Good morning everyone! Well it is the last day of an amazing year and I am feeling reflective. There has been many changes in my world, much progress and a lot of personal growth. I have made decisions that define who I am and what is important to me. The God I serve is top priority, followed by family and my friends as always. My own personal growth and what I do with my life are next. This coming year I do promise myself to continue on my journey of discovery. I will continue as a GetQuit Ambassador, traveling all over the country to let people know that  they can stop smoking, I will continue to create quilts for family, friends and charity,  I will do a better job on my blog, I will learn something new this year, I will continue to pay it forward, and I will continue to thank God for loving me and blessing me.

If you are reading this I invite you to reflect on your own life. To make a promise to yourself to be the best "you" you can be and to pay it forward. Help those who are walking the same path to do the same. We all have something to give to the world, it is up to us to find out what that something is.

I do wish you peace and prayers on your journey. May you find both when you visit me here.
missd

Merry Christmas and thank you for visiting here. It is Christmas eve, again, and I am finally finishing last minute gifts, again. I am sure you all know how that goes. We make promises to ourselves to start in July next year and be done the week before Christmas. And before we even get started we are behind!

I have spent a fair amount of time looking back on this year and I am amazed at what has taken place and how blessed we all are! I am thankful for so much that it is hard to know where to start. I retired from a very stressfull job after 8 years of it, bought a new car, completed an 18 year old quilt, (it was started in 1991), became an after-school care giver for two 6 year olds, quit smoking after 40 years and nine attempts at quitting, became a GetQuit Ambassador for Pfizer Pharmeceuticles (as a motivational speaker to get others to quit), convinced to my 83 year old mom that if she can sew, she can piece quilt tops together,(she did two full size tops this month and loves it), spent her 83 birthday with her, committed to 5 monthly block swaps,started a collection of siggies, and met a whole bunch of  wonderful people in the on-line quilting world. How blessed my life is and how grateful I am to my Lord and Savior for all that is mine because of His love.

So I take a moment out of this day to wish the baby Jesus a Happy Birthday, and to say Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family. May the Good Lord bless and keep you.

missd

Good Morning...I am still playing around with this site. It is Christmas  time so I will leave this up for the holidays and come back to choosing a new look for the blog after the New year!

I just got back from a trip to Charlotte North Carolina. What a beautiful spot on earth and the people are wonderfully friendly. I spent a week there doing GetQuit clinics and loved every minute of it! Now I am home and busy catching up on blogging and quilting and swapping, etc. You know how it goes...you never get caught up! I am just lucky enough to keep up...barely! Mailed off 3 blocks and 2 siggies this morning, them turned right around and signed up for another swap! Farm theme..12 block swap due feb 15th! Wish me luck.

If you are reading this I am hosting a Pay It Forward and need 3 people who would like to receive a little hand made gift from me. They in turn would sign up 3 others and make gifts for them. You have a year to get the gifts made and sent. All you have to do is make a comment here on this blog and copy the PIF logo to yuur site! Easy and fun, and I promise you a cute little something within 30 days!

Ok...gotta make a run to the fabric store to pick up interfacing for a pin-strip suit jacket I am making for my daughter. Have a blessed day!

Peace and prayers to all who enter here

Hello everyone,

I am trying out a new look on this site. Do you like it? Please be honest...I want it to be attractive and appropriate...so feel free to post your true feelings about it! It is kinda quilty..

I just got back from Jacksonville Florida GetQuit clinics. We did a clinic at the Mayport Navy Station and things went great there. Now I have this weekend to rest and quilt and quilt and rest. Its my R&R, then off to Charlotte South Carolina for 5 days. My quilting time has had a big bite taken out of it so some of the Christmas gifts I was planning on making may not get made! But it is for a good cause and getting quit for Christmas would be the greatest gift for a smoker! don't you think? I know I would give up a Christmas gift to get someone to quit smoking!

I am still sending out a challange for all of you quilters: I am inviting you to a Pay It Forward Challange. It works like this: If you would like to participate in a PIF please post a comment here. Hopefully three brave souls will be interested - if more than three express interest I will draw names to determine the winners. The three people chosen will get a small, handmade gift from me within the next year.  They in turn would issue the challange to their quilting friends. If you decide to participate just  post this logo on your blog along with a PIF challage. It is a lot of fun and I hope my quilty friends are up to keeping it out there.

That's it for now...gotta  pack  for tomorrows trip.

Peace and Prayers
missd

Hello to you all.....Still recovering from Thankagiving dinner by eating more turkey! We aare a small family these days but my daughter still cooks a big, wonderful Thanksgiving Day dinner for us. This year it was my daughter Robin, her 6 year old son Billy, my son Robert, my mom (who is visiting from Illinois for the winter), and myself. We  enjoyed each others company and our big old fashion dinner and now we are getting back to our daily routines. I am attending a donor appreciation luncheon at the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center on Monday. I am honored to meet someone whose life was saved by mulitiple blood transfusions, and I happen to be one of the donors. Then on Wednesday I am off to Jacksonville Fla  for more GetQuit Clinics. For more information on this go to http://www.mygetquitstory.blogspot.com/. Of course I am quilting and sewing, and block swapping,  and thinking about christmas gifts and how many will actually be finished in time. We live life abundantly because we live blessed lives! Every day I thank God for the life He has given me. It is part of the reason I do what I do!

Today I am inviting you to a Pay It Forward Challange. It works like this:  If you would like to participate in a PIF please post a comment here. Hopefully three brave souls will be interested - if more than three express interest I will draw names to determine the winners. The three people chosen will get a small, handmade gift from me within the next year and must post this logo on their blog along with a PIF entry. I will choose the participants a week from today.

Peace and Prayers
missd

Good Morning...It is almost Thanksgiving and I have rested up from my GetQuit Clinics in Charleston, West Virginia. I am so happy with the results and very moved by the stories people have. I look forward to my next round in December. If you or someone you know is trying to quit smoking please visit http://www.mygetquitstory.blogspot.com/. Helpful information and my quit story is there. Yours can be too, as soon as you succeed in getting quit! You can do it with treatment and support! Now back to my 2nd passion...quilting:

When I returned home I had a lovely siggie from Helen of Aunt Hennys Blogspot. I also have 2 ready to mail out this afternoon. These little blocks are so much fun to make and to receive. If you want to join in our fun go to www.quiltsandsiggies.web-log.nl . Annelies in the Netherland manages this swap..and has a beautiful siggie herself.

WIPs:
I am currently trying to finish some heavy quilting for Quilts for Kids. It is such a pretty little quilt and I have filled it with love. It requires heavy quilting because it will be given to a child in the hospital and will be washed and dryed  in industrial washers and dryers. If you are into quilting for charity go to http://www.quiltsforkids.org/. They will send you precut fabric for the top and instructions for making it. It is a good thing, and I plan on sending an extra quilt and some gallon plastic bags. I don't believe they ask for too much. God bless them for what they do.

My GetQuit Story

I have a story to tell. It is my GetQuit story.

It started when I got married. I was married at an early age and to an older man. He smoked and all of his friends smoked. Since I was the youngest person in the group, I started smoking too, so I would fit in with my husband and all of his friends. It was what you did in my little town, you got married, you drank, you smoked. You were a grown up and that is what the grown-ups did.

My husband and I were married for 30 years before he passed away. We raised 3 children and they all grew up to be smokers. All 3 of them also married smokers. My daughter, like her mom, married an older man. After trying for 13 years they finally had a son. His name is Willard Lee, after both of his grandfathers. We call him Billy. Due to a tramatic head injury my son in law was unable to work, so for financial reasons, the 4 of us moved in together. Sadly Billy's daddy passed away 2 months before Billy's 4th birthday. We told Billy his daddy was in heaven. One day Billy came to me and said "Nana, if you and mama go to heaven too, who will take care of me?" I held on to this little child as tight as I could and promised him that I, and his mama, were going to be here with him for a very, very long time. Even when he was a grown up man, we would be here for him. That seemed to satisfy Billy, but it did more than that for me. It changed my life forever. I looked into those angel eyes and I knew that I would have to do everything within my power to make sure I would be around that long. I knew the first thing that I would have to do is to quit smoking.

So, after 40 years of smoking and nine failed attempts at quitting, I made an appointment with my family doctor. He had been nagging me for 3 years to quit. I told him I was ready and would need some help. He prescribed Chantix, a prescription drug that is suppose to help people quit smoking. So I took it home and put it on my dresser, and promptly forgot about it. I also continued to smoke. Three months later, back at the doctor for diabetic blood work up, and he asked how the quitting was going. I had to tell him I never filled the prescription. He gave me another lecture and another prescription, which I filled on my way home. I put it on my dresser, and promptly forgot about it.

Finally, in late July I said to myself: OK...its now or never. I swore this was not going to be another failed quit attempt, because this time I had made a promise and a committment that I intended to keep. I set my quit date as 08-08-08 just because it sounded cool. I did smoke that first week because I could, but I took the Chantix as directed and signed up for the on-line e-mail support and the 7:00pm phone call. I credit this wonderful support program with helping me quit. I received a phone call every evening at 7:00pm. It became a matter of pride to push the button on the phone that said no, I did not smoke that day. And I did take it one day at a time and I know you won't believe me, but it was easy! I had no nicotine withdrawal symtoms at all and I had the support program. The e-mails came every day, then once a week, then monthly and lasted for a year. They gave me little exercises to do, they informed me of changes taking place as my lungs healed, and they taught me ways to handle situations where I might be tempted to light up. More importantly, they taught me to think of my self as a non-smoker.

Now, one year, 2 months and 28 days later I am still smoke free. I am also honored to have been chosen as a GetQuit Ambassador. I get to travel all over the United States and tell my Quit Story to others who face the challanges and the struggles of quitting. Hopefully, God willing, I can pay it forward. Maybe what I say will give some else the courage to find their own motivation to quit.

So, little sister Tammie, that is why I am thankful for Chantix. It enpowered me to become a non-smoker and to  keep my promise to a little boy with angel eyes.

Viva La Siggies

I just mailed off my first siggie to Annelies in the Netherlands. I am so excited to get in on this. I will recieve a list from her with names and addresses of people from all over the world. And we will swap siggies! How exciting is that!! If anyone out there wants in on this here is the link: www.quiltsandsiggies.web-log.nl

 

Hello happy quilters where ever you are! I have been so busy lately, but I did get the baby quilt finished and mailed to Ohio. My neice likes it and so do I. Now I am finishing up some projects for a school fund raiser. Its not even Billy's school. It is a school on the sounthside near the shop where I work. Did I mention that I have a part time job. I only work 2 or 3 days a week but it does provide me cash to support my quilty pleasures! And I love where I work! It is at a well known fabric shop (and it is not JoAnns) and I feel like I have the world's biggest stash! I spend my time caressing and folding the fabric and planning this quilt and that bag for this person or that one. It is tons of fun! I am known there as the "Material Girl". But I digress, I am making some lap quilts and some baby quilts, quilted bags, etc, etc. I will be at their craft show next month selling my little home made goodies.

I am also in a "fall"mini quilt swap and I have been playing with several designs. So far I need to quilt one, which I will keep, and put together the 2nd one which will go to my partner as soon as I find out who that is. I have just mailed off the 2nd square in my block swap with 2 sisters and 2 friends.

Oh yeah..I do have a sister story to tell! Only because I did promise her this would end up on my blog. My youngest sister (who shall remain nameless and lives in Vermont) sent me a beautiful Maple Leaf block in pale, muted blue and green. Two of my favorite colors. I was soooo impressed with her work! All of the seams were exactly 1/4 inch, they were all pressed in the right direction and the square was as pretty on the back side as it was on the front. I found out she also sent the same pattern block to our sister in Illinois. I was proud to call such a talented quilter my sister! I even bragged on her work on my Facebook page! The night after that she called me and said she had a confession to make. The blocks she sent to us were not made by her! She received them in a round robin and decided to send them to us because they were extras! She thought this was funny! Now to make up for her conniving deception she is sending me 20 more to complete a whole quilt! I guess she had a "quilty consciounce" But I am the winner, I have a whole quilt to put together and she has to make me another block for the swap! Yipee!

OK..enough tonight, I have about 3 lap quilts that need some binding hand hemmed on the back side and a grandson who wants me to play Hangman with him....so peace and prayers till next time.

missd