Stash Report

Check out this new addition to my fabric stash. WOW, they are soooo much better in person. I ordered the blue and green from Barb @ Bejeweled Quilts by Barb. She threw in the piece of purple. What a great lady! Can you guess why I ordered the blue and green? It has a little something to do with my favorite thing......

I have a fun Idea.

I love blogging and reading everyones blog I follow daily. However, I want to have a little more fun. How about some BINGO, except mine is called QUILT. I saw this on a "group" I belong to and got their permission to use this on my blog. However, I've changed some things up a bit.

Here's how it will work. If you want to play, your payment to play is a fat quarter per card. That means you can play more than one card, but up to 4. So, no more than 4 cards. You send me the fat quarters. (I will not play, I'm just the hostess) I will send you a bingo/quilt cards that I've custom made, with the Internets help of course. You can print your bingo card and mark on it, or you can leave it in the word text it's in and highlight each number daily with word. No need in sending me the cards back once you have bingo because I have the cards numbered and they are all different and once I send you a card, I'll assign your name to it. You can keep using that card over and over, or if you request a new card, I can do that as well. I also have a call out sheet, so once you tell me you have bingo I'll compare your card to the sheet. Got it??

I will let you know before I start calling numbers what the pattern to win bingo will be. I have a random # generator and once it chooses a # my call sheet will tell me the letter. Like I said, I'm using QUILT instead of BINGO. So, it will be like Q7 and so on. I'll post the random #'s for all to see. I'll do Bingo post separate from my other post. When you get bingo, leave a comment on the latest bingo post and I'll compare your card with the call out sheet.

We if have 10 people playing (or more cards) that's how many fat quarters you'll receive. I will be in charge of mailing to the winner. Sound easy enough? Let me know what you all think? I'm pretty sure I have it all ironed out. Deadline to let me know you'd like to play will be Aug 10th. I'd like to start the game on Aug 15th. That will give you all plenty of time to get your fat quarters to me and for me to get your cards to you.

Please, any questions....let me know. I don't want to miss anything. I think this will be fun.

*Note: I will email the Bingo cards. That way for my UK players and anyone they will have the cards quickly and not wait for the mail.

Go visit new blogger Cecelia

I'm so glad she has started a blog. She was my swap partner in the Spring Mini Quilt Swap hosted by Michelle @ The Quilting Gallery. She sent me the cutest green mini quilt with turtles hand quilted into it. I blogged it earlier in the summer. She also was the one that is from WV and helped Pat have a visitor from every state. Please go visit Cecelia at Sew Quilty, tell her hey! She has a beautiful quilt she has not to long ago finished hand quilting.

Swanky, by MODA

I got a Swanky charm pack while on vacation. I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I cut each charm into 1" strips. I love this fabric, it's all super cute. So, I went to Ebay and found 2 more swanky charm packs. This is the block I've come up with. Now, I'm stuck. I don't know whether to join them all like this, or cut them in half into triangles and them mix-match them. Any ideas anyone?

Why am I having such a hard time with this?

My hubs started a night shift at work today. It was a promotion of sorts, I guess you could say. We talked it over and knew it was the best move for us. Should anyone ever decide to hire me, with us being on opposite shifts, we won't have to hire a sitter.

What's my problem you ask? I'm missing him like crazy. I watched the finale of the Bachelorette and started crying with that and two hours later I'm still crying. You would think he was gone for a week or longer, but he's not, he'll be home in a couple hours and I'm a mess. What's wrong with me? To keep myself from thinking, "I've gone completely insane" I'll chalk it up to being so in love with him and just used to him being around. And there's just something completely wrong with going to bed alone. ugggghhhh, sniff, wipe tears, sniff..........

*sorry about the pic, I had no idea it would not enlarge, i stole it from my facebook. here's a link so you can see it better if you wish* http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1484668&l=e5ca798e2b&id=786444760

Summertime Mini Quilt Done

Done and ready to ship out of the US.

ABC's of ME

I've seen this all over blogger this morning, so I thought I'd give it a shot as well.

A - Age - 33

B - Bed size - King and I'm so in love with my bed, lol

C - Chore you hate - putting away laundry

D - Dog's name - how funny you should ask, we are in the process of adopting a dog from our local humane society, he's a shih tzu and his name is boo boo

E - Essential "start your day" item - sweet and a handful of pills (rx's of course)

F - Favorite color - green or green or green

G - Gold or silver? well, I really like both, my wedding set is gold, and the Tiffany bracelet my hubby gave me on our wedding day is silver

H - Height - about 5' 5"

I - Instruments you play - I played the clarinet and bass clarinet and contour bass clarinet in high school

J - Job title - normally something to do with accountant, or admin asst.

K - Kids - Just my E

L - Living arrangements - duhhhh, what do you want me to say, house with one hubby and we all share him, haha that was for my Mormon friend who actually don't believe in this way, however it don't stop me from teasing her about it.

M - Mom's name - Mom

N - Nicknames - mom, mommy, honey

O - Overnight hospital stays (except when giving birth) - too many to mention

P - Pet peeve - having to wait for someone, uggghhh

Q - Quote from a movie - the most overused one I know "you had me at hello"

R - Right or left handed? Right

S - Siblings? a brother that is 13 months older than me

T - Time you wake up - through the week 7am, on the weekends 8-9

U - Underwear? just depends

V - Vegetable you dislike - hmmmm.....carrots unless their from the Japanese place and there so sweet there, kinda like yams or sweet potatoes

W - Workout style - well, other than walking every now and then, this is one "style" I don't keep up with

X - X-rays you've had - all of the above

Y - Yesterday's best moments - all day, it was E's b-day...

Z - Zoo favorites - tigers, lions and bears OH MY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO E!!!

Happy Birthday to E, Happy Birthday to E, Happy Birthday to E, happy birthday to you! Check out that worm filled dirt cake. YUM

I need everyone's help.

I have a chance to buy another sewing machine. Yes, this would make 3 for me? Is that a problem? (haha) However, I need some help. They want me to make an offer, but he already kinda has a price set in his head, which I think might be kinda steep considering the shape this is in. I basically wanted it for it looks. It needs a belt and tons of oil, and I'm really not sure what else. It might not ever work! I don't know. It has more rust on it than I thought. I've email a lady that deals in these with hopes that she will get back to me soon on what she thinks is a reasonable price. Just let me know what you guys think you would pay for this. Be honest! I'm curious and I know you all know sew machines, and most of you know them better than myself.

at this point, we hadn't brought the machine up into position yet

the machine, it says on top of it "the singer manufacturer co"

that is the serial #, which I also have it written down

most of the rust, and there are dates on this plate that start with 1901-1910

the machine (beast)

Let me know what you all think. PLEASE I have a price set in my head that I'm not going over, unless you guys give me some good information. So, it's all on you now. LOL

An Award for me. YIPPIE!!

This is my first award and I'm just as proud of it as I would be if it was a million dollars. Ok, I lied, I'd be more excited over the million dollars. Serena over @ Young Appalachian Quilter gave me this award this morning on her blog. I "heart" this girl. She lives less than 2 hours from me. She's so sweet and super nice. Our plans are to meet soon. So, I'm supposed to send this award on to 8 people, and to be honest I don't know that I can. I don't know that I know 8 people in blogland well enough for an award. But, I'm going to try, and in no particular order...........

1) Serena- super sweet, nice girl, i love getting emails and comments from her. I look forward to her posts every day. I think they are so well written. She has some that I've read that are straight from the heart.

2) Pat- what a great lady! I look up to her as a "mother" figure. She's so knowledgeable. I can email her anything, any question (mostly about quilting) and she can always help me. And normally the same day. I enjoy looking forward to her daily post as well.

3) Carol- another great lady! she has the cutest grandkids. Trust me on this one. Her comments and emails are so thoughtful.

4) Dena- She too has great quilting knowledge. Still when I see her picture, I can't believe she has grandkids. WOW Go check out her lastest blog post, it's hilarious.

I'm going to stop there. If you don't want to be tagged in this award, I apologize in advance. Just ignore it. You don't have to blog it.

Thanks Serena for my first award!

What causes this?

You'll probably have to click on the picture to see the problem better. I'm doing the "elastic overlock stitch" on this Wheeling Triangles block and every so often it skips a stitch. I changed the needle and the bobbin, still doing it. Any one have any ideas? I was on a roll with this cute quilt.

Test Your Quilting Knowledge.

Go here and test your quilting knowledge. Michelle from the Quilting Gallery posted this on her Facebook page, so I followed the link and tested myself. ugggghhhh....I did horribly. I kinda knew I would. I don't know the correct names and quilting lingo. Just haven't learned it all yet. This did teach me alot though. Let me know how you all do. Take a break from your daily chores or quilting and do this. It was fun.

It's not quilts,

but it's a huge sense of accomplishment. I'm so lucky to have parents that plant a garden big enough for the entire block. Here I have canned tomatoes, and green beans. There are jalapeno (sp) peppers on the other end you can't see. They always have plenty to share with us and my brother (but he thinks he's too good for garden food, he'd rather buy it, I'd say he's above his raising) anywho....I absolutely love canning. I'm almost certain I got this love from my mother. She would work during the school years and always take summers off. I never knew how she was lucky enough to do that, but she always did. So, in that, we spent our summers canning and freezing fresh veggies. I have to be honest and admit, I hating doing it then (as I was a teenager). However, I'm so glad this is one of many great skills my mother taught me.

Wanna see a peek?

Wanna peek at a block for my swap partner for the Summer time Mini Quilt Swap? This block is called Wheeling Triangles. I actually like the red and white together. Ranette please don't drool on this block. I know you LOVE red and white.

Wii-Animal Crossing Friend

This is a crazy post and most of you won't know what I'm talking about. However, about a month back while I was on my first vacation, someone emailed me and wanted to exchange friend codes for Animal Crossing. I've searched and searched for that email and I can't find it. Can you please email me again. I'm so sorry I've misplaced it. I never forgot, just was hoping to find the email.

What gives? - HELP

OK, so you have some permanent crease lines in your fabric. You crank the iron up, spray on the Magic Sizing and iron your little heart out. YOU STILL HAVE THE CREASE'S.........NOW WHAT? I've never had any this bad. This is bad!!!

Any tricks, tips or suggestions out there?

Vintage Sheet Turned Quilt 4 D. O. N. E

Woohoo, Yippee.......hand quilting, binding and all. YES, it's all done! "I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. I know, I know you'll love this quilt". Okay, enough of singing. I'm so surprised at how quick I got this done. I was thinking I would start the hand quilting and then it would sit in a UFO pile. But no.....I was all business finishing this quilt. Please don't look at this too close. Remember I did hand quilt it and it shows. This was my first attempt at hand quilting and I just pray no one ever sees the back of it. lol I did the binding in the sheet scraps. I didn't want to waste a bit of this precious sheet from my childhood. I still had a few bits and pieces left over, I placed them in my scrap drawer. Who knows where they'll show up. I have various quilts and throws in the family room. This one will reside in our bedroom. Maybe on our hope chest. I'm not sure yet how I'll display it. I'd have to bring it out to show it off, no one ever goes to or through our bedroom. (which is a good thing, it tends to be a bit messy) ;)

Twin Monkeys

Why Twin Monkeys........because it's twin sized and monkey wrench pattern. I've blogged this quilt before (without the fringe binding and tieing). However when I tried to link back to it, it just keeps saying "loading". I got tired of waiting. So, I tied this off with yarn, yep yarn. I actually like how this turned out. Especially the fringed yarn "binding". How about that? This was my first quilt that I tied. And oh my, how easy it was. I agree it don't add much jazz to a quilt, but for this one, it's just fine. Let me know what you all think.....

Fabric from Vacation

What a loot! I got all this while on vacation in Ohio. My MIL gave me most of the fat quarters, the jelly roll and those two patterns for my birthday in August. She gave it to me now so she wouldn't have to ship it. Those two patterns actually have 5 patterns each on them. Can't wait to get started on these. Those two yarn bundles I got for tieing off a quilt. Yes, I know you don't normally use yarn. But you know me, I always do things differently. I wasn't sure the blue/yellow/green was what I needed so I got the white just in case. This is my first time tieing off a quilt and I must say, it's easy peasy. I may never "quilt" again. NOT...... Enjoy my new loot and please don't drool on it. ;)

Go vote for my "Ugly Quilt".

I blogged about this earlier here. Voting is now open and will remain open until July 19th. Please go vote for "TJ's Wild & Wacky" ugly quilt. Here is the link scroll down and click on VOTE and TJ's quilt is close to the bottom. There's not many entries, so it's not hard to find. Thanks to all.

We are having FUN

Just a quick note to say hello and we are having fun. Here's a few pictures for your enjoyment and laughter.

Yours truly...

We stopped in Corbin, KY at Colonel Sanders original "Sanders Cafe". This was interesting to say the least. Food was great, the original kitchen and his things in the museum were..........well OLD.....and it smelled musty. I guess that's what happens to things of that nature, but it was almost unbearable.

Hubs with the Colonel. He was the only one that would sit with him. Me or E wouldn't. lol

Here we are at Jungle Jim's in Ohio. This place is awesome. By far the biggest super market I've ever been in.

For my friends in the south you'll understand this. Duke's Mayo is a staple in the south. It's normally around 3-4$ Here at Jungle Jim's where food is imported from all over the world (including the SOUTH ya'll) Duke's mayo is almost $7.00 I was floored! Now you know the mark up on imported items, even if it isn't from overseas.

Hubs and E and E's cousin at lunch. She's so dang dark!

Walking home from the pool. If you click on the picture to see it better, you'll see E walking. We were smart, we rode UP to the pool, and walked home since it was downhill. haha (my momma didn't raise no dummie, well she did, but it was my brother, lol)

Love you all!!

On the Road again.........

We'll be leaving at roughly 6:30 am tomorrow morning. We are leaving from NC heading to Ohio.

Of course, can't get there without going through Tennessee. (well, you can, the first year we went Virginia, West Virginia then Kentucky and Ohio, that was a long trip and we found this way to be much easier)

On into Kentucky and we cover this entire state via I-75 straight into Ohio.

Finally at last, we have reached Ohio, just a little North of Cincinnati. The hubs sister lives here and their mom has flown in from California. So Ohio is meeting in the middle. We've tried to say NC is just as easy to meet in the middle, but it's never worked out that way. ;) I don't think it ever will either.

Indiana you say? Yep, we've planned a day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I'm really looking forward to this. We are Nascar race fans, not huge but we are. I've been to about every track there is in the south. I used to travel with a race team for about 10 years. It was great, I loved every minute of it and miss it. So, this day of our vacation will be GREAT!

Not sure if I'll do any blogging, maybe I'll update you all with some pictures. However, I will still be reading. Keep it funny, I may need some laughs from time to time.

Vintage Sheet turned Quilt 3-Question

OK, I think right when I took the picture, I might have answered my own question. But, let's see. When I hand sew, I was taught (by mom, and she's not a sewer, soooo) to double my thread and then knot it. However, it's now causing a problem. See picture...both thread don't come through smoothly. One is always loose. I have to pull it from the back, once I figure out which one is loose. For the time being, I've used a little Quilt basting spray on the thread. Just thinking it would hold the "double" thread together and pull both through tight. I hope this makes sense and someone knows what I'm talking about. Do you quilt double or single thread?

A Very Productive 4th

Sparklers were our only "fireworks". Fireworks are illegal in NC.

What better way to spend the 4th of July than breaking beans to get ready for canning. (never mind that tattooed foot, hehe)

This is where the beans went to spend their 4th.

This is where the cucumbers will reside, well then into the fridge.

And what's the 4th without a friendly game of poker with red, white and blue (and green and black) chips.

We also had a cook out.

That's how we spent our 4th, how about you?

Vintage Sheet turned Quil 2-Hand quilting.

Calling all hand quilters. I decided to go with hand quilting vs machine quilting. I used the same material on the backing as I did for the front, so it's really thin. Thank goodness for the batting in between. Maybe between that and the "glue" and my stitching it will stay together somewhat. My plans were to use this quilt, but I'm really afraid to. Especially since I'm hand quilting it and this is my first project and I'm not sure how well it will stay together. I guess we'll see when it's done. I have one block down and 14 to go. *sigh* Let me know what you all think, how does this look? I used a very soft pink for hand quilting.

Vintage Sheet turned Quilt 1

Here ya go, got the top together. And, if I do say so myself. I LOVE IT! One of my readers said it was Holly Hobbie print. Not sure if I spelled the hobby/hobbie right. I do know this sheet is stamped "American Greetings Inc." I have a feeling this is going to take Patches place. Patches is the quilt at the bottom of my blog with E and the hubs. Now, I'm not sure how to quilt this. Any suggestions??

"Play Strong" Scarf Project

a quote from the instruction card from Kelee: "Design gives back projects helps the world through creative action. Decorate a scarf and help lost dogs. Simply by decorating an Oliver Wendell scarf and (sending a pic to Kelee) of your dog and decorated scarf you will earn a $10.00 donation to help those abandoned pets. We have a sponsor that will make a $2,000.00 donation if we decorate 150 scarves."

I'm not sure if she got 150 people, I know it was close. I sure hope she did. I had fun doing this, and I think E and Sammie loved it as well. Sammie is my mom's outside dog and she wasn't so sure about this scarf. E "leashed" her up for the pic so she wouldn't run off to the creek with my scarf. haha