Time For A Face Lift!

In January I will have had this blog for 2 years and I feel it is time for a face lift! (I have actually been blogging longer than this but I lost my first blog due to a meltdown or something)

I would love to draw a larger audience so I am in the process of setting up some exciting things that will start happening in January of 2011!  I will kick the new face lift off on New Years Day! No better day for a celebration!  I am excited about the prospects of things I will be able to bring to my followers and to blogland as a whole!

I have already started a new feature to my blog over on the sidebar.  The TOP 30 Commentators area is where you will see the top 30 bloggers who are posting to my blog! On the first day of each month whomever's name is in that first position will win a squishie!  This is something that will go on for as long as I run this blog! I just ask that you leave interesting, thoughtful and inspiring replies to my posts. :)

If you look above, you will also see a fresh new banner made special for the blog face lift! The photos are of our home during summer, fall and winter!  My quilt shop is actually located inside my home so I wanted to show you where I work and where I fill your orders as you buy from my online shop: Cover Your Little Piggies Quilting Studio and Gift Shop!

So come on and follow along...you don't want to miss what I have in store for you!

Mini Quilt Swap

I joined a mini quilt swap with some awesome ladies on the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum.  Holee is our swap hostess and has the photos of the quilts that have been delivered so far on her blog.  She will continue updating the photos until they are all delivered.  Go on over there and check out what each person made for the other.

I was partnered with my friend Donna.  I received the mini quilt she made for me in todays mail!  We were able to say one thing we liked and I told her I had a mini quilt from a previous swap that had pumpkins on it so it would be nice to have maybe pumpkins on it so I could hang them together.

I LOVE the quilt she made for me! The design is just perfect!!

Fall At Our House!

Hubby purchased his grandfather's farm several years ago and when we decided to build a house, we tore down the old house and built ours on the same spot.  We would have loved to remodel the old house but it was too far gone.  2 of the bedrooms shared a corner fireplace which was awesome so it was a shame to have to destroy the house.

When you build on old family property sometimes you are gifted with a scene like this.  Our house is only 6 years old but we have old maple and oak trees that surround it!  Hubby's grandmother planted all of these trees and there was no way we would watch them cut down.  The contractor had to take down 2 trees in the back because our house was a little bigger than the old house but that is all we sacrificed!  We wanted to build an even larger house but the trees in the front would have had to go so we said NO!

But look what we are gifted every fall season since we kept all of the trees!  Isn't it beautiful!

Deb Strain & Sandy Gervais In Harmony Together

I quilted for a customer about a month ago and the quilt she brought in was so simple and sweet that I had to go upstairs and cut out my own!  She had done hers in batiks but I had some awesome fabrics, actually 2 Layer Cakes, that I wanted to use in mine!  I am being drawn to the fallish colored quilts more and more!  My customers quilt was a small lap throw but mine ended up being a California full size.

The pattern was easy to decipher and I know I cut my rectangles larger and longer than she did but I did not want to waste any of my layer cake fabric so I trimmed all 4 edges of the pinked edging and divided the width by 3 and cut accordingly.  I love the way it looks!

I used the Saltbox Harvest Layer Cake by Deb Strain and the Awesome Layer Cake by Sandy Gervais that I purchased from Wish Upon A Quilt in Raleigh, NC!  Both of these fabric designers used shades of orange, brown, cranberry, black, yellow, green and white that looked wonderful when mixed together in the same quilt!

I quilted the lap throw using the Koko pantograph by Jodi beamish that I purchased from Columbia River Quilting Supply and will quilt mine with the same design!  It looked really nice on this type of pattern.  The Kokopelli characters fell right into the rails of the blocks so you could see them really well!  And it is a fun pattern to run to boot!

I have a few things to clear out of the studio before I can quilt mine but I will be itching to quilt this so I hope it isn't too long!

Apple Pie Goodie

Kim, over at Bitty Bits & Pieces made a delicious apple dessert this week and I tried it on hubby today!  You HAVE to visit her blog to get the recipe and try one for yourself!!  It is fantabulous!!!

Don't forget the Bryer's vanilla bean ice cream!!

Vintage Tuesday

Well, I am dating myself this morning... Although I would not consider myself vintage, I am going to show you a piece of my clothing that I wore when I was 16.

I host another blog called The Bakers Dozen and every 6 weeks we make a project with a designated theme in mind.  The symbol for this particular time period was Symbol and someone showed a pair of blue jeans they had painted up with lots of designs that symbolized things in their life.

The photo of those jeans brought back memories of when I was a teenager and tye-dying t-shirts and painting the words "Flower Power" and "Fight Fat" on them. WoW!  How long has that been and what fun we had!

So this morning for Vintage Tuesday I give you my blue jean shirt which I painted and embroidered on and wore to school every chance I got!

How many of you remember the movie "Smokey and the Bandit"?  I also remember all of the guys having CB's in their cars and when we would ride around on the weekends talking to our friends on them.  We had so much fun!!

My nickname in high school was Fred so it had to go on my shirt too!

I love the spelling of my name.  My dad was the one who gave it the spelling and I have had many compliments on it all of my life.

Blue Ridge Parkway Trip

to the mountains....

Hubby and I took a day trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday.  I took a few photos so you could enjoy the drive as well...  Along the way we passed a farm that had some unusual trees in the distance..We think this is cudzo growing up the trees... One thing I know for sure is it looks like something out of Stonehenge.  Mother Nature at her finest!

After a 3 hour drive... with a stop off at the Sonic Drive-In, we arrived at the entrance to the Parkway..

Now, sit back and enjoy the beauty.....

They don't call them the "Blue Ridge Mountains" for nothing... look at that beautiful blue shadow atop the mountains!

This building was sitting along the edge of the parkway.. I had to snap a photo of it..I had brought along a quilt top done in fall colors to photograph somewhere along the way and this was the perfect spot!  Alas, I opened the back door to the truck and realized I left it at home!! arrghh

We had to make a stop at the Parkway Craft Center located at Moses Cone!  This was my first visit here and we were so glad that we found it!

These views are from the veranda of the Craft Center...

 Someone was eloping and the family wasn't invited.. What do you get when you have 1 pastor/photographer, 1 groom, 1 bride, 1 ring bearer, and 1 flower girl?  A romantic wedding in the mountains! I could not resist the photo!

On our way home we stopped off at a road side produce market. They had decorated for the fall/Halloween season so I grabbed a few shots.

 We left the produce stand with an ice cream cone in hand..me with chocolate almond and hubby with his all time favorite, peach...10 miles down the road we stopped for a steak!  Who says you can't have dessert first!  After we ate, we settled into the truck for the rest of our journey home.

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight... Wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight... (Please let us get home safely)

Our guardian angel... "the man in the moon".. he followed us all the way home. :)

I hope you enjoyed your trip to the mountians!  I told hubby that I wish we could have been in a stretch limo with the sunroof so I could have stood up to make photos while we traveled along the Parkway.  I missed so many awesome shots because traffic was so heavy at times!  We were about a week late getting the best of photos.  A lot of the leaves had already fallen but it was still a beautiful day!

Did You Think I Forgot?

I didn't forget about drawing for the winner of my 100th Follower celebration Giveaway... I have just been super busy today.. I had 47 total entries so I used a random number generator to select my winner!  The number it came up with will be linked to that number reply...

I put the number of entries into the random number generator and #12 was selected!

So! Jen!!  You are the lucky winner of my giveaway!  I am happy to send you a surprise squishie to NV!  I will be sending you an email shortly so you can reply back with your mailing info...



#12 - Random number generated Oct 22 2010 at 21:7:27 by www.psychicscience.org
Free educational resources for parapsychology, psychical research & mind magic.

This lace table topper will be heading your way soon!  And I saw your Christmas Mystery BOM pieces on your blog so I figure you will love this!And you know how Santa is...there has to be surprises too!

Poodle by Jennifer Paganelli

I received a package in the mail today with these beautiful fabrics inside!  Fabric designer, Jennifer Paganelli of SisBoom, sent them for me to use in my next baby quilt!

I have designed a quilt in EQ7 and will be using these fabrics from her Poodle Collection to create the quilt.

Stay tuned!

Quilts For Kids!

Today, Marie and I made a visit to the Masonic Home For Children in Oxford, NC!  We were escorted to 2 cottages where we found 4 little boys and 3 little girls, who were unsuspecting that they were about to receive a quilt!  It was such a surprise!

We can't show the photos of their faces, but trust me, their smiles lit up the room!

The ladies of the HGTV Quilting and Needlework Forum work right beside me and Marie to help make these presentations possible! Thank you so much ladies!

Wrap Them In Love had also sent some quilts which helped in todays presentation and one quilter from Vance Quilts R Us donated one of the quilts!

Another Quilt In The House!

Patty sent this quilt in for my birthday wish! It is so pretty!!

And if you missed the very first 2 that came in, you can see them here.... I have 4 in now with 16 or  more promised. :)

Quilts Are Coming In The Door!

Remember my Birthday Wish?

Well my friend Teresa sent me her quilt this week and it arrived today!!  I also have news that 2 more are in the mail as well!  I can't wait to see all of the quilts being made that will be presented to the children at the Central Childrens Home here in Oxford, NC!  I have had some sneek peeks at some of them and they are awesome!!

I want to say a great big THANK YOU to everyone who is helping with this project!!  I have 20 of the 50 quilt makers signed on!  I may not reach 50 but know this, each and every quilt that comes through this door will be greatly appreciated by me and SUPER LOVED by a special child!!

Would you like to help with this project?  Sign on and I will send you my mailing address!  Just visit the link above for the particulars. :)

Thank you Teresa for a beautiful quilt!

Vintage Tuesday

I found this yo-yo quilt in an antique shop about 15 years ago.  From the looks of the fabrics I would say that the yo-yo's are made from clothing that the maker wore and possibly other members of her family too. It is expertly made and has no tears or rips that I can see. I have handwashed it twice and it is due another washing but the older it gets, I get scared to do much to it.  What would you do?

The glassware sitting on the quilt was given to me by my Aunt Lurlie.  I used to help her a little in the summer with her housework and she would pay me with pieces of this glass.

She got them from inside boxes of oats.  I am not sure if it was Quaker Oats or not though.  I had 2 more pieces but they have gotten broken over the years.  Do any of you have pieces of glassware from boxes of oats?

Fall Into Fall Giveaway Winners!!

 4 boxes left my local post office today.. They are enroute to: Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, and Florida USA!!

DOUBLE DRUM ROLL!! I went upstairs this morning to prepare the 3 boxes to go mail.. I found out that there were 8 shelf sitters in that box so I couldn't let them stay behind!! So, I chose a 4th winner for the giveaway!!  Micki from Donegal, ireland is also a lucky winner from this giveaway!  I have sent you an email..Please reply with your mailing info! :)


DRUM ROLL!!!!!!! -  I am giving away 3 (YES 3 !!) squishies instead of only one!!  YES!! I am giving away 3 prizes!!  I am in an awfully good mood today so without further adieu............

The winners of my Fall Into Fall Giveaway are:

# 70..... Janet --- DELIVERED! :)
# 177.... Carin ---  DELIVERED! :)
# 110... katie (ktyoung)  -- DELIVERED! :)
Micki -- DELIVERED! :)

Congratulations to all 3 of you!!  I will send you an email and you reply back to me with your name and mailing address!

I will be going to the post office on Monday. I hope you all like your goodies.

Janet will receive the gift shown in my giveaway post as her name was selected first.  The other 2 packages will be filled with things just as nice though.

Squirrel Watching

I sit in the four season porch most mornings to eat my breakfast so I can watch the squirrels busy at work storing up their nuts for the winter.  I usually forget my camera but this morning I had it ready.  To my delight this morning I actually caught him burying his nuts around the trees and in various spots in the yard!  That was so cool to watch!

We miss so much of mother's nature beauty when we don't sit still long enough to catch these little moments. :)

up the tree we go..

 down the tree we come..

he has his nut...

Hard at work burying it...

I could sit and watch this all morning! Over and over again he went up in that tree...No wonder we have so many volunteer trees in our yard. :)

Sorry about the glare on the last 2 photos..