Happy mail.....

Don't you love happy mail? I got some the other day....a quilt magazine and two packages. One package was expected.....a super-nice blogging pal in FL offered to loan me her Little Twister ruler. (Thanks, Jackie....you are a real sweetheart!) Click on her name to read her fun blog!
The second package was a total surprise from another great blogging friend, Sandi. Some of you know her already....but if not, click on her name to get to her blog, which is also a wonderful one! This is what Sandi gave me......a super-cute penguin door panel. There are several smaller penguins in the directions, so I have a lot of possibilities of things to make with this. (Sandi knows I am fond of penguins!) And......she also sent these goodies pictured below.....a great penguin mug for me (the red one) along with some yummy-flavored hot cocoa mixes. I had a caramel one last night and it was super-delicious!!! She also sent a penguin mug that can be changed out to make your own design and that is for my granddaughter (she will use it when she is here....she'll enjoy that). There are also some fabric pieces....a sparkly green one.......and one with critters (including a penguin) in the snow and a Hello Kitty one which I hope my granddaughter will want to use if she sews with me again here next summer. The little sheep is an adorable notecard on which Sandi wrote a very nice note to me. I appreciate that she took time over the past several months to put together a surprise penguin package for me!Thanks to both of you for being such good friends in Blogland. I do hope to meet each of you someday!

Fabric in my mailbox.....

I recently won the first prize on Pat G's blog and she sent me these 3 pretty fat quarters. Thanks, Pat!I think I am going to take the easy way out and make a set of reversible, fall placemats with NO piecing. I'll use the fabrics below.....the apple fabric on one side....the gourd/pumpkin fabric on the other side and the green for the binding. I am not good at making multiples of the same thing, so I figure it will be easier for me to stick with this if I make them simple...and it can't get much simpler than this!!! LOL

What I will be doing today.....

I am going with the quilt guild on a bus trip to Oaks, PA, to see the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza show (it's a Mancuso show). It should be a fun day. I am wearing my GO! t-shirt...yup...I am. I know which vendor is supposed to be demonstrating the GO at the show and if anyone asks me about my shirt, I will direct them to that booth. Good idea, huh? :-)

Two other things to mention today....one is to click on HERE to go to a blog that is having a fun giveaway for her 100th post. It is Barb from Pinelands Patches and she makes some really great things, so you'll like her prizes!!! (You could tell her I sent you.....just so she knows I DID tell others about the giveaway and didn't try to keep the news quiet so I could improve my own odds of winning...LOL)

And...the last item on today's agenda is to show you a photo of a nice package I got from my friends, Brooke and Greg........Isn't that cute, squishie ball great? Click on the photo to see what the ball says. I like everything they sent but that little hand strengthening ball is especially terrific!!! Thanks to them for the nice surprises!

TWO reasons to "celebrate".....

Yesterday was the first day of spring and that was certainly reason to celebrate.....especially since we had weather in the mid-70's, sunshine, blue skies and got a good bit of yardwork (cleanup from winter) done yesterday AND had chicken barbecued on the grill for dinner!

The second reason was that yesterday was National Quilting Day. I was so busy with yardwork that I didn't get to the sewing machine until about 7:30 last night. I'll put a couple of photos below of what I did......as it's a work in progress and I'm not yet decided on the final setting for it.

AND....as a special treat on National Quilting Day, I got MORE Royal Mail from Jan in England. You can see in the photo what she sent me......an adorable quilted bag she made and the handles are so darned cute....braided fabric. Don't you love it? It is the perfect size to pop a hand-sewing project inside to carry along somewhere. She also included another one of her wonderful fabric postcards. What a terrific surprise to get this and for it to arrive on National Quilting Day!!! Thanks, Jan!

Now for the photos of the "Welcome Spring" project I started yesterday....first is one of the blocks. It's a tulip (and I actually made this first block a week or so back). Last night, I made 3 more tulip blocks and a block that will be the center if I make a long runner or if I make a table topper. There are a few ideas I have in my head and all will require either setting triangles or some additional pieces of fabric, but I got too tired to continue last night, so I'll ponder this for a bit now before I proceed with it. Here's that single tulip block...Maybe this way (but with one more tulip block on each side and maybe turning the tulips in various directions)?Or maybe this way (with one more tulip block on each side) AND setting triangles....which is what the pattern suggests)?Or maybe instead of a runner, it will become a table topper or even a wall-hanging! (I have a few more ideas but was too lazy to take any further photos.)

More fun mail.......

So...some of you thought I couldn't do it....couldn't break myself of a daily post here. Well...did you notice I did NOT post yesterday? LOL Actually, it IS funny....because I had two emails sent to me asking if everything was okay since I'd not done a blog post. (It's nice to know I was missed after just one day of not posting.....hehehe)

Anyway.....I got a nice package in the mail on Thursday. The contents are pictured in this photo. Just click on it and gaze on all those super goodies!!!

It was from Sandi. She has a great Wooly Buddies group that enjoys working with wool and wool felt. I am part of that group. She had been wanting to send me some wool scraps and that was in the box...and I LOVE them. She also sent me a cute cat applique book to borrow so I can make some of the projects and a fun recipe book for many things chocolate...YUMMMMMM!!! She also included a cute little bag with her Wooly Buddies "mascot" on it and a nice little note she wrote on the inside of the bag to me. Anyone who knows Sandi is aware of what a sweetheart she is and I thank her for this wonderful package.

And the winner is........

And the winner is......TANGO ......she won my 500th post giveaway. I am still putting the prize package together and I sent Tango an email so she knows it won't be on its way to her until next week. I'm also not going to show it on here so the contents will be a surprise for her. (I'll try to remember to show it once it has been received by her.) Here is how I determined the winner: if you commented on the day I announced the giveaway, you got your name entered once. If you commented the day BEFORE I announced the giveaway, you got another entry. If you commented the day AFTER, you got another entry. And......I know who my "regulars" are, so they each got one extra entry....so 18 of you got 4 chances to win. You know I'm all about getting the prizes into the hands of my followers rather than someone who just surfs around blogs looking for giveaways! Thanks to all of my faithful readers for sticking with me. You know I have blogged daily for 15 months now....but you need to know that I am going to cut back a bit...probably to 3 or 4 times a week soon. This will allow me more time to READ blogs, which I really love to do. So....when you get up one morning and don't "find" me, don't worry! I'll be back in a day or two. LOL

Now...here is a picture of my mail yesterday........two squishy envelopes arrived. The first contained this cottage block....the March block for the 12-month cottage block swap I'm doing. There is only one block left (we began last May). This has been a lot of fun!The next squishy envelope contained 40 fabric hearts. Pat G (click HERE for her blog) had a giveaway of these and a few of us were lucky enough to win them. I want to brush up my skills on appliquing hearts....I know there was a "trick" I was taught about that....and then I can make something with these!

A nice Valentine's Day.....

I hope all of you had a nice Valentine's Day. We had a nice Valentine's visit with our daughter and granddaughter (but we were tired.....it was nearly a 3-hour ride up and then back late yesterday afternoon/early evening). I will go through the few photos I took and get the better ones on the blog in the next day or two. In the meantime, I realize I forgot to show some packages I've gotten recently.....so here are a few photos of those.....

An adorable penguin lotion / soap dispenser Karen from Sew Many Ways bought and sent to me since she knows I am a penguin "nut"......if you have never visited her Tool Time Tuesday feature on her blog, you are really missing something GREAT!
Really pretty green rose fabric from Barb of Bejeweled Quilts by Barb...it looks grainy because of my photography, but it is really nice, soft cotton and I love it a lot!A random prize drawing I won from Pat at Quilting Can be Fun....
Handy tools.......a nice coaster and a beautiful fat quarter....Yummy white wool, a nice cookbook and a great handmade note from Sandi at
A Legacy of Stitches (which I won in her recent Wooly Buddies virtual retreat)A pretty fabric tablecloth from a good friend, Ev, who has no blog (and doesn't quilt....tells me she can barely thread a needle....LOL) She said if I don't like the tablecloth or it doesn't fit my table, I can cut it up and use the fabric. I need to get my table cleared of clutter to see if it fits, because I DO like the tablecloth a lot.With gifts like this in the mail, I didn't even mind seeing a few bills amongst them. LOL I hope you visit the blogs I highlighted above if you are not familiar with them, as they are really fun blogs to read!

The best-laid plans.....

Well...no sewing yesterday as I finished one batch of medical typing and got yet another. I decided to do that one right away.....so maybe now I will have a few days with NO typing. Today we are going to NJ for the day to see our daughter and one of the granddaughters. I will be sure to take a couple of photos! We've not seen them since the week before Christmas when we were caught in a bad snowstorm up there, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. So...new sewing yesterday BUT a nice "present" came for me....let's call it my Valentine's gift to myself.....it came in this wild, neon pink envelope. (I didn't even know envelopes were available in that color!!!) It is the newest book from quilt designer, Judy Laquidara......"Weekend Quilts". Judy is a very gifted, creative individual and she has a blog that is a lot of fun. If you want to visit her blog, click HERE and tell her that Pat in Delaware sent you! She puts a lot of free patterns on her blog and is just a fun / funny person....and her blog is one I truly enjoy. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to all of you!!!

What a MAIL day!!!

Gee......I laid down yesterday for a nap so my arm would get some rest and not be in use all afternoon long. When I got up, hubby told me to look out in the kitchen as there was mail for me. Was there ever?? Wow!!! There were 3 things. I dug into them like a kid on Christmas morning. Here is what I got.....

This first one wasn't a surprise, but it was appreciated.....the baggies of swap fabric from Pat M (Ooglebloops...click to see her blog). Yippee!!! Barb's arrived the other day from Amerika Samoa....and now this one. It is fun to open these as they arrive.....and 9 more are expected in the next few weeks! (I know...I know...I didn't show the fabric....the participants just have to wait until they get their swap stuff early in February!!) Thanks for getting this here well before the deadline, Pat.
Next was a surprise package I knew was being sent...but I didn't know what was in it. A blogging friend from Texas....PAT (click to see her blog).......said I had inspired her to pick up and work on finishing a quilt she started when her granddaughter was little...and now this granddaughter is about to graduate. (I'm not quite sure how I inspired her to do that, but.......she said I did, so who am I to argue....right?) Anyway...she said she had something for awhile that she'd hoped to make and decided she'd rather give it to me now. Isn't that fun?? It's a cute pattern, as you can see, making hearts out of log-cabin blocks. I'm thinking after I do that, I can easily use that idea to make a shamrock out of log-cabin blocks!!! Thanks, Pat!!! (Must have been "Pat" day....first two things FROM gals named Pat and TO a gal named Pat....LOL)The last package was a real surprise. I saw it was from Tonya (click to see her blog) and was certain I knew what was inside the box.......another set of fabric baggies for the green no-sew block swap. Well...was I ever wrong!!! You can see what "popped" out of that box when I opened it.....It's a Jim Shore angel ornament!!! Yippee!!! This little gal will stay out with the collection all year long, but she will be hung lovingly on my tree next year. Tonya said she had this angel for awhile and wanted me to have her. She also sent some candy (which you know I'll enjoy!!!) The angel was wrapped in lots of pieces of batting and fiberfill.........so I can use that with small sewing projects. Thanks, Tonya.......this was very kind of you and such a surprise, too!

Recent mailbox goodies.....

Recently I got two fun things in the mail. One was a giveaway from Rhonda. She does wonderful pieces on her embroidery machine and gives one a month away to her followers. She had said the winner could choose which one they wanted this time......and I was unable to decide, so I told her to surprise me. This is the one she sent. Doesn't she do terrific work? I am thinking about what to make from it....have considered putting it on the front of a tote...using it to make a cover for a throw pillow.....using it as the center for a wall-hanging. I'd welcome other ideas, too. THANKS, Rhonda, for a terrific piece of your embroidery!The other goody that came in the mail was a nice card and note from Sandi. She sent me a card to tell me she was thinking of me after my recent skin cancer surgery on my forehead. She included a nice pattern (as you can see in the photo below). I loved what she said in her note (which you can probably read if you click on it to enlarge it). I guess she was very amused by my recent posts about the bottomless Amish shopping bag and the HUGE head of cabbage I bought in the Amish area of PA. Thanks, Sandi. You are a real sweetheart!

Check out Linda's giveaway.....

Linda of Fiber Fabrications (click HERE) is having a multi-day giveaway. Be sure to check it out. She is adding something to it each day!!!

See the cute Superior Scribblers' Award on my sidebar? I will blog about that in the next few days.

Connecting Threads was having a book sale (still going on, in case you are interested). They are offering 40% off all in-stock books and if you order more than $50 worth, you get free shipping. Here are the books I got.....click on them to see them larger. I'm happy with all of them!!! I hope to make many (if not all) the blocks in the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (Elm Creek Quilts) book....but I see some have Y seams and I'm kind of afraid of them. Do any of you have advice about Y seams (or know of a good tutorial for them?)

GREAT mail day and update on tree incident....

To update you on the tree incident......the land owner is cutting down TODAY 3 of the 6 potentially hazardous trees. Said they can't all be cut because then others might want trees cut, too....BUT...in my opinion, others haven't had one of his trees come down on their house, so that should make a difference. At least having 3 of the trees down is better than none, though, so for now, I'll have to settle for that. The insurance company said the contractor we wanted is on their Preferred Contractor list, which is great....and they have already come out to begin the assessment. If things go as planned and the weather is okay, work should start next Monday. thanks to all of you for the very supportive comments and emails. You made a scary, bad situation a lot better for me....really, you did. So...now onto my mail goodies.

Yesterday was a great mail day for me! I got 3 packages. Can you believe it??? I am SO lucky to have such great blogging friends. First of all, I got the August cottage for the year-long cottage swap. This one was made by Jean (click HERE for her blog). She told us she was taking photos of each of us in our beach attire and putting them in our cottage windows, which I thought was a super-wonderful idea. I look pretty darned good, don't I? Click photo to see me in greater detail!!! (And Kaye.....you can attest to the fact that this is JUST the way I look at the pool, right??? LOL)Next, is a package I got from Sandi. (Click HERE for her quilting blog.) She sent this great cookbook from the library in her hometown are of Iowa. I love those kinds of cookbooks with recipes by REAL PEOPLE instead of all kinds of fancy, gourmet stuff. Thanks, Sandi, for thinking of me.The third package was from "Upstate Lisa". (Click HERE for her blog.) She does terrific dying of fabrics and has been my "mentor" for when I get ready to leap into this....which will be soon, I hope. She surprised me by sending me this cutely wrapped piece of fabric she'd dyed along with notes from a workshop she attended on dying fabric. The picture following this one shows the piece of fabric opened up. Isn't it GORGEOUS? I just want to LOOK at it for awhile and will find it very hard (maybe even impossible) to cut this one up, ya know? Thanks, Lisa, for the fabric and for the "mentoring".

Blogger friends are THE BEST.....

Don't you just love all the friends you have made since you started to "hang out" in Blogland??? I do!!! I consider myself very lucky to have made some really good friends...and we often email in addition to visiting each other's blogs and I have even met some bloggers in person now and talked to a couple of others on the phone. So....yesterday's mail delivery brought me my Joann's flyer AND two surprise packages from blogging pals. What fun that was!!!The two packages (shown below) were from two really nice blogging buddies who surprised me by sending me some fabric to be used in my batik quilt. I was very touched by their kindness....and I am happy to add the batiks to my quilt (in progress). The first photo shows the fabrics I got from Barb in American Samoa. (Click HERE for her blog.) The photo should enlarge if you click on it. She sent two great batiks and also a floral Samoan fabric, which I love. (I have a few pieces of Samoan fabric now from her and can see a Samoan floral quilt in my not-too-distant future! Thanks, Barb, for my surprise package. Look below that photo for the contents of the second surprise package.
The second surprise package was from Jocelyn. (Click HERE for her blog.) She sent me these lovely batiks after she read that I was doing an all-batik quilt. These are pieces she'd not be using and she thought they should go to someone who would put them to good use....and I will. Thanks, Jocelyn, for thinking of me!

Mailbox goodies.......

Earlier in the week, I blogged about a giveaway I'd won from the Patchwork Penguin blog (click HERE for that blog). I won 12 very nicely-coordinated fat quarters. They arrived on Wednesday and this is a photo of them. Don't you just love the colors and patterns? They will go well with the colors in my home. (You should be able to click it to enlarge it.) I think they are VERY pretty and can't wait to decide on a project for them. Thanks, Nancy!Also on Wednesday, I got a wonderful birthday package from Sandi of A Legacy of Stitches (click HERE for that blog). She also has a couple of other great blogs and owns a couple of Yahoo groups that are terrific. (You can find info about that on her blog, if you wish...or email me to ask.) Anyway.....below is a photo of that package. She included so many goodies for me......a wonderful pattern of hers, a recipe booklet, an inspirational booklet, two lovely fat quarters, a red/white/blue dish towel, some post-it notes, and a great book to make paper-pieced quilt labels (she knows I LOVE paper-piecing), and a very cute card that has special meaning as there is a sheep on it and I'm part of her Wooly Buddies Yahoo group! Thanks, Sandi.....this was a nice surprise to get in the mail.
My birthday was very nice......went to lunch with a few gals. I was going to eat dinner out, too, but I was honestly too full from lunch, so I'll do dinner out another night soon. Hubby surprised me with a Nintendo DS Lite unit and an extra game for it. The grandkids will now think Grammy is "cool" since they have those units, too! (MY games are harder than theirs, though....LOL) I got very nice cards from our daughter and the grandkids. They had hoped to come here for the day but between her work schedule and an injury she got at work (might be a torn meniscus), she was unable to come. With the horrible downpours of rain we've had, I'd not have been too comfortable with her being on the road with the kids in that kind of weather anyway.

I want to thank the many of you who contacted me with birthday wishes, which were very much appreciated. And also, I am happy that so many of you went to the Ooglebloops' blog I mentioned and were able to help her get BEYOND her hoped-for 40 followers! You folks are the best!!! OH...and Woo-Hoo....folks from Latvia, Lithuania, and Ireland checked in on my blog yesterday....such fun to see so many countries and states represented now on my flag counters.

Mail call....

When I got home from my trip to NJ, there was a package waiting for me. A blogger buddy (Julie from Texas.....click HERE for her blog) had a giveaway a week or two back. She was giving away items she either had already used and wouldn't use again or just realized she'd not ever use. She wanted them to go to homes that would use them. She let her regular followers comment on which ones they wanted...and the first to speak up for certain items would get them. (She was the inspiration for me to start to purge my collection of books and patterns.) Anyway....I was lucky enough to get two of her items....a book with 12 different table runner patterns and a block kit (complete with all the fabric needed for it). These two prizes are pictured below. Thanks, Julie!

Another fun package in the mail.....

Now...before any of you start commenting about how lucky I am and teasing me that I win too many giveaways, let me set you straight on THIS one. It was NOT a giveaway. A really fun and talented blogging friend, Rachel (p.s. i quilt blog...click HERE to find her) had a bartering post one day recently. I sent her some fabrics she liked that I didn't need and she sent me these two books. She also was nice enough to include this adorable little doll quilt she made and named "Secret Butterfly Garden" because of the butterflies formed in the fabric. She told me it was a Mother's Day gift for me and included the sweetest note. She is a sweetheart and I love this package I got from her yesterday.

Mail call... what FUN!!!!!

I had another GREAT mail call day the other day.......got TWO packages!!! Yippee!!! One was from my blogging pal, Barb, in American Samoa. (Click here to see her blog.) The other was from a non-blogging quilter friend, Denise (Denny) in PA. The first photo shows the package from Barb. She had 8 hand-pieced fan blocks she didn't need, so she offered them to me. I can't wait to work with them. She was also kind enough to include a piece of GORGEOUS pink fabric that is SO tropical. I just LOVE it and will have to think of just the right project for that fabric.
The next photo shows Mr. Frog. Denny made him for me and he has special significance for both of us. FROG stands for either "fully rely on God" or "forever rely on God".....both very nice sentiments to remember when times are tough and you are under stress. I am so lucky to have a friend like her to make this special gift for me when she knew I was having a rough week. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful quilting friends who have reached out to me this week.....and I thank God for them every day.

Mail call....again!!! Yippee!!!

On January 21, I did an online order of some wool felt from Prairie Point Junction. I was SO happy when it arrived on January 24. Now that is great service to get it from Nebraska to Delaware so quickly, don't you agree? Look at what was in my order.....a sampler box of 6 x 6 squares of ALL their colors of wool felt (all 78 of them WITH a DMC thread color chart to show which threads best coordinate with them).....several 12 inch x 18 inch pieces of some of the colors....and a pattern called A Basket of Eggs (set of 5 wool pincushions) by Debbie Lofgren for Little Stitches. Woo-Hoo!!! I love ALL of it. Since I truly enjoy hand-work and have loved my recent work with wool/felt, I am going to really get a lot of hours of enjoyment out of the contents of this package!!! Thanks, Julie and staff at Prairie Point Junction!

LOVE to get goodies in the mail......

Before I talk about my goodies, I have to tell you how surprised I was to find that Sandi (click here for her blog) named me as her Blog Pick of the Week. You can find mention of this in her January 22 blog posting and my blog is also mentioned on the sidebar of her blog. Thanks, Sandi.....that is very sweet of you and such a nice surprise for me!

Now...onto my mail...........In recent days, I was very lucky at the mailbox. I got two fun packages. One was from Peggy in NJ. She made me a really great donut pincushion. Isn't it CUTE? Thanks, Peggy. I love it!The other package was my prize from Debi as part of her Whirl Into Winter giveaway that recently ended. I've always looked at jelly rolls and drooled at them but never bought one. Now I have one of my own and need to give thought to what I'll make with this lovely collection of Moda fabrics. Thanks, too, Debi, for the other little goodies tucked into the box. I love my prizes!