Bee Blocks & A Giveaway!!!

That's right I'm giving away some Sherbet Pips!

My very lovely friend Courtney who also happens to own the very lovely online fabric store Seamstar has kindly donated a FULL COLLECTION charm pack (5" squares) of this not yet out, everyone wants fabric collection from British designer Aneela Hoey.

I was also intending to giveaway something I had made from the line along with this charm pack but as I'm sure you can appreciate my friend's death has put a hold on all things ceative round here :(

So instead I have decided to give the lucky winner a free copy of the next edition of FAT QUARTERLY! 

The next edition of this fantabulous e-zine is due at the end of April and will wing its way to the winners inbox courtesy of moi!! Inside you'll find shed loads of inspiration and tutorials for many a quilt as well as lots of smaller sewing projects to keep the creative juices flowing!

To enter all you need to do is leave me SEPERATE comments telling me you've done the following::

1) Follow my blog
2) Go to Seamstar & come back to tell me your favourite thing for sale!
3) Blog about the giveaway
4) Tell me what your favourite quilt block is! 

The Giveaway will close on Tuesday 5th April 2011- Midnight British Time!
Winner Announced on Weds 6th April 2011

Talking of quilt blocks here are a few I've completed over the last couple of weeks but not yet shown you! 

My 3x6 bee blocks::

 
I decided to go for simple disappearing 9 blocks for this bee. All made from fabric in my stash in the colours specified by the peeps in my group! Simple.


And progress on my Wonky Star quilt using the Quilt-A-Long on the VeryKerryBerry blog!

This is the top section of the quilt all sewn together, the bottom three blocks are all ready to be sewn together and the centre block is complete too. This leaves me with only two blocks to make and the top will be complete - Yay!!

I'm still deciding on the backing but am thinking pink & girly for 'Little Miss H'. 

Cheery Post on a Sad Day.....

Nearly a year ago I posted this post about my lovely friend Nat.

Well last night I got the sad sad news that she had died. I'm truly gutted as it is a life wasted but I hope that she will now be at peace, 36 is no age to die is it? She leaves behind two beautiful children who I hope will now be able to remember the person their mum was, not the person whom she had become. Alcoholism is evil, this terrible journey we have all been on has scarred us all - I just hope they can come to terms with everything over time.

So feeling melancholy today I've not achieved much, I've mainly been thinking and crying to be honest. When the postman arrived however I was cheered up no end! He had an armful of parcels, clearly some I was expecting but one however I was not?!

Inside my surprise parcel was this::

Look at him - how cute is he??

He was sent by my lovely friend Beth at The Linen Cat. She showed these monster purses on her blog before Christmas when she made them for her boys. I commented saying if she ever made them to sell I'd like one for 'Master M'. So here he is. A total and utter surprise, she didn't tell me that they were available, she may have even just made a special one I don't know. What I do know is that I am delighted by Beth's thoughtfulness and kindness for sending one as a surprise! 

I actually cried (I'm emotional just now!) when I saw this::

Isn't it just the little details that count??

I've also had an abundance of fabric delivered. Yay!! First up I got some de-stash bargains from another blog friend, Amanda. 

These yummy prints are just to stash but I'm feeling a cushion coming from the middle one!! I also got this fab Alexander Henry print from Amanda too::

I missed out on this print last year when it was readily available so am delighted to have got my hands on this!! (I'd love it in the pink colourway if anyone knows where I can get some)

I've also had a little flurry at my fave UK fabric store Seamstar too!!

Though I'm not meant to be buying fabric (huhum) I COULD NOT resist this linen!! Can you see the ickle rabbits?? I adore it and so having learnt my lesson when I missed out on the thunderflower, I simply had to get some!! Now when I buy fabric I always check out the sale section, do you? You never know what is lurking to stash build with::

This is a Tina Givens print that I snapped up the last 0.5m at a bargainous price!! I also have the blue colourway and I think they'll make great cushion backs.

Finally I decided to get this lovely quilt kit from Saints & Pinners as my friend is due a baby girl soon and will be heading off on Mat leave in the next couple of weeks::

I'd seen it a while ago and kind of made a mental note to get it and its a good job I checked back as the blue colourway is already sold out!

Merry Legs Winner!

Mr Random Generator again chose the lucky winner and he chose:

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 38 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

(As you can see I'm still having trouble getting the generator on my blog properly!)

Comment no. 38 was from Little Creatable - I've emailed you and will get Miss Merry Legs to you as soon as I have your address.

My final giveaway will be posted on Saturday - keep watching!

Giveaway No 2

Better late than never eh??!!

My internet connection went down on Thursday with all the wind and then I worked a very long shift on the Neonatal Unit yesterday so now has been the 1st chance I've had to post my 2nd fab giveaway!!

So without further ado here's what you can win::

This is a very cute 'Merry Legs' doll hand made and then given to me by the very lovely Katy!

For those of you who don't know her, Katy blogs at I'm A Ginger Monkey and is also 1/4 of the very fabulous Fat Quarterly. I've followed Katy's blog for a long time now and about 6 months ago we realised we were virtually neighbours, living only a 30min car drive away from each other - woop woop I cried! Since that time Katy has become a good friend and a bit of a sewing mentor for me, she's helped me with quilting and binding and of course the obligatory consumption of copious amounts of coffee!!

The Merry Legs doll is one of Katy's original designs, if you remember back to December 2010 I made one of my own and sent it to Australia as part of a soft toy swap I was involved in. More recently I've used the embroidery pattern of Merry Legs on a pelmet for 'Little Miss H's' bedroom window. 

If you'd like to make  your own Merry Legs the pattern is available in the Special Holiday Edition 2010 of Fat Quarterly for the barginous price of only $5!

I'd urge anyone who hasn't seen the Fat Quarterly e-zine to hop over and check it out as it's amazing. Really. Lots of excellent quilting projects but also lots of smaller projects too, its great. Trust me. Inspiration galore.

So if you'd like to enter my giveaway here's what you have to do:

Please enter a seperate comment for each thing you do!!
1. Go read Katy's blog & come back to tell me your favourite thing she's made
2. Follow my blog or tell me you already do
3. Follow Katy's blog & come back to tell me you've done it
4. Blog/Tweet about this giveaway & come back to tell me you've done it

So you've got 4 chances to be entered into the giveaway that will close on Wednesday 16th March 2011 at Midnight (British Time)

The winner will be announced on Thursday 17th March.


Good Luck people!!!

We have a winner!!!

As promised the random generator thingy has chosen a winner for my 1st giveaway! Yay!

So without further ado the winner was comment no. 5

Leila said::

Your giveaway is on the side bar of my blog under giveaways.

4 March 2011 15:24

Leila your goodies will be in the post over the weekend.

NB: I have no idea how to get a screen shot of the generator gadget on my blog so you'll just have to trust me this time! If you know how to get it on there please let me know too!!



Details of my 2nd giveaway will follow later today.........

 

100th Post Giveaway!!!

At last we're here. My 100th post giveaway!! Edited to add - Giveaway now closed

To celebrate my 1st year of blogging and this wonderful community of creativity we have, I have collaborated with a few fellow bloggers and crafters (but most importantly they are my friends!) to bring you a little array of giveaways that will run over the next week, starting today!

Today's giveaway is for a trio of handcrafted scrumminess from three of my favourite bloggers. I have read their respective blogs since way before I took the plunge and started blogging myself and I'm happy to say that good friendships have ensued!!


So without further ado::

Up for grabs is a divine Lavender Birdie from the lovely Beth over at The Linen Cat. This was one of the first blogs I became addicted to, Beth's quality of work and style is just so beautiful and over the last year I have bought a number of pieces from her that are scattered around mine and my friends homes. There's also a fantastic pencil pouch from the very lovely Karen over at Blueberry Park. I found Karen via her online store where I've bought lots of lovely UK made gifts for my friends and family. As Karen is local to me we've met up a number of times and I've also attended 2 sewing workshops that she's run too. Her blog always has lots of sewing inspiration interjected with a wicked sense of humour! Finally, there is the most gorgeous handmade felt corsage from the very lovely Vanessa at Coco Rose Textiles. This blog is just awesome (as the kids would say of course), eye-candy to the max and actually makes me want to go live at her house!! Vanessa inspires me to try harder with my photography, oh and my baking and certainly at prettying my house up. She keeps trying to tell me the whole of her house isn't like the photos (she claims they're staged) but I'm not convinced!!


So how's that for the 1st giveaway, fantabulous don't you think? The generosity of my friends is amazing and this is just day 1.


So there are a few ways of entering, you need to leave me a comment for each method telling me you've done it. Simple.


1. Leave a comment telling me your favourite blog & why
2. Become a follower or let me know you already are
3. Blog about the giveaway (I'll be checking!) & let me know you did it
4. Follow me on twitter & tweet the giveaway (don't forget to copy me in on the tweet) and let me know you've tweeted

The competition closes at midnight (British Time) on Wednesday 9th March 2011. The winner will be announced on Thursday 10th March 2011.

Good Luck People!!

Nearly Giveaway Time!!!

So this is the post before my 100th post, which as I'm sure you've all realised will see the start of 3 huge giveaways on my blog (hell I've harped on enough about it)!

Just wanted to share a few makes with you before my blog gets taken over by giveaway posts!!

 
'Master M' and I baked these beauties last night! He adores baking and tries to get me to bake nearly everyday. Unfortunately for him baking/cooking is not my forte (hey we can't have it all!) but it's something I really want to try harder with. If any of you lovely people can recommend any good baking blogs and/or places to get toppings etc please drop me a line.

I've continued with the wonky stars blocks too::

I'm really liking the way these are turning out, that's 3 of 8 complete now so I'm getting there slowly. I've whipped up these handy pouches this morning::

This pouch is a lovely stripe linen lined with a blue floral Kaffe Fasset print, not sure what I'll use it for yet but pouches are just so handy aren't they?

Now this pouch is going to hold the feet and maintenance bits and bobs for my sewing machine. Its going to live on my sewing shelf with some other pouches and bags that hold 'stuff'. You know the 'stuff' that there's loads of but no good way to store it!!

Finally I got another craft book this week - ooops!

This one has been on my wish list for some time now and it hasn't disappointed. There are some great dolly projects inside that I will certainly be trying soon.


So back to the giveaway. 

Come back tomorrow for PART 1 and see how you can enter to win 3 gorgeous hand-crafted items from 3 of my favourite bloggers!


See you then!

A Bit of This & That!

Today I've been mainly continuing with my must get organised theme! 

Its taking me lots of snippets of time here and there to make my fabric bolts using the comic board method I talked about here. I'm more than half way through my stash and the completed bolts are now living on different shelving on the top floor of the house.

The picture above shows my bolts that hold cuts of 0.5m or more and the one below shows FQ's.

The piles on the right of the picture still need turning into cute mini bolts and then all I have to do is organise the scraps!!

Whilst organising the two sets of shelves that housed my fabric I also had the pleasure of spending a little time with my girls! As you may or may not remember, towards the end of last year I toook the plunge and bought my first Blythe doll. Then another, and another and another!! They have been sadly neglected of late and so I've decided to formally introduce you to them, one at a time. (Girls form an orderly queue please)

First up we have the very pretty Tabi. She is my most recent acquisition and was a Christmas present to myself! I bought her from fellow Blythe fan Katy (yep that's right the one of FQ fame!) Tabi was a Casual Affair doll and has had a full customisation by the talented Milky Robot incluing a mohair re-root. 

Tabi is very pretty and has the cutest freckles painted on her face! 

I've also managed to get a little sewing in so far today and have made a start on the Wonky Star Quilt-A-Long. I've had the fabric cut for a while and so pieced my first block today.

 
This will be lap size for 'Little Miss H' and is a stash buster - Yay! I'm hoping to get this one fully pieced over the next week or so. 

Finally I want to say thanks to Nadine and Jo who have both recently awarded me the Liebster blog award!

Basically this award is for small and upcoming blogs with less than 300 followers, I hope you agree its a great way to introduce great new blogs into the world of more established blogs. In order to accept I have to pass the award on to 3 of my favourite blogs again with less than 300 followers. In no particular order::


Sew Obsessed
Me and Ma
VeryKerryBerry

I love all these blogs so very much and read them regularly, hope you like them too!  Anyway must dash, Mum's taxi is due on a Beaver's and Gymnastics run any time now!!