sweetness and generosity the world over

*original post edited to add that i've joined the favorite fabric link swap just in case there is some more meadow dot out there! if you are here for that, the meadow dot bit of this post is at the end.

 is there anything sweeter than the sound of a squeaky, happy baby voice floating through the early morning quiet of the house, calling out, "mah-MEE, mah-MEE", a summons meant just for one's self? I think not. oh, how I love this girl! and how i'm craving another baby. whatever will I do when there is no equivalent voice in the house, no small arms to wrap around me or soft baby skin to nuzzle? I can't fathom it. God has been very generous to us. wanting 8 is a bit greedy of me, I know. but they are just too sweet and heavenly. this one is fast approaching 2, which means the end of babyness around here is in sight. that will be a dreadful day, indeed.

I did not come to here to talk about baby! she completely sidetracked me. what I came to share was another type of sweetness and generosity entirely - the generosity of people in the quilt blogging community. on a whim earlier this year, I took a chance and linked in to a wip wednesday at freshly pieced and also a finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts. lo and behold, people used those links and came to visit me! it was astounding. I've looked at those links myself for eons but never participated.

something else unanticipated happened - when I left a comment on someone else's blog, I got an email response back. that had never happened before, either. I tentatively emailed liz back, asking how she had done this. she assured me she'd done nothing "flash" but merely responded to the email sent her from my comment. it was a revelation and a friendship was struck up. by the time my birthday rolled around, she surprised me with a package all the way from new zealand, a long canoe's ride to the other end of the time zone continuum.

a pretty ceramic dish for my sewing table and lovely pouch (maybe for epp?) featuring a native flower

a card handwritten in her blue fountain pen ink and some charm squares of liberty!!!

a puzzle and some clips for my children, also featuring native plants

 liz was even thoughtful and zany enough to use as many stamps as possible on the package so that each of my large brood could have some foreign stamps should they so desire. the whole thing was a trove of tiny treasures. thank you, thank you dear liz!

 speaking of liz and generosity, she has a giveaway of the book "s is for stitch" on her blog right now. pop over for a chance to win.

giveaways are one of the fun parts of blogging. i know many giveaways are promotional, but there are also lots of generous people out there who just like to share out of their own kind hearts. (like heidi of red letter quilts.) i've done a few for the joy of it myself. to celebrate the arrival of my new sewing machine for my 40th birthday earlier this summer, i offered a quilt top kit. it went to a dear, gentle, and talented sewer, Deborah, all the way in Indonesia. this is another overseas friendship i can now claim. and like many others, it has given back. a few weeks ago I found this in my mailbox:

some yardage of liberty deborah found in a local market, a pretty star pull made by local women, a postcard, and enough foreign stamps for each of my children again.

yet another international friendship came my way because of meadow dot in mint (or robin's egg - it gets called both), my all-time favorite fabric from sandi henderson's meadowsweet2 collection. I spied a bit in a wip post by the English angel, lucy, over at charm about you. when I commented on it, lucy sent me her leftovers. and threw in a molly makes mag i'd mentioned interest in on my blog. I was stunned! and oh, so happy to have more than a half yard of meadow dot.

lucy's generosity inspired me to do a "pay it forward" giveaway of the liberty love book, won by laura of little and lots, a stateside friend.  i found it amusing laura was the one to win the liberty book because liberty of london fabrics always remind me of laura. in my opinion, her liberty stile x-plus quilt is one of the most wonderful items to hit the quilt blogging community this summer. laura has emailed me saying she'd purchased some meadow dot in geranium, thinking of me, and wishing it'd been my color so she could share the find. maybe laura didn't find any of my favorite meadow dot, but some other friends did.

that whole lucy-and-the-meadow-dot episode spurred on my friends out there. i'd tried finding more myself, but with no luck. however, the intrepid liz was up browsing ebay late one night while nursing the wee man and she frantically emailed me that she'd found some. "don't go to sleep yet!!!" thanks to her lead, i was able to get another few yards of precious meadow dot (in mint/robin's egg). i even found about 4 yards in Australia, just over the ditch from her.

i now have a little basket dedicated entirely to meadow dot in robin's egg (or mint, whatever). it holds even the tiniest scraps from former projects. the basket just happens to match the fabric, too. it was a happy find at marshall's that didn't work out in my family room but was perfect for housing meadow dot.

and thanks to another friend's late night browsing, i got several more yards this week. kelly of my quilt infatuation sent me an email last weekend with a link to some on etsy. she'd actually found 3 postings of it. i am now more well stocked with this out-of-print favorite than i ever anticipated being.

but i have to say my favorite bit of all is that first piece lucy sent me.

 this fabric has kind of become my signature. not only do my blogging friends associate it with me, i guess my obsession is well know around my household, too, because when i was photographing the basket this morning, my 5 yr old, d4, said, "I know that's your favorite, isn't it mommy? I like it, too, but all the flower ones are my favorites. and that one." (she's very diplomatic.)

so my thanks again to all the generous people out there for the fabric, the links, and also just for your visits and kind words all the time. as surprising and fun as the gift-bearing mail has been, the little comments left and conversations we have through email mean a great deal to me.

i'm feeling the need to share some more myself, so i will be celebrating my upcoming 200th post (this is 189) with a small giveaway in the next few weeks.

happy sewing, all!