Sizzix Contest Big Win

As promised here are some details of the big contest I won from Sizzix.  So exciting and such great prizes!  I entered the contest on their blog, here is the link where you can see what the prizes were and even see that I won!  http://blog.sizzix.com/march-craftness-grand-prize-week-2/

The prizes starting coming in just a few days after I won.  Here is the first prize from Graphic 45.  Such great paper, and I am all about the cats so, it was a perfect match for me.  There are multiple packs of paper in different sizes, stickers, etc., just all kinds of goodies.

 



Just a few days later the Xyron package came!  Very nice machine for making your own stickers and you can even laminate with it. 

 

Next came the Hoffman Challenge fabrics and a very nice set of Aurifil 50 wt thread that was actually designed and manufactured to match the Hoffman challenge fabrics.  Very nice.  Which of course this prize is why I decided to go ahead and enter the Hoffman challenge this year.  If you are interested in more details, here is the link to it.  http://www.hoffmanchallenge.com/  I will give you an update of how great the fabric and thread are in another blog entry when I post my finished quilt.  Yes, I have already started the quilt and have been using the thread in my embroidery machine and its working great.

 

 

The next prize was the package from Therm-o-web.  They sent a nice variety of samples of their different products.  I was VERY interested in the Heat-n-Bond Lite.  I do a lot of applique with my embroidery machine and I had a friend tell me how great this product is for keeping the little fuzzy edges from happening when you trim the fabric.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that the 'bolt' of product that came with the prize was non other than the Heat-n-Bond!  I am a very happy girl and this will get lots and lots of use.  Great prize!

 

But the BIG BIG BIG prize was from Sizzix, a huge Big Shot Pro machine with a gift certificate for 100.00 so that I can buy some of the Big Shot Pro dies.  They have several really nice quilting dies that I can't wait to buy!

 

Thank you again Sizzix for having such great contests for us to enter, and for making such great products.  I also want to thank Laura Hollar for her help.  Make sure you check out her blog entries: http://blog.sizzix.com/author/lhollar/  I also want to thank each of the companies that provided prizes.  I have added them all to my favorite websites.



Catching Up

I know you have heard all of the excuses, 'time flies', 'life happens', etc., from people trying to explain why there has been such a long length of time since their last blog update.  I will not bore you with my details or try to explain, I will just try to catch you up.  Many quilt projects have been started, and even a few have been finished.

 First up, the much anticipated Owl Quilt project that has been going on for what seems like forever.  I am very close to finishing it but there are just a few details that I am still working out in my head.   To create this wall art quilt I used a set that Chantell digitized (which can be purchased at her website) and a set of Owls that Mia digitized (also can be purchased through her blog).  Once I am finished and ready to reveal it I will give you more details.  But just to give you a little taste, here are pictures of two of the panels.

The tree and the branches are from Chantell's set and the owls are from Mia's.  The little squirrel is also digitized by Mia.

Two of my friends Jackie and Beverly have birthdays in basically the same week.  I really like making their gifts instead of just buying them something, because I want them both to feel special even though we sometimes celebrate both of their birthdays on the same day.  One received a t-shirt with an Aries Zentangle (courtesy of Mia) stitched on it, and the other received a little wall quilt named Seven Layer Cake (courtesy of Chantell). 

Label for the quilt.

Another project that I have started is my Aloha quilt.  The blocks are from Chantell's website.  One reason this one isn't finished yet is because I keep hoping that she will digitize some more blocks.  But if she doesn't, I will just stitch some of the existing blocks in different fabrics until I get enough to finish it up.  Basically these blocks come two ways; a small 'all in one' block, and then in a 1/4 block, which means you stitch four of them and then sew them together.  Just love how it looks so far!  There are more finished than what is shown in this picture, but you get the idea!

 

 

Some of the other things that I am working on include an Art Nouveau applique wall quilt for my bathroom, a multiple bird cages with birds project, plus I still have the Charlie Harper one to finish up and then there is the Hoffman Challenge quilt for this year.  Interesting story about the Hoffman challenge quilt, I had decided not to do one this year, but I won a very nice contest on the Sizzix blog and the fabrics were one of the prizes, so I figured, why not?  I will give you more details on the Sizzix prize once all of the prizes are delivered.  I want to thank each of the companies that sponsored the contest here on the blog, but to be fair I want to wait until my last prize is delivered.

Ok, that is all for now, thanks for taking the time to catch up with me!

Portraits of Nature - Hoffman Challenge Quilt 2013

Guess what finally made its way back home?  Yes!  My Hoffman Challenge Quilt from 2013. It had quite a bit of traveling to do, but has made it back home safe and I couldn't be happier. I have had a special place reserved for it's anticipated homecoming on one of my walls and it is now hanging there.  As I noted in an earlier post, I didn't really get to take any good pictures before it left for the competition so I have gone ahead and taken some photos which I will post here for your enjoyment.  If you are interested in reading up on the previous posts, they were from May 5, June 29 and Aug 3 2013. 

I would like to once again thank Mia for all of her beautiful digitizing.  Without her and her designs, this quilt would have never been completed.  I had known that I wanted to make it look like a wall of pictures hanging, but didn't know how to get some of the frames to look right.  Mia went about designing and digitizing some special frames for the pieces which I think turned out perfect.  All of the embroidery designs but one, are actually original designs digitized by Mia. 

I also actually sat down and free motioned all of the quilting something I don't normally do since I depend a lot on the embroidery machine's capability of doing that perfect.  It turned out pretty good I think, especially since most of it was done in metallic thread.  I hope you enjoy the pictures!

First up the whole quilt.

Next starting from the upper left hand corner, the bug panel, the small butterflies, and the large butterflies.

Then the bird stack, the bees, and the bird with a key.

 

 

Last the peacock feather (the one design that was not Mia's), the small dragonfly, and the large dragonfly panel.

 

I hope you enjoyed the show!  If you would like to see any more of Mia's designs, she does have a blog, The Accidental Embroider, which she gives a free embroidery design of her choice away each month. Her blog address is listed on the right side of my blog under 'Blogs I follow'.