New BOM and a give-away

Two posts in one day, so not like me, but I had to tell you all about this. Elefantz has a new block of the month called Shabby Roses. They are beautiful, and oh so feminine. In celebration of the BOM, she will also be having a give-away. The drawing will be held on May 3rd. So head on over there, let her know I sent you, and leave a comment for your chance to win. And don't forget to download the first two blocks of the Shabby Roses BOM. Good luck in the drawing!

~Tootles!

I've been Tagged!!

Yesterday, Molly tagged me, but I was too sick to do anything about it. I have to tell you all 8 things. So today I'm going to tell you the 8 things, but when you read this first bunch of 8 things, they were actually done on Saturday, because I was too sick yesterday to tell you what I did on Saturday. Ok, so here goes:

8 things I did yesterday:

1) Celebrated my baby's 10th birthday.

2) Took children to the zoo. Justin invited his friend, so in all 4 childen.

3) Patiently waited 20 minutes while these 4 children colored, cut, and glued an Earth puppet.

4) Scavenger Hunt

5) Saw a solar panel being used to pump water. Cool !!!

6) Rode a train.

7) Sang with a Pirate.

8) Wore myself out!!!

8 Things I wish I could do:

1) Free motion quilting.

2)Swim.

3) Work from home.

4) Lose 20 pounds.

5) Speak a foreign language.

6) Take a trip to NY.

7) Clean the house by twitching my nose.

8)Be allergy free.

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch:

1) The View

2) Martha Stewart

3) The Closer

4) Monk- which is coming to it's final season, waaahhhh!!!

5) Psych

6) America's Next Top Model

7)Supernanny

8) My Wife and Kids

9) Dancing With the Stars

Yes I do know that's 9 shows and not 8 but I couldn't leave out Dancing With the Stars. I love to watch Giles and Lil Kim!!!

Okay, so now I have to choose 8 blogs to Tag. And I hope they don't mind being tagged. You know some people are really funny about that. They be like, 'No Tags or Blog Awards Please'. They are a great bunch of people so hopefully they won't mind.

But the 8 blogs I'm tagging are:

1) Melissa - threeprincedesigns

2) Priscilla - priscillacraft

3) Terri - sew-fantastic

4) Purple flower patch - elefantz

5) AmandaJean - Crazy mom quilts

6)Stina - kviltstina

7) Amanda - busy little quilter

8) Amy - diary of a quilter

~Tootles!

Happy Birthday Alani !!!

Today is my baby's birthday. She is 10 years old now! I can't believe, that 10 years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful lil princess. Today is going to be a very busy day, and I shall enjoy every minute of it.

~Tootles for now!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

I don't know if you all have heard about this, but Amy over at Park City Girl, is hosting the First Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival. So I thought it'd be fun to be a part of this event. We were told to choose our favorite quilt to share. For me that was easy because I've only done three. For those of you that read my blog, you've seen this before, but I hope you don't mind seeing it agin. This scrappy pinwheel quilt I did with the ladies at youcanmakethis is my favorite. I like this quilt because I can look at each block and tell you what the fabric in that block was used for. There is fabric from some from purses I've made, a pillow, and even a pair of shorts for my son.

This pic shows the back of the quilt. I had to buy extra fabric for that part. But if you look closely, you can see the binding had to be pieced together because I didn't have enough fabric.

So there you have it. My addition to the First Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival. Pop on over to Park City Girl when you get a chance and check out the other 500+ bloggers that have shared quilts in this festival.

~Tootles!

Finish for April

I was over at Priscilla's blog yesterday, and she made the cutest little skirt for her daughter using this tutorial. So, following her lead, I just had to make one for my lil angel. This skirt was so easy to make. I love how the ribbon is used for the hem of the skirt. I'm also following her lead by adding this to my finishes list for April. Remember the One Project a Month I committed myself to? Especially since I got absolutely nothing done during the month of March. Thanks for sharing this Priscilla!


~Tootles!

Quilt Preview

Okay, so I mentioned in an earlier post that I was making a chinese coins quilt for my oldest daughter. While cutting out the fabric I had no real idea how big the quilt would be. Below is a pic of one strip of coins.
Did you hear me? One strip!! There are still 5 more to sew together. Then when you add the sashing and outer border... OH MY GOODNESS!!! This quilt is going to be a monster!!!! I don't know what I was thinking about, but I'm almost sure it's too late to turn back now. Wish me luck.

~Tootles for now!

Fabric Post Card

Okay, I can't even begin to tell you how I got started with fabric postcards. All I remember is seeing one, maybe on a blog, I'm not really sure. I started thinking, I know just the right person who would so love getting one of these in the mail. I must learn how to make those. The next thing I know, I've joined a new yahoo group where we'll be making and trading fabric postcards. Now in this group there are a few people that have made these in the past. Our seasoned pros, I would call them. So I feel a little bit intimidated trading with them when I'm but a novice in this area. I figure, practice. I need to practice while the group is still young and we're still trying to finalize the details of the trade. Below is the pic of my first fabric postcard. I made it this morning while watching The View. I kind of like it, except for the pen mark going down the left side of it. I always keep the first item of whatever craft I start, so this one is mine. So the pen mark doesn't really matter, and a lesson has been learned. I shouldn't see any pen marks on the others. So, what do you think?

~Tootles!

Long Time, No Post

My how long it has been since I've blogged. I promised my next post would be all about me. So if you're interested, read on. Since my last post, that is the post before my giveaway posts, I have been let go from my job. That was a bummer because I had hoped to work up until the kids got out of school for the summer. With that happening, the creativity was sucked right out of me for a while. I got over that, and have started looking for houses because my dear hubby is moving us back to NC this summer. Yeah!! We are doing the happy dance. Louisiana is okay, but I've always felt like a visitor in this state, and long to go back home to NC. I'm a NY'er born and bred, but love NC. So anyway, I'm looking on the internet for houses, schools, doctors, and so on. Lots of work, little time for crafting. Then I have to start packing. I'm a procrastinator so I've been just thinking about packing, not doing any of it all. And then since I'm not working I thought what a great time to go on some field trips with the kids. In the past two weeks I've gone to see the Wizard of Oz with Anaya and we also went Easter egg hunting. I've been to the zoo with Justin, and a LEAP ballgame with Alani. I'm hoping that you all know what LEAP is. It's a series of tests the children have to take at the end of the year, starting in the 4th grade. It was pretty serious business for the children. If they fail the test, they fail the grade. Something I'm not happy with because some children just don't do well with tests. So an honor roll student will have to go to summer school or repeat the grade if they fail the LEAP/ iLeap test. Even though they've done well all year long. I think that sucks. Anyway, we'll see how well the children did in May. So the LEAP ballgame was a way for the children to let out some energy from wracking their brains with testing for a week. Now, the children are out for Easter Break. What fun, what fun!! But what was not fun was the tooth that broke while I was brushing my teeth. My husband asked have I been brushing my teeth with brillo. You would thinks so, huh? I go to the dentist who works on my tooth and puts a temporary crown on it. I got an infection from that and was in so much pain I had to actually take medicine to get relief. I don't like to take meds and will often deal with pain and discomfort instead. Not that time. I went back to the dentist, got my antibiotics and pain meds, and proceeded to be pain free. Two weeks later, and I now have my permanent crown. And no pain. Whew. Then I've been having knee pain. My sewing knee at that. So I went to the doctor for that, and he sends me for an MRI. Well, I knew I had a little issue with claustrophobia, but I had no idea just how much until I went into that death chamber they call an MRI. I was crying, praying, breathing heavily, and trying my best to keep that machine from moving me any further into the chamber. Finally, after 45 minutes, I'm set free. And I tell you, I will not be doing that again. The next time I'm asked if I'm claustrophobic I will not say, ' it depends on how small the space and how long I'm in it'. I will say YES!!! The MRI came back, and it turns out I have a fractured ACL in my right knee. My sewing knee. I was offered surgery, no thank you, and drugs, I don't think so. So instead, I have to do some exercises to try and strengthen my hamstrings which is suppossed to help my knee. Specifically, cycling for 20 minutes a day, walking, and definitely no lunges. Aw shucks. So, in between all of the goings on in my life, I've eeked out some time to do a little quilting. Not much, but I did manage to finish the quilt that was started with youcanmakethis. The pic below shows the front with a little bit of the backing. You can see on the binding, which I love to do while watching television, I had to use two different types of fabric becuase I ran out of the backing. I've been on a fabric buying freeze, gasp!! I know, because of not having a job anymore and trying to move and all. I like the way it looks though.
This is the front of the quilt. I love the scrappiness of it. I can look at each pinwheel block and tell you what the fabric from the block was originally used on. Cool!!

This is a doll quilt I did with the ladies from sewmamasew. The pic below is showing it sideways for some reason, but you get the gist. It was made from scraps as well.

This pic shows the backing. I was able to use the same fabric for the binding on this one.

With both of these quilts I did some stitch in the ditch quilting. I totally suck at that. I've been practicing my stippling but still do not feel comfortable enough to try it on a big quilt yet. On my table now I have some fabric cut to make a chinese coins quilt for Alani, and I have a quilt for myself in the works using Civil War Crossings fabric by Moda. Then I'll start on Justin's quilt. Can't leave him out. So, there you have it. The reasons I've been MIA from blogland. But I'm back now, and will be blogging a bit more. At least this week while the kids are out.

~Tootles for now!

Are you ready for another giveaway? How about Two?

I'm going to post this give-away because it's cool to get free stuff, but also because Judi has some really great stuff on her blog and her site. Judi is from Green Fairy Quilts, and she is having a jelly roll and pattern givea-away. The pattern is the cutest, using strips of fabric from one jelly roll. So head on over and leave a comment to get your name entered in the drawing. Answer a few more questions that she has and get your name entered multiple times. Also, Darci , who makes a lot of pretty things as well, is having a fat quarter give-away. She will be giving away three fq's from the new line Wonderland by MoMo for Moda. Really cool! So head over to both of these blogs for your chance to win. Good luck!
~Tootles!

P.S. I know it's been a while since I've blogged, and I pinky promise the next blog will be all about me!! LOL, that is if you have the slightest care at all.

~Tootles!