I'm so Lucky!

Over the past couple of weeks I have received some wonderful gifts from my blogging friends. I really don't think I deserve all this, but since it's here, it might as well stay. ;)

A beautiful embroidered towel from Betsy.

I sent her some small scraps for her 1.5" hexie quilt. So, you see...I sent her scraps and she sent me this lovely towel. Yes, I do know Valentine's day is over and this is still displayed on my stove handle. Thanks again Betsy..

Some yummy, "Love U" turtle fabric from Pat. Click on her name and see the Jim Shore figurine I sent her a few weeks back. I know she collects them and I've had this one for a few years and kept it in my Christmas box. I knew she would enjoy this much more than I would. And she certainly did not have to send me any fabric. I thank her bunches for it.

The remaining are all from Jan, I truly don't know how I deserve all this from Jan, this is my first "big" package from her. I keep trying to get hints from her as to what I can send her as a small token of my thanks. She practically has a fabric store in her sewing room. But, I do think I have an idea as to what she likes. (chocolate) shhhhhh I mean check out the hanging above, I just love it. You can't really tell, but the border around it is green.

And this little number is just beautiful. I love her quilting leafs.

And, I'm pretty sure I picked this book out of a list that she was giving away. Since I mainly do smaller items, I thought this would be perfect. I can't wait to dip inside it.

Yep, you guessed it...................she knows the way to my heart. His shell comes off for a fairly deep little trinket box. I don't have anything in there yet. Maybe put a keepsake in there, so I'm not removing his shell over and over. I wouldn't want any wear and tear on it, ya know.

Thanks so much again to all my buddies. It makes my day!

Update & It's a Family "thing".

UPDATE:

I will have an MRI Tuesday afternoon and will see the Dr. again on Wednesday morning. Seems like he's moving things right along.

I honestly think if he would have offered, I would have let him slice my knee open right in his office today and fix this problem. It's been hurting so bad! Because he's new in town and not "super" busy yet, there's a small chance he can do the surgery soon and I'll be good for vacation the first week of April. To me, that's pushing it a bit, so we'll see.

IT'S A FAMILY "THING":

What you ask? Loosing weight.....

It all started with my mom joining the gym back before Christmas. She keep asking me to join with her, telling me how much I'd love it. I'm thinking "joining a gym, and loving it? no way". Then my aunt (her sister) joined a local gym where she lives. She too...."you'll love it, it makes you feel so good". Whatever is what I would say to them (under my breath, of course). Next was my aunt's spouse, he joined the same gym as her. Now, that one got me. "Richard joined the gym"? Well, even when they were all going to the gym, I was loosing weight. I started this on 12/31/09. However, I finally joined the gym the first of February. They were all right....I DO LOVE IT! TJ also joined at the same time I did. Next, my cousin is now loosing weight. She has the least amount to loose and has not joined a gym yet. FYI: out of all of us, I have the most of loose. :(

I'm not exactly sure of everyone's total weight loss, but here's a good estimate.

mom-32 lbs

aunt- 30 lbs

Richard- 15 lbs

me- 37 lbs

TJ- 10 lbs

Cookie-15 lbs

Yah for us all! We're all doing so great! I'm proud of all you guys and love you all dearly.

2 Quilt Tops

Mickey Mouse thanks me for not sending him to the UFO box. We all know how Mickey hates UFO's. haha Pinwheels Mickey.....I used every little inch of this fabric. There's no more left.

I bought this kit from a fellow blogger on Etsy. She had the bikini applique's already attached to the blocks. I blanket stitched/sewed around each bikini, and completed the quilt top. She also sent me the magazine this pattern was out of. 2005 McCall's Quick Quilts, Summer Attire Required.

I've been doing lots of sewing the past week, trying to stay off my knee. I'm supposed to go back to the knee Dr. next Thursday. However, I can't wait and am going tomorrow. The BIG shot did nothing for me. I'm still going to the gym, just every other day, instead of every. And, I do less walking every day on the treadmill cause of the pain. At this point, I'm looking forward to a surgery date, which will be after April 8th, by my choice.

Mistakes and more mistakes.........

So, Mickey Mouse it is! This is some of the very first fabric I ever bought. I deceided to make some HST (half square triangles) and then make pinwheels. Well, all in good, I was sewing up a storm and half way through I realized, I was sewing red & red on one side and blue & blue on the other. "It's ok", I said. It will be fine. Well, then I go to sew the sides together to make the pinwheel..........see my problem? I just put this all aside, now's it a UFO. uggghhh

After seeing something similar to these out there in blogland, this is my version of a doll dress. (see, I even named it different) I have some "weird fabric" gingham that I've had forever and thought this would be a good project for it. Well, so far, so good. I think their cute. It's a little more "bunchy" than I would like, but it's fine with me. And just to prove I do have other colors of fabric other than green, see below.

I have blue........

and pink, yellow, teal, medium blue and darker blue.

I found a fabric playland. SERIOUSLY!!

I'm so excited about this place and it's about an hour and 10 mins from my house. It's in Fancy Gap, VA. I've been by it a million times and never even knew what it was. It's called Fancy Gap Pottery & Fabric Outlet.

The prices are crazy cheap. I will be making a trip back. Probably in a couple months because I spent way to much today.

Here's my loot. As I left I was telling TJ I felt like I had just robbed the place.

Flannel Turtles $3.99/yd

These are actually shades of green, too bad my camera skills are horrible. $4.49/yd

I love this collection. $3.99/yd

Patches $.49 Mainly for my mom and dad who always need me to patch something.

Velcro, just because it's cheap. And I use this on my Capri Sun bags. $1.79

The cutest buttons ever. $.59

Needles, I needed more. $.69

I think these were the best buy @ $.29 each. The paper peels off both sides and it's a clear template with a 1/4" seem allowance in a bright blue. These templates are really expensive at Joann's.

Coats thread $.59 These are Metallic, very pretty.

Coats & Clark variegated, multicolored thread. I like these too. Notice all the greens he picked out. TJ picked out all the thread. I think even he enjoyed this place. haha

Tom & Jerry for Evan. Some of these pictures look like the fabric is grainy, it's just me taking bad pictures. $2.99/yd

I loved these two fabrics. See that lady sewing? $2.99/yd

Look past E's head and see how far back the store goes. It's 20,000 square feet.

There were 3 ladies cutting my fabric. They were so nice.

Beyond the quilting fabric, is all this...there was some nice stuff in all that.

E and the buggy. Yummy fabric!!

Awesome, I can't wait to go back.

I may have left something out of this post, if it looks funny, let me know. First I got a call from my brother, he had a 105 temp and needed me to come and sit with the baby till my mom could get there. Gone for about an hour, came back and started this again and my friend called from another ER, she was in labor at 5 months pregnant. I had to go and get her other two kids. WOW. What an evening. I just want to enjoy all my yummy-ness.

A name for the New Machine.

Rachel from Not-So-Plain-Jane asked me a very good question the other day. She asked if I'd named my new machine yet. Ya know? I didn't even think of that. The old machine's name was "oh brother". Because every time it acted up, I yelled "oh brother".

This new machine is special and it's a girl. I've had a girl's name picked out for about 10 years. I miscarried a girl when I was 5 months pregnant, and I've always wanted a dog and was going to name her this as well. This is also my grandmother's name. I never got to meet her, she died when my mom was 18. Anywho..........her name is Maggie!

Weird?

Would that be an ok name?

First Finish on new machine and...........

Here's my first finish on my new machine, and parts of the quilt show it. I had a few minor problems, just getting used to the new machine. This is a gray ribbon in honor of Brain cancer. It's for a little girl that is 8 and beat brain cancer. I hope she will like it.

and...........I'm super stressed!

An Award, for me?

THE RULES

First you have to put the LOGO on your Blog, either in the message or at the side....

Second you have to pass it on to 5 more Bloggers of your choosing....

Third Link their Blogs within the post on your Blog...

Fourth Let them know they have been awarded by making a comment on their Blog.

OK here goes...

The lovely Jan gave me this award.

So pretty, isn't it? And I could use some sun shine, it's snowing again as I type this.

My 5 peeps:

Jan from Jans Musing

Gene from Gene Black an Alabama Artist

Lola from ....and Sew on

Pat from A little of this and a Little of Pat

and

Ali from Shogun's World

I could name about 20 more, but it said 5, so for once I followed the rules. haha

These 5 people bring so much sunshine to my day. Seriously, I love you all and you've all helped me in some way or another. Be it personal or sewing help and I really appreciate it.

Extra Border or Not?

HONESTLY.........

Extra Border?

or Not?

My View

I've showed a picture of my view before. As I was backing out of the driveway today, I couldn't help but notice the beautiful view. I see this everyday and really take it for granted. I didn't have my camera with me while I was leaving, but when I got back to take the picture, you can see the clouds rolling in above the highest peak. Enjoy the view, and the roof of our building. lol

Quick Update

I got the old machine running again. :) It came down to leaving the screws out of the plate that sits on top of the feed dogs. And I noticed while I'm sewing if I push down on that plate to much it will start to act up again. So, anyway.......it works and I hemmed two pairs of jeans on it today.

The new machine came today. I basically unpacked it and that's it. Today was a crazy day. School was cancelled at 6am this morning for more snow. uggghhhhh I NEED A BREAK! So, my friend called and asked if I could keep her two kids today. Sure, I say. Plus, for someone reason I've had a headache every day this week. Now, I get migraine's....but these are not migraine's. I think I might not be drinking enough fluids. I dunno.............

So, hopefully I can "touch" the new machine tomorrow. I must say, by the looks of it, I'm intimidated!

Help?

Click on picture to see it bigger. What 'n' the world?? I'm making some curtains for our bedroom, I'm not even half way done with the first one and it sounds as if the needle is going through the bobbin and then pull the fabric out from under then needle and out come a birds nest of thread. See that brown thread going across the top of the bobbin? I took off the top plates and hand turned the needle up and down to see what the matter is, and this is what I saw, and if you keep hand turning the top thread it will just continue to make loop after loop on top of this bobbin. HELP!!! I've changed the thread, I've changed the bobbin, I've re-threaded it.

????????????????????????????????????????

The new machine should be here tomorrow. YIPPIE

Another UFO completed.

This is a really old UFO. Remember awhile back, I showed you how I learned to sew. Well, that is how this one was made. The top was complete. Thus, the reason it has no borders. I added a back and binded. I do remember this was a charm pack of blah blah Moda, don't remember the line. lol

Back..........which was a vanilla cream colored sheet from my stash I got from Wal-Mart for $2.50 each awhile back.

My front yard when all the snow finally ended this evening. The road is just beyond the tree and before the tree line.

Guess what Tonya's getting?

Yep, a new sewing machine. Now...before anyone says anything, I know this is not a fancy, expensive machine. I also know it's a Brother. However, it's what I want. So, please everyone be nice and tell me how much you love it. I mean look at my current machine below and tell me this one isn't better.

I even ordered the compatible software to go with it.

"I'm so excited

and I just can't hide it"

Ya'll thought I was about to break out into another song huh?

It's a sing along!

(sing this as if you were singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

30 5x5 pieces to make yo yo's

30 5x5 pieces to make yo yo's

dig in scrap box

to make more scraps

31 5x5 pieces to make yo yo's

1 yo yo in the process

1 yo yo in the process

sew in and out

draw string it up

34 yo yo's in the box

34 yo yo's in the box

34 yo yo's in the box

take one out

sew it on

33 yo yo's in the box

I love making yo yo's

I love making yo yo's

so much that

I wrote this song

I love making yo yo's

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that you have this song stuck in your head (a song headache), you have to call someone or someone in your house and sing this song to them. It's the only way to rid oneself of a song headache.

I think the price of admission to this concert is priceless!

An Inspired Post

Yesterday, Rachel from Not-So-Plain-Jane had a great post about things that make her happy to be alive. As I was reading her list, I was creating my own list in my head. Then I started writing it all down and thus this post was born.

Things that make me happy to be alive and just happy in general:

a good writing pen

a call from my mom (even though she only lives 5 miles away)

a new purse

joining the gym today and looking forward to how much better I will feel

loosing 30 lbs

my friends who accept me as I am

E

my brother when he calls or texts and needs me for something

my blogging friends

my husband who treats me as if I'm a size 2 vs 102

my bff from high school, Stephanie..I "heart" you!

a super clean house (even though I've always heard "a clean house is a sign of boredom")

an unexpected package in the mail

texting

E telling me he loves me completely out of the blue

riding in my car alone and listening to my music as loud as I want

going to see my aunt and cousin and having a blast with them

finishing a sewing project

binding (crazy, huh?)

I'm sure I could think of million more, but to me....these are the small things that make my small world go round.

Pink Baby Blanket Done

Oh, it's so pretty! I like it. And, if my friend don't get back to me with her address, this just might be mine. haha

some of the front and the back...

my label, it looks like I top stitched this to the quilt, I didn't. I top stitched the label and hand sewed it on.