Now, in commemoration of the century mark, I have two giveaways for your lottery pleasure. When considering what to offer, I thought about my readers and who they are and what they like. It seems to me that I have a fairly eclectic bunch of readers - some prefer traditional quilts and others more modern/contemporary styling. And there are those, like me, who seem to like it all. So here's what's on offer.
The first is two lengths of Erin McMorris fabric. Each is about one metre/yard. The fabric has not been washed. Our home is nonsmoking, but we do have dogs. BOTH metres will be given away to one winner.
The second is two patterns which I bought when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I don't even know if this company, Pieceable Kingdom, is still around. The patterns have never been used. I think both call for a combination of piecing and applique. One is a beehive theme and the other is houses and uses buttons to make the trees. BOTH patterns will be given away to one winner.
Entries will close at 7pm Sunday, May 23, and I will try to get the goods in the post the following week. I will gladly ship internationally. Here's how to enter. Leave a comment below, and in the comment, tell me two things. FIRST: Would you rather win the fabric or the patterns? And SECOND: Following on the notion of the small world that I mentioned above, please tell me your best "what a small world" story. There are no extra entries for following or Twittering, etc.
When I was talking about this in the lab, Lindsay said that I had to tell my own small world story if I was going to ask people to tell theirs. So here is my small world story for you.
You know that, although I have lived in Canada for more than 25 years, I was raised in east Tennessee. When I came to Canada for a graduate degree, I met my husband, a Montrealer who had immigrated from the UK at the age of four. It didn't seem like a small world to me then, but a very big, wide world. The South seemed very far away, and my new country and countrymen were more different than I had expected. My in-laws, MIL from Dublin and FIL from England, were charming, and I loved the mid-Atlantic accents that they had. But little did I know that by marrying, my husband and I were joining our family lines for the second, and possibly the third, time!
Here's now it happened. Two sisters, Libby and Rachel Jershfelt, were born in Latvia between 1800 and 1809. For several generations, their families lived in Latvia, but just like at the end of Fiddler on the Roof, there came a time where life in the village was no longer sustainable, probably after 1881, following the assassination of Czar Alexander II. Over the 200 years from the birth of Rachel and Libby to the present day, knowledge of and connection between their families was completely lost. One branch of Rachel's descendants got on a boat to Ireland, and her great-great-great-great-great-grandson is my husband. Meanwhile, a branch of Libby's descendants emigrated to Kentucky before the First War, and Libby's great-great-great-grandson married my great aunt in Tennessee in the 30s. (There is some evidence that the lines had crossed by marriage previously in Ireland, but that is less clear.) So when I, as a 22 year old woman, left my home of generations and moved to another country, and married a handsome man who came from across the ocean, I was really marrying a relative! "BY MARRIAGE!" my husband is hollering from the other room. Because I'm a hillbilly, he gets uncomfortable when I don't point that out. So that's my story, friends, and I think you'll agree that that's when you say "What a small world!"
Leave your comments for the giveaway! I can't wait to hear your stories celebrating the small world we live in and our many connections to each other!
