Happy Birthday to Me!

 Today is my birthday. I don't have a problem telling how old I am and never have had a problem with telling my age. I turn 54 today. I thank God for 54 years. It all hasn't been easy, but I am thankful for the time I've had. The picture above is when I am fourteen months old. That is my oldest brother holding me up at the graveside of my granddaddy. I used to be a cutie! LOL

 This is my DH and I with our almost two month old grandson. He is such a sweetie and has stolen our hearts. He just recently turned six! It does not seem real that he has grown so fast. He is so precious to us.

 This is a picture of the two children my DH and I were blessed with. Our daughter, Jennifer, and our son, Joe. They are precious to us, too. I thank God everyday for our children. Times with them haven't always been easy, but thankful they are grown and doing great! Love you both bunches!

This is me now.  Don't know what happened to me. LOL Gained a lot of weight is one thing and got old!

This is my beautiful daughter, her DH and that great grandson in the earlier picture. This was taken the day our son  got married. Beautiful family!

 Our handsome son and beautiful daughter at his wedding. They were both mighty fine looking. :D

Here is my son marrying the love of his life. So proud of them both. She was beautiful! It was a beautiful ceremony.

As you can see from my pictures, I have been mighty blessed. I just wish my parents were here to celebrate with me, but I wouldn't have them back on this earth in the shape they were in for anything. I miss them so much! My mother has been gone since 1974, dad since 2008 and my step-mom since 2010. I couldn't ask for better parents.

I hope you all enjoy seeing some of my pictures and finding out more about me. I love my family and am so thankful to the Lord above for my many blessings. He is so good to me. Even though there are some days that I don't feel like He is there, He always is with me. He is my Rose of Sharon, my Savior.

Have a blessed day everyone, and my God richly bless you and your families.

What Have I Been Doing?

Hello! I am doing a little better this morning, but now where back up to par, but thinking positively, I will get better! :D I just wanted to update you on what I've accomplished the past few days. Actually I haven't gotten done nearly as much as I needed to, but I did get a couple of things done. I straightened up my sewing room, then messed it up again pulling out fabric to make some wallets. I bought a new pattern at Joann's on Tuesday, and worked on it for a couple of days. It turned out much larger than I expected. It is a debit/credit card holder. 

I plan to add a yo-yo and button on the outside as a little decoration. This is my first try. Next time, I will cut my binding on the bias; plus, I am not really happy with how the binding is sewn. I had a few issues with it and finally got frustrated and just sewed it on. I love the fabric. 
This was my first time to do cross hatch quilting. Even though some of the lines are farther apart than others, I think it turned out pretty good for my first time. Thanks, Linda, for teaching me how!

Below is a wallet I made for my daughter, Jennifer. She lives out of state, but loves Alabama. I made her a purse for Christmas, so she wanted a wallet to go with it. Actually, the wallet came out better than her purse. LOL I hope she likes it. I used    another pattern I had, but I made this wider and added interfacing to it where the pattern does not call for it. I also added a yo-yo and button as decoration. I am pleased with this project.



I made an orange wallet, too, but have not completely finished it to show. Hopefully that will come soon. I am heading into the sewing room when I finish this, so I hope you have an awesome day and holiday weekend. Remember the men and women who have fought for our freedom. Pray for the ones who are fighting now, and those who are working toward keeping our freedom. May God Bless you all.

WIP, Finishes and New Finds

Good Morning! How are you all? I am doing well. I had a sonogram done of my left shoulder joint yesterday to see why I am having so much pain. Well, she found a bursa sack in the front of my shoulder joint that was filled with fluid. She aspirated 5cc of fluid from it and then put in cortisone. It is sort of achy today, but so far, not too bad. She told me not to be lifting anything with it, to put ice on it, and to take it easy. I kept ice on it off and on last night, and just watched TV. So, hopefully it will be better soon. Pray that it will be, please.

I will start my quilting part with finishes. I finished my son and daughter-in-law's quilt and carried it to him yesterday when we met for lunch. They both love it. See it above.

The next thing quilt wise is the purchase of more fat quarters at Tuesday Morning in Birmingham. Here they are: My favorites are the reds and green, but I like them all.

New Fabric

My sweet sister bought me a new Fiskars Rotary Cutter that has the safety handle. I think I am really going to enjoy it. My birthday is next Tuesday, the 29th, so she told me Happy Birthday when she gave me the cutter. I had told her I was wanting one, so now I have it! Yea! Thanks, Sis!

My WIP is making wallets and maybe a couple of tote bags for my daughter to take to sell when she sets up a booth at a club her mother-in-law has joined. They are having a fundraiser for a local school in Florida, and she asked Jennifer to sell her jewelry she makes. Her dad, my DH also has gotten into making necklaces, bracelets, etc., too. They both have made some beautiful pieces and hope to recoup some of their money at the sale. Maybe they will do well and my wallets will sell and I can get more quilting money. Fingers crossed! LOL 

I have recently acquired some Accuquilt Go! Baby dies for the Go! Baby I won last summer, and I'm anxious to try them out. One of the dies is the 3 1/2" tumbler that cuts three tumblers each time. I think I may try it out today and cut out some fabric for a donation quilt. I've not sewn these, but I see a lot of them on Facebook made by other quilters. They use the 6" die, though.  I will definitely post a picture here when it is finished.

I am still contemplating in my mind what I want to do for my Christmas quilt. I was really hoping to find a snowman panel to use as the central medallion, but I haven't found what I want. I know, it isn't Christmas fabric time, but I want one! I don't want to wait until Christmas to make it. I want to work on it between other projects. So if you have any ideas, let me know! Also, working out a quilt project to use my purple fabrics I showed in one of the last posts. I think I am going to make a pinwheel and nine patch quilt. I found a pattern in one of my older quilt magazines that I want to make. 

Well, I guess I will stop this rambling for today. Maybe it won't be as long between posts before the next one. May God Bless you and yours. Pray for those who are sick in body and in mind. Pray for those who have lost loved ones recently. I've seen on Facebook that a couple of the children I have been praying for have gone on to heaven. This is so sad, but I know they are no longer in pain. Please pray for these families.

God Bless!

Happy Friday!

Hello! I am sorry I did not post yesterday, but I really didn't have anything new to say. LOL Today, DH and I went to the doctor for our blood work/check-up. We both got really good reports. Mine was made better when I realized I had lost eight pounds since the last visit. I even had jeans on! Wow! That news made me feel great! Well, emotionally that is. It was good that our blood work came back with good results. 

Yesterday, I started binding this quilt (see picture above). Our son, Joe married his love, April, on March 10th. I made this for them. Her favorite color is red. His is red and black. Their wedding colors were red and black, etc. I used Mary Johnson's pattern at http://www.maryquilts.com/ Two Rail Fence. It was really easy to make. I added a little extra to the border by putting four patches on the corners and a piano key type border in the corner that is closest to you. This is meant to be a cuddle on the couch quilt, but it could have almost been a full bed sized comforter. I will be glad to get it done, washed and given to them. I know, I'm a little late, but I had some issues with the backing and batting I originally planned to use on it, so I had to get another batting which came from my fellow blogger and quilter teacher friend, Linda. She had some black poly down batting that I purchased from her, then I went to Joann's and purchased different fabric for the backing. That fabric turned out so much prettier and easier to quilt than the original black I had started to use. I quilted this using stitch in the ditch. It is the largest quilt I have done myself so far. I was blessed to be able to purchase a Janome Horizon 7700 a few weeks ago and used it. It made such a difference from using my Wal-mart purchased Brother which is a good machine. I so love my Janome! I have never used a machine other than inexpensive ones before, and let me tell you something. It really makes a difference! I will toot Janome's horn as much as I can for it is a wonderful sewing machine.


I also much finish clipping the donation rag quilt I've made where it can be washed and dried and turned in to my quilting group, the Bama Belles. I have been so blessed to find a group like the BBs. The ladies are all a little older than me, but boy, so far they out sew/quilt me. Of course, they have all be quilting longer than I have, too. They are a great group of ladies who have welcome me into their fold without any problems. We meet twice a month and it is so good to have them to fellowship with those two days. I don't think I could have found a better group of ladies to encourage me and challenge me to be the best quilter that I can be. Their goal is to keep quilting alive and well throughout the generations. I plan to do my part, too. 


My next project will be working on some wallets, and designing my Christmas quilt. I'm still not sure what I want to do with the purple fabrics you saw in an earlier post. I have some ideas, but just haven't firmed them up, yet.


I hope you all have a blessed day and keep on sewing and quilting!


Teresa

Giveaway at Having Fun Quilting

I have another giveaway to announce! Go to  http://havingfunquilting.blogspot.com/2012/05/awkward.html?showComment=1337192823942#c4398818050733332486  and leave a comment to enter her giveaway of a gorgeous red, white, and blue wall hanging. I love the log cabin look and this wall hanging has it and much more. I am a follower of her blog, and hope you will become one, too. Have a blessed day and good luck on the giveaway!

Fave Quilts Giveaway!

Hey folks, I just entered a giveaway at www.favequilts.com for a 30 fat quarter American Tribute from Windham Fabrics patriotic fabric bundle. I sure hope I win this, but I wanted to let you know about this wonderful giveaway. Go to their website and enter to win! Good luck! Let me know if you win this great gift!



http://www.favequilts.com/master_images/Contests/American-Tribute-cp.JPG




May God Bless you!

Discoveries, Finds and Purchases

Good morning! I hope you had a restful night. I sure did. Even though I read for quite a while on a Karen Kingsbury book I've already read, I slept like a log when I did go to sleep. I wish you a blessed day today. I thank God for allowing me to wake up to see another day. 


While visiting my DD, SIL, and DGS, for the grandson's birthday, I discovered the joys of shopping at Tuesday Morning. Two of my fellow blogger friends had previously displayed their purchases from TM, I knew I had to go. I did; I fell in love! The first two pictures are of my purchases. I bought 18 fat quarters for less than $15. These are not flimsy fabrics. I know that I could buy the ones in the bottom at Wal-Mart for $10.97. I paid $3.99 at TM. What a deal! I love the colors of all of them. Just have to decide what projects I want to make with them.

What do you think? Any project idea for these fabrics you can think of?

Beautiful colors!

Beautiful oranges, greens, and teals

My mind is reeling with possible projects in which these can be used! 

I am open to all suggestions, though. I also went to a quilt shop last Friday and purchased a yo-yo maker. I had never made one before. I am so excited! This maker allows anyone to make yo-yos fast and easy! Here is a picture of my first one.

 

I can picture many ways to use this! 

I ventured into Joann's while there, too. This is fabric I purchased there. Red is my most favorite color and always has been. Purple runs a close second. I fell in love with these fabrics when my eyes first saw them. I had to have these to make me a quilt. The trouble I will have is what pattern to choose. Gorgeous, huh?

One has butterflies and the other has dragon flies. As someone with fibromyalgia, I recently learned that purple is the color for fibro. Just like pink is for breast cancer and teal is for ovarian cancer, purple is for fibromyalgia. My grandson picked out the purple batik you see in the lower right. I will definitely find something to do with that! Maybe make a yo-yo flower to put on my quilt? 

My plans for this week are to cut the lawn, then get my sewing/quilting room straightened out where I can sew! I will be finishing the binding on my DS and DIL's quilt where I can wash, dry and give it to them; finish clipping a donation rag quilt; make plans for my Christmas quilt and my purple quilt; then work on one of them. I am also going to schedule a sew-in day with my sister where we can work together on another donation quilt. I am excited about that! 

I think I have rambled on enough for now. Sew, have a fantastic day and make the best of it! Create something!

Jeremiah 29:11