DS Giveaway Winner!

Wow!  What a week!  I think I may have giveaway fatigue from entering so many of the fabulous giveaways out there for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway week.  But oh, there were so many tempting lovelies to be won ...

To win these two half yards of DS fabric I asked you lovely folks to share about your favourite giveaway wins and I have to say you made me jealous with your answers.  Some of you guys have won some amazingly jawdropping things!!  Those of you who haven't won anything yet, well, I hope that the announcements of all the many giveaways might change that for you!

Just so you know, I won the first ever blog giveaway I entered - 12 fat quarters of Melissa Averinos Swoon from Mandy who then owned Simply Solids.  I was practically hopping around the kitchen just to have had success!!  Those fqs were very useful making this quilt as a Bee Blessed donation.

My wee blog regularly gets about half a dozen, maybe ten, comments so I was a bit overwhelmed when 251 comments came rolling through my inbox.  Sorry that I wasn't able to reply to all of them, I just didn't expect there to be so many.  Thank you all for stopping by and I hope maybe you will call again!

Anyway, on with the business.  These DS pretties will be making their way to

who is ....

Congratulations Joanne - your first giveaway win!  I will be sending you an email to get your address in a few minutes.  Hope you enjoy them!!

Thank you all for making this giveaway week such fun!

Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway Day!

It's Sew Mama Sew's biannual Giveaway Day which I'm sure you haven't failed to notice on your wandering around the blogs today.

Since I seem to have had my head buried in sand and didn't realise this was happening until yesterday and since I'd really like to give something away to one of you lovely peeps, I have two half yards of Denyse Schmidt loveliness to send someone's way.  See?

One print is Chicopee and the other is Hope Valley but you already knew that, right?

Anyway, if you'd like a chance of these popping through your letterbox, please just leave me a comment below telling me what the best giveaway item you've won has been, or if you haven't won, what giveaway item you would most love to have won.  Easy peasy.

Please folks, make sure that you are not a no reply blogger or that you have at least included your email in your comment.  If I cannot contact you by hitting reply to your comment or if you don't leave an email, I will have to redraw and I'd hate you to win and miss out on that technicality.  Winner will be drawn Sat 11 May, entries close Fri 10th 5pm PST (which I think is midnight GMT, but don't hold me to that!)

So that's it, one comment with means of contact, international entries welcome.  Have fun with all the other giveaways too!




ETA - If you enter the giveaway - thank you!  I will read every comment but am struggling with replying as there are many and some glitch also seems to be throwing me notifications of entries to another giveaway so I am sifting these out of my emails too.  Be assured I am reading about some of the great things you guys have won, and wish I had enough fabrics to send to all of you who have never won a giveaway!

Log Cabin in Greenfield Hills

Not so subtle that title, but it's what I was working on this afternoon as a wee start to a gift.  A log cabin cushion in Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hills fabrics.  Not sure somehow that log cabin and the Plantation homes that inspired these fabrics are compatible, but for this wee cushion front I think they've come together nicely.

It's not a very contemporary look, but I do love these fabrics in this blueberry colourway and they are a dream to work with.

I am hoping to make this into a gift for Agnes.  I've never met Agnes but the week before Christmas, when we had 8 inches of snow, my hubby was out for a snow run around the lanes where we live and he met Agnes for the first time.  Agnes is 84 and we learned she has no family, and she was there in 8 inches of snow underlaid with ice on a crutch trying to drag her recently emptied wheelie bin back up the lane to her house - hardy or what?  Anyway, hubby clearly offered to help and given the weather conditions offered to look in on her again.  So he and our son have been visiting Agnes from time to time just to check that all is well and she has all she needs.  I just thought it might be nice for them to take her a little handmade gift on one of their visits.  Probably more info than you are really interested in but there you have it - a start on Agnes' log cabin cushion.

Ta da! Quilt no 3 complete!

Well, here it is folks - quilt no 3 all done and dusted (and ahead of schedule).

Quillow unfolded as a quilt.

All neatly folded up as the Quillow

I did so love the Denyse Schmidt fabrics - they were gorgeous to work with and so calming.  I know that this particular pattern doesn't showcase some of the larger designs of the Greenfield Hills range in the same way as another type of piecing might have but I like how the quite traditional look of the fabrics has been altered by the chopping and re-arranging of the disappearing 9-patch.  Still finding it hard to think that I will have to part with this quillow (it does have a cushion pocket sewn into the back) at Easter because I love the colours so much, but hopefully so will the recipient.

Close up of Greenfield Hills fabrics

 I love the effect of this Ramble fabric -
looks almost free-machine quilted!

Now I'm off to tend to my poor perforated fingertips - is there such a thing as an all over hand thimble?

Could it be I'm falling in love?

Uh oh, I think I may be falling in love...

I have been piecing a quillow with the Denyse Schmidt Greenfield Hills fabrics I ordered recently and I had no idea just how much I would love it.  I have panicked at every fabric choice - are these going to look too traditional? are they too dark? which sashing white, cream or navy?  But now that the top piecing is complete I adore it.  Everything is just as I would want it to be. Problem is, this quillow's not for me so I have to give it away (gentle sob).

When I made my own quillow I was on a mission to break out of my fabric comfort zone which I think I can say I managed successfully.  Hence the purple and green creation and its recent left-over cousins.  This quilt top, however, has reminded me of all the reasons I love the fabrics I would usually choose.  I am truly going to find it hard to part with this one.

Here's the thirteenth block which will become the cushion front part of the quillow eventually.

Now I will let you in on one of my secrets folks - I am not a fan of the quilting part of making quilts.  I am hoping this will improve with experience.  After all, I have only ever made two quilts before and to say I still have a way to go in gaining confidence handling all that bulk through my little sewing machine is a bit of an understatement.  So, today I am in love but perhaps when I am half way through the quilting  I will have sufficiently fallen out of love enough to be able to give this quilt away to its intended recipient!

Now I need to try and get some more of 'The Ramble' fabric which I used for the outer border - I have another project in mind which it would be perfect for.  Wonder if this will be available in UK soon?

Sneak Peek

A little preview of the disappearing 9 patch blocks for the quillow in progress ....

I've had mail...

When I saw Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hills collection on sale at fabricworm.com I thought the Blueberry fabrics would work up into the disappearing 9 patch quillow really well (here's hoping I was right).  I have never ordered fabrics from the USA before but took a chance and am really delighted with the result and the price - if only UK pricing could be so good! Although I think my package snuck in under the customs radar which helped keep costs down, too.   I know these fabrics have received a mixed response out there in blogland, but I really loved the blues and think they will be timeless which I hope is the most suitable choice for my quillow recipient. Now I just need some time to get cutting...