Pay It Forward (PIF)

Hi There!

I was just visiting Rosa's World...And she is doing a Pay It Forward.

You all remember the movie "Pay It Forward", right? Where someone did an act of kindness, for no certain reason, for someone else, and all that was expected was that the recipient would do an act of kindness for someone else. Well that is what this PIF is based on :) I believe another quilter friend, Frummie, actually started this.

Anyway, here is how it works:

I, like Rosa and Frummie, like to give things to people just because...No Special reason, just because!!! It's just plain FUN to do that :)

So, I will send something homemade to the first 3 people who leave a comment on this post. Don't know what I will make yet, but I've got some ideas dancing around in my head. In return those 3 people will, hopefully, do the same thing for 3 others :) Pay It Forward!

Sounds like fun, don't you think? And besides fun, it's just a NICE thing to do :) Imagine what could happen, if everyone would just do 3 little Acts of Kindness, and those 3 recipients did 3 more, and those did 3 more...

Have a Wonderful Day

Terry

Civil War Block Swap

The past week I have been working on the blocks for 2 different upcoming swaps :) I have had a wonderful time working on them, it was a welcome break from the garden, canning, and freezing that was consuming all my time.

This set of blocks are for a signature block swap over on the Civil War Diary/Love Letters group. All blocks were to be made from Civil War repro fabric. We could choose any block or blocks we wanted to make. Well these were my choices. I have a total of 50 blocks made...now I just need to sign them!

Christmas Quilt Block Swap :)

These sets of blocks are for a Christmas Block swap over at Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Group. The white set is not for the swap, they will be my four corner blocks. The other three sets are for the swap :) Each set contains 5 to swap and of course 1 for me to keep! I might just have time to make a few more sets for the swap, before the mailing deadline :)

Yep, I joined another quilt group...imagine that!!!! LOL

Quote for the Day...

It's been a busy last week and weekend, lots of sewing done, which I will write about later :) But, I just read this quote and couldn't leave it off my blog!!! Read it and then think about it (LOL)

"Every time you give someone a little piece of your mind,

you make your head a little emptier"

Rosa's Give Away!!!!!

Okay, a dear friend of mine, Rosa, is having a Give Away!!!!
You can get to her blog from my blog list (Rosa's World).
Her Give Away is in celebration of her 250th Post :) Check it out.
Now I get 2 chances at her Give Away, because I mentioned her Give Away on my blog :)

My Wildflower Garden

This was the first year that I have tried my hand at a wildflower garden. My dear granddaughter helped with this project. I think we will be doing this again:) We will just have to do a better job at keeping the weed population down!

This was also the first year that I have had bouquets of fresh flowers, from my own garden. Loving It!!!!

The flower garden may just have to be expanded next year.

The Lillies have so many colors on them, purple, yellow, orange, blue. But NO leaves, unbelievable, I think they are sooo very pretty! Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will be able to see more of the color :)

The Bounty of Our Garden

Well this is what my garden looked like in late July. A very hearty garden it became, and it blessed us with an abundant harvest. This is why I have not had time to quilt, card-make or blog. I have been canning and freezing...and canning and freezing.

I was able to put up enough corn (frozen, canned, and frozen on the cob) to last us a year. Plus several bags of okra, 16 jars of corn relish, many bags of bell peppers, 26 jars of salsa, 8 jars of freezer pickles (so far) and zucchini...zucchini chunked, zucchini sliced, and zucchini in pulp form for bread. We still have pumpkins, watermelon, and cantaloupe growing.

We ate the green beans, turnips, and potatoes as they became ready. And of course tomatoes and cucumbers have been served daily!

The garden has slowed down, so we are now enjoying just eating from it daily.

But, I do have a basket full of peaches waiting for my attention, and then I will have a break...until the apples are ready in September, ummm, ummm, there's nothing like homemade applesauce :)

August Blocks of the Month

August has been soooo busy, but I have managed to get my BOMs done :)

My first one is the cat in the basket. This block is for the Basket Case Quilters group....I know why the name "Basket Case Quilters", if you aren't a basket when you join, you soon will be, some of these blocks are quite a challenge, at least they are for me!!!!

Next is the block for the 2009 BOM. And then there is the 2005 BOM, love the picnic theme for this one.

My First Quilts

Well, I have noticed that a lot of quilters have been reminiscing about their first quilts...so I thought I would dig out pictures of mine and share too. WOW, this is going back in time a bit. This Sampler Quilt was my very first quilt. I took a quilting class in 1986 and this is the quilt I made during that class. The whole quilt top was done by hand. I also quilted it by hand, but the binding was put on with the machine. At this point I really enjoyed piecing the blocks,but I had no love for the quilting part.






I took a break until 1988, then I made this 8-Point Star quilt for my husband for Christmas. Once again the pieced blocks were done by hand, as well as the quilting, but the binding was added by machine.
At this time I began to enjoy to do the hand quilting almost as much as the block piecing:) I finally got my fingers to cooperate with my brain, so that they quilted together :) My alternate blocks had a huge feather quilted in them.






Life got really busy with my 4 oldest kids being involved in every sport imaginable during high school, adoption of our two youngest children, and then came weddings, etc. Anyway my next quilt wasn't made until 1996 for my Mother-in-law for Christmas. I chose the Flying Geese pattern, swore I would never do that pattern again. Such small little blocks, way too time consuming, were my thoughs then... (ROTFL) and now I do Dear Jane blocks!!! How funny is that?



So there are my first three quilts. I must admit back in 1986, I never thought I would ever become addicted to quilting. And never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought I would be doing little, tiny blocks like the Dear Jane blocks. And no way back then would anyone have convinced me that I would ever applique!!! My how we change :) Too Funny.

July's Secret Pal Gift

My Oh So Wonderful Secret Pal sent me this beautiful quilt block, with more to come she said :) I can't wait. I think I will have a project to put together after Christmas...how exciting!!! She also sent me the lovely pottery cross and that so very cute card. She is just soooo good to me :)

I Can't Believe It Happened....

My worst nightmare has come true, my computer crashed!!!! Dead, Blank, KaPut, Hard Drive Fried!!!! I turn my computer on last Friday...and nothing, absolutely NOTHING!!!!!

It kept trying to load, But nothing, no Windows page, no pretty pictures, no nothing. Now I'm no computer guru, but I know enough to know that this is BAD :(

So I'm at a complete and total loss. What will I do??? No computer...OMG no email!!! Even worse - No QUILT GROUPS - AHHHHH, I'm not going to make it, and neither is this dumb computer *grin*

This is what I wanted to do to my computer, but I used self control and instead called my dear brother-in-law who took the computer home with him, zeroed it out and got it and me back up and running again :)

Now a HUGE, HUGE "Thank You" not only to him, but also to my dear friend Rosa who, every month reminds everyone on the Dear Jane group to back everything up. So I didn't loose too much stuff :) I just need to retrieve a few email addy's and I'll be all better (LOL)

And, by the way, my external hard drive is on it's way!!!! Lesson learned. VBG

July 10 - Thought For The Day

Planning your work is important,

but doing it is better!!!

July 9 - Thought For The Day

Oops I forgot to post yesterday, so today is a 2 for 1 day :)

Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change...

and when we are right, make us easy to live with.

Live each day as if it were your last - someday you'll be right.

July 7 - Thought For The Day

Age is a question of mind over matter...

If you don't mind,

It doesn't matter.

July 6 - Thought For The Day

Good character

-like soup-

is usually homemade.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Col. 3:23

Two More July BOMs

These are today's accomplishments. They are for the 2005 and 2009 Block of the Month's I'm working on. Finally all caught up :)

Basket Case BOMs

Since yesterday was a complete "wash out" of a day, (no cook outs, no swimming, no fireworks) it rained the whole day and most of the night...I decided to catch up on my Basket Case quilt blocks. Broke my heart to have to spend my day sewing, NOT!!!!! (I think I'll be doing the same today.) Here are my May, June, and July blocks. I was running just a "little" behind. May's Cherry Basket is my personal favorite :)

July 5 - Thought For The Day

Other things may change us,

but we start and end with family.

July 4th

HAPPY 4th Of JULY

The last four letters in American spell "I Can".

"Thank You" to all those, in all branches of the Armed Services, who serve this wonderful country with pride and determination. God Bless you all. Because of you I Can celebrate this holiday. Because of you I Can sleep in safety. Because of you I Can attend the church I choose. Because of you I Can work where I choose. Because of you I Can express my opinions. Because of you I Can enjoy all my freedoms.

A special "Thank you" and prayer for my nephew who is serving in Irag. I love you.

A Proud Army Aunt

July 3 - Thought For The Day

If you can't have the best of everything,
make the best of everything you have.