Giveaway!!!!!

Remember last week (or maybe the week before) when I talked about being OCD and I showed you my fabric and stuff? I hinted at giving away a prize to be determined later. Well, it's almost later. Which means no I haven't picked out the prize yet. But I have picked a winner. :) There were 31 of you who commented on that post so I had my husband pick a number between 1 and 31 and he chose 15. He thought he was winnning something. :)

And the winner is Phyllis of Crumbs of Happiness - yea Phyllis! If you'll send me your address I'll get your gift out to you, just as soon as I pick one out. :) It'll be good, I promise. You can e-mail me at mbushretired at gmail dot com.

Gently Used

Have you ever thought about that term - gently used? I can think of several things it might mean....but in this case it means I've read these books or made these patterns or decided not use these panels! So I'm passing them on to anyone who wants to gently use them some more. I made the Frankenstein wall hanging and it's cute. I made the sewing purse out of pink wool - love it! The journal is a wonderful idea, but I'm not that organized about my quilting journey! The Prayer of Jabez and The Secrets of the Vine I bought multiple copies of when I found them on sale one day. The Quilt of Life is a book of devotions and What I Learned From God When Quilting are interesting observations on life. The panels are things I got on sale after Christmas one time or another and haven't used or had multiples of. If you're interested in any of these just leave me a comment and let me one which one(s). I'll wait until Monday and then if there is more than one person wanting an item I'll draw names. I'll let you know if you've "won" the item and you can send me your address so I can mail it. I'm trying to gradually clean out my sewing room so hopefully soon I'll have a few more items! Oh and the bag I machine embroidered and it's jus for fun!

And The Winners Are.....

First things first girls. For those of you following my other blog, the second post is up!

And.......

It's Monday my friends and the drawing has taken place. I cut up all those comments and threw them on the floor - yep, scientific wasn't it? I drew out two names and they are:

Gift #1 (the quilters gift) goes to Love Bears All Things and
Gift #2 (the non-quilters gift) goes to Tracy P.

I'll be contacting you both to get addresses so I can send these out. But I won't send them tomorrow or maybe even the next day - our weather is nasty right now. We have ice! Just a little but more expected tomorrow. I'm just hoping it's not enough for me to.....horrors.....lose electricity. :( We do have a generator and a fireplace but I like warm, really warm.

#201

This is post #201 since I began blogging in April. Who would have thought I could talk that much? Don't answer that! Anyway I've decided to have a giveaway for my regular readers. Did you get that...regular readers? Rule #1 - do not post about this giveaway. I really do want a couple of my "regular folks" to win. I've done the other kind of giveaway where you post it and they post it and you get lots of comments but most of those people never come back. So for this one we'll just keep it small. However, if you're a regular reader and not a regular commenter you go ahead and comment now - I'd love to know who you are. :)

I have two gifts to give away. The first one is aimed at quilters and includes several patterns, a couple of quilting/sewing tools, and some quilt labels. That's gift #1.

The second gift is aimed at the non-quilters, though you quilters might prefer this one and that's ok too. It includes a tea towel I appliqued, a dish rag I knitted, a journal, a sweet little book by Dr. Dobson, and two candles. That's gift #2.

So here's what you do. Leave a comment on this post and just tell me which gift you want to receive. DO NOT post about it. Just comment. (That's the school teacher in me coming out and telling you over and over what not to do.) I will draw names (no random generator thingy for me) on Monday. I will ship internationally so if you're not in the USA that's ok.

Why am I doing this? Because I love blogging, I love my readers, and God has blessed me with your presence.

Giveaway For You To Check Out

RoseMary at Life in a Cordwood Cabin is having a giveaway. Ya'll, I just love her and you will too. Go see her apron and cookie cutters and recipe book.

A Happy Dance!

First of all I'm doing a happy dance today because.......my sister is coming! Today she will be here. She's coming because she is my best friend, she loves my view (see picture to the right!), we're going to see both of our brothers tomorrow, and because she finally has a few days off which makes the 400 mile trip, one way, possible. We have a lot of fun together in a way that only sisters understand. We know the good, the bad, and the ugly about each other and don't mind pointing it out. :) We will eat and talk and laugh and maybe even cry. But it will all be good.

A second happy dance is in order for these wonderful letters I won from Liz at A Giveaway A Day. She let me custom order them so I chose the word Faith in black but sort of primitive looking. Aren't they perfect? When my husband gets home and can climb the ladder for me they will go above the doorway into the sunroom. They're a little crooked in the picture but they will be properly lined up when they're hung.

I'm not sure what my happy dance looks like, and I won't be making a video of it, but it could possibly resemble something like the chicken dance. Now wouldn't you love to see that!

Check These Out!

There are a few fall giveaways going on! I love these. :) And there are so many more....just click on one of these and you will see what I mean.



Quilter Going Bananas has one you can sign up for until October 6th. The gift - a surprise!



Marilyn at Piece By Piece is giving away a wonderful quilted basket and some fat quarters. Her deadline is October 15.



Katie at Zana's Ninis is going pink for her giveaways. Pink fat quarters, thread and patterns - a quilter's dream!

Danetta at Oh No It's The Fro has three different prizes - and you'll love all of them if you love fabric like I do.

Drucillas Stitches is giving away the cutest pumpkin and my very favorite Paula Deen candle.

At Threadbare Creations Rose is giving away patterns and thread and a charm pack.



At The Jury Is Still Out Beth is handing out a book, a yard of fabric and a gadget.



Over at Seam2BSewing Sunny has so many gifts that I can't begin to list them all. But trust me you won't want to miss this one.



And Debi at Debi Quilts is hosting this Fall Into Fall smorgasboard of giveaways. She's giving away a Moda jelly roll and we all know that Moda is the very best fabric ever!



Jan at Quilter Jan is also giving away a jelly roll and she's including a tin it fits into.

A Quick Little Give Away

Today is my birthday - yippee for me! And tomorrow is one of my daughter's birthday! So in honor of these two momentous days in my life I'm giving away this book.

American Patchwork is a collection of true stories told by quilters and on page 15 is one written by....me! The title is "Use It Up" and it's about my mother. I wrote it the year after she died and last year it was published in this book.

But here's the thing. You have to be quick. Comment here before midnight tomorrow, October 2 to be entered. Hurry!

My First Giveaway

I wasn't paying attention and passed my 100th post a while back so instead of doing a giveaway for that I'm just going to give you a present for my birthday! October 1st is the day but I'm doing this a little early because I have something else in mind for that day.

These four dark green placemats have a leaf appliqued on the right side and a tab to match on the left. There are four napkins to match which will fit under the tab, along with as your silverware. Perfect for this fall season!

To enter the drawing just comment on this post. If you link to this post be sure you tell me and I'll put your name in twice. I will draw names on Monday morning, September 29. Good luck!

Giveaway! And Martha Stewart!

Ya'll Janera at My Garden Hat is giving away a wonderful fall candle...or two. Please, please go visit and comment and for Heaven's sake tell her I sent you so I get an extra chance! Please?

And if you haven't checked out Martha Stewart's blog you should. You just might find it interesting - I sure did.

Awards and a Couple of GiveAways

Isn't that the cutest award? Janie at Southern Lagniappe sent this to me. She's a sweetheart and you'll love reading her blog. She has wonderful pictures of all kinds of things southern that I just love to see.

This wonderful award came from Tracy P. at The Journey. I love it! Thank you so much Tracy. Tracy is a cute young thing (I'm almost 62 Tracy so to me most people are cute young things!) and I love her stories about her children. Especially this one.

I sat here for the longest trying to decide who I would pass these awards to but I cannot choose! I'm like a child in a candy store, reading my blog list over and over choosing first this one and then that one. Do I want to pick the Tootsie Roll Pop or the Butterfinger, the Hersheys with Almonds or the Snickers? So I'm simply going to say I love my Blog Friends...the serious ones and the funny ones, the ones having family problems and the ones who are looking back at a lifetime of memories, the ones who would love just 10 minutes away from their mischief making little ones and the ones who long for a child's arms, the young and the old, the joyful and the sad, the tired and the energetic. You have made my days to be joyful and I have been blessed by the way you have welcomed me into your hearts and your homes. To each of you I give this Friendship Award and this I Love Your Blog Award and also my heart.

Anna at Around the Quilt Block is celebrating her 32nd birthday (she's a mere child!) with a giveaway. Just look at all of this wonderful stuff she's giving! I know you want to hop on over there and comment so you get a chance to win.

And this wonderful giveaway is from Deana at Sugarshop. Fabric, girls, is like gold to those of us who are addicted to quilts or aprons!

High Road vs. Low Road

I've been reading blogs a lot the last couple of days since I returned from Mexico. Since Montezuma declared war on my body I've been pretty much confined to my bedroom and bathroom so I've spent (wasted really) a lot of time on the computer. I've discovered several things:



1. The Old Red Barn Company is having a giveaway. That's not so unusual, lots of bloggers do that. Some do it I think because they are just generous people and love to make others smile. Those are the high roaders. Mostly people do it to drum up business on their blog. They take the low road. Or a combination of the two. I think I'll do it, too, one day soon. In my case I'll be taking the low road - drumming up business. Just to see if I can. And to see if it works. But The Old Red Barn Company seems to me to be one of the high roaders. She's giving away a quilt. Now take it from a quilter, giving away a quilt is a big deal. Really big deal. Like a million dollar prize deal. When you make a quilt it kind of becomes like your baby. Oh, I know she's got a business she's promoting, too. But go back and read some of her posts. Read about the turtles she fed, and about falling in love with her new camera (and she's got some really cute kid pictures there, too), and the one called "What Now" about beeswax...fascinating. Anyway, she seems like the kind of person you'd love to live next door to. And no, I've never met her and I don't get extra points for this post, but I like her heart. I like that she is giving away a quilt even though the quilt is one she'd love to keep. Now don't anybody get mad at me about the high road/low road thing....I know you're all high roaders or I wouldn't be reading your blogs!



2. I learned that there are a lot of people out there blogging and a lot of people commenting on blogs. Some blogs are more popular than others but not necessarily better than others. Some commenters, and some bloggers too, have a rather limited vocabulary based on how many times they use four letter words in casual conversation. I don't think I'm a prude, and I'm not objecting to what they say - I'm a firm advocate of freedom of speech - I just don't see the point. Is that because I'm older than many of them?



3. I've learned that no matter what your interest is you can find someone blogging about it. Interested in trout fishing - try http://www.troutunderground.com/ . How about flowers? http://www.pressed-flowers.blogspot.com/. Maybe you'd like to see what it's like in prison...try http://www.prisonpete.blogspot.com/. I AM NOT KIDDING! Now I can't be sure he's really in prison, but he's got a good gig going (good grief that's a lot of g's) if he isn't cause he's had over 15,000 hits on his profile. If you have a computer there's no reason to be bored.



4. I've learned that there are some of the nicest, funniest, wittiest, most sincere and down-to-earth people writing blogs. And if you comment they comment back and sometimes they e-mail and they will pray with and for you if you ask or they will offer you a book they have that they think you might like or tell you that you have the cutest grandchildren ever. And they are real. I know they are real because of the grandkid thing. There are so many that I love that I just want to share a few with you. From time to time I'm going to share others, and I've already told you about some (if I repeat myself here it's because I'm getting to that age where I do that sometimes so you just smile and say oh, she's just at that age, bless her heart). And if that bless her heart thing doesn't ring any bells you should go back and read a previous post, and no I don't remember when I wrote it but you can look in my archives, don't be lazy.



Suzanne of At Home With The Farmer's Wife is one of my favorite reads. Recently she had a tutorial on how to make an apron from a man's shirt. Pretty resourceful I say and a lot of fun to make I'm sure. No, I haven't made one yet since the wedding and Montezuma got in the way but I plan to. I'll have to go out to the garage and dig through a buch of winter boxes but I'm sure my husband has a shirt he doesn't need, even if he doesn't know it now.



Christine at Front Porch Indiana has some funny stories about her chickens, yes I said chickens, and she takes great pictures to illustrate. Today she bought a pig, but not one she plans to get acquainted with. This one she plans to eat, if she doesn't meet him first.



Another blog I read every day is Tipper at Blind Pig And The Acorn. She always has great stuff but the Appalachian Quilts post today has some pictures you quilt lovers really should see. She has great music, not the kind you hear every day, and a column of grannyisms that I loved leaving a comment on because she's trying to preserve some of the old things our grannys used to say.

And I defy you to read Melissa at Stretch Marks and not fall totally madly in love with her. She has a heart as big as all outdoors and cuts open her chest and shows it to us all. She makes me laugh till I'm sick and cry real big crocodile tears. She's pregnant and you can bet that I'm praying for her and for this baby.

Ok that's enough. I'm just whetting your appetite. There are more, many more that deserve a mention and over time I'll get to them. I'll be your personal screener, you know like the king used to have a food taster? I'll do the tasting and then make my recommendations. Because I'm nice like that. I'm really a high roader in disguise.