Liberty Fabric Giveaway for Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Linky Party

Christmas! Yes, we've said it out load. We know we've all started thinking about Christmas even though we're trying not to mention it yet! Many have been following Fiona of Celtic Thistle Stitches and Paula of Mud, Pies and Pins with their Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Linky Party during the year, getting ahead of their Christmas and Holiday crafting. If you have already got to work or are planning to start in the next few days, then don't miss this month's Linky Party, with a very special giveaway prize. One lucky crafter from this month's links will win three F8th's of beautiful Liberty fabric from Duck Egg Threads:

Sarah, who has generously offered this lovely prize, has a wonderful selection of Liberty fabrics in her online shop. In Sarah's shop you can also subscribe to the We Love Liberty Monthly Club, delivering a special Liberty bundle each month!

Please check out all our generous sponsors too for your Christmas and Holiday crafting needs:

http://www.patchworkelephant.com/

We would like to thank Fiona and Paula for inviting us to co-host this month's Linky Party with Sandra of Sandra Sews. Until the end of the month we will be posting tutorials for Christmas and Holiday ideas and cheering on your holiday crafting. So don't miss out, you still have plenty of time for a Handmade Christmas!

And now for the Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew Linky Party, open until the last day of October:

An InLinkz Link-up

Made in Felt magazine - Cosy Tea Set Tutorial and a Happy Spring giveaway

We are so happy that our Cosy Tea Set tutorial has been featured in the new Made in Felt magazine. We have been jumping with joy ever since the Editor, the lovely Amanda, asked us if they could feature our tutorial in the spring edition of Made in Felt. So to celebrate we have decided to organise a special giveaway... 

First a peek at the beautiful projects you can find inside this bright Spring edition of the magazine. Starting from the sweet Italian felt expert Manuela from i Manu Fatti (her bunny is the cover star of Made in Felt!). We've already written about her and you seriously do not want to miss her blog. Her latest post is a detailed tutorial for a stunning Spring Twig Wreath.

Here are a couple of her wonderful projects featured in the magazine:

There are so many incredible designs in this magazine to try out. These are our favourite ones:

We are definitely adding this project to our Tags and Labels Pinterest board!

And this Matrioska goes on our Not Just Russian Dolls board! The detail is perfect!

If you're interested in purchasing a copy of the magazine, you can buy it on line here. Check out Made in Felt on Facebook or Pinterest too if you're looking for more felt craft ideas.

And now for our special giveaway to celebrate our project in Made in Felt: we are giving away wool felt in four different bright colours, perfect for Spring projects and for making your own Tea Cosy Set. Each piece of wool felt is about 19.5" x 14" (about 49.50cm x 35,50cm) and 1/8" (3mm) thick. 

We are also giving away, together with all this lovely felt, a pretty reel of "tape" ribbon in orange. One lucky winner will win all these items. 

To have a chance of winning all you have to do is leave a comment. For followers, old and new, another chance of winning: leave a second comment telling us how you follow our blog.

The giveaway is open to everyone and we will post the prize anywhere in the world, closing on April 15th. Mr Random will then choose a winner who will be contacted by mail.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

The winner is Sonja McIane!

Tree Bird Blog Hop with a special giveaway

Welcome to our stop of the Tree Bird Blog Hop! First of all we would like to thank three very special Ladies: Madame Samm, the wonderful author of Sew we Stitch and the Queen of Blog Hops; Lana at It Seams To Be Sew..., our super efficient Cheerleader and Pat at Life in the Scrapatch. Thanks to Pat's generosity we had the chance to sew with the lovely "Beautiful Birds" collection by Tracy Lizotte for Elizabeth Studio. Not only did Pat send us the Potrait Panels we won with her giveaway, she also included an extra Tree Panel. We are paying forward her generosity with our own special giveaway. A hint: it has to do with birds!

Birdwatching is a bit of a tradition in our family. Most of the birdwatching takes place from the house, looking out the window at the fig tree where, during the winter, food for the birds is never missing. It's a full time job to keep the birds happy in the winter and they repay us by returning every year. This jolly crowd is great company!

We're often checking reference books to see the exact name of our "fine feathered friends" and studying details. So a nice book cover comes in very handy!

To celebrate our little friends we also made a cushion cover using two of the portraits and some wood grain fabric. We liked using the simple linen fabric to set off the detailed drawings of the birds. 

The quilting is also very simple, a couple of "matchsticks" to make the wood grain fabric stand out like a tree. We're definitely thinking of making a set of these cushion covers to give as a present to our bird feeders!

While writing this, we're singing "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins... We can't help ourselves... We even have a board on Pinterest where we collect pics of Birdhouses and little houses.

And now for the giveaway! For all you bird lovers, we are giving away a beautiful Bird House Decoration by MIHO Unexpected Things:

To have a chance of winning this pretty Bird House (in mdf, 16x18x14 cm, in a flat pack very easy to put together) all you have to do is leave a comment. For followers, old and new, another chance of winning: leave a second comment telling us how you follow our blog.

The giveaway is open to everyone and we will post the prize anywhere in the world (if the post office lets us!), closing on March 31st. Mr Random will then choose a winner who will be contacted by mail.

Fly on over to visit today's blogs: with so many creative projects, you'll be surprised by how many lovely ways have been found to use this fabric collection:

Tuesday, March 17

Tomorrow's Treasures Today

Childlike Facination

Pig Tales and Quilts

Quiltsmiles

Ella and Nesta's Little Room

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Gracie Oliver Arts

Joining in the March edition of A Lovely Year of Finishes at Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs with our Beautiful Birds book cover (Goal Setting Party entry number 130, via Flickr):

Thank you and Giveaways not to miss

First of all a big thank you to my friend who gave me this incredible mat for Christmas (we only just managed to exchange Christmas presents last week!). She really knows what I like and this mat is such a good way to start the (crafty) day, isn't it?!

Cotton Joy - Stonewashed Convertible Mat

An enormous thank you also to the Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring Le Challenge. Thank you to Lucy @ Charm About You and Nat @ Made in Home for organising and hosting Le Challenge. I was so lucky to win the December edition Le Challenge #18 - Ink with this entry on Instagram:

Ink Note Pouch

These are the fantastic fabrics I chose with the Fat Quarter Shop's gift certificate:

Airmail by Eric & Julie Comstock for Moda Fabrics

Mochi Purple Floral by Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cotton + Steel Fabrics

The Makers Multi Happy Crafty Quilt Panel by Cori Dantini for Blend Fabrics 

And now for the giveaways! If you're looking for an updated list of giveaways, Melissa @ Missouri Mel has transfered The Giveaway Roundup to a new location. You can find it here and she's hosting her own giveaway to promote the new site.

If you love pin cushions then you don't want to miss my friend Mara's giveaway at Secretly Stitching. Don't forget to vote for her lovely Fabric Frame at the Fat Quarter Shop's blog the Jolly Jabber. She is so creative!

Quilt #1 Fabric Frame by Mara of Secretly Stitching in Greece

Le Challenge: Ink Note Pouch (and a giveaway!)

I really like Le Challenge and every month I look forward to reading what Lucy and Nat come up with. When I read this month's Le Challenge was Ink my mind went completely blank. And when I say blank, I mean BLANK!
Then the day before the link up, I suddenly remembered a panel I made during a workshop at the Lago Maggiore Quilting Day this summer, using a kind of silk print technique called mono printing. As I desperately needed some way of keeping all the papers/bills/notes I carry around in my handbag tidy, this is what I came up with:

The Ink Note Pouch! The text panel is "framed" with wood grain fabric to look like a painting. It's funny, a fabric painting!

The lining is a tiny polka dot I used recently to make a mushroom. It makes the painting front look less serious!

For the back my Mum kindly donated one of her beautiful "vintage" pearl buttons. This one is particularly special as it is dark coloured instead of the usual white/cream pearl colour. The ric rac loop easily hooks on to the button, keeping all my mess of papers inside the pouch!

This pouch is going to be really useful and it has already brought me good luck as I (still can't believe it!) won a gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!

Thank you Lucy @ Charm about you and Nat @ Made In Home for all your hard work. Don't miss Nat's giveaway here, she's celebrating her Baby's first month!