Gifts From Afar

A couple of weeks ago I won these wonderful Kaffe Fassett fabrics from Paula at The Quilter. I was thrilled to say the least. I'm terrible at picking out bright colors and now I have these beautiful ones all coordinated for me. I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet but it's going to be great fun deciding! Paula lives in Colorado and I was just a few miles away from her when we were there in September!

And then a few days later I got another package in the mail. This was a birthday present from my cousin Carol. She knows I love aprons so she got me this traditional German apron when she was there. It's a beautiful blue and much too pretty to wear....except on special occasions. Is today special? :) Carol lives in Oklahoma and I'm hoping to see her soon!

Economic Stimulus Package, Gifts, Awards

Ya'll I have been so excited to stay at home today and out of this horrible wind that it's 3:30 and I'm still in my pajamas! I do plan to take a shower soon and put on clean pajamas. Don't you just love days like that?

This Rodeo Clown fabric is some I found at the quilt shop in Quitman, Texas. I just loved it but they only had 2 fat quarters. Of course, I bought both! I think I can get 4 of these squares (not all are the same) out of each fat quarter and together with some other cowboy fabric and some basic solids I think I can make a pretty cute kid's quilt.

These are the things I bought at The Lone Star Quilt Shop in Arlington, Texas. There's a cute wool Halloween pattern, a great big tote bag pattern, a really cute rag quilt pattern, and a small wallhanging wool kit.

Of course I also found a couple of books and two pieces of fabric. This was my contribution to the Economic Stimulus Package!

I recently participated in a Valentine Swap and got this wonderful scarf and matching covered buttons from Harley at Koala Fuzz. I forgot to take a picture of the other side but it's made from Moda squares and in wonderful colors! Harley says she is fairly new to sewing but I think if she's new at it she's definitely a natural! Won't this be fun to wear?

And look at this cute Attitude of Gratitude Award I got from Grammy Staffy at Grammy's News. She says I take lemons and make lemonade. To tell the truth, I love lemons with salt and I love lemonade so it's a win/win situation for me. :) Just kidding, of course, but my personal philosophy leans towards the glass half full side rather than the glass half empty.

A Most Wonderful Gift And A Special Friend

One of the greatest blessings of this new blog culture is the ability to meet and become friends with others all over the world. When I first began to post and to read the blogs written by others I found Bonnie at Calamity Jane's Cottage. In a relatively short time (since April), she and I have become friends. I don't say that lightly. It feels to me like Bonnie is a neighbor - you know the kind I mean? The kind you drop in on for coffee and she's tickled you're there. The kind you can call and say, "oh I'm so aggravated at my husband, or my kids, or the mail person," and she will know that it's just for the moment and nothing major. In her case, it's not really a drop in but it seems that way. Last week when I got home from the visit to my sister that resulted in a huge car repair bill Bonnie sent me a present. Not just any present, not just a small present. Bonnie sent me a HUGE present. After scurrying around to find the scissors, cutting off the tape, and opening the box, here is what I found. Bonnie made me this beautiful purse. And ya'll she personalized it! If you've read my blog like Bonnie has you will know that a) my initials are MB, 2) I am a Christian first and foremost, but I am not 3) an angel, and my confessions prove it! However, you will note on the hands of the angel her 4) fingernails. One of my confessions was to wearing fake fingernails for the last 20 years. However, I took them off about 6 weeks and am still suffering from the post-acrylic yucky looking nails. :(

I am a 5) stitcher, both embroidery and quilting, and 6) I live on a lake. Bonnie included all of those on my purse - she does beautiful machine embroidery!

When I opened my purse up I found a makeup bag to match, also with my initials on it and it was filled with chocolate. Chocolate is a good thing!

And she included some other gifts - a seam ripper, a package of Mary Engelbright needles, fat quarters of fall fabrics (and I've already used some of them in a wall hanging!) and a Romantic Home magazine.

I've carried my new purse everywhere since it arrived on Saturday and gotten compliments from a ton of women. And, of course, I'd love to take credit for it but I don't. No, not even once! I'm sending them all Bonnie's way - and you too. If you're interested. She has a fabulous on-line shop (www.calamityjanescottage.com/) with lots of wonderful things, including aprons, purses, children's outfits, china, oh all kinds of things you will definitely want. If you want a purse personalized for someone she can do it! This purse would make a fabulous diaper bag and would be so cute with the baby and mama's name on it. It's big enough that I think you could even use it for a sewing or knitting tote. What a great gift!

Gifts from Afar

I am constantly amazed by the generosity of the bloggers I have met in the short time I've been reading and writing on this new (at least to me) world wide virtual bulletin board. I recently received two gifts from women I met here and have come to admire and enjoy on a regular basis.

Mary Jane at Blind Pig and the Acorn had a giveaway recently and I won! Look at this darling angel - she's sitting in my kitchen with my antique egg baskets guarding the eggs. Oops, the lemons. Those are lemons in the basket. Fake lemons because I don't have any fake eggs. That's beside the point - you gotta' love this angel. I've named her Abigail Angel and I love to see her there watching over my kitchen. Thank you so much Mary Jane - she is very special.













And Liz at Kentucky Bound sent me this Debbie Mumm book Country Settings. She wasn't using it and wanted it to have a good home. I wish I had her spirit of generosity! It has some great patterns in it but I especially like one that has barns on it and the one you can see on the cover that has tea cups on it. Those two have gone on my "I wanta' make this next" list which just seems to get longer with every book I see or blog I read.

To both of these ladies I say thank you - for the gifts and for the generosity and love you share with others. I hope that I can follow your example and be a friend to all those who drop in to visit my blog, and perhaps share a little laughter and a little wisdom and a little encouragement with each one. May God bless and keep you in His loving arms.

I Got Mail

One of the things I love about blogging is that every once in a while you get the nicest things delivered to you by the postman. Or woman. Postperson. The person who brings the mail. Have to be politically correct. I hate that saying, and exactly what does it mean? What's political about whether the person delivering your mail is a man or woman? And why couldn't they just make up a word that means both? After all when you say President it could be a man or a woman and you don't have to worry if you've said the right thing. When you say attorney it could be a man or a woman. When you say doctor...same thing. We need a new name for the mail deliverer - got any suggestions?

Back to my story. I got two packages this week. First, I got this:

My friend, Takako at Quilt In Me, went home to visit her parents and bought gifts for some of her blogging friends. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to do with the fabric, although it will definitely go into a quilt. I'm thinking about a miniature log cabin table runner and these colors would work beautifully with some fabric I already have. Thank you so much Takako for your kindness. She sent a really sweet card that had a picture of a puppy and kitten on it and I would have shown you a picture of it, too, but my camera wouldn't cooperate.

I also got this beautiful vintage French postcard from my friend Becky at Wonders Never Cease. I made a wild guess trying to identify a picture of something on her post and turned out to be correct. This sweet card has writing on the back which is very faint but I think I was able to make out the year as 1950.

Becky also sent a card; in her case it was naturally a French one. This is a picture of Thatched Cottages at Cordeville, Auvers-sur-Oise by Vincent van Gogh. Beautiful, isn't it? Thank you Becky. I have it on my desk so that it brightens my day as I sit blogging.

For those of you who have been so kindly following my posts, Montezuma has left the building! About noon today I started feeling more like myself and even spent the afternoon in the sewing room - the first time since last week. But, sadness, I still haven't been able to drink an Iced Chaie Latte. Just couldn't. And I have no idea why because I hadn't had one when I got sick. I'm sure I'll be better tomorrow and be able to drink one right down. Right? Tell me I'm right....