I have been a very lucky girl lately. I have won not one, but TWO blog giveaways this month. I decided to wait until I got both prizes in to show them off.
The first giveaway was from SewChristine. I was actually the second winner, as the first didn't get in touch. I won a bag pattern, bag handles to make the pattern, and some lovely fabrics. You can see the bag that the pattern makes on this blog entry about the competition. The bamboo handles are a very elegant and usable shape.
I think the bag pattern, will make a really good project bag. I've yet to choose the fabric that I will make it in, but I am sure I have some good stuff in my stash. The fabric that came with the prize, came in a really cute little bundle, bound up with a bow.
I love all these fabrics, and even though I probably wouldn't have bought them myself, I'm so pleased to have them. I don't have much money to spend so I tend to chose generic fabrics that will fit many types of project.
This cake fabric has lovely colours and the graphics are fab, but it will have to paired with a specific "type" of project. The same thing applies to the second fabric.
I've actually seen this fabric before, admired it, and then moved on. Being very general with my fabric choices, means that I tend to avoid illustrated fabrics, even if I really love them. Isn't this wonderful though, I'm so pleased to have received it. The third fabric is more general, but in colours I don't usually buy.
But I think this fabric is very beautiful, it feels almost Japanese in influence, and I actually find myself being more and more drawn to it, because of the colours, rather than in spite of them. This piece of fabric is the largest, and I think it would make a lovely lining to a bag with a plain exterior.
I also got a little bundle of clips.
These will come in useful, with all the bags I intend to make in the coming months!
Thank you Christine for the lovely prizes, I can't wait to make things with them!
The other prize was offered by Kelly Fletcher. I have read Kelly's blog for some time now. I really like her elegant embroidery style. I have been fascinated by embroidery for quite some timee now and really want to try it. I even got a Sublime Stitching book for Christmas 2009 (which I asked for). Modern embroidery is really beautiful as well as fun, but I've been a bit too wrapped up in learning quilting to give it a proper go.
The prize I won, will help me get over my hesitation. The prize was the Celtic Stems Pattern that she sells on her website. You can see a nice big photo of the completed work on Kelly's Flickr Page, here. In addition to the pattern, Kelly also sent me the fabrics she used for the applique in the pattern. Its quite a stack of lovely fabrics.
There are some real beauties in this collection and even though they are only small pieces, I am sure there might be some snippets left after the embroidery is done!
So there you have them, my lovely prizes. I think they are both wonderful and I am very grateful to both Kelly and Christine. You should really check out their blogs as they are very clever and talented individuals. Their work is beautiful and their blogs are interesting to read as well. Once again their blogs are SewChristine and Materialistic.
Thank you very much ladies, you have enhanced my stash and provided incentive to try something different in the new year.