picking a different winner

I had trouble contacting the winner of my previous giveaway of a bundle of fabrics from Sew Fresh Fabrics, and after leaving a note on her blog, sending an email and waiting for a week to hear a reply, I decided I should pick a new winner, who is Kathy. It makes me sad to pick a new winner, but I think a week is long enough to wait to hear from the previous winner (and if by some co-incidence she contacts me this weekend, I'm sure I wouldn't send her away empty handed, would I?)

Check your email Kathy - you've won the FQ bundle! Yay!

England's skies

Just a little reminder that the bloggers bundle contest is still on until the last day of the month. Enter your choice (or choices!) for a chance to win the exact bundle of fabrics you chose and to have it for sale in Pink Castle Fabrics.

My bundle, England's Skies, is for sale now. There's a total of 3 yards of yummy neutral tones of fabric for the bargain price of $27.75, which I think would make a gorgeously classic and timeless quilt, and really great for a guy quilt too. Ok, so I'm biased, I chose that bundle, but I think it's rather lovely (if it's showing as out of stock just shoot Brenda a message and she'll renew the listing for you, and don't forget the coupon code of KATY15 for 15% off anything in store!!!)



I picked up some of the new(ish) extra wide fabrics by Moda last week (also from Pink Castle fabrics). It's a step in the right direction for modern extra wide quilt backings. This is called charcoal but is more of a medium grey to be honest, which in my opinion is better than if it were a dark charcoal. It'd go with a LOT of fabric ranges, and the medium grey colour wouldn't cause me any kind of potential bleeding headaches. This is for my on a whim quilt a long quilt (that is incredibly slowly coming together, and by slowly I mean I haven't made any progress since the day I started it - I'm being too slack right now and need to get stepped up a gear or 10).

Granny top - finished!

This was such fun to put together - and so fast (thanks to the strip piecing method).



I used Adventures with Alice by Darlene Zimmerman from Robert Kaufman, that I got from Lola Pink Fabrics. They're the perfect 30s repros - I prefer ditsy florals and geometrics to the repros with little children on, and these have a great mix of them. There are prints with rabbits and Alice in Wonderland images, but they work really well. The colours are great too, my favourite is probably the black floral. I also used a white klona cotton that I have a bolt of from Alice at Backstitch. It's a great white - completely pure and bright and the weight is slightly heavier than kona, so it's very good for making sharp points and finger pressing. Plus it's a touch wider than kona (53" wide), and only £5.50/metre so it's really good value as well.



Now I have to get this quilted, it's not too big so I will probably do it myself for a change, rather than adding it to the massive stack I have to take to Long Armed Chris. I'm accepting I can't possibly afford to get every quilt I make long armed, I don't like accepting the quilting pot of gold is not as full as I'd like, but until I win the lottery I think I need to quit whining about it and accept the fact sometimes I have to quilt things.

Quilt Deets;
fabrics;
Adventures with Alice from Lola Pink Fabrics
Klona white from Backstitch
Size - 53"x73"

festival of half square triangles

Do you love half square triangles? Looking for some fun, fresh ways to incorporate HSTs into your next sewing project? Then you are going to love the Festival of Half Square Triangles!

Starting Monday, April 2, we've got two weeks jammed packed with all sorts of half square triangle tutorials and projects from some of your favorite modern sewing bloggers! After all of the creative inspiration, you are invited to link up a HST sewing project of your own -- bags, mini quilts, home decor, you name it. Then our fabulous group of bloggers will choose 10 finalists, at which point it's all up to YOU to choose a winner! That's right, we've got some fabulous prizes up for grabs -- stay tuned for more details!

Here's the schedule:

Monday, April 2 -- Sara from Sew Sweetness

Tuesday, April 3 -- Amy from Amy's Creative Side

Wednesday, April 4 -- Faith from Fresh Lemons Quilts

Thursday, April 5 -- Holly from Bijou Lovely 

Friday, April 6 -- Katie from Swim, Bike, Quilt

Monday, April 9 -- Erin from Two More Seconds 

Tuesday, April 10 -- Megan from Canoe Ridge Creations

Wednesday, April 11 -- Jeni from In Color Order

Thursday, April 12 -- Heather and Megan from Quilt Story

Friday, April 13 -- Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey

Monday, April 16 to Sunday, April 22 -- Linky Party featuring all of YOU over at Canoe Ridge Creations!

Monday, April 23 to Wednesday, April 25 -- Viewers Choice Voting
Friday, April 27 -- Winners Announced!

<a href="http://www.canoeridgecreations.com/p/festival-of-half-square-triangles.html"><img</p><p>src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3GGGD0DgIbM/T2_bPhtQzpI/AAAAAAAAAio/980bBkxfT6M/s1600/festivalofHSTs150.png"></a></p><p> 

So grab a button, check out the Flick group, and join us for the 

Festival of Half Square Triangles -- starting Monday, April 2!

de ja vu?

This is looking familiar.



Although it's not the same as the first giant star.

Not quite, anyway - this one is a little smaller at 68" square

But it still uses the same fabrics as before, Anna Maria Horner velveteens and a timeless treasures sketch in charcoal. (velveteens from here, here and here, you can get the sketch from here)



I bound it in silent cinema again, but a different colour. This time it's front row in blue. You can still buy silent cinema if you hunt for it on etsy, I'd really recommend it, it's one of those collections you might regret not owning after it's gone, I'm a little bit obsessed with it.
This has been living on my couch since I finished it, and I hadn't got round to taking photos, but it was such a lovely sunny day yesterday that I figured I had no excuses.

Quilt Deets -
Giant star using Anna Maria Horner velveteen (both LouLouthi and Innocent Crush), and Timeless Treasures Sketch in charcoal.
Finished size - 68" square
Pattern - Jeni's giant star tute
Quilted in a large flower pattern in hot pink thread by long armed Chris

This makes finished quilt number 4 of the year, which I'm pretty pleased about. I'm aiming for 12 - one a month. Let's see how I get on with that (I always have such great intentions at the start of the year!)

Zakka Style Sew Along

I know you people are going to kill me for this but I've details of another sew-along that I'm taking part in along with a whole heap of other bloggers (23 to be precise!)

You know Rashida - fabric designer and author and all round person of awesomeness? Yeh, her. Well, her new book is really good, like super extra good, and my good friend Amy and her good friend Lindsay thought it'd be a great idea to sew through the whole book - 24 projects.

The sew along starts Monday April 2nd with the first project in the book and will continue through Monday September 10th with a new project  introduced each Monday.

Each blogger will sew a different project and will be sharing their finished project and inspiration with you.

April 2nd :: Zig Zag Tote with Sew Fantastic

April 9th :: The House Pouch with During Quiet Time

April 16th :: Zakka Pincushion with Pink Penguin

April 23rd :: Sewing Kit with me - right here!!! (the sewing kit is that one there on the cover of the book - isn't it super cute?!)

April 30th :: Patchwork Pencil Case with VeryKerryBerry

May 7th :: Itty Bitty Quilt Block Magnets with Little Bluebell

May 14th :: Raincloud Mug Rug with Quilt Dad

May 21st :: Zakka Block Quilt with I like Orange

May 28th :: Stem Messenger Bag with Sew Sweetness

June 4th :: Zip Organizer with Spotted Stone

June 11th :: Orchard Path Tweed Pouch with Don’t Call Me Betsy

June 18th :: Happy Couple Handwarmers with A Cuppa and a Catch up

June 25th :: Patchwork Potholder with Sew Take a Hike

July 2nd :: Water Bottle Holder with One Shabby Chick

July 9th :: Elephant Bookmark with Cut to Pieces

July 16th :: Patchwork Ribbon with {House} of A la Mode

July 23rd :: Delightful Linen Bag with Sukie

July 30th :: Bread Basket with Patchwork Notes

August 6th :: Sweet Sugar Cookie Sack with BettyCrockerAss

August 13th :: Little Pocket Pillowcase with Freshly Pieced

August 2oth :: Sweet Memories Photo Frame with Noodlehead

August 27th :: Pleated Coin Purse with Shape Moth

September 3rd :: Happy Garland Message Board with Maureen Cracknell Handmade

September 10th :: Nesting Boxes with From the Blue Chair

 There will be a week in between each project to give you time to sew along and I really hope you’ll join in on the fun, or at least dip in and out as the projects interest you!

You will need a copy of the book to participate, so be sure to grab one soon! (available at all good bookstores etc etc - you know where to buy books, right?)

And, every week there'll be prizes. Yay for prizes! Join the flickr group and play along!

retro flowers quilt along

Do you love this quilt? Yeh, I do. I see it pop up all the time on Christina's intagram pics and I get a little twang of envy every time I see it.

Well, if you love it like I do then you could join in with the quilt along that's happening with these sweet gals, Megan and Bianca. I'm going to buy the pattern and I think I'll be a slow loris but I'll quilt along (gradually)

Hosts:

Megan (citystitches.blogspot.com)

Bianca (sweetdieseldesigns.com)

Retro Flowers pattern by Christina at The Sometimes Crafter

Participants MUST buy the pattern to quilt along, the hosts will not be giving templates or explicit pattern details in their posts. It is only $10!

Christina from The Sometimes Crafter will be giving away 5 patterns beginning on 3/21

Jill from Made on Main Street will be giving away 3 sets of acrylic templates beginning on 3/22

Prizes will be sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop!

There will be 2 giveaways each featuring a Jelly Roll of your choice!

There will be 3 grand prizes each featuring a $75 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop!

Guest Judges for the Grand Prizes include Rachel (Stitched in Color), Nova (A Cuppa and a Catch Up), and Christina (The Sometimes Crafter)

Schedule of posts

3/20: Welcome - Both

4/2: Templates/cutting - Bianca

4/9: Sewing curves - Megan

4/23: Piecing Blocks - Bianca

4/30: Piecing Quilt - Megan

5/7: Quilting by Machine - Bianca

5/14: Quilting by Hand - Megan

5/21: Thank you/Linky Party opens -Both

6/1: Deadline to link up

Join the Flickr Group Right Here!

Giveaway Winners!!!

Thank you to everyone that entered the giveaways recently. I love giveaways, they're such fun.
So who won what?

The Brrr charm pack winners are;

Jo and Livy

The templates and scrap pack winner is;

Di

and the bundle of FQs fromSew Fresh Fabrics is;

Elizabeth

Well done peeps!!!

Make sure you all enter the fabulous bloggers bundle contest too - details here

let's have a contest

I was chatting with Brenda over at Pink Castle Fabrics and had an idea of something fun to get you guys involved with.

You know the fantastic blogger bundles she has in her store? Like this one and this one

If you were chief bundle maker what would you choose?

Well, here's your chance to give it a go.

Pick a selection of 12 fabrics in Brenda's store (use the etsy shop or website or both), make a mosaic using the mosaic maker at big huge labs and blog about it (or upload your mosaic to flickr). Then come back and tell me using the linky tool (at the bottom of this page) that you've done so.

The contest is open until March 31st and the 2 winners will each win their own bundle AND get that very same bundle listed in Brenda's store! Fame at last!

Not sure how to make a mosaic? Here's a quick (rough!) guide. First you need to 'borrow' the pictures of the fabrics you like from Pink Castle Fabrics. Either save them to your desktop, or right click to copy them. Don't forget to note what the fabric is called too! You can then upload the photos one by one to the mosaic maker at big huge labs. Just follow the instructions and you'll be good to go. It's really self explanatory - I swear! Small Print - You can enter more than once, but can only win one prize (there's nothing stopping you entering a few bundles though, just to increase you chances, is there?!) International entries are welcome, Brenda's decision on winners is final. If a fabric isn't available a suitable replacement of equal quality will be used.

This is mine, I call it England's Skies, because right now as I'm writing this the sky is a strange greyish brown beige. It's almost dusk and the early evening sun is trying to shine through the clouds, but not quite managing it. That sounds all a bit deep and artsy. I'm not sure I like that. Anyway - that's what it reminds me of, and a neutral bundle is always handy to have on hand - you could add in a splash of any other colour to this stash building set and make a really lovely calming quilt.




Although I can't actually enter the contest (obviously!) - it's just for fun.

The fabrics I used are;

Top row, left to right;
dumb dot in Charcoal
fly a kite damask in brown
herringbone in maple tan
Second row left to right;
vintage ironwork in khaki
quilters linen straw
quilters linen gray
Third row, left to right;
lock and key in khaki
seeds in gray
hometown news in cream
Fourth row, left to right;
daisy's dates in graphite
circle stripes in cloud gray
lace in mud

Don't forget if you order anything from pink castle on etsy use KATY15 as a code on check out to get 15% off your order.

(Edited to add - the idea for this contest was based on the fortnightly fabric pack feature we used to put together at Fat Quarterly and the fabulous contest Laura had recently on her blog)

hey girl - where'd you get that?

What this?  Oh I got it over here at Brenda's store. Do you know her? She's awesome.

I need to get me over to Brenda's

Yep - you do, because she has all sorts of good shizzle in that there store, and I cut this coupon out for you, it's good for 15%


Heck - 15%? What about on the sale stuff?

It's good for all the stuff in that store. Just enter it as you check out KATY15

I'm gone girl - I need to get me some of that good stuff.


{FIN}


Today's production of 'Hey Girl Where'd You Get That' was brought to you by Brenda of Pink Castle Fabrics. I know you know who she is, because everyone does. In case you wanted a little Madness for this March (see what I'm doing there?) go shopping and use your coupon. KATY15 (Etsy store only)

a perfect combination

I shared this last week over on the Fat Quarterly blog as part of the designer challenge we've been doing using Ellen's new fabrics.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love these fabrics and I can't wait for them to start arriving in stores. Fat Quarter Shop has them as arriving in April - and they also have a selection of Moda Bella Solids that co-ordinate perfectly. You can find details here. And we all know how much I love the Swoon quilt, it just works so well in all fabrics.



The pillow uses a 26" pillow form, it's the standard size swoon block with a little border. It's big, but I'm all for big pillows - they are way more useful than a little bitty one.

I'm teaching a class on the Swoon quilt down at Patch fabrics in Lowestoft on 5th May. (Camille gave me her permission, I asked first!), so if you have the pattern and still haven't joined in the swoonalong and are still confused by it (and you happen to be in the area!) book up and come!

strip piecing a granny square block

A few people asked how I strip pieced my blocks and Dana graciously said I could post a little tute to share.
The original tutorial for Granny Square blocks is over on Jolene's blog - it's all her fault I am so obsessed with these things (thanks Jolene - you are total awesomeness). Dana is running a quilt along over in the Old Red Barn Co quilt along group. Hop on board the granny square train and join in, they're fun, they're fast and you can make them as scrappy or as co-ordinated as you like.

So here goes.

This will make 8 blocks in total (see how I managed to make 32 blocks in a couple of mornings now? Yep - it's super speedy!)

You need to cut your fabrics into 2.5"strips x the longer length of your FQs  (approx 22"). 1 FQ yields 7 strips, so grab 2 of each colour for variety. Or just pick out fabrics from your scraps.

For each set of 8 blocks you need;
colour A lilac here - 8 strips
colour B green - 4 strips
colour C yellow (optional, the original used colour B) - 1 strip
white/background - 10 strips

Now get sewing....















Simples!
Now trim your block down as per the original tutorial to 9 1/8" or so (I got mine to 9.25" with scant seams) and repeat for a total of 8 blocks. Then do it all again. And again. And again until you have a quilt full!!!

Thanks again to Dana and to Jolene

Fabrics used for my blocks are adventures with Alice by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman by the way! I got them from Lola Pink Fabrics.

jumping on the granny square train

You can't have missed these blocks popping up all over the place. I had managed to resist for a while, until Dana said she was doing a quilt along and I spotted these 30s repros from Robert Kaufman in Lola Pink's store.

I spent the day, from around 11.30am to 2.30pm making blocks (I'm strip piecing for speed) and had 12 by the time it was school pick up hour.



12. That's pretty good going, I think.



I was thinking of keeping them all in these darker colours - reds and blues, but I'm worried it might look a bit 4th July, so I'll try adding in some pastels and see how that goes. Worse case scenario I have to make 2 quilts - one with the pastels, one with the red, white and blue. I hoard 30s repros, something about them makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, they really are such perfect ditsy prints, and the colours have that great timeless feel to them. I also have a whole heap of the (first lot of) Denyse Schmidt for Joanns fabrics that would co-ordinate really nicely if I were to make this quilt all red, white and blue.

Hmm.

Decisions, decisions. What to do?

I'd better go make some more granny squares, just to help me decide.

don't forget the 2 giveaways I have going on this week - click thru here and here

another little giveaway!!!

In celebration of my birthday last week and because the sun has been shining and because I have no other reason, I thought I'd have a little giveaway.

My template sets have been crazy popular which has made me so incredibly happy I can't even begin to tell you.
For those of you that have bought a template set already - thank you, I can't wait to see your version of Spring Carnival!
For those of you that haven't bought a set - here's your chance to win some. Plus a baggie of (really good!) scraps to make your own pillow or little quilty. Or maybe you'll get the bug and make a full sized quilt? That would be pretty impressive.

If you already bought a set - never fear, there's a prize for you guys too. A stack of 6 FQs from my newest sponsors - Sew Fresh Fabrics. They have some of the best fabrics around. Always the latest lines and great deals, plus Peg and Becca are 2 of the sweetest girls I have ever come across - helpful, informed, and provide all round great service - which is what you want when you're shopping for anything, right?
I asked them to send me a selection of FQs that summed up their store - so we have hello pilgrim, oval elements, and feather n stitch. All in gorgeous pinky corals and perfect for a sunny Springy day like today.



Simply leave me a comment below and please make sure there is a way to contact you (whether that's an email linked to your profile or leave it in the comment itself).

You can get an extra chance to win by following Peg and Becca's blog and leaving me an (extra) comment to tell me you do.

International entries are welcome and the giveaway will close in one week.


GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

Good luck people!

(don't forget about the Brrr charm pack giveaway going on until Sunday)

a little giveaway!

I've was lucky enough to be asked to play with some of Laurie's next line for Robert Kaufman, called Brrr (out in June). I can't share what I've made yet, because A; it's not finished yet and B; it's for the next issue of Fat Quarterly but I thought I could share with you guys a couple of charm packs that I cut from the fabrics I was sent, right?
Each pack has 2 squares of each fabric - there's a total of 22 charms (5") in a pack, and there are 2 packs, so 2 lucky winners. I absolutely love this line - it's a Holiday line, but so not exclusively Christmassy. You could use it for year round projects and it'd look just perfect.

Just leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. International entries are welcome, but make sure there's a way to contact you in the comment, either linked to your profile or leave me your email addy.

I'll pick 2 winners in a week!

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!

the (swooning) on a hop along begins

The official start date for the new quilt alongs isn't until Monday - but I wanted to have a little play around and make sure I fully understood the instructions and could help out with any questions people might have in the first week of the quilt along.
Judging by my comical mis-matched points for hopscotch (on the left of the pic) it might just be that I'm the one needing help. Not quite sure where I'm going wrong there, but hopefully by the time I've finished all the blocks I'll have nailed them. My fabrics for Hopscotch are domestic bliss and 2 bella solids - fuchsia and jade. I absolutely love that jade green solid - it's awesome.
On a whim is a dream so far - I'm using Meg Hawkey whitewash (that I got from Fat Quarter Shop but they seem to be out of it now) and a bundle of oakshott F8s with a Ruby dot for the background (which I have to cut still - that's next week's job - finish all the cutting and actually assemble a block).

If you want in on the quilt along fun, whether you still haven't made the swoon quilt, or fancy proving your points are better than mine for hopscotch, or making a really enjoyable on a whim quilt (can you tell, I already like that one better - half square triangles always win me over) just head over to the flickr group and join in. It's very relaxed, to be honest, we just hang out and chat and help each other out when someone needs help.

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes and also for the book support. You guys really do rock my world, you know that don't you?

templates back in stock!

Just a quicky - the template set for Spring Carnival is back in stock. Hurry though - I don't have many available!

Get them here.

what I want for my birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday. I am wishing on a star that this would actually happen, but I figure if I get enough people interested I stand a better chance of it actually happening.
I can be quite persistent you know.

Extra wide backings. I get my knickers in a twist over these on a regular basis. I have most of my quilts long armed, and pieced backings aren't as easy for the quilter as a nice smooth single piece of fabric. All those additional seams, they can lay funny, quilt up a bit awkwardly, add bulk to a quilt that doesn't need to be there.
I quite often buy flat bed sheets from Ikea because they're all cotton, the quality is pretty good and they're cheap. But they're also a bit on the dull side. What I want is a fun print, not the regular extra wides which are usually way too traditional or the wrong colours for my quilts. Don't get me wrong, Moda have started producing a few more modern prints (some dots) but there could be more and there could be a whole heap of really awesome stuff.
Imagine this - your favourite designer's fabrics, with one extra wide fabric in each collection, not one of the focal prints, but one of the co-ordinates, a dot, a stripe, a little floral, or whatever. Or even every other collection, or every 3rd. Most designers have a 'theme', they don't stray too far from the path they feel safe on, so you could easily mix and match one of the older prints with the newer ones, right? Especially with backings.
Let's take my friend Aneela as an example. The co-ordinates from Pips such as the square dot (sorry Aneela - I am useless with names and have completely forgotten what it's called) would look fantastic with Little Apples or Walk in the Woods and also her next line Cherry Christmas.

Hands up who would want to back any quilt with any one of these?



Pez in extra wide - yes please.

So who else wants this to happen? I might have to start a little campaign - email my favourite designers and mention to them that if they submitted a co-ordinate for extra wides when they submit designs for their regular collections it would be kinda cool. Then Moda could print them and we could buy them and we would all live happily ever after. Yes?

And it would be the best birthday present ever.

challenges and winners

Number 54 (Laura) was the first number picked and 35 (Jeannie Gan) was the second, so the large bottle of Soak goes to Laura and the single soak sachets to Jeannie! (Jeannie - there's no contact details for you so I need you to contact me please!)

Send me your details ladies and they'll be in the mail!

In other news...

Have you been over to Fat Quarterly this week? You should. I organised a designer challenge (it was the first one I organised) using one of my favourite fabric lines for this year - Quilt Blocks by Ellen Luckett Baker. (In shops next Month)

I was totally blown away with what everyone made with just 2 fat quarters of fabric and their imagination.

Melissa's is the latest post to go up, with a kindle case tutorial (and she's giving the kindle case away on her blog too!) Every odd numbered day over the past week and next will be sharing a a project made from quilt blocks. I'd love it if you checked them all out. I made a pillow...

Previous posts are listed below for easy reference;

Melissa (kindle case tutorial)

Jeni (zipped pouches)

Kim (fantastic tutorial for a bedside pouch)

and the panic sets in...

A preview copy of the book has arrived along with my projects (well, one of my quilts is now living with John but the other quilt and the small wall hanging I made are now home).

It's a strange feeling flicking through a physical copy of something you have played a part in writing. I was main point of contact with our (amazing) editor, Amanda, for the whole duration so I had paper pages (a print out of the PDF version) and draft after draft of emailed PDFs to read and edit as we went along. I have seen this book in it's various stages so many times I am (still) a little afraid I got to a point where I no longer saw the words and I've missed out huge and glaringly obvious errors. I'd saved a copy onto my Ipad and spent any chance I could with a notebook reading through, marking potential changes, things I thought that could be re-worded, omissions that should have been there...things that the proof reader noticed and asked for amendments to (obviously we all have different styles of writing, so finding a cohesive voice meant changing wordings from time to time).  Then I'd send my list of notes to the others and ask them to see if they could find anything else (or if I was making any mistakes).
But still you wonder....did I miss something vital? Is there a whole chunk of a quilt's instructions missing?

I suppose by nature most of us doubt ourselves and our abilities. I know I second guess myself constantly and personality and luck comes into play quite a lot more often than true talent. I am never going to be an award winning quilter, but that's not why I do this. I do this (for the most part) because of the friends I have made from quilting and how much of a buzz I get from creating.

Do I love this book? Honestly? Yes I really do. Are my projects the best in the book? Not by a long stretch, but I love that together the 4 of us; John, Tacha, Brioni and me have created something that can appeal to all levels of quilter, from the absolute beginner to the advanced. It's a block book, it's a project book, it's a quilt book. It has some really great stuff in it and I'm so proud to have my name on the cover.

Am I still panicking that people will hate it? Yes. I'm absolutely terrified.

Fat Quarterly - shape workshop for quilters is out in May and published by Lark books.