A long few days.....!

Oops, in my last post I said I would draw the winner of the Dream Feathers book in a few days time.... a week later here I am!
Thank you to those who visited and entered my giveaway...I've won various goodies off blogs over the last few years :-) and I think it is always nice to keep the cycle going.
So with out further ado, the book has been won by -canuckquilter! Congratulations! I will be in touch by email. I hope you enjoy the book.

I've been busy the last few days putting the finishing touches to Chookyblue's SSCS gift; today it is going into the post and ...grin... this is all I can show of it right now!!!

The cool thing about these swaps is that you are making for someone who really appreciates handmade gifts.

 It has been fun stalking my partner to see what her tastes are :-)

So I don't have a lot I can share on the sewing front these days, my blog has gone from 'share it all' to mostly 'no peeking allowed! However I can share some work from two other bloggers. 

Firstly, sweet Janet sent me this lovely postcard...just because...She thought a spring themed card would be fitting for us here in NZ—

Isn't it gorgeous? Love it, thank you Janet.

And Mary and I swapped postcards as part of Sheila's Christmas themed swap. The card I made is still airborne but I did recieve Mary's yesterday.

Another lovely card. The background fabric has a nice
sparkle which you cant see in the photo
 and looks great.
Would you  believe this is Mary's first postcard!
Thank you Mary.

Recently I attended the Festival Of Quilts show put on by the Auckland quilting guild. I took photos but most of them are of 'bits and pieces' of quilts -ohh look at that technicque, ohh see that bit of quilting, and so on. However I thought I would share this photo which I did take of the whole quilt. It is recycling at its best... the little 'thread savers' which some people use while piecing have been saved and appliqued onto the background!! Clever! 

Click on the photo to see more detail.

Ok, I have a busy few days ahead - we are off down country to my cousin's wedding this weekend, it will be nice to drag the MOML away from the cows for a few days. I'd best go pack!!

 Happy stitching,

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,