Saturday 25 August 2012

Blog hop party reminder

Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways
 
If you haven't already, click on the pic above and pop over and check out all the blogs taking part in the bloghop by hosting super giveaways! I have done L to Z so far! To take part in my giveaway, go here.

HELP!! I have tried several different tutorials to help me number the comments but none of them seem to work :( I followed the instructions precisely but still no numbers! Any suggestions?

My makes - a review

It's Diane at 'from blank pages' 2nd blogiversary! To celebrate, she is having a linky party and a giveaway, and she has asked us to make a mosaic of all our makes! So here is mine:

I couldn't fit absolutely everything in, but this is most of my makes since I started blogging.

I'm not gonna lie, I hate reflecting! My biggest fault is looking back and dwelling on things I've done badly, wrong choices I made, ways I could have been better. Like, I look back on that list and think I should have achieved more.

So my motivation for this post is purely because I want to win Diane's giveaway! She is giving away a 5" charm pack of Anna Maria Horner's LouLouThi collection. Not a pre-cut, oh no! She will cut the fabric from her stash! This means she has a decent size piece of every fabric in the collection! Naughty-naughty fabric hoarder! Look, isn't it beautiful!

It's giveaway time!!

Apologies, but my giveaway is for UK entries only!
Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

Whoop, it's finally here!! Giveaway week!! Fingers crossed I will win a few: if you saw my recent post about my pathetic stash you will know I'm in need of it!

Anyway, without further ado, here's my little bundle of loveliness:
 
Here's how to enter:
  • This giveaway is open to those in the UK only (but I'm nearing 100 followers, so will probably have another giveaway soon, which will be open to all!) - comments from internationall visitors will be deleted!
  • For one entry - leave a comment telling me what you did over the BH weekend
  • For a second entry - become/already be a follower and leave a comment telling me so  
  • I will use the Random Number Generator widget to pick a winner on Monday 3rd September at 8pm GMT and will announce it straight away on my blog.  If you are a no-reply blogger you can still take part by leaving your email address in your comment.
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

The blog-hop list will be available here from midnight on August 26th so why not go and check them all out?! I love these events because not only are there loads of chance to win, you find new blogs and meet new blogging friends, and your little blogging family gets a bit bigger.
 
Thanks to Michele for organising another great quilting event over at:
Logo: Quilting Gallery

Wednesday 22 August 2012

WIP Wednesday #10

I'm linking up with:
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Completed:
Tohoku tote (pattern from 'I am momma hear me roar':

Sewing machine cover using fabrics left over from my New York Beauty quilt:

Made progress on:
Jubilee picnic bag/rug for Lily's Quilts. Just the handles left to add:

Charlie's quilt (a new addition to the list). I am making this up as I go along. The fabric is Athill Range by Cabbages and Roses for Moda:
Apologies for the rubbish photo, it was starting to rain, so we had to snap it quick! This is for my friend Charlie, at her request, she saw one in Next that she liked and asked me to make her something similar. It's basically a layer cake sewn together with a border added! I took the solids out and have cut them into petal shapes, which I am going to applique on as flowers.

No progress:
Nicey Jane quilt-as-you-go
Flower quilt made from leftovers of Oasis by Three Sisters jelly roll
Bali Pops Peace Medallion
Alphabet baby quilt
Batik mini quilt

Not started yet:
Butterscotch & Rose jelly roll quilt
Hunky dory jelly roll quilt
2 x Red and black jelly roll quilts

Stats:
Finished: 2
Made progress: 2
No progress/not started: 9

In other news, I have been stash raiding!! First of all, let me show you something really pathetic. This, dear reader, is my stash:
Note the 22" x 18" cutting board behind!

Top drawer - scraps, a couple of jelly rolls and a charm pack

2nd drawer - scraps


Bottom drawer - pieces, mainly fat quarters.

Pathetic, isn't it?! So I played on the sympathies of my dear mother, and convinced her to part with a small portion of her ENORMOUS stash. It's only fair, right? Share the wealth and all that! So here is what I managed to persuade her to part with:
Pieces 1 metre x WOF or bigger


Fat Quarters.

Yay for mums!

On a related note, as my stash is so small, I really couldn't spare anything for the upcoming Quilters' Bloghop and Giveaway week, so I have been out and bought a little bundle especially for you! Do you feel special?! Here it is:
If you're all reeeeeeally good, I may also have a rootle around and see what other matching notions I have. So be sure to pop back and take part on Saturday!

Monday 20 August 2012

Dress a girl around the world

Did I share this picture?

Have just had a look back through my blog and I can't see it. Anyway, apologies if I've already shared, but can you spot this dress?
Yep, I made it! I was so chuffed when I saw this, I cried! I have just bought some fabric to make more dresses. I would love it if I could persuade more people to take part. Check out the campaign at Dress a girl around the world.

Upcoming giveaway

I'm going to be taking part in:
Blog Hop Party with Give-Aways

...which is being organised by the lovely Michelle from Quilting Gallery. Host a give-away on your blog starting August 25th and lasting until September 3rd (or longer). What you choose to give-away and how you wish to run the give-away, is totally up to you. However, give-aways that require visitors to make a purchase before being entered in the give-away are not appropriate for this blog hop party. You must register your blog to participate and only quilt related blogs are eligible to register.

I have registered to take part, so check back on Saturday to take part!

Sunday 19 August 2012

Festival of Quilts pictures #2

Let's start this off with a bang, I think this was my favourite quilt:
Absolutely stunning!

And my second favourite:
The photo doesn't do it justice at all!

I also love-love-loved this one. Under the sea scenes have a tendancy to be all bright turquises and oranges, which is my favourite colour mix, but what I loved about this one was it's muted and realistic colours, and that totally doesn't lend itself to photographing well:

Speaking of orange and turquoise, this one is simple in its design, but my favourite colour mix, and some lovely quilting:


And then a few more that just caught my eye:
...and a close-up of the quilting on that one:
Lellephaaaaaaaaaaaaant!!!:

My mum's favourite (with her next to it!):

And one that's given her inspiration for a stash of white and blacks that she's had for a while:

And the best bit, my haul!

So here we have:
A2 cutting mat £12.95
3.5x12 ruler £11.95
Glue £4.50
Masking tape £1.75
Red and white guttermann thread (about) £5
2 pieces of template plastic £1.30 per sheet
Bundle of 4 FQs for £6 (more beautiful in real life!)
Curved safety pins £3.95
4m peach with yellow spots, £8!!!
2m pale blue, £3!!!
Heart hangers, 5" wide were £2.75 each, 7" wide was £3.60
FQ pale blue with toys, £1!!!
Pack of scraps (quite substantial ones, mind) £4.50!!!
Measuring guage £3.95

I could have bought so much more, I think I was quite a good girl really! The big pieces of fabric are to make more dresses for Dress a girl around the world, and the baby fabric is the first of several FQs to make more bags for Beads of Courage.

A closer look at the scraps:
...and at the FQ bundle:
 
I see these being made into little clutch purses or cosmetic bags.

So there we have it, over for another year :( I enjoyed it so much though, I am thinking of going to another, smaller one, like Harrogate or Chilford/Duxford.

Festival of Quilts pictures #1

I was too tired to post last night when we got back, so here they are: my photos from the Festival of Quilts! We had such an amazing day (we always do!). We arrived just before 10 and left just before 5 (we were the last on the bus, oops!) so we squeezed every bit of quilty goodness out of the day that we could.

So without further ado, here are my photies, I'm going to upload them in two seperate posts as there are loaaaaaads, but do be sure to come back and check out the second batch as I will show you what I bought!
...and a close up of the quilting on this one:

...and a close up of the detail:
Look at the quilting and embellishments on this:
My home county!:

I have tried to edit these a bit to tidy them up, but the photos just don't do them justice. If you haven't been this year, you should really go next year!

Check out the rest here!