Vintage Sheet turned Quilt

I asked my mom awhile back if she had any of my childhood sheets left. She kinda looked at me funny. She said "they were girly, E won't like them". I said "they are not for E". She was really confused then. Then it clicked with her, "you are going to make something". After all these years she still had my favorite childhood sheet set. It was pretty worn out. However, I was able to save some of it. Here's what I've cut so far to start a quilt with. It's pretty thin, so I'm not sure it will be able to take machine quilting. Maybe, just maybe this will be my first hand quilting quilt. We'll see.

I even saved the top and bottom trip of the sheet. It's double layers thick. This would make a good border.

So cute............

Now you see why it was my favorite. I'm going to trim each block in the same color of blue that's on the block. I managed to get 15 blocks from this twin flat sheet.

Stayed tuned for my progress on this.

Patriotic For my Secret Pal

I will gift this to my secret pal from church. (which happens to be my mom, how lucky am I) I like the way the blocks all turned out. However, I'm not certain I like the way I quilted this. I can do better. I used red, white and blue thread throughout. She'll love it. The fact that it's handmade and made by me. She couldn't be happier. Well, unless E made it. That would make her happier. A good friend gave me this pattern as she had made it and was done with the pattern. I had a bit of trouble following the pattern and I think mine is bigger than it should be. But, it's all good.

This is the back....duhhhh as if you didn't know. Kinda cute, I had some problems with the red thread. I even changed the bobbin and a different spool of thread and still had some stitching problems. Then as soon as I took the red out, it was fine. Picky machine.....

Never mind the writing on the pictures. I'm playing in Photo shop to mark all my pictures in this sort of way. I like the writing on the back best. Just a quick name, name of quilt and date. I have a huge file on the computer of pictures of everything I've made. I would like to import them all into a photo album of some sorts.

Do you take pictures of everything you complete? How do you keep them?

Ugly Quilt Contest-TJ's Wild & Wacky

I'm even embarrassed to say, I have an ugly quilt AND entered it into a contest. Go here and read all about it. It's hosted by Michelle @ Quilting Gallery. Read others stories and check out their "ugly" quilts. Some of them I don't think are ugly at all. Of all the talent I've seen out there of my blogging buddies, I'd bet not many of you have an ugly quilt. Let me know if you do. I'd love to see for myself.

Once you click on the link, all contestants are listed and you'll see "Tonya's Sewing Room" and then you'll see the name of the quilt "TJ's Wild & Wacky".

Looky what I won...

from Ranette's Daily Stitches.....(she loves Red). I love these Moda Bake Shop Rolls. I actually looked at purchasing some of these while on vacation and didn't. Now I'm glad I didn't. I almost missed out on this win. Her or I one was having some email problems. And my good buddy Pat emailed Ranette to let her know I was on vacation and would certainly be in touch with her soon. Woohoo.......I'm so glad I did not miss out on this win. Go over and check out Ranette's blog. She's has a great red and white quilt top going on right now. Look at that cute "quilt" card. I love it! I showed the hubs the quilt card and he was like..........oh my, it even comes in cards. lol

PS. The interview went very well. This would be a great small company to work for. She will do call backs for a second interview the week after July 4th. *sigh* Thanks for everyone's thoughts are prayers. You all really are the best!

Wish me Luck!

Kind of a silly post. But, I need all the luck and prayers I can get. I was laid off from my accounting job last June. So, it's been a year! I've applied to numerous jobs and this week I got the first call and landed my first interview today at 9am. It's with a local accounting firm. I've got my fingers, toes and hair crossed for this. Wish me luck!

Celebrate America Door Hanger

Well, I made it a door hanger. I guess it could hang anywhere. This is another wonderful Green Fairy Quilts Design. I love her designs. The turtle quilt I'm working on is also one of her designs. This was my first attempt at applique. I actually liked it. It was alot of work. However, I'm sure like all things, with practice I would get faster. So, here ya go. Enjoy! Since I have a glass door as well, I hung this on my front door. And the front of my house is always shady (cause of the mountain) therefore the sun won't fade it. It's just in time for July 4th.

In The Good Ole' Summer Time Mini Quilt Swap

I enjoyed the Spring Mini Quilt swap so much that I've joined another one. It's the "In the Good Ole' Summer Time Mini Quilt Swap". Head on over the the Quilting Gallery and check this out. Get registered.

Vacation Pictures-Pigeon Forge, TN

I thought I'd share a few vacation pictures. I normally take pictures like crazy, I like to document everything we did. However, this trip was different. We met and shared our vacation with 3 of the hubs childhood friends. I've only met one and normally don't do so well meeting new people. Not to mention I had to stay with these people (strangers) for the next 5 days. Let's just say I was nervous, intimated, awkward, uneasy and anything else you can think of. And, did I mention I don't like crowds. Pigeon Forge is not the place to go if you don't like crowds. Anywho, it was a pleasant trip and not quiet as bad as I thought. E was not able to go with us as it was Father's Day weekend and had to spend it with his father. So, that in itself made it a very hard trip for me. I think I called him 4-5 times a day and if I wasn't calling him, he was calling me. OK, onto the pictures.......

This was our cabin we shared with 3 other families. It was 5 bedrooms and 5 baths. This was (as you can see) a top notch cabin.

It wouldn't be a vacation if we didn't save a turtle from the road. This was the road to our cabin so traffic wasn't bad. We "shewed" him across to a pond where I'm certain he was heading.

Picture proof of why they call it the "Smokey Mountains"

The view from our private deck off our bedroom.

Watauga lake, this is just above where we live. We stopped here on the way home and took in the view for a few minutes.

This concludes your tour of our vacation.

Check back often, vacation 2 begins July 8th. We'll be Ohio/Indiana bound.

and the Winner is...........

Averettladynana @ www.averettladynana.blogspot.com I have contacted her to let her know to send me her information. Congrats to Averett. I never expected to get the kind of response I did from this giveaway. I'm very glad I did this. I'll have another giveaway soon, and you won't know how soon either. I might not even let you know. I might just choose from people that read my blog regularly and comment. Sneaky huh! It was all I could do this evening to organize this and draw a winner. We got back from vacation today and I'm beat.

Also, I won a giveaway! I'll blog it later. Thanks to everyone for following and everyone who blogged my giveaway.

Mini 9 Patch Quilted

I quilted the mini 9 patch that I posted the other day. Nothing fancy, but different for me. I used my free motion foot and did x's on the 9 patches and then some loopy loops on the borders. Like I said, nothing fancy, but quick.

Happy Birthday to Pat!

I wanted to make this post specially for Pat from A little of this and a little of Pat. She was my first blogging friend. She has helped me so much with this blogging and other things as well. She's a great friend. Hope on over and wish her a happy birthday.

*hopefully she won't hurt me too bad for doing this.

Another Giveaway at Not-So-Plain Jane

Head over to Not so Plain Jane's for a cute purse giveaway. You can get several entries. Blog about it on your blog, become a follower and leave a comment. I already follower her and have a boy. So, I thought the least I could do is blog it for her. She has a great blog. Check it out......go on.

A mini 9 Patch

Pretty cute huh? This was fabric left over from my turtle quilt. I loved these fabric so much I just couldn't add them to my scrap stash. Looks like I have a few quilts to quilt when I get back from the 1st vacation. I'll add this to my finished box and save for Christmas. We have quiet a few little girls in the family. I'm sure they would love a quilt for their dolls.

Cont. Turtle Quilt 4 TOP DONE!!

Oh yeah, you see it. I finished the turtle quilt top. That was my weekend project. So, I started with iPod in my ears and singing out loud, driving my husband insane. Like I told him, "well, I can't hear myself singing". He said obviously or you wouldn't be doing it. I even have enough "scraps" to make a small mini quilt or something of that sorts. Now I have to find some fabric for the back. And........this will be the biggest quilt I've quilted. I'm scared!! However, hopefully with my quilting basting spray and pins and whatever else I need to keep it from slipping it will go smooth.

Mini Quilt Swap-What my partner sent.

Oh my, she got me right on. I think I said I liked green and turtles. Look closely at the second photo and you'll see she quilted a turtle into the quilt. There's also another turtle at the top. Oh my goodness, I love this mini quilt. I don't yet have a hanger, and I wanted this up, so I hung it quickly.

She sent me a card saying she hand quilted this. WOW She had just got done hand quilting a queen sized quilt, so it was nice to be able to do this mini quilt.

See the turtle?

She don't have a blog that I know of. I check the list of participants and beside her name no blog was listed. I'll get a Thank You card out in the mail to her right away.

Free to the first person!

I was cleaning my sewing area and found this................free to the first person that says they want it. Once I get the first comment, I'll email you back from the comment for your address. What you see if what you get, the pattern (with 3 other patterns) and the cross stitch piece I started. No thread included. You know you want it!

Splitting Stitches Giveaway!

Joanne over at Splitting Stitches is having a July 4th giveaway. She has some great red white and blue items. Go, go check it out.

Mom & E's Thursday Adventure

I'm so glad I have my mom and E to keep me on my toes. What would I do without them? How could I live without the stress and love these two provide me. What happened now you ask? Mom (with E in tow) hydroplaned and ran off the road yesterday. When I say off the road, I mean OFF the road. If you were driving by you would not have known anyone ran off there. That's the joys of living in the mountains. They were fine, not even a scratch on either of them. First responders were quick on the scene. It's a little humorous now, but wasn't then. I just knew I would beat the first responders there, but they were quick, they beat me and even had them out of the car by the time I got there.

What I saw when I got there. eeekkkkk

Starting to "drag" it up and out.

It's slowly coming up.

Almost out, then my phone died. I took all these on my phone.

Cont. Turtle Quilt 3

Oh yeah, back to work on my turtles. I've finished all the blocks. WOOHOO Now I'll start putting the top together. Wish me luck!

(This picture is half of the blocks)

100th Post Giveaway!!

Welcome, you have found my 100^th giveaway post. I’m digging this giveaway. I’ve been looking forward to it since like post 80. lol I started this blog in 2007 and just now reaching 100. WOW….actually when I started it, I wasn’t that regular. I had one post in 2007 and a then picked it up regularly in December of 2008. I started this as a way for family to see what I was up to, and how I was using my sewing machine (since I received it as a gift). Now, it has grown to an addiction. Guess there could be worse addictions huh?

Here’s what you’ll win:

*14 fat quarters, yes, you read that right 14 fat boys

*2 templates sets-1 stars & 1 hearts

*electric scissors (edited 6/16/09) I found an extra set of blades that go with this scissors

*an adorable picture frame says “if friends were flowers I’d pick you” and I even framed a cute piece of fabric in the frame. The picture don’t do it justice, the fabric looks great in there.

*a vintage pack of rick rack, and when I say vintage I mean 1978 (I have a feeling I’ll get lots of comments on that) I mean I was only 3 at the time. LOL

*5 yards of Metallic Gold ribbon

So, here’s the low down. I would love to have more followers. To my current followers, if you’ll mention this in one of your posts (and tell me you did so) to send people over my way, you’ll get 3 entries. You don’t have to make a special post, just mention it in one of yours. If you just want to leave a comment but are a follower and don’t want to mention on your blog, you’ll get 2 entries. If your new to my blog and become a follower you’ll get 2 entries as well. Just be sure to tell me you just became a follower. And I’ll double check my “followers” list. ;) I will post this on my side bar till June 21^st. We leave for Pigeon Forge, TN. next Wednesday the 17^th. We will return on the 21^st and draw for a winner. Then the following week we leave for Ohio. Oh how I love Summer Vacations. So, that leaves this drawing open for about a week and half.

Go on, enter…….tell all your blogging buddies. I want followers!!

Awards for E

(I thought I'd give you all and myself a break from the Turtle quilt) So, today (yesterday) was E's award ceremony at school. I was so impressed that he got 4 awards. I was so proud, as was every other parent there.

This is the principal giving him his "Reading Counts" award. This was a metal, very nice!

This is his teacher (she's just a little older than E, lol) giving him a "Keyboarding" award. I missed the first award he has in his hand. It was a "Social Studies Smash" award.

And his final and 4th award was a "Media Center" award. He "worked" in the Media Center after school shelving books and such.

Here he is proudly and awkwardly grinning with his 4 awards. Again they were:

*Social Studies Smash Award

*Reading Counts Award-he read 200 books

*Keyboarding Award

*Media Center Appreciation Award

I *heart* this kid!

Cont. Turtle Quilt 2 :(

How many of you noticed the sad face in the title?  Yep........yesterday you saw all my neat cut stacks, that were ready to sew into blocks.  Well, I actually starting sewing them Saturday night (I'm writing this post Saturday night).  This is how the first block turned out. :(  Well, I was going to show you one before I "edited" it, but it seems as if I didn't save it. 

See the "oops"?  Best I can figure I cut that strip 2" instead of 2.5"  I looked at it a million times trying to figure out how to fix it, and adding a small piece to it was the best I could think of.  I think once it's all together and quilted it won't even be noticeable.  Bad thing about it, I'll have to add that small piece to every strip.  Thank goodness it had just a bit extra.  Uggghhhh.....ya'll (spell check didn't recognize ya'll..lol) see what I mean now about patterns??

FYI: Be on the lookout for my 100th post giveaway.  This is post 93.

Cont. Turtle Quilt 1

Hooray, Hooray.......I got all the strip pieces sewed together.  Man it was a lot.  Then below you'll see, I got them all cut the way they should be.  And yes I'm sure.

Now, to assemble them into blocks.  

I can do it, I can do it!

Cont. Turtle Quilt

Looky, Looky..........I got all the fabrics cut for my turtle quilt I blogged about yesterday. Go me! Now, on to the next step.

These fabrics are just adorable.

I'm intimidated!

Of what you ask? PATTERNS..........I suck at following a pattern. However, I did successfully follow one here. Well, I faced my fears and have since order a few kits with patterns. The first one I'm going to tackle is from Green Fairy Quilts. And, yes it's turtles. My favorite all time animal, thing, object and all of the above.

A Picture of the quilt. Looks lovely and simple, right?

The instructions and pattern. EEEEKKKKKKK.....not so lovely anymore.

The beautiful fabrics that came with this pattern making it a kit.

OK, now I'm off to get this started! I will post the finished product, no matter how bad or how terrible I screw it up. Please wish me well! haha

Table Runner for GG

Again I've found myself using bold colors and patterns.  However, again I like this.  This is a kitchen table runner for GG in California.  Thus named "GG's Kitchen".  I made it foodie (is that even a word, well my spell check corrected it, so it must be ;)) so it would go with her kitchen, and her main color is blue.  I at least tried to use more blue than another color.  It measures 18x36.  Perfect size for the center of your table or bar. 

Gotta get this out in the mail, I think GG will love it.  

A Gift for E's teacher.

I have this lovely "school" fabric and have used it before.  You can see it here.  It's kinda loud and wild.  But hey, I want her to remember E.  I think this says it perfectly.  I wouldn't normally put these colors together, but oddly enough, I like this.  I even quilted this in yellow.  I also used the leaf stitch around the binding.  I've never quilted in anything other than white or cream.  I LOVE TO BE DIFFERENT, that's me!!  Hopefully, she'll appreciate it and the work gone into it.  I still have to put tabs on it for hanging.  

Let me know what ya'll think about this wild hanging. ;)

Spring Mini Quilt Swap done....

I gave you a sneak peek at this yesterday.  Well, I worked on it all day and it's finished.  I like it.  Very bright and very spring inspired.    This is for a swap I joined.  You can find more info about it on my sidebar.  Click on the Spring Mini Quilt Swap button.  And since I don't know my swap partner, and she don't know me, and don't read my blog, I wanted to blog it.   I'll get this out in the mail soon, the dead line is June 21st.   I hope this swap goes well so I can do more in the future.  I've read horror stories about swaps.  I'm thinking positive it will go well.