Sheree's Alchemy

Happy Ground Hogs Day

I feel like a ground hog right now.  I have been buried with work here at home.  I seriously can't believe how much time has gone by!!  My girlfriend callled today and gently encouraged me to get my tail on over here and update everyone!  Thanks Alisa!!!

I won't even go into all the details explaining my disappearance again.  Some of them you'll read about below.  Basically, I was way overcommitted, which I often am, but this was at an all time high and I had a ton of stuff that I had to get done.  Just know that I have been wanting to sneak back here everyday to continue with my birthday bash giveaways but blogging is always at the bottom of my to do list, so it just never made it back to the top of the list.  Poor, neglected space.  Faithful readers, thank you for returning!

Now, I just have to share a couple quick things and then I will put up one long post with all the rest of the giveaway items in it and we can resume the giveaways from 6 weeks ago (ooy!).

I am so excited to share with all of you my first sewing/quilting publication.  My Scrappy Coneflowers Quilt is in the current issue of STITCH magazine!

 

Stitch Winter 2011 cover

 

My Quilt on page 40!  I also have a quote on the back page of the issue...sharing my 2011 Sewing Resolutions.  I am happy to say I have already starting in on my resolution and looking forward to sharing some of what I've done with you all here over the summer months!

If you'd like to get your hands on a copy of this issue, you can find it here.  The issue is packed with some really lovely projects, so I'd say it is a must have!  Due to its success, STITCH is now a quarterly magazine instead of a bi-annual one.  I have two projects that will appear in the next issue!  Can't wait to share those with you all.  I also have 5 other projects coming out in a new magazine in April.  I found out about these 5 projects being accepted in December as well!  I thought they'd accept one or two of the projects, not all 5.  So I had to work quite a bit to get them all done and sent off.  Of course I'll share all of that with you all when I get the issues in hand!  These project submissions kept me busy at the end of December/beginning of January.  But I am so excited to have ventured into the world of magazine publications!

I am also super duper excited to share with you all that I have been invited to record some segments for a new TV show that will be airing on PBS starting in June. 

 

I was invited to submit some ideas after meeting the show's producer at the International Quilt Market back in October.  I was asked to submit and idea for consideration.  Well I submitted 5 and they now want me to do 3 of those ideas instead of just 1!  I got the confirmation on this shortly after I started my giveaways.  So, as you can imagine, my schedule changed slightly! I am tickled, nervous and just in disbelief!  But am working hard here to do a knock-out job.  I have never done anything like this before.  So I am learning alot and trying to be as prepared as I can be before I fly out in March for the tapings. 

My three projects are super fun and all directions and patterns will be available on the show's website.  One project is inspired one of my favorite pieces of art..this painting that hangs in my dining room.

 

Also, an update on our move.  We closed on our new house in Michigan.  We love the house so much!  We are getting a bit of work done on it before the kids and I head up ..... having some hardwood floors put in and getting lots of painting done.  The kids have a little "clubhouse" between their bedrooms that they decided they wanted to paint themselves.  We picked up 8 colors of chalkboard paint and started in on the project.  We'll have to finish once we move up in March.

 

I'll show you pictures of the completed project.

The kids had a blast playing in the backyard.  I was cold and stayed inside, snapping pictures through the window!

 

 

 

 

After experiencing the cold and snow over that weekend when we went up for the closing, I decided to push our move date back.  I know, I am such a wimp!  But 2.5 years here in Texas has turned me into one!!  Though it is 21degrees today, but on Monday it was 71 degrees!  Also, I was running around like a crazy lady, sorting, purging, cleaning, staging our house here for selling and am so relieved to have a few more weeks to prepare everything.  I also want to get done with the tapings for the new TV show before the move.  I am already stressed enough and want to make sure I am fully prepared and not stressing out because something got packed and I need it for the taping!  I was feeling pretty stressed and now I just feel a bit more relaxed about the whole thing.  This way too, we get to have Leah's 10th birthday party here with her friends!  I have something special planned and will be sharing it with you all as well! :)

What else?  Oh, I am going to clear out a bunch of fabric before the move since I pushed it back.  I have marked down lots of fabrics on the website.   And I am having a sale in my Etsy shop as well (enter code MovingSale at checkout there to save 20% off of you order).

All right, I'd better go.  I have to finish up some blocks for a charity quilt that I must get in the mail tomorrow!

I hope you all are well and I'll see you back here soon to continue the giveaways and to announce the winners from the 1st two giveaway posts!

Here's to a great 2011 for all of us!

Hugs,

Sheree

 

Day 2: My 10 Days of Giveaways Birthday Bash

 

Hello!

Well, a big thanks to all of you for helping me celebrate my birthday and for wishing me well on my first installment of my 10 Days of Giveaways Birthday Bash!  I had a great time celebrating my birthday over the weekend.  I will share some pictures when I wrap up the Birthday Bash posts.

I have to say, I have enjoyed reading all your comments on what you like to do this time of year.  Many of you shared some great stories of traditions you do to prepare for Christmas and I have to admit I have taken some notes and what to do a few of them next year as I prepare for the Holidays.

If you have not shared your comments and entered to win the first 2 giveaway items, get on over to this post and do so!

Now for the next 6 items that I am sharing with you all.

I have 6 charms packs to share...one from each of these collections:  Dream On, Origins, City Weekends, Punctuation, It's A Hoot and Lily & Will....all collections from Moda.  There will be 2 winners for this giveaway...you'll get 3 charm packs each.

To enter for a chance to win one of these charm packs, leave a comment on this post telling me which was your favorite fabric collection released in 2010.  If you have made something with this collection, be sure to share pictures/links with us with your comment so we can check it out!

I'll close comments on this post on 12/24.

I can't wait to read your comments!  I wonder if anyone's favorite will be the same as mine? 

See you all back here soon for Day 3 of the 10 days of giveaways birthday bash!

Big Hugs,

Sheree

Fall 2010 Quilt Festival Review and My 10 Day Birthday Celebration Begins!

Hi Folks!

I have some fun things to share with you all today.  I'd like to finally share some images of my Quilt Festival booth and then I am starting off 10 days of giveaways to celebrate my birthday!  Yes, today is the big day.  I am officially starting my last year in my 30's!  Exciting and crazy to think about...when did I get this old?  I want to celebrate with all you lovely blog readers and customers!  So be sure to make your way to the end of this post to see the first isntallment of my 10 days of giveaways birthday celebration!

First....My Houston 2010 Quilt Festival Booth and some of the lovely folks I met.

Not so great pics of my booth! Sorry.  I nearly forgot to even take these.  The whole Market/Festival 2 week adventure is just a lot to juggle.  So go easy on me, okay. :)

Me with the ladies from Moda Bake Shop.  A sweet bunch of ladies!  They were right down the aisle..about 3 booths away from me. :)

 

Me with Angela of the Moda/Bake Shop.  What a gorgeous sweetie pie she is!  I was so happy to have been able to meet her in person!

I also got to meet some of the members of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.  I think a total of 6 ladies came by and shopped at different times.  I thought I had pictures with everyone, but I am realizing, once again, they were probably with their cameras, not mine.  Thanks ladies for stopping by and shopping!  It was such a pleasure to meet you all! :)

Me with Safieh and Amy of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild.

I do have more to share in regards to Market and Festival, but they all need a bit more work to bring the whole story through.  Mostly are product reviews.  I need to actually review these products before I share them with you all! :)

So let me move on to my Birthday!  So those that know me well know that I.o.v.e birthdays. I love celebrating birthdays.  I love giving birthday gifts.  I love cake.  I love it all!  I have never really done a big celebration of my birthday on the blog.  But this year I will!

So, since I am now 39, I will be giving away 39 things over the next 10 days.  I know.  Isn't this fun!!

I will kick off the celebration today with 2 of the 39 prizes.  One lucky person will win an autographed copy of Amy Butler's new book Style Stitches.

I visited Amy at her booth at Quilt Market and picked up a box of her books to sell at Quilt Festival.

Me with the always cute and fabulous Amy Butler.

She kindly signed them all and off course they sold out very quickly at Festival.  Luckily I put one aside and decided to hold it to share with one of my blog readers.  I love this new book and it is just filled with one amazing, gorgeous bag after the next.  I have a signed copy of my own as well and have already tagged half the book as must do projects!

Along with the book, the winner will also get a $20 gift certificate to my online fabric shop  so they can buy some fabric to make a bag from the new book.

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on this post telling me what's your favorite thing to do this time of year?  Of course for me, in addition to celebrating my birthday, I love to prepare for Christmas!  I love going out and picking the tree.  I love driving around and seeing all the decorations.  And people are just often in such a cheery mood!  I always feel lucky to have been born during such a festive time!

This giveaway, and all the giveaways for my birthday celebration will end on Christmas Eve.  I'll close the comments that morning and then will announce winners shortly after.  This will give everyone plenty of time to get here and enter for a chance to win.  Plus, that way, I don't have to worry about shipping anything out until after the Holiday rush (I know, I am so clever, aren't I!).

Okay lovely folks.  I wish you all a wonderful day and I look forward to reading all of your comments. :)

Big Hugs,

Sheree

 

Happy Mail

 

Hi Crafty Folks!

I am popping in quickly today just to share some eye candy for you as I've received some Happy Mail over the last couple weeks.

Gorgeous new collections from Moda including Sherbert Pips, Just Wing It and Max and Whiskers to work up into some new designs!

Amy's New collection, Soul Blossoms....just gorgeous..........I'll be adding them to the shop tomorrow (the entire collection!)

Fabulous yardage from Momo's It's A Hoot Collection...getting me in the mood for Spring already

As you all can surely imagine, I am struggling to not be distracted from preparing for the move....all this fabric is so tempting.  I just want to sew, sew, sew all day.  But no such luck for me just yet.  I have made a ton of progress preparing our house here in TExas to go on the market next week.  And I have finished most of my projects that are due this week.  One will be a few days late.  That's just how things went down this month, folks! 

Anyway, I'd better run.  I have to get the kids from school but first I am going to have a quick tea and nibble on one of these amazing lebkuchens that my wonderful inlaws sent to us from Germany! (Thanks Gro and Opa!)

 

I'll be back in a few days to finally do my November recap and I have a fab birthday giveaway to share with you all.

Hugs,

Sheree

 

 

 

Quilt Market Winners

Hello!

I hope you all enjoyed a great weekend!  We flew out to our soon to be new hometown, did 3 days of house hunting and checked out schools and are back, exhausted (physically but especially emotionally!)...seriously exhausted!  We did find a house though, which is a huge relief!  And we are pretty certain about the school for the kids.  They need to test into this school, so we are hoping for the best on this one!  Now to get our house here in Texas ready to put on the market.  I am really tired just thinking about all that I have to do, but I am pulling myself together, staying focused and working hard to get everything lined up for the move, keeping the kiddos happy, and meeting my deadlines for business things.  Anyway, I'd better stop complaining!  I sound all tired and annoyed, don't I?  Sorry about that!  I really am not typically a complainer, but it is all taking a toll on me right now, to be quite frank!  I'll snap myself out of it soon, promise!

Anyway, vent over!  I needed to pop in to announce the winners of the last giveaway.  I used the random number generator as I always do and here are the results.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4 23

Timestamp: 2010-11-23 22:03:08 UTC

Congrats to Zrinka (you get prize #1)

You are on my Faceboog page right now: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flekka/86894443683

Posted by: Zrinka | November 15, 2010 at 12:32 PM

 and Julia (you get prize #2)

Awesome stuff! I especially love those fabrics from Mo :) I like this apron pattern http://www.quiltingarts.com/media/p/21462.aspx

Posted by: Julia | November 16, 2010 at 06:28 AM

Ladies, get in touch with your addresses and I'll get your goodies off in to the mail for you.

That's it from me for today!  I am not sure if I'll have my quilt market/festival wrap up post up before Thanksgiving or not.  So in case I don't make it back here until the weekend I want to wish all of you American readers the happiest of Thanksgivings!!  Count your blessings and be thankful for them all!  And don't eat too much Turkey!

And know that I am thankful for each of you reading this.  That you've taken time to come to this often neglected space of mine and read my babble.  I appreciate it so much!

Big Hugs,

Sheree

 

Shop Update and a Coupon Code

Hello!

I just wanted to let all of  you blog readers know about a shop update and share a coupon with you all.

I am working hard to get all this added to the shop.

 

I need to feed the family and then will sit down after dinner and continue adding things as late as I can and then will continue in the am.  So keep an eye out if there  is something you see here that you want!

If you shop on the website, be sure to enter code ShereeThanksYou to save an additional 15% off of your order.  I am starting my Thanksgiving sale early, because we are moving soon (yes, the 3rd time in 6 years!) and while I don't personally have a problem taking all of the inventory with me, I am guessing the company movers may hate on me a bit!  The coupon code is valid through the end of the month.  Also, check out the sale section.  The coupon code is valid on top of the sale prices.  We are also doing free shipping for all Texans, $5 flat rate shipping for other US orders and International customers will get a free fat quarter of my choosing for every $50 that they spend.

And I'll be putting a few bundles in My Etsy Shop:

last of the momo's wonderland

a bit of Arcadia by Sanae

other goodies

Alot of these are going to be listed as fat quarter bundles.  I am sorry, I won't be doing special orders on this...I just don't have the time this week.  But I will do my best to put nice bundles together, okay.  Unfortunately, I cannot honor the coupon codes on Etsy, as this site is just not set up to do these sales.  I will however include a free scrap bundle with each Etsy order.  And remember, your shipping totals may come out too high...I will refund the difference, as I only charge the actual shipping cost!

That's it for today.  The next installment of my Quilt Market Review will come soon. I'll also go on and do the Festival review on the same post so we can move on to some other fun topics, like my move!

Have a Happy and Blessed Day!

Sheree

Fall 2010 International Quilt Market Review Part 1...And Giveaway #1

Happy Monday Folks,

I am back today, feeling a bit under the weather, but wanted to share the first part of my Fall 2010 International Quilt Market Review and to start the first round of giveaways.

I'll start by showing you my booth again.

 

Sadly, these are the only 2 pictures I have of my booth.  As I looked through my photos, I really did not get many pictures in again this year!  When you have your own booth, you just don't get in all the meetups and photoops.  And when you do get in photos, it is usually with someone else's camera!

Anyway, I will finally do a showcase of all my new patterns (all 18 of them) toward the end of December when the first round is scheduled to ship out.  Of course I'll be doing super fab giveaways during that time as well.  I should probably organize a blog hop, but I am not even sure how to get that rolling, so I'll have to think on that.  But know it will come and I think you all are going to love them! :)

I did alot of sample sewing for Timeless Treasures again and featured several of their collections on my new patterns.  Emily Cohen, the creative director over at TT Fabrics is just a gem and such a pleasure to work with.  I can't believe I did not get a picture of the 2 of us together..next time for sure!  I do have some of their fabrics to giveaway today (and more to come in the next 2 market/festival posts as well!).  You'll see them at the end of the post.

Let's move on to a few folks I got to meet at Market.

The night before Market officially opens, Caroline of J. Caroline Creative, along with folks at Michael Miller Fabrics, Stash Books and Interweave co-hosted an event called Fabric 2.0.  This was my 3rd year attending this event and I was surprised at all the new faces again this year.  It was fun to meet up face to face with folks that I've "known" through blogging, flickr and email.  The host had some awesome giveaways going, and I ended up winning the grand prize of the evening.  I won a copy of Lunch Bags, a copy of Socks Appeal and a jar of Caroline's new ribbons.  Yum!  My son is keeping the Socks Appeal book...he is ready to learn to sew now! Yay! 

My daughter kept most of the ribbon and the lunch bag book.  But I do have a second copy of the Lunch Bags! book to share with you all today in the giveaway and I am throwing in some other goodies to go along.  You'll see all of it at the end of this post, okay.

I had alot of great folks stop by my booth at Market.  One meeting that blew me away was having Nancy Zieman of Sewing with Nancy, stop by. 

She was heading to the bathroom and spotted my booth and came over.  I was in the middle of taking an order and could not talk with her at that moment, so she went off to the bathroom, but then came right back to me!  She told me she wanted to make all my patterns for her granddaughter.  I almost fainted!   

Another person that stopped by my booth is the fabulous Monica of The Happy Zombie Blog. 

Monica's blog was one of the first blogs I started reading way back when.  I think through flickr, I saw her red and aqua studio and fell in love!  Monica is always Happy and Funny on her blog and she is even more so in person.  Monica is now a fabric designer with Lecien.  I have to get my hands on some of her fabrics...they are beyond sweet!

 

Monica introduced me to her friend Mo, who is a fabric designer with Blue Hill Fabrics. 

As expected, since she is a friend of Monica's, Mo was super fun, super sweet and just super easy to talk to.  She gave me two little fat quarter and card packs to share with you all.  I am actually keeping one for myself..sorry!  You'll see the one up for grabs at the end of this post with the other giveaway goodies.

Next up for the day is Susan Knapp. I've admired Susan's work for years and so you can imagine how tickled I was that she stopped by my booth and said she followed my blog and wanted to meet me.  Susan is a true fabric/textile artist and is a prolific author.  If you have not visited her blog, you need to! I know I took a picture with her, but it must have been with her camera.  Geesh.  I need to be better with the camera next year for sure!

I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Tricia Waddell and Barbara  of Interweave Press. 

Both are fabulous ladies.  Tricia is the Editor for Stitch Magazine, a fabulous sewing magazine geared towards today's modern sewists.  I have an copy of their most recent issue in the giveaway today as well.

Okay, so on to the giveaway for today.

There are 2 prizes:

Prize 1:  1 fat quarter and some cards from Mo and a copy of STITCH and 4 yards (1/2 yard cuts of 8 different fabrics) of fabric from Michael Miller fabrics.

Prize 2:  A copy of Lunch Bags! book, some ribbon from J. Caroline Creative and 1.5+ yards of laminated fabric from Timeless Treasures.

 

You can get up to 2 entries in today's giveaway.  I am going to make you all work a little bit today, because let's face it, this is some great loot!!! :)

1.  Go to the Stitch Blog, Stash Books Blog, Timeless Treasures site or Michael Millers website and look around, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite book, project or fabric is (share a link if you can, because we all want to see...we may want to add your item to our own wish lists!).  Feel free to tell us what you'd make with your favorite item as well.

2.  Blog, facebook or twitter about this giveaway, linking back to this post. Leave a comment on this post telling me what you did and again, share the link if you can.

I will close comments on this giveaway on next Monday, November 22 and announce the winner shortly after that.

Okay, that is it for today.  I am going to drink some green tea while I add a few more items to the website.  Then off to run errands before it is time to get the kiddos from school.

Have a great day!

Sheree

Scrappy Giveaway Winner and My New Scrappy Project

Happy Thursday Folks,

I am back today to announce the winner of the Scrappy Giveaway from my last post.  I used the random number generator as usual and comment number 109 was the winning comment.

Here are your random numbers:

109	

Timestamp: 2010-11-11 18:39:29 UTC

 Let's all congratulate JEN!!

Now subscribed to your blogfeed via googlereader :) BTW, your booth from Market looks beautiful!

Posted by: Jen S. | November 03, 2010 at 10:05 AM

I have sent you a personal message Jen and am looking forward to getting your goodies off in to the mail for you.  I do hope you'll enjoy the goodies and that you'll come back and share pictures with us! :)

I was so inspired by this last giveaway that I decided to start a little scrappy project of my own. I sat the other morning with paper and pencil and sketched out a new design.  I want to make something just for me that I'll hang on the walls of my new home studio (more on the new home studio soon!!!!).  My current home studio has no open wall space.  And while I love the space, I am looking forward to setting up my new space a little differently. Number one, instead of having all my fabric out in plain sight, I have decided that it will be better for me (i.e. less distracting) if I keep the fabric hidden.  The other benefit will be that I will have my walls free to actually showcase my own quilts and artwork and my Doll Quilt Swap quilts and things like that...things that inspire me, other than fabric!  My new home studio space will also have space for a little sofa/chair so I'll likely make a coordinating pillow or something to tie it all together.

Here are the fabrics I pulled together for the project.

 

And here is a first peek at what I've done so far.

I'll share more progress later.  I'll be working on this project when I take breaks from the new pattern collection and from other projects that I am working on that have strict deadlines.  This will be my "relaxation project".  We all need those, don't we.

I've been feeling a strong need lately to spend some time making special things just for myself.  I used to spend all my sewing time making my own clothes and accessories.  Once the little ones came along and I started my businesses, sewing time for myself has slipped by the waistside.  I treated myself to a couple special bundles of goodies at Market and Festival that I will use to make some things for myself.

gorgeous silks

lovely cottons

I have not yet decided what to make with these.  But I'll start in on these during my "relaxed sewing" time once I finish up my scrappy quilt.  Again, I'll share my progress with you all here.

Alrighty cute peeps. I'll be back tomorrow or Saturday with my first round of Post Market and Festival reports.  Each post will have a giveaway as well.  Here is a sneak peek at some of the loot (yes, there's more!) I have for you all! :)

Okay, I hope you all are well. If you have a minute, tell me, what are you working on that is just for you?  If you have not started something just for yourself, I suggest you add that to your to-do list.  I am thinking about making 2011 the year of making for me!  I have to say, I really miss sewing my own clothes...so I do plan to get back in to that for 2011 for sure!  I have to make it a priority (along with losing some weight. yikes!).

Big Hugs to you all and I'll see you back here tomorrow or over the weekend!

Sheree

Arcadia Winners, a New Giveaway and an International Quilt Market and Festival Update

Hello Friends,

I won't even spend time apologizing for my absence as I am really sounding like a broken record!  Just know that I have been busy as a bee and I wanted to get back here everyday and announce the winners.  I need to hire someone to blog for me! :)

Anyway, so many things have been happening around here.  I'll share things bit by bit over the next couple weeks.  But first, let's announce the winners of the Arcadia Fabric Giveaway from my last post.

I used random.org to select the winners, as I always do.

Here are your random numbers:

17	45	29	

Timestamp: 2010-11-02 18:21:07 UTC

The winners are:

#17 Bryanna (who I met at the International Quilt Festival last year, I think)

Love your new doll quilt! Great fabrics! I would definitely put the arcadia stripes to good use as part of a string quilt! I just learned how to paper piece and and dying to make one!

Posted by: Bryanna | September 09, 2010 at 02:01 PM

#45 Viv

wow, your Doll quilt is devine !!! Maybe it's coming to me, I like those colours. The one you received is sooooo awesome (sad that it didn't come here).

If I won the Arcadia I'd add it to the FQ's i bought from you a while ago and make a bigger quilt.

Posted by: Viv | September 09, 2010 at 06:00

#29  Amy of During Quiet Time on Etsy 

Oh, you received one of the quilts that I was eying. I knew it wasn't for me because red isn't one of my prefered colors...but it is perfect for that quilt so I would have loved it! Your DQS quilt is beautiful too. I haven't used the Arcadia line but would love to give it a try in some sort of quilted something. :)

Posted by: Amy | September 10, 2010 at 06:16 AM

Congrats to all of you lovely ladies!  I will get the fabrics off to you on Monday.  I will be at the International Quilt Festival all the rest of this week, so won't have time to get to the post office until then.  Ladies, please remember to share some pictures of what you make with all of us, okay!

As I said, I am getting ready for International Quilt Festival.  I had a booth at Market last week.  I really wanted to get to the blog and let you all know about my booth number and all that great stuff, but again, just couldn't make my way here.  So much happened at the show (all great stuff!) and I met so many wonderful people again this year.  I'll have to do a full Market post and then a full Festival post.  But let me just go on share a picture of my booth.

I'll be back with more on Market and Festival.  Let me get through Festival and then I'll have loads more to share with you all! 

While I am away at Quilt Festival, I have a giveaway for you all! 

The folks at American Patchwork and Quilting sent me this love Magazine all about Scrappy Quilts. ( was able to meet a few of the Editors at Quilt Market..what a great group of ladies!).

There are some great projects in here, so I am sure those of you that quilt will enjoy this magazine.  If you have not tried quilting yet, perhaps this will inspire you to give it a try?

I am also going to throw in this fabulous bundle of scraps. 

 

This bundle weighs 1 pound and is filled with loads of great prints, many out of print ones, including some Heather Ross Lightning Bugs and Mysterious Things, some Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope and Flea Market Fancy, some Momo's Wonderland and Odyssea and loads of other fabulous designer prints.

You have 4 ways to enter this giveaway.

1.  Leave a comment on this blog telling us about any current project(s) you are working on.

2.  Subscribe to my Newsletter (see right side banner for the link or email me if you can't find it and I'll add you on) and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.  If you are already a newsletter subscriber (thank you!), just leave a comment telling me you already subscribe.

3.  Share this giveaway link on your blog, facebook and or twitter and leave a comment telling me you did so, and leave the link to you post, tweet or facebook update.

4.  Subscribe to my blog feed and leave a comment telling me you did so and let me know which feed burner you use.  Again if you already subscribe (thank you!), just remember to leave a comment as well letting me know you already subscribe.

It's up to you have many entries you want...just be sure to leave a separate comment for each, as I won't be going through and counting up entries within a single blog post. That just takes too much time, and is bound for mistakes on my part.

I will leave the giveaway open until next Wednesday, November 10, 2010 .

Alright, that is it for me for today.  I have boxes of Moda precuts waiting to get prices on them and then have a ton of fat quarter bundles to cut and bag and label for Preview Night at the International Quilt Festival tomorrow. 

If you are attending Quilt Festival, please do stop by and say hello!! I'd love to see you.  My booth numbers are 1929-31A. 

Have a great week folks!

Hugs,

Sheree

 

Winner, Shop Update, A Sale and DQS9 Sneak Peekity Peek and an Arcadia Fabric Giveaway!

WELL HELLO!!!!

Yes, I vanished again!  That was soo unintentional!  Summer was a blast and I just was short on blogging time.  We really enjoyed a casual, old-school summer....no summer camps...just hanging at home, hosting visitors, visiting with family and lots of time in the pool!

Then, suddenly the kids headed back to school and I thought, did 10 weeks really go by?  Crazy!  They say time flies when you are having fun, right!

Given my long absence, I have alot to catch up on.  I have to announce the winner of the last giveaway, I have some shop news to share, I share my Doll Quilt Swap 9 quilts (received and sent) and finally, I have a new giveaway for you all!  So this is a long one...get your coffee and sit back and read on....

So let me finally announce the winner of the giveaway from my last post back in July.  As usual, I used the random number generator to select the winner:

Here are your random numbers:

49	

Timestamp: 2010-09-02 14:53:39 UTC

Comment #49 was from Nancy Sue:

Hello from the Washington DC/Maryland area! Summertime for us, leads to camping in the nearby mountains, but this heat wave has been rough. It's not even cool there either. We have set up a tent and tunnel indoors this past week. My 2 year old is having a ball, but we can't wait til this heat breaks. Thank you so much for the giveaway of the yummy fabrics and Magazine (to read at the campsite :)Hope you are feeling better soon!

Posted by: Nancy Sue Phillips | July 21, 2010 at 09:09 PM

Congrats to Nancy Sue! 

Nancy is a new quilter and does not blog or have a flickr account yet, but I am hoping that the giveaway goodies will inspire her to try some quilting/sewing and get online to share her projects with us!   Can't wait to see your work, Nancy Sue!

Next up on the list...shop update.  Well, the online shop is overflowing with gorgeous new fabrics.  My favorites right now are the Shot Cottons from Kaffe Fassett.  

                       

These fabrics are just divine...they are woven and have the softest hand.  And I love the effect the weaving gives...so much dimension and texture built in to the solids.  I have some pastels and some earth tones up and lots more are on their way to me.  You can find yardage and bundles and I've even started putting together some mixed print and solid bundles.  A few are up here in my Etsy shop and I'll get those plus more onto the online shop soon.

You can browse all the new fabrics here.  And of course, you can always click around in the Etsy shop for goodies if you prefer to shop on Etsy.

I do have a promo going on right now.  This is for the online shop only...not on Etsy (sorry Etsians, but I can't do any automated sales on Etsy and it is just too confusing to calculate discounts and do refunds.  I tried that once and it was a mess!).   Use promo code SewSept2010 to get 10% off your entire order. Code valid through the end of September, since it is National Sewing month.  Happy Shopping and Happy Savings to you!

Now let's talk Doll Quilt Swap 9 (DSQ9)!   You all will remember the quilt I made for DQS8.  It was so well received by swap participants and my swap partner that I decided I definitely wanted to participate in Round 9.  I love the DQS8 quilt so much, I am actually working it up into a pattern. I want to make it again for myself!  And it has gotten alot of flickr love, so I am hoping some of you would like to make it for yourselves as well?   For DQS9, I was tempted to do something similar.  But figured that would be lame.  One of the reasons I like these swaps is I try to use it as a way to force myself to do something different..explore some new technique and play with some different ideas that are swirling around in my head.  Inspired by some of my vintage quilt books, I decided it was time to make some sort of a strip quilt.  I debated, because blogland and flickr are definitely flooded with these types of quilts. But I could not resist the trend.  I made a sketch and then set in to put together some fabric combinations.

I narrowed down my fabric choices to these two bundles.

             

            

Both combinations got lots of flickr love when I posted them (check out the love here and here).  In the end, I decided to use the Arcadia fabric collections because I thought it would be fun to make a quilt using a full collection.  Usually, I mix and match lines, like I did with the second combination shown above.  You all know how much I love doing this...always excited to do some new combinations.  I have never worked with so many pieces of fabric from one collection, so this was my chance to do something different. 

Here is the final quilt.....

                         

                         

              

The front is pieced from 36 strips of fabric from the Arcadia collection.  Then the border is an organic linen fabric from Europe. The binding is a lovely hand batiked dot fabric in the most gorgeous shade of orange.  And for the back, I used one of my all time favorite Japanese prints, which I still can't bring myself to put up in the shop. 

So this is a strippy charm quilt I guess you could say?  I decided to call it "Centered".  And I have to say, I like how it turned out.  Now to wait to see if my partner loves it as much as I do.  Here's hoping.  I also made her a matching little Organic Cotton market tote that she can use shopping or for toting projects around.  I had some strips of fabric left over after cutting out the blocks, so I thought I'd put them to use. 

 

Now, let me share this incredibly adorable quilt that I received from Beth of Weepereas.

 

Yes, I know...adorable, right!!  This just made me smile and I can't wait to hang it on my studio wall.

And look at the adorable fabric basket she made for me.  I could not have asked for a more perfect quilt!  Love, love!  

I am feeling pretty lucky with my new goodies.  Now, you could be a lucky girl as well.  I decided to host another little giveaway today!  I will send off a bundle of Arcadia strips to 3 lucky blog readers!  Each bundle contains one 4" by 21" strip of all 36 arcadia prints.  

So, yes, you'll have the entire line! You could piece these fabrics in stripes and create the concentric diamond pattern like I did, or you could use them to make a stacked coin quilt, a rectangular or random charm quilt, a ticker tape quilt...the list goes on and on. 

Now to enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment here on this post telling me what you'd do with the fabrics.  You can feel free to tell me about any other projects you've been working on as well.  Have you worked with  the Arcadia collection before?  Let us know...and share some links to what you've made so we can all be inspired!

I'll leave this giveaway open for a week.  So you have until next Thursday, September 16 to enter.  Good luck!  And I am looking forward to reading your comments. :)

Before I go, let me share this cute Treasury, created by emmigracekids on Etsy.  She included my ruffle skirt...thanks Cassie!

Alrightly then, you all have a blessed and productive day.  Remember to be Happy and Creative!  I'll see you back here soon!

Hugs,

Sheree