Giveaway Winners

I just paid a visit to Mr. Random Number Generator and he picked a winner for the "A Year of Making Life Beautiful" Book giveaway. Congratulations to lucky number...

Beth, you're a No Reply Commenter so email me asap so I can get you your copy of the book. I know you're going to love it! And for those of you who didn't win, you can still get your very own copy. Just check out Melissa's Etsy shop or QuiltWoman to snatch one up!

"A Year of Making Life Beautiful" Blog Tour

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Do you know Melissa of Lilac Lane? If you don't, you really should get to know her. I "met" Melissa a could of years ago, both through her wonderful blog and also as a member of the charity bee "A Dozen Quilters". I saw that they were losing a couple members and asked Melissa if I could join, especially since they were turning their focus to charity projects. She gladly said yes. It was a pleasure to work with her through a year of projects to help those less fortunate than us, but an equal pleasure getting to know her better as well.

I am sure some of you remember me mentioning a couple of secret projects I was working on this Spring. Well, they were for Melissa. The first you saw a while back - her super cute "Picnic In the Park" quilt pattern, which she released this Spring and was also recently featured at her booth at the International Quilt Market. And then came the second secret project... Imagine my surprise when she asked me if I would also be willing to make a quilt for her new book, "A Year of Making Life Beautiful: 45 projects to bake, grow, craft and sew throughout the year". I was honored. Seriously? I'm not worthy!

Melissa sent me her elegant, yet easy, "Make Life Quilt" Pattern along with a beautiful array of Hello Luscious fabrics by Basic Gray for Moda. This gorgeous quilt can be made from pre-cuts. I don't usually work with a lot of pre-cuts but, let me tell you, it made life so much easier not to have to worry about cutting all that fabric. It makes for a quilt top that comes together quickly, yet all your friends and family will think you labored for weeks! She also entrusted me to quilt it too. Whoa! Talk about pressure. It was actually the first quilt I quilted on my new machine, and despite it's size it quilted like a charm! But I'm proud to say it's being featured in the month of April in her book, and also was at her booth at Market. My picture can't even do it justice. The sun was at the wrong angle when I had to take the picture!

That's not even the best part. I got an advance copy of the book, and let me tell you, the whole thing is simply delicious! Melissa has such an amazing sense of style and grace. And her warm and gentle personality shines in each and every one of the projects featured in "A Year of Making Life Beautiful". And each project really does help beautify your life even more.

(Make Life Quilt)

Melissa taken her gift for making life beautiful and translated it to the page with all sorts of fun and yummy projects to create. Each month she cleverly features a variety of sewing, cooking, gardening and craft projects that you can make in your own home. No matter your walk of life or where you live, there's something in this book bound to call out, "Make Me!"

(Stars & Stripes Quilt)

I, personally, can't wait to try making the Memory Bag. I mean, how genius is that? I wish I had seen that before I left Chicago and threw away all of my bulky sweaters!

(Memory Bag)

Just flipping through the pages gives me a sense of calm and peace, so rarely found in my hectic life. Be sure to get your own copy today! They're available directly from Melissa or on Quiltwoman in either spiral bound or hardcover editions. BUT one of my lucky followers and win their very own copy! Melissa is generously donating a copy of her book "A Year of Making Life Beautiful" to one of my lucky readers. So I'm hosting a giveaway! All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment. You can tell me anything but if you're at a loss, tell me what you would like to do to make your life more beautiful. That's it. I'll keep the giveaway open until Monday, June 18, 2012. One comment per person. International Entries welcome. But please, if you're a "No Reply" commenter make sure I have a way to contact you. Good luck!

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We Have Winner

I consulted with Mr. Random Number Generator to help me pick a winner in my Milestones Giveaway. After careful consideration he chose...

Congratulations to Melinda who said...

Melinda, email me with your mailing address and I'll pop your stack of solids in the mail for you. Thank you to everyone who entered and helped me make my Milestones special!

Milestones Giveaway

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I actually had a post concocted in my head for yesterday so I could bring Triple "T" Tuesdays back, then I looked at my blog stats and realized that my next post had to be special. Then I missed it entirely because I had some meetings and the day completely got away from me. (Yes, I'm going back to work. So sad.) But why is it special you might ask? Well, this actually marks my 300th post! I missed my 2nd Blogoversary this year, but I didn't want to miss this milestone. But that's not all, my friends. Very recently I also achieved another milestone and reached 500 readers on Google Reader. I am shocked, quite frankly. Thanks guys, I love each and every one of you. Lastly, my birthday is coming up at the end of the week so there's one more reason to celebrate. So in honor of all three I'm having a little giveaway because who doesn't love fabric?

I went through my stash and pulled a sweet little stack of Kona solids for one luck person. Most of them are fat quarters, though one or two might be a little bigger or slightly smaller. I pulled 11 different fabrics so that's over 2 yards of Kona. Who doesn't like that? It might be my birthday but you're getting the present!

What do you have to do to enter? It's easy. Just leave me a comment. That's it. And if you'd like to tell me what you'd like to see more (or less) of on my blog I'd love it. I'm always trying to make this blog better so getting feed back from you is the best. I'll keep the giveaway open until Monday, May 7th. Only one entry per person. And if you're a "No Reply" commenter make sure I have a way to get in touch with you. Good Luck! And thanks to all of my wonderful followers!

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Echo Winners

Wow! I am overwhelmed by the number of comments on my two giveaways this week. I think I underestimated the love for Lotta out there. I mean, I knew Echo was a popular line but I didn't know it was that popular! Thank you to everyone who stopped by and participated. I tried to respond to every comment but there were well over 1000 comments between both giveaways so I hardly made a dent. But I did read each and every one of them and I am going to try and continue to respond because I want to sincerely thank everyone who came by my little blog. I can't promise that I'll get to them all but I am really going to try. So you wanna find out who the lucky winners are?

The winner of the Blog Hop Party Giveaway is...

And the winner of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway is...

Congratulations Sallie and Beth! Shoot me your mailing addresses and I'll get your fabric out to you right away.

And don't forget to watch my show tonight on Lifetime, Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold. A new episode airs tonight at 11 PM Eastern / 10 PM Central.

November Bee Blocks

I am so excited! My Echo packages are starting to arrive at my Sewn Together member's doorsteps. I can't wait to see these blocks come together. If you want some Echo of your own you can check out my Blog Hop Party post here or my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day post here.

I did send off my November Blocks recently to their destinations. First of all in the Sewn Together Bee, Rick asked us for some Drunk Love inspired blocks. He sent us two prints to use as the center focal points in our blocks and then some batiks and black and white prints as well. He didn't care about size and said we could send squares or rectangles. And if you know anything about me I get excited about having this kind of freedom.

I love to improv piece! And I decided to make my first block a square but I really loved this small piece of green batik that he included in my package so I wanted to highlight it and build around it.

Since Rick gave us some freedom, I made a rectangle for my second block. And, although I am not a big fan of batiks, I really loved this one particular green batik and I wanted to showcase it in the second block, so I left it intentionally large.

I know I'm repeating myself but one of the things I really love about participating in bees is getting to step out of the box and play with fabrics and blocks that I usually wouldn't.

Then, for the Hope Circle, Rachel asked us to make two Ft. Macon blocks from a super easy tutorial she wrote. You can check out her great tutorial and the inspiration for these blocks here.

Rachel wanted out blocks to be in purple and blue so I pulled some fabrics from my stash and came up with these...

I can't wait to see both of these projects come together. These were fun and easy blocks to make. December is my month in both bees, so I can breathe a little easy for a moment.

Giveaway Day

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Well, it seems like a lot of you have fallen for Lotta Jansdotter's Echo line just as much as I have. And if you didn't already know, it happens to be Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day! To celebrate I'm going to give away one more Echo Fat Quarter set. How does that sound?

So you want to know how you can win? It's easy. There are two ways to win.

1) Leave me a comment. Any comment will do.

2) And as a thank you to my loyal followers, if you're a follower you can leave me another comment for a second entry.

It's that easy. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are a "No Reply" Blogger. The giveaway is open until December 17th. As always, international entries are welcome. Good luck and check out the other fabulous blogs participating in Giveaway Day!

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Blog Hop Party Giveaway

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Who's ready to win some fabric? It's Quilting Gallery's 4th Birthday and they're hosting a Blog Hop Party full of exciting giveaways and I am happy to be participating. And I'm not the only one. There are over 250 bloggers participating so be sure to hop on over and see what other goodies you can win.

Since there was such a good response to the fabrics I pulled for my Sewn Together blocks I thought it was only appropriate to give away some of this amazing line. So how would you like to win a Fat Quarter stack from Lotte Jansdotter's new line Echo? You know you would, right?

So you want to know how you can win? It's easy. There are two ways to win.

1) Leave me a comment. Any comment will do.

2) If you're a follower you can leave me another comment for a second entry.

It's that easy. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are a "No Reply" Blogger. The giveaway is open until December 17th. As always, international entries are welcome. Good luck and happy blog hopping!

Oh... And don't forget to watch my show tonight on Lifetime, Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold. We actually saved some lives with this one. A new episode airs tonight at 11 PM Eastern / 10 PM Central.

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Blogtastic 2.0 Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered my Blogtastic 2.0 Giveaway! I really love hosting giveaways. Aren't they so much fun? I want to thank all of my loyal followers for sharing in the fun and extend a big welcome to my new ones. I hope you enjoy it over here. I know you're all chomping at the bit to find out who won this super-duper prize. I'll let Mr. Random Number Generator do the honors...

Congratulations to #254... lavindersmiles said... fabric...best kind of prize

I've sent you an email and I'll be sending you your prize shortly.

A Blogtastic Giveaway!

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It's been a crazy week and it's only Wednesday. I am sorry I missed posting the second edition of Triple Threat Tuesdays. I just had some craziness happen at work and it, unfortunately, disrupted my flow here on my blog. I will also be postponing tomorrow's Little Stitches Sew-Along (because of the work craziness) with the promise that both features will return next week.

The good news is I have an amazing giveaway to share with all of you. I am participating in the amazing Blogtastic Extravaganza 2.0 organized by My Silly Monkeys. There are 100 blogs participating so be sure to join in the blog hop and check out all the amazing blogs participating in this round. There are lots of good prizes to be had all around.

So you wanna know what you can win? I want to help one lucky reader build their stash so I'm giving away TWO (that's right two!) Kona Fat Quarter Bundle. You'll get a Poseidon bundle and a Greener Pastures bundle. That's 42 fat quarters all for one lucky reader! You have two ways to win.

1) Leave me a comment.

2) If you're a follower or become one leave me a second comment for a second entry.

It's that easy.Two entries per person. International entries welcome. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are a "No Reply" blogger. The giveaway is open until August 21, 2011. Good luck!

Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner For Reals

I'm back from a whirlwind in Tucson with a few announcements. First, the Quatreflowers quilt brought in $100 for the scholarship fund to help new students travel with Up with People! I was hoping it would have brought in a little more, but there really wasn't a lot of activity in the Silent Auction in general. People didn't bid very much overall and kept the bids low but at least it made something!

Secondly, Mr. Random Number Generator has picked a winner in the 200th Post / Little Stitches Giveaway.

Congratulations to number 30, Sarah who said...

"Thank you for such a wonderful giveaway. I have several people in my life expecting/new moms so the book would be very handy:)"

Send me an email with your mailing address, Sarah, and I'll pop your copy of the book in the mail to you. I'll be sharing my first project, the Cutie Booties, on Thursday.

Finally, while I was gone we had this installed at our house...

We're getting chickens. And I promise this isn't going to become an urban farming blog. It will remain a blog dedicated to all things crafty, I swear. I'm just so darn excited about getting chickens. We're driving up to the farm this weekend to pick up our hens! Woo Hoo! If anyone wants fresh eggs just come on over to my house!

SUTK Round 2 Reveal

Whoopie! My SUTK package has made it's way across the Atlantic Ocean and landed safely at my partner's house so I can finally show it all to you. My secret partner was Wendy and she lives in the Netherlands. I started stalking her and immediately I knew what I was going to make for her. Wendy loves yellow and linen and really wanted a table runner. I almost instantly got to work, which never usually happens when I get a new swap partner. I usually let it simmer and wait to stalk a while before I get to work. Not this time. I dove into my stash and even cut into my coveted City Weekend to pull a plethora of yellows for Wendy and I took them with me on my trip to Hawaii to make my hexies in a variety of sizes. (It always makes me smile when I type hexies because the auto correct always changes it to hexes and makes me feel like a witch. Hee hee!)

When I got home I pulled out some linen and started laying out the hexies in a pattern that had them spilling down over the continuous piece of linen. My one fear was the length of the runner. I initially made it long - like the runner I made for Missy. I even reached out on the swap message boards to see what size she might like and though Wendy (thankfully) answered most of my questions she forgot to answer the one about size, which was really the only answer I needed. All the other questions were merely diversions.

Well, some of you may remember that I had the *brilliant* idea (note the sarcasm) to spray baste my hexies onto the linen and then sew them on once I had my quilt sandwich basted together. And this *brilliant* idea resulted in me creating a shorter runner than originally designed. Turns out that the new, shorter runner is the perfect size for Wendy's table and the original one would have been too long so I guess everything happens for a reason.

I ended up straight line quilting the runner using 100% cotton yellow variegated Gutterman thread and I added It's A Hoot Yellow Dots for the binding.

I made her a hexie bar towel to match, included some additional yellow goodies in my package and wrapped it all up in some Denise Schmidt fabric that Wendy had on her ISO list. I even used some Nicey Jane strips that I initially cut for the hexies as ribbon. After I cut the Nicey Jane (another favorite of Wendy's) I realized that it was too green-y yellow to match the other yellow fabrics I pulled so I opted to just send her the scraps instead.

I totally fell in love with this runner and it sounds like Wendy is in love with it too which makes me so incredibly happy. Enjoy Wendy! I loved making it for you! P.S. If you're looking for the Amy Butler giveaway you can find it here!

Quatreflowers Quilt

If you're looking for the Amy Butler giveaway you can find it here... In other news, I have another finish under my belt and I'm calling it "Quatreflowers" thanks to Nilya2011 on Flickr who thought that the quatrefoil blocks looked like flowers. Cool, huh? I finally found the motivation to quilt it last week and I bound it on my trip to Chicago this weekend. I pulled it out of the dryer this morning and it's all ready for me to take to Tucson tonight for the silent auction.

I decided to keep it simple and I just pieced the back with Kona Red and Kona Robin Egg.

Then I used Gutterman 100% cotton variegated red thread to quilt it.

When I first picked up the red polka dot fabric for the binding I thought it was perfect but the more I stared at the fabric the more it made me dizzy. But I don't regret my decision. I think it was the perfect binding for this quilt. It actually works in small doses like this, just all en masse it was an eye sore.

I decided to straight-line quilt on the diagonal and I was going to cross-hatch it but, honestly, after the first round of cross-hatching I decided it would take too long and I just wanted to be done with it so I stopped. I think it looks cool anyway so I could have said that I planned it that way but really it was just me being lazy. Shh! Don't tell anyone!

The quilt measures 66" x 54" and I need to thank all the members of the Red & Aqua 2 Bee who helped me create this beauty. You can find the pattern for the Quatrefoil Block here. I hope it will bring in a few bucks for the UWPIAA. This is the first time I have auctioned off a quilt so I don't know what to expect and I know there is at least one other quilt up for auction as well. Keep your fingers crossed! The money we're raising goes entirely to new student scholarships. I'll be in the sweltering Tucson heat through Sunday and I'll bring you a full report on Monday.

200th Blog Post Giveaway

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A couple of exciting things are happening here in my world. First of all I got the official blessing from the Amy Butler camp to host the "Little Stitches for Little Ones" Sew-Along. They're very excited about it and will be checking in on our progress to see all the awesome little projects that we make. How cool is that? I'm going to be starting up next week, so get ready.

I'll post a new project every Thursday starting July 21st. This week I'm going to be working on the Cutie Booties (Project G in the book). I'm making them for my friend Kerry who is having a little boy due in August. I thought that a little boy is a perfect excuse to cut into my coveted City Weekend and Jay McCarroll Woodland Wonderland. Aren't those ants so cute? Obviously, I'm not going to be working through the book in order and you don't have to either. You don't even have to be working on the same project I am. I know that a project a week is a big commitment for many of you. You don't have to be as ambitious as I am just link up and join in whenever you feel like it. I will host a linky party each week so you can link up your projects (either in progress or finishes) for everyone to see. And I also started a Flickr group as an additional space to show off your progress or get advice from me or other members of the group if you're having trouble on a particular project. You can join the Flickr group here.

And I said that there were a couple exciting things going on, right? Well, I just realized that this is my 200th blog post! Seriously, who know I would reach 200 posts?! Not I, when I started this little blog last year. No way! So to celebrate I'm going to give away a copy of "Little Stitches" so you can join in the fun. And don't worry you can still enter and win even if you don't have the time to join in the sew-along fun, I just thought nothing could be more appropriate. So how do you win? I'm not going to ask you to become a follower or blog about this. Please, only do that if you want to. Nope, all you have to do is simply leave me a comment. Any comment will do.

The Fine Print: One comment per person, please. International entries are always welcome. I'll leave the giveaway open until Sunday, July 17th. Good Luck!