I'm Having a Giveaway!

Hello everyone,

I finally decided what to use for my first ever giveaway. I started this blog about mid January 2009. I believe the actual date was Jan. 10th, but that doesn't really matter. It has been a wonderful year of blogging. I will admit, though, that I was quite surprised that I figured out (with some help and prompting from Bren) how to do this. (grin) I am still learning. The next step is to figure out how to change the look of my blog. I have tried a couple of times, but always chicken out. I am afraid of losing the whole thing. LOL I still don't trust computers. I have made some wonderful friends through blogging. Some are quilters, some not. That doesn't matter either. You all are just good people. Ok, enough with the rambling already. LOL To celebrate my one  year blog anniversary I am giving away this little mini quilt that I made. I have developed a love for primitive embroidery and redwork, so I combined them. Then I just hit my scrap bins and started adding to it log cabin style. I did simple hand quilting on it. It measures about 26" by 24" wide.

 

Here is a closeup of the center. 

This shows the back. This fabric just seemed to fit with the the front. 

I found the pattern for the Welcome Rag Doll on Jennie Baer's site. If you like primitive embroidery, you will love her freebie site. I have made several of her designs.  This design is located under Everyday Patterns. 

So just leave a comment on this post. I will draw a winner next Tuesday or Wednesday, Feb. 2nd or 3rd. But wait, I also have just passed 100 posts. Hmmm, that calls for a giveaway too, doesn't it? LOL Ok I will draw a second name out for this tote bag. It is called Charming Totes Two by Whistlepig Creek Productions. I bought the pattern at JoAnn's. I just cut up a bunch of my leftover fabrics into 5 inch charms to make this. Even the handles are made from the charms. It measures about 13 1/2"w X 13 1/2" h.

There is a pocket in front. I took a picture of me pulling it out so you could see. 

I machine quilted a crosshatch on it. Here is the back.

There are 2 pockets on the inside. 

I hope you like my little giveaways. So all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Be sure I have a way of contacting you. Next Tuesday or Wednesday, I will draw 2 names out of the bowl. (That is if at least 2 people comment. LOL) The first name will get the mini quilt and the second name will get the tote bag. Good luck. Remember, I am new at this giveaway thing, so please forgive me if I didn't do something right. Thank you for visiting and please come again.


Giveaway is closed. Winners announced Wed. Feb. 3rd, 2010!

Birds and Blooms

Good evening,

It is cold here again today, but I am not going to complain. That cold is holding the nasty winter storm south of us. I will take cold over snow and ice any time. It was very, very muddy here, but I think most of that has frozen dry. Sure don't mind the mud being gone. (grin)  Thank you for the kind comments about our grandchildren. They are growing up so fast. Yes, Ava's hair is natural. It is beautiful, but very time consuming to take care of. I am sure our daughter will be glad when Ava is old enough to take care of her own hair.

Thirteen years ago today we lost dad. He is still missed so much. I don't think you ever really get over losing a parent, but you learn to live with it. I can smile now when I think of him. He was a good dad and I will always miss him.

I have been trying to finish up a few projects. You never know. I might want to start another major project. (grin) Anyway, I finally got all of the applique done on Birds and Blooms. I need lots of practice on needle turn applique. My circles are not really round. Oh well. I will surely get better with practice. I think I am better with machine applique, but did enjoy doing the needle turn.  Here is the top. Kevin picked out the outer border fabric for it. I love this fabric and have used it in several projects.

I figured you might want to see close ups of each of the corners. Now no laughing when you see my circles. OK?  Can you believe that I did the hardest part first. Those little eggs were hard. This poor bird laid angular eggs. LOL

 

 

  

Now this top is ready to be marked and sandwiched so I can begin hand quilting it. I think this is enough for today. I have the binding on Froggy Went a Courtin' calling my name. (grin) Be sure and check in to my blog some time this weekend because I am planning my very first ever giveaway. Don't worry, though, I won't draw any names till some time next week. I need to celebrate my one year blogging anniversary and 100 posts. Woohoo! Thank you for visiting. Those in the path of the winter storm, stay safe and warm. 

Grandma Brag Time!

Good evening,

I guess I skipped over all of our Christmas get togethers.  So I decided I would post a few pictures of our grandbabies that I took at various Christmas gatherings. After all, can you ever brag too much about your grandbabies? LOL No! Don't answer that. LOL

The first few were taken at Mom's celebration. Our family has grown so much, that we have to meet at a Lion's Club building. You should have seen us all the last time we tried to gather in her little apartment. It wasn't pretty. I'm surprised someone wasn't stepped on. LOL The small kids had to literally play under the tables that mom had set up. LOL 

Anyway, here are Noah and Izabella. I thought this was such a cute picture. Noah is taking good care of his baby sister.

 

Ashton and Noah playing together.

 

Aunt Cathryn holding Madison with Ashton looking on with Maddie's daddy in the background.

Uncle Isaiah is always ready to rough the kids up. Ava loves it.

 

We had our family Christmas celebration at Carolyn's and Bob's house on New Year's Day. We were all in the middle of a blizzard on Christmas day.  Here is Aunt Hazel holding Ashton with, Uncle Isaiah, Ava, and Noah in the background.

 

 Madison was fascinated with the tree. Here she is sitting on her daddy's knee.

 

Izzie loved her new red gloves.

 

Ava took time out of her busy schedule to smile for me. (grin)

 

Noah always smiles at Grandma.

 

Here they are opening the stockings I made for them. I wrapped each little thing with lots of tape. Hehe, it took them quite a while to get everything unwrapped!

 

Well, I guess that is enough bragging for one post. I don't really know how to explain it, but I have such a love in my heart for our grandbabies. I am sure most grandparents feel this way. All I have to do is think of one of them, see a picture, or get a phone call and I am all smiles for the rest of the day. Not many things better than having grandchildren. I have time to play with them now where, I didn't always have that time when our children were growing up. Also our kids can tell you this. The grandchildren get away with a lot more than they did. LOL  Grandparents are supposed to spoil them. Right? I am doing a good job! 

I'll be back tomorrow with some more crafty stuff. No more bragging, I promise. (grin) Thanks for visiting and putting up with me today.

Is It still 2010?

Good afternoon,

I took an unexpected blog break. Lots has happened since my last post, but I will start with it and slowly update. I stayed at Carolyn's and Bob's house all week. Kevin tried to get home on Thursday but the roads were  just too bad. He ended up sitting in the car for several hours, then followed a plow truck back to his work. He couldn't even get to our daughter's house. The roads were just too bad. I didn't get much sleep that night, worrying about him. He did make it in to our daughter's house on Friday night. We stayed the night, then packed up and started home on Saturday morning. I think that was the 9th. We figured we would have to walk the last mile on the gravel, but hoped the main roads and black top were cleared. We found that even the main road had spots where there was only one lane traffic due to the huge drifts. I had my camera, but forgot to take pictures.

Sure enough, the gravel road was packed full. So I got out and started walking while Kevin found a place to park. We met our neighbors walking out as we were walking in. Their teenage daughter helped me through some of the deeper drifts. I tried to pick the best route, around the neighbors' yard and across the field. Even then, it took us about 2 hours to get home. Have I said lately that I am out of shape? LOL  I got back to the house, only to find a huge drift in front of our door. It was about eye level to me in the highest point. So I decided to wait for Kevin. Of course our snow shovel was a mile away in the trunk of the car. So Kevin used his hands and feet to try to break a path through for us. Then of course, I fell, rear first in the drift. My legs were like rubber and I could not get up. My husband had to literally haul me out of the drift. We finally got in and changed into dry clothes. My kitties were not happy with us. Aeris wouldn't even let me pet her. LOL Anyway, within an hour of getting home, the grader came through and opened our road. We both just had to laugh. I took a 4 hour nap after our walk. (grin)

We got up Sunday and decided to go get some groceries and stock up on pet food. I took pictures this time. (grin) This was one of the deepest drifts. It was over my waist. Of course, this is after the grader
 went through.








This was our black top. You can see where the state truck was still trying to push some drifts. This was one of the one lane areas.

This was the road leading up to our house. You can see our house on the left. I walked across those ridges on the right to avoid the road when we were walking in.

We had a couple of more times when the wind got up and blew the snow back in the road. Thankfully our county has been on the ball this winter, and we haven't had to walk anymore.

A few days after getting home, I came down with a full blown tooth infection. It was bad. The side of my face was really swollen. Since I was running a fever, my dentist wouldn't do anything but suggest antibiotics. So I took them for several days, then ended up having 2 teeth pulled. I was lucky because the abscess came out with the tooth. Since the tooth next to it was bad, I had him just go ahead and pull it. I am working on getting dentures anyway.  I stopped the antibiotics too soon and then had a sinus infection. I am finally feeling human again. I will just say that 2010 has not been kind to me so far. I am hoping that I am getting all the bad stuff over with at the beginning of the year, and the rest will be smooth sailing. (grin)

Now on to some crafty things.... If you remember, I said that I was going to make a lap quilt for Carolyn's BIL who made my porch chair for me. I finished it up during the Christmas blizzard. He loved it.

I made it simple with simple quilting. It ended up being bigger than lap size, but he is a tall man. Here is another view.

 I had planned to buy a flat sheet for the backing, but then I started figuring out how much fabric I had left from the front. Hmm, I had enough to make a pieced back. It took almost every bit of fabric that I had purchased, but it is a reversible quilt. (grin)

I have worked on several other projects this month, but will have to show them to you in upcoming posts. I hope to be back tomorrow. My one year blogging anniversary has come and gone and I am almost ready for my 100th post. So I am working on some sort of giveaway. I will let you all know when I am ready for it. Everyone have a nice day. Thank you for visiting.

Blizzard Number Three!

Good morning,

This will be a short, no picture post. I did not want you all to think I was disappearing again. We are in the middle of yet another blizzard. This one doesn't have as much snow, but the temps are very dangerous. Since we still  have snow piled high from the last 2 blizzards, plus just a few snow storms, our road will fill pretty quickly. Kevin did not want me home alone during this storm. So he brought me down to our daughter, Carolyn's (and Bob's) house to ride it out. Like I said, only about 6 inches of snow from this storm, but the wind is terrible and we have blowing and drifting snow. The worst part is the severely cold temps we are having. They are predicting -15 to -20 F. for our area by Saturday morning. That is not the wind chill, but the actual temp. It has not been this cold here for 25-30 years.

It is so weird. We haven't had a blizzard here in 20 years. Now we have had 3 in less than a month. Where is spring? 

I am missing my kitties, but Carolyn has 3 dogs and one of them has adopted me. LOL Kevin has been checking on my babies. He said he would walk in Friday and check on them again. I hope to be home by the first of next week. I am getting lots of quilting done. I enjoy spending time with Carolyn and Bob, but will be so glad to get back home.

Everyone stay safe and warm. Thank you for visiting.