Birthday Giveaway!

I read that it's a good Hobbit custom to give away presents on your birthday.* Not that I'm a Hobbit, but the idea is lovely so I put together some goodies that you will hopefully like: a Princess & the Pea Iron on Embroidery Pattern, a big bar of yummy Dutch Tony Chocolonely Marshmallow/Pecan chocolate (and it's Fair Trade too so you don't have to feel guilty about eating it) and some floss. And remember: don't eat chocolate and then lick your floss, it's not a good idea.

Anyway, one of the presents I received today was a new e-reader (a Kobo Aura) and I would love to hear your book recommendations in the comments! At the moment I'm reading Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore which I really like so far.

So if you want to get the pattern, floss and chocolate in your mail box then please leave a comment before noon (Amsterdam time), 10th of April 2015   giveaway is closed, thank you for entering. winner will be announced shortly. and let me know your book recommendation! This give away is open to anyone, anywhere but please bear in mind that there must be some way for me to contact you if you are the lucky winner so please leave a trail to your blog, twitter, IG or an e-mail address.

Good luck everyone!

*Find lots of tips on how to properly celebrate your Birthday in Hobbit Style here.

Winner Hoop-la Chevrons Hoop

Thank you to all the readers that took the time to leave a comment on the Chevrons Hoop giveaway! As usual I let the Random Generator do it's thing and it very randomly decided that the very last commenter should be the lucky winner. Congratulations Jenny! I will be in touch with you soon. Sorry if you weren't so lucky this time. You can always make your own (and other fab hoop art) with Kirsty's book of course. :)

Hoop-la blog tour and a giveaway too

T'is the season for craft books to go on blog tour and today I am very pleased to be a stop (the last one apparently!) in Kirsty Neale's Hoop-La blog tour.*  I was very curious about the book, wondering if the projects would appeal to me as I assumed it wouldn't be a 'regular' Embroidery book. And I'm not a crafty person in the sense that glitter and a glue gun are part of my daily outfit.

Luckily for me this isn't a glue & glitter book. It's a very inspiring book with lots (100+) of fabulous ideas. Some projects are practical (wall pocket), some are incredibly sweet (faux taxidermy deer) and others are just very, very clever (Solar system display with Embroidery Hoops, eeep!) A good portion of the projects involve hand stitching of some sort (yay!) and obviously a lot of fabric and felt is used, as well as buttons and trims. 

So.. yes there were several projects that caught my eye but the Dandy Lion stole my heart. My version is a little different from the Dandy Lion in the book but I think this is exactly what one is meant to do with this book: be inspired, include elements that appeal to you and use what you have hiding in your stash!

I didn't have a 7" hoop or crochet 'manes' so I used a smaller hoop and an incredibly dandy vintage trim (thanks Sami!).  I also embroidered the cheeks (split stitch in the round worked very well I think) instead of adding fabric ones.

A worthy addition to my Embroidery Wall I think….

Check out at this fun video to get an idea of other projects included in this book. I especially adore the Diorama Bear…  You can purchase Hoop-la. 100 things to do with Embroidery Hoops here and here and visit the blog tour page here. 

Guess what? I get to give away one of the original pieces from Kirsty's book! I know this cross-stitched chevron hoop will find a happy home with one of my blog readers. And I also know I would LOVE to have it on my own Embroidery Wall, as it's serious lacking in geometrical pieces!

Please leave a comment on this post for a chance to win and tell me what your ideal Embroidery/Hoop Art Wall would look like! The giveaway ends on the 20th of November and be sure to leave some kind of trail so I can find you if you are the lucky winner! Good luck everyone!    Comments are closed now!

*I received a PDF review copy and the author and publisher were very kind to provide the giveaway prize!

Stitched Blooms Blog Tour & Giveaway

My embroidery friend Carina has a book out soon (early October) called Stitched Blooms and I'm very happy to take part in the Stitched Blooms blog tour!* Stitched Blooms has 300 floral motifs to embroider: floral borders and corners, folk art flowers, leaves, nature's blooms etc etc. all in Carina's admirable signature style. A lovely alliance of pretty colour combinations and Scandinavian folk design.

In addition to the motifs, the book also features 20 projects, some require (easy) sewing and in other cases store bought items were embellished with Carina's lovely designs. These will give you lots of ideas of how to use the motifs.

One of my favourite projects is this embroidered duvet cover, so simple and elegant!

And who can resist a Dala horse?

The 'basics' part of the book covers everything you need to start stitching; from information about scissors, hoops and ways to transfer a pattern to an overview of different types of knots to start your embroidery. The stitch glossary includes the basic stitches but also a few others like the Maidenhair stitch (which I happen to like a lot).

Carina shares some great content about the use of colour in this book, with tips on how to explore use of colour in your own embroidery work. For example by getting out of your colour 'comfort zone'. Something I should do more often too!

Stitched Blooms comes with a cd with all the project templates and motifs featured in the book. You can import motifs into an image manipulating program (such as GIMP) change their size, flip them and combine the motifs to make your unique design. The possibilities are endless. I added my daughter's name (lettering is from the program not the cd) and I think this would make a lovely design for a hand stitched personalized gym bag!

I think this book is a great resource of 'scandi' floral motifs for stitchers of all skill levels. The informative 'basics' part of the book makes it an excellent starting point for beginning embroiderers and many stitchers can benefit from the wonderful pages about the use of colour. Find more information about the book, the blog tour, reviews and places to get your copy here.

I'm very happy to be able to share a copy of Stitched Blooms and 7 skeins of fabulous embroidery floss with one of my readers in my Stitched Blooms Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post before the 1st of October 2013 and tell me what item you would love to embellish with Carina's motifs.  Comments are closed, winner will be announced later today 2/10/13 Be sure to leave a 'trail' (e-mail, link to profile with e-mail etc) or check back here on the 2nd of October so I can get in contact with you should you be the lucky winner.

The floss colours the lucky winner receives could be different from those on the photo above but will definitely be among Carina's favourites.  Good luck everyone!




*The publisher Lark Crafts sent me a copy for review and lets me share the book and floss with you. 

The hexies are back + giveaway

For some reason whenever I take my English Paper Piecing hexagons out I think of this Justin Timberlake song (may not be 100% SFW, depending on where you work ;) ) So yes after a winter hiatus I'm bringing Hexies back & there's a small giveaway of 1" hexagon templates too!

At the Fat Quarterly retreat last summer I caught the English Paper Piecing bug and made quite a few 'flowers' using 1.25" hexagon template. To me EPP'ing is typically a slow craft. The Hexagon flower project  may take years to finish but that's ok. I have now started a smaller project (a pillow) with some of the 1" hexagon paper templates my friend Paloma sent me. Paloma has just started selling these in her shop and for a very fair price too: $2.50 per 100 templates.

Obviously I had to try Paloma's templates first before telling you about them and they work absolutely fine for me. They have 6 sides of equal length (which may sound obvious, but trust me: it isn't) and the paper is not too thin and not too thick. I know Paloma has quite a few templates in stock so why not treat yourself to a pack (or 2)? Other template sizes may be available in the future.

If you'd like a chance to win a pack of Paloma's 1" hexagon templates, please leave a comment on this post before Saturday 13th of July, 12 AM (Amsterdam time).   (comments are closed, winner will be announced tomorrow the 14th of July). Be sure to leave an e-mail address or other trail so I can trace you if you're the lucky winner. If I'm not able to contact you, I'll pick another winner.  I also would love to hear what you would make with these paper templates!

I'm going totally scrappy with my hexagon pillow, using small but cute scraps I saved from the bin. Some scraps are recent, some are years old. There is even a hexagon made from some of Zoe's old PJ pants! One pack of 100 templates is definitely enough to make a small to medium size pillow front. :)

Embroidery & Beyond: a review and a giveaway

Aimee Ray's first book (Doodle-Stitching) was a book very suitable for beginning embroiderers. I think I learned my first stitches (such as the back and split stitch) from that book! Her new book Doodle Stitching. Embroidery & Beyond is very much a follow up to that first book.

With only a few basic embroidery skills and this book in your lap you can dip your toes into several embroidery techniques without getting buried under heaps of information. Actually Embroidery Basics (like what materials you need and basic stitches) are covered in this book as well so a confident or enthusiastic beginner could definitely use this as a starting point to explore different types of embroidery.

All chapters (Cross Stitch & Decorative Stitches, Applique & Color, Redwork & Crewel, Sashiko & Sisha and Cutwork & Stumpwork) have short introductions to the techniques and many projects with instructions to try them out. It makes techniques that may seem a bit daunting, accessible and less 'scary' for beginners.  With a book with such a wide scope it's inevitable that the introductions cover the basics but do not go beyond that. Having said that, I do think the 'cross stitch' section could have done with a little more explanation and illustrations!

Now if you are a fan of Aimee's patterns you will find some really good ones in this book. There are too many to mention but I especially love the Hansel and Gretel redwork (with a bit of pink) Storybook Panels. There is a neat project to make your own Embroidered Cuckoo Clock and a lovely interpretation of the Family Tree in Crewel. And I think the Crewel Peacock on a bag is a really fun way too add embroidery to an everyday object. Many of the patterns will have to be enlarged before you can use them. I know a lot of people find that a bother and would rather have full sized patterns included but I guess it's a way of keeping the price of a book reasonable.

Doodle Stitching. Embroidery & Beyond is a book which just could set you off in an direction of an exciting embroidery technique that you want to explore further through other books and patterns. The book also offers lots of patterns in Aimee's unique whimsical style that are fun to stitch for embroiderers of any skill level. If you are a more experienced stitcher and looking to explore new techniques, such as Sashiko or stumpwork, it is likely you would choose a more specialized book to begin with.

Doodle Stitching. Embroidery & Beyond by Aimee Ray is available in (online) bookstores, for example here.

Lark Crafts (also publisher of my pal Carina's book due to be released later this year!) kindly offered me to host a giveaway of the book I just reviewed: Doodle Stitching. Embroidery & Beyond and a set of yummy DMC floss (see the first picture) as well.

If you want a chance to win the book and floss, leave a comment on this post before March 19th, 12 AM (Central European Time) and tell me what your favourite embroidery technique is and which one you would like to try some day. I think I'd like to try my hand at Crewel Embroidery. :)  You have to either leave your e-mail address in the comment or link to a profile with an e-mail address. If there is no way I can contact you, I will have to draw a new winner (sorry to be so strict but I have had quite a lot of trouble to find some of the winners of past giveaways!)  Good luck everyone!

Lark Crafts kindly sent me a copy for review without obligations.

A stitch a long and an Inspirations giveaway too

A little while ago Australian publisher Country Bumpkin informed me they had a stitch a long coming up of one of the projects in the current issue (issue 76) of 'Inspirations' magazine. I'm a little late in writing about it but you can still join in if you want to. It's a gorgeous appliqué/embroidery pattern called Flame Tree by Kelly Fletcher.  Maybe you can't really tell from the photo but 17 different embroidery stitches were used in this pattern, including one of my favorites: the wheat ear stitch! You can join the Inspirations Stitch a long Flickr group here. 

Obviously you will need the magazine to make this project. You can buy both a printed and a digital copy on the Country Bumpkin website. As I understand it 'Inspirations' is available in the UK as 'Classical Inspirations'.

So because I needed to know what it was all about Country Bumpkin sent some copies of Inspirations magazine. I hadn't come across it before and was pleasantly surprised, it's like an embroidery glossy for the 'serious' stitcher! Sure some of the motifs and projects are fairly traditional but these techniques and stitches are of all times and would certainly interest any stitcher who is curious about learning new things and taking their skills to a higher level.

The best thing in my opinion are the detailed stitch and colour guides for each project, supported with great photography and diagrams. Lots of inspiration to be found in these pages! I even found a stitch (with 'how to') I hadn't heard of before, called the Porcupine Stitch. Must try that soon. :)

And how about this really lovely blackwork pincushion? 

I have two extra copies of 'Inspirations' here to give away to two lucky readers. As sending magazines to other parts of the world is really expensive I would like to send at least one of the two within Europe, I hope you understand. So if you are interested in winning a copy, please leave a comment and tell me your favourite stitch or technique and where you are in the world. Also don't forget to either leave an e-mail address or a profile that contains your e-mail address! Giveaway ends the 27th of December 12 AM Amsterdam time.    Comments closed winner will be announced later today 27/12/2012

Good luck everyone! 

I wasn't paid for this review (except that I received one copy) but was keen to share this fab magazine with you

Pattern parade: weelittlestitches Trilogy Giveaway

Hope you all enjoyed meeting the folks behind weelittlestitches yesterday! Clearly many of you are weelittlestitches fans too, just like me.

I'm actually in the process of stitching their Labyrinth pattern. My cross stitch skills are not all that great so don't hold that against them because the pattern is fabulous. It's detailed and gives you tips and instructions for stitches and colours. After this pattern I think I will stitch one of weelittlestitches Harry Potter patterns for my youngest as we have just started reading the first Harry Potter book to her and she loves it. :)

So...who would like to win a fabulous trilogy of weelittlestitches PDF patterns? (me! me! but I can't enter!)  The trilogy holds a super cute Kawaii sampler, a Star Wars 'New Hope' pattern (with the good guys) and a Harry Potter Pattern. (see picture above)

To have a chance of winning this wonderful set of patterns, please leave a comment on this post and let us know who (or what) you would like to see turned into a weelittlestitches pattern!

This giveaway ends on Monday the 3rd of December, 12 AM Amsterdam time. Remember to leave a trail so I can contact you or check back next week to see if you have won!

Good luck everyone!

Pattern Parade: Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration Embroidery Pattern Giveaway

How cute is the Little Tiger?!? This fabulous embroidery pattern is made by Joey of Joey's Dream Garden and I'm giving away one Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration PDF pattern this week! Look at the variety of stitches and shades of orange you can use stitching this cute pattern! An embroiderer's dream for sure :)

Joey has heaps of cute and incredibly well made things in her shop, mostly felt ornaments and brooches. I have to show you my current favourite: this adorable (and very, very affordable) Festive Gingerbread Cat Felt ornament (or brooch):

Do check out her shop (there is much more fabulous stuff there ) and find Joey's blog here.

So what do you have to do to have a chance of winning the Little Tiger's Orangey Celebration PDF Pattern? Leave a comment on this post and as usual leave an easy to follow trail so I can find you if you are the lucky winner (which reminds me I haven't heard from last week's winner yet...)  Let me know what your personal favourite Tree ornament is! This giveaway ends on Thursday the 22nd of November, 12 noon Amsterdam time.

Good luck everyone!

Christmas Stitches Giveaway!

It's not too early to think about stitching things for Christmas is it? At least not if you are as slow as I am in finishing projects! My stitchy pal Carina of Polka and Bloom is way better prepared than I am for these events and has put together a lovely e-book full of Christmas projects called Christmas Stitches.

There are tutorials for making fabric Christmas trees (small ones!), a mini sewing tin, a Christmas stocking and much more. Most of the projects involve a little bit of sewing but it's all very beginner friendly.  

The second half of the e-book is dedicated to embroidery tools and techniques (needles, transferring etc) and some lovely illustrated 'how to's' for embroidery stitches as well.  Here you will also find all the patterns you need to whip up those fabulous Christmas projects.

This week I"m giving away one copy (PDF) of Christmas Stitches! Be sure to leave a comment before this Saturday, the 23rd of June and let me know what's in your hoop right now! (I'm just curious that's all) Be sure to leave some kind of trail so I can trace you if you are the lucky winner.  Comments are closed now! Winner will be announced shortly.

Carina also has a great offer just for readers of this blog. If you use the code CHRISTMASBUNNY when you purchase Christmas Stitches, you get 15% off the regular price of $18.50. The offer ends this Sunday so hurry!

p.s. we have a fun giveaway over at the &Stitches blog of the 'New Crewel' book at the moment, do check that out as well!

Many Quilts & smallest giveaway ever!

Here are (some of) my quilts in various stages of completion. In the back two lap quilts for my daughters (so that's at least one thing they don't *need* to quarrel about) both in an easy and quick 'cross' design. The bright quilt top on the left (for my oldest daughter) is finished, the forest coloured one is for my youngest and that is nearly finished too.

Spread out on the floor is my so called 'Winter Palette' quilt which I started uhm.. well last Winter. I started quilting it (so it's really nearly done!) in January I think, but wasn't sure about the loopy Free Motion Quilting I did on ca. 5% of the quilt. So I kind of abandoned it for a bit. Maybe I need to unpick the quilting and simply quilt it with straight lines...

In the back on the left is a Bento Box Quilt in progress. I made up the measurements of the strips etc as I went along. Naturally I forgot to write them down and now I first need to work out those details again before I can make more blocks. *sigh*

Next to it is the (in)famous Scrap Vomit Quilt! Quilt top is nearly done as well. Just need to sew some blocks and rows together but somehow progress on that is incredibly slow! More about the Scrap Vomit at the end of this post. :)

In front is a stack of Granny Square Quilt Blocks. Not in a real hurry to finish that one though...

Apparently I like making things with squares so I really need to try something new on a next quilt, because I can always add another project to the ones I'm already working on, right? ;) Actually these are not all the quilts in progress. I have a 'Disappearing 9 patch' quilt that has 'disappeared' right to the back of my fabric cupboard and my oldest half finished quilt has just turned three.

These are actually some of the nice squares from the basket!

Back to the Scrap Vomit Quilt...First take a look at some wonderful examples here. Currently I have a basket full of 2.5' squares left from my nearly finished First Scrap Vomit Quilt. Mainly because I downsized the first quilt and I keep on adding squares to the basket (for the Second Scrap Vomit Quilt I will make some day). But I want to share the magic of turning ugly (and pretty fabrics too) into a fabulous quilt and the best way is to 'sew for yourself'! So I thought I'd give away three 'Scrap Vomit Starter Packs' to readers of this blog. Each pack has 49 different fabric 2.5" squares, enough to make one block, and I promise there will be some truly horrible ones in the stack! I know this is a small giveaway, just some fun for the scrap loving quilters among you! If you can't wait to start your own Scrap Vomit Quilt then leave a comment on this post. If there are more than three comments (you never know!) then I will draw three winners. Comments close next Thursday the 10th of May, 12 AM Amsterdam time. Comments are closed now, thank you for leaving a comment. Winners will be announced later today.


Update: Katy has offered an extra lot of yummy Scrap Vomit 2.5" squares. Woohoo! These will be send to one of the three winners :) Thanks Katy!

P.S. these are all hand cut squares so while I always aim to cut them at exactly 2.5" some might be slightly bigger/smaller.
P.S. find the 'how to' for the Scrap Vomit quilt on Katy's blog.

A small giveaway to celebrate!

Well guess who turned three this month? My Princess and the Pea pattern! I sold my first copy of this pattern on the 19th of March 2009 and I am happy (and grateful) that I have sold quite a few more patterns after that. Part of the success must be the lovely example piece my embroidery pal Georgia made of this pattern! We never met 'in person' because I live in the Netherlands and Georgia lives in Australia but it shows how through internet friendships (and long distance collaborations) lovely things can be made!

I'm giving away three Princess and the Pea PDF Hand embroidery patterns (or if you already have one, one of my other patterns of your choice) to three lucky blog readers! You don't have to jump through hoops to enter, just leave a comment (a nice one preferably) and tell me your favourite (fairy)tale! Giveaway ends this Sunday 12 a.m. Amsterdam time. Be sure to check back to find out if you have won or leave an email address so I can find you. If I can't find you I will have to re-draw.

Good luck everyone!


Giveaway has ended, winners will be announced later today!

GO! Baby Fabric Cutter Giveaway

Yesterday I wrote about my new tool the Go! Baby Fabric Cutter and today I'm giving one of these 'babies' away thanks to the nice and very generous folks over at Accuquilt!  The incredibly lucky winner also gets to pick 3 dies to go with their Go! Baby Fabric Cutter. Check out the dies here, there is a huge selection you can choose from.

If you would like a chance to win this wonderful little helper (and of course you want to!)  please leave a comment to this post and tell me what your favourite quilt pattern or block is. I'd love to discover new ones! This giveaway ends this Friday (August 26th) at 8 PM Amsterdam time.  (edit: sorry giveaway is closed!) Winner will be announced the day after.  Make sure to either check back in time or leave a 'trail' so I can contact you in case you win this fabulous prize. Good luck every one!

P.s. I you haven't already please check out the tutorial I posted yesterday for the wonderfully cute Tonka & the Stars pillow!

Update Alice White Rabbit Pattern & weekend giveaway!

I have updated my PDF embroidery pattern of the White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland) a bit. I cleaned up the original, and added a little intro and a reversed version of the original to the pattern. It's a sweet little pattern and perfect to try out your fill stitching skills! I'm giving one of these patterns away this weekend to one of the followers of this blog. So please make sure you are truly a Bunny Follower! Giveaway ends this Sunday at noon (Amsterdam time) so be quick! comments are closed, winner will be announced later today. You can also buy the pattern here...and if you win the giveaway I will refund the money. :)

p.s. I know that, since last week, people who use blogger/blogspot etc. can have trouble with posting comments, if that is the case please leave a comment on my Facebook page instead on the giveaway post only. One comment per blog follower please! Good luck everyone!

update: the 'google friend'/follow option is somewhere on the right hand side of this page!

Scrappy Goodness

I think I mentioned Katy's Techinicolour Yawn Quilt once or twice on this blog, although I usually refer to it as the Scrap Vomit Quilt (Katy's own words). There is something incredibly satisfying about sewing 49 random fabric squares together. This is Block A. Block B has a diamond pattern of solids. I traded and was kindly donated scraps so in this block alone there are 18 fabrics that I received from other people, isn't that great? Also, I try to combine not so exciting scraps with a few of my all time favourite prints.



This is Katy's wonderful Technicolour Yawn Quilt. Clearly I need to find someone to quilt it for me if I decide to make it as large as this one!

In other news: my friend Annie has a fun giveaway on her blog right now. She is celebrating her 500th blog post and there are lovely Bird and Little Bird items to be won (like the Semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox pattern) and some of my stuff too (Castle Peeps Pattern and voucher)! So hop over and say hi!

Alphabet Glue Giveaway (for book loving families)

These are two books from my youth, in Dutch of course.I loved reading (and still do!) and I think I literally read every book in the Primary School library. I particularly loved books by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton's Famous Five. I was also very impressed by the Heidi trilogy I read, probably because of the dramatic story it tells.  With very little other diversions, such as tv (hardly any shows for kids) or computer games (not invented yet, except maybe Pong) I guess reading was an obvious way to pass the time when I was younger.

So you will understand that I, as a parent and as a book lover, was thrilled to learn that Annie (of Bird and Little Bird fame) was working on an e-zine for 'kids and their grown-ups' about books and reading.  The first issue of Alphabet Glue was launched this week and it's absolutely wonderful! It's packed with fun activities for kids to deepen the wonderful experience of reading and story making. There's a list of Spring reads, a lovely set of story cards to inspire unique tales or even drawings, a library scavenger hunt, some fun craft activities too and much, much more. Perhaps the most special thing of all is that the love for books and reading shines through every page of Alphabet Glue!

a project from Alphabet Glue: tiny box accordion books

Now I have three copies of Alphabet Glue to give away!  So if you'd like the chance to win a copy please leave a comment on this post before noon (Central European Time) the 28th of March and tell me what your favourite children's book is and why!

Be sure to leave your email for me to find, either in your comment or in your profile. If you can't wait to get hold of a copy of Alphabet Glue (which is totally understandable) go here to buy one. Can't wait to find out about your favourite books!

Old tricks

I'm up to my old tricks again and created another furry creature with a kerchief. No more kerchiefs after this little Wolpentinger is done, I promise! Well not for a while anyway... I have no idea how this pattern will end up looking (if it will become a pattern at all). Somehow I'm not able to come up with a finished pattern drawing so I just started stitching and the pattern develops as I go. Or not, in which case this will be the last of this Wolpentinger you see.

Many, many thanks to all my embroidery friends who have purchased the Cherry Blossom Doe pattern to help me raise some money for the survivors of the earthquake in Japan. I'm really touched by your generosity. If you haven't purchased the pattern yet but would like to please do so quickly. It's available until tomorrow.

Oh and don't forget to check out this giveaway. You can win my Princess and the Pea pattern and lots of other fab goodies!

Embroidery Mystery Book Give away!

Mr. Fox loves crafty mysteries!

Amanda Lee (pen name of writer Gayle Trent) has just published her second Embroidery Mystery book Stitch me Deadly and I'm giving away one copy to a lucky reader! All you have to do is leave a comment before Friday the 18th of February noon (Central European Time) and tell me (if you like) what you think would be an exciting, funny, mysterious or creepy title for an Embroidery Mystery Book! Intriguing plots are also allowed. :) Winner will be chosen at random from the entries. One comment per person please!
Ed. I have now closed the comments winner will be announced later today!

If you want to know a little bit more about Gayle/Amanda read the interview I did with her a couple of months ago. Good luck everyone and thank you Gayle for sending me a copy of Stitch me Deadly to give away on my blog! :)

Meet Saffron & a chance to win a FQ bundle of Beetle Bug fabrics!

You can see that the White Bunny feels right at home among those awesome soft furnishings made with Saffron Craig Fabrics! If you have been following this blog since 'the early days' you will probably know that I became friends with Australian fabric designer Saffron Craig back in 2009. After a few mails we even got to meet at my house when Saffron and her family visited Europe! I want you all to get to know Saffron a little bit better too and I hope you will enjoy the mini-interview I did with her. Be sure to read the details about the Beetle Bug fabric giveaway at the end of this post! (ed.  giveaway has ended, comments are now closed)

To me, Beetle Bugs is one of the most stylish and original lines of fabric for kids that I have seen in recent years. Could you tell a little bit about what inspired you while you were designing this line?

SC Wow, thanks Nicole, stylish is what I was hoping for! The Beetle Bugs came about when my customers kept asking me to design a boys range."Saffron there is really not many boys fabrics out there!" kind of thing. 

So I kept an eye out for inspiration, which came while playing with my daughters and her friend Matisse. Together they would look for snails and lady beetles for hours in the garden and we had every milk and yogurt container, tin can, match box, you name it filled with them  (recycle recycle I say when you have kids). 

We would then often sit down and draw them together until I got a sense for the style I was going to go with. Once I'd drawn the main elements such as the snails and the bugs I had fun playing around with them putting them into patterns and repeats. The colours took quite some time to decide, I wanted them to be easy to live with and harmonious so I went with a more muted, neutral colour palette with highlights of colours to add some funk. 

A lot of the contemporary Australian fabrics I see (on Etsy for example), seem to have in common that the design is quirky, clean and almost graphic in design. Would you say your style is influenced by the place/country you live?

SC I think this particular style is influenced by the colour limitations of screen printing in small quantities, something a few of my fellow Australian designers seem to do. That's how I started myself before I was able to expand to commercial printing with 5 and 6 colours.

Living in Australia definitely influences my designing, I've always had a strong love and connection to the Australian landscape, heritage and culture, I studied Australian Aboriginal fibre arts at Uni. The colours here are so bright and intense and the landscape can be dramatic and there's abundant wild life, even in my backyard, so I draw inspiration from that.

Which (line of) fabric by another designer did you wish you had designed? 

SC As a designer I am hoping to one day create a design which is as instantly recognisable as Orla Keily's work, her stem print is inspirational. I also think that Unikko for Marimekko is a design I would love to have created. It is timeless and works on any surface in any colour and in any scale. Also Florence Broadhurst, an Australian Designer from the 70's, had a team of designers who created really amazing wall papers and fabrics, she is a cultural icon here and her work so wonderful, you can still buy her papers from here. 

What do you have in store for us this year? 

SC I have a few more fabrics ranges coming out early this year. The first one is Magical Lands, a range which depicts my mental snap shots from around Australia and is due to arrive soon. Following that I have a range of fabrics called Imaginary Flower in plums and vanilla, which is sure to be a favourite of mine. Then we'll have some new softies and recolour the Beetle Bugs with orange (having a Dutch husband we love orange). Later on we will also be printing second colourways of Magical Lands and Imaginary flowers and maybe some new designs later in the year.  So by June we should have about 40 new fabrics in total, better make some room in my studio!

I have also set myself the task of introducing a new product each month. Some ideas I am playing with is a collaboration for an embroidery pattern with yourself (ed. yes, working on that!), dress patterns, cushions, more downloadable paper designs, birthday card invites, the list goes on!

A busy year for little me.

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Thank you so much Saffron for answering my questions and donating some of those gorgeous Beetle Bug fabrics for this giveaway. If you want a chance to win a Beetle Bug FQ bundle leave a comment on this post and be sure to tell me what your favourite (or perhaps most feared) bug is (of the garden variety I mean)! On the 10th of February 14.00 Central European Time I will close comments and draw a winner shortly after. Be a snail and leave a trail (website/email), so I can find you back just in case you should win! You can check out all Saffron's available fabric ranges, quilt kits and patterns here.

Mini Peep Boot Ornament!

It was fun making this Mini Peep Boot if not a bit fiddly. I used felt, a small piece of Lizzy House Duck fabric, pink pom pom and pink ric rac. And I added some simple embroidery stitches too. I thought the vintage trim suited this Mini Peep Boot well.  I love working with felt and it's so easy to embroider on. You can still enter the Mini Peep Boot contest till tomorrow I think. There are not many entries yet and the prizes are really great. Also make sure to check out the giveaway on Mary Corbet's Needle 'n Thread. You can win some awesome embroidery books!  It ends tomorrow so hurry.