New Reading Material and a Giveaway!

I love quilt books. That's primarily how I learned to quilt many years ago, along with all my friends in our church quilt group. Living in a rural area, quilting classes were few and far between. Between all of us in the group, we'd devour every quilt book and magazine we could {cheaply} get our hands on, try new things out and then freely share information. Ah... we were such beginners.

My new reading material

It's still really hard to resist buying every shiny, new quilt book that catches my eye! But I am doing better these days, trying to make sure to only buy the ones that will be much appreciated. I generally put them on my Amazon wish list and then wait, and wait, and wait.....! It absolutely helps me to be sure that I'm not wasting money. The top three books are my latest acquisitions, my I-can't- resist-you-books, but thought maybe now would be a good time to share too.

On July 19th, this little quilt blog will be 5 yrs. old! Woohoo! I started out blogging about once a week and now I average two or three times that. There are highs and lows, weeks of constant progress and times of slow, more like plodding, efforts. I believe my style has changed, morphed and grown. There is a confidence emerging in what I do that feels wonderful {uhuh, in spite of all my insecurities and whining} and I honestly feel like a true-blue quilter now, not just a wanna be! Here on the blog, I've slowly figured out the details of Blogger and blog etiquette and gently developed a blogging voice, with all the terrible grammar that goes along with it.*wink  And even though it's been difficult at times, I've tried to stay very real and true to who I am, someone who just wants to share a great love of the quilting process with people who are interested in the particulars. So much fun to have any one of you check in when time permits and generously cheer me on. It's really good stuff.

The giveaway books!

So... in the interest of sharing {like I did with my friends back at the beginning} and to celebrate 5 yrs. of stick-with-it blogging! I'm having a giveaway for two winners. First I'm going to give away my brand new copy of 'The 1718 Coverlet' book. It's a fabulous book and although I've been drooling, I don't think it's affected the book at all. I can already see that this book is an 'eye-candy' book to me and it needs to go to someone who desperately wants to make the quilt. Also, I'm giving away an older book straight off of my bulging shelf,  'The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt'. I've flipped through it several times in the last couple years, but it also needs to move to a home where it can be well used.

If you're interested in winning either of these books, leave a comment telling me the first time you jumped onto my blog. Or tell me how you share inspiration with all your quilty friends. A second comment from my followers telling me how you follow can be a second chance to win. Don't forget to tell me if you'd prefer one book over the other! And other than my name written in the flap, I promise you the second book {cd included} is in excellent shape! The giveaway will end at midnight of July 19th! The giveaway is open to international readers too unless the shipping winds up being prohibitive! Good luck!