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Showing posts with label Giveaways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giveaways. Show all posts

Monday, December 19

Giveaway Winners and a Funny Baby Video



This scene reminds me of when our daughters used to take part in our old church's Living Nativity each year.  Precious memories!

It sure seems like Christmas came along right on the coattails of Autumn.  We are blessed with all our children coming home this week, and with our son Sam even staying for three weeks, in preparation for our daughter Kaitie's wedding in mid-January.  Then after that, we babysit our baby granddaughter for a week.  She'll be one year old soon... my how time flies.  We'll be so busy for the next six weeks or so that I want to take this opportunity now to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

In case you missed it, last week was the end of my Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day post, which I paired with free patterns for a Pomegranate & Berry Table Topper

Between the Sew Mama Sew linky party and Betsey Langford featuring my free patterns in the American Quilter's Society On Point newsletter, that post got an unprecedented amount of traffic and comments.  :o  

Thank you to both Betsey and Kristin and especially to all of you who left such wonderful comments.  I loved reading each and every one.  What you had to say about your favorite things about winter really has given me a better appreciation for the season.  You all are so expressive and funny!  

With such a great turnout, giving away one copy of my book Crafted Appliqué: New Possibilities didn't seem like enough, so I increased the number of winners to three commenters. 




Without further ado, the randomly drawn winners of a signed copy of Crafted Appliqué: New Possibilities were Nancy, Karen, and Anita.


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And just to leave everyone with a smile on their faces....

"Are you making yummy sounds?" is sort of a running joke in our family and it comes from a scene in a favorite movie: "Young Frankenstein".

"The Monster: [off-screen] MMMMMMM!
Dr. Frankenstein: Oh, do you like it? I'm not partial to desserts myself, but this is excellent.
Igor: Who are you talking to?
Dr. Frankenstein: To you. You just made a yummy sound, so I thought you liked the dessert.
Igor: I didn't make a yummy sound, I just asked you what it is.
Dr. Frankenstein: But you did. I just heard it.
Igor: It wasn't me.
Inga: It wasn't me.
Dr. Frankenstein: Well, now look here. If it wasn't you, and it wasn't you...
The Monster: [off-camera] Mmmmmm!"
  
Well we sure know who's making the yummy sounds in our home now.  Our granddaughter Eden recently discovered toast with cream cheese.  :)


  

Monday, December 5

Pomegranate & Berry Table Topper Free Patterns & a Crafted Appliqué Book Giveaway

This festive set of patterns with a pomegranate and berries motif is an early Christmas gift for all of you and a way to say thank you for all your warmth and support.  

Betsey Langford, who writes for the American Quilter's Society's "On Point" Blog has offered a great opportunity to all the AQS authors. She's going all out to help promote our books.  She will be sharing this post on Wednesday through "On Point".  Thank you bunches Betsey!  To help with the promotion, at the end of this post I am also running a giveaway for a free copy of my book, which is open for entries until Wednesday, December 14th.

On top of that, Wednesday, December 7th is the much awaited and totally stupendous, annual Giveaway Day linky party at Sew Mama Sew!  Be sure to visit there for oodles of fun giveaways!  


Pomegranate and Berries Table Topper

I designed this table topper using the pomegranate appliqué motif from the Folk Art Christmas wall quilt in my book Crafted Appliqué: New Possibilities.  The two projects make a wonderful, coordinated set.  This pattern could also be changed up to make a lovely table runner or tree skirt.  Of course I used the fray-free Crafted Applique method to sew mine, but you can also use any raw edge method you like.  

There are actually 2 versions of the appliqués, each with their own pattern.  You get a little bit of a different effect, depending on which pattern you use and on how you place the appliqués:


Pomegranate and Berries Table Topper - Mock up 1


Pomegranate and Berries Table Topper - Mock up 2

It helps with placement of the appliqués if you divide your background circle into even quadrants, like slices of pie.  I made my topper as an 18 inch diameter circle and used chalk to mark the pie slices.  That way I could do a better job of spacing the appliqués evenly around the circle.


Dividing the Table Topper into Even Sections

Stitching the appliqués on was a breeze because of using the Crafted Appliqué method.  I used the back coating technique from my book so that the red paisley background would not show through the white fabric of the appliqués.  


Stitching on the Pomegranate Appliqués

Then for fun, I designed 4 center quilting motifs and am going to share those patterns here too.  They would make beautiful appliqué designs in their own right.


Pomegranate & Berry themed quilting patterns

Jasmine, from Quilt Kisses, gave me a great tip on quilting a design like this.  She suggested using Quilting Paper by Golden Threads.  (You can get a great deal with that link to Connecting Threads and it is not an affiliate link.)  I was able to tape a piece of Golden Threads to a sheet of printer paper and print the design right out on the Golden Threads paper, with no tracing required.  It's easy to tear the paper away when you are done quilting.  


Quilting using Golden Threads Quilting Paper


One of the things I did when sewing my table topper was that I layered the quilt sandwich BEFORE sewing on the appliqués.  That way, part of the quilting was already accomplished once the appliqués were sewn on.  Always a plus!  Just a heads up though - I should have sewn on the appliqués AFTER I quilted the center motif, because there was a bit of puckering between the two areas.  It would have quilted out if I had done more quilting, such as pebbles around the motif.  Pebble quilting makes me dizzy though.   

The table topper looks terrific cozied up to the fireplace seating area! 


Making the table a little more Christmassy

The PDF files for the Pomegranate & Berry patterns are free for personal use.  You can download them here:

Pomegranate & Berry Applique Pattern 1
Pomegranate & Berry Applique Pattern 2
Pomegranate & Berry Quilting Pattern 1
Pomegranate & Berry Quilting Pattern 2
Pomegranate & Berry Quilting Pattern 3
Pomegranate & Berry Quilting Pattern 4


   
Now.... Let's Start the Giveaway!

Crafted Applique: New Possibilities

Have you seen the page under the Header for Buzzinbumble for the Crafted Appliqué Never-ending Linky Party?  It's for any project made using the Crafted Appliqué method. You can also see all the projects in the book there too.  It's well worth checking out because everyone has truly let their creativity soar!  You can see more great projects using the Crafted Appliqué method by searching the hashtag #craftedapplique on Instagram.  (Thanks to Heidi, at Red Letter Quilts for starting that up because I didn't have a clue about hashtags. LOL)  It's amazing the things people have come up with to use with Crafted Appliqué.  Their creativity just blows me away!  

The Crafted Appliqué method really does open up new possibilities.  Betsey wrote that the method is even growing into a movement. :)   Wow do I like the sound of that!  


How would you like a chance to win a free, signed copy of Crafted Appliqué: New Possibilities?  Simply leave a comment below, telling me what you like best about winter.  (Even if it's "When it's over!" LOL)  Followers, both new and old, can have another chance to win the book by leaving a second comment and letting me know how they follow BuzzinBumble.  If you don't want to wait and see if you won, you can also order the book through my BuzzinBumble Big Cartel shop, the AQS Book Shop, or on Amazon.  If you ordered a book and then end up winning, I will happily refund your payment. 

*There have been so many wonderful commenters (I LOVE the way you all write about wintertime!) that I am increasing the number of books I'm giving away.  Now there will be three lucky winners of a copy of Crafted Appliqué!

The giveaway is open to international participants.  Please make sure that you are not an anonymous or a "no-reply" commenter and make sure that I have a way to contact you if you win.

I'll draw the name of the 3 winners on Wednesday, December 14th, using a random number generator and announce the results shortly thereafter. It might not be possible for me to do my usual reply & reciprocate if there end up being a lot of comments, but I definitely appreciate each and every one of you.

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Friday, October 14

Folk Art Quilted Traditions Blog Hop

Today is my turn to present a project for Suzy Webster's blog hop, made with a pattern from her awe inspiring and fabulous book "Folk Art Quilted Traditions".


Folk Art Quilted Traditions Table Topper

When I first saw the cover of Suzy's book, I got so excited!  I love Folk Art and I love color!  The patterns and projects inside are beautiful and inspiring.  Suzy created them as a celebration of her Hungarian heritage.  They also remind me of Scandinavian designs, like you would see in Norwegian rosemaling.   

There are projects here of every size, so it's a snap to find one you love.  You can even do what I did and make something great using just one block of the twelve block designs.  (Mine is block pattern number 5).  

Suzy is an Island Batik Ambassador and batiks are the perfect fabrics to use for these patterns.  So that's what I used, with a birch bark fabric background.



Suzy includes full instructions on how to create the appliques.  If you know me, then you can probably guess how I created mine.  :)  I used the "Crafted Applique" technique for no-fray, washable appliques.  After layering the quilt sandwich, I used a simple straight stitch and sewed around the appliques and then echo stitched around the outside of each flower.  This way, part of the quilting was already done.
 
Folk art motif ironed on and ready to sew!
 
Stitching on the appliques

Sewing on the last flower - the appliques held up really great.
Getting ready to quilt the background fabric.

For the quilting, I used a Frixion pen to draw a half inch diagonal grid on the background fabric. The lines disappear when heated with the iron.  (Use these pens with caution, because they sometimes take the dye out of dark fabrics.)

Ta Da!
Folk Art Quilted Traditions Table Topper

Blog Hop Schedule

I've been away from home for more than a week and have a lot of blog hopping and catching up to do!  (I still need to reply / reciprocate to the people who commented on my last post.)  

Suzy had a lot of of great presenters lined up and I don't want to miss a single one.  Here is the blog hop schedule below:

Monday, October 10
Connie Kresin Campbell - http://www.conniekresin.com/

Tuesday, October 11

Wednesday, October 12

Thursday, October 13
Maryellen McAuliffe - http://teachpany.blogspot.com/

Friday October 14
Adele Mogavero - http://adelemogavero.com/
Lara Buccella - http://www.buzzinbumble.com/

Saturday October 15 - Final Wrap-up
Suzy Webster - http://websterquilt.blogspot.com/ 


The Giveaway Prize
Don't forget to enter to have a chance to win your own copy of Folk Art Quilted Traditions, by Suzy Webster, along with some Island Batik fabrics!  The giveaway ends on Saturday, October 15th.  Just fill out the comment form below.






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Wednesday, July 27

Tea in the Rose Garden + Kate Spain Giveaway Winners

The first thing I need to do here is perhaps apologize to my friend France, whose very lovely mug rug pattern Tea in the Rose Garden I have used in a way she may never have foreseen.  Those of you who know France must admire her elegance and poetic way of expressing herself as much as I do.  (And if you don't know her yet, she has a wonderful blog here.)  France, I hope you don't mind that I've embroidered a colorful word on this little quilt.  

So I want to make it clear that this is NOT what France embroidered on her mug rug pattern.  She has the words "Tea in the Rose Garden" or, in French: "Petit napperon Le thé dans la roseraie".  The reason I thought that France's pretty pattern worked so well for this is because it contrasts so much with the phrase I used, thus making it more humorous.





This is still a work in progress.  It's for my friend who has been battling dire health problems for far too long and sometimes just doesn't feel up to explaining everything that has been going on.  She will immediately recognize that it is for her, because we've been joking around about this phrase lately.

I'm spilling the beans a bit early because I need advice on how to quilt this.  How in the world do you quilt something with embroidered details?  Any thoughts?  The whole piece measures only 8 x 10 inches.  The embroidery is a whipped back stitch, so it's raised up a little.  Bear in mind that I'm not good at embroidery and this is the best I've ever managed to do.  I used the Crafted Applique method for the teacups and rose and it worked like a charm.


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Happy Mail!

Recently, a surprise arrived in our mailbox for me.  It was from my friend Preeti Harris, who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts.  She's just such a complete sweetheart and I've been so glad that we've become friends.  Thank you Preeti!


Three FQs, beautiful variegated thread and Mysore Sandal Soap, which smells so divine!


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Giveaway Winners!

Here on BuzzinBumble, I had a giveaway during the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop.  It was a really popular giveaway and I can see why.  Thank you everyone for your participation and for all the wonderful comments!  I managed to reply to everyone, unless they were a no-reply commenter.  So if you didn't hear back from me, that is why.

Three lucky commenters won this terrific Kate Spain panel from her North Woods fabric line. 



The winners were drawn by the Random Integer Generator.  I had to redraw for one of the winners, because number 83 turned out to be my daughter Alina... which wouldn't be very fair, although I loved her comment.  

So the winners are:  # 50 - Selina, # 41 - Nancy, and # 100 - Susie.



I'll be in touch with all of you!

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Monday, July 18

12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop: Frosted Flakes Quilted Runner & a Giveaway!



12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop


There's an exciting event going on in Quilting Blogland and it's the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop, put together by Sarah Craig @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Sarah gathered together 25 terrific bloggers to share ideas for Christmas crafts, quilting, and recipes - so you can get a head start on the holidays this year.  You can find all the blog hop stops in the list at the end of this post and also by searching the hashtag #12daysofchristmasinjuly on social media.

Today is Day 5 and I share this day with my friend Soma @ Whims and Fancies, so be sure to check out her post today too because she's teaching us how to make handmade books and bookmarks!   To top it all off, Sarah is running a 12 Days of Christmas in July Quilt Along for the delightful quilt shown below, and she estimates that with only 1 hour a day you can have the quilt top completed in just 12 days.  

12 Days of Christmas Quilt Along

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Frosted Flakes Quilted Runner

Did you ever make paper snowflake cutouts as a kid?  It has always been a tradition in our family to make them, so for my 12 Days of Christmas project, I decided to make an appliqued and quilted snowflake runner.  I'm calling it the Frosted Flakes Runner, because I used Fairy Frost fabric for the snowflakes.

Close up of a Crafted Applique Snowflake

It's no surprise that I used my Crafted Applique method to make these snowflakes. (hashtag #craftedapplique)  I didn't want any fraying and knew my method would keep the edges nice and neat, while at the same time allowing me to cut out elaborate shapes. You could also do this project using fusible web interfacing to adhere your appliques. 
   
Swirling Breeze quilting

Fabrics used - I was going for the same color as jadeite:
Very Merry by Sandy Gervais for Moda - Light Aqua - 17832-15
Very Merry by Sandy Gervais for Moda - Light Aqua - 17834-15
Michael Miller Fairy Frost in Snow

Here's another shot, this one taken indoors:



A peek at the nine snowflake patterns (I designed nine, just in case someone wants to get flakier than me):

Frosted Flakes Snowflake Applique Patterns


You can download and save the Microsoft Word document, complete with sewing instructions and all 9 snowflake patterns by clicking here:


Don't forget to read to the end of the post, because I'm also having a great Christmas in July giveaway!

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Holiday Brunch Menu

One of the other fun things Sarah suggested was that we share a favorite recipe.  Our family has so many of them!  As the kids started becoming great cooks in their own right, we all developed an addiction to trying out recipes we find on Pinterest, so that is what I will be sharing today.   I'm laughing a little at this photo.  The runner is meant to be one long hot pad, but I wasn't ready for it to get besmirched yet, so we kept all the food off of it.  :)  If you use Insul-bright batting instead of regular batting, you'll have yourself a dandy hot pad.  

  

A simple Christmas Holiday Brunch, featuring:

Ham Quiche Cups - so quick to make!

Ham Quiche Cups

Glazed Cranberry Orange Scones - we substituted fresh blueberries - yum!

Glazed Blueberry Orange Scones, Cranberry & Grand Marnier Champagne Cocktail, and Coffee

Cranberry and Grand Marnier Champagne Cocktail - we substituted Proseco for the champagne.   You can also use sparkling cider for a non alcoholic alternative.  Next time we will stick to just the simple curled orange peel garnish.  The lime slice and pomegranate seeds were a bit much.  

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I hope you will visit all the other bloggers participating in the hop!  Here is the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop Schedule:

July 14th:    Sharon Vrooman @ Vrooman’s Quilts
                   Carole Carter @ From My Carolina Home

July 15th:    Yanicka Hachez @ Finding Myself As An Artist
                   Chris Dodsley @ made by ChrissieD

July 16th:     Marsha Hodgkins @ Quilter in Motion
                    Leanne Parsons  @ Devoted Quilter

July 17th:     Tonia Conner @ All Thingz Sewn
                    Selina @ Selina Quilts

July 18th:     Lara Buccella @ BuzzinBumble - That's me!
                    Soma Acharya @ Whims and Fancies

July 19th:     Joanne Harris@ Quilts by Joanne
                    Suzy Webster @ Adventurous Applique and Quilting

July 20th:     Vicki in MN @ Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting
                    Jennifer Fulton @ The Inquiring Quilter

July 21st:     Michele Kuhns @ Crayon Box Quilt Studio
                   Jan Ochterbeck @ The Colorful Fabriholic

July 22nd:     Alla Blanca @ Rainbows. Bunnies. Cupcakes.
                    Zenia Rene @ A Quilted Passion

July 23rd:     Joanne Hubbard @ Everyone Deserves a Quilt
                    Paige Alexander @ Quilted Blooms

July 24th:     Carolyn Jones @ …by CJ
                    Tisha Nagel @ Quilty Therapy

July 25th:     Susan Arnold @ Quilt Fabrication
                    Beth Sellers @ Cooking Up Quilts
                    Linda Pearl @ One Quilting Circle


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12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

Last, but not least, I holding my own giveaway, where THREE lucky commenters will win this wonderful red and white fabric panel:

North Woods - by Kate Spain for Moda - Fabric panel in Cranberry
It's from Kate Spain's "North Woods" collection and features a table topper and ornaments/appliques.  Perfect for a fun and fast Christmas project!  

If you'd like a chance to win, just leave a comment below.  BuzzinBumble followers, both new and old, can have a second chance at winning - just leave a second comment telling me how you follow my blog.  Make sure you also leave a way for me to contact you if you win.  There are more and more no-reply commenters these days and most people are unaware of it.   Three lucky winners will be randomly drawn on July 25th, 2016 and I will announce them here on BuzzinBumble soon afterwards.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you will enjoy the free Frosted Flakes Quilted Runner pattern!


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