And the winner is...

#7 - Deb! Congratulations! Please email me with your address and I'll have your little bag in the mail promptly.

Thank you to everyone who left me Birthday wishes! You guys are all so sweet!

Stay tuned.....I might just have some more giveaways in the near future. Lots of projects in the works as you can see by my right sidebar. I've got alot on my plate! Some of the projects have been on my plate for a L.O.N.G. time, but I had to list everything I could possibly think of so I don't forget them another 3 years!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Malek has his 1st birthday pictures to do, Emma's got another mini soccer camp and I've got brunch with one of my bestest friends Roxann.

Have a good one!

40

Today, February 22nd, at 1pm CST I will be 40 years old. 40. Forty. Where have the years gone? I still remember being a 7 year old, riding my cool blue Spider bike up and down the street in front of my childhood home for hours on end. Now I drive my car every day for hours on end.


Today I celebrate becoming 40, but what I should really be celebrating is that my mother brought me into this world 40 years ago. Without her and my dad, I wouldn't be here. Thank you to you both.


I saw this on someone else's blog (sorry I can't remember who) and thought it would be kindof fun to apply to myself to mark the occasion. So without further adew.....here are 40 usless bits of information about me - the 40 year old.

1 - I always lock my doors when driving because I’m paranoid of being snatched at a stop light. The instructor at driver's ed put that fear in me!
2 - I always wave at the person behind me when merging lanes in traffic. Not everyone does this – why is that?
3 - I apologize to parked cars when I bump them with my door. Sorry-Sorry-Sorry. Has to be said 3 times fast.
4 - I can pick up things with my toes and so can both of my kids.
5 - I can swim but can’t dive.
6 - I can wiggle my ears.
7 - I can't sew with shoes on.
8 - I drive a 2005 Honda Pilot that was wrecked (parked at the dr office) only 8 days after I drove it off the lot.
9 - I change my purse every 2-3 days. I love working for a handbag company!
10 - I collect thimbles.
11 - I did debt collections for a copier company for 7 years after graduating from college with my teaching degree in Home Economics.
12 - I don’t like coffee, seafood or tomatoes.
13 - I drive over 60 miles round trip to work each day.
14 - I gained 0 pounds while pregnant with my daughter, but gained 47 with my son.
15 - I H.A.T.E. being late!! Anything less than 15 minutes early is late to me.
16 - I have a tattoo of a purple heart on the inside of my left ankle.
17 - I have one brother – 3 years older.
18 - I never buy the 1st of anything on a shelf, unless it’s the only one then that voids this rule.
19 - I played 1st chair viola for 5 years when I was in grades 4 thru 8.
20 - I remember getting a beautiful red tricycle for my 4th birthday.
21 - I secretly l.o.v.e the Jonas Brothers. hehe
22 - I taught 7th grade Home Ec. (for a whole 2 months) Kids are just horrible at that age.
23 - I used to collect carpet fuzz when I was little. (details are only privy to those who REALLY know me)
24 - I used to speak French; not fluent by any means.
25 - I wear size 12 shoes.
26 - I weighed 10 lbs 10 ½ inches at birth and was 22 inches long.
27 - I’m 6’1”. Weight now…. – well we just won’t go there.
28 - I’m afraid of heights. Being tall doesn't help.
29 - I’m very anal and detail oriented. My husband says I’m a control freak. I just like things a certain way.
30 - I’m very much an introvert.
31 - I’ve been in the Empire State Building….but only in the lobby, hence point #28.
32 - I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 10. Same year I got the horrible “Dorothy Hamill” haircut.
33 - I’ve had stitches 4 times (not counting surgeries); all before age 8.
34 - I’ve never been skiing – either snow or water.
35 - I’ve never broken any bones.
36 - I’ve read all 15 of Jennifer Chiaverini’s Elm Creek Quilt books.
37 - My cell phone ring tone is Bon Jovi – It’s My Life.
38 - My favorite color is purple though I never wear it.
39 - My favorite drinks are water, tea and Dr. Pepper.
40 - My favorite foods are my Mamie’s fried potatoes, her chocolate pie and Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls.

So now that you know me a little better (hehe)....How about a giveaway?!?!

I found the link to the tutorial to make this cute little bag via The Polkadot Chair inwhich she had the actual link to the tutorial on Skip To My Lou's blog. It was my first time EVER to work successfully with zippers and with iron on vinyl. So cool. I know what everyone's getting for Christmas this year!!

So - you wanna win this cute little bag? Here's how....I'm going to make it simple today.

Leave me a comment and your entered! Easy as that!

Good luck. Drawing will close at midnight Thursday 2/25/10. Winner will be drawn on Friday Morning! Good Luck.

Happy Birthday to me!

There's a Bloggy-Birthday Giveaway Coming Up!

Stay tuned in Monday for my birthday giveaway to help commemorate my 40th birthday! Lucky me the celebration starts tonight at my house!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Love!

Just wanted to wish a Happy (belated-so sorry!) Birthday to my quilty-blog friend "Love" over at I Just Love Quilts. Her birthday was really yesterday. Go check out her blog and see what she bought for herself to celebrate! Awesome - might have to get the same for me for my birthday next Monday!

Love - I can't comment anymore on your blog because for some odd reason, everytime I do, it opens like a Z.I.L.L.I.O.N. new windows and I can't E.V.E.R. seem to get out of them all and when you comment on mine, you have a no-reply comment return email address and I can't email you back. So - email me (purpleheartorijennals@yahoo.com) with your email address so I can keep in touch with you lady!

Have a GREAT DAY and BIRTHDAY WEEK!!

Back to reality....

This is how Malek waited out the snow. Cookies and milk snuggled under the quilt Emma made him for his birthday watching tv - cooking shows I believe.

Here is one of the workshops in our backyard. When it was all said and done, I think we were around 13 inches! So much for the 1-2 inches the weather lady predicted! It was just beautiful.

Here is a shot standing in our garage looking down the street. Notice the car parked across the way......

Here it was as of Friday morning........All you can see is a tiny bit of the door panel.

I am feeling much better so thanks to you all who sent your well wishes! I did feel better and managed to work on a little baby quilt over the weekend. Not much else to do with a foot of snow on the ground! I even machine quilted it myself! I took a chance and decided it couldn't be all that hard to just quilt some straight lines. Well, it is my first attempt so don't judge me too harshly. I'll post pictures when I get the binding sewn down - hopefully in the next day or two. I was pretty impressed with myself, but I'll let you guys decide.

Until then....it's a sunny Monday here in Texas at a whopping 33 degrees!

Great Texas Weather

Day 2 home sick....but at least I have a nice view....
Good ole' Texas Weather.


Stay warm!

Mamie's String Blocks

As promised....here are a couple of pictures of the string block quilt my grandmother made. I'm guessing it was made around 20+ years ago??? Just noticed that she doesn't lay her blocks out to make any particular pattern, got to remember to show her the diamond and x pattern. Maybe she laid them out this way on purpose. Who knows. She did however, hand quilt the entire thing in a clamshell pattern. I'm pretty sure she's hand quilted all of her quilts.
Since the kids are sick and I'm knocking on the door myself, my mother took all of the supplies my grandmother requested out to her last night. Her class is tomorrow so maybe by this weekend we will all be well enough to pay her a visit and see her latest project and post more pictures next week.

Bundle up and keep on quiltin'!

Nothing good.....so far

2 sick kids = no sewing this weekend. Bummer!

But good news is that my grandmother (Mamie) has requested me to get her some supplies together because SHE (84 yrs old) is going to teach some of her fellow nursing home residents how to make string block quilts....the old fashion way..... sewing by HAND onto paper backings. I was so excited when she told me they were starting a quilting class. She's so funny. She "just couldn't believe that someone would pay $20+ for that roll of fabric strips!" She was talking about a jelly roll. I told her that it was a little pricey but was well worth it for convenience of having all the strips pre-cut and colors coordinated together.

So I'll post some pictures when she's got some blocks together. I have one of her string block quilts that I'll post pictures of sometime this week too. She likes to make them about 4-5" each and then sew them into 4 patches with sashing between each of those.

So....until then...pray the antibiotics kick in soon.

Burst of Quilting Energy!

And a big burst it was! I was up til 11 - again - finishing up some projects that have been safely tucked away on my shelves for Y.E.A.R.S! Embarrassing I know. At least the tops are done and will shortly be on their way to the quilters!
The first one was made for my mother 2 years ago for her birthday. Sorry Mom it's taken so long to finish! I used Mary Johnson's Boxed Squares Pattern. She has a great tutorial here. The brown heart fabric is actually going to be the backing. I just laid the quilt top on it to make sure I made it big enough. I got this material extremely cheap ($2/yd) at Hancocks over a year ago. Actually, all of this came from Hancocks for between $1-$3 a yard! Talk about a bargain, but is still good quality fabric.


Then....I finally got the borders on this next quilt. Back when I started this project, oh say 3 years ago......I ran into a bump when I ran out of one of the fabrics and couldn't do the checkerboard on all four sides. Therefore, I wasn't sure how to finish of the border on all sides so I set it aside.....for 3 years. Bad I know. I finally crashed through my "issue" with not having the same border on all sides and just decided that checkerboard was fine on the top and bottom and plain strips on the sides. I'm dealing and it's going to be ok. I've already put a call into my quilting therapist to talk me down off the ledge! haha I am quite pleased with the results.

This one is for my husband Zack. He and Emma have always had a very special bond and I knew that I wanted to make him a special "Daddy/Daughter" quilt using pictures of them throughout the years, or at least until she was about 6 when this quilt was supposed to be done. I bought him the cutest little book back when Emma was a little baby about Daddys raising daughters and found several little sayings that truly fit their relationship. Somehow I managed to narrowed it down to 11. I love how the grey fabric looks like olives which is HUGE love of both of theirs.

A couple of nights ago I made this special order tag raggie. Love the bright colors. It's basically 4 of the regular sized ones that I've made before. Will be making a couple more to put in the Grapevine store.

Well, that's all I've got for now! Take care!