April 28, 2016

100,000, Something New and a Surprise!

It feels like it has been a big week here at Devoted Quilter!

I've been watching my blog stats page a little more closely lately, waiting for this:
...and it happened yesterday morning. 100,000 pageviews!! Thank you all so much for visiting me here :) If it weren't for you, I'd just be talking to myself!

Also yesterday, I finally stopped procrastinating and got everything set up for a Devoted Quilter newsletter. How often do I really want to do something, but put it off and off and off because I don't know exactly how to do it, or where to start, only to try and then find it's not really all that hard? I really should learn this lesson and stop the procrastinating!

It's funny the things that can hold me up sometimes. Picking a name seemed like a major hurdle, though I'm not sure why. I finally just googled 'newsletter name ideas' and when I saw the word bulletin I knew I'd found my name. I love that the word has an association with church too!

I was also hung up on what date to send it out. I knew I only wanted a monthly newsletter, not weekly or even twice a month. That part was easy. But when in the month should I send it? The first of the month seemed too crowded...everyone sends out their new BOM blocks on the first of the month. I don't want to get lost in the flood of new quilting stuff coming into inboxes all on the same day. The 15th of the month, while less crowded, felt uninspiring. I briefly considered the last day of the month, but wasn't really feeling that, either. Then I thought of the 16th. Now, to most people, the 16th would seem like an odd choice, but I've always felt a certain fondness for the 16th of the month. My birthday is the 16th of July, my mother's the 16th of April, my grandmother's the 16th of May and my husband's the 16th of June. I thought for sure at least one of our children would have a 16th of the month birthday, but alas, they all landed on different days. For my newsletter, though, the 16th of each month is perfect!

So, The Bulletin will be a monthly round-up of Devoted Quilter news and links to fun things to make, sent on the 16th of each month beginning in May. The links in each issue will be themed, so if you think of any great theme ideas, you can let me know. There will probably be recipe links too, because we all need good food to fuel the sewing. To receive The Bulletin each month, just enter your email address in this form.


Are you still with me? I promised a surprise in the post title, didn't I? The whole time I was watching my stats page, calculating when I thought I'd hit the 100,000 mark (sometime in May, I thought), I was also wondering what I could do to celebrate. I'd like to send you all a little something to say thanks, but obviously I can't do that. But I can give you all the chance to win something!

To show my profound appreciation for your visits to my blog, for your friendship and your many kind comments, I'm giving you the chance to win my Denim Hexies mini quilt.
To enter, since these are hexie flowers, leave a comment on this post telling me something about you and flowers. It could be your favourite flower, the flowers you just planted in your garden, the last time someone gave you flowers...anything! I look forward to reading all of your flower tidbits :)

This giveaway will stay open for one week and I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner the evening of Thursday, May 5th.

Good luck, and don't forget to sign up for The Bulletin!

** This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Tish Stemple (comment #9)! **

13 comments:

  1. Congrats on your 100,000th view!! You are so talented my friend, and I love that you are sharing your talents and your heart with us. Good luck with your "Bulletin"! (I just subscribed!) Can't wait for the first edition!
    PS..I tell my family not to bother with bouquets of fresh flowers on special occasions, but I secretly love them ;)
    Michelle

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  2. Congratulations, Leanne! :) I love fresh cut flowers in the house, and I am lucky that roses grow outside in our yard so easily AND that my husband will frequently cut and arrange a vase of them for me.

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  3. Oh my, that little mini has some of my favorite things in it. Flower, denim and hexies.....this year I talked my girls into letting me have the old metal fire bowls they use in the yard all winter..they do not last long and rust away...anyway my granddaughter and I filled them up with empty plastic soda bottles and then potting soil and filled up with some pansies and the fun is on.......

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  4. Good luck with the newsletter. It is nice to make dreams become real. I took some budding tulips to a friend of mine who is a wonderful 90+. When I spoke to her today she was telling me of the beautiful colors that they were opening into and how cheerful they were. Sometimes so little effort can create such happiness.

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  5. Congratulations Leanne! 100,000 page views is an exciting milestone. I just recently hit it too but didn't have the forethought to create a gorgeous quilt as a giveaway surprise. Your quilting is just incredible!
    Congratulations too on your Devoted Quilter Bulletin! So much to celebrate in one post.

    I used to be so into gardening and would fall asleep on winter nights surrounded by gardening magazines and dreamt about flowers. I grew all my own plants from seeds under shop lights with full spectrum bulbs in the basement. My favorite plants are the ones which attract birds and butterflies. And hummingbird moths. Have you ever seen one of those? I think they might go as far north as Newfoundland. Their real name is the Sphinx moth, but they really do look like a hummingbird. They love Monarda (bee balm) flowers.

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  6. Congratulations on reaching that milestone Leanne, it sounds like you have some exciting things planned for the future too.
    I have absolutely no green fingers so you can imagine how delighted I am that I have not one but two cacti in flower :) they are obviously hardy plants .

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  7. I adore hexies, could even say I am addicted to them, and your hexie flowers are divine.
    Thank you for the chance to win a piece of your lovely work.

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  8. Congrats!!! Me and flowers...oh boy. I love flowers, they are so pretty, but too many and my allergies go crazy. My daughter makes fun of me because I can't seem to keep them alive. When she was in elementary school she had a project of growing a house plant she affectionately called "Fred." She kept a note beside Fred to remind herself what she needed to do. At the bottom of the note it said, "Please, mom, do not touch this plant."

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  9. Congratulations Leeanne. When My husband and i were on our honeymoon , we were hiking the Bruce Trail in Ontario and I saw wild columbine for the first time. It's still my favourite flower and I have it growing in the front yard. I don't like the showier columbines as much as the delicate wild one.

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  10. I love to go to the Farmer's Market and pick out those lovely flowers to plant around my house each spring. I pick several different ones based just on the blooms, but I save seeds from my Hummingbird Vine and Spider Plant to reseed each year because the bees and hummingbirds love them so much. Joyce from WV

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  11. Congratulations!! I need to go look at my own stats. Your hexie project is amazing. I don't have a green thumb and don't garden. But I love flowers. I enjoy gerber daisies.

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  12. My favorite flowers are tulips arranged in my grandmother's pewter jug. Always is a sign of spring for me.

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  13. Congrats! I love following your blog! My hubby is a wonderful Gardner. Because of him, I enjoy lovely flowers all summer without lifting a finger! sew4given(at)aol(dot)com

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Thanks for taking the time to leave me a message. I love hearing from you.