Double Trouble - Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

Don't you just love giveaway day?

Today, I've got some double trouble going on - so I thought I would giveaway some of the duplicates I have in my sewing room.  (Yes, I am hoarding all my fabric at the moment.)

This set will go to one lucky winner.  It includes the Summer 2013 edition of Fon's & Porter's new magazine, Quilting Quickly, which is devoted to using those precuts you have laying around.  I've managed to use all mine otherwise I would be giving away some charm packs today.

Also in the set is Don Linn's book, Sophisticated Stitches, which has really neat and different quilting designs to try out.  I love to thumb through it when I am looking for inspiration.  I was first introduced to "Mr. Quilt" when he participated as an instructor in the Free Motion Quilting Challenge at Insights from Sew Cal Gal.  His tutorial was great, as he taught us a new design transfer method using tulle.  That method would be perfect to use with the designs in this book.  During the challenge, I tried one of his designs, but also used his transfer method to make this placemat:

The dragonfly and water lily would have been too difficult for me to just stitch without marking, especially since I can barely draw!  I really love how it turned out.

If you would like to win this set (the book and the magazine):

1) Leave a comment telling me what your favorite quilting book or magazine is right now.

2) Because I believe followers are special, they get an additional entry - just leave another comment telling me how you follow this little blog of mine.

This giveaway is open internationally until May 10th 5 pm PST, at which time I will use Random.org to choose a winner;  HOWEVER, if you are a no reply blogger, I will choose again.  If in doubt, leave your email address in your comment!

Good luck, and check out the other fabulous giveaways at Sew Mama Sew.  There are plenty of chances to win yummy fabric!

This Giveaway is now closed.

Jen

Inspirational Sunday (12) - via the 2013 Road to California Quilt Show

Every Little Bit

As promised, today's quilts feature tiny little pieces:

This lovely quilt is called "Buried Treasure" by Mary K Mouton of Milledgeville, GA.  It is one of a series of miniature quilts she has made to explore the range and precision of her Flip-Flop Paper Piecing technique.

Sounds like a class I need to take!

This next one isn't a miniature quilt, but it does have teeny tiny pieces!  It is called "Perseverance" (with good reason) and was made by Linda Neal of McKinney, TX, quilted by Jackie Brown.  This quilt contains 10,509 half inch hexagons!!  It took 16 months to hand baste and hand piece the top.  The original pattern is called "Insanity".

All I can say is that it would probably take me more than perseverance to get something like that done.  And in 16 short months?  I could see working on that for 16 years and not seeing it to fruition.  Can you imagine if she chose to hand quilt it - yikes!

I know some of you are working with tiny little hexagons.  How is it going?

Next week, a few paper pieced wonders.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen

May Fresh Sewing Day

Nothing profound to say today.  April came and went.  I wish it stayed a little longer.

I had loads of fun this month making bee blocks and little mug rugs.  There is even one quilt in the mix!  And don't you just love the Lucky Stars BOM blocks?  The April one is my favorite so far.  I was so excited by how it turned out that I bought the backing for that quilt - like way ahead of time!

1. Simply Solids April for Licet, 2. Make it Modern April, 3. We Bee Learning April, 4. Daffodil mug rug, 5. Mood mug rugs front, 6. Lucky Stars April, 7. Lucky Stars March, 8. Les Amis top, 9. Bee's Helping Bees blocks for Hayley

I can't wait to see what May brings.  There are some interesting requests from Bee mates, another blog hop, and I am nearly finished with my first finish of the month!  Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading today,

Jen



Linking up with:


Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day