Thursday Thoughts + BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

• It's been a tough week in the neighborhood.
• Madeline started daycare on Monday.
• When we dropped her off, I fought the urge to grab her and run for the door.
• The temptation of all the toys was so strong, she could barely be bothered to say goodbye.
• I called in the afternoon to see how she was doing.
• Could hear her crying in the background.
• It's true when they say a Mom can recognize her kids cry.
• Was told she was "having a little trouble taking a nap."
• Wanted to stab myself with a rusty butter knife, but knew she would fall asleep soon.
• Went back to my work day.
• Called 4 minutes later to see if she'd stopped crying.
• She had.
• Picked her up that afternoon, and she cried a little when she saw me.
• If there had been a butter knife around....
• Then she grinned wide for her big sister.
• It's been 4 days and she's doing great.
• No tears.
• Except when she doesn't get her way.
• Just like at home.
• They say the first week is an "adjustment period" for the child who starts at a daycare or new school.
• I think it applies more for the Moms than the kids.
• Some days I feel like there should be a "first week" support group of some kind to get us through.
• Or maybe hand out free bottles of booze as you walk out the door.
• Luckily I have a job I enjoy to go to.
• It would suck if I was leaving my kid all day to go to a job I hated all day too.
• I've been working on various and sundry quilt projects the last few weeks.
• Many of them have been 'worked on' in my mind.
• It's simply amazing how many completed quilts I have in my head.
• I have also been absorbing all of the information to be had from the not-so-little stack of books I received last week.
• Remember these?

• I'm ready to share!
• I've picked 3 from the pile using a very scientific method of selection.
• It goes something like, "Eeenie-Meenie-Miney-Mo..."
• The first "very best one" my finger landed on was:

 The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking by Jane Brocket

This book is very much in the Kaffe Fasset style, especially with the beautiful photography used to display the quilts. The designs themselves are simple, but her use of color and the skilled way she teaches this craft, is a pleasure to read.

• The second book selected was:

Modern Blocks: 99 Quilt Blocks From Your Favorite Designers

by Susanne Wood

This is a fun book featuring, as the title says, 99 blocks of all different styles and looks, but all in the modern aesthetic. You may or may not recognize the designers (many of them popular bloggers), but you're sure to see a good number of blocks you can translate into a larger quilt.

• And the third selected was:

 Simply Triangles by Barbara H. Cline

This one isn't on sale until 2/16. It has 11 beautiful quilts where you'll learn various techniques combining triangles, diamonds, and trapezoids. She breaks down a Y-seam so simply it makes even me want to try, and I've been avoiding them for years!

• So here's the deal.
• You can enter up to 3 times.  GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!
• So yes, technically, one person could win all 3 books.
• But I'd seriously wonder what "bug" got into the random number generator that day.
• Anyways, you can enter by leaving a comment about anything...how motherhood is tough a lot of days, the weather where you are, you hate your job but are happy to have it, you love your job but would rather be quilting all day...anything goes just leave a "real" comment, not just "hi and bye!" 
• You can enter by tweeting about this giveaway using the hashtag #giveaway, coming back here, and tell me pinky-swear, you tweeted about it.
• You can also enter by following this blog, and leave a comment saying so.
• Any and all 3 ways to enter are strictly optional to do. You get 1 entry for each way.
• I will pick 3 winners via random # generator by 5 pm EST on Sunday, Feb. 12th. Winners will be announced by Monday.
• The order you're picked is the book you'll win (if you're pick #1, you win book #1, pick #2 you win book #2, etc..)
• I think that's it....right?
• Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

CGM

PS - one more thing! (I knew I forgot something)...make sure you are NOT a no-reply blogger when you enter. You MUST MUST MUST leave an email address somewhere for me to be able to contact you, either in your profile or in the comment. Otherwise I will assume you really don't want to be picked but like entering things, or are in a blog-commenting-but-in-the-witness-protection-program type of situation and I wouldn't want to blow your cover. Either way I'll pick another winner. If you think you are one, but would like to change that, try this simple tutorial on how to do it. Thanks!!