{friendship} february: giveaway goodies!

Hello there!

I hope you all had a LOVEly Valentines Day yesterday. Thanks so much for your kind wishes to Hannah who, as I write, is singing her wee heart out in Canterbury...good luck my lovely girl!

OK, back to business. To-days post is jam-packed with goodies, so without further ado, I'll announce the winner of the {friendship} february giveaway. Catherine picked no. 7, so Helen (or you may know her as archiethewonderdog) you are the winner of a pair of these lovelies in whichever colour you fancy!

Congratulations Helen!

For the rest of you, don't despair... I have ANOTHER giveaway for you, generously donated from my next {friendship} february guest, the super talented Kat. Over to you Kat...

Hi Everyone! And Happy Valentine's Day!!

I'm Kat from Diary of a Flutter.Kat {Mummastimetocreate} blog. Firstly thanks so much to Karen for having me over for a visit here today as part of her friendship series. I'm honoured to be part of it. Karen and I are relatively new friends and I have really enjoyed getting to know her more recently. And I think it's wonderful that she is celebrating friendship this month! Isn't blogland wonderful for that?! I just think we have such a powerful tool here at our fingertips for meeting people and being involved in such a fantastic, uplifting and inspiration online community.

I have been blogging for just over a year now and over that time I have also been very involved in many Flickr swaps. Blogging & Flickr and fabulous ways to meet new online friends. I have made some truly wonderful friends through these avenues. Friends who I have not met in person, but who are very real to me and give me very real support none the less. I am also looking forward to meeting many of them in person when I come over to the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London in June! 

My story is that I'm a New Zealand girl, married to an English man, living in Perth, Australia a long way from either of our "homes". I have an online business, but my main occupation is a stay-at-home-mum. It is a great life, but it can be pretty lonely sometimes often with only 2 small girls to keep me company when my husband is working away, so I craft and blog to keep me sane. And when Neil is away or my kids are sick and I'm stuck at home, my friends in blogland are always there for me. Regardless of the time of day (or night) there is always either a friend to talk to via email, skype, or a friends blog to read. Not to mention the spectacular eye-candy that I get to oogle at constantly. Someone is always showing off a fantastic project to inspire! So I find that the blog & online community are a great way for me to feel involved in a world that is bigger than just my household.
Another way that I really feel inspired by our crafting community, is by people's willingness to give to others, help people in need, and give back to our "real life" communities. A few examples of this are all the auctions for those who lost their homes in the Queensland floods, hearts & softies for Christchurch NZ after the earthquakes there, lots of different drives for Japan after the earthquake there and so on. It inspires me to see the difference that we can each make when we pool together our resources.

I have been involved in several of these on a short term scale, but on a more long term scale I am involved in 2 charity sewing groups. The first is called Blankets of Love and is one that I run through my blog.
 I make small quilts to donate to my local woman & children's hospital as some comfort for the families of sick babies. At the end of their hospital stay they get to keep their new quilt. You can read about it more here. Anybody is welcome to contribute to this in any way they feel they would like to. Whether that be donating a fully made quilt, or if international then a quilt top. Or even just some orphan quilt blocks they may have lying around.
I also love giving back through my blog. Through reading blogs & the internet I have learned pretty much everything I know about sewing and a lot about other crafts too. So as part of my contribution back to blogland I have a number of tutorials available free on my blog to help others learn too. I try and release at least 1 tutorial if not more a month...

The other charity that I'm thrilled to be part of, this time with Karen as our ring master if you will ;), is the CARE branch of Do. good stitches bee. Each month we all make 2 quilt blocks and they will get donated to a cause of that quilter's choice each month. In February we are blessing a family with a quilt to remind them of their mother/wife who passed away last year at the age of 37. You can read about her story here in the blog her husband kept of her illness. I love the fact that her family will soon have a special quilt in memory of her.

So, to join today with Karen in celebrating online friendship and blogging, I thought I would offer up a giveaway for one lucky person to win a copy of 2 of my patterns {usually only available in my shop}...My Scrappy Pouch pattern...

And my Zipper Pouch Pattern...

To enter all you need to do is comment telling us one thing you love about online friendships.
You may also win bonus entries for leaving comments with the following...
**  "like" my page Flutter from.Kat over on Facebook
**  Be a follower of Karen's blog
**  Be a follower of my blog
And that should be plenty of entries for you.
Thanks again for having me Karen!

Thanks so much Kat! Its great to be part of such a caring, creative & generous community!
The giveaway will be open until Sunday 19th February 12MN (gmt) & we will announce the winner on Monday 20th. Good luck!
Karen