A year of blogging – giveaway winners

Well, without any further to-do, here are the winners of my blogging birthday giveaway. I used a very low tech method and a slightly bemused work colleague to do the draw.

The winner of the Liberty book is “ellinoora” and the winner of the fabrics is “Harrysmum”. Congratulations to the two of you – please check your inboxes for an email from me.

A year of blogging (and a giveaway)

This giveaway is now closed.

Well, I can’t believe that I’ve been blogging for a whole year and I am more amazed that my blog-birthday didn’t pass me by as I’m not usually very good at recognising significant dates.

To celebrate, I’ve decided to have a giveaway and share my love of Liberty of London. You may have spotted the odd bit of Liberty fabric in some of my projects – this is just a fraction of my Liberty fabric stash. I’m not very good at using my Liberty fabric, but I love reading about the different designs and the historical element of some of them and so I was delighted to receive the “Liberty: British Colour Pattern” book for Christmas.  

This is an absolutely gorgeous book, especially if you are a Liberty-phile like me, and it covers many aspects of the company, not just the fabric. Distributed amongst the pages are envelopes containg bonus materials such a reproduction adverts, designs, etc. It was only published last year and a section about the recent Lifestyle range of craft cottons is included.

 
(If you want to know more about the book, Kerry from VeryKerryBerry and Carina from Carina’s Craftblog have reviewed it on their blogs, so head over there and take a look.)

Due to the size and weight of this book, I’m going to have to restrict this part of the giveaway to UK addresses only, but for overseas readers I’ve raided my stash and will part with some of my precious Liberty fabric.  There are skinny quarters of Liberty Lantana wool in the classic Hera pattern and Liberty Tana Lawn in the classic Pepper pattern, as well as few scraps of lawn that would be suitable for string piecing.

To win one of these prizes, all I ask you to do is to follow this blog. There are buttons for following with Bloglovin and Feedly, but if you have another method, do let me know. Leave a comment saying how you are a follower and which prize you would like. If you have a UK address, you can choose the book or the fabric, but overseas addresses are limited to the fabric only. A bonus entry is available if you spread the news of this giveaway by Twitter, Facebook or on your own blog – just leave a second comment telling me how you’ve shared the giveaway.   

The giveaway will close at 10pm GMT on Wednesday 5 March and if you are a no-reply blogger please make sure that your comment includes a way of contacting you.

 

Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts – Winner

I’m glad to say that the ticket has found a new home and is on its way to

mammafairy

Congratulations and I hope you enjoy your day at the show.

Giveaway – Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts tickets

This giveaway is now closed.

I was sent a complimentary ticket for two for the Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts show at Event City in Manchester in February.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go and would like it not to be wasted.

Event City is located next to the Trafford Centre and only a few miles away from Bambers Sewing Machine Centre. There are lots of stands covering a wide variety of crafts and various workshops to attend. Full details can be found on the show’s website. I went to the show last year and did not come away empty handed, even though the sewing stands were in the minority.

If you would like to win this ticket, just follow this blog by whatever method you prefer and leave a comment saying how you are a follower. There are buttons for Bloglovin and Feedly, but if you have another method, do let me know.  A bonus entry is available if you spread the news of this giveaway by Twitter, Facebook or on your own blog – just leave a second comment telling me how you’ve shared the giveaway.  The giveaway will close at 10 pm GMT on Wednesday 29th January and, given the nature of the prize, is limited to UK addresses only.

(If you are unsuccessful with the giveaway, advance tickets are available to buy online until 5pm on 3rd February.)

Fat Quarterly Retreat – giveaway winner

Thank you for all your comments on the giveaway post. I hope that those of you who have not been to FQR yet will be able to go in the next few years.

In order to make sure that everyone got their full entitlement of entries, I numbered all the comments and let random.org do its work and the winner is …

Kiwijo!

 
Congratulations to Jo and I hope you enjoy the little bag of goodies.

Fat Quarterly Retreat – sewing, shopping and swapping

I’m back from three days away in London at Fat Quarterly Retreat and I could do with a day off to recover but I’ve learnt lots such as:

• The weather forecast was right for once and there was no need to pack a raincoat.
• I’m rubbish at remembering names and faces.
• Unpicking is not fun when you used a stitch length of 1.3.
• You have no hope of winning the pub quiz when you have more team members than points.
• Cathedral Windows can become draughty windows if your points are a bit iffy.

I didn’t take many photos during FQR as I seemed to be too busy sewing or talking, but here’s a quick rundown of the weekend.

Sewing

First up on Friday afternoon was Curved EPP with Julianna and Joanna who showed us how to deal with convex and concave curves. I enjoyed this class and I think there was a eureka moment when everyone round the table suddenly realised how the pieces fitted together.  I used some lovely FQs that I won from The Old School Club and I was so intrigued to see the final block that I finished my sample on the train home.

Saturday morning saw the Fantasy Fabric Shop with Kerry who explained about colour theory, value and tone, different types of contrast, and story telling with fabrics. We were then let loose with a whole rainbow of FQs to pick our perfect bundle of six FQs. I was fine with picking complementary colours, but struggled to pick a contrasting colour and it was the colour wheel to the rescue. I did cheat a bit when it came to the sixth FQ and picked a neutral solid.

Saturday afternoon was spent with Julianna and Joanna again, this time learning foundation paper piecing. This was totally new to me and a bit of unpicking was required when the text ended up at the wrong angle. I was so pleased to get most of my seams to match that I didn’t spot I used the wrong colour fabric in three places.  I can’t decide whether to reach for the unpicker or whether to just write off this sample as a practice piece. 

Sunday morning was the final session of FQR and I had Cathedral Windows with Brioni. Again this was a new technique for me and I am totally smitten with it.  I managed to get my sample finished in the session, though I could have done with spending a bit more time at the ironing board and getting the points to be more accurate – this block is more draughty windows than Cathedral Windows. I’m hoping that I can get more of the fabrics I chose for the sample and make this into a larger project.
 

Shopping

There wasn’t too much free time during the weekend, but I was able to fit in a visit to  Shaukat Fabrics which was only a 10-15 minute walk away. I now know how fans feel when they meet their film or sporting idols – for a Liberty-phile such as myself this was the equivalent. As you enter the shop there are few rolls of Liberty fabrics by the door, but the true treasures are in the basement – wall after wall of Liberty fabrics, all the designs that I had only read about and never seen.  Faced with such a selection of fabric, I decided to pick just three designs that really appealed to me and couple of pieces from the seconds basket. 

Swapping

I signed up for various swaps and Saturday evening was swapping time.  First off was the strip swap organised by Sue. We all threw our bags or rolls of fabric strips onto a table and then dived in, but in an orderly manner, to retrieve the same number of bags/rolls as we put in. The three bags I retrieved will be a welcome addition to my scrap bag. The next swap was the ugly fabric swap and was held in a similar fashion to the strip swap. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then I think ugly is also in the eye of the beholder as I quite like some of my new supposedly ugly fabrics.

The final swap was the sample swap and was organised by Trashalou. I had seen pictures of some of the items being made on Flickr and in various blog posts and was delighted to be in a group with Moira, Ailyn and Kath. Moira made an iron cosy with a matching storage bag, Ailyn made a key fob and couple of pouches including a very clever “sleeping bag” pouch, and Kath made the cutest little frame purse.

Giveaway This giveaway is now closed.

As a reward for reading this far in this mammoth post, I’d like to share some of the lovely items that were in our goodie bags.  The sponsors of FQR were very generous not only with items for the bags, but also with the prizes for the raffle. Seeing as I was lucky and won a bundle of Liberty Lifestyle fabric in the raffle, I’d like give you the chance to win some of the fabric and thread from the goodie bag.

Up for grabs is a bundle consisting of:

• A FQ from Eternal Maker
• A FQ from Riley Blake
• A scrap bag from Pat Bravo
• A wooden spool of Aurifil embroidery thread
• Soie d’Alger silk embroidery floss from Au Ver a Soie
• The Liberty goodie bag itself

To enter just follow this blog and leave a comment to tell me how you follow the blog. To get a second entry, share this competition by Twitter, Facebook or on your blog and leave a comment to tell me how you have shared. Those who were unable to go to FQR can have a bonus entry – just leave a comment to tell me you couldn’t go and you’ll get a bonus entry.  I’ll post the prize to the UK and Europe and entries close in a week’s time at 10pm BST on Tuesday 30 July.

Bank Holiday Giveaway Winners

The patterns are all on their way to new homes. I’m so pleased that they will be put to good use as I would have to change size and shape before I could use them.

Vintage Simplicity – Modflowers

Vogue – Charlelise123

Retro Butterick – Kelly

Butterick – Niki

Bank Holiday Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed.

I’ve been fortunate to win a few giveaways this year and I know how nice it is to see your name listed as a winner. So, I’ve decided that its time for another giveaway so that others can get the chance to be a winner.

One of the giveaways I won included a couple of size 12 patterns from Amy at Almond Rock but my days of needing this size are long gone. I suggested to Amy that she keep the patterns for another giveaway, but she very kindly said that I could use them for my own giveaway.  I’ve looked through my own pattern stash and found a couple more patterns to add to the giveaway. Both were bought in error – one the wrong size and the other was the right size but was a case of “what was I thinking, this style will never suit me”. Hopefully someone else will be able to put them to good use.

All of the patterns are now out-of-print. The Simplicity pattern has been used, is fragile in places (mainly along the dart lines) and is missing the piece for the armhole facing, but you could either draft a replacement or use bias binding. The other three patterns are unused and still factory-folded. The Vogue and Retro Butterick patterns are for dresses, whereas the Butterick pattern is for a fitted jacket, skirt and sleeveless top.

Vintage Simplicity 7627 (size 12, bust 34″)	Vogue 8666 (sizes 6-12)	Butterick 4602 (sizes 6-12)
	Retro Butterick 5033 (sizes 14-20)

There will be four lucky winners who can each win their choice of pattern. All you have to do is follow this blog using BlogLovin, Feedly, email or another preferred method and leave a comment saying how you follow and which pattern you would like.  A bonus entry is available if you spread the news of this giveaway by Twitter, Facebook or on your own blog – just leave a second comment telling me how you’ve shared the giveaway and repeating your choice of pattern.

I’ve decided to keep this giveaway short and sweet. It will run over the Bank Holiday weekend so your entries need to be in by 10pm (BST) on Monday 27 May and I’ll post the prizes to the UK and Europe.

Spring giveaway winner

Thank you for such a great response to my first giveaway. I’ve picked a winner using a very low tech method involving folded pieces of paper and can announce that the winner is …

LISA

(I managed to video the picking of the winner but for some odd reason the uploaded video plays twice.)

Spring giveaway

This giveaway is now closed.

To celebrate the start of this blog and hopefully the start of spring, though the UK weather seems to think it is still winter, I’ve decided to have a giveaway. I’ve put together a selection of items with a spring theme which you can win by following this blog. I’ve tried to include as many spring things as I could think of – chicks, lambs, flowers, bunnies, etc – I’ve even managed to sneak in a little bit of chocolate.

Up for grabs are:

• a fat quarter of a sweet chick fabric
• a flock (well, six) of sheep squares (4“)
• a metre of floral organza ribbon
• five teeny blossom buttons
• three mini Malteser bunnies
• a little round floral tin (to protect the bunnies in the post)

To be in with a chance of winning, just follow this blog and leave a comment to tell me you’ve done so. (If you can’t follow by your favourite method, leave me a comment and I’ll see if I can work out what gadgets or gizmos I need to add to the blog.) A bonus entry is available if you spread the news of this giveaway by Twitter, Facebook or on your own blog – just leave a second comment telling me how you’ve shared the giveaway. 

I’ll post the prize to the UK and Europe and your entries need to be in by 10pm (GMT) on Sunday 24 March.