Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

Well, the time has come (the walrus said...) to announce the winner of my giveaway!!!

I'd just like to say a huge massive thank you to everyone who came and visited my blog this week. My followers have practically doubled (HI HELLO HI newbies!!), and I had well over a thousand page views!! Y'all are amazing, and I wish I had more shizzle to giveaway. 

Indeed, after promising to do a giveaway when I reached the 100 followers mark, I'm actually well overdue. Watch this space...! 

I had such a great time reading all your lovely comments, and blog hopping till my fingers were numb! 

However...

There can only be...

One winner...

And that person, is comment number 55.

Peppermint Mocha Mama who said:

Amy, the face behind PMM, has a lovely little patch of interwebs, full of lovely pics of knitting, food and family, so I suggest y'all head over and check out her blog (If you're not too green with envy!).  

I will be sending you an email Amy, right.about.now.

Much Love! 

{Almost Wordless Wednesday - BQS Design Process Edition}

 Click here for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway post!!!


Inspiration:

Photo Credit:  ForTheJourney @ Flickr

Manipulation:

 Preparation:

 Admiration:

 

Giveaway Day!

Welcome to new friends, welcome back to old ones!

If you've just popped over here from sew mama sew's giveaway day then, Hi!, Hello!, Nice to "meet" you! Why don't you stay a while and get to know me a little better? I thought about doing one of those questionnaire things to tell you all some entirely mundane things about myself, but then I found this which I thought was pretty funny:

REAL NAME: Laura Jane Taylor

WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: Elizabeth James
YOUR SECRET SPY NAME: Arual
NASCAR NAME: John Dennis
STAR WARS NAME: TayLa
DETECTIVE NAME: Purple Tabby
SOAP OPERA NAME: Jane Leicester
SUPERHERO NAME: The Green Margarita
FLY NAME: LaTay
STREET NAME: Phish Millie
PORN STAR NAME: Minerva Queens
YOUR GANGSTA NAME: Tayizzle
YOUR GOTH NAME: Luna Black
YOUR STRIPPER NAME: Chance Galaxy Cookie 
 You can get yours here, btw.

 Now that introductions are well and truly overdone, would you like to see the good stuffs?

Okay, well, continuing the whole Brit Quilt theme (just check my side bar for details of the Brit Quilt and Brit Quilt Swap ran by Lynne, or of the Brit Bee ran by me!), I have pulled a little stack of red white and blue FQ's for y'all.

Fabric details:

1x  Windham Fabrics Basic Brights Dots in Sky

1x  Robert Kaufman Pimatext Basic  in Blue

1x Windham Fabrics Basic Floral in Red

1x  Anchor print fabric

Of course, red white and blue is not just a brit theme, you USA and Australian readers can feel at home in this bundle too! 

(And, for that matter, anyone from this list of countries: Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Faroe Islands, France, Iceland, North Korea, Laos, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia ,Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia ,Slovenia and Thailand.) 

Then, so's not to disappoint the slightly more knitty inclined of my readers, I also have to offer this beautiful Erin Lane notions case.

I am in no way affiliated with them, I just bought one of their Knit Pack Ultimate's last year, and it was probably one of the best decisions of my life. Everything, literally everything you will ever need to knit with will fit inside. They have brilliant magnetic closures, and all the handy little pockets you could ever ever need. So they also sent me this little extra one as a gift, and I'm passing it on to you!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS: (Shamelessly copied from this post)

 
To be in the draw all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (please ensure that an email address is available on your profile or is included in your comment - There is a brilliant guide here to check if you are a no-reply blogger. NO EMAIL = NO ENTRY). International visitors are very welcome to enter!  Anyone can comment, and you get an extra comment if you are a follower... so click that follow button new peeps!

  
The draw will take place at 9 am (GMT) on Thursday May 26th, at which time comments to this post will be closed. The winner will be announced here on my blog the same day, and will also be contacted by email.

Good luck!

 

Preparations

Oh my I've been a busy bee recently!

I've finished all my bee blocks and sent them back to Trudi. I forgot to take pictures though, which is probably just as well else I would have been tempted to show you my super-duper seams, and its meant to be a secret! I also made Trudi a very very cute handmade card (my first endeavor into card making...) which I really hope she sends me a picture off because it really was very cute.

I'm almost 100% finalized on my Brit Quilt Swap idea. Again, its completely secret, but I can tell you that my partner loves rainbow colours (just like me!) These are my 2 ideas:

(The original photo can be found here)

I think my favourite is the second one, I just love the movement in it, and the way the rainbows intersect. The general consensus on flickr is the same, so I think I will end up going with this one! Now just to see if I have enough rainbow scraps...??

Also, and for the very first time, I'm planning a GIVEAWAY!!! I've been thinking of doing one for a while, but thought I would wait for a specific milestone... (100 followers maybe? First year blogiversay? This may or may not be coming up soon-ish).

But this Monday, Monday 23rd May, is giveaway day @ Sew, Mama, Sew!!! How exciting! I will be giving away some FQ's from my expanding stash, and maybe some yarn for my knitty followers! Make sure to come back and check on Monday.

Look forward to seeing you :-)

A Kaleidescope Quilt

I've been admiring this cluck.cluck.sew pattern for aaaaages now. I bought it straight after it came out in January, thinking I would never have the courage to use templates to cut all the kites and triangle shapes. But quilting along with Lilly's Quilts QAL kind of gave me the push I needed to break into a world of templates, and non-square pieces. 

(The fact that my actual QAL quilt is languishing unfinished and looking fairly ugly, on a shelf is neither here nor there...)

I think I kind of built up the whole template thing in my head, because you know, it took me all of a weekend to finish this not-so-little quilt. Again, I really didn't do a lot else, but still. A weekends sewing and my beautiful stack of Denyse Schmidt's Picnic and Fairgrounds is now an even more beautiful quilt.


NB: I think there's something wrong with my camera. Either that or there's a ghost in every one of the pictures I took yesterday. Can you see it? There's a sort of white hazey smudge around 10 o'clock (if they were a clock face) in all the pictures... Spooks? Or just a dirty lense?

I love the picnic-y feel of this quilt. I love its striking shapes. I love that you eye doesn't know where to settle, the circles? The crosses? The white octagons? Its just ingenious really! 

And yes, those skies? Very very gloomy. I literally just finished sewing the binding on, hopped in the car, and drove round to mama's house to take some pics before the heavens opened. Good timing actually... a minute later and we would have got soaked!


The red feedsack print on the circle in the block above is probably my favourite of the whole line. Oh and continuing my tendency to recycle VERY old fabric, the navy blue polka dot circle next door is part of my aunts nurses uniform. From about '87. Wicked awesome.   


I knew when I started this quilt that I wanted to use red gingham on the back. I was briefly out for a bit when I saw it rolled out on the cutting table... reminded me of a cheap Italian restaurant. But I was back in again when I started basting. Oh, and it isn't really as wrinkly as it seems in the picture. It just needs a wash and tumble to soften up and then, job done! 

Quilt Stats

Size: approx  63" x 73" 

Fabric: Denyse Schmidt - Picnic and Fairgrounds for the front and binding,

unspecified red gingham check for the back.

Pattern: Kaleidescope by Cluck.Cluck.Sew.

Quilting: Large loopy stippling, by me. 

I've decided to link this quilt up to the bloggers quilt festival. I was torn, for a while, between this and another as-yet-unrevealed quilt. Unrevealed because it was for my bestest friend's bday. And I know she reads my blog. Hi Tash! 


But yes, I chose this one in the end because it really sums up all that I've learn't since the last quilt festival back in November. I think it shows the progress I've made since my last entry; I've got more of my own style now, I know what I like, I'm pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone just.a.little.bit here and there. And actually, I think it's pretty good :-)

Curse you, tiny toilet!

Has anyone seen Despicable Me? It's actually hilarious. One of the funniest animated films I've seen in a long time. Anyway, whilst I was sewing this weekend, the quote from this post's title was all I could think of. I said it over and over again... weird huh? I guess its something to do with all the 1.5" finished squares I sewed.

I was overcome with an urge to cut into my ever so treasured Flea Market Fancy scraps. Not really sure why, I just thought, what's the point in coveting them from outside a ziplock baggy? Why not make something pretty, stick it on the wall, and look at it every day. So I did. And Beaker helped. Kinda.

I don't have that much, just a few pieces really. I totally missed the boat on it before, but I just love those seeds. Have you heard its being re-printed? Happy days. 

So I started with this tutorial. Although I'm totally not a fan of  red and aqua together so wanted to do something completely different and involving my green and grey seeds. Then I had the difficult task of picking through my (very small) collection of scraps to find a suitable mix of colours.  I pretty much adore everything about it now its finished!

There's so many cute things to look at. I fussy cut some birds and Russian dolls and anchors and toadstools. And it looks really great on the wall in my lounge, my whole house is green and grey so you know, no surprise there!

Also, I got to use some of my most favourite fabric ever for the backing. Its left over from an old ikea duvet set that I've had for years. This was just a pillow case; my mom has the rest of the duvet and she's making me a quilt out of it... Although it's been a WIP for about 4 years now... hint hint mama!

It was only after I'd finished cutting and sewing that I saw this, which was exactly what I was going for, but Elizabeth seemed to achieve so much better! Ah well, I'm happy anyway. Just got a bit of fabric envy... :-)

By the way, you may have noticed a bit of a spruce up of my blog. New header, new background. What do y'all think? I like it, and its totally home grown! 

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

I don't usually partake in the weekly milestone thingy's. You know the kind:

"WIP wednesday"

"FO Friday"

"Son of a Bitch it's Saturday already" ;-)

But this week I'm feeling pretty wordless, and it just so happens that it is Wednesday. And I've got some gorgeous fabric that needs no introduction.

Blues and Pinks, mainly from the "Tilda" line. Hand picked for Paula's sampler quilt.

Picnic and Fairgrounds - DS Quilts, the reds.

  Picnic and Fairgrounds - DS Quilts, the greens/yellows.  

  Picnic and Fairgrounds - DS Quilts, the blues.  

Love.