Behind the blog giveaway

Hello there!

I hope you are having a lovely June... It's hard to believe we are nearly half way through the month already. I've missed blogging the past couple of weeks, but things have been pretty hectic over here with lots of family comings & goings, a quick hop, skip & a jump across the pond to Kansas, school exams for the kids, running sewing workshops & (drum roll please!!!) OPENING MY ETSY SHOP.... Yes, I've finally plucked up the courage, taken the plunge & BirdsongStitches is now finally trading!!

I'll be stocking things in the shop that I love to make, like this bunting

Or this cushion cover

To celebrate, I thought we could have a giveaway... So, here is what you could win...

A lovely stash of 10 fat eighths of Denyse Schmidt fabrics which I bought on my last wee visit to America. I don't think they are available over here & they really are very pretty. They are from her new Piccadilly, and Bakersfield and Union Station collections

To enter the giveaway I would love for you to have a wee look at the shop by clicking here & telling me what you like, or what you think I should stock, or any tips or advice you have for selling on etsy. If you are a follower of the blog, or you follow me on Pinterest or Instagram, do please let me know for another chance to win. The giveaway will close on Friday 13th June at midnight & I'll announce the winner on Saturday 14th..

So good luck & I hope you all have a lovely, creative weekend
Karen x

Happy Blogiversary To Me!

Hello there!

I hope your week is going well... I'm just posting quickly to-day because there are great celebrations afoot

To-day I'm celebrating (courtesy of my son's marshmallow/dairy milk/smore concoction) a one-year milestone... it was one year ago that I started out on my blog journey. I'm amazed, overwhelmed and so thrilled to have spent the last year with you all... especially those of you who have taken the time & effort to leave me comments, each one of which I have treasured (& I confess to have read over & over again!)

To help me celebrate, I would love to share some of my favourite things from the length & breadth of UK with you

First up is some gorgeous Liberty fabric.... I'll say no more :)

Next is some lovely fine tweed from Wales - perfect for a wee pouch if you're that way inclined

Here are some pretty buttons & beads made here in the Emerald Isle (some by me!!) - well, everyone needs to accessorize, don't they??

This Scottish hand-dyed wool & felt is so beautiful.... I can imagine lots of wonderful things to do with it!

Some delicious Orkney fudge from the Scottish Island to keep your sugar levels up while you're stitching (this is something I used to love as a wee girl... a long time ago!)

And last, but certainly not least, a charm pack of Lucies wonderful Summerville fabrics

I'd love to give this lot to you, if you are a follower... you certainly deserve it!

So to enter (only if you are a follower please) just leave me a wee comment.. anything you fancy will be grand! I'll close the giveaway on Tuesday 3rd July & announce the winner on Wednesday 4th.... good luck!

Thank you again to each one of you for your inspiration/encouragement/quirkiness & kindness.... I really appreciate it all!

Karen

Giveaway Day.... Vintage Style!

Hello there!

You may have already caught the giveaway fever...but if not, to-day is Giveaway Day with Sew Mama Sew

This is an incredible event where you can visit lots of wonderful blogs & have a chance to win lots of incredible gifts - handmade bags, accessories, supplies, patterns....the list is endless! For more information just click here. If you have just dropped in via the Sew Mama Sew Blog you are very welcome! My name is Karen & I am so delighted to have you visiting to-day!

This year I will be entering in all the fun with this bundle of gorgeous fat quarters which came from a limited collection produced by Liberty & the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

They really are beautiful & have the usual Liberty soft drape.  I will also be enclosing a lovely vintage booklet which the V&A also produced

If you would like a chance to win these all you have to do is simply leave me a comment if you are or become a follower....  If you follow me on facebook or pinterest do please leave me another comment for another chance to win

That's it, its that simple :)

The giveaway will be open until 25th May 12MN (GMT) & I'll announce the winner through random.org on 26th. Please make sure you are not a "no-reply" blogger, so I can get in touch with you... I am happy to post this internationally

Good luck & hope you have lots of fun in all the other amazing Sew Mama Sew Giveways
Take care
Karen

An Irish Road Trip: Giveaway greetings!

Hello there!

I hope you are having a good week...
Here on the Causeway Coast we've had a week of sun, wind, rain, snow... you name it, we've had it! Of course, the day & hour the children got off school for Easter holidays the wonderful sunshine disappeared - only to be replaced by wind & rain :( But not to worry, we've had some great games of monopoly....and cluedo... in between walks along the beach....

At the beginning of the year I made a resolution to bring you a giveaway each month &, to conclude our Irish Road Trip I have a wonderful pot of gold (well actually its mostly fabric, but you know what I mean!)

Would you like to see what's inside the pot?

They say when you look over Irish fields, you see forty shades of green, so in the pot there are 40 green fabrics - some fat quarters, some fat eighths... and even some lovely Melody Miller teacup fabric (courtesy of the lovely Eva & Ger) at Pippablue
In the pot there's also an Irish recipe book from the super talented folk at Avoca (which is away down in County Wicklow)

There are lots of recipes for yummy cakes

Delicious delights

And beautiful photography

So....the big question...what do you have to do to win this crock of gold? Well, actually nothing really... This giveaway is only for you if you follow me either here on this blog, or on pinterest, or on facebook... so, if you are one of the long-suffering, very nice followers, I just would love for you to leave me a wee comment & let me know .. thats it... The giveaway will be open until 12th April & I'll announce the winner on 13th.... so good luck everyone. If you are a follower, please just do a wee check before you leave me a comment to make sure you are not a "no-reply" blogger, otherwise I might have a bit of difficulty contacting you.
In the meantime I'll leave you with another view from our Irish Road Trip... this is Mussenden Temple at Benone beach...

I hope you have a great week!
Take care
Karen

{friendship} february: tools, tips, tuts & a winner...

Hello there!

I hope you are all having a great weekend & managing to squeeze in a wee bit of lovely creativity somewhere along the way....

Speaking of creativity, I really enjoyed reading about all those tools you could not do without & I thought I might share with you some of mine & a few wee tips too....but first, the winner of Leanne's giveaway for the Scrap Republic Book is..... number 52

So congratulations Rhonda! Could you please email me your postal address?

Here are some of my favourite sewing tools & tips...

Rotary Cutter Sharpener:

I couldn't do without my rotary cutters, but they always seem to run blunt on me when I'm in the middle of cutting & I haven't time to nip down to the local quilt shop to get a replacement blade... But here is a handy trip wee tip which will sharpen them in no time.....simply take a piece of tin (aluminium foil) & fold it a couple of times & slice away at it with your rotary cutter as if you were cutting fabric...after about 10 slices try to cut a scrap of fabric & you should notice a difference... no need for a new blade (not yet anyway!)

Iron Cleaner:

Another tool I don't think I could do without is my (ancient) & very heavy iron...but I sometimes get adhesive from applique sheets onto it, which leaves a burnt mess. Again I usually do this in the middle of a project & so, rather than rush off to the shop to get iron cleaner, I get a dryer sheet & put the iron onto a cooler, low setting & iron over the dryer sheet (quite vigorously) & the residue seems to disappear leaving me with a nice, clean iron.

Scissor Sharpener:

Sometimes the children take my super-sharp, fabric scissors for their school projects &, by the time I get them back, they are so blunt they can only chew up the fabric, rather than cut it... A quick way to sharpen them  is to cut a piece sandpaper (medium or fine grit works best) with them a couple of times & they are soon ready to slice again!

Freezer Paper Wonder:

I LOVE freezer paper - it is so versatile & I use it for patterns, paper piecing, applique etc. etc. All you do is draw onto the freezer paper the shape etc. you need, iron it to the fabric & cut & then just peel it off...no pins required! You can also reuse it, so no wastage either. I've just experimented with it for printing onto fabric & its works wonders for this too. 

Frixion Pen:

An alternative (& inexpensive) way to mark fabric lines, particularly for piecing or triangles, is to use this pen which disappears with a warm iron. These pens are so cheap & are great for children as they rub out if they make a mistake....They are very popular with quilters, although the mark will come back if the quilt is put in the freezer.....but if you don't do this, you should be grand! :)

Palette Knife:

My palette knife is my wee, secret, super-slick seam weapon!! If you want nice, crisp seams simply poke the seam with the palette knife & slide it along the seam as you iron - the seam will be lovely & thin like this:

Pin Sharpener:
My most recent favourite tool is this wee pin sharpener which I made out of a used tealight holder, some fabric & trimming scraps & steel wool (& seeing as its nearly St Patrick's Day I've made this one in the shape of a shamrock! :)

All you do is poke your pin (or needle) into the sharpener a couple of times & hey presto, one impressively sharp pin!

If you would like to make one of these, please click here to see the full tutorial

Wow! Sorry about the length of this post, but hope you have enjoyed it!
Hope you have a great rest of the weekend!
Take care
Karen

{friendship} february: tools of the trade & (yet another) giveaway

Hello there!

I hope you are all having a great weekend....here on the Causeway Coast we are all breathing a huge sigh of relief, the big project I have been slaving over working on day & night for the past couple of weeks is finally done & we can go back to eating at the kitchen table, if I can find it under this lot....

But on to more important things...like the crochet giveaway.......and the winner is Number 5 -  Strawberry Patch, congratulations Emily! (sorry I had to remove the image as the number kept changing on random.org) Thanks so much to Sarah & to you all for the interesting comments about crocheting. I was inspired to find out more & here are some of the many wonderful crochet projects & tutorials out there...

http://pinterest.com/songbirdstitch/crazy-crochet/

But back to the next installment of {friendship} february. I'm so thrilled to introduce you to the lovely Leanne, a relatively new bloggy friend who I've met through our do Good Stitches bee.....over to you Leanne....

Hi there – I’m Leanne - I blog over at daisyandjack and I’m very excited to be guest posting here today.When Karen asked me to do a guest post for her {friendship} february series I immediately thought of this quote that I saw recently…

Life is short.

Do what you love.

Live your dream and

share your passion.

I think sharing your passion is what sums up online friendships – the online quilting world is full of fabulous people happy to share their passion and knowledge with anyone who is interested and that’s often how online friendships start.

So I thought I’d share my passion and my ( little) knowledge and tell you about a few of my favourite quilting tools that I now can’t live without.

First up is my design wall – mine is by Fons and Porter ) and can be hung from a wall with small clips which is fabulous for me as I rent and I also seem to move house a bit so it’s very transportable which is handy – my mum says a vinyl backed tablecloth works just as well but mine already has the holes for hanging J

I discovered a need for a design wall as I live in a very small house and I was laying out quilts in progress on my bed which meant that I couldn’t leave them laid out for very long (I need to sleep occasionally) and I discovered quite a few bloggers used design walls so I thought that would be a perfect solution and it is! There are a couple of reasons I think a design wall is great – one is that you can leave your layout where it is for as long as you want – I tend to leave mine for at least a few days so I can move and change blocks around.  It’s easier to place blocks so you don’t end up with too many of the same together and it’s easier to see the colour placement.

This is the first “big” quilt I made which I laid it out on my bed as I didn’t have a design wall – all the blocks should be scattered around evenly but as I discovered (after I’d sew the quilt together) I had sewn the same coloured blocks next to each other and quite a few times as well !

There are quite a few tutorials around that show you how to make your own design wall – Oh Fransson has a good one and there’s another one here

My next favourite item is a hera marker that my mum sent me for my birthday last year. I must admit when I got it I wasn’t quite sure what it was or what it did and then I watched Sarah Fielke using it to mark her lines for applique.

A few weeks later I was making a quilt with a heap of half square triangles and flying geese and I thought I’d use the hera marker to mark the lines instead of a pencil or pen and I’ve been hooked ever since – it’s a fabulous tool!

And my last favourite tool is actually flower head pins – I made quite a few quilt tops last year and after working out the block placement on the design wall I was pinning bits of paper to the blocks with the block and row numbers and I thought there had to be a better way!

My mum had sent me some flower head pins and I thought that I could write block and row numbers on those and then I wouldn’t have to worry about the bits of paper (yes, my mum is a great inspiration and sends fabulous things my wayJ)  So I ordered two lots of yellow flower head pins and have been using them for a while now and wondered why no-one else had thought of it.

Well, a few weeks ago I was blog surfing and I discovered a tutorial and yes, you guessed it, the lady was using flower head pins with the block and row numbers marked on them – so alas I’m not a genius after all –and the tutorial was done in 2006 so my bright idea has been around for a while!

So that’s my post for today - if you’ve made it this far, well done and to thank you for sticking with me. As a reward, I have a copy of Emily Cier’s Scrap Republic book to giveaway.

All you have to do is leave one comment telling us your favourite quilting or sewing tool or gadget and you could win a copy of this fabulous book. If you follow Karen's or my blog, please leave extra comments & let us know

I’d like to thank Karen for having me on her blog today and I’d love you to visit me at my my blog sometime !

Leanne

Thanks so much Leanne!
We'll keep this giveaway open until 29th February & announce the winner on 1st March, good luck!

Fancy crocheting this???

Hope you have a wonderful weekend

Take care

Karen

{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