Om Nom Nom-inations …

Who is your favourite sewing blogger ??

The winner will receive a £50 certificate to spend at Backstitch!  Now, that's a nice nice prize …

Pop over here to the Sewing Directory, or here to Backstitch to nominate your fave for the year …

I found it pretty easy to get my top 10, but hard to cut it down to one!

Backstitch LouLouThi Giveaway Winner!

Yay!  It's Saturday ... I love Saturdays ... sigh

It's time to see who has won a metre of Anna Maria Horner's lovely Loulouthi from Backstitch ...


Mr Random Org has Spoken:

Congratulations to Alyce B !!  I hope you love your Saturday too :)

Thanks to everyone who took part, and to Backstitch for donating the lovely fabric!

moving on to solids

I’m having a very quiet and thoughtful weekend, so I felt like surrounding myself with peaceful, bundles of calm,in the shape of solids.

I’ve always been keen on solids … but my first forays into quilting last year were pimped by ebay and I just went print crazy!  It’s not so easy to find solids here in the UK but thanks to Mandy @ Simply Solids & Alice @ Backstitch, things are looking up.

I thought I’d bang on about Klona Cottons a bit more.  I’ve been using them for a while now, and as I said in yesterday’s post, I like them.

I think they are slightly coarser than Kona, but that could just be the dressing on them.  They stitch, iron and wash beautifully and soften up a fair bit when washed.  I’ve had such fluctuating quality in Konas when I’ve bought from the US that now I buy the majority of my Konas from Mandy @ Simply Solids and they’re and always consistently tip top reliable, but for me Kona also has some tonal gaps and Klona fills them …

Alice at Backstitch has started putting together some fab ‘Hurricane’ Solids Bundles (she also does great print bundles too)

I have to confess that I’ve only ever won a bundle of fabric in blog giveaways, I’ve never actually bought one, but these babies are pretty tempting, pay day end of the week … yay!
 
 
    



Howzabout this lovely Full Bundle ..?
a FQ set of all 41 colours ... woot! 
I love the hunter green and the cardinal red - they’re quite dry and fierce.
 
 
 
 




 




I'm weak at the knees for this pastel bundle ...   Me?  Pastels?  Yeah, I know, but trust me I have some and they're gorgeous ... The light lilac (6th down in the bundle) is to die for. 
 
I have an incredibly geeky quilt I’ve been planning in my head for about two years, using pastels and white, that I’m now nearly good enough at sewing to attempt! 
 




 


I really like the neutrals too ...

Quite often I have trouble truly matching greys, Konas tend to be warmer, with more red in them and that doesn’t always work with other, cooler greys in some prints … These greys are bluer in tone.  I’d love if they brought out a really dark charcoal grey.








I love to use fabrics like Osnaburg and unbleached medium weight calico (UK) - I think it’s known as muslin in the US?  I get so confused living in two fabric zones … online and offline! 



It works really beautifully with linens or linen blends - I’m using Osnaburg for my Feel the Fear HST Echino quilt (oh the WIPs!)

Sometimes though, calico & Osnaburg can be just too coarse for other fabrics.  The seeded natural (bottom of the neutrals bundle) is a great alternative.




Do go take a peek at the bundles over at Backstitch …




Anyway, tell me, are you a pre-bundled bundler? Or do you just buy your own little selections?
What are the disadvantages or advantages of print bundles - do they make us lazy or provide inspiration? whadjathink??

If you’re after the Loulouthi by Anna Maria Horner giveaway it’s over here - runs until 29th July - note: PLEASE don’t ask for other fabrics.  It’s a giveaway for Loulouthi ONLY!  

The Lucky Streak Pay it Forward with Backstitch Loulouthi Giveaway …

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>This Giveaway is Now CLOSED!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  


Hello lovely Readers - if you've popped over from Lily's Quilts then welcome, make yourselves at home and have a good snoop around ! If you're a regular visitor, nice to have you back - that colour looks great on you, have you lost weight?


I’ve been a very lucky girl recently …

First of all  I won this great bundle from Fat Quarterly …

…then I received this wonderful angel quilt from Lynne @ Lily’sQuilts for the BritQuiltSwap

… and I won this The Farmer’s Wife Pony Club book giveaway @ Lily'sQuilts

… And then I won some Happy Mochi Yum Yum at Lily’sQuilts too ! (not to mention some Aurifil thread too!)

Truth be told I'm a little embarrassed, but I’m not going to apologise for my luck (trust me, there's enough dark stuff in my life to balance it out!) I am going to pay it forward though …



The lovely Alice at Backstitch has offered you lovely readers a chance to win a metre (in any combo you like) of Anna Maria Horner’s new LouLouthi line …

I like some of the prints in this line a lot, although it’s not in my usual comfort zone by any means.   I'm slowly learning how to look at a large print and see how it would look cropped and pieced.  It's not easy for me unless I actually have the fabric in my hot little paws.

You should really check out The Enchanted Bobbin's wonderful hexies using Loulouthi here.  There's a lady who knows how to use a print!


I definitely need some of that blue and yellow Coreopsis for my 4x5 bee quilt …


Backstitch is one of my regular payday visits …  Such lovely service - speedy, wrapped properly and tied with ribbon ... this is something that really makes a difference to me.  I hate when I just receive fabric shoved into an envelope with no packing note or nuffink.


I love their Klona cottons – the texture is different from Kona and the colours are different too.  It’s not the biggest range in the world, but there are some really goodies, so I use both brands to complement each other. 

It’s really good value, at only £5.50 a metre.

You can get a swatch card
for about thrumpence too …





… this is what I did with mine …
it flutters in the breeze, lovely …







What’s really great is that they send out update swatches too
–  note to self: sew these onto swatch flag before I lose em!



So, yes, back to the giveaway ….

You can choose a total of one metre OR two half metres OR four quarter metres from the lovely LouLouthi line by Anna Maria Horner. 

For one chance to win all you have to do is leave one comment telling me



(a) which Loulouthi fabric/s you would choose
PLEASE DON'T ASK FOR OTHER FABRICS! This is a LouLouthi line giveaway!! 
Your entry won't count!


(b) what denominations ("1 metre of Coreopsis" or "1/2 metre each Coreopsis & Buoyancy")
(c) what you'd use it for, if you won


(Please make sure you tell me all 3 things in the same comment or it won’t count!)


For a second chance to win, tweet, blog or tell the postman about it and let me know in a separate comment …


For a third chance,  leave me another comment to tell me if you're a follower  .....


Yay!  Go feast your eyes … and Good Luck ...

Giveaway closes midnight (UK time) Friday 29th July ... international entries welcome!