The Winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in my giveaway for Sew, Mama, Sew's May Giveaway Day! It was so fun to get so many comments, and I appreciate all the kind things you guys said about the bag I made. I had fun entering a lot of the giveaways too, but I didn't have time to visit all of them! (Still crossing my fingers but afraid I didn't win anything this time.)

The winner of the Kathy Davis Journeys fabric, book, and greeting cards, is

#106, Alice! I have emailed Alice and will pass her address on to the people at Kathy Davis Designs as soon as I hear back from her.

And just for fun, here's a view of my sewing space/kitchen table right now:

I have been working on blocks for my king size quilt, more on that later!

May Giveaway Day! --Kathy Davis Journeys Fabric & More

Hi friends, and welcome to my May Giveaway!  But first I have to tell you about my new bag.


I was recently sent a gorgeous stack of fabric (plus a book and some cards!) from the Journeys collection by Kathy Davis. I have been wanting to make myself a new bag and had the Amy Butler book, Style Stitches, (affiliate link) checked out of the library. I decided to make myself the Teardrop Bag using some of the Journeys fabric:

(I didn't get photos taken when the bag was brand new because I made it in a rush before vacation. It's a little bit broken in here--it's been a great bag and I really like it!)

My thoughts on the pattern and the bag--
*I used the recommended Shapeflex interfacing; next time I might try a stiffer interfacing or interline the bag with stiffer canvas or use fusible fleece instead. (It's a little floppy.)
*There is an error in the book for the larger sized Teardrop bag. If you want to make this bag, check out the correction for the pattern on this page.
*I followed the pattern for the handle and it turned out too narrow for my tastes, so I made another one and widened it.
*I found some good tips on inserting magnetic snaps here. I used 2 layers of interlock knit to reinforce the snap pieces, instead of fleece.
*I sewed some dividing seams in the pocket, you can sort of see them in this pic:

My phone fits just right in that center pocket.
*The strap. I lengthened the strap so I could wear it cross-body but I don't think I got it quite right. Someday I need to figure out how to make an adjustable-length strap.
*And, I used sewn-in interfacing on one side of the strap and added some sturdiness by using a layer of twill fabric in place of interfacing the other side of the strap fabric.

 
Ok, you made it! The folks from Kathy Davis Designs would also like to give a set of these fabrics to one of my readers. The giveaway includes:

Half-yard cuts of the following fabrics (this was my set, obviously I've used some of them):

I like all of these... but I LOVE the text fabric, and the dragonflies are my favorite, too! The large floral in the top row is also super pretty.

Also included in the giveaway is the book Scatter Joy, along with a pile of gorgeous greeting cards, all by Kathy Davis as well.

(The giveaway does not include the bag!)

**The giveaway is closed now, thanks so much! Winner will be posted in the morning!**

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below (one comment per person.) I'd love it if you tell me something interesting, but it's not required. :D I will choose the winner via random number generator on May 25, and the folks at Kathy Davis Studios will mail the prize to the winner. Don't forget to make sure I have a way to contact you! If you are a no-reply commenter, include your email address in your comment!

If you are interested, here are a few more places you can find out about Kathy Davis Designs and her products:

Blog & Website:
http://www.kathydavis.com/

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/KathyDavisStudios

Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathydavisstudios/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/KathyDavisKDS 

Now, go enter more giveaways at Sew, Mama, Sew!

Today my blog turns 5 years old! Giveaway #5!

You've made it to giveaway #5 in my 5 year blog birthday party, congratulations!

To recap 2010, I started a quiltalong. (I never got all the finishing instructions for the larger quilt, and I feel badly about it. Maybe I will get to that soon.) I joined the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild and it has been so much fun. I participated in doll quilt swaps and a couple of virtual quilting bees. I made a couple of Quilts for Kids. I did some straight line quilting, and didn't really love it. (I learned how to adjust my machine for better results later on though.) I finally finished my insane quilt project, which I had started in 2002, yikes!

I made a left-handed rotary cutting tutorial. I worked on a collaborative baby quilt with some friends. :) I headed up a charity quilt project with KCMQG.

It was a great year... and I can't believe I've been keeping track of it all on my blog for 5 years now.  Thank you for reading along!

The 5th and final blog birthday giveaway is another prize from Sew Inspired of Nauvoo. Barbara is generously offering two fat quarter sets of Luna II fabric from Maywood Studios.

Two winners will each receive 16 fat quarters; each winner will receive a mix of browns, pinks, and blues. 

If you'd like to win one of these prizes, visit the Sew Inspired of Nauvoo website, and come back here and leave a comment telling me your favorite product from their store.

This giveaway is now closed!

For extra chances to win, you can do the following:

  *become a follower of my blog (or let me know if you already are)

  *blog about this giveaway or tweet about it. 

  *And then, leave an additional comment for each of these things.

Make sure you leave me a way to contact you! If you are not sure if your email address comes through with your comments (I get them emailed to me), check out this excellent explanation on the Pleasant Home blog. If you want, you can include your email address in your comment. If I draw a name that has no contact information, I will pick another winner. 

I will draw the two winners on Friday, April 8, at 12:00 p.m. central, and then I will email the winners and post their names here. 

p.s. There's still time to enter Giveaway #3 and Giveaway #4 :)

Giveaway #2 Winner

The winner of $25 of longarm quilting services from Angela is....

NutellaCrepe!

Congratulations!

Blog 5th Birthday Giveaway #4!

Sorry about the delay in posting giveaway #4! I was sidetracked by a crazy hailstorm last night and a kiddo with a sprained ankle. We had several window screens destroyed in the storm and are very thankful that no windows broke. I took kid #1 to the doctor this morning and we are pretty sure it is just a bad sprain, no broken bones. He hurt it the other day playing baseball out in the neighborhood, but is feeling a bit better with pain meds and a lidocaine patch.

Anyway, after I had my baby in 2008, my sewing mojo came back with a vengeance and I had a great time sewing baby clothes and quilts in 2009. One of my favorite posts/projects is the Charm Pack Dress tutorial. And I made my lavender scrap quilt in 2009, too. I participated in NaBloPoMo for the first time, and posted to the blog every day even while we were gone on a cruise for part of the month! (I love scheduling posts ahead of time....) Here's my year in review post for 2009. It makes me smile.

Here's today's giveaway:

I am giving away some Mendocino scraps, fabric, and dishtowels. It will all go to one winner. The scraps are leftovers from the diamond pillow shams I made last year. The towels are kitchen "bar mop" towels with Mendocino seahorses and coordinating fabrics sewn along one side. The stack of fuschia fabrics includes a full fat quarter of swim class, and smaller pieces of the underwater sisters (18" x 10.5"), dots (18" x 11.5") (they aren't from the Mendocino line but they match pretty well), and seahorses (15" x 9").

This giveaway is closed now!
 
Details:
*If you'd like to win this Mendocino package, just leave me a comment below--one comment per person.

*This giveaway will be open until April 7 at 12:00 p.m. central (or I might be a little late. It won't be earlier though).

*You must leave me a way to contact you! If you are not sure if your email address comes through with your comments (I get them emailed to me), check out this excellent explanation on the Pleasant Home blog. If you want, you can include your email address in your comment. If I draw a name that has no contact information, I will pick another winner.

*I will email the winner on April 7 and also post the winner here.

Good luck!

p.s. Giveaway 1 is over, but you can still enter Giveaway #2 and Giveaway #3.

5 years of Sew Inspired Blog, Giveaway #3

How's the weekend going? Hey I have a song to share for you... about the weekend. Here you go.

But seriously, hope you're having a good one. Today I got the kitchen floor mopped, made banana bread, went and bought potting soil and seeds with my oldest. We are going to try growing lettuce and peas in containers on the deck. Maybe we'll be able to thwart the evil bunnies.

So... onto a review of my blogging life in 2008. Hey, here's something cute I made--why haven't I made one of those for my little girl yet? I spent the majority of that year pregnant and then dealing with a the preemie baby situation. I didn't have the energy to sew or blog very much. I'm feeling a little tender skimming over it... what a year. I'm so glad we made it through, and that everyone is happy and healthy now.

Today's giveaway is from Deanna who runs Birdsong Bows on etsy and has a blog as well. She sells super cute hairbow patterns in .pdf format, and a few other things too. (I love these bows below...so sweet.)

photo from birdsongbows on etsy

Deanna contacted me a few weeks ago and offered to give away one of her single hairbow patterns to each of three winners. Here are the details on this giveaway:

*Leave a comment on this blog post to enter.

*This giveaway will be open for 3 days. I will close comments and pick a winner on April 5 at 10:00 pm central (or I might be a little late. It won't be earlier though).

*You must leave me a way to contact you! If you are not sure if your email address comes through with your comments (I get them emailed to me), check out this excellent explanation on the Pleasant Home blog. If you want, you can include your email address in your comment. If I draw a name that has no contact information, I will pick another winner.

*I will contact the winner on April 5 and also post the winner here.

p.s. check out giveaway #1 and giveaway #2 if you haven't already!

5 Year Bloggiversary--Giveaway #2

Hi friends, welcome back, and welcome to giveaway #2!

If you missed yesterday's post, hi! I'm having a 5 year blog birthday, and 5 days of giveaways. Today's day 2. A little review of this blog's second year, 2007--I was doing a lot of clothing sewing for my kids and other kids, with a few quilt projects here and there. Hey look, scrappy log cabins! (Kind of the beginning of me starting to improvise with quilting.) And tutorials. (Look in the tabs just under my blog header for a list of all my free tutorials.) Many of them were made in 2007. I made a few tutorials for a contest at Sewing Mamas and then decided it might be fun to start making tutorials and posting them on my blog. I'm glad I did that! I also posted my silly 100 things I have sewn post in 2007. (Lots of bloggers were posting 100 things about themselves, and I translated it to sewing. Yeah baby.)

How about we move on to the giveaway now? My friend Angela, who blogs at Quilting is My Therapy, has offered $25 of  her longarm quilting services for this giveaway. Angela's quilting is intricate and beautiful, and has been featured on Tula Pink's quilts, Julie's (from Jaybird Quilts) patterns, some of Jacque's quilts, and more. I was thrilled when she offered to quilt a few baby quilts for our guild charity project last year. She quilted this one that I made:

a couple of closeups:

I just love the attention and detail Angela puts into her quilting; her work is a big reason I am trying to branch out and improve my free motion quilting skills.

If you'd like to win $25 of quilting by Angela, here's the nitty gritty:

*Leave a comment here to enter.

*This giveaway will be open for 3 days. I will close comments and pick a winner on April 4 at 10:00 pm central (or I might be a little late. It won't be earlier though).

*You must leave me a way to contact you! If you are not sure if your email address comes through with your comments (I get them emailed to me), check out this excellent explanation on the Pleasant Home blog. If you want, you can include your email address in your comment. If I draw a name that has no contact information, I will pick another winner.

*I will contact the winner on April 4 and also post the winner here. 

Thanks again to Angela!!!

p.s. if you haven't already, check out giveaway #1 here!