Last two projects for February

Life has certainly gotten in the way of my blogging time. But I was able to eek out a few hours today to finish these two projects. Below you will find the apron I made from the new e-book pattern that Melissa from threeprincedesigns made. It is a reversible apron,and it was so easy to make.
Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but we've had a long day.

Below you will find Anaya's doll baby laying in the doll carrier I made for her. The pattern is what I decided to get with the gift certificate I won from one of threeprincedesigns giveaway.

Anaya picked out the fabric all by herself. And now Alani likes it so much, she needs to have one for her cubbies. Will have to show pics of the fabric she chose when that's done.

So long for now, I am beat.

~Tootles!

Giveaway

I love giveaways, don't you? Well, Judi from greenfairyquilts is having a giveaway for one of her beautiful Posh Quilted Bags. To enter, you just have to tell her which of the bags you like the best. So click on the button in my sidebar and head over to Judi's for your chance to win. You have until the 27th of Feb. to enter. Make sure to tell her I sent you. Good luck!
~Tootles!

Bushfires in Australia

I'm sure everyone has heard about the devastation going on in Australia. Many have lost their homes, and sadly, many lives have been lost. Tons of people in blogland have made plans to help with this situation. Mrs. Martin's Quilt Shop is asking for people to donate quilts, quilt blocks, fabric, and batting so that quilts can be made and given to those in need. Also, thinking of the little children, if you can make teddy bears or other stuffed toys, it would be helpful. Auntie's Quaint Quilts has a list on her blog of other bloggers that have different ways you can help out. I'm sure any little bit that we can do will go a long way and would be greatly appreciated.

~Tootles!

Pay It Forward

Thanks to Shelly I am now a part of the Pay It Forward movement. I have seen this around before, but had no clear idea about what it was. Well, it's actually quite simple. The first three people to sign up will receive, within the next 365 days, some handmade goodness from me. The only catch is, to be one of the lucky three, you must agree to continue the chain of handmade goodness to three people of your own. Who doesn't like to get little goodies in the mail? I know I do. Just leave a comment saying you want to sign up, pinky promise to continue the chain, grab the button, post about it on your blog, and start spreading the Pay It Forward love. So what do you say, are you in?

~Tootles!

WooHoo!! I am up to date with the ycmt quilt. I must say I am quite pleased with this quilt and am already thinking of new quilts I can make with this pattern. We still have the borders to figure out, and things like that, but overall I am pleased.

~Tootles!

Thanks Melissa!

Melissa from threeprincedesigns has bestowed another award on me. I am not worthy, but boy do I appreciate it. This award is a "Thank You" award because Melissa enjoys reading my blog. How sweet is that!! I love her blog as well and visit it quite often. As a matter of fact, Melissa has lots of cool stuff going on at her blog that I'm sure you all will be interested in. Melissa shares tutorials, Fun with Family Friday (my favorite), and just recently, Monday at the Market. That's the day she shares different sites that are having giveaways, coupon deals, sales discounts and other things that we can buy to help stimulate the economy. So you all go check out Melissa's place when you get a chance. And thanks again Melissa, it's much appreciated.

~Tootles!

February is Black History Month

Every year, since I could remember, February has been called Black History Month. When I was in school, our teachers would dedicate this month to teaching us all about the contributions African Americans have made, African American culture, and African American history. Well, imagine my surprise when my baby tells me that they're not being taught anything specific for Black History Month. I try not to get on a soapbox about things, but if the children are getting out of school for 5 days to celebrate Mardis Gras, and are giving and receiving valentines to one another, then I believe some recognition should be given to the many African Americans that have contributed to the history of this great country. So, with that said, I will be sharing with you all some of the Black History facts that I'm going over with my children.

Black History Month began in 1926 when Harvard scholar Dr. Carter G. Woodson, made it his mission to show the public that Black History wasn't only about slavery. It's first recognition was during the second week of February. Dr. Woodson chose this time because it also marked the birthday's of two Americans who greatly influenced the lives and social conditons of African Americans, former President Abraham Lincoln, and abolitionist Frederick Douglas(wikipedia.org).

Okay so now that we have the origin out of the way, let me share with you a black history fact. I'm sharing this fact with you because my babies often ask me why Native American's are called such, and if they were here first where did the other people in America come from. Good question, so I'll start with this bit of information that I obtained from Black-History-Month.net.

~Quote
The first Black Americans were the 20 blacks that arrived at Jamestown, Virginia about the latter end of August in 1619. Surviving evidence indicates that the first Black settlers were not slaves. It appears from the record that they were assigned the same status- indentured servitude- as most of the first White immigrants. At the time of the first detailed census in 1624-25, the 23 Blacks in Virginia- 11 males, 10 females, and 2 children- constituted some two percent of the total population of 1227. Among the Blacks identified by name were Angelo, Edward, Antonio, Mary and John Pedro ( Black-History-Month.net) ~End Quote

Whew!! So that's what 's going on in our house lately. Hope you enjoyed this Black History fact.

~Tootles!

Quilt update

Happy Tuesday everyone!! Today I want to share the quilts I'm making for the quilt challenges. This one is for the ycmt quilt. We're making this quilt up as we go so every couple of days Kim, the host for this challenge, will give us a new step to add to the quilt. For this step we had two options in which to lay our quilt, and I chose option 2, the not so easy one of the two. It looks kinda wonky because it's not sewn together as one piece, and squared off yet. Can't wait to see where we're going with it next.

This is the quilt for the calendar quilt challenge that Rachel is hosting. The bigger piece is for the month of January. I started out doing strips but decided I wanted to do something different, which is why I have the rectangle piece below it. That is the first piece of February's block. It's leftover from an apron I made for the Amy Butler Apron Swap that Holly is hosting. For this block I'm thinking of making it kinda log cabinish. Actually, I have no clear idea what I want to do with it yet, except that I don't want to do just strips like January.

Okay, so I have to get ready for work. Have a great day!

~Tootles!

Blue Monday!!

Happy Blue Monday Everyone!! Thanks Smiling Sally for hosting Blue Monday. After going through my contribution, head on over to Sally's to visit the other Blue Monday participants.

Today we'll start with Justin's NC Panther's pillow. I started on this pillow way back in December while my dear hubby was home visiting. He sort of suggested I make some Panthers stuff for ' the boy', as he calls him. I made the applique myself from a pic I googled. This pillow is lucky enough to also be a part of the One Project a Month Challenge, and gets on my finished WISP's list. Yeahhh!!!

Okay, so the next item also gets on the One Project a Month board and finished WISP's list. It is a hanging Sunbonnet Sue Quilt. I love Sunbonnet Sue and all of her friends. This started out as a child's quilt, but being self taught I had no idea how hard, but fun, quilting can be when I started it. So since I wanted to go on to something else, but wanted to finish this as well, I decided to make it a hanging quilt. I did the binding last night while watching The Closer marathon. Boy was that hard.

Here's a close up of the blocks. The stitiching on her hat is a stitch I just recently learned on my sewing machine that I had for over 6 years. I have 17 stitches on that machine and have been using only 9. I couldn't figure out how to get to the other 8 stitches until I started on this quilt a few months ago.

She is made out of scraps that I had from other projects. The back of the quilt is made from the dress above.

The background is muslin.

I love the orange dress. So that's my Blue Monday. Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for stopping by. And don't forget to go by Sally's and visit the other participants.

~Tootles!