and the winner is ...

its time for the drawing of The Betsy Travel Bag winner - yippee !!

thanks so much to everyone for leaving a comment with your fabric choices - there are so many fantastic fabrics out there it would be hard to go wrong :)

I hope you've been following along on The Betsy Travel Bag Blog Tour - there are some gorgeous bags being shown !  I've re-posted the details in case you want to check them out.

The  Betsy  Travel  Bag  Blog  Hop  Schedule  

March  17

pattern available for pre-­sale  through  RCM  shop

Blog  Hop  Day  1  posts

Rebel  Craft  Media

Schnitzel & Boo

Snuggly  Monkey

March  19

Blog  Hop  Day  2  posts

that's me !!

March  21

Blog  Hop  Day  3  posts

I’m  A  Ginger  Monkey

March  23

Blog  Hop  Day  4  posts
Don't Call Me Betsy

 March  25

Blog  Hop  Day  5  posts

Libby  Dibby

March  27

Blog  Hop  Day  6  post

Euphoria  Jessica

March  29

Blog  Hop  Day  7  post

Karri  of  Berries

March  31

Blog  Hop  Day  8  post

Rebel  Craft  Media 

(photo  roundup)

So onto the winner winner chicken dinner !

Mr RNG picked number 3 who is Twins Squared !!!!  Congratulations, I've sent you off an email !

I look forward to everyone joining in the sew-along which starts next week and I can't wait to see all the awesome bags from that !!

happy sewing

we have a winner !

I was busy sewing tonight and suddenly remembered I needed to draw a winner for the awesome Block Flower pattern by Jess at The Elven Garden !

so I got Mr Random Generator to pick a number and he picked 2 - with only 5 entries it was a pretty close contest !

 

woohoo - congratulations Sharon - Sharon blogs over at Vrooman's Quilts and thought this quilt would look good in Vintage Sunshine !

such a pretty choice - I've forwarded your email to Jess who will send you the pattern soon and I look forward to seeing your quilt :)

the block flower quilt and a giveaway

earlier this year Jess from The Elven Garden put out a call for pattern testers for her new Block Flower pattern and I jumped at the chance !

Jess had already made her quilt and it looked fabulous - she has done some amazing quilting on it too.

Not long after I received the pattern from Jess I won some Art Gallery Fabrics and when they arrived I knew they would be perfect for this quilt.

I then found some low volume fabrics - I don't have a lot of low volume fabrics in my very colourful stash but I managed to find some that I thought would look good !

so I made a start and was really happy with the great instructions in the pattern and how easy it was to put together.

I tried out the fabrics together ...

and along the way I made a few changes ...

I made a few blocks and tried out the sashing strips I had planned ...

I ran out of one of the background fabrics I was using - I only just had enough of one particular fabric and made a cutting error (don't you hate that !) eek I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I put a call out on Instagram and the extremely lovely and very generous Lorena came to my rescue and popped some in the post for me so I was able to keep going :)

I finally had all the blocks sewn together ...

 

after arranging the layout I was finally able to sew on the sashing and finish the top

I decided to make the sashing on the outside just a bit smaller than the pattern - now I just need to organise some backing fabric so I can get it quilted and finished.

here's another photo of the finished top - the sun was out last weekend and it was a great day to take photos at the park !

Jess has done a blog post showing her fabulous quilt, along with the quilts from her pattern testers - they are all so different and so gorgeous - you should definitely take a look if you're wanting to do this pattern !

Jess has also generously offered to give a copy of her pattern to one of my readers - yay !

for a chance to win just leave a comment - if you want you can tell me what fabric collection you think would suit this gorgeous quilt ! I'll get Mr Random Generator to pick a winner on Tuesday 16 September at 6pm - Australian time.

seabreeze - a finish and a winner

I've finally finished my seabreeze mini "into the shade"

after quilting it with straight lines 1/2 inch apart I decided to add some more lines 1/4 inch apart - I think my matchstick quilting addiction makes me think the lines need to be close !  I also quilted with matching colours in the three different sections.

I backed it with a fabric that I bought a while ago and then I wasn't sure what to do with it - turns out it will make a fabulous backing for wall hangings - and I sewed some little hanging pockets too so I can hang it with a piece of dowel.

I'm really happy how it turned out - its a bit bigger than most of my minis at 22 inches but I'll find a wall to hang it on.

Stats
size:22"x22"
pattern: Seabreeze by Megan Bohr of Canoe Ridge Creations
top fabric: Prima Homespun, Michael Miller Cotton Couture, and AGF Pure Elements solids
backing fabric: Modern Workshop by Oliver + S for Moda
binding fabric: Prima Homespun in Aqua
batting: Warm and White cotton 
quilting: 1/4 inch straight line
thread: King Tut 40wt #927, #956, #924 by Superior Threads

I'm linking up to the seabreeze mini quilt along reveal linky party over at GnomeAngel's blog - if you've been following along with the quilt-along make sure you check out all the fabulous little quilts that have been made !

before I go I get to announce the winner of the seabreeze pillow giveaway !!

I asked Mr Random Generator to pick a number ...

drum roll ....

and the winner is #27 - Archie the wonder dog - I love your cushion - such gorgeous colours!!!

congratulations Helen and Archie - I'll email shortly !

thanks so much to all who entered - I have another giveaway planned in the next week - its a pattern by Jess Frost of The Elven Garden - stay tuned !!

material obsession 2 giveaway

its time to draw the material obsession 2 book giveaway - thanks to those who visited my blog and left a comment - it was great to hear your tips for machine quilting :)

so I've decided to just go for it - I think the reason I haven't started fmq even though I've had the Janome for almost two months is that I'm just scared that I'll mess up a perfectly fine quilt top !

but tomorrow I’m going to ignore my fear and just go for it :)

I've been practicing my stipple quilting ...

I’m pretty happy – mostly round curves – just need to relax and breath !

I'm a bit obsessed about pebble quilting too - lots more practice needed for that design though. 

so onto the winner of the book...I had 20 comments although two from Linda (hi Linda - waving :)) and one from my dad (thanks dad - love you ! )  so I put numbers 1 - 18 in mr random generator and he came up with #13 - lucky for one !

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Can’t believe it picked my dad’s comment (mum already has this book!) so the next comment was from Michele of Quilts from my Crayon Box - congratulations Michele and thanks for your tip!  I’ll be sending you an email today to get your postal address – hope you really enjoy the book :)

I'm off to the sewing room this afternoon – I've failed on my February projects !  my three cushions for A Lovely Year of Finishes are still not finished although they are further along than the beginning of the month. I also have to re-do February’s And Sew On BOM block – the “unpicker” block has caused me to unpick at least 5 times but I just can’t get the handles to match up !

Have a great weekend :)

winner winner chicken dinner

sorry, but I just love that saying - it makes me giggle everytime I hear it :)

its time to draw the winners from pippi's happy birthday post !

I really wanted to have a giveaway for my followers to say thanks for following me and giving me support and encouragement - so I thought why not have a birthday giveaway as I got a heap of great pressies as well !

I purposely didn't mention the giveaway word in the post or the title as I really wanted it to be just for those of you who are regular visitors to my blog - so thanks for visiting and leaving comments ♥

It also meant that the chances of winning a book were pretty good too with just 12 comments - yay !

I know I said pippi would draw the names but it turns out she wasn't interested ! and I have issues adding mr random to my posts (I can't get it to work !) so I enlisted the help of mum and dad and did it the old fashioned way - with names on pieces of paper drawn out of a hat...

drumroll please ...

the winner of zakka style is ... rachaeldaisy

and the winner of modern minimal is ... dolores (who just happened to celebrate her birthday on Friday !)

congratulations rachael and dolores - I'm sure you'll really love your books - they're both fabulous !  I'll send you an email very soon to get your post details.

again thanks to all my very special followers for your kind comments and cheering me on :)

second blogiversary and a win !

its my second blogiversary today and although I only started regular posting last year, its now two years since that first post and what an amazing two years in blogger land its been !

and the best part? I now get to eat the cupcake to celebrate :) no, really, the best part is how amazing it has been to connect with so many lovely people who visit me and leave such positive comments and its been so great to be able to visit so many talented and wonderful bloggers out in the world wide web!

I was going to have a giveaway today to celebrate my blogiversary but I've decided to combine it with my guest post at Listen to the Birds Sing on Friday so you'll have to come back on Friday for all the details :) but I will give you a hint on the giveaway ...

Karen from Listen to the Birds Sing has been hosting series of {friendship} february guest posts and I'm honoured to be asked to join in.

and the win ?  well, last week I posted about linking photos of my very messy sewing room to the Quilting Gallery's Learning Centre where Pat Sloan is doing a month of posts about studio organisation - and yesterday I received an email telling me I'd won the book Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter: An Illustrated Guide to the Space of Your Dreams - which will come in very handy while I'm trying to tidy up my little sewing space :)  thank you very much Quilting Gallery, Pat Sloan, and C&T Publishing - what a fabulous blogiversary present !

 

and after winning some fabric in the fugly fabric giveway last week I can't believe I've won again - the stars must be aligned !

So I hope you can join me on Friday for my first guest post and maybe you too can win :)