Embroidered State Quilt

This is what I've been working on since Sunday. There is a wonderful group 123 It's Almost Free Embroidery
where there is absolutely free a new state flower or a filler block each week until you have 56 finished blocks and a queen sized quilt at the finish. I had gotten a bit behind, and so Sunday I did the 4 embroideries, and today I finished up the blocks. I added the state outlines and the flower names, the flower names because I am horrible at flowers and would never have been able to identify them later. The Arizona block just came out this week, and I am anxious to do it, as it is a beautiful cactus and I like cacti. I had wanted to do a state flower quilt, but the designs I have seen were expensive up to $200.00 and more, so this is a wonderful thing to me. Now, I need to get busy on quilting my Turning Twelve. I was thinking this morning that I keep putting it off because of fear, and I need to take a lesson from Nike and just "do it". I will be mowing this morning, but I plan to work on it this afternoon or evening, and hopefully, I will have a finish to share soon. I seem to be the world's worst procrastinator.
Also, for any of you ladies who machine embroider, I tried my new electric screwdriver with my hoop and it was wonderful. It got it nice and tight, but not too tight, and my hooping stayed flatter and nicer as I was handling it less. Then when it was time to undo it, it was a snap, so no more sore fingers.
The one I got was from Sears, less than $40.00, model 9-11398. It is small so it fits a ladies hand well and very light, almost cute. After all, I am female, and I like cute even in tools. When we went tool shopping my grandson was with us, and he said, "you like little things don't you grandma?". He was right.

Amy's Giveaway

Amy of Amy's Passions is having a giveaway for her 100th post. As you can see, there is lots of fabric, and a really cheerful bag and I know she'd love it if you go to her blog and leave a comment. Just so you can be thinking about it, she would like to hear about your favorite quilt. I enjoyed very much reading the comments.

Birthday and Tools

Yesterday was DH and 3rd grandson's birthday, and we along with 9 other family and friends went to Bahama Breeze, our favorite, for lunch. I had hoped my son and his family could meet us there, but my son had to work, so it was just my daughter's part of the family. We had a nice time in spite of 'Fay'. I had been saving state quarters, and decided to cash them in to take everyone out. After we ate, DH and I went to Sears, where he got a new electric screwdriver, and I got a few tools and a toolbox to replace the one that he took over. I already had the hammer, but the other tools are new and just for me. I read how one lady uses an electric screwdriver (drill) to tighten and loosen the hoop on her embroidery machine, and it sounded like a good idea, so I got the smallest lightest one I could find. I'll let you know how it works out. Tightening them manually is hard on the fingers, plus I never feel like I get them quite tight enough. It was a fun day (almost like my birthday as I got a gift, too), but my oldest grandson was having a goodbye dinner with us as he left right after to move to Pennsylvania, so it was sort of sad, also. He is driving by himself, and had to pick up his going away gift from a friend on his way out of town. It turned out to be an 8 week old puppy, rat terrier, the perfect traveling companion?
I've been fortunate, as all my kids and grandkids have been in about a 100 mile radius until recently, and now I have a granddaughter in New Mexico, and a grandson in Pennsylvania, sometimes change is hard.

Fun Giveaway

Susan has a pretty new blog, and a new giveaway. Her blog is "Ape over Quilting" and she is a new quilter with a new machine, starting a new quilt with a beautiful new block. To participate, you just have to leave a comment and tell her about your first quilt. Hurry though, "The deadline is Friday, August 22, 2008 at 8:00PM (PST)".

Giveaways

There are two bags being given away, and I wanted to share pictures with you, but blogger is not cooperating, so I'll give you links instead.
Lurline of Lurline's Place is giving away a Cathedral Window Bag for her 100th blog and if you follow her blog, you know that everything she makes is lovely. Also Bonnie of Calamity Janes Cottage is celebrating "Getting Ready for Fall", and has an adorable bag to giveaway. It is very fallish, and has a cute Halloween button as the catch. Good Luck.
Add one more 100th post blog to the list. Amanda of Amanda's Musings. Hers is still a mystery, but it sounds like it is going to be handcrafted. If you are familiar with Amanda's blog, you know she is always working on beautiful stitchery, bags and quilts.
Wow, I can't believe it I just found another one. This is a new blog to me, but it is celebrating '200' posts. Debi of Quilting With Debi is giving away charm packs, essential thread, and a quilting book. This is a great week for giveaways.

Arte y Pico from Quiltwhinny

What a pleasant surprise to be nominated for this award by Quiltwhinny from Quiltwhinny Trails. The nicest thing was getting the chance to discover and enjoy her beautiful blog.

Here's the 5 rules bit for this award:
1. Choose 5 blogs you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogging community, regardless of the language.
2. Each award should have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that presented him/her with the award.
4. The award winner and the one who has given the award should show the Arte y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award. Translated, it means "the peak of art."
5. Show these rules - done!

Just a note, the picture that she shows referring to my giveaway was actually the giveaway from Marit who had a giveaway about the same time that I had mine.
I have tried to think of who I would like to nominate, and I love so many blogs that I can't decide. As I have seen on other blogs whose writers have had this dilemma, please if you are reading this consider yourself nominated if you would like to accept the honor.

Burger Queen Mystery Quilt

I have a 'flimsy'. I am going to try to quilt it myself, but first I have to do the Turning Twelve and then hopefully, I'll be a little better at the FMQ. It ended up 54 x 78, so will be a nice size for a couch quilt. I think I have green and purple out of my system now, so next quilt probably pink and brown. I'll bet anyone who reads my blog is getting tired of the pink quilt underneath, I think that I need to change that soon.

Supper in the Crockpot - Meatballs

I got this recipe off of the yahoo crockpot group, and made it and liked the concept, but didn't like the result too much. I now have adapted it until it is in my opinion an A+ meatball recipe. I used to make good meatballs from my MIL's recipe, but because they were browned (fried) first, they always seemed to end up triangular instead of round, which wasn't that visually appealing. This recipe produces nice round meatballs and I don't have to do any frying, so the mess and the fat is lots less. I use a cookie scoop, and so they are uniform in size. I like mine small, so I use the 1" size, but you could make them whatever size you prefer. After I descoop them, I round them up a bit with my hands, and I spray the scoop and my hands with cooking spray first. I didn't bother to take a picture, as now all you can see is spaghetti sauce.

CROCKPOT MEATBALLS

1 1/4 pounds low fat ground beef

1 cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1 Tbsp. minced parsley (fresh or dried)

1-3 cloves minced garlic, or garlic powder

3/4 cup milk

2 or 3 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper, scant

Mix ingredients and form into balls. Any size is ok. Put in crockpot with a couple of jars of sauce, one on the bottom and one on top.

We prefer Bartolli's or Barilla's Basil and Tomatoes Sauce. Cook about 4-6 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low. Can be frozen and reheated from the freezer in the crockpot. Makes about 28 1 inch meatballs.

I hope that if you try it you like it.

Giveaway Drawing and Prize

I waited until this morning for the giveaway drawing, just to allow for all the different time zones. Then I had to wait for DH to get up, as he sometimes sleeps in, and then even before he was showered and dressed we did it, that is why all that is showing is his hand, he was a little uncomfortable about being on the internet in his jammies. He picked number 23 Carol VR, who's from Canada, and whose blog is a new one to me. That was one of the nice things about having the giveaway, discovering new to me bloggers. Her blog is No Reason Needed, if you'd like to have a look.

I didn't make anything, but I hope she likes her gifts. There are several fat quarters and some thread from Connecting Threads, a charm pack in a tin from Hancock's of Padukah from a few years ago, I had bought several. All the things needed to wear scissors around your neck so that they don't get lost, the necklace the retracto reel and the scissors which are also seam rippers. I have some and like them a lot, as they are snips and also ready in case there was a boo-boo (not the ouch kind the rip-it kind). And last but not least, a little wooden birdhouse (I had gotten 4 of them and am down to 1, which I think will be for me), and a tiny bone china bowl from Old Country Roses, which would be great as a little pin dish, or even for holding jewelry that you take off in the evening.
Thank you to everyone who left a comment and also to those who put the link on their blogs. You are all wonderful, and I wish I could give everyone a prize.

And Another Two.......

Isn't this adorable! Go sign up on Applique Today, Joanna is having a 100th post giveaway.

Also, Cheryl at Polka Dots & Rick Rack is having her one year blogiversary and is giving away one of Nicole's Raggedy Old Annies.

I would be beyond happy to win either one.