Welcome to my stop on the Fruitful Hands Blog Tour. I hope you’ve been having fun visiting with Jacquelynne Steves and the other guests this week.
I first met Jacquelynne and her lovely daughter at Quilt Market last year. You might also remember having met her earlier this year when she sponsored one of our weekly contests too.
Jacquelynne’s first book, Fruitful Hands, is simply delightful. It contains 14 gorgeous projects including: machine appliqued wall hangings, wool felt floor mat, painted recipe box, stitchery and more. Also included are 12 delicious sounding recipes… I can’t wait for the weather to cool off so I can try the Orange Chocolate Chip Scones.
The photos and colour illustrations throughout the book are simply gorgeous. Here’s a sample page:
Download a free project and a recipe [PDF] from the book, Pineapple Welcome wall hanging and the Pineapple Bread Pudding recipe… yummy!!
A few more photos from the book:
You can order an autographed copy of the book directly on Jacquelynne’s, The Noble Wife web site or through Amazon.
Give-Aways
Jacquelynne has donated a copy of Fruitful Hands to be given away to one of my blog readers. Additionally, I’ll also be giving away, to a second winner, an Aurifil thread sampler pack and a Lapel glue stick.
How to enter: Leave a comment on this blog post, just one comment per person please. Share a story of an act of kindness that you did recently or that someone did for you. Two winners will be randomly chosen next Wednesday.
Facebook friends: Please enter on the blog, NOT on Facebook … CLICK HERE.
Fruitful Hands Blog Tour Participants
Rumour has it, you’ll be able to win a copy of Jacquelynne’s new book Fruitful Hands, and perhaps some other goodies too from each blogger. Here’s the the blog tour schedule:
- The fun begins at Jacquelynne’s blog
- Acorn Quilt and Gift Company
- Jillily Studio
- Pat Sloan
- Cinderberry Stitches
- On Friday visit Sandi Andersen at A Legacy of Stitches
I try to be kind every day. Currently helping various friends with things: how to open en etsy shop, how to find discontinued fabric, etc. Glad to share my knowledge with others.
Oh that is a wonderful gift. For me I try to make life a little easier with a friendly smile every day to anyone and particularly the ones that we tend to forget. I do alot for our less fortunate people by making quilts and running the food lines etc……Hope you have a wonderful day.
Such a lovely giveaway. thanks for the review of the book. I made homemade breads and muffins for our neighbor who recently lost her mother and had to host a lot of company from out of town.
I am caregiver for elderly parents. So everyday I strive to make their day a little easier
That is a nice idea :)
My mother spent one week in holiday. I fed her cat. Yesterday I put a new table cloth mini quilt and two mug rugs onto her kitchen table. This will be a nice surprise when she comes home tomorrow :)
Bye
Susanne
Thanks for a chance for a great giveaway.
Thank you for the pattern.I’m late with a reaction; I was baby-sitting for 3 days. My granddaughter (7 Years) is staying with us, while her parents have a nice midweek with friends. We enjoyed it. The first day we went swimming. The second day was spend with the children next door. The third way we went 2 other kids to a theme park with lot of funny handcraft possibilities. greetings from Liesbeth from the Netherlands
Thank you for the opportunity to enter your draw. My act of kindness was making tactile lap rugs for the local nursing home. I thoroughly enjoyed making a huge pink pig on one and a big strawberry pot complete with velvety strawberries on the other. I hope the oldies enjoy them as much as I did making them.
Hi – I enjoyed your review of the book and pictures. My act of kindness (received): Last week my husband and I returned to the city late (wrong turn with rental car, go out of way 20 miles….) and got the last train into the city….which put us on the platform 3 minutes before the last Underground train was leaving. My husband’s card to ride the Metro was out of money, and the station attendant said, “You don’t have time to buy a ticket, just get on the Metro” and opened the gate for us! She sure saved us a lot of time and money at 12:30 am. We were glad to get home!
Please include me in the giveaway – My lovely children (noticing I was exhausted from keeping up with work , house, kids … ) did my laundry & dishes for me – Aren’t they awesome – I would love to win & make something special for my daughter ;)
I have been storing my friends fabric stash at my house as her house is currently flooded. (We live in Iowa.) It’s really been fun as she has been coming over about once a week and we sew together.
well we have a Chinese lady at our community cottage over here in Christchurch New Zealand she is very talented knits and sews and just started quilting so my friend and I will be giving her my old sewing machine to help her out. Her name is jenny she such a great lady and very keen on all her crafts.
What a lovely-looking book!! My neighbor & I are always up to something good in the kitchen, so whenever we make a new recipe (or even a good old one), we make double & share with each other. Neither of us ever gets an empty dish back. Last week, she got banana nut bread, and yesterday, I got apple crisp. Yummmmy!
That recipe for Pineapple Bread Pudding looks yummy; I will need to try it soon:) Thanks for offering the chance to win.
Wednesday, I went with my son to register for college. We had a 4 pm meeting with one of the department heads after registration. The lady we were meeting with was stress and not having a very good day. By the time our appt with her was over, she thanked us profusely for helping to make her afternoon better. All of her earlier appts had been very intense and she was just thanking us for being “nice” and esy to work with. Seriously, just being kind can make someone’s day:) It makes my heart sing to know that we were able to help her without really even trying!
Thanks for offering such a great giveaway!
I have been making crib quilts for great-nieces when they are expecting. Some are young and don’t have alot so a new quilt for the baby is always appreciated.
I just completed an online Charity Challenge for Joplin MO and St. John’s Hospital. You can see details at my blog. I am loving your giveaway. Thank you
I’m already a fan of the pinaple welcome sign !
We received a lot of help from our neigbors these last months, they help us to adjust (we are a French family recently installed in US) and their kids welcomed ours so nicely, I’m really grateful.
In exchange I cooked for them cakes and made some sewing craft as gifts.
Hubby weeded the garden for me yesterday as I have a horrible sunburn and moving hurts! He’s a gem. Awesome giveaway – thanks for the chance!
We offered to take a church friend to lunch with us in our car. At the restaurant, she realized that she forgot her wallet in her car. We were happy to pay for her lunch with ours.
Thank you for the chance to win.
OK-this still gives me chills but here goes. I was at the aquatic pool with my daughter/grandsons and we were in the children’s area. I noticed a little boy (about 4-5yrs) sleeping on a chair. It was 105 outside. At first we thought it was cute thinking he was tuckered out. Then I noticed no one was around him. The pool called for a break and still no one came. He looked SO hot laying there. Back in the pool, still no one came. I immediately went to the lifeguard and told him we had been watching him for almost an hour and asked if they could check on him. The ran to him and tried to wake him – he was lethargic. The ambulance came and they administered him and I believe he had heat exhaustion. I feel wholeheartedly that he could have died out there. I am so glad God gave me the courage to say something. My act of kindness was to the little boy who I now believe I helped save his life. Thank you for offering a giveaway and may God bless.
I love your blog! The patterns are great!
I will say that I have an ongoing act of kindness of which I am the recipient. A few years ago fate brought a wonderful quilting friend into my life and she has remained there ever since. Her kindnesses to me and constant thoughtfulness are monumental. We lost a son in 2002 and sometimes things aren’t sunny and bright for me. Her friendship has brought me through some bad times, dates that are painful, we share our love for quilting, cooking, family and she always is there for me. There is no way I can ever repay her for just being a wonderful friend.
Thank you for the giveaway!
I’ve been blessed with two acts of kindness recently.
I’m a fairly new quilter, and still struggle over the simple things that many of you seasoned quilters take for granted. I had finished a paper-pieced quilt for one of my daughters and mailed it to a longarm quilter in Texas. She and I have been e-mailing back and forth and she has pretty much become my mentor and I lean on her a lot. Recently she made up 4 kits along with 4 similar layouts and mailed them to me. I get to practice on those 4 quilt tops and once completed, I’ll mail them to her so she can sandwich, quilt and donate them to charity. That’s a win-win situation for both of us!
And then I entered a giveaway from Vrooman’s Quilts and stated in my comment that I’d love to win because I was a fairly new quilter and had no stash to speak of, so winning would be wonderful. Well…I didn’t win the giveaway. But Sharon e-mailed me and told me she was going to send me an “angel” box to help me start up my stash. My “angel” box had waaayyyy more than the giveaway recipient received – charms, FQs, thread, buttons, fabric, etc.
And I just wanted to say I enjoyed the comment left by Michele Bilyer above. That’s an act of kindness I had never thought about, and can understand the satisfaction she must get from making quilts for that purpose.
I love this beautiful book and the other nice things! A friend gave me a gift subscription to a magazine and when I got the first copy yesterday, I filled out the card to give a subscription to someone else…kind of a pay it forward thing! It was FUN to know I will surprise someone, too! Thanks! ♥
We went out for dinner last night and for dessert my daughter was given a cookie that she did not like. The waitress exchanged it for free, which I thought was a wonderful gesture.
Our neighbors are at the beach and we volunteered to water their garden and plants for the week. They are very nice neighbors. Thanks for this opportunity and giveaway. Judy C in NC
It’s quite sad actually, but I really appreciate what my mum did for me today. My father in law died this morning (77 years old) and at our own home we take care of a 14 years old fosterchild with behaveour and Autistic problems. My mum offered to take care for him and even bring me to the hospital where my father in law was. Thanks again mum!
We have some wonderful friends. We had a car accident, arrived home (after 4 days trying to get home) and one of our wonderful friends turned up with a beautiful home-cooked meal, including my DH’s favourite dessert! Thanks for getting me to think about all the wonderful acts of kindness that have been done to me!
My favorite thread!!! Aurefil…just beautiful and so pleasing to work with!!! I was not familiar with this book but do think it is also very lovely!
What a great idea for a giveaway? I love random acts of kindness. One that happened to us just yesterday was that a young man let us know that there was still a half hour left on his parking meter just before he pulled out. One that I did recently was leave my parking slip that still had an hour on it on the parking meter.
Thanks for the giveaway. Act of kindness. My dear 80 yo Mom took half a day today to drive me to therapy (hour each way) and wait for me (hour and a half) – using her car and gas. She even carried my purse for me. Then, she fixed me lunch and shooed me away to sit while she washed the dishes. I’m still in lots of pain with my back, and she is taking care of me. That is kindness.
I find it really hard to answer this… sounds like tooting your own horn!! but, I took so much pleasure in making softies for Ethiopia, just wish I could see the little faces of the kids who received them..
My act of kindness involves my husband & I selling our home and moving into a much smaller place next to my Mom & Dad. Everyday there are small ways to help them out, but over the years as it get harder and harder to do everyday chores we are able to take up the slack. The time we are spending together is worth much more than gold, because I believe relationships is why we are placed on this earthly. What a blessing! ~Kd
http://www.KdQuilts.com
We just moved after being in our house 20 years. Believe me, a person can acquire ALOT of stuff in 20 years. My nephew came over yesterday at 7:30 am, worked all day and we finally left at 8:00pm. (lucky that it was only 86 yesterday). Today we went back to the house to turn in the keys and as we were leaving a stranger asked for a ride to the bus stop. She was an elderly lady and I was more than happy to give her the short ride. Then when I got home, my wonderful new neighbor had brought me some wonderful Asian Chicken Salad. My life is Blessed !!
An elderly couple arrived at the cancer hostel, he the patient, she the caregiver and wife. After 1 1/2 days, I noticed that I had not seen her once leave him for a meal for herself. I inquired and come to find out she had been living on cheese and muffins she had brought with her. The hospital hostel only provides meal coupons for the patients. As we had been there many weeks already, we had accumulated a lot of unused meal coupons that we would not use up. I hurried to our room immediately and handed her enough coupons to last the week. At first, she didn’t want to take them but I insisted and told her that God had blessed us with an abundance and He was blessing me further by enabling me to help her. It brought me such joy to be able to do such a small thing and much greater joy when I saw them both eat a healthy meal together :)
My act of kindness is towards me that I hope in turn to ‘Pay it Forward’.
My son was born 6 weeks prem and needed to stay in hospital. On his first night in the isolette a quilt was laid over the top and a tiny beanie placed on his head. When I asked about these I was told they were gifts to make the time easier, that is to make you feel less alone. I still have these items tucked away to give to my son (who is healthy and fine) when he is older. At the moment I am working on a couple of little quilts to return to the hospital so that someone else might feel less alone in the scary world of the ICU Nursery.
So if you have ever donated a small item to a children’s hospital, thank you. They make a difference, truly!
I saw some fabric on a blog that I had been searching for forever… I asked if I could buy some and she sent it to me for free!
I have had multiple acts of kindness the past few weeks as I recovered from major surgery. The best was when my closest friend went to New Orleans several days earlier than planned so she could get home in time to stay with me when I came home from the hospital. Because of storms on the way back, she arrived in Minnesota at 9:00 pm and was at my house to spend the night by 9:30 pm.
At our guild’s quilt show, I won multiple prizes at the raffle table, so I shared with someone who didn’t win anything.
Someone who’s blog I follow commented that she was feeling poorly, so I made some “cherry blossoms” for her (1/2″ pink hexagon flowers).
In return she sent me a whole bag of cut out hexagons just waiting to be sewn up!!
This summer with all the hot weather, I have been thinking Christmas. I am making Christmas Stockings for our church to stuff for the local food bank to give out to the children in our area whose parents are having hard times. I have 145 finished . We will need about 200.
Well our grandson had to be treated for cancer in Nashville Vanderbilt Hosp. Admitted in April just now coming home. So many of my blogging pals, friends and extended family sent him cards, hats , books, etc. and donated $ to help the family with gas money! Kindness with a capital K! No way to express my gratitude other than a heartfelt Thank You from us all. Sometimes it is the smallest of acts that can touch a life in a positive way!!
Today my sons & I helped my coworker move her two older children into their first townhome. Other friends could not come – so they were thankful for my strong sons helping out :) Love the giveaway you are offering – thank you for a chance to win! K. Wiley
Act of kindness. My sweet mother took most of a day to drive me to and from therapy (hour each way) and take care of me as I hurt my back. I’m blessed to have an 80 yo mom who can do this.
I recently asked one of my friends from another state to buy a book that I knew she would really enjoy. When I would talk with her online and ask if she had gotten the book yet she would say no, she couldn’t get it yet. They have 3 kids in college so I think $$ was the issue. So I ordered the book at amazon.com and had it sent to her. She was so appreciative and I have been so blessed that I wanted to pass it on!
Thank you for the giveaway
Working together with a friend to get another friend a suitable outfit for her husbands funeral. This is an important day, not a day you want to worry about what you are going to wear. So many others things are more important.
I was purchasing some fruit from a shop on our holidays and the lady behind the counter could not stop commenting how lovely my handmade bag was so I went to the car emptied it out and went back and left it at the shop for her.
I have finished another prayer shawl to donate to my church’s group. I LOVE doing random acts of kindness. A great read: Christmas Jars by Jason Wright.
We spent the last week camping thru Idaho and Montana. We tried to leave our camping home better than we found it by leaving behind a supply of cut wood for a fire or a canister of propane for the Yurt Stove.
It’s wonderful to read about all the ways people have of being kind. I make crochet afghans to donate to the local shelter for battered women and children. The book looks like it has such a nice variety of crafty things to do! Those cupcakes look so good!
I didn’t kill my kids today.. That’s a big act of kindness today!
But for real, I gave away a few gallons of milk at wal- mart for free.