Quilty Thankful Thursday #24

Happy Thursday everyone, I hope you are having a great day.  Me not so much, but that just means it time to focus on the positives in my life.  Here is my list for this week.

1. Freedom. Last Monday was Memorial Day here in the US and it is a time to remember those that have served and died for our country.  I know I'm bless, and even somewhat spoiled, but I am always grateful to live in this country and I don't take lightly those that have served and gave their lives so that I could remain free.

2. Rain. Ok maybe I'm tired of all the rain (it has rained 22 out of 28 days  this month). But tired or not, I'm grateful the lake levels are back where they should be, and grateful I've not had to spend money watering my lawn.  Now if it wanted to stop for a couple of days I wouldn't mind that either. But since I've seen a lot more drought than floods in my life, I'll make myself be thankful for rain, even a lot of it. This is the radar right now, and yes it is raining again.

3.  Being Queen. I am queen of Bee Hive Swarm Johanna for June and I got my sample blocks together Tuesday and I'm very excited.  I picked the Tic Tac Toe block and here are the two samples I made. I have enjoyed this bee so far, and hope everyone has a great time making blocks for me. Ok it is just plain fun beeing queen (hehehehe) and I'm grateful for the opportunity.

4.  A Finish.  I still have to iron it and photograph it, but I have finished the top of my Grande Scrappy Tiles quilt that I was doing as a test quilt for Meadow Mist Designs.  Hopefully you will get to see it tomorrow.  I really love how it looks, and the pattern is so much fun.  The blocks are huge and so 9 blocks makes a 72 x 72 quilt.  Now what is cooler than that? I am hoping for a little sunshine soon so I can get it photographed.  But it sure feels nice to have a finish.

5. Feeling Better.  I think the rain has washed away some of the yucky stuff in the air, because I'm feeling better. I'm not sure I'm 100%, but I'm at least 95% and that ain't bad.  It also helped that I got some rest over the long weekend and really spent some time vegging.  I watch several movies, did some cross stitch, and a little sewing.  I'm sure once it stops raining we'll have another bought of yucky pollen and stuff in the air, but for now I'm just happy and grateful that it isn't bothering me at this moment.

Well that is it for this week. I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.

Quilty Thankful Thursday #23

It seems like my only posts these days are Thankful Thursday posts. I promise I am doing other things, just not finishing anything, which is a bummer. This week I have a couple of fun things on my list.

1. Giveaways.  A while ago I won a giveaway from Jen at Quilter in the Closet. The prize was a custom made mini quilt. We talked about ones she had done and what colors I liked and then I just told her to surprise me and that was the right decision. I opened my mailbox on Monday to find the cutest and I do mean cutest mini, along with some charm squares and chocolate...what could be better. I knew I would want to hang it in my sewing room, so I told her to include teals/aquas, and then purples and pinks. I've seen the foxes around, and keep saying I wanted to get the pattern to make some for myself, but now I have some of my own. I can't thank Jen enough for such a great gift.

2. Sales. My local quilt shop had a sale last weekend, 25% off of everything. And although Sharla and I don't need any new projects we thought we would go look for backing fabric for 4 different quilts we have on our to-do list, plus some added fabric for a project for Sharla. I love the store, it always has things I like, and Saturday was no exception. We found the backing and added fabric for Sharla's quilt, I found several fat quarters for my cross quilt, we got 2 patterns, a book and little pop-up trash cans. It was fun, but I wasn't feeling great, so we tried to make it quick.  Here are the fat quarters I got.

3. Cool Spring Day. Normally at the end of May the temperature runs high 80's to low 90's, but today it is supposed to barely hit 70 degrees. Since I know that it will soon be hotter than blazes around here, I'm just going to be thankful for the cool day and try to be outside in it as much as possible. It is also supposed to rain more today, which is getting a little old. Here is a pic of our local lake and yes that is a covered picnic table that is underwater.

4. Feeling Better. I ended up going to the doctor on Friday of last week. I just was just feeling yucky and couldn't shake it. The doctor gave me a round of antibiotics, and that has helped some. I think the main problem is allergies and with all the rain everything is blooming more this year. I take allergy medicine every day, I just don't think it could fight it all. But my sore throat is much better, I'm coughing less, and feeling better.  So for that I'm grateful.

5. Holiday Weekends. I can not tell you how much I'm looking forward to a three day weekend. I plan on sewing, sleeping, eating, and then repeating that again and again. If all goes well, I might not even leave my house on Sunday and Monday. I'm sure for some that would sound like no fun, but for me it would be great.  In fact I think this is going to be my plan.

So that is my list for this week. I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.

Quilty Thankful Thursday #22

Hello all, I'm hope everyone is having a wonderful week.  It's time for my list of thankful items.  I will admit that I struggled this week, not because I have no reasons to be thankful, but because I just generally grumpy this week. But I know the best time to list out what I'm thankful about is when I grumpy, because it helps me focus on the good.

1. Sharla's eyesight.  We went back to see the eye specialist on Tuesday and her eyesight is getting better. The swelling in her left eye is down about 50%, and since the shot should last 7-8 weeks, they decided to give her a shot in her right eye to get the swelling in it down. She was actually able to see some of the letters on the eye chart with her left eye. We go back in three weeks for them to check again. Here is a photo of her at her first appointment, I call it her pirate photos.

2. No Bad Storm Damage. Sunday morning we woke up to storms, and threats of flash floods. I had to run into the office because a sever was down, and it was raining but not bad. Then in the afternoon the warning sirens started sounding. I turned on the TV and the weatherman was saying if you live in Denton take cover. So I got Sharla and the little dogs into the pantry, woke up my nephew Cole and told him to take the big dog into his bathroom. Then I went out on the porch to see what was happening. Sharla wasn't thrilled at that, but I just couldn't sit and wait.  I made sure she was safe, since she is slower moving. They are saying a tornado touched down about 2 1/2 miles from us, but we only lost a few shingles. So I'm very thankful for that. We had to run an errand when it was over and we checked out a local creek that was and is way over it's banks.

3. My Job. Ok to be honest I've not been very thankful about it or for it this week.  I spent most of my days off working doing stupid stuff because others are so unorganized. But in reality I'm very thankful that one I have a job and two it lets me be flexible enough to take Sharla to the doctors when needed. I was once told that I should be thankful for the hard things in life because they will make me appreciate the easy things. This week has been hard, so hopefully next week will be easy.

4. New Books. I rarely buy book books these days, I always seem to buy electronic ones to read on my ipad. But I recently got an email about a sale of real live books and I couldn't resist picking up a couple. I just need the time to sit down and read them.

5. Fabric. I'm always grateful for fabric, because I love it so much. But I've not gotten anything new, insert sad face here. But then I realized I had never shown ya'll this fabric. When I saw the previews of Fresh Cut by Basic Grey, I knew it would be a line that I would want. The colors are so pretty and it has great prints in it. I'm not sure what I'm making with this bundle, but for now I'll just be happy looking at it.

Now if I can get some actual sewing time I will be very very thankful. But this is my list for this week and I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.

Time For A Winner

Ok I was very excited to see that I had 258 comments on my giveaway...woohoo!!! So I used the ever popular Random.org to find a number between 1 and 258 and it picked the lucky number 26.

I used my friend excel, to help me count the comments so I didn't get confused, and the lucky winner is Jan Baker.

I've emailed Jan to get her address to mail her the charm pack and will be emailing her the patterns once I've confirmed her email address is good.

Now if I'm off to get some sewing done.  And if you loved any one or all of the patterns and weren't the winner you can always visit Meadow Mist Designs, and get a copy for yourself.

Quilty Thankful Thursday #21

Yes I know it is Sunday and not Thursday, but it has been a very very busy week and today is the first chance I've had to sit down and try and write out my thankful list. I could have skipped it, but I really believe a thankful attitude it a good thing and this helps me keep that kind of attitude. So here is my list for this week.

1. Great Designers.  I am awe of people who design, quilts, fabrics, anything really. I'm not a creative person by nature, I'm so much more of a techie. So I rely on others to create things that I can adapt or copy. The quilting industry has some great designers and I've been lucky enough to test quilts for some of them. I'm currently testing a pattern called Grande Scrappy Tiles and I'm loving it. I would have had it finished if I wasn't sick on my days off last week. But as it is I'm about half way done.  I love that the blocks are so big, and they go together so quickly. The pattern is by Meadow Mist Designs and I will let ya'll know when it is available. For now, here is a picture of two of the blocks I've finished and yes they do need to be ironed.

2. Colorful New Tools. I join the purple Olfa rotary cutter drop on Massdrop and got a pretty new rotary cutter. I admit fully that I have several cutters, I like to have one in all the different spots I use them, like beside my machine, at my desk, at my cutting table and on my ironing table. So getting one more wasn't a big deal for me and it was PURPLE. My favorite color is purple and I just couldn't resist.  And it cuts through fabric like butter, probably because the blade is new.

3. Pretty Bundles of Fabric.  I bought this bundle a while ago, with no real purpose other than it was pretty. I told myself I could use the light fabrics as backgrounds for my cross quilt, but I just can't make myself break up the set.  I'm not sure what I will make with it, but for now it sits on my desk and makes me smile.

4.  Safety.  I live in Texas and spring always brings thunder storms, and this week we've had some really big ones. Several tornadoes in the area, but not really close to me, lots and lots of flash flooding, and some wicked hail. Through it all I've been safe and dry, not even having to drive in any of the bad times. So I'm very thankful that we gotten rain, but none of the really bad weather.

5. My Mom. She is gone now, but I will always be thankful for the love I received from her. She was one of a kind, and I am a better person for her being in my life.  She taught me a lot, but not how to make gravy...old family joke.  Sometime I wish I could spend one more day with her.  Here is a scrap book page I did recently.

Well that is it for this week.  I hope you have found lots of things to be thankful about this week. I'm not sure if the linkup at Quilting Jetgirl is still open, but if it is I will be linking up there.  If not, this was really for my benefit more than anything.

Giveaway Day

Hello all, today is the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day...well really giveaway week.  I love getting things for free, and I love giving things away, so this is just perfect for me.  Normally there are something like 500 blogs having giveaways, which is pretty cool. I have had some luck in the past and maybe will again this year.  But even if I don't win, I will be giving something away.

I'm in the process of testing a quilt patter for the lovely Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs, and she has offered to sponsor my giveaway.  I got to pick three of her patterns, which are always very cool.  This the second pattern I've tested for her and so far I'm loving it.  The first pattern I'm giving away is called Broken Frames and I picked it because it uses a charm pack (and I'm also giving away a charm pack).

The second pattern I'm giving away is called On a "Jelly" Roll and I picked it because it great pattern for using up those jelly rolls you just couldn't resist.  I have several that I need to do something with, so I'm sure I'll be using this pattern in the near future.

And the last pattern is call Scrappy Tiles, it is similar to the pattern I'm testing and I love it.  It has that wonderful scrappy look, but is so easy to put together. Plus it is layer cake friendly, which is really cool.

Now if you not ever made one of Cheryl's quilts, I can promise you the instructions are easy to follow and very clear.  She does a great job of breaking it down for even a beginner.  I will also be including a charm pack, of Simple Marks- Summer by Malka Dubrowsky. The colors are bright and cheery and I think the charm pack would look great in the Broken Frames pattern.

How To Enter...

1. Leave a blog comment, anything will do, but if it helps answer a question...where do you live? The giveaway is open to everyone.  If you are a no-reply blogger make sure I have a way to get in touch with you.

2. My followers, old or new get a second entry.  Please leave a second comment letting me know how you follow my blog.  I have buttons on the side bar to follow by Bloglovin', Feedly, email and Goggle+, so if you don't follow me feel free to start.

The giveaway will be open until Sunday, May 10th, and I will announce the winner on Monday, May 11th. I wish everyone good luck with this giveaway and all the others they join.  And if you've not checked out Meadow Mist Designs, you really should, she had great patterns.