Pieces From My Heart: September 2012

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Facebook and Winners

Big news - Pieces From My Heart now has a Facebook page! Yep we are finally up to speed with the rest of the world.

"Like" us here to keep up with the weekly happenings at Pieces From My Heart.

And now onto the reason you really stopped by this blog today...winners.

I usually have random.org generate numbers to be my winners.

However, because there were some interesting stories that I wanted to share with you, I decided I would hand pick the winners. Here are the winners - all with an interesting story.

And the winners are:

Fourth place winner is a Karen O. who has ties to Cheetos. She works for the company that makes the cheese coating. Very important job, as without the cheese coating there really would not be a Cheeto.

Karen will win an Everlastings Charm Pack™, a Candy Pack, a bag of caramel corn from The Chocolate Season and a bag of Cheetos.

Karen O said...

I can't figure out why I am only the 4th comment!

Although this isn't directly about my hometown,

I do work for the company that makes the cheese coating for Cheetos. :)

September 9, 2012 12:50 AM

The third place winner is Giddy 99. Giddy 99 obviously is a very creative person. She has come up with a solution for the orange finger problem which many of you complained about. Very good idea although I don't know if I could resist licking my finger and jamming my hand into the far corners of the empty bag to mop up all of the yummy little cheesy crumbs.

Giddy 99 will win an Everlastings Jelly Roll™, a Candy Pack, a bag of Porker Valley Toffee from The Chocolate Season (toffee with bacon), a bag of Cheetos and a pair of chop sticks.

giddy99 said...

I DO like Cheetos! But I despise the "cheese dust orange fingers" and so I eat Cheetos with chopsticks.

My husband laughs, but I don't have those freaky orange fingers, either. :)

And if I'm EVER near there, I'm going to see that Big Cheeto. That's right up my alley. :)

September 11, 2012 11:21 AM

The second place winner is Deborah. Visiting all 50 states is on her Bucket List. She has a trip to Iowa planned for later this month. Certainly a visit to Algona to see the Big Cheeto will be a must stop.

Deborah will win an Everlastings Layer Cake™, a Candy Pack, a bag of Seasoned Pretzels from The Perky Parrot and a bag of Cheetos.

Deborah said...

I love Cheetos, I just munched on a few as I drove 2 1/2 hours this evening from a visit with my parents. I'm also excited that later this month I am making my first visit to Iowa (not sure where we are going) as I am working on one of my bucket list items (visit all 50 states) and Iowa and a few surrounding states are on my "need to visit" list. Your pillow pattern is darling, can't wait to make one.

September 9, 2012 8:54 PM

Our first place winner is Julie in WA.

I choose Julie because Julie grew up in Edgerton Minnesota, just an hour and fifteen minutes from my home town of Jackson. I was only 6 years old at the time but I can remember Edgerton's big deal event. Edgerton is known as "The Little Town That Could" or maybe I should say "the little TEAM that could", as it was the Edgerton basketball team that put Edgerton on the map - literally. In 1960, before schools were divided into classes according to size - 1A, 2A, 3A, all schools competed on the same level no matter their size. So in 1960 when Edgerton Minnesota (pop. 961) beat Austin Minnesota (pop. 27,908) to become the Minnesota State Basketball champs, it was a VERY big deal. In 1960 if you were from Minnesota, you knew about the Edgerton basketball team and you were rooting for them to win… except the 27,908 people from Austin. Go here to read all about it and watch a video about "The Little Team That Could". It is one of those feel good stories.

And Julie has even been to the Grotto - also known as the eighth wonder of the world.

Thanks for the memories Julie!

Julie will win an Everlastings fat quarter pack, a Candy pack, an Emerald's Restaurant (home of the Big Cheeto) gift certificate and a bag of Cheetos.

Julie in WA said...

Gasp! I've been to the Grotto...it is amazing! Right now I live in the SEattle WA area, but I, too, was born and raised in Minnesota, in Edgerton to the west of Jackson. I don't know that anyone famous ever really came from Edgerton, but legend has it that our little town was not on the map until the boys won State Basketball back in 1960.

September 9, 2012 6:12 PM

This has been such a fun blog hop. I hope many of you can come to my little town of Algona to see the Big Cheeto. Please keep in mind that the Cheeto can only been seen when Emerald's Restaurant is open. Their hours are - Lunch: Tues.-Fri. 11:00 - 1:30 and Dinner: Tues. - Sat. 5:00 to close. They are closed on Sunday and Monday.

Thanks so much to everyone who followed the blog hop and took the time to leave a comment. I learned so many interesting little tidbits about your various communities.

Winners please email me your addresses so I can send out your prizes.

Remember to "Like" us on Facebook.

Happy Cheeto munching.

From My Heart,

Sandy

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Sew Sweet Moda Blog Hop Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 of the Sew Sweet Moda Blog Hop.

Today you will travel to Iowa, then on to New Jersey and South Carolina to visit Lauren and Jesse Jung, and finish up in California to visit Joanna of Fig Tree.

As you probably have already figured out, this blog hop is about our home town. Bruce and I are both originally from Minnesota. He a city boy from Jackson and me a farm girl, raised on a farm south of Jackson. A job brought Bruce to Algona, Iowa in 1971.

I moved here in 1973 after we were married.

We have lived here all of our married life.

Algona was founded in 1854 by two brothers, Ambrose and Asa Call, who named the city after the native word for "Algonquin waters".

Population: 5,560.

I won't bore you with any more history - if you need to know more - Google it.

We were asked the question does anyone famous live in your town?

Algona's claim to fame does not reside in a person but in a thing.

The world's largest Cheeto resides in Algona Iowa.

Yep that’s right I said Cheeto. Weighing in at 1/6 of and ounce and the size of a small lemon.

How did we come to have the largest Cheeto.

Long story short:

A navy petty officer, Mike Evens, based in Pearl Harbor bought a bag of Cheetos for his 3 year old son.

This Cheeto (or as I see it - a blob that looked more like a chicken McNugget.)-was found in the bag.

He decided to auction the Cheeto on Ebay.

Bryce Wilson our radio station disc jockey at the time headed up a campaign to buy the Cheeto and bring it to Algona. He was able to bid $180.00 with the plan to enshrine the Cheeto and put in on display as a tourist attraction.

However Ebay cancelled the auction as prices reached millions of dollars.

Evans liked what Algona wanted to do with the Cheeto.

He said they could have the Cheeto if we donated the $180.00 along with a $1000.00 donation from Frito-Lay to a food bank. We did so.

The Cheeto arrived by mail on March 10th. 2003.

It was shellacked and placed on a velvet cushion encased in Plexiglas.

David Letterman wanted to do a show featuring the Cheeto but Algona had to turn him down as they had already struck a deal with Jimmy Kimmel.

The Cheeto is on display at Emerald's Restaurant at 1515 N. McCoy Street in Algona. And like many of us know… with age comes shrinkage - I think it is now smaller than a small lemon.

And that is how the Big Cheeto came to Algona.

When you come to see the Cheeto - because I know you are all booking your flights now - be sure to take time to have lunch or dinner at Emerald's Restaurant. It is owned and operated by Chad and Molly Berte and the food is WONDERFUL! Tell them Sandy sent you. (FYI they do not serve anything with Cheeto as an ingredient!)

Now onto what this blog is really all about.

Moda's new pre-cut call Candy. Forty-two little 2 1/2" squares of sweetness.

Each designer was asked to make a project using the candy squares. We then did a show and tell with these projects at the Moda School house at Spring Quilt Market. Well some of us did. The day of school house I woke up with one of my migraine headaches. I have pills, but it usually take me a good 8 hour sleep after taking the pills before I am feeling "normal". So I tried to fight it off with extra strength Tylenol. That did not work so at 12:00 I gave in and took one of my miracle pills. School house was at 4:00. My headache was gone but needless to say I was still "loopy".

As we were all heading up to school house it dawned on me I needed to take some of my new quilts to show along with my candy project. I set my candy project down to pick up some quilts… yep you guessed it… and walked away without my candy project. For me school house was a blur.

You know the warning on the pill bottle...do not operated heavy equipment after taking these pills. They need to add or do a Moda School House!

This is the little pillow that no one has seen until now.

It is made with a my line Everlastings.

You can download the instructions here.

And there is more FREE to be had.

Leave a comment - anything - who is famous in your town, what is famous in your town, do you like Cheetos, do you not like Cheetos, and you could win one of these four Everlasting pre-cuts. Each of the 4 winners will also win a bag of Cheetos along with some other "Algona Goodies". We will announce the winners on Sept. 15.

Make sure you stop by to visit Joanna, Lauren and Jesse today too.

Good luck to all. I'm glad that you stopped by to learn a little bit about Algona.

I hope you will come to visit Algona sometime.

Beside the Cheeto we have:

Two quilt shops - Seams to Me and Heartland Quilt Shop. And many in the surrounding area.

The Chocolate Season. Yummy!

The Perky Parrot. Coffee shop by day martini bar by night.

The Pet Kingdom. Everything your pet could possibly want.

Three antique shops. Home Store Antique, The Vintage Shoppe and the Vintage Shoppe Too.

Phoenix. A gift shop with a lot of repurposed items.

The Market. Another great gift shop.

POW Museum.