It's Giveaway time and it's hexagons

This giveaway is now closed.
True to my promise last week, it's giveaway time for my blog readers this week. I won't even mention this on Instagram, so that will increase your chances of winning.

I really appreciate the online friendships I've developed through blogging.  I now feel that I have friends all over the world.

So what's up for grabs?  These bright happy fabrics chosen especially for this giveaway, PLUS 50 hexagon shapes so you can try your hand at modern hexies.  You don't have to use these fabrics in a modern hexies project, but I would like to see you use the hexie templates - either for a modern hexies project, or traditional English Paper Piecing. Just a warning - some of these paper pieces have been used, but Paper Pieces make them so well that they can be used multiple times.  I always keep mine and recycle them.

Here's a reminder of what I made with just 31 hexies.

To get you started I'm providing a link here to Nicole's tutorial.  She's the expert at this technique, so you may as well learn from her.  The only thing I do slightly differently is create a template and trim my fabrics to hexagon size, plus a seam allowance.

This giveaway is now closed.

December WIPs

Hello, and welcome to all my new followers. Thank you for entering my giveaway.  I did read all the entries, and I now know that your favourite TV programmes are:

NCIS
Dr Who
Downton Abbey

I've never watched NCIS myself, although it is on TV here. I was a big CSI fan (all 3 variations) until it ended.  I've never watched Dr Who - the music alone scares me.  I love Downton Abbey and will watch the first 2 seasons again with my mum during the Christmas holidays.  It will be fun to see how the characters have changed over time.

The winner of the give away was Judith of Slow Thread who just happens to live in Victoria, Canada, home of Victoria Sampler, the designer of my gingerbread village. Congratulations Judith.

This week I've been trying to finish up a few of my WIPs before Christmas.

I've now finished hand quilting my Stacks of Colour quilt.  I've got the binding cut, and may even get it sewn on this weekend. I'd be very happy to finish this before the end of 2015, because the label is already on it, and it says 2014.

I've been working on my Gingerbread Tree Etui every night, but it's still not finished.  I think it only needs another 2 or 3 nights though, so I hope to assemble it at the weekend.

I've been looking at my la passacaglia again, because I need to pack some stitching to take away at Christmas. I can't take my whole fabric stash, so I have to make some decisions about which fabrics I'll use in the remaining rosettes.  I'm very slow at decision making when it comes to this quilt.

I know I should be writing cards and buying Christmas presents now, but I'd rather be sewing! I have posted about 20 Christmas cards, and bought a few presents, but I'm just not feeling it yet this year. Maybe the Christmas spirit will descend on me at the weekend. Here's hoping!

Give away day December 2015

Welcome to the second Giveaway Day of 2015.  Sew Mama Sew are kindly running their Giveaway Day again this week. Lots of bloggers join in and run give aways at the same time. After you've entered my giveaway by leaving a comment below on my blog, head on over to the Sew Mama Sew blog to view all the other great giveaways on offer. 

If it's your first time here, hi, I'm Wendy.  I live in Wellington, New Zealand with my husband and two sons.  I love to use bright colours in my quilting. Here's a few of the things I'm currently working on:

a bit of dressmaking

my la passacaglia

This is half of my la passacaglia quilt.  It's all English Paper Pieced, so it's taken all year to get this far.  I'm one of the administrators of the the Millefiori / la passacaglia facebook group.  If you're thinking about making one of these quilts it's a great group to join for help and advice.

my vintage caravan sewing machine cover

My favourite finish of 2015 - Home and Away - wool felt applique done by hand

You can see more of my finished quilts by clicking on the tab above. I also do embroidery, and I stitched the gingerbread village at the top of my blog over the past 4 years.

You can also follow me on Instagram at @wendysquiltsandmore.  I know you're really here for the giveaway, so I won't take up anymore of your time.  Here's what I'm giving away:

6 red / cream fat quarters - perfect for Christmas sewing

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

To enter, just tell me what your favourite TV series or movie has been this year. 

Homeland is my favourite TV series, closely followed by Downton Abby and Stella (from UK)

Followers old and new can get a second entry by leaving a second comment telling me how you follow. It could be bloglovin, feedly, GFC, instagram etc.

This giveaway is open to everyone (including international participants). If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comment.  The giveaway will stay open until 5pm Sunday 13 Dec 2015 (PST Time), and I will use the random number generator at random.org to pick a winner then. Good luck everyone!

I usually respond to all comments, but giveaways can generate a lot of comments, so I may not be able to respond to you all. Rest assured, I will read them all though.

Check out Sew Mama Sew to see a full list of participating blogs. Good luck! 

Giveaway winner

The May edition of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway has now closed and the winner of my giveaway is Kate Yates from Florida, USA.  Kate's blog is Thread Everywhere, and she gets to photograph her quilts on lovely calm sunny days in Florida.  I hope you can make something nice and colourful with the fat quarters Kate.

Progress on my hexie blanket - because I don't like blog posts without photos

The answers to my question about whether you can knit or crochet were very interesting.  Many people have the skills, but find quilting more interesting, and faster.

The most commonly made items were scarfs, hats, socks and dish cloths! (who knew).

The most interesting comment was from Pauline who learnt to crochet, and 3 weeks later started to crochet her own wedding dress!  Yes, she finished it and she wore it!!  Well done Pauline.

Now I'm off to prepare my posts for the online Bloggers' Quilt Festival which opens on 15 May. You can read about it here, and enter 2 quilts if you're a blogger.

Give away day

This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to all who entered.

Welcome to Giveaway Day 2015.  Sew Mama Sew are kindly running their Giveaway Day again this week. Lots of bloggers join in an run give aways at the same time. After you've left me a comment below to be in to win on my blog, head on over to their blog to view all the other great giveaways on offer. 

If it's your first time here, hi, I'm Wendy.  I live in Wellington, New Zealand with my husband and two sons.  I love to use bright colours in my quilting. Here's a few of the things I'm currently working on:

Women of the Bible quilt

Crochet with this lovely wool

la passacaglia - English Paper Pieced

crochet hexagon blanket

 You can see my finished quilts by clicking on the tab above. You can also follow me on Instagram at @wendysquiltsandmore.  I know you're really here for the giveaway, so I won't take up anymore of your time.  Here's what I'm giving away:

5 fat quarters in my favourite colours

To enter just tell me if you can crochet and / or knit, and if you can, what type of things you make - hats, scarves, jumpers, booties, blankets, cardigans, socks or gloves.

Followers old and new can get a second entry by leaving a second comment telling me how you follow. It could be bloglovin, feedly, GFC, instagram etc.

This giveaway is open to everyone (including international participants). If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comment.  The giveaway will stay open until 5pm Sunday 10 May 2015 (PST Time), and I will use the random number generator at random.org to pick two winners then. Good luck everyone!

By the way, I usually respond to all comments, but giveaways can generate a lot of comments, so I may not be able to respond to you all. Rest assured, I will read them all though.

Check out Sew mama Sew to see a full list of participating blogs. Good luck! 

A winner and lots of no reply comments

Nearly a month ago I started a give away for the Grow Your Blog event. Up for grabs were these purple fat quarter. Many of you left lovely comments telling me where you had been on holiday, thank you.  A surprising number of you know someone who has been to New Zealand.

But as I was reading all the comments I was quietly thinking that people must have finally got the message about no reply blogger status, because I wasn't getting any comments from no reply bloggers.

Then today when I went to do the draw. I went to my giveaway folder in gmail and thought 105 is quite a low number of entries for a give away, So I checked on Blogger to see how many comments had been made on this post and it said 173. Help! Where were 68 comments?

It turns out that I previously put some comments from a no reply blogger to spam, and now gmail thought every message from a no reply blogger was spam. I've now fixed that so it won't happen again.

About half of the no reply bloggers had included email addresses in their messages so I rescued those messages and included them in the draw. However, there still at least 30 people who I couldn't reply to and therefore didn't include in the draw.

If you commented on my blog and have not heard back from me you may well be a no reply blogger. If you're not sure please check out this post on Adrienne's blog.  Or you can leave a comment on this post asking me if you are a no reply blogger. I will answer on this post so you will have to come back and check again the next day.

After note - there are usually two reasons for someone being a no reply blogger. The method above helps those who have a google ID, and are no reply bloggers. The second group are those with Wordpress blogs. For some reasons wordpress users appear as no reply bloggers on blogspot blogs. Unfortunately blogger and wordpress show no interest in working on a joint solution to this problem, but most wordpress users know to leave their email address when they comment on blogspot blogs.


Anyway, onto happier news.  The winner of the giveaway is Her Indoors - a great name which makes me smile and think of UK comedies. Her Indoors lives in the UK and I have already sent her an email. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.

I'm feeling better now thank you, and making great progress on v2.0 of my ripple blanket. Here's how it looks today. It's now at the point where it's warm on my knees as I crotchet. Some rows are variegated wool, others are plain.

Grow Your Blog 2015 and Giveaway

This is a special blog post for Grow Your Blog 2015.

Hello, and welcome to my blog. Thanks you for stopping by. I know this is a busy time as everyone tries to visit as many new blogs as possible, so I'll keep this quite short. You can always come back later if you like what you see.

My name is Wendy and I live in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. I'm in my late 40's, happily married with two teenage sons. I work part time as an accountant and fit my quilting and embroidery in around work and family commitments.

the view from my house

I started my blog just over a year ago, and since then I have met so many lovely online friends. I discovered people with similar tastes and styles as my own through the Grow Your Blog event in 2014. I'm still in regular contact with some of those people now because we follow each others blogs and Instagram accounts. I'm @wendysquiltsandmore on Instagram if you'd like to look me up.

I try to blog at least once a week, and sometimes I even manage two posts in a week. Some people tell me they come to visit my blog for a burst of colour. That's probably because I just love colour - there's no white or grey in my stash!

Trellis Crossroads

Trellis Crossroads is one of the quilts I made in 2014. I saw this block on the internet made with a white background. I've never made anything with a white background, so I decided to use some bright batiks against a navy background. I quilted it with hot pink cotton.

Bordered Peacocks

I also finished my Bordered Diamonds quilt in 2014. I used a Kaffe Fassett pattern, and the beautiful Plume range from Timeless Treasurers. I hand quilted this quilt over more than a year. We have it on our bed in winter.

My version ofla passacaglia

This year I'll be working on my la passacaglia quilt. It's all hand stitched using the English Paper Piecing method. I intend to use the Kaffe Fassett Paperweight fabrics as my inspiration. You can see all my other quilting WIPs here.

Gingerbread Village

I also love embroidery and I have many hand stitching projects on the go. I finished the Candy Cane Cottage and Bakery in the Gingerbread Village in 2014, and would like to add two more buildings in 2015 (the patterns are from The Victoria Sampler). You can see my full 2015 embroidery list here.


The tabs at the top of my blog link to more photos of my quilts and embroidery. Possum Magic is a round robin that I'm part of and you can see how each of the 8 quilts are progressing as they move between the members in Australia and New Zealand. I've made great friends though Possum Magic and I'm so glad I found those ladies through the 2014 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.


Giveaway
We all need more fabric, so I'm running a give away of the 5 fat quarters below.

If you'd like to win, please leave me a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you need a prompt, you could tell me where you went for your last holiday. 

My last holiday - Muriwai, Auckland, New Zealand

Followers old and new can get a second entry by leaving a second comment telling me how you follow. It could be bloglovin, feedly, GFC, instagram etc.

This giveaway is open to everyone (including international participants). If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comment.

The giveaway will stay open until Feb 15 2015 (PST Time), and I will use the random number generator at random.org to pick the winner. Good luck everyone, and thank you for visiting my blog.

And the winners are..

Just sneaking this in first. I finished my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Christmas Celebration Sampler last night.

It's been lovely hearing from so many of you over the past week. I didn't expect to receive so many entries. What a wide range of foods people eat at this time of the year. Some of the more interesting favourites were:
fried pumpkin
broccoli
beetroot
manderins

Then there were all those who liked:
sugar cookies (many variations here)
gingerbread
chocolate coated cherries and strawberries

I didn't do any analysis on the answers, but I'm pretty sure sweet foods out numbered savoury and vegetables.

I was surprised at the number of people who are No Reply Bloggers. Some of you know you are No Reply Bloggers and kindly provided your email addresses, but a lot of people didn't. I suggest you follow the instructions on this post by Adrienne of On The Windy Side if you're not sure. Often it's due to Google+ and that's a trap I fell into myself until some kind person pointed it out to me.

Anyway, before I announce the winners, I want to tell you that I won something myself some weeks ago in the Online Bloggers Quilt Festival. I won a random prize of 4 large spools of Aurifil thread, and they arrived last week.

They are quite neutral colours so I expect to start using them soon.

I've never used Aurifil because it's not easily obtainable in New Zealand, but those who have rave about it and tell me I'll never go back to normal cotton, so I'm looking forward to trying it. Thank you to Amy Smart for running the festival, and Aurifil for providing the prize.

Now, onto the important bit. The winner of the red fabrics was:
Deb who said:
Definitely love the REDS. I like to eat coconut cake at Christmas....my mom always made fresh coconut cake every Christmas, and my dad would hammer nails in the coconut for the milk to flow out. I'll always remember that. 

And the winner of the green fabrics was:

Mindy who said: 
Hello from Canada! I would be happy winning either set! The reds are beautiful (that quilt is amazing) but maybe I'll lean more towards the colorful bunch because I have a little girl who would love them. And at Christmas I love everything pumpkin! 

Congratulations to Deb and Mindy. I'll be in touch shortly and your packages will be in the post asap.  Thank you to everyone who entered. As I said, it was lovely to hear from so many people and to have so many new followers now.

I'll post a proper post about quilting this upcoming week, but I know everyone is getting busy and the time we all have to read blogs is at an annual low. I'll keep it simple and full of pictures so you can just whiz through and not have to read lots of words.

It's Giveaway time again

This giveaway has now closed.

Sew mama Sew are kindly running their give away link up again this week.

Hello, and welcome if it's your first visit to my blog. I'm Wendy and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I love quilting and embroidery and have been blogging for a year now. You can see some of my finished quilts and embroidery by clicking on the tabs above (just underneath the photo of my Gingerbread Village).  I'm also on Instagram at @wendysquiltsandmore if you'd like to see more of the things that I'm working on.

There are lots of prizes up for grabs at different blogs, and I'm giving away the fabrics in this photo.

The top fabrics are from my Redwork Christmas quilt. They look great together and there's enough here for you to make something small like a mini quilt.

My Redwork Christmas quilt.

The brighter fabrics in the lower part of the photo are a collection of Christmas brights that I just don't think I'll ever get round to using. Maybe you can make something from them.

I was fortunate enough to win a bundle of fabrics in the last Sew Mama Sew give away and I made this mini medallion quilt. It's not finished yet, but I've had a lot of fun with those fabrics.

To enter, simply tell me two things in your comment:

1. Tell me what your favourite Christmas food is. You don't have to describe a whole meal, just tell me one thing you enjoy eating at Christmas. My favourite thing to eat at this time of the year is fresh cherries. They grow well in the southern parts of New Zealand, and every supermarket stocks them in December and January.

2. Tell me which fabric bundle you would like to win - the reds or the greens. I'll draw one winner for each bundle, so there will be two winners.

Followers old and new can get a second entry by leaving a second comment telling me how you follow. It could be bloglovin, feedly, GFC, instagram etc.

This giveaway is open to everyone (including international participants). If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comment.


The giveaway will stay open until 5pm Friday Dec 12 2014 (PST Time), and I will use the random number generator at random.org to pick two winners then. Good luck everyone!

By the way, I usually respond to all comments, but giveaways can generate a lot of comments, so I may not be able to respond to you all. Rest assured, I will read them all though.

Check out Sew mama Sew to see a full list of participating blogs. Good luck! 

WIP and a winner

I drew the prize today and the lucky winner is number 11, Cathy from Cathy's Sewing Room in Adelaide, Australia. Congratulations Cathy and I hope you can make something nice with the fabrics. I'll be in touch to arrange shipping soon.

It was lovely to hear from so many people about the new things they have tried this year. Thank you all for taking the time to leave a comment.

I've still been really busy with work this week, so I haven't got a lot of sewing done. I have managed to add another very narrow striped border to the mini medallion quilt along.

Today I've been working on the final border for this quilt. The colours are quite different to what I usually use, but I do like them. I've really enjoyed making this.

I've also been selecting the fabrics for my next Women of the Bible blocks. We have Rebekah and Ruth to work on next. I'm trying to do one blue and and one pink each time the patterns are released, to keep the quilt balanced.

That's all for today. I'm hoping for quite a few finishes in December, but probably being unrealistic. It would be nice to start the new year with a clean sheet, but that's probably not going to happen (unless I stay awake sewing until 3am each night).

It's almost been a year, so that means Giveaway time

The prize - 4 half metre cuts of  In The Navy prints by Camelot Fabrics

Wow, it's almost been a whole year since I started this blog. Why did I do it? There were 3 main reasons:

1. I'd been reading quilting blogs for a few years and drew lots of inspiration from what others were making. I thought some people might be interested in seeing what I was making.

2. I've always include a few photos of my quilting and embroidery finishes in my annual Christmas letter to family and friends. Many of those people tell me look forward to my letter so they can see what I've been up to in the past 12 months. Some years it was hard to choose which photos to include with so many projects on the go. So I knew I had plenty of material to share.

3. Would you believe I'd actually started a word document I called 'Craft Log' and was building up a document filled with photos and descriptions of what I'd made, year by year. So I knew I wanted a permanent reference of what I'd made, but up until that point I wasn't ready to go public with a blog. I worked in IT for many years solving software issues, and quite frankly, I didn't want to spend any more time on a computer than I had to.

After I sent out our 2013 Christmas letter I decided to investigate blogging, and I posted my first post on 16 December 2013.

I can still remember some of the very first people I became on line friends with back then. I won't name names for fear of offending anyone I miss out, but I've made some great friends during the past 12 months. You've all been very supportive of my efforts, and I've enjoying getting to know people from all over the world.

I've tried many new things since I started my blog:
- I joined my local quilt guild (called Capital Quilters) and met some new friends there
- I joined Instagram and met many embroidery people through that
- I participated in a quilt a long via Instagram
- I joined the Possum Magic round robin and met some fun loving people through that
- I revived my crochet interest and am planning on making a blanket next year

I could go on and on!  Anyway, to the point of this post. I running a give away to thank you all for your loyal support over the past 12 months.

The prize - 4 half metre cuts of these In The Navy prints from Camelot Fabrics

To enter:
1. Leave a comment telling me something that you tried for the first time in 2014. It could be quilting or sewing related, or sports, or travel. Whatever was significant to you.
2. If you follow my blog, leave a comment telling me how you follow - bloglovin, feedly etc
3. If you follow via Instagram leave a comment with your user name. I'm @wendysquiltsandmore
So some people can leave 3 comments.

I will ship anywhere in the world, but I must be able to email you, so if you are a no reply blogger, please leave your email address.

Entries close at 11am Sunday 30 Nov New Zealand daylight savings time. That gives you 3 days to enter. Good luck, and thank you.

I won something!!

I don't know about you, but I entered quite a few giveaways during the Sew Mama Sew giveaways a few weeks ago. I didn't enter every giveaway, just those that I thought I would use. So I was really delighted when I found out that I'd actually won the giveaway at I'm Feeling Crafty.

Photo from I'm Feeling Crafty

Louise got her friend Monica at the West Seattle Fabric Company to post me out the above beautiful fat quarters, and they arrived here last week. They are all lovely fabrics, and I'm looking forward to creating something yummy with them. As I said to Louise, I have plenty of blues and greens already, but not a lot of teal so this will complement my stash nicely. Now I have the fun task of pondering what to make.
Thank you very much Louise.

Giveaway winner

Thank you to everyone who entered my Sew Mama Sew giveaway. The lucky winner was number 32.

That's Katie from Portland, Oregon. I've emailed Katie the good news, and sent the parcel off to her yesterday. Have fun turning the fabrics into something nice Katie.

Give Away Time

Sorry folks - the giveaway has now closed. The winner was number 32 - Katie. Thanks everyone for entering.

Sew mama Sew are kindly running a give away day tomorrow and there are lots of prizes up for grabs at different blogs. I'm giving away the fabrics in this photo.

I think they are Anna Maria Horner fabrics (or possibly Heather Ross I'm now told).  

I now have the answer thanks to Vicki of Sew Inspired blog. - they are Heather Bailey fabrics. Thanks Vicki.

The pieces range between 12" x 13" to 22" x 13".
I was given a lot of these by a lady who was a sales rep for the fabric companies. I've still got lots more in my stash, but I'm not sure if I'll ever use these ones, so they can go to another home.

To enter, simply leave a comment telling me the main colour in the last quilt you made.Followers old and new can get a second entry by leaving a second comment.

This giveaway is open to everyone (including international participants). If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comment.

The giveaway will stay open until 5pm Friday May 16 2014 (PST Time), and I will use the random number generator at random.org to pick a winner then. Good luck everyone!By the way, I usually respond to all comments, but giveaways can generate lots of comments, so I hope you don't mind if I don't respond to your comment on this post.

Check out Sew mama Sew soon to see a full list of participating blogs. Good luck! 



Thanks to everyone who entered. The giveaway is now closed and the winner will be announced very shortly.