Nothing to show.......

I've been working on several things. Still working on the string quilt, and still working on the D9P. So, I'm am sewing daily. Just not getting anything finished. Feeling very unproductive. I am doing better about staying caught up on reading the blogs. I read them on every break I get during class. (haha) Oh yeah......no test tomorrow. WOOHOOO........I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it. Tomorrow me and mom are going to see my aunt again. She only lives an hour from us and we see her at least every other week. Well, this is for her birthday and she wants us to go with her to play BINGO. OMG........I'm so looking forward to this. I'll let you all know how it goes.

I would also like to thank a few select blogging friends. You know who you are........you are such a inspiration and help to me, more than you know. There's one that chats with me (actually takes time to chat with me) and I love it, there's one that over the past few months has been helping me in the process of finding a new sewing machine, and there's those that email me often. Thanks so much!! I never knew blogging could be so rewarding. When I speak of you to my family..I'll say my friend so and so. You are all considered my friends. I love you all! Thanks again......

We have a WINNER.........

Here we go....all names in the basket....

My handsome, way to excited to help me, helper drawing a name.....

Can you read that name? GENE BLACK, Tj read it as Gene Beck. LOL I knew who it was when he said that. Yah for Gene. Email me your snail mail and I'll get these out to you Gene. I also found 3 more to add to the stack. They are from the movie Cars and too cute.

Saturday Laziness....

Yep, that's how I'm spending this wonderful, no school, no homework, no studying, kid-free Saturday. I got up at 12:30pm...................YES, you read that right. I haven't slept that late in years, I mean years. It felt so good. My cell kept ringing and beeping (for texts and calls) and I just kept on ignoring it.

I have been working on these fun, cute Capri Sun pouch bags. I have, what seems like a ton of people interested in these bags. I even had someone say I should sell these on Etsy. Well, I'm really thinking about it. I made the yellow bag the other day, and just made the red and purple on in less than an hour. I think I've finally got a simple "pattern" down pat. I've checked Etsy and there are none like this little bag. I do want to get some velcro and use as a simple closure on the bag. I also think I can sell mine for much, much less than what I've seen on there. Just not sure I want to take on anything extra right now. Maybe after Nov 25th. That's my "look forward" to date right now.

One more thing, I have one of these bags on my side bar asking for you to send me pouches like this or Kool-aid or whatever they come in. I've had a great response to that. However; everyone that has asked if I'm still taking these comes from a no-reply comment. uggghhhh So, I've not been able to reply back to those people. So....YES....I'm still taking these. If you want to send me some, email me. tonyahmay@aol.com

I have taught myself to knit.

Yep, with the help of you tube, I have taught myself to knit. I can crochet, but haven't done that in quit some time. I don't even remember why I wanted to learn to knit, not sure what triggered that. I made this small baby hat in less than 30 mins.

Not sure what this is going to be yet. However, here I'm using two different yarns.

I have the knitting needles, and the knitting looms. I must say, those looms are easy peasy. I have a friend that still can't get the looms down pat, and I'm like DUHHHHH. Anyway, guess we all learn different. She can use the needles better.

Wonderful Giveaway.......

I think I've seen this on everyone's blog today. Well, now you'll see it here. Check out this awesome giveaway.

A giveaway from ME......

Just because I've been so slack about blogging and keeping up with everyone. I want to have a giveaway. Please go easy on me for these terrible pictures. I'm using my cell phone for pictures. I left my digital camera on and killed the $10.00 battery. Any who, on with the show.............I have no idea what these are called. I call them "pieces you can applique". They come off of panels. I love panels and they always have these small pieces of decorations on them, I always cut them off and save them and I've accumulated quiet a few. So, here goes.........

Here's the stack......

A few fall leaves...

a super cute pumpkin and some sun flowers....

a bigger sunflower.....

more sunflowers......

snowmen, star and about 8 penguins....

front and back of an angel, and Santa.....

front and back of a house and 2 stars....

So, if you can find a use for these please leave a comment on this post. This is for my followers only. If anyone has a correct name for these, let me know. I will draw a winner on October, 25th. You know you want em'!!

I'm still sewing, studying, and sleeping.

Yep, that's about all I'm getting done these days. I'll be honest and say, if I knew this class would have been this hard, I would have passed it up. Every since I've started I've been "some kind" of sick. First pneumonia, then the flu and yep you guessed it, I now have strep. I'm so drained. I'm so tired. I have many health issues and all this sickness really makes it worse. Anyway, I'll stop complaining and whining long enough to show you what I have been working on.

I think it was Gene who did this not to long ago. A strip quilt. I recently donated all my scraps for a very good cause. However, I did keep any strips I had. But, I'm quickly running out of those. This quilt may be a LONGGGGGG time in the making as I'll have to wait till I have more scrap strips. I should have used four different corners in this block, but I used two as you can see. It still looks good (to me).

Whatcha think? Don't you love my slang? :)

Taking a much needed break.......

......from cleaning and studying. I'm going to show some pictures of my family today. I'm always hesitant to share to much information on this here wide world web, but hey.........I'll take a chance. (click on the pictures to see them all bigger)

E on the Blue Ridge Parkway, he loves how that tree has grown around that huge rock.

If you can't catch a fish, catch a leaf.

No explanation needed. lol

TJ & E (and his name really is TJ)

E, check out that background, beautiful.

us, the family......we have bunches of pictures of various poses, we are going to edit these and have them printed. This is our 2009 family picture.

another shot.....

Me & E.......sorry for the terrible close up of me, but hey, the close up of E is amazing. Take the bad with the good I guess.

My aunt holding her quilt. My mom beside her in Blue (isn't she precious). My cousin beside me and her daughter in front of her. I was being totally goofy. We had a great time with them all last night.

Us again, these are some of my favorite people. Add E and TJ in the mix and I'm set.

Fabric Covered Journal

This blogging, reading and writing is soo good for me. It's a release for me. I can't hardly explain it, but it's a good thing. Today was a hard day at class, we had a big test and I didn't do so well on this one. 79 :( I guess there is only so many medical terminology words my pretty little head can hold. And I think the first 100 were the max. Friday will be the coding test, I feel very prepared for it already. Today's test stumped me since Monday. I just could not get these words to sink in. We learn 100 or more sometimes less at a time. Usually I can associate the medical word with a much more common word. Well, I just couldn't on these. She assured me this grade is fine and will not hurt me at all. *fingers crossed*. Not that any of you care of my adult self going to school, but like I said, it's a release just to be able to type it out. Even if no one reads it. Does that make sense?

I did find this cute pattern from allpeoplequilt.com for a fabric covered journal. I will give this to a friend of mine, that just found out she's pregnant for the 3rd time. *bless that poor girls heart* Gene Black got me started on wanting to make one of these when he made one a while back. Thanks Gene! I used a journal that was 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 I guess we hit Staples at the right time, because they were on clearance for $0.50.......yeah, we got 15. So, now I have 14 more to go. haha

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Teddy Bear Quilts

I know these are most often called Doll Quilts. Well, for some reason I can't get E to call it a doll quilt, so we'll call them Bear Quilts. This is where I used the "stuff I love" on the back. For small projects like this, it works great and is super easy.

First, I would like to introduce my model to everyone. His name is "blue bear". I know, where did we ever get that name from, right? He is 8 years old and is from California. Blue Bear was made specially for E. E never really clung to a blankie or anything, BUT blue bear. Blue bear has attended every Dr's visit, every plane trip, every road trip, every nap, every night's sleep. You get the picture? E is 8 and is still hanging on to blue bear. Blue bear has become a very special part of our family and I plan on taking over blue bear's care when E is done with him. We often go out of town and E can't go, once he's gone I'll slip blue bear in my suit case, because it's a part of E and at least I'll have a small part of him with me. OK, enough about the best bear I know.

This Peanuts bear quilt was a 1984 Calendar, I cut it apart and made this super quilt quilt for blue bear. I pieced the back of this quilt with the pre-quilted fabric in pink, blue and white. I know blue bear won't mind the pink. ;)

Blue bear is just helping me with this one. I think this will really be a doll quilt for some girl for Christmas. Not sure who yet. This was made from left over mini 9 patch blocks from another project.

Does anyone know what this is called?

The correct name for it? Cause I'm calling the "the stuff I love".

Scrap Bin full?

Clean it out and give it away. That's just what I did. I have a dear friend that makes quilts for children, I'm not exactly sure of the entire story, but I asked her one day if she could use scraps. She said "yes". So, I finally got around to cleaning out my scrap bin and am sending her a pretty nice stack of scraps. I even took time to fold them (best I could of course). I hope she can use them all. Please forgive me on these pictures, I used my cell phone as my "good" camera's batteries were dead.

I should have took a before picture, oops. Here's after I cleaned it out. I did keep strips, as I have a plan to make a strip quilt some day. I figured she could use bigger pieces anyway.

Here's the stack for my dear friend. I hope you can use them all "scrappy".

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

This month is a very special time for me and my family. My mother has battled breast cancer and won, her sister has battled it twice and won, and they had another sister that battled it and wasn't so lucky, she died before she reached the age of 40. However, hers just spread entirely too fast. She was an organ donor and she had cancer so bad, the only thing they could use were her eyes. As if that's not enough of bad news for one family, their mother died when my mom was 18 of breast cancer. That was in the 60's and I'm not sure of medical advances at that time. This family has been struck hard by this awful disease. I myself have even had a scare. I had a lump removed at age 25, I was terrified knowing my family's history. Thank Goodness, mine was nothing. I do have to have mammograms yearly due to history.

With that all being said.........I made this lovely wall hanging for my aunt that's battled it twice. Her birthday is November 3rd. She saw this on my Facebook and wants to move her birthday up to October 3rd. ha I'll see what I can do to accommodate that for her. I found this pattern online somewhere. That helps alot, huh? I have the link somewhere. If anyone should want it, I'll find it. I just googled it and waaaa-laaaa. I also have one exactly like this in the works for mom.

Let's all remember those that have been and are affected by this.