When The 8 Pointed Star and The Dresden Plate Collide

Have you ever wondered what might happen if the 8 Pointed Star and the Dresden Plate were to collide?  I have had an 8 pointed star on my design wall forever and just could not decide what to do with it. 

Little Miss Sassy, one of the few dolls that I have of my mothers, and I decided to finish it and turn it into a pillow for our guest bedroom!

Here are a few close ups showing how I finished the pillow.  I fused the dresden blades to the pillow top and using a machine blanket stitch, finished them with gold thread.  I used that same gold thread to quilt lines through each blade, around the inner border and then did a reverse blanket stitch on the seam of the outer border.  I think it finished up quite well!

These fabrics are perfect for our guest bedroom that we call the Alabama room.  The furniture in this room is the bedroom suit that my mother and dad started out housekeeping with when they first married.  My dad was killed when I was 9 and somehow my granddaddy wound up taking ownership of it and at his death, I bought it at the estate sale. 

Do you remember in the 60's when Sears sold carpet and most anything you could imagine.  My mother was allowing us to redecorate our bedrooms and I wanted purple carpet.  When we got to Sears the day we were going to choose flooring, we found out that we could not get purple.  Such a bummer!  I settled for red!  

When my husband and I built this house in 2004 I was bound and determined to have a purple bedroom once and for all!  My mind had changed on wanting purple carpet but most everything besides the carpet has shades of purple in it.  And oddly enough the comforter and drapes came from... yep, you guessed it... Sears! ha!

My husband and I put puzzles together in the winter and this Thomas Kinkade was perfect for our Alabama room!  The purples in this puzzle are so rich!  It had to be framed and hung on the wall!  It was the perfect addition to this room!

One last look at Little Miss Sassy with our pillow! She is so adorable that I just want to keep showing her off with her little lavender floral dress with lavender flower on the bodice and lavender ponytail holders. She is a cutie pie!  :)

Mail Call!

I just love getting mail, especially when it  contains scrumptious surprises!!!  Take this first surprise sent to me by my friend Lynn!!  I knew she was making a crazy quilt block for me but I had no idea as to what design she was going to work with.  She told me her initial thought was to do a farm scene with pigs but that was not really working.

She said she thought about my southern accent and decided to create this Southern Belle crazy quilt for me!

 

I LOVE it! Everything about it is beautifully done!  I love how she used a lace collar to create the arbor! and that wisteria is perfect! I am so delighted to have something made special from Lynn!

Here are a few close ups of her work! Enjoy!!

A friend on FaceBook showed me a link to these t-shirts several days ago and I knew I had to have one!!!  Because, as many of my friends know, I am "Quiltaholic"!

 I chose "Quiltaholic" as my very first email address... but after a couple of years it was so full of spam that I had to change it.  I was "Quiltaholic" on the MSN Gaming Zone in the late 90's - 2003 when they shut it down. I am  known as "Quiltaholic" on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum since 2003!  So you see why I had to order one of these t-shirts!... or 2!! ha!

Churn Dash Alert!

I wanted to share my newest churn dash quilt top all done in batiks!  I bought these fabrics on one of my trips down to Mary Jo's Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC.  The churn dash is one of my favorite patterns and I cannot stop creating quilts with it!  It sure brings out the traditional side of me!

Do you love the churn dash pattern?  How many quilts have you made using this pattern?  Check out the sew-along that I am hosting here on the blog and link up to a post on your blog showing off yours.  Just be kind and link back here to my blog so your friends can play along too. :)

I am linking this post up over at Karen's and Sew many Ways for the Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party!

and over at Plum and Janes Lets Get Aquainted Monday Link Up being hosted this week at  Fabric Mutt!

Grow Your Blog Party!

If you have followed my blog for any amount of time you know that I love blog parties of all kinds!  I am a "people" person and love to be where people are! When Vicki of 2 Bags Full put out the word that she was going to host a virtual worldwide blog party, I could not pass it up!  She has asked us to tell a little bit about ourselves so the readers coming through can get to know us a little better.

So, welcome to my blog one and all... current readers and new readers alike!  I hope I do not bore you.. I really don't like to talk about myself much.. I would rather talk about quilting and my children and grandchildren. :)

 

Where do I start?  I am originally from Alabama, growing up in the Northwest corner and living there the first 42 years of my life.  In 2003 I moved to North Carolina and married a tobacco farmer! This is us sitting in the Atlantic Ocean down in San Blas, Mexico!

 I think I will tell you a little bit about this trip.  We use workers from Mexico to help us with the crop, getting them in through the H2A program.  They get a green card and come in on buses and once the crop is finished they go back home until the next season. Guadalupe has been helping on our farm for several years and one year he asked us to come visit him and his family.  So we decided we would.  BUT, I do not fly!!  We drove all the way down to Nayarit, Mexico in our truck!! YES, we did!  Guadalupe came to the border to meet us so we would not have to drive in alone... at the begging of my niece and the insurance agent at the border... yes, we had it in our heads to brave it alone at first!  We are so glad that we did not!  There were several military check points to go through... which was scary as heck!!  And Guadalupe had to pay the cops off once because he did not have his seat belt on! And to top it all off we had a flat tire about halfway to his house... which by the way was 14 hours past the US border!!  It was at least on a very good road that had a large shoulder so it was not dangerous!!  We made it to his house and I could not speak a word of Spanish and his wife could speak not a word of English so needless to say, the trip was not what it could have been.  The best time I had was the day Guadalupe took Butch and I to San Blas for the day.  We walked in the ocean and ate a coconut that Guadalupe knocked out of a tree.  There were workers there cleaning up from a hurricane so he borrowed one of their machetes to crack it open with.  It was so yummy!.. or maybe I was just so hungry!  We had planned to stay 2 weeks but after 5 days I was ready for American soil and American cooking!  Guadalupe rode back to the border with us and we were ever so grateful!  One military check point actually found us getting the truck searched from front grill to back bumper!!!  I told my hubby that if we had gone in alone, we would have never made it out!  We would most likely still be in a prison some where!  You have no idea just how truly blessed you are until you go to another country sometimes! It was a trip of a lifetime, but I do not desire to go back!

I have traveled more since I married my hubby than I had ever before. I am thankful to him for showing me a little bit about the world we live in.  You live in a place all of your life and hardly venture out anywhere and you think the whole world does things just like you all do where you live.  That is so NOT the case.  It was a true eye opener when I moved away from my home state of Alabama!  It has been one huge learning experience for sure!

Helping Debbie replenish her sewing supplies through all of the bloggers and quilters sending things made it possible for me to see Oklahoma this year and I saw my very first road runner!!!  He is so darn cute!

My favorite place to visit is Sanibel Island in Florida!  Our 10th wedding anniversary is coming up in February and we have planned a trip to the island to celebrate.  We may wait until this winter so we can spend as much time as we want to once there.  Right now it is getting time to start turning soil for this years crop!

I am a professional longarm quilter and own a website that offers supplies to crazy quilters and traditional quilters alike! I am happiest when I am in my "zone".  That "zone",  being lost in thought as I create on a quilt! I hand quilted up until 2006 when carpal tunnel had other plans for me.  So now I quilt on a longarm and still enjoy the process... but maybe not quite as much as I did hand quilting.  There is nothing in the world like that!

My granny Ida taught me to hand quilt.  We had quilting parties down home and when she and I quilted together you could not tell who quilted where on a quilt. This is my Granny Ida.  Don't let her small body fool you... she was a spirited little lady!  I am sitting here hand quilting while she looks on to make sure I do it right. lol

5 years ago I was introduced to crazy quilting!  I had never desired to learn this art but at the pushing of my friend Nicki I finally gave in and tried it!!  HOOKED!! Yep, hook, line, and sinker!!!  These are a few of the pieces I have created!

I also knit a little, have crocheted but it hurts my elbow, have sewn soft bodied dolls such as these reindeer and this doll...

and  I love to dabble in small projects when my friends and I have sew ins... like this pincushion... I made him as a gift for my friend Nicki.

And this pincushion that I made for my friend Christine..

The thing I like to do most is cuddle with my hubby on the couch in the evenings and watch The Mentalist, NCIS, and Law and Order!  Our home has many windows so it is not uncommon to watch the sun go down in the evenings to a site as beautiful as this... right off our deck!

 

 I will close with these beautiful sunsets!  And for one lucky visitor I will be giving away this heart shaped batter bowl with 2 red fingertip towels... just in time to receive them for Valentine's day so you can make your sweetie some pancakes on Valentine's morning!

No hoops to jump through and everyone is eligible to win as long as you leave me a way to contact you should you win!  Just leave me a comment to get your name in the hat!

Winner will be announced on February 1st!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Mildred's Newest Projects

My mother in law and I share the same love of quilting and crafting and I just love that!  She is always open to a trip in to town to the fabric shops.  We try to go at least once a month to the "big city". Raleigh, that is. lol

She came down this afternoon to show me what she had been working on.  This is the cutest purse!  I love that fabric.  She said that it was some she bought at our local Michael's when they first started carrying fabric.  I hope she has enough left over to make me a coin purse from it!

Didn't she do a great job!

She made several tablerunners for Christmas gifts but since my hubby and I were in Alabama for the holiday, I failed to get photos of those.  This one she has finished in time for Easter!  It is so springy looking!

I am linking Mildred up over at Sara's blog and "Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday!"

Odds and Ends From The Pig Pen!

I have been getting some photos together to do an odds and ends post on the blog and this morning is the morning!  I have been very lucky lately to be the recipient of some mighty fine surprises lately!!

First.. Take Pat Sloan... She sent me an email informing me that I had won an incredible box of her Eat Your Fruits n' Veggies Thread made by Aurifil from visiting her blog and commenting on her "A Little Fun With Aurifil Thread" post!  I could not believe it when the package arrived!!  12 of the most delicious looking spools of thread EVER!!!.. and LARGE spools to boot!!   This is an incredible gift!  Thank you Pat!!

 Have you ever visited Pat's store??  Click here and go over and take a peek at what she has to offer!!
...and while you are at it go over and visit Pat's blog! You are in for a TREAT!

I am linking this post to Pat's Show and Tell Party today! 

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Next up is a quilt that was made for a raffle to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Springfield, Missouri! My friend Lindsay hosted the raffle and raised 4,000.00 for the House in Springfield!  When the quilt was sent in I made a comment that it was the quilt that I would love to win should I be so lucky to win any of the quilts.  Well, as luck would have it, when the RMH representative reached in and pulled out the ticket, it had MY name on it!!  How lucky is that?  My friend Lois made the quilt and I love it dearly!  I will be hanging it in my studio!

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And then my friend Marie surprised me with this cute as ever pincushion when we got back home from Christmas in Bama!  Isn't that THE sweetest thing!!

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When we got home from Christmas in Bama we had a New Year's Eve get together with my hubby's 2 sisters, their families, and his mom and dad.  One of his sisters surprised me with a set of coasters she had made using photos of my grandkids!!  YEP!... she made me cry!

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I received an email from my friend Nickilee after we got home and she asked if I had received a package from her.  I had not at that time.  It was lost in Illinois for some reason???   When it finally arrived, it was WELL worth the wait!  Aren't our new piggy salt and pepper shakes just adorable!

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And in closing for today I thought I would ask... Have you seen the fun linky parties that are happening right here on Pig Tales and Quilts?

Churn Dash Quilt Along

Monthly To-Do List Linky Party

Grandmother's Flower Garden Sew Along

All 3 have just started in January and will continue month to month through 2013.  I hope to see several of you taking part over the coming year!  The more the merrier!

Loving This Gray!

After seeing so many quilts having gray fabrics in them over the past month I was so glad to finally get all of the borders on my Christmas row robin.  I posted this 2 weeks ago when I put the rows together initially but now the outer borders are on and it is time to quilt it... which I was gonna try to do last week...hmmm

I really love how that inner green polka dot border puts some sassy-ness in the quilt.

I have the backing made and it is ready to go on the frame... Might not make it this week but hopefully week after next!  Stay tuned...

I am linking up over at Lee's of Freshly Pieced and WIP Wednesday!
and
Whatever Goes Wednesday over at Someday Crafts!
and
Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday!

2013 Finish-A-Long

In 2008, I believe it was, I joined a group of quilters in a year long quilting bee where we posted things we wanted to get finished each month and marked them off of our list as we did.  I made some good progress during that year but clearly not enough because my UFO pile is still pretty big.  I haven't done much quilting over the past 4 years so the pile is still staring at me and to be honest, it has grown some.  I am hoping 2013 will be the year of my come back!  I am tired of sitting on the sidelines while everyone shows what they have finished and me wishing I had photos to share too.  Sure I have done a few things but not a lot of  "finished" things.  I am so ready to get things in a finished state and move on to new  projects!

So when Leanne of She Can Quilt posted the 2013 Finish Along I decided to join in!  I am excited to be a part of this challenge and hope that I will have a good showing of finished projects at the end of each 3 month period!  The following quilts are going to be my contribution to the 1st quarter of the 2013 Finish Along.

 

1.  This quilt is the result of a Block Robin on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum.  I have been a member there since October of 2003 and have hosted many swaps, robins and challenges.  This robin was one of the most fun robins I have hosted.  The title of my quilt is "Pigs In Boxers".  I want to get this quilted so I can hang it on my studio wall so my clients and guests can enjoy it!

2.  I made this top in 2005!! Can you believe that?  Yeah, I guess some of you can and then again some of you might be shaking your head. :)  I got the pattern from Marcia Hohns, Quilters Cache.  I need to embroidery the butterfly antennas and then quilt and bind it.  This will go to my granddaughter Emilee when it is finished.  I may add another border to it before I put it on the frame... undecided about that.

3.  I also made this top the same month that I made the above butterfly top!  I fell in love with this little man and loved making it up!  It looked hard to do but once I started, it was a piece of cake! This is one of Marcia Hohn's original patterns on Quilters Cache.  I used buttons for the eyes, bear nose stud, and ladybug buttons for his shirt.  I want to get this quilted and am torn by what I want to do with it once it is finished.  I would like to hang it in my studio but I know some child would love it! What to do, what to do!

 4.  This quilt top has been waiting to be quilted less time than the above 3  but nonetheless I would like to get it quilted.  I used fabric by designers Deb Strain and Sandy Gervais in the making of the top.  I had a Layer Cake by both designers that went so well together so I used them both!  I am going to quilt the Kokopelli design on this one.

 5.  Last but not least this quilt is the result of another round robin that I hosted on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum.  I hosted a quilting retreat for 81 of the quilters who frequent the forum in April of 2011 and we worked on these robins in the months leading up to the retreat.  I LOVE how my quilt turned out!!  This one will definitely hang in my studio when it is finished!

If you would like to read about our fabulous retreat go here. You will see photos of the round robins hanging around the ballroom! They made a perfect setting!

So, there you have it.  5 UFO's to finish in 3 months!  I can do that!  Along with a few client quilts, the blog hops that I have signed up for, and working on my online crazy quilting shop, I think I will not have idle hands!   The next quarter might not look so brave as I have 3 quilting retreats looming on the horizon. :)  Wish me luck!

I am also linking this post up to Project Inspire and "Just Something I Whipped Up".