We Got Snow

Whoo hoo we got snow last night!  There was a lot more about an hour or two ago, but it was too dark and too cold to go out and take pic's. lol  So this is what's left.  We get snow in our area about every twenty years so this is a real treat.  Sure makes me miss living in the Foothills:) 

Wow Christmas Is Near

Wow, Christmas is less than a month away and I am trying to figure out where the time has gone! In a little over two weeks, my brother Frank, sister Loretta, daughtere Jo and friend Dianna are leaving for New York for a week. (We leave the 14th and return on the 21st!) That means I have to be sure everything is ready for Christmas before we leave. I have baking to do and freeze, quilts to quilt and a couple of gifts to buy yet. Then I'll be done. I can shop for groceries when I get back, there will plenty of time for that. Anyway, I'll try and stay on top of this a little better. I've had some kind of bug for almost four weeks now and it's just knocked me for a loop, so I'm way behind in what I wanted to have accomplished before we leave. Oh well, I guess if it gets done it does, if not it won't. lol Have a wonderful week.

Haven't Done Much

Hey there:) I haven't been very productive these past few months. I did manage to get my Halloween Quilt finished and trying to get a fall quilt done as well. I'm not making much progress though. I've had this rotten case of the blah's and can't seem to get motivated to do much of anything. So I'm going to try and get some sewing in today on the quilt and if I can do a little each day I may get it completed! Wouldn't that be a shocker! lol Hope everyone is having this wonderful Fall weather we're having.

New Quilt Shop

I've discovered a new quilt shop, The Dizzy Daisy Quilt Shoppe and boy does she have some great fabrics and goodies. Go check it out. She's also having a give away too.

UFO Saturday

Well, we had our online UFO group Saturday and I was able to get enough blocks sewn together for two and a half quilts. One and a half red & White and one Blue & White. All are AmHero quilts and the center block is white P&B fabric to have people sign them. They're (obviously) signature quilts:) I'd hoped to get more done, but I goofed up on the first one I was working on and had some frogging to do. I only posted one picture 'cause Blogger won't let me post the second:) Hope everyone is getting ready for fall. It's about 85 here in CA today down from 100 yesterday! and the days before that. This week is going to be cool and then it's supposed to stay in the mid to low 80's. I sure hope so. We've got a good chance of another triple digit day or two before fall actually really hits us:)

Hot Summer

I know it's been a while since I've posted, in fact it's been a while since I've done much of anything. It's been so hot it's hard to get up the ambition to even sew. Usually I use that as an excuse to stay in the house and sew, but not lately. I've got several quilts going, and one blue Disappearing 9 Patch I'm determined to finish sewing on today. So with any luck I will get that done. Maybe that will give me the ambition to work on the others:) Ya think? I hope so. Have a great week or close to week end now.

Beautiful Goodies From Rengin

I just had to share the beautiful goodies I received a couple of days ago from Rengin in Turkey. They are wonderful! The trims, the fabric, gorgeous pearl lace, incredible charms, ribbon, all of which are so exciting. I can't wait to use them, in fact I have a plan for one of the projects I have going now. You can also see the amazing crocheted doilies her mother made for me! They look so pretty on my glass coffee table:) I love everything! Thank you Rengin and many thanks to your mother!
That last picture isn't supposed to be in there, don't know how I managed that, but I can't get it out. Sorry about that:(

Finished Quilts

I finally got my machine working again and I'm elated! The first two (I should say the second two, the way the pic's posted.) quilts are for AmHero's and the third one is my neighbor Sonja Muenger with her Christmas Present in July! lol My machine went bonkers the first of Dec. so I never got it quilted, so finally getting the machine back in working condition after all this time I was able to finish it. She knew she had something coming, just didn't know what it was:) So we took it over to her the other day and she was very happy with it. I was very happy to have it done and able to give it to her! lol

A Trip To My Sister's

In spite of a rotten cold and feeling like I'd been hit by a Mac Truck we went up to my sister's house yesterday. She and I played most of the day but then we got down to business and worked on this AmHero's quilt. The white blocks you see are only a few of the thirteen Signature blocks that will go in the quilt. Sonja named the quilt "Thirteen Stars and Stripes" for the thirteen signatures. I think it's going to come out pretty nice. It will have about a three inch border around it when done. You can tell I'm feeling great today, I've been up since four (couldn't breath laying down) and I'm out in the living room and now posting this! lol Oh well, the cold get's a little better every day. I'm sure glad we went up though.

OH!! The Stitch Regulator came home yesterday for my quilting machine! So as soon as I'm up to it I can connect that back up and I'll be set to go on my quilting machine/frame...once again!!! lol yaaaaaay!

A Few of The Blocks

Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure

I've tried numerous times to download a picture of one of the most beautiful quilts I've ever seen. It's being raffled off and all proceeds go to the Susan G. Komen Race For The Cure I can't seem to get a picture to download so please go to the site and check it out. It's absolutely gorgeous and pass the word on too.
Crabapple Hill has a wonderful write up on it. Drop by and see it plus check out their site, it's really great!

Baby Quilt for my Friend Jeanette

Here's the baby quilt I've been working on for a very dear friend in the Bay Area. She's going to the baby shower the week of the 20th so it's ready to go in the mail to her. For as simple and easy a pattern as this is, it has been a real challenge for a number of reasons! lol Hope you like it Jeanette.

Donations for Quilt Giveaway

This comes from Joann's blog
Donation quilt - Open Heart Surgery fundraiser

Note - some of the wording has been changed - please read the part about funding - it is in large letters, scroll down.

In September Don has to undergo open heart surgery to repair or replace the Mitral Valve - and we have finally come up with a way to raise money for what we will owe after insurance pays their part. To read more about Don's surgery - click here.

I have been making quilts for years, it is one thing that I can do to contribute to our situation - and we've decided to use one of the quilts for the fund raiser, and it is the Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt that was finished just last year. It is hand pieced and machine quilted, by Julie from Idaho.


It is double bed size - the fabrics are 100% cotton, all tone on tones . . .





Julie did a fabulous job - using her home sewing machine . . .



It is Don's all time favorite quilt - he says it just makes him happy to look at it . . .



For a donation of $5.00 you get your name in the drawing five times - a donation of $10.00 gives you 12 chances and $20.00 will give you 25 chances, etc. To keep this from being an actual raffle - anyone can have their name entered without a donation (though we really do appreciate the donations, but completely understand if you can't donate, not everyone can in these economic times and we don't want you to feel bad about that). Send us your good wishes and prayers - they mean so much to us.

I have talked to many internet and local friends - and they are all excited about this and we already have many donations and offers to take donations for us also.

The drawing will be Sept. 6 - Don's birthday - the surgery is scheduled for Sept. 4, at this point. Any money raised over the amount that is needed for our co-pay on the surgery (approx. $25,000 if everything goes smoothly) will be donated to another person or family with a medical need. We welcome ideas of who to donate to once we reach our goal.


To donate, - we are currently working on an online payment process - email for details.


We also accept checks, just email for the address to send them to. Some of our friends are taking tickets already and gathering donations, which we truly appreciate. It is amazing the support and love we feel during this stressful and scary time.

If you would like to post about this donation quilt on your blog, we surely would appreciate that - and you would get your name in the drawing 5 more times and for each person you send over this way who donates - another 5 times in the drawing.

Thank you all for reading this post - and for your support and prayers.

Adorable Pincushion from Sonja

Just had to share the adorable pincushion my sister made for me and Karrin Hurd. DH and I went over there the other day, him to do some fishing and me to do some sewing. She's always got some neat thing going and it was such a nice surprise to receive this. I'll take Karrin hers this week.

Quilting Machine is Home

Well, my quilting machine is back home and the setup is all together again. yaaaaay! Took two weeks and I just coudn't believe it could take that long. Turns out they had one of their repair people leave so they were short handed. The important thing is I have it back and it's ready to go. The bad thing is I won't have time to play with it till next week! lol With Easter so many things to do between now and then so priorities are there. Speaking of which, I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and has a good day with your family.

In The Shop

Well, my baby is in the shop for adjustment:( That didn't take long. I had been working on it for about 4 days when the thread all balled up at the feed dogs. Got that straightened out and the thread kept breaking. So got THAT squared away, or so I thought. When I looked underneath oh my gosh! What a shock! There were railroad tracks all over the back of the quilt. I spent quit a long time on the phone with a tech and nothing we did helped, so I ended up taking it in to the shop to have them handle it. Hopefully I'll get it back next week sometime.
Some of you know I got a new Dell computer too, well, after 24 hours of owning that, a CD stuck in the drive and wouldn't come out. After several hours on the phone to the tech's about that I had to send it back to Dell to have a new Opti Drive installed (CD/DVD Drive). I got it back day before yesterday and guess what??? Yup, it's not fixed!! After almost three hours on the phone with the tech's again, they finally figured out it had to go to back. After my hysterics they promised that it would be fixed like new and the supervisor I spoke with promised to follow the whole process! The Tech's are in India and I was highly insulted when I got a recording saying for a fee I could talk to a service tech in North America, in other words here in the states!!! How insulting is that! Pay a fee and you can talk to someone right here in the states! I've lost a LOT of respect for Dell and will be loud and clear about that!

Up and Running!!

The parts came yesterday for my stitch regulator so my machine and frame are up and running!!! Color me Happy!! The work I was doing started out kind of wonky (lol) but as I progressed it got a little better. I know it's going to take practice to learn to do what I want, but right now I"m having a ball. whoo hoooo I'm sure you can all hear me from where you are:)

blogger is at it again

I'm trying to upload Rose Anne's heart and Susan's Sewing Caddy but blogger won't let me:( So I'll come back later when I get back from Sacramento and try again. Have a good one all!

Which Do You Think?

Ok guys, I've posted this on my QuiltsnThings blog too because I really need some help. My sister gave me my birthday present wrapped in the most beautiful multi colored batik that goes with the floral print just beautifully! The only thing is I can't get any more of it, so I needed to find one that will go with and enhance the floral print. Which do you think works best? I'm really on the fence on this, and can use any suggestions you might have. Thanks in advance:)

Tried to Leave A Post

I tried to leave a post with picture and blogger is giving me fits. I'll see if this goes through and then try again. If this is all you see, then you know it didn't go through.

I Have Received an Award From Rengin

I have received an award from Rengin at Rengins Colors . Thank you so much for thinking of me. You are so kind and thoughtful for thinking of me for this award.
Here are the guidelines for this award:'This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers' aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!'These are some very wonderful gals to visit. They are thoughtful, friendly and have so many wonderful ideas. I am supposed to pass this along to 5 people and here they are:).

Gail

Ati

Courtney

susan

Norma