Giveaways for Christmas

I feel SO Rich!
I have been on the receiving end of some giveaways lately and I would be most ungrateful if I didn't post about them.

The first was during a contest put on by Quiltmaker, the magazine. It is an amazing magazine with many wonderful patterns and quilting suggestions. You were supposed to go to each of the blogs of the talented quilt designers who had made the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks, and make a comment on their blog, or follow their specific rules. One of the quilt designers, Dodi Poulsen requested we send her our information in an email. I got such a cute response from her in an email just a day after I had entered her contest.

Hi Annie of Blue Gables-

Can I just say how much I love your e-mail address? It is so adorable, I wish it were mine!

I just want to let you know how much I enjoyed your e-mail this morning. It really set my day off to a great start. I haven’t answered any of the other 200 e-mails…oh my goodness, we had no idea! But I wanted to take a moment to send a note to you.

Your was particularly touching to me-
1^st my favorite roommate from college was from (your home town) and I spent many a weekend from Utah State down there. That brought back memories that I hadn’t thought of for some time. (this was many years ago mind you!)
2^nd I loved the quote at the bottom of your e-mail. I suppose I wish I were as brave as you to be able to post that at the bottom of an e-mail to someone who I did not know.
(-- The Lord has two homes: Heaven and a Grateful Heart. ~Thomas S. Monson)
Thank you for sharing your that thought… I gave the quote to my friend who is RS Pres and she immediately put it in her RS newsletter this week. I teach Gospel Doctrine and am planning on using it as a start for my lesson.(squeee! I guess she is LDS too! ::happy dance::)

SO, there- you have inspired us today! As a token of my appreciation I am going to send you my personal copy I just received of the magazine…shhhh…don’t tell anyone!(I guess it's OK by now, since the contest is over) And I want you to go onto our website and choose 2 patterns that might interest you, either from Two Sisters or Little Londyn . I will get them off to you ASAP.

Thanks again for being you!

My Best,
Dodi

I was so amazed at this sweet act. I wrote back and told her of the two I was choosing, also told her that my three son's wives had all expecting a baby, (and one had been born that very day) She wrote back to tell me that her daughter Meg (the creator of Little Londyn) was excited about the baby and decided to put two of her patterns in the mix as well.

That is not all, when the package arrived, she had written a note that said since this was one of those envelopes that went for a certain price, she just stuffed in as many more patterns that would fit. I ended up with seven really sweet patterns plus a copy of the Quiltmakers 100 blocks.


And then I won another copy of the Quiltmakers 100 blocks on this post. It was a surprise winner. They do that every once in a while. Now I had two copies of the coveted Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks. What do you do with two of the very same pattern book?

They have so many fun patterns in them, I can't wait to try some out on those other 14 quilts I have to make for the grandchildren who will be baptized when they turn 8!

I have LOTS to choose from now. :D heh





Next a blogger named Calamity Kim posted a contest. I entered and later got an email from her saying I had won out of 100 entrants.
Do I sense a pattern? Is 100 my lucky number or something?
Today I got a box in the mail and this is what was in it:

These note cards are so beautiful. How did she know I LOVED note cards. I will have to use one to send her a thank you note.

Look at the ornaments she made. I love the three-dimensional star, which didn't get smashed in the postage by the way! She is a good packer.
And look at this pencil in this next shot! Where do you find those? That looks like a twig, but it writes!
There are all kinds of ornaments. I love the homemade strawberry.
This brought back memories, I used to make something like these hearts out of construction paper to put the May flowers in on May Day. We used to pick flowers from our pasture and put them in these baskets, then leave them on the neighbor's doorsteps, knock and run away before they caught you.
I'm not sure what this is made of, but it is so beautiful and stands alone. I will hang it on my tree now. Kim doesn't realize it, but that bow matches the velvet ribbon that is on the tree!

She also got the author of this book to send me an autographed copy of her book, plus she made this apron from a pattern in the book.



















And so in the spirit of the giveaways, since I got two copies of the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks, I'd like to give that away. Post a comment on this post and I will draw a number after the New Year.

I'm a little frightened to do this for several reasons:
one, because I don't think have a large readership and how sad to have only one comment on a giveaway.
second, because now that I have seen some of these beautiful and generous boxes I have received from complete strangers, but friends from the blog world, I have GREAT BIG SHOES to fill.

And speaking of Kim and shoes: a funny but small-world story. Most recently, Calamity Kim asked for a Volunteer Elf to test a pattern she wants to put on Etsy. I guess I didn't realize it was the SAME Kim whose contest I won. I answered her call, by asking a question about them. She sent me a pattern, and I felt like, even with Christmas rush, I needed to give back and do this for her. But I didn't realize that the person I was giving back to was indeed the very person whose box arrived in the mail the next day! So here is a picture of those darling baby shoes whose pattern I tested. By the way, the blanket this was photographed on was from another sweet lady in Blogland. I had joined her Pay It Forward blog and she sent me the blanket, then right after that I won a giveaway she had for the purple checkbook cover, which I use ALL THE TIME.

My husband likes to say, "what goes around, comes around" but he always means it in a negative way. I'm thinking sometimes it turns out positive as well.
Merry Christmas
~a

PS
12/22/09:I am getting excited about this since I first posted this giveaway and even though I will be drawing the winner after the 11th of January (that's when I will be back home), I am gathering a fun amount of Christmas things to add in the box. squeeeee!

PPS
I will need some way of reaching you, so send me your email address if you want to be a part of this contest, please. If I cannot reach you through your blog, then email me your email address please

PPSS
I have a bunch of vintage sheets. If you want to pay the postage, I will be glad to send them your way! Just send me an email.
annieofbluegables121[at]gmail[dot]com