2 Packages of charms - she wanted to make sure I had plenty to make a quilt with! Thank you Teri! In the give away one of the packages of charms is this same kind I had mentioned how much I liked it. I'm sure whoever wins the give away will enjoy it too.

Quite a few of you have asked who is Teri?   Teri and I have never met and didn’t even start to correspond until recently so I really do not know her well.  That is the way it is with a lot of us “internet friends” .  We exchange e mail and chat about quilting but a lot of times we do not actually know each other as I’m sure is the case with a lot of us.  Sometimes for me it is hard to even keep everyone straight in my mind as I have begun to correspond with so many quilters – I am almost ready to print out a list of names and where you are all from to keep it straight in my head!! LOL

I asked her some questions so I could write up a little of her.  Teri is from Alabama a little north of Montgomery.  She is a self-taught quilter and taught herself how to quilt about 18 years ago.  She quilts mostly by hand. Right now she is making a Redwork embroidery quilt.  BOM’s and kits are some of the kinds of quilting that she likes. She says she doesn’t have the eye for picking out all the fabric involved and that is why she likes the kits.  Teri’s first love is cooking — I think a lot of us quilters love to cook too as I have seen many good recipes on quilting blogs!  She also loves reading and traveling and she use to spend time making clothes for her kids and has made a wonderful French hand sewn Christening gown for her grandchildren and made her oldest daughter’s wedding gown.  Now that is a talent I do not have — I really do not like clothes sewing.  Teri and her family moved to the country on an acre of land about 3 years after her mother died – Teri was her mother’s caregiver in the last three years of her life and she didn’t have time for quilting or anything as that took a lot of time.  Teri is really not interesting in beginning a blog right now as she doesn’t know her way around computers really well.

(Edited at 7:20 PM – I forgot to mentioned that Teri is reading all the comments left by everyone and is having a good time checking out all of the blogs from you all that have blogs = I have been too   — keep them coming)

I have already been pulling books off of the shelves to get ideas on how to use these two charm packs and I have a couple that I am going to be giving a second look at.   And now I know some people are going to say “OMG she is going to start another quilt” LOL probably you are right – somehow the two large applique quilts  (Little Brown Bird and the traditional Red/Green Applique ) that I have talked about for the past year keep getting put aside – I wonder if that means I really do not want to make them or if it means just not right now?  I have made one block for each of those quilts so at least that is a start!

There are still 4 more days until the give away – if you want to participate leave a comment at this link.  Right now we are at 91 comments!!! a few more than the last give away I gave for sure.

Sometimes when I have a giveaway I try to thank everyone with a e mail of thanks when I get the message – in this case so many having been coming in at the same time I have not had the chance to do so.  Let me say thank you to all of you now for stopping by my blog and visiting.  Such nice comments everyone leaves.  Good luck to all of you.  I am looking at blogs every chance I get to see all the new ones that I have not seen before.

I have a new photo of my Christmas Quilt which is coming along slowly as I am working on so many other projects all the time.

Christmas Baltimore Album in the works

You see this block in the center with the white flowers? When I get to the middle of it I will be half way done with this quilt. Like I say it is moving slowly - I'm not rushing it and in fact have been neglecting it - I have been working on so many other quilts but this is a Christmas quilt I figure I have until the middle of November before I need it - hopefully I will be finished with it before then!

Yes I need to straighten out under the frame once again – somehow things constantly get tossed under the frame – out of the way you know

Before I forget Jackie is having a give away on her blog Canton Village Quilt Works - go on over and see what she has.

The Gifts

THE RULES!!

1.  Leave a comment – one chance

2. Blog about it – two chances

3. Tell someone and they mention your name and you will get an extra chance for each person that mentions your name.

The winner will be announced in 1 week – on Monday the 22nd of March

AND I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH – MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN E MAIL ADDRESS WHERE I CAN GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU!!!!  — LAST TIME I HAD A GIVE AWAY I HAD NO VALID E MAIL TO CONTACT A WINNER AND HAD TO GIVE IT TO THE NEXT PERSON ON THE LIST.

Now I need to get off of the computer and start sewing my borders on to the quilt top.  Maybe I will have a photo for you later today.

I took a day off from working on my patches and circles yesterday and got back to it today.  Making progress but anything to do with me and sewing machines moves slowly because I keep taking so many breaks   here is what I have so far:

this is 25 blocks across right now and nine rows finished. I have another 3 rows in the process of as you can see. The total body of the quilt will be 25 rows by 25 and then some kind of border around that. I plan to get a little more work done on it this weekend and hopefully get the main part of this quilt done next week and then start on a border.

Here is the progress on the Little Brown Bird block that I started working on the other day. It will have some flower blossoms scattered on it over the wreath and a little embroidery. Right now the brown background shows through the light side a bit but I don't think this will be noticeable when I get the flowers on it too. Once it is quilted for sure I think it will be fine. This is a 9 1/2 inch block.

I’m not sure what we are doing this weekend.  Sounds like we might have more rain tomorrow – I hope it waits until evening and the day will be pleasant.  I need to start looking for a new microwave oven.  Ours technically is not really all that old but it has not been working well recently and last night burned a hole through the bag of popcorn on the same setting it is always set at!! That shouldn’t have happened.  Also some other things have not been cooking at the normal amount of time and I have been having to constantly adjust the time.  I looked briefly at some a month or so ago but held off.  I think this weekend we will find a new one.  I don’t need anything fancy – we only use the microwave for reheating leftovers and making popcorn, defrosting frozen items and things like that.  This is only the second microwave we have had!  The first one lasted forever it seems, much longer than this second one did.

Rebbecca Potts Baker #19 from Concord, North Carolina

and

Teri Dingler #32 from Montgomery, Alabama

please e mail me with your mailing addresses at k@pddoc.com to claim your prizes.

I spent a couple hours today over at my friend Julie’s house.  Julie got interesting in my first dear Jane when I was making it and decided she wanted to learn how to make one too.  Along with our friend Regina  we all started making a Dear Jane 2 years ago in April.  If Regina had been able to make it over today for sewing I would have posted a photo of her Dear Jane as well – but Regina is a hard working woman and couldn’t make it over to sew.  She was slaving away at work.  This is Regina and Julie’s  first time at making Dear Jane and my second.  Here is a photo of Julie’s Dear Jane in progress:

Julie's Dear Jane quilt --- 7 rows completed (and row 8 just about there and will photographed at another time) Julie is doing her Dear Jane all in flowery prints. She is doing her quilt in a combination of methods, hand, machine, paper piecing.

while at Julie's today I completed a Dear Jane block for my "Insanity Revisited" quilt. I had not worked on this quilt for almost two weeks. This is from row 10 block number 2.

Seeing as I was out today I decided to replace my warped June Tailor pressing/cutting mat with a small table top ironing board so I ran over to Wal-Mart before coming home. I already checked and if I push the computer back and shut the lid out of the way I can place it on the computer area for pressing and have the rotating cutting mat (or large mat when using it) ready for cutting on the cutting table. I had inquired to the June Tailor people in customer service about my problem with warping and they never responded to my question - this gives them an F in customer service in my opinion - I inquired at least a week ago if not more and not one little response from them.

And of course the weather today!  It went from a high of 68 degrees yesterday to a cold rainy night dropping our temperatures to a high of 46 degrees today!!  Of course that was not unexpected – that normally happens when you have spring like temperatures in January in Arkansas   we had a whopping 2 inches of rain all night along with thunder and lightening.  The upcoming 7 days will be back to normal for Arkansas = highs in the 50’s and lows in the 28 to 35 range.

From Christine at Auntie's Quaint Quilts

a close up of the scissors - aren't they unique!

my other win from Pennsylvania, I haven't tried this author so looking forward to the new read.

I have no where in this house for a design wall so after much thought I decided to order a portable wall.  It goes up when you need it down when you don’t.  This works out well for me as with all the hand work that I do I really don’t need a wall all the time.  Right now it is being put to use with the circles and four patches.  It is time to sew them together so I have some of them on the design wall and go back and forth to the sewing machine with them.  I don’t mind going back and forth as it keeps me from getting stiff and also gives me some exercise   I can go ahead and leave this up in the living room all week while I sew as it is pretty much just myself around most of the time as Mike is working long hours and isn’t home much this week.

what the wall looks like from the front with some of the patchwork on it.

this is what it looks like from the back - fairly easy to put together except the side clamps - I have to have my husband press those in place as my hands aren't strong and I can't seem to press hard enough - I will have come up with some method as he isn't always available when I might need to put it together. When not in use everything folds up including the poles and all goes in a drawstring tote bag. (as you can see from the walls in this room all those shelves and books, it is like that in a large amount of the house so no empty walls for a design wall.)

Don’t forget the give away ends on Friday.

I started blogging in April of 2007 – almost 3 years ago – wow how time flies.  At first I really didn’t know what to write and didn’t write very frequently.  I finally decided to just write as I talk as though I was actually chatting with you.  I am not very good about formal sentence structure and I know it!  I just don’t care anymore – I assume if that is what a person wants to read they will go elsewhere   About a year and a half ago I really got into it and started blogging on a very regular basis.  To celebrate this 500th anniversary I am having a give away – winner will be announce in one week on Friday the 22nd of January.

There will be two winners.  The rules are simple.  Leave a comment and tell me where you are from and you get one chance. Blog about it and make sure you tell me and you will have two chances.

prize #1 included 20 light aqua hoffman batik 6" squares, 20 dark aqua hoffman batik 6" squares, a McKenna Ryan pattern and the other things in the photo.

prize #2 is another stack of both colors of batiks, another McKenna Ryan pattern and an assortment of other items in the photo.

The two aqua fabrics are the ones that I used in my Dutch Treat quilt which originally was going to be much larger than it ended up being.  I had cut a lot of 6″ squares in preparation for the quilt so had a lot left over.  The 3 bears pattern featured in the second grouping of prizes is the one that I used for the wall hanging in the motorhome.  It is like new as you trace the pattern on to fusible web so the pattern is not disturbed in anyway.  I had cleaned my sewing room back in the late fall and filled a basket with items that I do not used – possibly used slightly but not so you would notice.  Some things were given to me that I never used as was not something I needed or use.  I still have a basket – no longer overflowing but still full so plenty for future give away’s.

And the weather today with this warm up that we are having and enjoying!

slightly out of focus as I had to stand over to the side so my shadow wouldn't be on it. The little boy has no jacket this time and no little snowman in the corner Someone asked the last time I posted a photo of the thermometer what kind is it. It is from the Weather Channel and is digital.

I have been busy today organizing fabric – yes once again.  I have decided that I will go ahead and start soon on the Little Brown Bird quilt after all.  I have been undecided about it.  I do not know if I will make the whole thing, but I am going to give it a start and decide as I go.  I will be using a lot of almost solids – batiks and moda marbles.  I want to make sure there is no bleeding so I have been washing fabric and pressing all day!  And still more to go through in my wire baskets on the shelves.  I will use a little of the other fabrics (prints) here and there but most of them I will wash as needed.

The Red and Green Traditional Applique quilt I will be starting first.  I have the background fabric for both quilts on bolts on the shelf.  The Red and Green quilt will be mainly moda marbles and batiks also with prints thrown in here and there.  I have been collecting batiks and marbles for sometime now in preparation.  I mainly get fat quarters and I have plenty of them.  I might be organized enough tomorrow for a photo.  My fabric needs organizing and I have a feeling it will take several days of working on it to get it all under control (and I have a very small stash compared to some of you I know).

Back in early December- Elaine from Faithful Quilter: Elaine’s Journey had a give away of Civil War Fabric to celebrate her birthday.  Due to the holiday season it had gotten set aside to mail out.  I got it today and I was just so pleased to have won so much!!  I have won a few give away’s but the prize was never this much.  She had 63 comments for the give away, I was very surprised I won (now why can’t I win the lottery!)   Look at all I received: