Giveaway winner!

Well, there weren't as many entries as I'd hoped :( but ah well, my follower numbers went up from 33 to 39, and some new followers didn't even enter the giveaway, so they must just like what they see and want to stay, so thank you!

So a huge welcome/thank you to follower new and old!

Anyway, on to the draw! There are 10 comments, so I boshed that in Mr Random Number Generator and the winner is:

 Well done Amy!! She said:

I will be emailing you to get your address!

Thanks to everyone for taking part. I wish I could give all my followers and commenters something, as it means so much to me :)

I won't hear a word against Royal Mail!!

Wow, what a day for parcels! Firstly these, from Doughtys, to continue with my New York Beautys:

These were really good value, at around £1.75 per long quarter.

But what I'm really impressed about is that I ordered these fabrics at 3pm yesterday from Needle and thread and Carole's Crafts and they arrived in this morning's post! Not signed for, not special delivery, just first class post and here they are:

I love love LOVE them, they are for a baby quilt for a colleague. I have bought this pattern:

Can't wait to get started!

And finally, the fat quarter I won from Canadian abroad arrived today:

I love it, and am going to make a cafetiere cover and either mug rugs or tea caddy covers with it. Thanks Susan!

I'm going to draw the giveaway in about 20 minutes - if you haven't already, you still have time to take part :)

Yay, I won!

I just LOVE to win a giveaway! Well, technically it wasn't a giveaway, just a followers' special sort of thinga-ma-wotsit. I love Susan's blog, Canadian Abroad and hers was one of the first blogs I started following. She has quite a similar taste in fabric to me, and I just love the things she makes! Anyway, I've won a FQ of this gorgeous Melody Miller fabric...

...and I'm gonna make a cafetiere cover and tea caddy jackets, so now I'm off to find a pattern or some inspiration!

Om nom nom! Chocolate fudge brownies!

Mmmm, my house smells yummy! I made chocolate brownies! (Why can I not help saying that in a ner-ne-ner-ne-ner-ner! voice?!) They are yummy, if I say so myself! I don't often bake, because if I bake it, I eat it! But we are having a shared lunch at work tomorrow, as it's the last day before Easter, so here we are:

Here's my recipe:
75g plain chocolate
100g margarine
3 eggs
350g caster sugar
120g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
175g pecan nuts, chopped
50g bag Dr Oetker fudge chunks
100g bag Dr Oetker milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180oC. Grease and base lane a baking tin, mine is 25cm x 25cm but anything with roughly the same surface area should do. Melt the chocolate and margarine in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, then leave to cool. If in a rush, like I was, you can replace the boiling water with ice water after the mixture has completely melted, to cool it down faster.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. I find that the more I whisk, the chewier the final brownies will be, so depends how you like them. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and stir well. Seive in the flour and baking powder and carefully fold in. Then fold in the nuts, fudge chunks and chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake in the preheated over for about 40 minutes, mine got slightly overdone at this time, so it depends on your oven. I would say keep an eye on it from 30mins onwards. Let it cool for a bit in the tin until it's slightly less squishy and liable to collapse into a squishy mess, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

Et voila!

My first giveaway!

To try and make up for being absolutely pants and being away from my sewing and my blogging for so long, I've decided to have a giveaway! Now don't get too excited, I'm an only child, so it doesn't come easy to share stuff, so no way are you getting any of my beautiful fabrics! But I do have this fab book that I imported from Australia for my mum, but then when it came the patterns just weren't enough of a stretch for her - she's pretty advanced now! It's not really my thing, but there are some beautiful patterns in there, so I though I would give you guys the chance to win!

It's this book:

And here are some of the patterns included:

Giveaway only open to UK residents - sorry but I just can't afford international postage :(

You have two chances to win:
1. Follow me, and leave me a comment to let me know that you do. If your commenting name is different than the name that will come up in my followers list, please let me know - I've had that problem before!
2. Leave an additional comment, letting me know your favourite website to order fabric from in the UK.

That's it! Simple! I will use Mr Random Number Generator to pick a winner at 9pm GMT on Saturday 31st March.

WIP Wednesday #5

I've missed two WIP Wednesdays!

Completed projects: 0
On-going projects: 2
Worked towards New York Beauty Quilt Along:

So here's my New York Beauty so far:

And my first successful attempt at knitting!

No progress: 4

• Nicey Jane quilt-as-you-go
• Flower quilt made from leftovers of Oasis by Three Sisters jelly roll
• Bali Pops Peace Medallion
• A heart garland to decorate my workspace

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

Catch-up time!

Oh my goodness! I have been such a bad blogger :( I'm sorry guys! I have just had so much going on! First it was Mother's Day, and I spent the Friday night and Saturday trying madly to get my mum's present finished, but I was very pleased with the result:

I followed this tutorial again (remember my lilac one?), but made it a bit taller so that my mum would be able to fit her rotary cutter in there as well. She was really pleased with it :)

And I made a 3 course meal, so Saturday night was cooking the caramelised onion and goat's cheese tarts and the creme brulees, then on the Sunday morning it was over to my best friend's for her little girl's first birthday. Here she is enjoying wotsits, cheese sandwich and chocolate cake at the same time!

Isn't she beautiful! <3 It's all I can do whenever I see her not to steal her away! Oh and here's the card I made her:

Then it was back to mums to cook up my lamb shanks:

They were yummy!

Me and my mummy:

And more importantly (for you guys anyway!) her beautiful quilts! These three are going off to Denmark to three beautiful children who I hope will treasure them!

And since then I had my job interview, which I posted about (I got the job, whoop!) then this weekend just gone was my mum's birthday so I got all my cardmaking stuff out to make her a card, and got a bit carried away and made about 8 cards! Then we went out for a meal on Saturday night, so no sewing then. Then Sunday my partner was in a tug 'o war competition for Sports Relief, so I was out for a few hours, then when I got back I made about 15 more cards, so STILL no more sewing!

Then on Monday night I just couldn't pull enough brain power together to do any sewing, so I sat and mindlessly knitted my way to finishing my first ever scarf! My first attempt at knitting a couple of years ago is legendary in my family! I kept starting with 20 stitches, and by the 7th or 8th row I'd have 37 or so stitches! My mum thought it was hilarious - she'd heard of people dropping stitches, but not finding new ones! But I finally did it, and here's the finished result!

Not a great picture, but you get the idea!

And then I think that's us all caught up! :)

I won the Liebster Award!!

This is officially THE BEST DAY EVER! Firstly, I got made permanent in my current job, which I love, so I was DESPERATE (to the point of sobbing and dry heaving last night in fear of today's interview, it wasn't pretty!!). Secondly, I won the Liebster Award!

Everytime it came up in my newsfeed that one of the blogs I follow has won it, I would read with bated breath to see if they had nominated me, to no avail, until today! Thank you so much Pippa at Pippa's Patch :)
Now I'm awarding it to 5 of my blogging friends who haven't been awarded it yet!

If the blogs I listed want to accept the Liebster Award and pass it on to 5 blogs themselves, here are the rules:

This award is given by bloggers to their favorite blogs with under 200 followers. The Liebster Rules are:
1. Post about your win on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award.
3. Copy and paste the award to your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have less than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized.
5. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are my winners:
Wait, bearing in mind that I would have said Pippa, Clare and Cherie but they have all already won it this week, this is going to take some thinking about...check back tomorrow!!

Ok, I'm back!!

I nominate:
Heidi at Fabric Mutt, for the beautiful things she makes and THE most adorable logo ever!
Helen at Indianna Dreams, for letting me win some lovely fuglies, and for making all the little practical things that I have my eye on trying out when I have a spare minute!
Kelly at Jeliquilts - I WILL make a sewing machine cover in the next week or two!
Sew Lovins for inspiring me to make that lovely travel sewing kit, which I then also replicated for my mum's mother's day prezzie!
and Jess at The Elven Garden for making beautiful things and having such good taste in fabric!

Apologies if any of these have already received it, though I'm sure they won't mind getting it twice ;)

Giveaway!!

Spotted this great giveaway, and had to have a go! so here's my entry:

Took me so long to get this far, I didn't have time to name the fabrics too! Will do it later though!

Thought for the day!!

Bunny Hill Designs

A desperate plea!! Does anyone know a supplier of Bunny Hill Designs patterns here in the UK? My colleague and friend Samr is having a baby, and her partner calls her 'little bunny', so her bump is 'VLB' - 'very little bunny'...so i really want to make her a bunny-themed cot quilt. I have found a few I like by Bunny Hill Designs but can't find anywhere to buy them in the UK, or in the US that will deliver for a reasonable price. Any suggestions?

I neeeeeeeeed this quilt pattern:

Finally a UK haberdasherer..ererer!!

I was lured by a giveaway into dicovering this new gem:

The more I get into blogland, the more I realise how America-centred it all is, so it's great to be pointed in the direction of a company that is here in the UK. And the best bit? Canadian Abroad is holding a giveaway to mark the opening with a giveaway!

Pop on over and take part! No wait, there's another 'best bit'...is it better? Yes yes yes, cos it applies to everyone, even if you don't win! Flat rate shipping of just £2.75!! I just DARE you to go there and not buy something!!

Cash Envelope Finish!

I have finished my Cash Envelope for the competition over at 'from blank pages'. Thanks again to Diane for the fabrics and materials!

So here it is:

 I only use 4 pockets as I wanted it slightly less bulky. I am thrilled with the finished product, definitely the most complicated thing I've ever made!

Oh and a gratuitous bunny pic, now he's feeling better:

New York Beauty Quiltalong update

I'm not gonna lie - I am ADDICTED! I began the New York Beauty Quiltalong last night and completed one square:

Then tonight I thought I would do another in a contrasting pattern:

Then I thought I'd experiment with other colours, and well... I got carried away! I'd made 4 squares before I knew where I was:

It's just gone together so easily. I love how I don't have to think about it, once you're in the zone you just keep sewing, folding, trimming pressing, sewing, folding, trimming, pressing, etc etc...

However, this is next week's block:

eeeek! :-O So this may be famous last words, but as of right now I LOVE New York Beauty!

I'm linking up with: