crafty pug's first ever give away!

today i opened the mail box and i stood in confusion for a moment, until my neighbour yelled hello to me, which snapped me out of it.

i had been waiting, waiting, waiting for my Homespun magazine to arrive, which it did last week.  i have already chosen the projects i'll do (one day!) and entered the competitions (you've got to be in it to win it!).

 but here was another copy.....

so i called the distributors, who said that there was some issue with the mail out for Homespun to SA and that i should keep the spare mag, or pass it along to someone else....

what a great idea i thought!  that calls for a giveaway!

the prize is this month's Australian Homespun - The Pink Issue.  Also 4 fat quarters of Hedgerow fabric by Lynette Anderson for good measure!

to enter all you have to do is leave a comment so i know you want to be in! followers and non-followers welcome, and you can live anywhere in the world that Australia Post will take my money to get it to you (im pretty sure that is everywhere!).

competition closes 5pm SA time (which by then will be Daylight Savings Central Standard Time for Australia) MONDAY 4th OCTOBER 2010.

winner will be selected by Random.org, the judges' decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into (ive always wanted to say that!).

so let me know that you want to win it!

pugs and kisses
xx

lucky me x 2!

today, i love my postman. not that i don't normally love him, he is very nice and regularly brings things that are too big to fit in my letterbox to my front door - very thoughtful. but today, two special reasons for love!

1. my swap partner for this month, Cathy, 's block arrived!!! and it is lovely - such great piecing. and she included a fabo piece of fabric in the colours requested - can't wait to put this quilt together one day!

love it - and not only that, this beautiful card was included, that Cathy made herself!  what a clever crafty lady!  (please excuse my hand - holding it up was the only way i could stop the flash washing out the photo!)

2. the other reason to love the postie today was the arrival of a prize from Homespun!  lucky lucky me!  "dreaming of a white christmas" by kerry swain was my prize and it is a beautiful book full of recipes, craft and decorating tips for a tradition christmas.

off to bed now - hope you all had a great FNSI
will post update tomorrow morning with some sleep in me!

pugs and kisses
xx

UPDATE! boy oh boy quilt

the top centre piecing is finished!! i am pretty happy with it i think - happy for my first attempt at designing something myself anyway :)

as you can see, it is 8 pieced 9 patch blocks around a centre, which will have embroidered words from the poem/nursery rhyme 'what are little boys made of?'

this is a close up of one of the corners - i totally cheated when putting on the setting triangles as i didn't know how to actually do it.  so i wasted HEAPS of material, but at least i got the look i wanted

and these are the threads im going to embroider the centre with

still have to think about an outer border and then binding. i definitely don't have enough left of my fat quarter bundle for a solid outer border, and i think that is what it needs to finish it off - not more busy-ness. so may have to have a trip out to Quiltaholics - not my LQS but the one that i know of that has the biggest range.  so i am thinking they may have a green to match in.  i tried to find more of the fabric online, but without success - must be an older line?


so overall a good weekends work! luckily for me, the little human has just discovered that hiding is so much fun, and so a big box in my sewing area has meant about 1 hour of happy play at a time - so able to do more in larger blocks, which always seems to achieve more than little bits of time here and there. but mind you, ill take anything!

pugs and kisses
xx

sneak peak! boy oh boy quilt (aka Homespun's design competition entry)

ive renamed this quilt to be more user friendly :) it will henceforth be known as The Boy Oh Boy quilt

ive started some actual stitching on my entry in the homespun's design competition!

this will be the top border

but still more blocks to stitch

it seems to be coming together ok i think - ive never really done anything like this before! so just on feel :)

pugs and kisses
xx

homespun design competition update

i mentioned a while ago i was thinking of having a go at entering the homespun design competition.
well, things have been moving along, by that i mean that i have sketched about 10 designs and discarded most of them :)
but i think i have settled on an idea....

looks great doesn't it - yeah right!

i think i will just start having a go making some of the surrounding blocks, and then work on the centre piece later.....the idea at the moment is to embroider a poem on there about boys..... because....

this is the fabric im going to use - some fat quarters i got from the craft fair last year

these are some of the main patterns

and then these are the plainer fabrics, after the little human rearranged them for me :)

love that chubby little wrist :)

and did someone say they were ready for their close up???

argh!  man, that is one harsh flash :)

will let you know when some actual stitching starts on it!!!!

pugs and kisses
xx

homespun design competition

i think i am going to have a go at designing a quilt and submitting it to the Homespun design competition.
bit scary, bit exciting, bit not sure where to start!
got some good inspiration while in melbourne this weekend - so have to have a go in my sketch book and see what happens
ill keep you posted!
pugs and kisses
xx

christmas in june?

well, study is over and so much sewing is to be done on my 'day off'! hubby had the little human all day today, and after getting a much needed haircut, i retired to my craft shed and went for it!

one of the projects i have wanted to do for ages is something that uses the Sheri Berry Christmas fabrics that I won from Homespun ages ago - lucky me!

i couldn't find a pattern that suited the prints of the fabrics. and i thought they would suit being 'shown off' not cut into small pieces. enter this wallhanging!



i fussy cut some of the panel to show off Sheri's artwork.



i am happy with it and only have to stitch the binding to the back to finish it off.

pugs and kisses
xx

i've got that winning feeling, oh that winning feeling.......

i could go on!

but lucky, lucky me! i won a book pack from the Australian Homespun magazine!

this a photo of the books i received laid out on my sewing chair (appropriate seeing as that is where i will read them!)




there are some really great books in there that i know i will use, and some that i would never have bought myself, but i know will extend my craft knowledge

can't wait to read them and then make all the things that tickle my fancy!

thanks homespun!

pugs and kisses
xx