Blog Hop Flickr Winner

Since I am late posting this, you all probably know the winner of our Blog Hop Project contest. The winner is bro3ther, and I might add even though randomly chosen, a very deserving winner. This person made every single project!! I am very impressed. Many thanks to all of you who loaded pictures of your projects, they are all wonderful and inspiring. If you haven't checked out the Flickr site, please do. It is fun to see the different color options that make each of the projects unique.

Since the blog hop I have been very busy trying to catch up with things that were put aside. I had no idea how time consuming a 12 day blog hop would be. I decided before I do another blog hop I must organize my pictures. They are in boxes - in no particular order. :(
I am now looking forward to Christmas decorating. I will try and blog about it along the way.

But before we move on to Christmas, just a little bit about our Thanksgiving.
This year my side of the family gathered at our house for Thanksgiving.
There were 15 of us.
The oldest being 81 and the youngest just turned 1 on the 20th.

Great Grandpa Fisher and Beckham.
Grandpa and Beckham were having a race to see who would walk first.
(Grandpa broke his leg in August picking apples.)
Beckham won! He took 7 steps on Sunday.
We are hoping that Grandpa will be able to walk soon.

The bone is healing very slowly.

For our Thanksgivings everyone brings something so I only had to do the fresh vegetable tray, turkey, dressing and potatoes.

I documented the meal in progress. - Well sort of

Anthony and Deb preparing the vegetable tray.



Bruce and Abby peeling 10 pounds of potatoes.



Deb mixing the butter, sour cream and cream cheese into the potatoes.
Get the defibrillator ready!

Deb making her Martha Stewart apple/cranberry pie.
Yummy!

Here is the end of my pictures.

I made the sweet and sage dressings, prepared the turkey, set the table and generally whipped the house into shape. (no pictures - hard to take a picture of yourself)

I was going to take a picture of the turkey fresh out of the oven - but by that time I was totally flustered and forgot.

But it looked like this - well sort of.

Great things about Thanksgiving:
You don't have to freeze your little behind off decorating.
You don't have to buy presents.
My favorite food - potatoes and gravy are always served.
It is okay to wear your fat jeans and eat until you bust.

Thanksgiving is a wrap and I am off to decorate for Christmas.

From my heart,

Sandy

Another Chance to Win!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there in blog land.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Another Chance to Win!!
Yes, we are giving you another chance to win some of the prizes in the picture. All you have to do is post a picture of your finished project on the Flickr site. You will have until Tuesday December 1st to upload your photos. We will then draw a name of one lucky person to receive some goodies. Instructions on how to upload a photo are on the Flickr page. This gives you an extra week to get one or more projects finished and snap a photo. (Yes you can post more than one project.)

Get started now - well eat your turkey first.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 9

Hello, welcome to Day 9 of the Cross Country Quilt Designer's Twelve Days of Christmas Blog Hop.





On the 7th day (hump day) I was going to do a give away - but I forgot. Last night I was doing my blog at home and didn't have the image of my give away, so today we will have a give away.
Anyone commenting on my blog will be in a random drawing to win this:

Crazy 8 Charm Pack

(Forty-five 5" squares)

And....

This Pattern

#443 Brrr!

Today's featured designer is: Sherri from This 'N' That.

I wonder what project she has in store for us?

I think I will go here and find out.

Today's topic: A kid story, either about your kids if you have any or other kids, even yourself.

I will title this blog Abby's A-ha Moment.

Abby, our second child required very little sleep. Trust me the child never slept.
One Christmas Eve, Bruce and I were nodding off in the family room, while waiting for Abby to go to sleep so we could play Santa. After what seemed like forever, I tip-toed upstairs to see if all were sleeping. Anthony, of course, had been sleeping for hours. Next room, Abby's, yes she is finally asleep. I tip-toed down stairs to give Bruce the go ahead.

As he was carrying the presents from the garage to the house he happened to look up, only to see our Dear Abby standing at her bedroom window.

My question to Bruce - What did you do? His answer - I waved.

I'm not sure how many years Abby had been watching us carry the presents in the house, but I'm pretty sure this was not the first time.

It reminds me of this Norman Rockwell picture.

Norman Rockwell is one of my favorites.

This is another one of my favorites.
Nobody could paint an expression like NR.
Hands and feet are very difficult for me to draw.
Not for Norman Rockwell - just look at those toes!

I love to read stories about kids, so I am off to read the other designer's stories. You should check them out too. Just follow the links below. Don't forget to leave a comment, we love to hear from you.

GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,

Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,

Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Be sure to stop by tomorrow - make a comment and you might win a prize.
Tomorrow's designer is: Carrie Nelson from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company.
Tomorrow's topic is: Favorite Gift From a Child.

Some of you had questions about the commenting so I just want to clarify: To be eligible for the grand prize you need to comment on each designers project post. You don't have to do it on the exact day that it is posted, just make sure you comment on all the blogs before the hop ends. So if you missed commenting on my project day, which was Day 2, just scroll down until you get to that post and post your comment now.
Happy Hopping.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the Cross Country Quilt Designers Blog Hop.





Today’s featured designer is Pat Salon from Virginia. Stop by her blog to see what special project she has designed. Remember to leave a comment.



Today’s topic is A Christmas Tree story.
In my book the Christmas tree ranks second in order of importance - right after Baby Jesus.
I could go on forever about my Christmas trees as an adult. More than once we have bought more than one tree. (For future reference, Bachmann's in Minneapolis does take back trees.)

Since you have 12 blogs to visit today, I will not take up your time telling you my Christmas tree horror stories. Instead I will tell you about a special Christmas tree from my childhood.

It seemed that every Christmas when it was time to set the Christmas tree in the stand, my Dad would suddenly become crabby. (My husband has the same problem.) I never felt like he was a scrooge, except when it came to setting up the Christmas tree.

One year we had a particularly cold snowy winter. Mom kept putting off buying the tree - it seemed like forever. Finally on a very frigid, snowy day Mom picked out a tree. We couldn't wait for Dad to put the tree in the stand so we could finally decorate. Soon Dad came in the house, crabbier than before, to inform us that the tree really did not have a good side.

My Dad has always been very resourceful.
He simply cut the branches from the bottom, drilled holes in the trunk where there were bare spots and inserted the cut off branches.

Viola - a very special Christmas tree - although much shorter

than I had remembered it being at the tree farm.

Now hop on along to the other designer's blogs to read their Christmas tree stories.

GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Don’t forget to leave a comment.

Tomorrow the featured designer is Heather from Anka's Treasures. Stop by her blog to see the fabulous project she has designed for you.
Tomorrow’s topic is a Santa story.

See you tomorrow.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of the Cross Country 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop.


Today’s featured designer is Terry Atkinson from Atkinson’s Designs.
Hop on over to her blog to see the fabulous project she has posted.

Today’s subject is: Favorite gift received or given.

Favorite gift received.

I really can’t think of any one thing. It seemed every year we would get the special thing we had wished for.
Well except for the horse- I never did get a horse

Even though I do not remember this Christmas,

it looks like we both received

new pjs, a doll and red slippers.
I don’t seem nearly as pleased with my slippers as sister Linda does.
Her shoe fetish started at a very young age.

Cottie
One of my favorite games.
The box says for all ages. ???

Krazy Ike
These were sort of the Legos of our era.
I loved playing with Krazy Ike.
A couple of years ago my Mom found a set in an antique store and bought it for me.
Every year I put them under the Christmas tree.

Both Linda and I had one of these.
For all of you young ones out there - yes that really is a cord -

yes it really plugged into the live outlet.
Miracle we all survived.

Dollhouse
I spent a lot of time playing with my doll house.
Although it really bothered me that I could not move the rugs.

Jell-O was not Grammies only talent.
She was very good at crocheting.
One year she made all of the granddaughters

this very popular (at the time) vest.
Mine was red, Linda’s was blue and I think Brenda’s was green.

As we become older we did not want toys anymore but instead the latest fashion.
One year we all received mohair sweaters.

Mine was like this only light blue.

And of coarse you had to have the stretch pants to go with the sweater.
I really did not have the body for stretch pants.
At that time I was tall and very skinny.
By the time the pants were small enough in the waist….they became very short in the body.
But they were “stretch pants”.
Just slip that little stirrup under your foot and stretch until they reach your waist.
Only problem was - the crotch was down by my knees.

The ultimate accessory to wear with the mohair sweater was a

baldy ring

to match your sweater.
So I had a blue baldy ring.
Linda’s was pink like this one.

I could go on and on - All of those special Christmas decorations that the kids carried home and so proudly presented to me. Every year they are placed on the tree - front and center.

I will blog more about the kids special gifts during one of my christmas blogs. (After I have time to take some pictures.)

Now for a favorite gift given.
On my side of the family we have always drawn names. But as the years went on we found we all had been blessed and really none of us wanted or needed a thing. It had become a flurry of everybody emailing each other item numbers from catalogs. Finally we said - this is silly

We decided we would pool the money we normally would spend in the drawing and adopt a family in need. We adopted a family with 4 children ages six, four, two and 16 months. My 2 sisters and their DH, plus Mom and Dad all met in Sprit Lake to shop. We divided up into teams. My sister Brenda was my teammate. Our subject was the 4 Year old girl. It stated that her favorite colors were pink and purple - gosh did we have fun. We also had enough money to buy each parent a sweater and gift cards for the grocery store and gas station.
We all agreed it was a wonderful Christmas. We are planning on adopting a family again this year.

There was one little flaw to our plan. We had set the weekend before Christmas to have our get together.
In the past we had never worried about a snowstorm moving in and preventing us from traveling home. We would just wait until the next weekend when the weather had improved.

Hmmm - Can’t do that when gifts need to be bought because….Santa is coming.
And wouldn't you know it, we woke up to snow - not quite a storm yet but it was moving in. It was quickly decided we would meet early to shop.
By the time we were done shopping it was snowing very hard and drifting quite a bit. (And nobody had a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.) :)
We caravanned and thankfully we all made it to the farm safe and sound.

So many Christmases… So many memories.

Now hop on along to see what the other designers are blogging about.
GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono

Tomorrow the subject will be a Christmas tree story.
The featured designer will be Pat Sloan a Virginia native.

Happy Hopping.

From my heart,

Sandy

Blog Hop Day 1

Welcome to day 1 of the Cross Country Quilt Designer's 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop. Our topic today is a Childhood Memory from the Holidays.







On Christmas Eve we always went to Grandpa and Grammie Fishers. I loved going to Grammie and Grandpa Fisher's for Christmas. I had a big bunch of cousins of all ages and we ran wild - because Grammie allowed it. Grammie's Christmas tree was very special. She always bought a very small natural balsam tree - kind of a "Charlie Brown" tree. It was always decorated with bubble lights and smelled wonderful.

I loved to sit and watch the bubbles travel up and down the lights.
We had plain old Christmas lights on our tree.

Now we always have a natural balsam tree too.
Just like Grammie's.
Only bigger.
Minus the bubble lights.

Grammies house was not very big, so it was a bit crowded. The men were in the living room, women in the dinning room and kids everywhere. Grammie always set the table with her green plaid dishes. Even as a small child, I was aware of how cool those dishes where.

Grammie always served "Christmas Jell-O" salad.
It looked very festive on the green plaid plates.

I purchased a partial set of these plaid dishes at an antique store.
I too use them on Christmas Eve.

Grammie's Christmas Jell-O Salad

One 3oz. pkg. lime Jell-o dissolved in 1 C. hot water.
When Jell-o is completely dissolved add, 3/4 C. cold water.
Pour in 9” X 13” glass pan. Refrigerate until firmly set.

20 oz. can crushed pineapple. Drain and save the juice.
Set drained pineapple aside.

Add enough water to pineapple juice to equal
2 cups. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat.
Add one 3 oz. package lemon Jell-o. Stir until Jell-o is dissolved.
Add 3 C. miniature marshmallows.
Stir until marshmallows are melted. Cool.

Mix:
3 oz. package cream cheese.
1/2 C. salad dressing.
Add this to the lemon Jell-o mixture.
Now fold in 2 C. whipped topping.
Cool just until the mixture starts too congeal, then
add the crushed pineapple.

Pour over set lime Jell-o.
Refrigerate until firmly set.

Dissolve one 3oz. pkg. cherry Jell-o in 1 C. hot water.
When Jell-o is completely dissolved, add 3/4 C. cold water.
Cool.
Pour over top of set middle layer and refrigerate
until firmly set.

Are you wondering why I did not show you how pretty the Jell-O is the plaid plates???
Well I discovered that I am not patient enough to make Grammies' Christmas Jell-O.

If you do not wait for each layer to FIRMLY set up...

you will have this mess.
Grammie's salad NEVER looked like this!

The featured designer for today is Gudrun from GE Designs. Hop on over to her blog
http://www.gudrun.typepad.com/ to see the free project she has posted on her blog.

Tomorrow I will be the featured designer. My free project will be a quick and easy table mat. Tomorrow's topic is a special food/cookie you made as a kid or was tradition, plus a recipe.
Be sure and check it out tomorrow at www.piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot/.com

Remember, if you comment on all 12 blogs, you will be entered in a drawing for the following gift bags, filled with fabulous quilting goodies from all of us:
GE Designs, Pieces of My Heart, Atkinson Designs, Pat Sloan, Anka's Treasures,
Pam Kitty Morning, New Leaf Stitches, Whimsicals, This 'N' That, Miss Rosies,
Rosebud's Cottage, Linda Lum DeBono.

1st Prize A gift bag worth $250
2nd Prize A gift bag worth $70
3rd Prize A gift bag worth $40

Happy Hopping.

From My Heart,

Sandy

Quilt Designers Blog Hop Picture Contest

Today we are kicking off the "Cross Country Christmas Quilt Designer Blog Hop" by having a "Guess the Designer" contest.

Can you guess which one of the 12 participating designers this little darln' is?
I will give you a hint - it is not me.

Make your guess by leaving a comment on my blog.
(Isn't it amazing that we had to have such a big TV for such a little TV screen?)

The person who guesses right will win fat quarters from my new fabric line Frolic.
(There will be a drawing if there is more than one winner.)
Go to each designers blog (see list at bottom of blog)

to guess who the designer is posted on their blog.
Hurry along and hop from blog to blog - the contest ends Saturday November 7th.

Check in on Monday November 9 as we begin our 12 days of Christmas. Gudrun from GE Designs is the "Project Designer" for Day 1. She will have a Christmas project posted on her blog. Check it out on Monday http://www.gudrun.typepad.com/
The topic for the day is "A Childhood Memory from the Holiday".
All 12 designers will be blogging on this subject. Hop from blog to blog and join in the fun.

Nov. 9th. Gudrun from GE Designs: http://www.gudrun.typepad.com/

Nov. 10th. Sandy from Pieces from my Heart :

http://www.piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com/

Nov. 11th. Terry from Atkinson Designs : http://www.terryatkinson.typepad.com/

Nov. 12th. Pat from Pat Sloan & Co.: http://www.patsloan.typepad.com/

Nov. 13th. Heather from Anka's Treasures : http://www.ankastreasures.wordpress.com/

Nov. 14th. Pam from Pam Kitty Morning : www.pamkittymorning.blogspot.com

Nov. 15th. Kari from New Leaf Stitches : www.newleafstitches.com/blog

Nov. 16th. Terri from Whimsicals : http://www.whimsicals.typepad.com/

Nov. 17th. Sherri from This 'N' That http://www.thisandthatpatterns.typepad.com/

Nov. 18th. Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. http://www.lavieenrosie.typepad.com/

Nov. 19th. Roseann from Rosebud's Cottage. http://www.rosebudscottage.typepad.com/

Nov. 20th. Linda from Linda Lum DeBono http://www.lindalumdebono.blogspot.com/

Please spread the word about our hop on your blogs, guilds, quilt groups, shops, chat sites......and mark all the blogs in in your favorites folder.

Good luck with your guesses.

From my heart,

Sandy

Odds and Ends

This post has a variety of subjects - non large enough to devote a whole post to, so I will just post some odds and ends.

First off I was not able to get this picture to post off of my laptop when I did my market post.
If it were not for these 3 fantastic girls, I would not have had 8 finished quilts and 9 wool projects displayed in my market booth.

Great job girls!
Lori, Sandy K., and Lois
Thanks for your dedication - I could never do it without you.

Next subject: The Des Moines Marathon

As a mother it is very difficult for me to watch my son run a marathon.

To me it is scary. The ambulance is always coming and going.

I cannot even image running 26.2 miles.

Our son Anthony and his girlfriend Deb trained all summer for this marathon.

Their goal was to finish under 5 hours.

They both met their goal.

Congratulations Anthony and Deb!



It was very cold Sunday in Des Moines.
We spectators wore winter coats, hats and mittens.

When the runners finished they were wrapped in "Mylar"??? blankets.
Anthony with his "blankie". Can you hear his teeth chattering???

I learned a lot about marathons this weekend. I learned they have what is called a pacer. This is a person who runs along with a group of people who want to finish in a desired time frame (theirs was under 5 hours) to pace them and sort of be their coach.

This man was their pacer.

I don't know his name but I do know he ran a full marathon

in Kansas City the day before this race.

Once again I don't understand - but wow my hat's off to him.

Next subject:
Jan and Pep Pateks anniversary.
Jan is having a contest to guess how many years she and Pep have been married.
I know but I shall not tell.
Hop on over to Jan's blog http://www.janpatek.blogspot.com/
to wish them a happy anniversary and make a guess. Guess right and you might win a Blessings Jelly Roll™ . Hurry up - you only have until Saturday to guess.

Jan and Pep on their wedding day.

What a great looking couple.
Happy Anniversary!

That's all for now.

From my heart,

Sandy

What's it Going to Be?

CLARIFICATION: Which Thursday is the contest ending??? Well let's make it Wednesday, October 7th at midnight.

Seven days and counting. Remember in my last blog I said that I had to design my booth and usually that would involve building or painting something. Well, it seems not only are we going to build something but we will also have to paint it. Can you guess what we are going to build?

These are your clues.

(the boards behind the bike are part of the clues)

We are going to take these various items and make them into something for my booth.

Can you guess what it is going to be?

Guess right and you have a chance to win one of these.

If there is more than one person guessing the right answer, (which I am sure there will be - it's pretty obvious) a drawing will take place.

The contest ends Wednesday, October 7th at midnight.

I will reveal what we have made after we place the item in our booth.

I will be updating my blog during market - so stayed tuned.

We have been too busy to empty the trash.

It doesn't smell so who cares?



Sandy K. stitching on some pillows.
My floss box is the one on the right - hers is on the left and center.
Gee I wonder why she prefers to bring her own floss.
(Really who has time for such silliness???)



Lois - just about done with one binding and then on to the next.

Seven more days to go and we have only have

3 items in the DONE pile. :-(

The pressure is on.

We will see some of you soon - way too soon.

From my heart,

Sandy