emotion and love for sure.
It would be an honor to win the pot holders from such a talented artist and a lady that can communicate so well with the animals. You and Jon are a very special couple and we are fortunate to be able to have your web sites and blogs