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.

Blogging can lead to some unique opportunities...

When I began to blog, I hoped to meet others with similar interests and I have succeeded beyond my expectations. Little did I know, though, that blogs are researched and read by professionals in other walks of life and could lead to other interesting happenings....until two days ago! At that time, I was contacted by a west coast publicist to talk to me about the first-novel of an author for whom she is working. The author is Irene Latham (HERE is her website) from Alabama. She has written a book aimed at young readers (ages 10 and up) that I would classify as historical fiction.....based on the now well-known Gee's Bend quilting community and life there in the early 1930's. I have been offered the exciting opportunity to read the book (title is Leaving Gee's Bend....see cover photo to the right) and to talk about it afterwards on my blog AND to have the author do a guest post or an inteview on this blog for me and for all of you. This book is now in print and has received some very good reviews, so I am quite enthusiastic about being a part of this process. If the book is as good as I expect it to be, I will be happy to "tell the world" (or at least my blogging world and my quilt guild) of a book that contains a heartwarming story of a young quilter leaving the security of her close-knit community for the first time. I anticipate receiving my copy of the book in about a week, so keep looking here for further updates about this and...down the road a bit.....an interview of some type with Ms. Latham. This is a unique opportuniy and I embrace becoming part of helping Ms. Latham to market a book that will give young people a glimpse into the calming, restorative effects of quilting. I'm sure you agree with me that the quilting legacy needs to be cultivated in our young people so it can live on after we are gone. I hope you will join me on this journey and, perhaps, along the way, you might want to get this book and read it, also.

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!

Lakeside Ladies again....

Our neighborhood quilting group met again yesterday...this time at Kaye's house. Linda had just come back from a week-long trip to Ireland and we were happy to see her and hear about her trip. We didn't really do much sewing (mostly talked and ate)....I did a few rows of hand-quilting on my spider web piece and Sherry pulled the paper backing off some of her paper-pieced flowers she is doing. Linda (as she did last time we met) just looked and chatted. LOL (Remember...we love her anyway AND she will resume sewing soon, I'm sure!!!) Joann showed us a few nice items (photos below) and Kaye showed us something. We will meet again in two weeks and will all work on a cute paper-pieced rabbit that is very springlike. Sherry found the project for us and I think it will be a lot of fun. A couple of the gals don't really "get" paper-piecing yet, but if they practice, they will get better at it. (I promised them!! hehehe) Now for some photos of their show and tell....

This is Joann's runner she made using the "fractured diamond" technique I learned from Rhonda and taught to the group at our last get-together.....I think it turned out great and she used fancy stitches from her maching to quilt it (which you can't really tell here).And then we have Joann's butterfly quilt top for her granddaughter...it needs another border yet and it's batting and backing AND the antennas hand-stitched on each butterfly, but it is so pretty.....great colors and fabrics she chose for her little princess!Now we have Kaye's fractured diamond table runner...still needs batting, backing and quilting, but it looks very nice already. (It's sitting on a blue runner Kaye made....so that blue isn't part of her new runner, in case you were wondering.)
One more from Joann....this is what she has completed so far of her row-by-row quilt. We each made a row for her. (The row I made is the second one from the left....you can click on this to enlarge it, if you wish.) She did a lot of work on this during our recent snowstorms. The rest of us have a lot of catching-up to do on this one! And...here we have Linda and Sherry chatting while we had refreshments. We had them early as Linda had to leave early. Linda had a fruit cup....the rest of us had some fresh oranges but also some cheese and crackers AND some yummy donuts!!! We DO love to eat in our group and we never have a shortage of food on hand when we get together! (I think that's a requirement for quilting groups, isn't it?)

Go find Jandi......

I found a new blog yesterday (like I needed another one to read....LOL) and she is having a giveaway. Her name is Jandi and she has relocated her blog to Blogger from Wordpress (where she'd previously been). She said some of her previous followers haven't been able to find her yet...so she is hoping this giveaway helps them to find her. Well...I hadn't been a follower of her on her Wordpress blog, but I DID find her on her new blog! Go have a look if you want to be entered to win her giveaway....which will have at least two nice prizes!!!

Thanks to all who made such nice comments yesterday on my 500th post (and to Gene, who even wrote a cute little poem for the occasion). I am going to look at the comments from the day before I announced the giveaway AND yesterday as well as the next day or two and give one entry to each person who comments and an extra entry to any commenters who are also followers of my blog. I have a few things that will be put into the prize package and I'll try to remember to take a picture of them soon and post it. By the end of this week, I will announce the winner.....so stay tuned!

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

Second post for today....SEW-IN project.....

This is a second post today as I'm supposed to show what I worked on last night during Heidi's "Sew-In" that I mentioned here late yesterday. I sat with the Olympics on TV and did hand-quilting on my spider web table topper. I did stitch-in-the-ditch on 1/4 of the center "web" and also got echo quilting done on 1/4 of the muslin sections (which you can see here). In pictures, it doesn't look like a lot was accomplished but for those of you who do hand-quilting, you know it was several hours worth of work. I'm happy with how it's coming out....I love to do hand-quilting on pieces this size!!!