500 posts!

I am now at 500 posts. That means a giveaway will happen sometime soon. You know my "rules".....do NOT blog about it as I like my giveaways to go to my "regulars". I will decide in the next day or two how I will determine which of you (who follow me regularly) will be the winner......probably by entering the names of everyone who has commented within a certain # of days... and I will let you know about the prize, too. How DID 500 creep up on me here so quickly after my 1-year blog anniversary in November?? LOL

The party's over.........and NO pictures!!!

What a great blogging anniversary with all the terrific comments from all of you. Thanks SO much!!! I have no photos of the party but it was a GREAT one....I can assure you. :)

I spent a good hour tallying everything up last night. I had kept an alphabetical listing of all those who commented on my blog since November 7...and kept track of how many comments they made. As I told you yesterday, one comment = 1 entry, between 2 and 5 comments = 2 entries, between 6 and 10 comments = 4 entries, and 11 or more comments = 8 entries. (See the pattern, I kept doubling the amount of entries as the levels went higher.) Whew.....I have to tell you, it became somewhat of a large chore to keep track and tally all of that....might have been easier in the long run to just give one entry for every comment. BUT......I had to make it harder on myself.....LOL Each of you who commented were assigned numbers.

All totaled, there were 85 different people who commented here since November 7. I am totally blown away by that as I think all but one have been with my blog for awhile now and I appreciate the continuous support. Nobody really knew until a couple of days ago that there was a giveaway tally in progress, so these were all honest-to-goodness regular comments by all of you. What a faithful bunch you are! Some only commented once......two people commented 15 times (more about that in a minute) and the average amount of comments by any one person in that time period seems to be 2.5. (Gotta love fractions, huh??? LOL) How I wish I could give a prize to ALL of you....but, sadly, that isn't going to happen.

SO...without further ado (since there's already been more than enough "talk" here today), I will reveal that the random number generator picked # 121 and that # had been assigned to.........Mary on Lake Pulaski (who commented 7 times so that earned her 4 entries). Now she will need to contact me and select a prize. Here are the options being offered to the winner of my annniversary giveaway: A one-year subscription to either Quiltmaker or McCall's Quilting OR a $20 gift certificate to one of the following: Keepsake Quilting, Connecting Threads, or Joann Fabrics. (If she would prefer a $20 gift certificate to her own local quilt shop, I will arrange that instead.) Congratulations to Mary!!! And...now for the two who commented 15 times.........I am going to send each of you a little squishy envelope in the mail as I feel you deserve some recognition for being such faithful posters here. Those 2 people are Gene Black and "Just Cindy". Please contact me using my email (on my profile page here) so I can get your addresses. Mary on Lake Pulaski, please contact me the same way.

Happy Anniversary to my blog!!!

It's here...the one-year mark for my blog. I thank all of you who made such very nice comments to me yesterday about this. It is hard for me to imagine my life without so many of you in it.......blogging has given me so many new friends and that, to me, has been the best part of my blogging experience. There were times I was sad, and you lifted me up with your prayers and your comments and emails. There were times when I was happy and you shared in my joy. Through you, I was once again reminded of the old proverb that says: "Shared joy is a double joy; and shared sorrow is half a sorrow." I have non-blogging friends who don't understand how this is possible....that people you haven't met in person can become so close to your heart. BUT.....I can't fault them, because if someone had told me (one year and one day ago) that I would gain several very close friends just because of my blog, I'd not have thought that to be possible, either. It has happened, though, and I am grateful for all of you who have reached out to me...some from nearby who I will, hopefully, be able to meet...and some from across many miles, with whom I will, regrettably, probably never have direct contact. Blogging has made the very large world of quilters and crafters become a smaller world to me.....a tight-knit community, and I look forward to many more shared experiences with you, my friends.At the end of today, I will be tallying up the entries for my annniversary giveaway. Those of you who have gotten to know me quite well know that I had a bad experience early in my blogging days of giving away two prizes to people who only surfed around looking for giveaways. One never let me know if the prize arrived to her....and neither of them has ever visited my blog again. (And I can assure you it is NOT because I gave them lousy prizes.....they were really NICE prizes!!!) Since that time, I have had my giveaways just for people who visit my blog on their own...without being sent here to enter a giveaway. This giveaway is the same.....and I am going to give entries as follows: I am counting back since Nov. 7....2 weeks prior to this anniversary date. I have logged all the comments. For those who commented once, you will get 1 entry. Those who commented between 2 and 5 times, will get double that, which means they will each get 2 entries. Keeping up with that doubling policy, folks who commented between 6 and 10 times, will get 4 entries. And those who commented more than 11 times (and there were several, I'm happy to say), will get 8 entries. If there are any who commented EVERY day in that time period, I will send you a small token in the mail as a thank-you for being "here" with me so very often. Tomorrow I will announce the winner of the drawing...and the prize, too. Again...thanks from the bottom of my heart for all you have done for me....and all you have been to me over the past 365 days. Here's to Year # 2........and lots more shared projects and fun!!!

Tomorrow is a special day.......

Tomorrow is a special day. Tomorrow it will be one year since I began this blog. Tomorrow will also be 400 posts for me on this blog. When I began, I challenged myself to try to blog every day....and I have actually exceeded that goal (because once in awhile, there was more than one post a day). I didn't know if anyone would be interested in what I had to say, but you were....and I thank all of you for sticking with me on this journey so far. My posts were not always about quilting.....but you were supportive of me at all times...sharing in my happy moments and caring about me when I was upset or sick or worried about something. I treasure the friends I have made here. I am not certain I will continue to post EVERY day once I reach my goal tomorrow, but I will post frequently....I am sure of that....because I have enjoyed posting and reading all of your blogs, too.

For the past two weeks, I have been keeping very close tabs on the comments on my blog.....and each of you who have commented have been given entries in my anniversary giveaway. (The more you commented, the more entries you got.) I will explain it all in greater detail tomorrow and reveal the prize and the winner before the weekend is over.

For now, I leave you with this photo of a very primitive-looking, folksy turkey wall-hanging using homespun fabric for the background (so it would look rustic). I am not sure if I showed this last year.....but if I did, I'm hoping anyone who remembers won't mind seeing it again. It's not a fancy, complicated piece, but I like the way it looks hanging in my kitchen at this time of year.