Randomday - Post-giveaway, Pre-Auction

Well, a big congratulations to Needle and Nest, who won my giveaway hosted by Sew Mama Sew this week.  Looking around her blog, I'm glad she won -- this is someone who knows how to appreciate scraps!  Whenever I had time this week I cut 2.5" squares and strips; some were from recent donations by my mother-in-law, and some were from my own healthy collection of scraps and vintage fabric. I saved some for my own future quilts and am happy to pass along these, along with a 1997 issue of Quiltmaker magazine and a little lavender sachet.

I had a blast reading all the comments submitted in response to my request for memories of Latin.  They ranged all over - some people wished they had taken it, some loved it and shared fond memories of their eccentric Latin teachers (what's up with all Latin teachers being eccentric anyway?  Oh well, guilty as charged), some struggled when they had it but were glad afterwards, some have only faint memories of childhood Mass in Latin, several had it but couldn't remember anything.  Commenter 101 said:

I can sing 'Oh where, Oh where has my little dog gone' in Latin. You know, for emergencies.

Commenter 128:

Oh, boy, this is the giveaway for me. I took Latin for all 4 years of high school. My Latin 4 class consisted of only me! Unfortunately, I have forgotten much of what I learned, but I remember the Latin "insults", like Tacete caudex, caprimulgus & rurus. I also committed to memory the Latin dialogue from Braveheart, "Homo endomitus est et sepidicet mendacio. Ego nunquam pronunciare mendacio, sed ego sum homo endomitus." Vini, Vidi, Vici. Alia iacta est. Oh, I could go on and on. Thanks for the giveaway!  

Commenter 137:

I was JUST thinking about Latin this morning, I kid you not. I took 3 years of Latin in highschool, belonged to the Latin club (sigh) and I still use my knowledge to figure out words I don't know the meaning of right away. Oddly enough, random congegations go through my mind also...maybe I shouldn't have admitted that :) thank you! 

And commenter 139, just to keep me humble (apparently many of my students agree with this):

Ohh Latin yeah what a wonderful way to torture children ... sorry I guess the expereince isn't far enough in the past that I have forgotten all the studying and turned it into an idealistic "no better place then highschool" experience ...  

Commenter 151:

I like the way you roll, Kathy - are we related? My best memories of HS were Latin. Learning carols in Latin and singing them in the school halls. A young card of a classmate who first told me [from the seat behind me in class] that my eyes were like limpid pools of toilet water... which of course is what any brown-eyed girl wants to hear, but he was being silly not rude. We had a lot of fun in that class, and I learned more about Enlish in there than I ever did in English class. I went on to take two more semesters of Latin in college, for fun. It wasn't nearly as much fun though - everybody was too serious. And it's not easy to find classic authors who specialized in wit and humor.  

That's why we teach it in middle school!  And we try to have fun with it.  Some weeks are better than others, but that's true of most things.

Anyway, I now have a mostly cleaned up workspace and am working on piecing string blocks with my overflowing string barrel.  There's lots more spring cleaning and organizing of the stash that could be done but I'm calling it quits for now.

I ordered Bonnie K. Hunter's String Fling as a Mother's Day treat for myself.  Steve took me to Yard-n-Garden Land as a Mother's day treat for himself, a bit more than me.  I'm letting him plant and dig in the dirt, which is what he seems to like best.  I am being lazy today and not doing much other than blogging and sewing.  I really should be grading 6th and 7th grade papers, and doing my extra Latin lessons.

And in a few hours Steve and I plan to attend Cedar Tree's Belt Buckle Ball, the school's annual fundraising auction.  My signature quilt will be in the live auction -- which automatically means we can't afford it, so that's good for the school.

I close with this little bit of random wisdom, translated into Latin:

In Mordorem non simpliciter iter facit.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

It's a great time of year to be a craft blogger -- the Sew Mama Sew giveaway day has rolled around again!  It's more like a whole week of giveaways because it's so popular.  Welcome to those of you visiting and I hope you'll look around a bit.  I'm Kathy, I teach Latin at a Classical Christian School, I have 4 kids including a daughter with Down syndrome, and I knit and quilt obsessively whenever I get a chance.  I blog about all of these things and more, but probably mostly about quilting.  I especially love scrappy quilts with a lot of different fabrics.  I've been giving my stash and scraps a bit of Spring Cleaning lately and here's what I have to offer for a giveaway:

 

5 Vintage sheet fat quarters, and a stack of 2 1/2" squares for your scrappy quilting pleasure!  I keep cutting more scraps, so there are already more squares than pictured here and will probably be twice as many before I quit.  I will throw in an assortment of 2 1/2" strips and an older quilting magazine too, but they aren't selected yet... I still have more cutting to do.  The Spring Cleaning continues!

To win them, leave me a comment below and I will select a winner randomly after the giveaway closes Friday at 5:00 PST.  If you have a memory of Latin, I'd love to hear about it; otherwise you can share what kind of project you want to make next.  Please make sure you are not a no-reply blogger or else include your email in the text of your message, so I can contact you if you win!

Be sure to check out more giveaways at Sew Mama Sew!  And have fun!

 

 

Congratulations to commenter #75, Needle and Nest, who wrote: My next project will be a quilt for my son's bed. Thanks for the chance to win!

 

Contact me with your address so I can get your package off to you.

SewMamaSew giveaway day winners!

"Here I come to save the day!"  I had no idea there were so many Mighty Mouse fans out there!  That fabric really grabbed a lot of attention!

Congratulations to Paskiaq, chosen by the Random Number Generator for her comment #45 on my giveaway post (and it couldn't have chosen a sweeter comment):

I am making an i-spy quilt for my 16 month old. I love him more than I could have ever thought possible. He is definitely unique. He turns down cookies and candies but eats fruit like there's no tomorrow. He loves music and always bops his little little body along to the beat no matter type of music or where we are. He prefers to blow kisses rather than saying bye. The best is when he's tired and he walks around like he is drunk and giggles at nothing. :) 

I have a packet of 5" charm squares, the charm quilts book, and a few other little goodies to send off to you.  I'm going to a wedding tomorrow, so it will probably be Monday or Tuesday when I get these packages posted.

Packages plural... because I made extra charm packs!  I said I would keep cutting until I had at least 50 different squares, and there are at least that many (I think closer to 60).  I decided to choose the comments myself, rather than randomly, for the other winners.  I'm sentimental about many of these fabrics, because they came from those early days when my boys were little and I sewed them little shorts and bought novelty fabric for their quilts.  So I really think their highest purpose would be to make I-Spy quilts, and I'd love to spread them around to some other moms who would do just that.  The other charm packs (and a few other odds and ends like buttons and "vintage" quilt magazines) will go to:

pianomama who said,

So cute! I'd make a quilt for my 3yo son who is the "caboose" of six kiddos. I've made quilts for all his big brothers and sisters - but haven't gotten one done for him yet. Bad momma:-)

I understand all about that mommy guilt, and these 5" squares make for quick and easy piecing.

Cricket who said,

I would totally use those for an I spy type quilt for my daughters. But the thing is - my 4 year old is sitting next to me and when she saw the picture she *gasped* and said "mommy! That's my diaper!" Sure enough, the cloth diaper I bought special for her to come home from the hospital in (which matched her black velvet overalls and res handknit hat and booties)was made of that skull fabric in the front. I have never seen it in a store or anything, and I know she would love a quilt with a little bit of that in there!

Thanks for offering such a great giveaway. I just love little bits and bobs and scraps. They're my favorite.  

How could I possibly resist the image of a little girl getting sentimental over pirate skull fabric (with matching black velvet, no less!)

and Kristy, who said,

I have 5 children, and have been planning an "eye-spy" type quilt for them for months as my first attempt at quilting. These fun squares would be a perfect addition to my growing stack! Thanks for the chance!

Go for it, Kristy!  Quilting is a wonderful hobby to enrich your and your kids' lives, and I hope you come to love it as much as I do.

So, I'll look forward to hearing from the four of you.  Thanks to everyone who commented on my giveaway post; I read every single one and wish I had 110 charm packs to give out.  And thanks to SewMamaSew for hosting giveaway day!

My First Giveaway

Sew Mama Sew is hosting a giveaway day this week, and I'm joining in with my first giveaway ever! Last spring when I stumbled on the last giveaway party, it changed my blogging life... Even though I didn't win anything, I found several new blogs to follow, and that in turn led to so much inspiration for new quilting projects that I became more of a quilt blog where before I was focusing mainly on knitting and book reviews.  So by all means, go join in the fun.  There are several categories of giveaways and hundreds of participants.

I've been quilting fairly seriously for 20 years, and I have a lot of fabric, but it's mostly in small quantities.  I   So I decided to cut up a bunch of 5" charm squares from some of my novelty fabrics.  Most of them have been in my stash or scrap bins for awhile and would be appropriate for making a nice crib or play quilt for a favorite child.  I have great memories of the projects I made for my own kids while cutting them up! There are 25 charm squares with a little of everything, and I'll keep cutting until I have at least 50 in the stack for you.  There is also a book, Charm Quilts with Style, and I'll throw in a handful of vintage buttons and a lavender sachet.  The winner will be chosen randomly from comments left on this post.  Let me know a little about the child you'd like to make something for: boy or girl, friend or relation, personality, cute stories, whatever!

I'll have a few more packets of charm squares to give away, too.  I'll include some quilting magazines instead of the book and pick those winners based on my own favorite comments.  So there will be at least 3 prizes going out.  I'm looking forward to meeting some new friends!

I'll ship internationally.  Giveaway will stay open until Friday, Dec. 16 at 5:00 p.m.  Make sure I can reach you by email, and I will also be editing this post to reflect the winners.  Now go have fun!

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Updated to add winners' names:

Congratulations Paskiaq, the RNG picked you!

And in addition, I've contacted pianomama and Cricket and Kristy because I have a few more charm packs to send their way!  Be sure to send me your snail-mail addy so I can post these to you next week.