My Pillow, Fabric Shopping, and Step-by-Step FMQ Giveaway Winner

Simply Striped Pillow - Scrappy & Vintage Happiness!

Didn't you all just love Susie's Simply Striped Pillow Blog Hop?!!  It was sew much fun to see how each person put a whole new twist on their pillow.  As Sandra said, it "Really reinforces the sky's the limit philosophy for creativity." (Oh. My. Goodness!  Check out Sandra's Quilted Seashells!) 

I had been looking for fun ways to use vintage linens and found that the Simply Striped Pillow was perfect for showing off a pretty, embroidered handkerchief.  The pillow also is the perfect pattern to try out your free motion quilting skills - with three little sections on each side just asking to be experimented with.   I used Christina's FMQ designs on my pillow.  You can see full details here, on day 5 of the hop.

There were a few giveaways to add to the fun and the one here on BuzzinBumble was for a pdf of Susie's pillow pattern and also a brand new copy of Christina Cameli's latest book "Step-by-Step Free-Motion Quilting".

Step-by-Step Free-Motion Quilting

Christina is a gifted teacher!  Step-by-Step is the companion book to "First Steps to Free-Motion Quilting: 24 Projects for Fearless Stitching", but it stands very well on its own too.  Between these two wonderful books and Christina's best selling Craftsy class "The Secrets of Free-Motion Quilting"  I finally feel like I really am on my way to becoming a free-motion quilter!  

This is the perfect time to jump into taking a Craftsy class, like Christina's!   Craftsy is celebrating National Craft Month by offering up to 50% off all classes!  Previosly, I had signed up for three classes and will be adding number four this weekend.  I am having a difficult time choosing which class to add, so would love to hear your suggestions!   It is a great boon that the classes are closed captioned for the hearing impaired, you can stop and restart and go back and review to your heart's content, and they are yours forever. 

I became a Craftsy affiliate because I love the classes.  This also means that if you click on one of the links and happen to make a purchase, I earn a little Mula, so thank you very much if you do!

So, without further ado, here is the winner for BuzzinBumble's  Simply Striped Blog Hop Giveaway:

That's you Raewyn!  I'll be sending you an email to let you know! 

Raewyn is a stitching farm girl who lives in New Zealand.  She has a beautiful blog: lovetostitch   In her latest post, Raewyn showed some of her beautiful invisible machine applique and some experiments she tried with water soluble applique paper, which were very helpful and interesting!   

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I've won a giveaway too - Carolyn, of sew.darn.quilt has started a new cross stitching blog By the Pricking of my Thumb!  She had a giveaway and this beautiful bundle of springtime cheer is what I won:  10 lovely skeins of DMC Floss!  

Thank You Carolyn!

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I do a lot of my fabric shopping via the internet, because I don't drive anymore and getting my husband to take me to a local quilt shop does not happen as often as a quilter would like it to.  I recently purchased fabrics where I just have to share about what a great experience it was. (I am not being paid in any way to say this.)  

The first was with Sharon, of Quilt Plus More on eBay   Sharon is currently having a sale for 30% off all her fabric!  What makes her store so unusual is that everything is sold by the quarter yard.  This option is wonderful if you just need a little bit of something!  I could not resist and just bought the cutest bee fabric and a great swirly grey mixer ... much more than 1/4 of a yard:

 Quilt Plus More

When I made my Simply Striped Pillow, I used up the last bit of a favorite fabric:  Athill Range by Cabbages and Roses - Perrymead in aqua.  I was so sad to see it go, that I googled to see if anyone still had it.  I found it at the Li'l Red Hen Quilt Shop in Kansas and promptly placed an order.  Imagine my surprise when I received my package and saw that Jenny had included an extra fat quarter of matching fabric for free.  Thank you Jenny! 

Li'l Red Hen Quilt Shop

Gosh, we are so much more blessed than the quilters who came before us, with a huge variety of fabrics and tools, right at our fingertips!  

Thanks for visiting!

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