Giveaway Time!!...

...from one of my lovely sponsors Avery Homestore.

I have actually met Jo, the owner of Avery, in real life and so was delighted when she wanted to be one of my sponsors.

Jo's store is a little different from my others - as well as being online it is also a real life bricks and mortar shop, where she stocks a great range of fabrics amongst other delights.

 Jo is a very talented quilter herself and also has a particular flair for embroidery, of which she has designed these amazing patterns. I am totally in awe of her skills and ability to design these intricate patterns. They are all now available as PDFs for you to produce your own version and you can also get Perle Cottons in all the necessary colours in store too. Personally I'm quite drawn to Boris, but if you can't decide Jo offers a complete set of all 4 of her characters for just £6.50.

Another big attraction at Avery Homestore is the selection of wools on offer. I know I mainly stick to sewing these days but I do have a bit of a soft spot for piles of yarn, particularly when they are as delicious looking as these. Rooster Almerino is a luxurious, soft blend of Baby Alpaca and Merino wool. The only problem with them is... how on earth do you decide which colours you can leave out!!

Avery Homestore is based in Edinburgh and I suggest you take a visit if you are lucky enough to live nearby as I have just touched on what Jo has to offer. One thing I will quickly add before I tell you about the giveaway - are you still with me? - is the extensive range of Craft Classes Jo runs, from weekly evening classes, to Half and Full Day classes, teaching everything from her cute little owls, to making an heirloom-in-waiting like the one below.

Ok so the giveaway. Quite frankly if you have stayed with me this long you deserve to win!

Jo is generously offering a PDF pattern of your choice to 5 - yes 5! - winners and, this is where it gets more exciting...the first name out of the proverbial hat also gets a full set of 10 Perle Cottons as shown in the pick at the top, a prize worth about £30...pretty damn generous I'd say!

Here's how you can win..

1 entry for telling me which pattern you would choose...

another entry for following my blog before or now...

another entry for follow Jo's blog before or now...

another entry for signing up to Avery Homestore's Newsletter...

a final entry for tweeting about it.

So 5 chances to win...what are you waiting for??!

Giveaway open until this time next week - end of play Weds 18 July 2012.

 The summer holidays have already started in this house. Sam and Noah broke up on Friday, Ruby has almost another 2 weeks to go. At the moment it doesn't seem too disruptive as the boys have gone to London to stay with my in-laws this week and since Matthew took them down yesterday morning, it is just me and The Rubester around these parts.

It is extremely rare for it just to be the 2 of us so we tried to have a real quality day yesterday. 

It started with a little glittery nail painting and it was even warm enough for us to expose them and show them off.

I then dragged Ruby out for a run (her on her bike)...actually I think we did that before the nails...would have made sense to anyway.

Cooped up in front of Murray-Federer for the next 4 hours made us need to go out for a breath of air and stretch our legs. (Didn't the boy do well? Was mightily impressed with his performance and made me quite warm to him.)

The day was so calm and relaxing doing a little bit of everything. 

It's not often I can say that about a weekend around these parts. We even managed quality bedtime with cuddles and reading thrown in...makes a pleasant change from being thrown into bed and lights out in haste at an attempt at a decentish time for the next week at school.

What's more I even managed to get some sewing in after lights out (hers not mine).

Not bad for a Sunday...

This little (?) pile of loveliness arrived from one of my lovely sponsors this week...

After having been studiously pouring over my Kona chart I ordered a bunch of neutrals, along with some pretty tangerines. It's amazing how varied neutrals can be and you never quite have the right one to hand. I'm actually looking into doing something with all of them together...an idea is forming.

So a little bit about The Village Haberdashery...

Annie openend The Village Haberdashery just a few months ago but it is already reaching lots of radars. Annie seems to know what everyone wants and stocks a wide variety of fabulous fabrics, including an amazing range of our favourite Kona solids. And if she doesn't have the one in you are after, she will do her best to get it, as my little stash is case in point. 

Aurifil thread, the name on everyone's lips at the moment and stocked here, is another example of how Annie has her finger on the pulse and wants to provide for all our sewing needs and desires.

Perhaps you are a knitter or crocheter? Take a look at the selection of yarns stocked at The Village Haberdashery. Scrumptious, every one of them. I'm saving up for some of this...a beautiful blue wool with a mix of luscious mohair and entwined with glittery tinsel, neon coral crochet flowers, tiny yellow velvet daisies and shimmering turquoise 

sequins. Wow!

Please do take a look at The Village Haberdashery...I think you will like it.

I'm a little bit glued to the TV today...

It would be fair to say I like tennis rather a lot and so when Wimbledon is on I get a little obsessed with catching as much as possible...

and when our only decent Brit is playing...well, need I say more?

I just wanted to pop by very quickly and let you know about my fabric offer. Our summer is such pants over here that I wanted to do something to make it a little cheerier. 

I am offering 2 for £10 on my fabrics until, well until the sun comes out and quite honestly the way our summer is going, until sometime well into next year.

Click here to grab some...I'm back off to watch the tennis...

 Having had these fabrics on my desk all last week for my Siblings Together quilt, I have slowly been sneaking in a little playing time each day.

Earlier in the week I I had set my heart on having a go at the Castle Walls Block from the Shape  Workshop for Quilters Book by the lovely peeps at Fat Quarterly.

 Those that know my work will realise this is quite a departure of styles for me. Normally I can be seen quilting in relative simplistic styles, but this has completely converted me. 

I was hooked when i first started quilting and this is pulling me in even further.

It could be the fantastic fabrics that are pulling me in, but I am pretty sure you will start to see some more intricate piecing around these parts.

I am such a beginner at piecing blocks that I didn't even realise that the pattern was mirroring itself and when I pieced together the adjacent blocks I had a real "oh my g-d" moment at seeing the central castle emerging! I am slightly embarrassed at mentioning that, but I know you will gain delight from hearing it.

I had a slight technical hitch when I ran out of FMF, but to be quite honest I had done more than I should have done today so a natural pause has taken place, while I wait for reinforcements from the quilt's sponsor.

I am still undecided with how I am going to finish off the quilt (I'm thinking of piecing a border of some sort) and what to use for the binding. 

Any thoughts?

I would like to introduce you to another of my lovely new sponsors...

Seamstar...

Seamstar is run by Courtney who scours the world for beautiful and unusual fabrics. A particular favourite of mine is the collection of cotton lawns (top right), which are very reminiscent of Liberty Lawns, both in designs and weight. They are so silky smooth and a pleasure to sew with. I think this is my favourite but go check out the whole collection here.

As well as a fab selection of fabrics, Seamstar offers a great selection of felts, trimmings and haberdashery amongst other things.

You may remember my quandary about pom pom colours...Courtney was to blame for that.

I am completely in love with the collection of cotton bias seam bindings...another decision quandary that Courtney offers.

So a big thank you to Courtney for being one of my sponsors and I look forward to sharing  exciting news, offers, giveaways in the future from Seamstar with you. In the meantime, give Courtney a warm welcome and go shop!

I am absolutely delighted to share my news with you that my blog is now sponsored by the following fantastic UK online fabric stores.

I am extremely honoured and proud that these wonderful shops view my blog as worthy enough to sponsor and so if you don't know them already please do click on the links on the right and peruse their wonderful collections.

Each one is very different from the next with what they offer and I will be telling you about all of them over the next few day.

Let me introduce the first one to you today and those of you that are regular readers of my blog will find it a very familiar name. 

M is for Make is run by the lovely Kate who handpicks the most wonderful collection of fabrics from all over the world. Kate is based in Brighton and M is for Make is the result  of a lifelong love of pretty fabrics and sewing.

Kate supplements her lovely collection of fabrics with the best collection of beautiful Japanese sewing books and fantastic sewing patterns. I have several of the Japanese sewing books and even though I don't understand a word of them, the photographs alone are enough to entice me into thinking one day I may be able to make something from them.

You may remember Kate generously offering me a selection of fabrics - any selection I wanted - to make a quilt for Siblings Together. A couple of the fabrics I had chosen hadn't yet been released and coincidentally coinciding with the launch of my sponsors they arrived this week. I have a feeling that the Denyse Schmidt on the top is not going to hang around for long.

The partnership with my sponsors is going to bring lots of exciting news, giveaways and other opportunities for you, so please stick around as I announce each in turn.