Christmas Tree FREE Block Pattern & Tutorial!

Hi everyone!  Before I show you where to find my free quilt block pattern and tutorial for the Christmas trees I made above (yes, I do like to tease a bit...lol)  I am hoping everyone has been doing well, enjoying the changes of the seasons and also maybe still participating with the Challenge of Change blog post I wrote a few weeks ago.  If you haven't read it, please check it out either before or after you look over this free Christmas tree quilt block pattern and tutorial I made back for a Christmas in July Quilt Along!  :-)

Heather, from The Sewing Loft (link to her blog), came up with a really good gift idea, she said from her, The Sewing Loft Facebook page: "I Spy this super cute and FREE Christmas quilt block from FreeSpirit Fabrics & Smilie Mommy Quilting & Crafts. I'm thinking what a cute border on a dish towel. Hostess with the Mostess gift: Check!"  Thanks "sew" much Heather for the great idea and kind words!  :-)

I made this pattern and tutorial back for my first Quilt Along where I was actually one of the long list of other great Quilt Bloggers that were able to unveil their very own pattern and tutorial using fabric provided by Free Spirit, that was then pieced and quilted into one quilt for Free Spirit Fabrics, here is a link to their website, it should also lead you to where you can find my FREE pattern and tutorial in PDF form. 

Here is the list of other bloggers that participated in the Quilt Along and their websites attached:

 Heather at Fiberosity   http://www.fiberosity.com/
  Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com/
  Melanie at Melanie Dramatic http://melaniedramatic.com/
  Pam at Pam Kitty Morning http://pamkittymorning.blogspot.com/
  Kelsey Creates  http://www.kelseycreates.com/
  Katie @ Swim Bike Quilt  http://www.swimbikequilt.com/
  Kim at Persimon Dreams http://www.persimondreams.com/
  Amanda at Sasikirana http://amandasasikirana.wordpress.com/
  Jane at QuiltJane http://www.quiltjane.blogspot.com/
  Kristy at St Louis Folk Victorian http://stlouisfolkvictorian.blogspot.com/
  Kimberly at Fat Quarter Shop  http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/
  Lee at Freshly Pieced freshlypieced.blogspot.com
  Jennifer at MJandCo http://mjandco-quilting.blogspot.com/
  Mishka at Quilting Gallery http://quiltinggallery.com/blog-posts/
  Tiffiny at www.freepatchworkquiltinfo.com
  Tacha at Fat Quarterly http://www.fatquarterly.com
  Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations http://canoeridgecreations.com
  Jocelyn at It’s Sew Emma http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/
PS...When visiting their pages, feel free to let them know that Smilie Mommy sent you and says hello as well. :-)

The Challenge of Change :-)

This time of year with the beautiful colors of Autumn and the briskness in the air, it makes me think of all of the changes going on around me.  So many things to be grateful for and realize how fortunate we all really are.  

Last week, when my electricity was out for just under 24 hours, I understood fully all I had was a minor inconvenience.  There are people less then 50 miles away from where we live that are in total devastation, loss of not just "their stuff" that can be replaced eventually but the loss of their friends and family members.  The people we choose to share our lives with are gifts that are priceless and we should try to take all the time we have with them to admire the things we love about them and try with all of our might not to focus and waste time on the negative things that don't define who any of us are.  

While I was in line to vote today there was something that caught my eye.  It was something called Rachel's Challenge, two large white boards with all of the student's signatures on it.  There was a girl standing in line behind me who attends the middle school, waiting with her Grandmother.  I decided to ask her about Rachel and the challenge.  I have sheer gratitude for being in the right place at the right time today.  To hear this teenage girl tell us the story of Rachel, it was bone chilling hearing her recall how good of a person she was, loved by everyone, the caring notes she left behind and the deep thoughts she kept about so many of life's challenges.  Then to hear how she had sadly lost her life way too soon due to the Columbine shootings in 1999.  

Rachel's Challenge Website

There is so much more to tell and her website (Rachel's Challenge) will do it best, that will surely give you goosebumps as well.  But one quote I found on the site that touched me and is from Rachel, "Tomorrow is not a promise but a chance"  She believed in starting a chain reaction of kindness.  I challenge all of us to start our own chain reactions of kindness and compassion.  Let it be in our own families, then our families can gain the strength and confidence to stand up, encourage and help others, and to help keep Rachel's dream alive, may it never stop and the wave continue flowing back and forth just as we depend on the waves in the ocean to always come back to us at some point, we just never know their true power until they have touched us.  :-)

P.S.  Please one other thing, what ever you can give, no matter how small even if it is of your yourself, please donate to your local charities to help the people living in your communities and if possible please help the people also struggling to get by who lost so much in Hurricane Sandy.  The American Red Cross has a Relief Fund set up for those that can help.  Thanks for listening and tag you are it.  :-)

American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund

 

Back again...this time from Tennessee! :-)

Up the Strings it says  "Honky~Tonk Heroes"

So I was in Tennessee for the last 3 days.  I have to be honest I am not really a country girl, meaning the music, it was really interesting finding a channel on the radio, it actually ends up growing on you though...haha!  But I do love the southern hospitality & charm, their awesome accents, sweet potato fries and the evil but incredibly delicious cookies our hotel had creeping out at every corner waiting for us.  I was keeping my eyes open for the perfect pair of boots for me, but perfect and too much $ clashed, I like bargains and wouldn't be willing to spend $300-$700 for a pair of cow girl boots!  
I even managed to get out to a few quilt shops.  To protect the guilty, I will leave the store unnamed but it was a bit rustic, dusty (dirty), out of date and can I say (cough cough) smoky inside.  It was the 1st one I visited while in Tennessee so it had me nervous for my next adventures of shop hops of the day, but hey, I am always up for an adventure.  This one just happened to have two yapping dogs included for free in the package.  This should be my last trip for a bit.  I am grateful for my husband's work trips and that I get to tag along, but it does put a glitch into getting any sewing done.  With that said....

Elvis has left the building! ;-)

Consider Organ Donation ~ I did :-)

On a personal note, something to consider and none of us really want to think about or even talk about is if you want to be a donor or not. I know it is a tough topic for many.  My uncle passed away a few weeks ago and his skin alone was able to help over 40 people!  To me that is an amazing gift to be able to give when who knows when our # is called and end up leaving our world maybe in tragic circumstances.  I have already chosen to be a donor for many years, so that tough emotional decision is already made for my loved ones, what about you? Here is a link I found that may be helpful for organ and tissue donation. :-)

If you want to see different views of these appliqued hearts I designed onto a pillow click this link and it will take you to the correct page, thanks for reading my post.  :-)

Back again~ 2 new quilt shops, beaches, food and did I mention quilt shops?! :-)

Ok, so I did warn you I wasn't done with the traveling quite yet.  Just didn't tell you it was so going to be so soon.  Sneaky me....giggles!  :-)  Ok, so the people that take care of our attack hamster know when we are gone, that is the important part and our neighbors the cops, I should bake them some cookies or better yet quilt them up something like these simple coasters I made a while back!  So again, I need to somehow catch up on the pictures I keep taking.  Here is one cool one I took while the hubby was driving us to the hotel from the airport in Florida. 

 I didn't think it turned out too bad since he was probably going around 70 miles per hour and all!  The skies were beautiful most of the time we were there.  I managed to get to two great quilt shops but behaved myself compared to my last trip when I was in Cape Cod.  I am very grateful for my husband's work conferences and my lack of fear of being out of state and following a GPS.  Ok, I need to run and pick the boys up from school, I am looking forward to catching up on this blog and most of all touching my sewing machine again!  Thanks for hanging in there with me, the traveling for this year is soon over :-)

I am alive, just to let you know :-)

Here is just a glimpse of the fabrics I feel like I almost "stole from Cape Cod!  :-)

If anyone has been wondering where in the world Tiffiny has been, I am still here, alive and kicking :-) So sorry I haven't blogged in it feels like forever.  :-)   I have been traveling with my husband with his job, which has given me many things to blog about, believe me when I can grab some time to do it, I took tons of pictures of our trip to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard!  While there I also was able to meet one of my Quilty friends, Sally who lives up that way and we went to a quilt shop together and had a blast picking on each other and some how I managed to even find perverted fabric I thought she should buy, hahaha!  An added bonus for me when I travel with him is I go hunting for quilt shops when he is busy in his conferences, which this last time I needed a suitcase for the trip back, but to my defense the fabric was between $.99 & $4.00 a yard!  One store was going out of business and another was having a mega sale to try to keep up it seems, I was in quilty world heaven we can say!  So when I can get caught up, which is hopefully sometime in the near future I will be posting pictures of all of my goodies.  Until then, thanks for waiting for me and chat soon.   :-)

Bigger pic, since a few friends told me the pic above was to much of a tease :-)

2012 September ~ Busy ripping out a quilt, piecing Quilt #10 and traveling :-)

Hi everyone, wow time has been flying by between school starting for my boys and way tooooo many trips to the dentist this past month and a trip to Virginia & Pennsylvania!  Been busy with my seam ripper for the Labyrinth king size quilt that is meant for our own bed and continuing to piece together my Quilt #10 which has 1296 triangles in it, where I am using the 15 Degree Ruler designed by Erin Underwood, here is a link to her awesome quilting blog. She is a professional quilter, instructor and pattern designer.  She is a sweet lady, who is down to Earth and very easy to talk to, she is always willing to give advice when asked!  :-)

My bin of fabrics and completed paper pieces to the left! :-)

My paper piecing pile up haha :-p