I've joined a Blog Tour of Quilts, it starts Friday at 7 a.m., come back!!

And that's about all I'm going to say today. Sew I"ll "see" you on Friday, okay?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are spending the day with family and friends and thinking thankful thoughts and saying thankful prayers. Blessings to everyone!!  

Thankfull for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is beginning here for me. Two nephews are coming with their families to share Thanksgiving with my family.  One is coming from California and the other from Oklahoma, they are brothers and we haven't seen them for 5 years nor have they seen each other in that long. So we will really have a lot of catching up to do, whew, it's going to be fun. They will leave early Friday morning to drive to Lincoln, NE for the big Iowa/Nebraska game and then leave from there to go home on Sunday..we only get to see them a very short time, but we take what we get and enjoy it!!..Well, I have to close now and get ready to go to the airport, I'm really excited to see the "kids". They will all be here this afternoon.. (The postcard is a very old one out of my grandmother's postcard book)

Sew until next time, I hope you have a "Stitches" kind of day!!!

It Was a Good Bread Day!!

This is what I made this afternoon, 2 loaves of braided bread and a loaf of Focaccia...it is also the same thing that I made yesterday and it will be the same thing that I will make tomorrow.  And hopefully, that will be enough bread for my family for Thanksgiving!! It will all go into the freezer until next Thursday.  Ymmmm!!  It smells so good in my house right now, I could gnaw my arm off. I wonder why I didn't make myself a little dinner roll? but I didn't so I guess the smell will have to satisfy me tonight. Maybe I can remember to do that tomorrow!!

Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of evening..

I Have A Winner!! Drum Roll, Please!!

I have a winner for the free copy of the My Memories Scrapbook Software and it is................KAREN..  Congratulations, Karen. I will be contacting you soon with the special code that you can use to download your free copy of the My Memories software. I know you will find many ways to use this program and you will really enjoy it...Congratulations!!!!

I'm sorry "astitch" you were not entered into the drawing as I had no way to contact you and I feel bad about that. You should go into your account  and add your email or contact information so when you enter another contest, you will have a chance to win...sorry!! I hope everyone has a "Stitches" kind of day, sew until next time....Stitches

This is the Last Day to Register Here for My Memories Scrapbooking Software

 You still have until midnight (Central Time, USA) tonight to leave a commnet and get a chance to win a free copy of My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software from my blog. You can go here to find out how to get 4 chances to get in the drawing. I will be drawing Tuesday, November 15th and then I will post the winner, good luck to everyone!!!

If you don't win or want your copy today, you can use this Coupon Code STMMMS52842
to get your copy of MyMemories Suite that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!). 

We Remember Veteran's Day

Today, we remember and honor all veteran's who have fought for our country and our freedom. I want to honor my Dad today, he fought in WWII, in the Navy as a SeaBee. I am posting some pictures of him and some you might have already seen in previous posts. In the photo and fabric portrait in his uniform, he was about 28 years old and was taken before he went overseas. The small photo was taken a year or so ago. Dad is in the nursing home right now but working very hard to get his strength back so he can go back to his home. And I know that he will be home before very long.  My husband was in the Army during the Korean War as were many more relatives and friends. Without these veteran's, our country could be a very different place for us to live and enjoy our freedom. So, let us salute the men and women who have served our country, in war and in peace.

This page was made in My Memories Suite software program. You can still register for a chance to win your own copy of the MMS if you go to Monday's post and read how you can do it. You could actually have 4 chances to win, if you do each of the suggested ways to get a chance. Be sure and register to win, it's free and you could be the winner!!  Good Luck!!

More Garden Scrapbook in My Memories

Here are a couple more pages that I made in the My Memories scrapbook software. I think they really make my flowers look good!!! If you would like a chance to win a free copy of the MMS software free, you still have time, go HEREto sign up for this give away. You could actually have 4 (four) chances to win if you use all of the suggestions. 

My flowers are all gone now and these pictures make me anxious for Spring already..I better get over this as we are just now getting ready for Winter.  It could be a long one..I hope you to see that you have signed up on Monday's blog post to win a copy of MMS, it is really fun to play with...Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day!!!

My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software Give Away

I'll bet some of you had already guessed what my give away surprise was going to be, right?  I was really 'takin' back' when a week or so ago, I got an email from Liz at My Memories Suite, asking me if I would be interested in hosting a MMS give away.  Those of you who know me, know that I am not a scrapbooker, although I like photos, making things and trying to be creative. Liz offered to give my a free download so I downloaded it and began to play. Needless, to say, I'm hooked on the digital scrapbook program. It's alot of fun and you sure can waste spend a lot of time playing around with it. As with everything, there is a learning curve but it doesn't take long and you will be making fun stuff. I think it will be very good for bloggers as well as scrapbookers.  Here are a couple of pages I made for a garden scrapbook. I think they are pretty neat!  Here's how you can get a chance to win a free copy of the software for your own use.

.Simply visit their site at My Memories.com, have a look around, come back here and leave a comment about your favorite digital layout, pack or how you would use the program.  You don't have to become one of my followers to leave a comment, but I would really love it, if you would!!
Please make sure that your email address is on your post or available on your profile so that I may contact you, if you win. You can also enter for additional entries if you follow My Memories on their blog http://www.mymemoriesblog.com/ or

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593  or

Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite

Then come back here and tell me you follow them in a separate

 comment for each following for additional chances to win.    I don't have a lot of followers so your odds of winning could be pretty good.



If you don't win or want your copy today, you can use this Coupon Code STMMMS52842
to get your copy of MyMemories Suite that provides a $10 discount off the purchase of the software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value!). 
Best of luck to all of you! I'll be drawing and posting the winner on  Tuesday, November 15th

Surprise on Monday

On Monday, I will be blogging about a sponsored give away that I am going to be hosting. I hope you will come back for a chance to win something that you would have a lot of fun with. It's new to me and I'm having fun playing around with the program. See you on Monday?

Happy Halloween!!

Griselda's pretty little face!

I want to introduce you to Griselda. She's a happy little witch that I made a few years ago and I love getting her out at Halloween to join the fun.

Here she is in a full body portrait. She is such a "doll". And to the right is her favorite black cat, Coal.

Here another that I bought at a craft fair, I guess I'll call her Gourdilocks, for a lack of anything else I can think of. She is a real "gourd" girl and gets lots of candy on Trick or Treat night.

This is a little table topper I made about a week ago. I just sewed some strips together and took my triangle ruler and cut six pieces and then sewed them together. And then I put the border print on, that was the trickiest part, getting those angles all mitered and flat. I wish I would have had time to do a little tutorial on this. I also made a couple more without the border print and gave them to 2 of my sisters. The little mugrug was just a few scraps that I sewed together, waste not, want not!!

This little plate is new to me, as I picked it up at a "flea market store" along with a few other things that I will show you at a later date.  I'm still reeling from the last 4 hours that I have spent in front of this computer. Please read my last paragraph and you will understand why my afternoon has not gone as planned. I need to get in a good mood before tomorrow night to get ready for all the ghosts and goblins. The weather is supposed to be quite nice here and I will have between 175 to 200 little ones knocking on my door. Yikes, I hope I have enough candy. Hmmmm, I have enough for 200 but don't spread the word!

This afternoon hasn't been totally wasted but it's been a frustrating one for sure.  I have uploaded pictures from the camera (slowly) and then rotated some (slowly) edited and cropped (slowly), tried to make a couple of collages (slowly), tried to transfer pictures to a couple of blogs (slowly), including this one and I am (slowly) getting very tired of this. I want to make some decent collages or slide shows but so far have not found the great program that I think must be out there somewhere. I have tried Photobucket (gave up there), Smilebox (kinda okay), Slide (hmmm, don't know for sure about it), Picasa (so far the easiest for me) but I am thinking should I just buy a Photoshop Elements and hope that will do everything I want it to..I need some input from you, suggestions, information and any help you would like to offer. Please!! Sew until next time, I hope you have a nice Halloween and get lots of trick or treaters..I know I will!!

A PHD Challenge Done!

I can't even remember when I started this quilt, it's been that long ago. Years ago, I had a Secret Sister and I hand appliqued a block for her and one for me every month for a year. When it was time to reveal my Secret Sister, I used my finished quilt top for show and tell and that's how she knew I was her SS.  It layed around my house for a while long time and then I took it to a machine quilter. She and another friend talked me out of having it machine quilted and thought I should hand quilt it because of the hand applique. So I brought it home and it layed around for a long long long time again until finally one day, I decided I was going to take it again to be machine quilted. I was sick of it laying around and thought DONE is better than NOT! I had the border and sashing MQ and I hand quilted the blocks themselves. I guess it was sort of a compromise on the quilting. I entered it into Myra's PHD Challenge last year and it's late in getting finished but it is DONE and I am GLAD!!! The pattern is in an old Piecemaker's quilt book and it called "Heart's A Plenty" and it is a calendar quilt as the blocks represent the 12 months of the year. I hope you like seeing it, sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.

Jo Morton Retreat

This post is a belated report on the Jo Morton retreat that I attended on Sept. 23-25. I am really slow in getting this on here so here it goes. My friend, Betty and I left on Thursday, Sept 22, to drive to Nebraska City to join some of the gals for a get acquainted dinner. (that was nice) I think most of the time, there were about 22 gals in attendance and we gave our undivided attention to Jo, (most of the time) beginning at 8:00 o'clock on Friday morning.  She showed us how to back-baste applique on a small Rachel's Reel, we learned how to hand piece a little bow-tie block and we English paper pieced a small flower. I had not hand pieced much at all and I find that I really enjoy it.



This was everyone's Rachel's Reel's





Everyone's Spool blocks

 


My little pile of "stuff".

 

My little hexie flowers



  Salt Cellar Pincushion, a gift from Elaine P. at the retreat, nice!!



Every technique we did would be a great "pick up and take a long" project. Kathy Hall, from Andover Fabrics, joined us and worked right along beside us. Kathy talked to us one morning about Andover Fabrics and showed us some things she had been working on. Beautiful things!! Kathy was a delight and I am so glad that I got to make her acquaintance. We had lots of show and tell and got to see every ones progress on our lessons. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were served every day right at the retreat center and that was nice, no cooking and no dishes to do. After dinner, we could sew some more into the evening, if we wanted. TJ Lane came one day with her silver jewelry, thimbles and lots of accessories, they are really beautiful.  I've had one of her thimbles for several years and it's the only one i wear and guard very carefully, lest I misplace it!!  And on Sunday morning, Stephanie Grace Whitson came and gave a presentation with quilts and her new book, Home on the Plains, Quilts and the Sod House Experience.  



The Book



I love this book!!  She co-authored this book with Kathleen L. Moore..Stephanie's coming was a bonus highlight for me as I have been a fan of her novels for many years. She has written many books and I love reading her stories. They are very inspirational books and I recommend you read one of her books, I'm sure you will love them.  All in all, the whole retreat was a great experience and we met many wonderful people, we had a good great time and hope to go again sometime. Jo is a very easy going, low key teacher but gets the lesson across to everyone and is most willing to help, if you need it. Can you tell, I really enjoyed the retreat?




Stephanie's Botch Handle quilt

 

Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.

Souxland Sampler's Quilt Show 2011

I went to the Siouxland Sampler's Quilt Show on September 17, in Sioux City, IA and took a "few" pictures. Here they are if you want to look at some of their great quilts.

Slideshow design created with Smilebox

Isn't fall all about tons of quilt shows in your area?? I've been to several and there are more to go to. I guess us quilter's never get tired of looking at quilts, the workmanship, patterns and colors that other quilter's pick out. It's a great time!! Enjoy the pic's, sew until next time, have a 'Stitches' kind of day!!

Cottonwood Guild Meeting and Kathy Kansier

Back on September 20th, I went to the Cottonwood quilt guild meeting and enjoyed the program by Kathy Kansier from Ozark, Missouri. She was a very delightful person and had a wonderful sense of humor and many wonderful quilts to show us. Her program was entitled "Quilts with Great Edges". Most of them were antique quilts, mostly hand quilted and some hand pieced. Very pretty and I loved the old soft feel of them. Here are a few pictures of her quilts. I love this fan quilt and the border, it was so neat.

Another fan quilt, another edge treatment.

And yet another Fan quilt.                                                                                                                                                                             If you look closely at this pink and white border, the "scallops" are hearts.

Large scallops

This was a nice quilt but the prairie points were large and floppy. There are spider webs quilted between the blocks and I think the flowers are Daffodils.

This looks like a difficult border treatment to do.

This is a large Yo-Yo quilt but what was so unusual about it? It was completely appliqued onto a background fabric..It was really gorgeous!!  I have more to tell you about that trip, we found some bargain's at an "Outlet Store" or I like to call it a Flea Market. I hope to be back soon, I've so much more to tell..Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day..

I'll Try to Catch Up Soon!

The last couple of weeks have been on the busy side for me. I have been to the Siouxland Quilt Show, 2 guild meetings and the Jo Morton Retreat in Nebraska and tomorrow I'm going to the AQS show in Des Moines.  The above picture is a quilt made by Katy from the Piecemaker's quilt guild, I think it is so cute!! Lucky little nephew!  I hope to get some posting done on all of these, maybe even today so stay tuned..Sew in the mean time, have a "Stitches" kind of day..see ya soon

9/11 Not Forgotten

I watched most of the specials on TV on 9/11 and thought they were done with reverence. The new memorial looks wonderful and something we can be proud of for years to come and I hope that it will bring peace to the memories of all who were lost. I made a wall-hanging for my son in the month after 9/11 and want to show it to you now. My son is an Omaha Firefighter and I just knew when I saw this free pattern on the internet that I had to make it for him. It still hangs in their living room today, it's getting a little faded around the edges but still instills patriotism in those who see it. I hope you like it.  Sew until next time, have a "Stitches" kind of day.