1/31/15

Blog It Saturday! - Show Us Your Oldest Fabric!

Hello friends.  I am launching a Blog It Saturday Linky Party on the blog and invite you all to take part.  Each Saturday by 2pm Eastern time, I will create the new Blog It post for that week.  Each Blog It Saturday will be built around a theme and what you need to do is create a blog post on your blog around that theme and then come and link up to that post through the linky gadget at the bottom of the post on my blog.  It would be wonderful if you would show photos of anything you may have already made with that fabric up until now.  I hope that many of you will take part and help the Blog It Saturday to grow in to a fantastic Saturday event.  I will post the next week's theme at the bottom of my post each week so you will have plenty of time to get your post ready for the next week linky party.


Today's Blog It Saturday is built around the theme "Show Us Your Oldest Fabric"!  I was emailing back and forth with a friend this week and they gave me the idea for this theme.  Thank you Marilyn!  We all have those fabrics in our stash that have been hanging around for a very long time, some even decades old!  Sometimes we just cannot bring ourselves to cut in to them while others we use sparingly so we can keep the larger part of it for as long as possible!

I have 2 fabrics that fit this criteria that I want to share with you today. In 1987 I landed a job as head clerk at the local Dollar General Store in a small town in Alabama.  Back then the stores all carried flat fold yardage.  I was always the lucky one who got to unload those huge boxes of fabric and put it out for sale so I got to hand pick and keep my favorites!  This first fabric came from one of those boxes!  I still have the best part of 1 1/2 yards of this left and I am being very stingy with it now that I am down so low.  I have googled every search phrase I can think of to find this and it is simply not out there!
23 years old and counting....
 

In the late 80's and early 90's when country themed decorating was the rage I made and sold several sets of the darling pigs.  I used the hog wash fabric for their clothes.  I wish I knew how many of the buyers still had their sets. The photo quality is not 100% but take in to consideration the age of the photo itself. :)


In 2009 I attended a retreat in New Hampshire with around 70 of my friends.  We have these get togethers once a year and for each one we have a challenge fabric, (which is the fabric the cow has on as a coat)... The challenge fabric chosen was supposed to be related to the area you were visiting for the retreat that year.  Dairy farming is one of the ways people make their living in that area so the coordinators of the hop chose it for our challenge.  You could add other fabrics to create a challenge entry so I used the hog wash fabric and made a soft sculptured pig.  I then made the cow and created a "slicker" out of the challenge fabric. I had the parasol in my stash so just for fun I included it so they would not get wet on their way up North!


I also added a sign from the backend of the pig that read "New Hampshire or bust"!  I gifted my entry to a very good friend from Iowa.  Lisa loves pigs as much as we do and she shed a tear or two that I wanted her to take this home with her. :)


Another fabric that I have had in my stash since before 2000 is this piece of 30's reproduction fabric.  It is "Just Making Conversation by Maywood Studio EESCO".  There is no date on the selvage but I would guess this is just over 15 years old.  Not as old as hog wash by any means but still old.  I have 2 1/2 yards of this and have never cut it.  I wonder if I ever will?  Most likely one day....


So, do you have some fabric that has been hiding in your stash for a long time?  Would you care to share it with us?  Please do!  Create a post on your blog and then after you publish it to your blog, click on the title and then copy and paste the URL that goes directly to the post and come and use that URL to link up with the rest of us.  Then we can all come over and see what you have to share with us.  Please be courteous and leave a line in your blog post telling about the Blog It Saturday event and leave a link to my blog so your friends can come and take part.  My blog url is www.stitchandquilt.com.  Thank you in advance for linking back to me.

Next week's Blog It Saturday will be built around the theme of "Who Inspired You To Create" - you may be a quilter, a painter, a yarn artist... Whatever medium you create with, you will share who inspired you or where your inspiration came from!

I would love it if you would grab the button for the Blog It Saturday linky party over on my right sidebar and share it on your blogs.


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1/30/15

We Support You Blog Hop with a Give Away!

Thank you to Madame Samm from Sew We Quilt and Pat from Life In The Scrapatch for leading us in another great hop!  This hop is dedicated to all cancer survivors, to those fighting the fight and to those who have lost the fight to this dreadful disease!  Cancer is so evil and is certainly no respecter of persons.  Rich or poor, slim or plump, tall or short, housewife, or business executive, none of us are exempt.
The "We Support You" pattern is available from Madame Samm.  All you need to do is email her and she will send you a Paypal invoice or you can send her a payment of 12.00.  She will then email you the files.  Her email address is:  madamesamm@me.com 
 
When I signed up for the hop I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do at first.  I went to my sewing room and started pulling fabrics.  I hope to use a lot of my stash this year when I can and so I searched for anything that might catch my eye.  And then I found it.  I had 2 pieces of fabric that my hubby bought for me on Sanibel Island in 2004 on one of our Florida vacations.  I have to tell you a little about this fabric.  Hubby didn't look at the price... he just picked it up and commented on how pretty it was and promptly told me he was buying it and I needed to make something with it.  He even chose 2 coordinates to go with it. lol

Little did he know, he had just bought the most expensive fabric on the Island!  24.00 a yard for Bold Over batik!!  He just about choked on his spit when she rang up the fabrics.  He is not one to put things back so he paid the bill and we left.  He has looked at sticker prices since that fiasco! haha!!

The fabric has been in my stash ever since because I could never cut in to it.  Nichole Webb was here in 2007 for longarm classes and when I showed it to her, she didn't  have any ideas as to how to use it either.  So it has sat here and sat here but now it has taken on a new life!  
 
I present to you:

Fight LOUD and Fight Proud!





I almost didn't finish this quilt because I just wasn't loving it very much.  I didn't get the bra quite center and the yellow wasn't speaking to me after I had it ironed down.  I could not remove it as I had used wonder-under to attach it!  And I had promised the quilt to Erin of My Painted Garden to use in a fundraiser. She is a 13 year breast cancer survivor and uses her art to help raise money to find a cure during October Breast Cancer Awareness month.  So I could not go back on my word. So I loaded it and found that after I quilted it, I started to love it.  
 
I named the quilt "Fight LOUD and Fight Proud" because of the  loud batik fabrics and the color of the bra!  This is indeed a loud quilt!  I think maybe the loudest one I have ever made!  I quilted the words "fight like a girl" in the pink heart.  By the way,  I enlarged the pattern to a whopping 36" wide!!!  I do love the finished quilt and I hope Erin will too.

When I was in my mood of dislike for the quilt, I decided to make something else and replace the quilt with it and send it to Erin to use in her fundraiser.  But now that I have finished the quilt and it has made me smile.... the after effects of actually quilting a top does that to me a lot... There is truth in the saying "Quilting Makes The Quilt"!... I will be donating this other item to my friend Jeannette to use in her next Relay For Life fundraiser.  She is also a cancer survivor and leads a team here in my hometown.  

How do you like my newest Tammy bag!!!  I shrunk the pattern down until it fit within the front of the Tammy.  I beaded the outline of the bra with pink glass beads, and using pearl cotton size 8 thread, I embroidered the curved lines of the cup and the hanger.  I then made ribbon roses across the top of the cups. I used the letter "K" for Komen... Susan G. Komen Foundation.  

When I was adding the purse handle I did not sew it on as I normally do.  This time I used the same beads that I sewed to the bra.  So instead of going from hole to hole on the frame with the pearl cotton, I went back and forth, and in and out of one hole to secure the bead.  This secured the bag up in to the handle also.  I think I like this better than the other way as you don't have all of the thread showing across the frame.

For the sides and back of the Tammy I used a fabric that has been in my stash for over a year... maybe two years... It is a Paris themed fabric but I loved it for the Tammy because it has women on it and the background is a beautiful shade of pink!  It was perfect!


So, if you have stayed with me this long, how about a giveaway!  I went over to Staple's to have the pattern blown up to 36" wide and while there I spied these Komen for the Cure Paper Mate InkJoy pens!  I have 2 to give away... 2 winners!  Just leave me a comment to get your name in the hat!  Following my blog is not mandatory but I would love for you to become a follower if you would like to and stick around to see what is on the agenda for 2015!  If you are a no-reply blogger, be sure and leave your email address in the comments.


 
Please go over and visit the ladies who share the day with me! 

Jan 30th 

Just Let Me Quilt

Stitch and Quilt

how arT you

Living My Dream


Thank you for visiting my blog today!



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1/24/15

Grow Your Blog Party! + Giveaway x3!

If you have followed my blog for any amount of time you know that I love blog parties of all kinds!  I am a "people" person and love to be where people are! When Vicki of 2 Bags Full put out the word that she was going to host a virtual worldwide blog party, I could not pass it up!  There are over 400 bloggers taking part in this years party so head over to Vicki's blog once you finish your visit here at my blog to see the entire list!  Some will have giveaways so you don't want to miss the chance to sign up for those.


Vicki has asked us to tell a little bit about ourselves so the readers coming through can get to know us a little better. I will start off by saying that I used to blog at Pig Tales and Quilts, www.pigtalesandquilts.com but decided to change the name of my blog because the focus of the blog had changed somewhat.  So I retired the old blog and built this new one here at Stitch and Quilt.  I have left Pig Tales and Quilts online so if you ever feel like going over to see my old posts, they will always be there.  So, welcome to my new blog one and all... current readers and new readers alike! If you like what you see and want to follow along, please feel free to follow me via Google Friend Connect or Blog Lovin.  I would love to have you as part of my blogging family.

If you followed me before on the old blog, you will need to re-follow me here to continue to get my updates.   I don't want to lose any of my friends!

My granddaughter  Allie at 8 years old with her first quilt.

Now all grown up at 11!

So, where do I begin?  My name is Thearica (pronounced Theresa).  My dad spelled my name when I was born and I have no idea why he spelled it this way but I can say, I love my name!  I know of one other person in the U.S.A. who spells their name the same way... she contacted me via my old blog about 2 years ago to let me know.  I tried to strike up a friendship with her as I was curious to know where she was from but I never heard back from her.

My granddaughter Emilee in 2014 at the age of 3.

I am originally from Northwest Alabama but have resided in North Carolina since 2003.  I am a mother to two beautiful girls and grandmother of 3, 2 granddaughters and a grandson.  I am married to the sweetest man and live with him in North Carolina!  We live on a tobacco farm and make our living growing the crop... My hubby has been farming for 37 years now.. and is looking to retire hopefully in the next year!  Then we are moving to Alabama, back to my hometown!

My grandson Parker leading a gospel hymn at worship service
His friend giving him moral support by standing down by the podium.
That is what friends are for, right. :)

My interests include quilting, sewing crafts, crazy quilting, cross stitching, knitting, reading historical romances and traveling.  I don't tend to just do one thing at a time so my UFO pile is quite hefty.  I keep several projects going so I can change back and forth so as not to get bored with any one thing.

One thing I truly enjoy is creating crazy quilt pieces revolving around someone's life.  I want the embellishing I add to the quilt to tell a story about the individual and to play off of true events that happened or are happening in that person's life.  I find I create better in this venue than just trying to embellish a block  that has no particular meaning.

This is one such block that I created for my mother-in-law for her 79th birthday.  She loves God, hence the saying I wrote on the background, "Be silent, and hear the whisper of God".. she has a yard full of flowers, a wheelbarrow that sits in the side yard always overflowing with flowers, she has an arbor and wisteria trees.. she is a sewist, hence the button cluster.. You can look at this block and every thing you see has meaning to Mildred.
Another custom block was for my granddaughter Allie.  I suffered with achilles tendonosis in 2010 and could not walk for 4 months so this piece was created during that time.  It kept me sane and happy as I was always smiling while working on it.  You will see Allie's name in the top left corner of the piece.  At the time I made this piece she loved all things to do with pink.  All of her clothes had to be pink, I kid you not! and she loved to have tea parties in her room.  When we came for visits, she would always take my hubby's hand and he knew what he was in for.  My grandchildren love him because he does take up time with them and he allows them to subject him to play time, even if it is a tea party.  You will see fairies and animals all over the piece and a saying "Come little fairies, hiding among the flowers, Come and have a sip of tea and we will play for hours".  Look closely as I have hidden a few fairies. :)

I had it framed to hang on the wall in her bedroom.

You can tell a little more about the details in this photo.

Here are a few close ups..




Allie has since outgrown her pink phase and the tea parties as she is now 11 years old.  She has moved on to deer hunting and loves horses and now her bedroom is all decked out in lasso's, horses and camoflauge!  I asked her this past December if she wanted me to take her crazy quilt piece down and bring it home with me for safe keeping for later and she quickly informed me that it was never leaving her wall!  Of course this grandma smiled really big!  I need to get busy now and do Emilee a piece to hang in her bedroom but she is only 4 and pretty rambunctious so I will wait a couple more years so she will know better how to take care of it.

I am currently in the process of  collecting things to make myself a crazy quilt wallhanging depicting my life.  One of the things I will add to my piece revolves around me learning to ride a bicycle.  The very first time I got on my blue bike, I rode smack-dab in to the clothesline pole!!!  How can anyone hit something so small?  I did, that is for sure.  When the front tire made contact, of course over I went! Mother came running but I wasn't hurt, thank goodness.  She wiped my tears and promptly made me get right back on.  I now know why she did that as I may have never tried again!  I am looking forward to starting this piece and will share progress photos on the blog.

Now I will show you some of the things I have created over the years.

I love to take part in swaps and these blocks were for an embroidered heart block swap.

I started a group blog with fellow art quilters.
This was made to the theme of Baubles Bangles and Beads.

I made this t-shirt quilt for my baby girls 30th birthday.

I love to hand quilt when my hand will let me.
This was for a dear friend in Canada as a group comfort quilt.

Some of my free-hand machine quilting
more  free-hand machine quilting

I love to take part in round robins. 
The green background row was my work for Rhondi's quilt.

I made this pillow to try out a new to me product.  Now I can't remember the name of the product.  Oh well, I loved the pillow! :)

Some of my latest crazy quilting...




Have you seen enough photos?  Are you ready to hear about the giveaway I am hosting? Well, let's get to it then.  Since Valentine's day is right around the corner, I have 2 sets of these storage boxes.  They are kept inside a heart shaped box to help keep them organized.  I am giving away 2 of these sets! There will be 2 winners! (the pigs are not included)


I am also giving away this Pinny that I made for a previous blog hop over at Sew We Quilt.  The third name drawn will win this lovely little pin keeper.

the backside (tools not included)

How do you win?  Simple, leave me a comment.  That is all there is to it.  If you do not have your email visible in your Google profile, you need to type it in to your comment as I will have no way to contact you should I draw your name.  You would have to forfeit the win and it would go to the next person.  Good luck everyone!

You do not have to follow my blog to win but if you like what you saw while here on the visit, I would love to have you choose either BlogLovin or the Google Friend Connect gadget so you can get my updates.  There will be much fun on the blog over the year.

The giveaway will remain open until February 15th, my wedding anniversary!  Everyone is eligible! I never leave out my international readers from the chance to win any of my giveaways!

Don't forget to head on over to Vicki's to see the other bloggers who are participating in this year's Grow Your Blog Party!
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1/23/15

Who Loves Windham Fabrics?

If you love Windham Fabrics then you need to head on over to the Fat Quarter Shop because a little birdie told me they are having a sale!!  20% off and no coupon code needed.  Just fill your shopping cart with the Windham Fabrics that you love and the discount will automatically compute!  
Can you beat me over there!

www.fatquartershop.com


And don't forget about their
Snapshots Quilt Along

It will benefit the St. Judes Children's Research Hospital!

Block 1 was posted on January 15th.  If you plan to participate, go over and get the pattern.
Let Them Eat Cake

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1/20/15

Tammy For All Seasons - My Day! + Giveaway!

 The winner of the earrings is Rhonda D of Ozark Country Stitchin! Congratulations Rhonda!  
I will send you an email for your mailing info.

I still have 3 pair of Readers in each power if you would like for me to send you a pair.  Just scroll down to read the info at the bottom of the post and then comment if you would like a pair. 

*************************************************

Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt and Sew We Stitch teamed up with Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Books Publishing and Cori Blunt of Chitter Chatter Designs to bring us yet again, another fabulous blog hop!  Enlisting the help of Mary of I Piece 2 Mary, she quickly got us all signed up and organized the hop to a tee!  
We have quite the host of sponsors to thank for this hop! We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for what you do for the quilting community as a whole!


Brooke Nolan of Brooke's Book Publishing designed 4 Vintage Fashion patterns for the hop and Cori Blunt of Chitter Chatter Designs designed 4 Pinny patterns for us as well.  Both designers designed these to be seasonable, -  spring, summer, fall and winter.  We all were to use Madame Samm's Tammy Bag pattern and incorporate our choice of one of the Vintage Fashion cross stitch patterns on the front.  We also were able to choose one of the Pinny patterns and create it to be complimentary to our Tammy Bag design.

Spring is my favorite season of all with the rebirth of everything... flowers blooming, birds singing... the whole earth comes awake in all it's glory once again! I just love Springtime!  I have my cereal on the front porch swing and the birds sing a melody for me every single morning!  So it was no doubt the Spring Vintage Fashion cross stitch pattern that I wanted to create my Tammy Bag with.  I chose the Summer Pinny as it had the cutest little bluebird on the front!  Without further adieu, here is my Tammy and the Pinny.



I used Monaco 14 ct Aida for the front of my Tammy Bag and stayed within Brooke's original color scheme.  I am not too savy when it comes to making too many changes.  I actually enjoyed this color scheme and thought the bag turned out very well.  The sides and back are a drapery fabric in just the right polka dot colors!
The inside lining is a 100% cotton fabric that has words on it that were perfect for the vintage feel of this bag.  Words like authentic, natural, timeless, fresh, true and pure... all relate back to vintage times to me.... slower paced times... times when we stopped to smell the roses more... maybe we should make that a priority in our lives more often. 


 For the Pinny I decided to go "rogue" as another hopper put it.. but I am not as rogue as she was by a long shot. lol...I wanted to bring a little bit of the "crazy quilter" side of me in to this design.   I had this beautiful piece of lace that had been hand dyed by my friend Nicki Seavey.....2 lovebirds in the perfect colors.  I stitched down a piece of tatting first and beaded around the outer edge of it and then stitched down the birds.  I also beaded a hanger for my Pinny so it would be easily attachable to the Tammy Bag.

 On the back I made some changes as well.  I could not get the little bag to come out right and after 3 tries and my fat fingers not cooperating, I chose to add a pocket all the way across the Pinny.  I sewed a line about 3/4 of the way over so I would have 2 sections in the pocket.  You can keep your scissors or extra needles in the larger area and the smaller area is perfect for your thimble. I did all of my sewing on the Pinny by hand so the front is blind stitched to the box pleated ruffle and so is the back.  It makes for a clean seamless finish.
 The beaded hanger makes it easy to take your Pinny along with you.  You can see the polka dot fabric very well in this photo. :)
I have something else to show you but first I want to show you the tools that I use when I cross stitch.  My Sparco stand, Q-Snap frames, cross stitch needles, DMC floss, a Mighty Bright Light that I found at Staples,  DMC 14 count Aida cloth, Stick With Me Magnet, thimble and readers.  The readers would have been very nice but I found out very quick that my astigmatism will not allow me to wear them.  So you will see my prescription glasses that I wear when I do close up work.... they are a MUST or I would do nothing at all.  I was hoping to be able to use the readers because they are SO hip looking! The sweet lady at Readers.com sent me more readers in different powers to try just on the off chance I would be able to use them but nothing worked.  So if you can use 2.50 power or 2.75 power, and would like for me to send the ones I have to you, please leave me a note in your comment.  I would hate for these to lay here and not be used.  Please only speak for them if you know for certain you can wear these powers. 2.50 and 2.75.
 When I cross stitched in the 80's and 980's, I had a book stand that I bought at a Bible store. It had a line identifier on it and made it so easy to keep up with your place.  I used it so much that the movable side arm broke off and I had not replaced it as I had quit cross stitching.  My eyes would not allow me to stitch as much as I wanted so I devoted my time to other things.  Fast forward 15 years and Madame Samm's way of getting us to learn new things or re-acquaint ourselves with things we used to enjoy, and I am simply loving cross stitching again.  These smaller projects are perfect for eyes like mine. Thank you Samm!

I found a new stand on Amazon made by Sparco that is almost identical to the one I had 20 years ago! Here is a close up of it.. along with Madame Samm's Stick With Me Magnet.  I use the magnet  for holding my needle when I take breaks or need to get more thread ready.  I am always losing my needle and this is perfect to help me keep it where it needs to be!
I said I had something else to show you... yes, I did.. I made another Tammy bag and cross stitched another one of Brooke Nolan's designs on the front.  She has a freebie area on her site and right now you can download her Advent Animals.  I may have changed the name of my blog but a little piece of Pig Tales and Quilts will find its way in to the new blog every once in a while.  And why not in the first hop of 2015!

I cross stitched the August Advent Design, Pearly Pig!!!  I could NOT resist!  I also made a matching Coin Purse, another of Madame Samm's designs! I had the perfect fabrics to compliment the colors in Pearly Pig! I love how this one came out and may have to tote it to town a few times. ha!
 The inside lining is from a fabric that was sent to me at the end of 2014 as a thank you from a friend for building a quilter's forum for the HGTV ladies. HGTV.com shut down their message forums so I took it upon myself to build us one on another server.  If you love to hang out with quilters come pay us a visit! Circle Of Friends Quilting and Needlework Forum.
I have also made another Pinny and was going to show it today but I have decided to wait.  As you can see on the photos above of my tools, I have started a new project.   I am now working on the Winter Vintage Fashion cross stitch pattern and the Pinny goes with it.  I will show them both when the Tammy bag is finished.  See, I told you I was hooked again!  :)

If you have stayed with me this long, as long winded as I was today, I have a giveaway for you.  I received these hand crcoheted earrings as a gift but I do not wear earrings.  I do not have holes in my ears for one thing. So one of you will be the lucky recipient to wear these this Spring!


I have to tell you a funny story... I had never had pierced ears...ever in my life.  In 2001 when I turned 31, my best friend Regina decided it was high time I had holes in my ears so she promptly took me to Walmart to have earrings put in my ears for my birthday.  As soon as the tech blasted that gun and made the first hole, I screamed and turned white as a ghost (Regina told me how white I became).  She thought I was about to faint and most likely I was!  The tech got the other hole put in the opposite ear but within 3 weeks time, I yanked those starter earrings out and let the holes grow back up.  They were getting on my nerves! ha!  I am too old fashioned! oh well, sue me. lol

Please leave me a comment if you would like your name in the pot for the earrings and remember to leave me a comment if you  need a pair of these readers.  There are 5 pair in the 2.50 strength and 5 pair in the 2.75 strength.  I did not ask for these,  she just wanted to try her best to get me in a pair but to no avail.  I will ask you to pay the actual small flat rate shipping of 5.95 to get them to you since there are so many. (International friends shipping will be higher)   They need to come in a box so they do not get broke.  These readers range from 16.95 to 22.95  so even with you paying the shipping, you are getting a great deal.  I just want someone to be able to put them to use.   I will pay the postage on the earrings since it is my blog giveaway item for the hop.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and taking part in the blog hop!  Now please go visit the other bloggers who share the day with me.  Please leave them some comment love!

January 20, 2015

Stitch and Quilt - you are here
Quilt N Queen


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