Stitching away, buzzing away and a Giveaway

After my flurry of posts and sewing at the end of October, it seems to have all been quiet here in Raewynland. 

So time for a catch-up (and a giveaway, however you have to wait till the end of the post for that!).

I've been busy handstitching away, but all I can show you are some sneaky peeks....I am sure you will guess the theme of these couple of projects....

More stitching away - this time some more quilting. I realised the other day that I haven't really been sharing about a project I have been designing/sewing for my favourite quilt shop this year. It is a BOM which focusses on learning different fmq skills. I've been really enjoying doing it; here is this month's block. Lori, from the Inboxjaunt has inspired me a lot this year and I was tickled pink that she has given me permission to use some of her designs in this project.

This month's block with Lori's picket fence design.

We have two more months to run on this BOM - I haven't quite run out of ideas yet!!!

 The bees have been buzzing away - it's that time of year here in New Zealand,

They might only be scrubby Manuka bush trees but they are so pretty at the moment with their brilliant white flowers....

And they do make the wonderfully flavoured and healthy Manuka honey. We have several beekeepers vying for spots in the bush to put their hives. For us, the rent is a good supply of honey. 

 No stitching for me yesterday as I went down to Auckland to the end of year exhibition of YD's design course. (Year 2 of 4 for her). Great to see what she has achieved this year, particularly as she hasn't been so well. And very cool to see the works of the other students too.

Can you guess, Dr Suess inspired font!

 More stitching away, I finished the mini wholecloth I was sewing for the 'It's all about Borders'  2013 FMQ challenge run by SewCalGal. Yaay!!

So hard to get a decent photo of something like this, getting the light right
 was a challenge in itself.
Excuse the photo bombing by the dog and the fence that looks
like it needs a waterblast!!

I had several comments and emails about the feathers I did on this quilt. They were done without a sewn/drawn spine and were so much fun - and easy- to do. 

I had found this book, Dream Feathers, by Peggy Holt, and was totally inspired by it! So much so, that I decided a second copy would be a good idea so that I could have a GIVEAWAY!!

Peggy has really good instructions - for beginners through to more experienced quilters, and lots of different ways of using and shaping these feathers. They really are great fun to do and also quite liberating as well (if that makes sense!). She has some good thoughts on the shaping of our feather lobes too. I think it's a really useful book.
If you would like to win my spare copy, please say so in a comment below. My only requirement is that you are a follower of my blog so please say how you follow. I will draw this on my next blog post - in a few day's time. (If you don't want to go into the draw, you can still comment, just say you don't want it!).
Till then, happy stitching,