News! and a Giveaway

Wow, nothing like a giveaway to get you all running. 500 visits just while I was asleep, you are all bananas! I haven't even given you anthing yet. Nice to see you all though, welcome  :)

In no particular order, I wanted to show you a few things I've been hanging onto for ages. First up, did you know that the lovely Sue Spargo has kits for the quilt we did together? I have known for a few weeks and keep forgetting to tell you about it - sorry Sue! The kits are all put toether using Sue's beautiful wools that are hand dyed for her by her sister Wendy.

 

Isn't it delish? I was so thrilled with how this quilt turned out, it was such fun to do. Sue and I are planning another one together sometime next year, you will all have to wait until then!

Secondly, I saw a copy of the ad for the Pour l'Amour du Fils quilt show in Nantes (that's in France ladies!) for 2010. Guess whose quilts are on the bed? How excitement!

 

AND those are Sue Spargo's pillows on the bed! Sue and I and lots of other talented artists are going to be exhibiting and teaching at the show, which runs from April 22 - 25 next year. Feel like coming along? Deb at Down Under Quilts is taking a tour over there! You will not only go to the show in Nantes, but also to the V&A in London, the Liberty shop, Monet's Garden and heaps of other things. All the details will be up on Sewn very soon if we ever finish the massive upload of stuff we have for you in our December post! while I'm on the subject, get over there and check out the giveaway, Day 2 will open up today. 

Also have to mention - don't forget to sign up for the Dolly Quilt program Amy and I are running in 2010. We have had a fantastic response but there's still time, and don't forget, if you sign up for the whole 12 months you not only get the FREE pattern for the Dolly Quilt logo quilt that Amy has designed, but you also save $5 per pattern if you do. Amy has a great post up at the moment that explains all the details so I won't post it again today, I will do it again in a few days and remind you all that YOU need a Christmas present too! What a nice thing to give yourself..... 12 months of Mrs-Schmenky-Last-Piecey-stitchy goodness. You can click on the little flashy dollies in my sidebar to sign up, or you can resist their cuteness and click here. 

 

Speaking of this month's issue of Down Under, that's my friend Erica's cute selvedge quilt on the front cover. She has her selvedge pincushions available for sale at Sew n'Sell, have a look they are so sweet, and just the thing to stuff a stitchy someone's stocking with. 

Also in this issue is my quilt, Whirligig. I really love this quilt - it's the one I was quilting on the plane on the way to The Netherlands earlier on this year. 

 

 

Hmm, what else. Have you seen these beautiful fabrics from Flower Press? Susie's sweet little blog, Flower*Press is lovely and her fabrics are available at Etsy. She was kind enough to send me some pieces last week which are beautiful. They are printed on a white linen and very soft to the touch.

 

Next up in my intray is Liesels Funfecke, the most wonderful modern paper piecing book I have ever seen, by Hilde Klatt and Liesel Niesner. This is their second book, the first book, Liesel's Hexagon Technique is available in English from here, and they also sell the clips that Liesel uses to make her hexagon masterpieces. This book is currently only available in German as far as I know (now braced for the flood of people telling me where I can get it in English...) but it doesn't matter - I have thrilled to looking at the wonderful ideas for paper piecing in this book and if you know how to paper piece, the book is wonderful for ideas and inspiration. 

 

 

 Which brings me, finally to the giveaway! I am being sent some amazing things from all over the world at the moment - books to review, fabrics to play with and things to give away. The City Quilter in New York, where I had SO much fun teaching earlier in the year, has sent me some fat quarters of their new and exclusive fabric range. There are two prints, Olde New York and Subway. They have designed these fabrics themselves and they are only available from the City Quilter shop. I have three sets of two fat quarters each to give away, one in each colourway. 

 

 

I also have one copy of Liesel's Funfecke, and two copies of this month's Down Under Quilts with Erica's and my quilts in, for those of you over the waters who can't get hold of it easily!

To enter, you need to leave me a comment to this post, telling me which prize you would like to win and why. You get an extra entry if you post on your blog that I am having a giveaway and link, and I'll throw in another entry if you also blog about the Sewn giveaway and link. How's that? The competition will stay open until Monday, December 14 at 4pm Sydney time. 

I don't know about you, but that's way too much info for 9am. Go and have a coffee and come back and have another look later. Have a nice day everyone, hope it's stitchy where you are :)