Thank you all for entering the fab giveaway to win one of Jo's wonderful embroidery patterns, as well as a bunch of threads to one lucky follower.

And with no further ado here are the winners...

(if I have counted right...I really must find out how to number the comments...)

And the first winner...

Connie!...Connie you win a pattern of your choice AND the fantastic set of threads...well done!!

The next 4 lucky winners each win a pattern of their choice...

First up,number 58, Martina!...

next up, number 71, Karen!...

next up, number 45, Giddy!...

and finally number 108, Wendy!

Again big thanks to Jo for her very generous giveaway and to all of you that entered and as I mentioned yesterday, keep your eyes peeled for my next exciting giveaway...you won't want to miss it!

I picked up my new magnets today and I am so pleased with them. 

The previous lot sold really well but after reprinting Scruffy Daisies onto coloured fabric I knew that it would work even better. And it does! The design and the magnets themselves show up so much better and have such a popsicle of colour on my fridge.

Other things I have been playing with today are Buddha Orange Scrap Packs. More fab colour pops!

I finally got around to going to the screen printing workshop today and printed up a screen for a new something I've been working on for, shhhh, C..... Still too early to mention it but not too early to get going on it.

Here's a little sneak peak for those of you that don't follow me on Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, or any other networking medium that I bore you on and there will be more to come very very shortly.

One final thing to mention today is that tomorrow the giveaway will close, so if you meant to enter and haven't you have about 24 hours to do so...and if you are not lucky this time, come back at the end of the week when I will be hosting another wonderful giveaway from another fab sponsor.

My lips are sealed...you'll have to come back later to see...but I am pretty certain you'll be queuing up (behind me) to enter...

 I have been having a little fun playing around with a few things this week all in the name of "product design and development". That makes it sound much more important than "having a play and see what happens".

A few weeks ago I started experimenting with 2 colour prints, the results of which were the orange and grey below.

I loved the effect but knew that the 2 colours I had picked were too bold together. I hadn't really planned to use these 2 colours together...it was a result of the newsprint testing pieces for the colours I happened to be using at the time and I was merely overlaying on a whim.

It did make me discover however that there was potential for a 2 colour print with my designs, particular with the stripe and scruffy daisy.

Again inspiration triggered by my old newsprint tester sheets, I set to print in pale blue and turquoise and here are the results below...

...and I'm really rather pleased with it!

Is it wrong to be excited by ones own work? It has such a fresh summery (ha!...there's that strange word again) feel to it and think it would work on so many things. I'm planning on making some pretty summery wash-bags to start with and also incorporate into a quilt I'm doing. I printed up a few to start with, so if you want to grab a piece go here.

I'm planning to try it in a light pink/dark pink combo so watch out for that.

My other "product design and development" this week involved printing onto some Quilter's Linen swatches I had received with the view to creating my winter (that's more familiar...) range. It's hard to get a feel for how a fabric is going to look when it is printed on so doing it this way is great.

Quilter's linen is really lovely. It is 100% cotton but has a look of linen due to it's texture markings. I find linen to sometimes be a little stretchy so this is a perfect alternative as it looks great and sews up beautifully.

I now have rather big decisions to be made as actually I like how so many of them have turned out. So a little help please...which colours would you like to see in the collection??

 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...