Funny Story and Steam of Consiousness

Just before we ran out the door on vacation last week, a package showed up in the mail.  I didn't remember ordering anything, but it felt soft and squishy.  As I peeked in at oodles of orange fabrics, I remembered getting an e-mail from a blog reader, Sally, who said she had lots of oranges that she would love to send me, hoping it was going to be the color of the month very soon.  Apparently people feel very strongly about orange!  It was by far the most requested color in the giveaway linky party.  I was planning to save orange for October and Halloween, but I guess you are all too impatient for that.  So I'm not sure if it will come up in August or September, but I'll move orange up on the list due to popular demand.    Best of all, the orange fabric came with an adorable cat block!  So cute!  I will definitely have to include this one in the Rainbow Scrap Sampler.
 Speaking of running out on vacation, I also meant to post the fabric giveaway winner before we left, but completely didn't.  So thanks to the magic of the random number generator at random.org, Marsha Cooper is the winner of the lovely hand dyed fabric from Vicki Welsh. I'll get her fabric off in the mail and then get ready for the August giveaway.  Marsha, you are a no-reply blogger, and I think I remember having a conversation that included your e-mail, but I can't find it now, so if you can please send me your snail mail via e-mail, I'll head off to the post office with your goodies.
Sending away all this beautiful fabric is really making me want to play with some.  I need an awesome project to feature a rainbow of hand dyes -- any suggestions?  Sometimes when faced with a wonderfully coordinated bundle of fabric goodness, I get terrified and afraid to cut into it.  Same thing happens when trying to make a gift for someone.  I need to just take a deep breath and dive in.

And on the topic of wonderful surprise packages, I stopped by school this morning after taking Ryan to the orthodontist.  There was another surprise package waiting for me there.  This one was not soft and squishy, but it was so much fun.  I was at a science technology training workshop earlier this summer and found out that our district has now has a 3-D printer for the use of the science teachers.  One particular teacher volunteered to print things for us in exchange for keeping it at his school.  So I promptly put in an order for oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin.  Check out that conformational change initiated by the bonding of the oxygen molecules.  Cool, right?!  And see the little red stand under the i-pad, it holds it perfectly vertical for video filming.  I am SO excited!

 Speaking of excited, I finally started quilting the borders for the little blue Dear Jane.  After much trial and error, I found that the clover white marking pen worked best along with a small collapsible square PVC quilting frame.  Maybe I'll make a little zipper case for it before the next trip?  Everything is better in a little zipper case.