My 500th Post, Giveaway Winners and a Knitting Bee

This is it, my 500th post and here are the winners of my celebratory giveaway, thank you to everyone who entered and for all your lovely comments.

The random number generator did it's thing and the winner of Keira's generous prize isBenta, who said
Hi, wow 500 posts, congrats! I love your first quilt, you are justified in bing proud of it, it's great! Fab colours! I was sent a quilt when Lusa was born 20 years ago, and thought I can do that, then proved I couldn't! 8" (ish) squares (ish) in random cotton and poly cotton and goodness knows what else, all cut by hand. The points are all over the place! I didn't add wadding but backed it first with an old brushed cotton sheet. Years later I added fleece and it became my camp blanket when the girls were brownies and guides (I cut a slit in the middle so I could wear it like a poncho!) I do love it! Thanks for the blast from the past! If I win kind Kiki's contribution, I'd love a charm pack as I've never used one, but hopefully you or Kiki would chose me one! 
I'll leave the choice of Charm Pack to Keira if that's okay Benta, congratulations.

The winner of the Inspirational Strippy Quilts magazine from Traplet is
Jenny on the other side of the world in gorgeous New Zealand who said,
Hi again Lis. Your first ever quilt looks pretty good to me, and is just so suitable to be hanging up in your bach with those lovely colours. My first quilt was one I made for the bed in our first caravan. Made in brown, cream and green with the fabrics ever so carefully co-ordinated, it served us well. I went to my first ever class and learned about rotary cutters, mats and rulers but did wonder why the teacher went on and on about the quarter inch seam! It is now retired and does duty in the car. Congratulations again on your 500 milestone.
I hope you'll enjoy reading a UK quilting magazine Jenny.
And finally, the winner of my sashiko tea mat, one of my lovely followers, is Sue who said
Great giveaway, I've updated my blog with the alert and you'll know that I'm a follower too! If I was to win the fabric I would like a blue FQ collection - I seem to be going for blues and reds at the moment.
My first quilt was a sashiko cushion cover, which I still have but it is in store as it is the worse for wear. I made it about 17 years ago when I first went to Bourne Quilters in Poole. I'd never heard of sashiko before then.
Well done Sue, I hope you like my little bit if sashiko.

I'll be emailing you for your snail mail addresses (but if you see this post before that please send me the details in an email) and getting your goodies on their way to you.  Thank you again to everyone who entered, I wish you could all be winners.

I had a lovely few days away with my parents, lots of lovely meals, catching up with family and the visit culminated in a knitting bee with Mummy which was great fun.  We'd been to John Lewis and she'd seen some wool she liked the look of (Riva by Debbie Bliss, who wouldn't?).  She hasn't done any knitting for a while but it's winter, an ideal time and so I was able to persuade her to buy some wool.  We sat down on Saturday while the menfolk were otherwise amused with manly stuff and knitted the afternoon away, chatting all the while.  I finished one of the mulberry-coloured items I am working on (to be revealed when I have a pair!) and Mummy got a long way up the back of the jacket she decided upon, a good afternoon's work.
Now I'm home again I have a lot of quilting to get on with but I must also do some tidying up in the garden as this Friday's green bin collection is the last one until next Spring!

Giveaway....Giveaway....Giveaway

This is my 499th post and so today I'm going to launch my 500th post giveaway and also share my first ever quilt with you.  My 500th post will announce the winners of the giveaway goodies.

In 2004 when I decided to make a quilt for the first time I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  I did know what I wanted to do, however.  I wanted to make a wallhanging to represent the sea and I had been inspired by seeing some examples of stained glass work.  One piece was a very modern design hanging in a craft shop in Mousehole, Cornwall, the other was a much older stained glass window in a church in Penzance, also in Cornwall. Without consulting any quilting books I decided how I would make my wallhanging and steamed ahead.  Here it is:

My trusty Singer sewing machine expired while I was attempting to stitch together the pieced top, a layer of something springy from the upholstery factory shop and the length of curtain lining that I used as backing.  This led to my first visit to the Festival of Quilts where I purchased a new machine and then rushed home to experiment with the array of embroidery stitches it offered.
"Cornish Seas" finished I proudly hung it in the wall of my bach where it remains. For all its faults I'm very proud of it and of all it has led to.  One day I might make "Cornish Seas II".

You very politely read through that but here's what you are really after - 

my 500th post giveaway!

There are three quilty gifts up for grabs.

1.  I am very pleased to tell you that Keira at the lovely Kiki's Craft Corner in bonny Scotland has agreed to sponsor this giveaway.  She will send one lucky winner either

a Fat Quarter Bundle, 

a Charm Pack 

or 

4 x Out of Africa thread sets 

and you get to choose.  

Head over to her website, have a look at all the gorgeous things Keira has there and leave me a comment saying which you'd like to win.  Sounds easy eh?  Many thanks to Keira for her generosity.

2.  The lovely people at British Patchwork & Quilting Magazine recently sent me a copy of their latest "Inspirational" publication to giveaway to one of you.  It's all about strippy quilts. 

For a chance to win this great book which has 14 super projects and features in it please leave me a comment about the first quilt you made.

3.  Finally, I am going to send one of my lovely followers the tea cup rug I made for the tutorial on quilt as you go (but not the cup and saucer I'm afraid!), you don't need to leave a comment for this one, I'll just choose from my "followers" list using the random number thingy.

So, to make it clear:
You can enter all the giveaways or just one or two.
1.  Leave me one comment about your first quilt for one chance to win "Inspirational Strippy Quilts".
2.  Leave me one comment giving your choice from the Out of Africa threads (list the four colour sets you'd like)/Charm Pack (e.g. Dogwood Trail) or Fat Quarter Bundle (e.g. Bundle 7 - blues) for one chance to win those goodies from Kiki's Craft Corner.
3.  Be a lovely follower.
4.  If you'd like to spread the news about my giveaway on your blog or Facebook please leave me a comment with the link to your post and I'll give you an extra chance in the giveaways as a thank you, the more the merrier.

I'm away from my computer for a few days now, visiting my parents and revisiting my inner Essex girl!  I'll announce the lucky winners in my next post, my 500th (who would have thought I had that much to say?!!), which will be on 14th November 2011 so entries remain open until then.
Good luck everybody and thank you to you all, those who have been with me since post number one right through to those who have recently joined me, your comments make my day, day after day.

Country Roads Quilters and Giveaways for Christmas

Thank you for all your comments about my small fat quarter (anyone reading this who isn't a quilter and is therefore confused please click here), it is interesting to learn that it is an international problem and not confined to one supplier or two.  In future if the dimensions of a FQ are important to a project I shall have no hesitation in asking to measure what I'm thinking of buying.  I learned also that even though fabric might be marked as 44" wide this is the "off the loom" width and it might be less than 42" by the time it reaches us.  More grrr.
Anyway, in spite of that hassle I had a lovely meeting at Country Roads Quilters on Tuesday when most people started work on their Fat Quarter Frenzy quilt with the aim of it being finished for Christmas (don't say which Christmas!)  Quilters are such lovely people aren't they?  Our members range from the expert, teaching, exhibiting end to the "what's a rotary cutter?" end of experience.  Everybody was willing to help somebody else as required, whether with showing them how to cut their fabric into the required size pieces, giving suggestions about layout or about border fabrics or simply making a supportive cup of tea as required and offering assurance that it gets easier!  Thank you ladies, you're the best.
And finally today, also on the subject of lovely quilting ladies, get yourself over to see Lynne, she's organised a fantastic Christmas gifts giveaway here or you can click the button on the right or below.  Good luck, have fun and thank you to all the sponsors as well as to Lynne herself.

Giveaway and Exciting News

The lovely people at British Patchwork and Quilting magazine have sent me two copies of the latest issue for me to giveaway to you.  They have also sent me a copy of their latest "Inspirational" magazine which is filled with Strippy Quilts and I'll be giving this away, with some other goodies when I reach my 500th blog post, which won't be very long so keep checking back.
The September issue of P&Q magazine has some great articles and projects including lots about the QGBI Unfolding the Quilts project (voting for the finals of the National Lottery Awards begins on 2nd September, I'll add a button soon).
What do you have to do to get your hands on a copy of September's P&Q magazine?  No hoops to jump through just leave a comment to make me smile (and if you're a follower leave me a comment saying you are one for an extra entry).  That's it, I'll choose the two winners next weekend - 3rd September.  Good luck (and make sure I can contact you if you're a winner, no-reply comments will be excluded).

Some exciting news...I've just booked my flights to Japan!  I'll be joining Nat and Bryan on their Japanese Textile Study Tour.  I think there are some places still available, anyone fancy coming along?  By the way, BA have an air ticket sale on, that might tempt you, I saved loads (which I'll be spending on fabric!!)

Meet Two Quilters: Christine Porter and Susan Denton

Happy 2nd Blogiversary to me!  I'll be drawing the winner of my giveaway tomorrow so you have time to enter if you haven't already.  Click back to the original giveaway post here, or enter at the end of this post full of yumminess.  Good luck, now sit back and enjoy some wonderful quilts.
Two of the lectures I attended at the Quilters' Guild conference last weekend were particularly inspiring.  Christine Porter (who will probably be familiar with from The Quilt Show spoke on tessellations and patterns in pavements and illustrated her talk with some pictures of stunning tiled floors in cathedrals here in England and others in Italy.  She has published a book about these, "Viva Venezia"  She had two of her quilts with her so that we could get a closer look.  This lovely one of irises was criticised by the quilt police for focussing too much on green!

This is her floor tiles sampler quilt, with a close-up of one of the blocks, isn't it wonderful?

The work of the other quilter who I found especially inspiring was already known to me as I had seen some of Susan Denton's work at Festival of Quilts last year.  A self-taught quilter, Susan obviously enjoys the process of combining colour, fabric and shape.  She has developed a lot of bargello style pieces, such as Musk Melons From Samarkand below and has now moved into wonderful landscape quilts with large hand quilting adorning them.  It was a delight to listen to her describe her quilting journey, closely related to her life journey and to her travels.  Oreiginally from Australia, she lives in beautiful Penwith in Cornwall and much of her current work is inspired by the landscape there.  I'll let the quilts speak for themselves:

Towednack Treasure

and detail

Treasure

Burren

and detail

Musk Melons From Samarkand

Green, Greener, Greenest

and details

Auvergne Potager

and detail

 St Ives Harbour 2

and details

I hope you enjoyed all those wonderful quilts and that your computer coped with this photo heavy post.  Don't forget to enter my 2nd blogiversary giveaway:

The dress code at the QGBI Gala Dinner was black and white.  
What is your favourite combination of colours and why?

To see what you can win, click back to the original giveaway post here.  Good luck. 

Quilty Eye Candy from Exeter

Some Friday eye candy before we all settle down for Friday Night Sew In.  Not signed up?  Click on the shiny new button to the right and add your name to Heidi's list now!
These are all quilts that were entered in the challenge category at the Quilters' Guild Conference, as the weekend was in Exeter, in the West Country of England the theme was "Wild West".  I imagine giving that theme to my readers in USA would result in a rather different set of quilts.

Finally for today, this lovely quilt by Jenny Hutchinson, isn't it evocative of summers by the sea?

Right, time to get the dressing gown on, cosy slippers and a stash of yummy things to eat.  I'm working on the piece I started with Lynne Edwards last weekend, more about that to come.  Don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway, click here!

Cowslip Workshops and a Giveaway

Warning:  my posts are going to be photo-heavy for the next few days and full of gushing superlatives.

I'm just back from the Quilters' Guild Conference which was held in Exeter this year.  I've never attended this annual event before and didn't know what to expect.  I have to report that it was a fabulous weekend, helped in no small part by the most excellent weather, wall to wall sunshine.  The venue (Exeter University Streatham campus) was very good although a little steep.  It's all very well being perched gloriously on top of a hill and enjoying marvellous views but when you go down you have to come back up!  The workshop I did was great (more on that in another post) and the lectures I attended were very stimulating.

 These pictures were taken at the Gala Dinner, the dress code was black and white

There was an optional visit to the Cowslip Workshops near Launceston and that's mainly what this post is about.  I had to do a little shopping as it's rude not to and also it's nearly my second blogiversary. 

 Here I am outside the quilt shop at Cowslip Workshops

It seems amazing that I've been writing this for two years, it's been fantastic and I've loved making lots of new friends, sharing their quilting and non-quilting lives and getting loads of inspiration and help.  I saw two bits of loveliness at Cowslip that I thought would make good giveaway gifts and you can have the choice if you're the lucky winner. 
Choose from this lovely rotary cutter holder:

 or this cute egg cosy:

Not many hoops to jump through this time just leave an answer to the following question on this post (one chance), all my lovely followers get an extra chance as a thank you from me.  Good luck.

The dress code at the QGBI Gala Dinner was black and white.  
What is your favourite combination of colours and why?

Cowslip Workshops is a great venue for quilters with a shop full of yumminess,

in a beautiful setting in rural Cornwall.

Owner, Jo Colwill, had arranged a special day for us with a guest trader, Liz Drake, who had a wonderful stall full of thoughtfully presented antique textiles and brocante.

Jo, pictured here,

also allowed us to wander in her beautiful house and had prepared a very delicious cream tea for us.  For visitors there is a cafe/restaurant on the site which is visited regularly by local people and non-quilters such is the quality of the food.  It was a privilege to see inside the house which was full of the evidence of Jo's creativity:

There was also a very special exhibition on over the weekend which I will share with you in a separate post (with photos of course).  There is a good programme of exhibitions and special events plus a full range of great workshops at Cowslip.  If you're in England, or visiting, sign up for the newsletter to be kept up to date, I might see you there!
Finally, here's a photo of yours truly and friends at the Gala Dinner and a reminder of the giveaway question:

The dress code at the QGBI Gala Dinner was black and white.  
What is your favourite combination of colours and why?