Thankful Thursday - 09/03/15

I thought it was time to do another Thankful Thursday post, because it has been a while and I do have lots of reasons to be thankful.  I am a firm believer that if we stay in a grateful state of mind, we are much happier all around.  So let's get started on reason I'm thankful today.

1. Air Conditioning. At the beginning of August we had some air conditioning issues, and went without air or limited air for about a week.  Let's just say Texas, August and no air conditioning is not a combination that is pleasant. But it is now fixed and I am a very happy girl.

2. Bee Blocks.  I know I listed this last time, but I was queen of a different bee for August and I've started getting my blocks. I am even blessed enough to have a couple of friends from other hives crash in and send me blocks.  Who doesn't love extra blocks...not me that is for sure.  I can see this quilt coming together.

3. Holiday Weekend. I am for four days this coming weekend. Which is a pretty rare thing for me, and I'm ohhh so excited.  I want to get some things done, including my Midnight Mystery square in a square blocks (that I just got instructions for today) and my Dog Gone Cute blocks.  I worked on one block this week as a test to see if I wanted to do the small blocks or the large blocks and I've decided on the large blocks.  But I can say the small one wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, it was actually a lot of fun to do. Here is my practice block of Zoey.  I'm going to do a mini quilt that has Cooper, Tucker, Zoey and Hollywood. 

4. Hollywood. Not the city but the fur baby. It has been a rough couple of months for Hollywood. He and Tucker weren't the best of buddies, but he knew something was wrong when we lost Tucker and then he got sent home from doggie day care, twice because of worms. Both times meant a trip to the vet, which he really dislikes.  He doesn't do well with strangers and strangers that want to put in on a cold metal table and poke him are the worst. But he is feeling much better and tries his best to be lap dog to make up for Tucker. I'm not sure what I would do without him sleeping on my feet daily.

5. My Crockpot. I have used my crockpot more than ever this summer. On average I would say I've used it between 3 and 4 times a week. It allows me to fix dinner (or a major portion of it) without heating the house with the oven or stove top. This summer we've used it to fix ribs, ham, roast, but also things like hash brown casserole, chicken spaghetti and red beans. Some dishes have just been ok, but others have been really good.  I've been regularly searching Pinterest for recipes and even started a board of only crockpot recipes.  I can't wait for cooler weather because I've found lots of soup recipes I want to try.

Well that is my list for today. I could easily extend the list even longer, but for now I'm happy listing the top 5 things I'm thankful for at the moment.

Thankful Thursday...07/23/15

I was sad to see Quilty Thankful Thursday be discontinued, and when I was told I thought I would still try and do Thankful Thursday a couple times a month.  My plan had been to do a post the next week, but to be honest I wasn't in a thankful state of mind.  I lost my buddy pal that week and was really just pissed off at the world in general.  The next week, I was swamped and let the craziness of everyday life keep me from showing my thankfulness. But not any more, today I'm going to list some things I'm thankful about even if it kills me.

1. Sweet People. When I posted about losing Tucker, I had lots of family, friends and even strangers reach out to me and offer their prayers, thoughts and love. And I am so very thankful for each and every one of those notes. I can't put into words how special each and every note, call, and text was to me. I may not have responded to each of them, because I just couldn't get the words out, but thank you all so very much.

2. The Internet. I know it can be a wild and crazy place, but it is also so full of great information. Anytime I want to know how to do something I simply google it. I've found wonderful quilting videos, great recipes and even some odd info that really turns out to be helpful. Like...we were having a problem with flies. And I went out and searched ways to get rid of them. I have used fly traps in the past but they are pretty gross, and it was before we had Hollywood, and I'm not sure he would leave them alone. Then I came across an article, that talked about all the normal stuff, don't leave food out, etc., but it also mentioned that flies don't like the smell of lemongrass. So I bought some lemongrass oil and a diffuser and put it in the kitchen. It has been so great. In fact I bought a second diffuser...ok three more. Not all for lemongrass, we don't have that bad of a problem.  I turn them on in the morning, and our problem is down at least 95%. We still have an occasional one, but nothing like the 10-15 we were seeing each day. And they are dive bombing flies. So if you want to learn about something search the internet...just be careful and don't trust everything you read. And if you have a fly problem lemongrass really does help.

3. Bee Blocks. I've received almost all of my blocks for my turn as queen of the Bee Hive Swarm Johanna. They are so perfect that I can't wait to finish the quilt. I have enjoyed making my blocks each month, but I will admit receiving is pretty darn cool. And I get to be queen of Stash Bee hive 9 next month.  I just can't wait.

4. Great sales. I have to admit I think Sharla and I have gone a little nuts buying fabrics lately and we've definitely have to close the pocketbooks, but not before getting a few good deals.  The one I think I'm the happiest about is the jelly rolls I got on sale. I ended up getting 4 and they are all Christmas prints. My nephew and his finance as for a tree skirt last year on Christmas day. I'm going to do the Joyful Jelly Roll Tree Skirt by Fat Quarter Shop. I bought the Jingle line by Kate Spain to use for it.  I also go Joyeux Noel because Sharla liked that line and two of Evergreen by Basic Grey. If the tree skirt is easy (and probably even if it isn't), I'm going to see if my niece wants one as well as my sister-in-law.  If they don't like the Joyeux Noel or Evergreen fabrics then we'll make Christmas quilts for us to use.

5. Little Things. Over the last couple of weeks there have been a lot of little things happen that just make me happy. I ran to the farmer's market Saturday morning, and when I got home Sharla had emptied and loaded the dishwasher. At Starbucks the drive thru line was long and slow, but when we got to the window the girl gave us our frappuncinos for free. The road over the dam has opened back up and so the morning traffic has been reduced. I found 32 cents in the driveway (score for my piggy bank).  I went to the grocery store and actually remembered three things not on my list, which saved a return trip. July is almost over and we've not hit 100 degrees yet (but it may happen today). Each of these things has made me happy, and I'm thankful they occurred.

Thankful Thursday #11

Ok everyone it is time for me to recognize things I'm thankful for this week. I like the idea of picking 5 things, whether they be big or small. It helps me keep the right focus.  So here is my list for this week.

1. Good Customer Service. In this day of crabby checkout people, anonymous online ordering, and general it is all about me mentality, it is nice when you receive really good customer service. I order from Fat Quarter Shop because I always get quick shipping, and they have some really good sales. This week they had an awesome sale on fat quarter bundles by Art Gallery. The bundles were 16 fat quarters of mixed Art Gallery lines in the colorways of Ruby, Harvest and Blue for $21.99 per bundle.  Since I'm always looking for different fabrics for my cross quilt and I love Art Gallery fabrics, I ordered one of each bundle. With the bad weather this week it took TWO days to arrive, yeah I know I'm spoiled. And the fabrics are beautiful, but as I was folding them so they could go into my bins, I noticed a couple of them had flaws. These flaws were not the fault of Fat Quarter Shop, they would have happened when the fabric was woven. I started not to even tell them, because the prices had been so good, but I thought I would reach out and ask. I photographed the flaws and sent an email to them. They responded quickly and with several options for me, which I thought were more than gracious. I love that they took such good care of me as their customer, and I am thankful that good customer service still exists.

2. Progress. I am so thankful that I am making progress on not one, not two but three different projects. So far this week I've completed 15 blocks for my cross quilt, started on 15 more, and cut out more background fabric.I have also sewn and trimmed on Callie and Beau's signature blocks and have finished the primrose, red and goldfish blocks. I have also started piecing the second top of the memory quilts. And to top it all off I've finished my bee blocks for this month and they should go in the mail today.  Here are the signature blocks that I've finished.

3. Warm Quilts. We don't get really long cold weather here in Texas, but we do get the occasional ice/snow day. This week we had a couple and I was so happy to have extra quilts to use.  I keep the temperature at the house fairly cool in the winter, so I can snuggle under a quilt, but this week I slept under two most of the time and for a while I used three.  It was so warm and comfy it was hard to leave the bed. I also liked that I got to put my hard work to good use.  I'm thankful for each quilt that was piled on top of me and this is still one of my favorites and I used it this week.

4. Old TV Shows. I like to have something going in the background as I sew/quilt.  Sometimes I play music, others I have Netflix going.  I will listen to the same shows over and over, because I'm doing it more for noise than really watching.  But last week I found the old Dick Van Dyke show on Netflix and have really been enjoying playing them.  The series originally ran from 1961-1966, and yet it is still funny today.  Yes there are things that are very dated in it, but cast was really great and the comedy was funny without being crude or vulgar. I'm very thankful that I have the opportunity to view these classics again. If you've never watched the show I think you can see episodes on youtube or I know you can see them on Netflix.

5. All The People I Follow.  Yes I'm thankful for all the people I follow on Instagram and with Bloglovin for posting such great pictures from QuiltCon. I wasn't able to attend, but it was so wonderful to see all the quilts, and even better was to get other's people's takes on them. There were some that I loved, others that weren't my taste, but for those of us who were stuck at home, it was fun to what was happening. So I want to thank all of those that posted, and I'm thankful for them as well (a double dose of thanks).

So that is my list for the week.  I hope each of you have lots of reasons to be thankful. I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for Thankful Thursday.

Thankful Thursday #10

Happy Thursday everyone, I hope you are having a wonderful week. I will be honest and say I was hoping for a snow day on Monday or Tuesday. Not that I really wanted snow, I just wanted to sleep late. But unlike a lot of the US, we didn't get any bad weather.

As I sat down to write this post I wondered what I should be thankful for this week. Nothing extraordinary is happening in my life, good or bad. It is the same old stuff. And I realized that is what is wrong with too many of us, we aren't thankful for the little things in our life. We are always thankful for the big things like jobs, homes, cars, food, family and faith.  But if we were as thankful for the little things we would be happier in general.

So I picked five smaller things to be thankful about this week.

1.  Tucker...my dog.  I'm thankful for all three of my dogs, but I'm just a little more thankful for Tucker this week.  Towards the end of last year we had a scare with Tucker and it was a case of being very close to having to say goodbye to him.  But thankfully he got better and is doing better these days. He is old, blind and sometimes can't find his way to the backyard in time, but he is also faithful, loving and makes me smile.  He follows me from room to room and loves that I now work from home 85% of the time.

2.  No leftovers. Now my nephew might disagree that this is a good thing, but it seems like we have been throwing away too many leftover recently. But as of right now we finished all of them in the frig for dinner last night. So I'm thankful there are none because it means none will be thrown away.

3. Tools. Yes I admit I love tools that make things go faster, but sometimes you don't even realize how something so small/simple can really make things go faster. When I'm working on my cross blocks I always chain piece, and I had read about a little tool that lets you cut your chain piecing apart quickly. I found a version of it at my LQS and thought I would try it. I will admit I really do love it. It makes cutting the blocks apart very quick and easy. Can I do it with scissors or snips, yes, but this let me cut them, and stack them because both hands are free. There are a couple of different versions out on the market, and I've even seen some homemade versions. But what I really like about this one is that it is small (about 2 1/4 x 2), so it doesn't take up much space beside my machine.

4. Morning Coffee. I don't drink a lot of coffee, but I normally have a large coffee in the morning. Most of the time it is an iced coffee because I sip it while driving and not burn my tongue. I look forward to my morning coffee, and am thankful to have it everyday. I know that on the days I don't have one, I'm much grumpier. And every now and then an afternoon frappuccino doesn't hurt either. Hmmmm maybe I will need one of these today.

5.  Selfish Sewing. I've been trying to sew for at least 30 minutes a day as part of the #4X7SewingChallenge and have really liked the results. I decided to focus on my cross blocks for the month. I have already finished 15 for this week, so I will spend some time cutting more blocks and then some time organizing the sewing room. But it is nice getting things done just because I dedicate a small amount of time each day.

None of the items above are major life changing things, but I'm thankful for them because they bring joy to my life in one form or another. I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.

Thankful Thursday #9

I know that I am blessed, but some days it is harder to see through all of the yuck that is going on in my life. I could tell you all the horror stories about the car being in the shop 4 times in 3 weeks, the nut cases calling tech support at work or the rude people in line at the store, but I'm not going to do so. I want to try and focus on the good things in life and doing these posts each week really help me. This week I'm thankful for lots of things. First is my local quilt store that will cut a fat quarter from any of their fabrics. I stopped in on Tuesday and picked up a couple of already cut fat quarters, but as I picked up bolts the ladies happily cut fat quarters for me as I shopped. The only down side is that I kept shopping while they cut, so it was a vicious cycle (but one I love). I am also thankful for online quilt stores. My local store doesn't carry Kona, and Callie's signature quilt uses Kona solids. I ordered enough (or so I thought), but realized I was going to be very close on a couple and short on one, so I needed more. I placed an order with Fat Quarter Shop on Tuesday as well and it arrived yesterday afternoon. One day service isn't bad at all. Now I'm lucky enough to live in the same state as the shop, but they shipped it out the same day I ordered. I did snap a quick photo of my order. I got some more low volume fabrics for my crosses and mini charms for a future postage stamp quilt. I also had to get another Bloc Loc ruler because mine has run away.

I am also thankful for my bee mates in the Compass Quilters, because I received another package of cross blocks last week. They are just so cute. I love everything about these blocks. And they came for the wonderful Diana at Red Delicious Life.

I'm also thankful that I got to spend some time organizing the sewing room. Now my back isn't that thankful, but I am. I still have some work to do on it, but it is coming along nicely. I moved Sharla's sewing table to the family room. She prefers sewing there because the sewing room is too cold for her. Then I moved my table to where hers was and moved in a new bookcase. I still have to move a few things around, but at least more things are up on the shelves and not scattered hither and yon. No photos yet, but hopefully soon.

Lastly I'm thankful that I get to express my creativity with quilts. After working with my niece to create the pattern for her signature quilt, she expressed concern that it would be a lot of work for me. I explained, that while it wasn't easy it was something that gave me joy.  Joy in creating and joy in giving. How can I not be thankful for something that gives me joy.

I hope each of you finds joy this week and lots of reasons to be thankful. I am linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl.

Thankful Thursday #8

Happy Thursday everyone, I hope each of you is having a wonderful day/week.  Today I am thankful for my sister Sharla and thankful that today is her birthday.  Now if you know Sharla, you are most likely aware of why I am thankful for her.  She is kind and loving, but has a wicked sense of humor that makes me laugh quite often.

She is going to hate that I put a photo of her here, which just make me laugh even more.  Today is her birthday and I'm very thankful for that.  Why you ask...well she gets her birthday off from work, so that means I didn't have to get up at 6:30 to take her to work.  Sleeping until 8:30 was ooohhh so nice.

Since I'm working today, she is just staying home and sewing, and trying to stay warm since we had a small cold front come through last night.  Now for me that is a great way to spend a birthday, doing something you love in the comfort of your own home.

I do have a couple of other things to be thankful for this week.  I've been making good progress on my cross quilt.  I selected it to be my "selfish" sewing project for the 4 X 7 Sewing Challenge, and have finished my 20 blocks for last month and have 20 more about 1/3 done.  I've been working on them for about 30 minutes to an hour each day.  I also got my Tula Pink Moonshine bundle yesterday. I blogged last week that they sent the wrong bundle and let me keep it for free.  So this has been like a buy one get one free deal.

This is my second bundle of Moonshine, the first is going into a quilt all on it's own, and this one is going into my cross quilt and my stash. I also received the rest of Callie's fabric, so I'm hoping to get it ironed tonight and start cutting on it tomorrow.  I have lots of blocks to make by April.

All in all it has been a good week for me, and I'm thankful for that fact. I'm linking up with Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for Thankful Thursday.

Thankful Thursday #7

Yes I know it is Wednesday not Thursday, but tomorrow I will be posting about my Tessellated Leaves quilt and didn't want to miss the chance to tell everyone what I am thankful about this week, because I have lots.

But before I start, if you are stopping by for the Grow Your Blog post and giveaway, you need to click HERE.

Ok now let's get to being thankful. First off it has been a lovely week so far and today is supposed to reach 80 degrees, which is pretty nice for January. And for the sunny weather alone I should be grateful, but there is more.

A couple of months ago I bought a fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Moon Shine to make a quilt, because I love the prints and the colors. Then a few weeks ago Massdrop had the same bundle available at a good price. So I decided to buy a second one to use in my cross quilt and bee blocks. I was sent notice that it shipped and a box arrived last Saturday. When I opened it much to my surprise the bundle inside was Anna Maria Horner's Honor Roll not my Tula Pink Moon Shine. So I immediately sent an email to the company to let them know. On Sunday I received a note that said they were sorry for the mix up and they would be sending me my Tula Pink bundle soon. That sounded good, but even better they said I could keep the Honor Roll bundle at no charge. Yes you read that correctly, I have a full 30 piece fat quarter bundle of Honor Roll for free!!!!

I have no idea what I am going to do with it at this point, but for now I'm just going to look at it and pet it. And to top off the already great week, I received my second set of bee blocks from my Compass Quilters Bee. These came from Rebecca at One Wee Bird. Now she not only sent my blocks which had several super cute purple one (yeah), she also sent some Denyse Schmidt scraps.

Ok she even had a chocolate bar in the package, but that didn't make it out of the car (hehehe). I did share it with Sharla, so I wasn't totally greedy.  It was pretty unusual for here, it was a Cadbury cola bar, think chocolate and pop rocks mixed, very cool.

Now it hasn't been all sunshine and fabric this week, but even with having to have my brakes replaced, and bills to pay, and so forth.  It has been a good week and I'm thankful for all the large and small blessing in my life and will be linking up with Quilting Jetgirl's Thankful Thursday. And make sure you come back tomorrow to see my version of Tessellated Leaves.

Thankful Thursday #6

Happy Thursday everyone, I hope you are having a wonderful day.  I'm playing along with Quilting Jetgirl's Thankful Thursday.

I should be thankful that it is raining today, but it is a cold dreary rain and as much as we need it I just can't be happy about being cold and damp.  I should have been thankful for a wonderful bowl of leftover red beans and rice, but someone....cough....cough...Cole, ate all the rice and the beans were nice, but needed rice.

So today I'm thankful for HAPPY MAIL...yes I got a wonderful package in the mail from Carla from Granny Maud's Girl.  She sent me cross blocks for my turn as queen of the Compass Quilter's bee. She sent me 12 blocks, a signature block and the cutest little purple chicken pin cushion.

I love the blocks she sent, they are such great fabrics.  I really love that there are several purple ones, and I love that one on the bottom left.  Ok, I love them all.  And I'm so thankful that my mailbox had this wonderful package and no bills.  Can't get any luckier than that.

So I'm linking up with Quilting Jetgirl and you can too!.

Thankful Thursday #5

Well it is #5 for Quilting Jetgirl, but my first one. I try very hard to always be thankful for the blessings in my life, great family, good job, ok health, and lots of laughter.  But I decided that I needed to play along with Thankful Thursday to look at some of the little things that sometimes get overlooked in list of blessings. So I decided that I would pick one thing a week, and tell ya'll why I consider it a blessing.  Some maybe funny (surprised???), some maybe simple, but they each will be something for which I am thankful.

Today I'm thankful for feeling good enough to actually put up a Christmas present.  I was very blessed this Christmas, my brother made a wonderful table for the hallway.  I needed something that I could put a bag on so it was out of Hollywood's reach, but was small enough not to take up a lot of space.  And then Callie and Beau got me a "thingie".  I'm not sure really what to call it,  I asked for a frame with twine to hold snapshots and such, that could be easily changed.  I found something on Pinterest that I sent them to reference. I asked for two, one for the hallway and one for the sewing room.

They found a couple of cool pieces, but they were teal and I wanted black.  So they painted them black for me.  The really cool part is they are metal, and the cloths pins they got me have magnets on them.  I tried to hang it but the hooks didn't hold, and I've just not been up to messing with it.  But today I put up new hooks and hung it.  I don't have any photos on it yet, and I want to make a small (really small) table topper for the table, but at least it is usable.

So today I am thankful for feeling well enough to get part of my Christmas presents into place.  The table is beautiful and hopefully soon the "thingie" will be filled with photos.  I use instagram and facebook, but still love a printed photo. My next task is to make a very small quilted table topper for the table, but I don't want to cover it too much (because it is so pretty), it just needs a little color. So for now I'm thankful this one is done and thankful that I'm feeling better.  Today I'm linking up with Quilting Jetgirl for Thankful Thursday #5.