Fabric Giveaway at The Fabric Shopper !

Go and check out this blog. It is the blog of a shop called Whipstitch Fabrics. You design a Fat Quarter bundle according to a theme of your choice. Choose up to 12 fabrics. You have two chances at the draw. One is drawn at random, the other is a set chosen by the shop owner and put in the shop. Either way, you win the 12 fabrics you have chosen. You can also increase your chances by subscribing. This is the link to their etsy shop. They have lovely fabrics in there and it is a delight to play and choose. Give it a go, it's fun, free and you might win something !

A Big Thank You

to everyone who visited my blog and left comments. Especially to those, who took the trouble to tell me a bit about themselves, their crafting and where they live.

I really enjoyed hearing about it and 'meeting' you.

Please do come back, and if you do, I really appreciate it if you leave a comment. I do really like to hear from you so don't be a stranger !

The Results are in !!!

My apologies to all for posting a little later than I said... We had a few technical difficulties !

It's our dog Rafael's birthday today and what better way to involve him than to use him as a Random Number Generator !

It is a beautiful sunny day here, so I picked up my camera, shot a few pictures down to the beach from up the cliff, and arrived at the park.

We set up the "generator", by one son holding Rafa, the other in charge of a pile of balls numbered 0, 1 etc up to 9. The idea was that Raf would collect a ball (as he is used to running after balls) and bring it back. Collect a second ball, and bring it back to me. In case the number was too high (say 52, brought back in order,) we would reverse it.

First problem was that as soon as we got to the park, my camera gave up...I will need to have it mended. I had to use my new mobile (don't know how to use it yet, so different from my old one) so instead of nice clear, closeup images of the choosing, you get something far away and murky (not the same quality I'm afraid.. a little phone for you). But... at least, having come this far and Rafa chomping at the bit, there was some way of recording this. Also had some problems trying to work out how to get it off my phone and into the blog, but finally managed!

Then problem number two.... Our random number generator thought that with ten balls on the grass, all his birthdays had come at once ! and he kept changing his mind which ball was definitely the nicest ! (all new balls, all the same to make it fair). It was a hoot to see him coming halfway back, then realize that there, really, must be, a better ball !! and run back again. He was so overexcited we had a hard job to get him to drop the balls he did get as far as me (that's why I was so far away from the balls) and read the number !

We finally managed... I literally fell about laughing. Rafa is having such a nice birthday ! A you can see on the following (very very bad quality film... but put it on anyway so you can see it is totally random and fair), the number was 35.

The winner is Isabel F, from the Rosa e Chocolate blog in Portugal, who said:

wow!! lovely giveaway!!
count me in, please!!
hugs Isabel

Congratulations Isabel ! I will email you for your address and send you your goodies asap!

Giveaway draw slightly postponed...

Sorry to those who have checked for a winner in vain... we had some technical difficulties I will explain later.

Working on it all now to get you the result asap!

Sewn Giveaway Draw on Monday 8th June

Regarding the timing of the giveaway closing and the draw taking place, Sarah placed the following on her blog:

The SEWN and the Last Piece draws will close at 4pm Eastern Standard Time June 8, that's Sydney time. If you are a blogger in another country I leave it up to you to set a time for your draw to end, so long as it is on Monday, June 8.

This is 4pm Sydney time. Which I looked up and seems to be GMT +10. So, I think, that 4pm in Sydney, therefore is 10 hours earlier over here so that would make it 6am here in the UK! Now as you imagine, 6am I will be awake, but busy with showers, breakfasts and schoolruns.

I will close the draw at 8am in the morning in the UK. Comments received after 8am UK time/6pm Sydney time will not be entered in the draw, even though the actual draw might not yet have taken place. (there gotta be a limit somewhere...). I am sorry this does not give more time to UK readers to enter over monday, but as SEWN is an Australian site, I feel I have to try and approximate roughly the same deadlines. 8pm here would be tuesday in Sydney and that would not be according to the rules !

So I will do the draw (in some random way or another) between 8am and 10am in the morning, in the UK on monday which would make this somewhere between 6pm and 8pm in the evening in Sydney.

For my US readers... they are behind... 4 timezones across as you all know, but you probably will be sleeping (if you are on the west coast and... I think it is 8 hours behind) you will be between midnight and 2 am. You can log on on waking and see what happened !

Another advantage of blogging ! Such fun to find out where everyone is from and learn about timezones.

Good luck to everyone and thank you so much for visiting my blog and all your kind comments !

"SEWN" Launch Party and Giveaway !

I am all excited about this (even though I am terribly terribly late with my giveaway..). I was a bit shy about doing this as I am new to blogging, but as I was surfing along, finding a those lovely blogs, and finding new friends, I thought I'd throw in my bit too, as, after all... the launch is not the end.. it's only the beginning !!



Here is a bit about the site in Sarah's own words (and I couldn't put it better):


"The website will have just about everything you can think of that you would want online as a sewer. There are forums, online advice from industry experts, conversion charts, colour wheels, free patterns and class listings.

There will be interviews with all your favourite designers, quilters, patterns makers and authors. There will be tutorials with me and with other sewers from here and overseas, podcasts and coverage from shows and articles about all maner of exciting things.

Best of all, there are great unique gadgets - Fabricmatcher, which is an online tool which lets you match patterns to fabrics and see what your project will look like without sewing a stitch, and Find Fabric, which is the niftiest thing that will find the fabric you are looking for without you having to search for it for hours on the internet. It's so clever it even searches shops in your vacinity first to save you on international postage. How cool is that?

Plus there will be an online buy and sell area called SEWiNg, which is where you can sell the stuff you sew to the people out there who don't sew - and some of the ones who do :)"

I am so excited about it and especially about the Fabricmatcher. how cool is that ?

Ok... The thing you are all waiting for is the giveaway :-)

Here it is:

It is a pillow panel of canvas with enough canvas to make a border and a backing to make a pillow (as I am so late didn't have time to make it !). Also thrown in is a nautical Fat Quarter of 100% cotton and good quilting quality. The panel was bought in Holland and so most of my USA and UK readers will not have seen it anywhere !

Just leave me a comment, any comment. It would be nice to hear a bit about you, which craft you are doing, and where you live. As I am just a beginning blogger, I am also curious about your opinions about my blog and what you like and don't like (don't be shy ! constructive criticism welcome!), but I'm not fussy.

Looking forward to meeting many more of you!

My first quilt.

My very first quilt, was made in the quilting group I attended at that time. It was an ongoing workshop, making one block each week, then finishing it at home, led by one very talented lady who is a member of the group. Unfortunately, before it was finished, I stopped coming to the group because, at that time, we had just received our puppy in the home and with him needing to be housetrained etc, al spare time was taken up... (it would take two years before I went back to quilting !! - with one thing and another.. not just the dog!).

Rafael was very active from the beginning, here he is "helping" sail the boat in his very own lifejacket at the tender age of 9 weeks..


At the time, being so young, he was still on the lead when aboard and on deck, lest he fall overboard, but he learnt surprisingly quickly how to balance and it is now safe for him to be off lead. But I digress... (funny how that happens when talking about puppies...). Back to the quilt.

I had made all the blocks but not put them together. So I went and got some fabric, made an amazing find of a 100% cotton french designer sheet, and set about to put it all together. Don't you just love the dot pattern on the sheet (that I used for a border and backing ) ? sort of retro and psychedelic all at once and fitting so well with the blocks. It took me a long time to put it all together. And even longer to quilt it ! (First quilting... massive stitches.. still can't do the little uns...), but it was finally finish last December 2008.