Finished - A Lovely Year of Finishes January

This won't be a lengthy craft-filled post unfortunately, but and update of bee sewing and my link up for the month of January in A Lovely Year of Finishes with Sew BitterSweet Designs as one of the hosts. My January goal was to sew, finish, and send off my Penny Lane star block from Julie's blog 627handworks. Here's the finished block along with two star flower blocks from Ellison Lane, before they went in the mail.

I'll leave you with the start of my project for Jessie (Inside the Paper Box) who is the February birthday girl in my group of the Handmade Birthday Club 2014. She makes such beautiful things so it's a bit intimidating, but a cute little half-square triangle in her favorite color is a start! You can find me on Instagram under @sew_into_my_20s and our group has photos under #handmadebirthdayclub2014 and #makingbirthdayshappen. The photos on there really make you want to start sewing! 

A Few New Links

I'm excited that I can finally show you some of these quilty finishes, it was so hard keeping a secret with how much I go on Instagram! But here are some photos of what I've been working on for January birthday girls in the group Handmade Birthday Club 2014 organized by the wonderful Susannah Kate.

First up, the mini quilt I sew up after being stumped on just what to make for the first birthday gift. This mini quilt was for Jessica over at sameoldknit on Instagram and Flickr, with some DS fabric I like as a cute extra.

I somehow forgot to take a picture before sending it out so this is used from her Flickr with permission.

And second, the pair of oven mitts created for Gwen who is therainbowrevolts over on Instagram and Flickr. This is her Flickr photo too but I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of everything I sent her too. The second one show the labels I stitched on to each gift, which were a gift themselves from my dad for Christmas.

And for the first time ever (yikes!) I'm linking up to the Needle and Thread Thursday party with Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation and Finish It Up Friday with Amanda at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

The Library Project Quilt Along!

What's a new year of crafty blogging without laying out some more goals, right? I'm excited to say I'll be joining in the Library Project which a great quilt along idea thought up by Adrienne over at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts.

I guess it could be a bit ambitious to pick five projects but since it's only January I thought, why not? From my mini collection of Quilty magazines I'll be choosing: 

1. The March/April issue of Quilty, and the pattern Chevron & On

 

2. The May/June issue of Quilty, and the pattern Super Star

3. The July/August issue of Quilty, and the pattern 

4. The book Colorful Quilts for Fabric Lovers, and the pattern Loft

5. The book Skip the Borders, and the pattern White Stars (both one of my favorites)

Alright, I think I better stop before I become overly ambitious! It's been great to see everyone's picks and I hope this inspires you to look through your books, magazines and more to find something you can't wait to start. Happy sewing!

A Lovely Year of Finishes - Goal

Hi and happy January, it's crazy but a bit wonderful that it's a new year. This will be just a short post to show you all my photo and goal for this month's A Lovely Year of Finishes goal. You can always link back to the groups and host Fiber of All Sorts.

Since it's my first month joining in with this wonderful group of sewers I wanted to pick a manageable project, so I am committing to finishing up all of the star blades in my paper piecing block for the Fierce Quilters bee that I'm in. By the end of this month, I'll have a finished block, trimmed and ready to send on to its next destination. This wonderful block is called Penny Lane, and is part of the Block Rock'n series over on Julie Hirt's blog 627 handworks.

What do you think so far? I have to admit that I'm loving it and I think I'll even get off of my comfy bed to sew some more.

Cheers to a New Year

It's still a bit strange, to think that tonight is really the end of 2013. This year has contained many blessings, most notably my time studying abroad in France, but it was also my chance to explore sewing and quilting which have I grown to love even more.

I won't give away too much yet, but I'm very excited for several sewing things in the new year. Just a couple of them will be participating in the 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes and the Fierce Quilter's Bee, created by several friends. I'll pull a few more fabrics, maybe some purples, but the pile below (with the clamshells for inspiration) will be my starting point for my first block in the bee. With any luck, I'll get to spend a wonderful first day of the new year relaxing and sewing.  



Cheers to you all, and may your new year be filled with joy and happiness.

SMS Winner!

Wow, I checked the comments from the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway post to pick a winner and I was astounded - 102 comments!? And my blog has surpassed 1,500 page views! This definitely put a smile on my face.

And now for the winner! I used Random Number Generator and it chose:

Which means Amanda is the winner!

She wrote: "I love cutout sugar cookies decorated with frosting and lots of sprinkles! :)"

I'll be sending you an email shortly, and putting together your prize package when I'm finally home on the 19th. And thank you, everyone for a sincerely wonderful giveaway.

Giveaway Day by Sew Mama Sew! - CLOSED

Giveaway winner is #57 - Amanda!

This time I'm back with something great to share - a giveaway for the biannual Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day! You can find out about me and what I sew by looking around my blog, but I know for now you're here for the giveaway so I'll skip right to the prize.

Today I am offering two Christmas-themed ribbon strands, each measuring one and a half meters (almost 5 feet). I picked them out from a store here in Aix-en-Provence, France, and I hope you love them too. I will also include a couple of recipe cards for baked goods my family loves to make, and hopefully some cute fabric scraps too! Please post a comment, how about your favorite holiday cookie type, for a chance to win.

I am willing to ship internationally, so go ahead and post away! Please though, make sure you're a "replying" blogger or I can contact you if you win. You can click the link: Sew Mama Sew to visit their with more wonderful giveaways. Good luck!

Per SMS, the giveaway will last until December 13th at 5pm PST. I'll post and email the winner on the 15th, and since I arrive back in the United States shortly after, I'll send it out on the 20th of December. Thank you for entering!