It's giveaway time!

Welcome to my third giveaway, and a special welcome if you are new to my blog. I hope you take the time to have a good look around. Feel free to comment on anything that catches your eye, I'd love to hear from you and always reply! I've been working hard in my sewing attic these last couple of days and I hope you like what I've created to giveaway! It has my daughters seal of approval so I think I've got it right.

Okay enough of the chit chat lets tell you what's up for grabs. Firstly I've made the above shopping tote from some pure cotton Balinese batik fabrics. It is fully lined with a large pocket inside and perfect for those farmers markets or for any shopping expeditions.

Next up is a matching shopping list pad cover complete with shopping pad and pen plus another pocket for perhaps your cheque book.

And it has a smart button enclosure to keep everything safe.

And last but definitely not least is 3 fat quarters of pure cotton fabrics. I will also add some other sewing goodies for you to be creative with.

Now what you have to do to be in the draw is to tell me in your comments what your favourite "Christmas family tradition" is in your home. It might be something that you do each year with your children or something that you make or a place that you always visit, what ever it is I would love to read about it.
This giveaway will be open until December 6th and I am happy to send internationally. You can check out all the other Sew Mama Sew giveaways over here. Good luck!!

Don't forget to leave me a way of contacting you too.

The Countdown has begun!

This is the first advent calender I made when our eldest daughter Amelia was about 2 years or maybe younger. I used to put little gifts in each pocket like new ornaments for the tree one year and hair clips another year but then decided chocolates and lollies were much easier. It's a very simple pattern, just a Christmas tree shape marked into a grid then you make little heart pockets. The top 12 hearts are made from "The twelve days of Christmas" themed fabric.

A few years later I bought the pattern for this Advent Calender. It is a pattern designed by Jane Coughlan who is a local doll maker. It took me quite a while to make but it was a really fun project from getting the right fabrics for all the little details to making each little ornament. Down the sides and along the front of the 'quilt' are little pockets filled with the ornaments to hang on the house or tree etc.

And this is what it looks like by Christmas Day . A kiwi Christmas scene complete with Santa and Rudolph in the sky and presents under the tree. The people looking out the window are my husband and I , Amelia with the curly hair and Caitlin with straight hair. The purple banner across the top of the house says Merry Christmas. I wrote it in gold pen but I think I need to embroider over it to make it stand out more. The girls love both calenders. When I put it up this afternoon Caitlin was a little surprised as she thought it was a bit early until I reminded her the date today. If you want to see more details of this Advent Calender I have more photos on my flickr site.

I love to handquilt!

After machine quilting around the 'frocks' twice I was going to machine quilt in the ditch between each block but in hindsight I should have done that first before going around each frock because I ended up with it puckering badly at the end of the seam. Not a great look! So I decided to hand quilt 1/8 in from the seam of each block and I'm really pleased with how it now looks. Hand quilting is so forgiving and it really isn't taking that long with just straight lines.

I can do 4-5 stitches at a time and it's something I can just pick up when I've got a little pocket of time. I love the look that hand quilting gives a quilt. I know machine quilting gives quicker results but it can be a real upper body workout sometimes.

These are the colours I'm working with. The thimbles are a must although I still get a sore thumb when I've done a lot. I have tried various thimbles but always go back to these original ones that I bought for my very first quilt. I have now accumulated quite a good selection of colours in the quilting cotton which is good when you don't live near a quilting shop.

Giveaway Day is coming......

Sew Mam Sew is organising another Giveaway Day on the 2nd of December and I've just joined up to participate again. It was so much fun last time and I met some wonderful blogging friends through it I didn't hesitate to sign up again. You can check out all the details over here.

Ready to quilt.

I finished the backing for this quilt today and it is now pinned and ready for quilting. I made this quilt top way back in July so its about time I got onto the quilting!! I put it on hold to complete my zig zag quilt and the wonky log cabin quilt. I love this quilt already so I'm very eager to get started on the quilting. Not sure how I'm going to quilt it yet. Hopefully I'll get an epiphany when I sit down at my machine!

These 4 parcels arrived in the mail today. So exciting to get parcels in the mail so to receive 4 in one day was pretty cool.

These are the lovely colourful scraps that came out of the above parcels. I can't wait to start this quilt.

My daughter Amelia and I are going to the "New Moon" movie on Friday afternoon so I have been reading this book at every opportunity to get it finished before I saw the movie. Amelia has read all 4 books twice now so you could say she's a bit of a fan. They are aimed at teenage readers but I've gotta say I'm hooked and can't wait to start the 3rd in the series " Eclipse" which will be tonight.

A matching set!

I whipped this chequebook cover up in a couple of hours today and I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I took the measurements off the ugly fake suede one I got free from the bank and just designed it as I went. I sewed a nice decorative stitch down the middle of the outside to make it fold more easily. The tote bag that it matches was made a couple of months ago and I had just enough batik fabric leftover from it.

When I finished it I thought it looked a bit plain but then I remembered that I had bought these decorative metal corner pieces years ago and had never used them. I have no idea what I originally bought them for but they just add the perfect finishing touch.

I just need to go shopping now so I can show it off! Sew'n'tell Friday is such good motivation. Check out the other finishes over here at Amy's or just click the button on the right sidebar

The only other sewing related activity I did was cutting up some scraps to send to 8 lovely ladies that I've met through the Old Red Barn Quilt along. We are doing a scrap swap so we can make a quilt like this one. I love scrappy quilts so I didn't think twice about taking part. Sorting out my scraps made me re-think what I have in my stash and I had a good sort out and totally reorganised my fabrics. I ended up throwing out 5 supermarket sized bags full of ugly or poor quality fabrics that were taking up valuable room in my sewing attic. I seem to be in a real spring cleaning mood this week as I also re-organised my linen cupboard this morning.

Tea Rose Home Giveaway

One of my favourite blogs that inspires creativity in me is Tea Rose Home. She has a beautiful blog and her creativity seems endless. To celebrate thanksgiving she is having a very generous giveaway of the above 4 picture frames and the moda charm pack ( she recently did a tutorial on framed fabrics), a cute little girls bag plus an adorable dolls quilt.

Go and check out her blog, she won't disappoint.