Quilting Blogger Give-Away Time

 

It's Quilting Gallery's 5th birthday and several blogs are participating by having give-aways on their blogs.  (click on the blog hop party button above to find all the participating blog links) I am joining in and having a give-away here too. Anyone who wants a chance at winning just has to leave me a comment no later than midnight (EST) December 15th to be in on the drawing. If you are a follower of my blog you can leave me a second comment for another chance at winning.

I am giving away one pdf tutorial for making the Strawberry Bag, pictured here:

Strawberry tote bag. The tote bag is stuffed into the strawberry and opens into a tote bag when opened. Makes great gifts and you can keep one in your purse to have a bag with you whenever you need one.

Good luck everyone! But if you don't win this or would like to purchase my easy step-by-step pdf pattern right now please go to my Craftsy Store. Thank you. Enjoy the Blog Hop.


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And the winner is...

...Rebeckah Austin who said: "Congrats on the 300!!! Good for you! I like how you have different tabs for different things, also that your blog is simple. It takes no time at all to load. I follow via google reader".

Congratulations Rebeckah. I have emailed you.
Thank you to all who follow my blog.
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Pajama Bottoms

I made these pajama pants for my daughter's boyfriend. My daughter bought the fabric and I made the pants. He likes Chinese dragons and this fabric was perfect.

I found this flannel fabric when I was at JoAnn Fabrics one day and there was just enough fabric to make these pajama pants. So I made these for my daughter. Both these pj bottoms are gifts for Christmas, so I hope they don't look at my blog.

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Red Knit Cardigan Sweater

This was an easy-to-knit pattern and I love how it looks. I used a wool yarn in variegated red (with touches of gray and burgundy). Remember the pinwheel sweater I knit a while back that didn't fit in the arms? Well this is the yarn I ripped out from that sweater. Yes, I ripped out that entire sweater! That's the one good thing about yarn is that you can start over again if you make a mistake or just don't like how your creation is turning out.
The sleeves of this cardigan came out too long (I should have measured and tried this sweater on more carefully). So I did end up ripping out the lower portion of the sleeves and re-knitting it shorter. I think I must have T-Rex arms and not gorilla arms, lol! I need to knit a larger size to fit in the bust as that's the biggest part of me, so the arms and everything else tends to be too large and I need to adjust everything else smaller in those other areas.

Here's a tip for wool knits: soak your wool knitted garment in cool water that you have added hair conditioner to the water and let sit for at least an hour. Then block your garment as usual. The hair conditioner makes the wool feel much softer and it smells great too. I use a good quality hair conditioner that I buy at places like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or other natural food stores. Good quality hair conditioners contain essential oils and other good ingredients rather than chemicals and artificial fragrances which are found in cheaper mainstream products. I have chemical sensitivities, so I only buy the good quality products.

Here's my newly knit cardigan. I bought the Mama Bear Cardigan pattern on Craftsy.

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Give-Away Time

I have reached 300 official followers! I want to thank all of you who follow my blog. All of you, my dear followers, is what helps to keep me motivated to create and post a record of my creations for everyone to see. I enjoy reading your comments too. While I know there are some who follow by email, or other ways and not officially (joining this site on the right by clicking follow this blog), it's nice to know you are there.

 

I would love to hear from you and tell me what you like about my blog, dislike, or what you would like to see in the future. I know we all follow some blogs and not others and we each have things that we must be attracted to or like about one blog over another, so I know I won't please everyone all the time, however if you have a suggestion I would love to hear from you.

 

Rules of the give-away:

1. Since this is a give-away for those of you who follow my blog (my way of saying thank you), you must be a follower.
2. Please tell me how you follow my blog (officially, by email, etc) 
3. Please make sure that I can contact you if you win. If you are a no-reply (meaning you never checked the box when you entered your email address in your profile) then I cannot contact you and therefore I will have choose another person.
4. I will choose a name Dec. 9th, so you must comment by December 8th.

This is a purse I made I am giving away to one lucky follower.

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Blog Hop Party: December 10th

December 10th is the 5th birthday of Quilting Gallery and they are hosting a blog hop with give-aways. Participating blogs will be posted there and here on December 10th. I will be participating in this blog hop and will be giving away something really great. Be sure to check my blog for details on how to win my give-away prize and to enter my give-away. You can enter my give-away starting in the evening of December 9th and through December 15. You'll have to come back then to see what my give-away will be. I will tell you now that you will get 2 chances to enter to win if you follow my blog.

 

 I was also planning a give-away once I reached 300 followers. I announced this a few weeks ago and right now I have 299 followers (publicly). So as you can see this give-away is getting really close to happening as well. I will post about this give-away as soon I reach 300 followers. It's my gift back to my followers, well at least one lucky follower :0)

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Birthday Gifts I Received

I am blessed with some really nice friends. I received these wonderful gifts for my birthday~

My friend Susan sent me this sunflower fabric and 4 iron-on fabric seed packets that I can use in a quilt, or a bag or shirt or? Well I'll see what I come up with. I really like sunflowers and cone flowers. Susan always sends me really wonderful gifts. Thanks Susan!



My friend Bobbie made this for me in batik fabrics (my favorite kind of fabric).

Bobbie hand embroidered cone flowers (lucky me I got both sunflowers and cone flowers) and my name. Bobbie does beautiful work.

This is the other side with the zipper and a beautiful zipper pull.

And in case you were wondering what it is... well a bag to carry my Ott light in of course! I use my light wherever I go. I always take it to the applique group I belong to that happens to be at Bobbie's house and so she knows I use my light. So what a great gift! I will really use this Bobbie, thank you!

Bobbie also gave me this yarn cutter.

Tara, who has a November birthday too (Happy Birthday Tara), also made this for me. It folds into a box like above. Not only did Tara give me some nice gifts, we also went out to lunch and then to a fiber art exhibit too. Thanks Tara!

When opened, Tara added pages of things on all 4 sides and this is the bottom. I knit, so this is a mini ball of yarn, knitting needles and a paper tea cup and saucer.

Here is a page that shows a photo Tara found with yarn and she knit this tiny mitten. How cute is that?

Tara made this bag from a place mat and inside the bag was a book Knit Two by Kate Jacobs.
 

Tara also made this bowl using a ribbon yarn and clothesline, but she made an opening for a ball of yarn to pull through. I have seen ceramic bowls made for yarn balls and Tara was trying to make a similar item. I think it will work for a small ball of yarn, but my large ball of yarn was a bit too large. Still it's a very pretty bowl and I love the pink color and the added flower.

This wasn't actually a birthday gift, but it did arrive in my mailbox on my birthday. This sweet little postcard was made by Annie and when I told her I would love to have her, she sent her to lucky me! Thanks Annie.

I won this Bird Brain Design embroidery pattern in the recent "Wicked" blog hop, from Pauline of Quilt-n-Queen. It arrived a couple of days ago, so while it wasn't a birthday gift per say, it arrived just after my birthday.

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