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Sunday, November 30

Vintage Holiday Wreath Fabric Winners!

Sledding Foxes - Such a fun vintage picture!  
Click on it to see more great vintage Christmas images from The Graphics Fairy

Well, Spoonflower really pulled a fast one on me... and I mean that in a Very Good Way!  I had ordered another yard of my Vintage Holiday Wreath Fabric, but never thought it would get here in time for this giveaway.  They must be working mega overtime, because it is due to arrive here tomorrow.  Thank you hard working people at Spoonflower!  (Hug, hug, hug, hug, hug!)

This means that I can add four more winners to the giveaway, for a total of SIX lucky commenters, instead of two, as I had originally planned! 


Vintage Christmas Wreath Table Topper

Here is a list of all the terrific people who entered the drawing for my Vintage Holiday Wreath Fabric Fabric Giveaway.  I've assigned everyone a number based on the order of their comments.  I also added links to their blogs if applicable.  It's definitely worth taking a peek at what these creative people have been doing!  Thank you everyone for your comments; it was a lot of fun for me to read them and visit your websites!  

1 -  Carolyn at sew.darn.quilt
2 -  Missy at Missy’s Homemaking Adventures
3 -  Kaja at Sew Slowly
4 -  Maryse at Maryse Makes Things
5 -  Natalie
6 -  Barbara at A Simply Great
7 -  Janie
8 -  Mary Alice at Love of Stitching (Coming soon? Hopefully!)
9 -  Lyn at What a Hoot!
10 - Malini at Malini's Quilting Adventure
11 - Ilana Joffe - Ilana, you are a no-reply commenter :(
12 - Sarah
13 - Kathy at Sparkles, Sprinkles and Everyday Crap
14 - Connie at Freemotion by the River
15 - Pam
16 - Ramona at Doodlebugs and Rosebuds Quilts
17 - Marcy at Made By Me in Red
18 - France at France Nadeau - Inspiration Imagination Creation
19 - Linda - Linda, you are a no-reply commenter :(
20 - Dawnie at sewyouquilt2
21 - Paulette at The Way I Sew It
22 - Laura at Sewing Out of My Comfort Zone
23 - LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color
24 - Alla at White Mountains
25 - Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts
26 - Melissa at Missouri Mel
27 - Vicki
28 - Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon
29 - Frédérique at Quilting, Patchwork, & Appliqué
30 - Pippi at Pippi Stitches 
31 - Lee at The Butler Did It!  (Coming soon? Hopefully!)
32 - Jiienna 

Once again, I used the handy Random Integer Generator at Random.org to create the list of giveaway winners and here it is:



Off I go, to let Sandra, Laura, Maryse, France, Kaja, and Paulette know they were the lucky fabric giveaway winners.  

I hope all of you have a great and creative week!  BuzzinBumble will be going back to it's regularly scheduled program.... which means I am going to try and get some sewing done and posted before Christmas.  


We Now Return You to Our Regularly Scheduled Program
Thanks for visiting and come back soon!  Lara



 

Sunday, November 23

Vintage Holiday Wreath Quilted Topper & Fabric Giveaway


































Christmas is just around the corner.  I love this time of year!  After spending time in Blogland last week, I am even more in the spirit.  So many of you have been happily working away, making beautiful quilts, gifts, and decorations.  It's awesome!

This Vintage Holiday Wreath fabric is another fabric that I created on Spoonflower.com.  If you saw last week's giveaway:  Celebrating with a "Cookie" Giveaway, then you know that I'm a Spoonflower fan through and through!

Do you like vintage graphics?  How about vintage table linens?
Then you will probably love this fabric!  I recreated the graphics from a vintage Christmas tablecloth that has to be around 60 years old.  I resized them so they would fit neatly around a plate.  My goal was to make round placemats, with no binding, to put under each place setting at Christmas.  I used the "birthing" technique, sewing the layers a lot like I did with my cookies and then turning the whole thing right side out.  

After I got the wreath all right side out and ironed nice and flat, I drew a circle in the center with a cereal bowl, quilted it, and then filled it in with a simple grid.  Then I did a little bit of quilting to outline the ornaments and greenery. The whole thing took me about two hours, and that's counting the time I spent ripping out my "free" motion quilting.  I am more of a "plodding" motion quilter. This is going to be one of my New Year's resolutions:  To learn to free motion quilt; at least well enough to handle small projects.  

With that in mind, I've enrolled in Christina Cameli's Craftsy class: The Secrets of Free-motion Quilting.  
I love this girl and am very excited to be taking her class!  You all might know Christina because of her blog: A Few Scraps, or perhaps you have her first book: First Steps to Free-Motion Quilting.   Her second book is coming out soon too! Step by Step Free-Motion Quilting  
Yup - I am Jazzed and Ready!  

Here is a picture with just the wreath topper.  It was so flat after all that ironing that I dampened it a bit and chucked it in the dryer to make it quiltier.  
I cropped the photo and was amazed when I saw that the topper was still a pretty neat circle:




The Christmas Wreath looks great as a placemat, don't you think?  The greenery and ornaments surrounding each plate look so festive!  


We are having pizza tonight, so I can't show you a picture with a beautiful dinner.  Just the place setting.  On the floor, because I needed an ariel view.  And our three dogs were just there inspecting it for goodies.  Fancy, ain't I?  
I promise, if you win, your fabric will not have been on the floor.   

So.  Would you like to win a fat quarter of this wreath fabric?  I have enough for two lucky winners this week!  Each wreath is about 17 1/2 inches in diameter and fills a whole fat quarter. 

To enter this giveaway, just push my buttons and leave a comment.  I love to hear from you!  You don't have to be a BuzzinBumble follower, although of course that would be great if you decide you'd like to be.  I will happily ship to Canada or even overseas.  But please: make sure that I can reach you.  Sometimes people are "no-reply commenters" and I have no way of contacting them.  This will mean they cannot be in the drawing for the giveaway.  I'll answer your comment here on the blog if this is the case and let you know if you are.  Hopefully we can fix the problem before the random name drawing, which will be at 7PM EST next Sunday, November 30th. 

Good Luck Everybody!  
In case I don't "see" you this week - Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Lara





Hi!  The wreath fabric giveaway ended on November 30th, but you can still buy the fabric anytime on Spoonflower: 

Saturday, November 22

Cookie Fabric Giveaway Winners!


Today is the Day!  

Thank you everyone who left such wonderful comments and shared great ideas for creating your own fabrics!  With almost five months of blogging, and still a little wet behind the ears, this was my very first giveaway.  It was fun and I plan to do another one, starting tomorrow!  

It turns out that I had enough Fresh Out of the Oven fabric that we can have FIVE winners instead of four!

Here is a list of the wonderful people who entered the drawing for my Cookie Fabric Giveaway:  I've assigned everyone a number based on the order of their comments.  I also added links to their blogs if applicable.  If you want to have a lot of fun and find a lot of inspiration... Just Go Visiting!  

1 – Carolyn at sew.darn.quilt
2 – Jess at Everything is Coming Up Rosie
4 – Maryse at Maryse Makes Things
5 – Christine at triangles & squares
6 – Joanne at Canuck Quilter
8 – Jan at Sew Peace to Peace
9 – Kaja at Sew Slowly
10 – Susie at Susie’s Sunroom
11 – Ann at Big Paws
12 – Amanda at The Cozy Pumpkin
13 – Martha at Weekend Doings
14 – Steffi at Just Quilts
15 – Zenia at A Quilted Passion
16 -  Leanne at Devoted Quilter
17 – Paulette at The Way I Sew It
19 – Anna at Woolie Mammoth
20 – LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color
21 – JanineMarie at Quilts from the Little House
22 – Vicki at A Quilter’s Mission
23 – Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts
24 – Bea at Beaquilter
25 – Connie at Freemotion by the River
26 – Linda at Linda’s Life 
27 – Ilana Joffe  

I used the handy Random Integer Generator at Random.org to create the list of giveaway winners and here it is:

So I am off to notify Bea, Carolyn, Lorna, Jan, and Christine to let them know they were the lucky winners!   

Be sure to come back soon, because there will be another opportunity to win more of my Spoonflower fabric Tomorrow!  I will posting another giveaway for this festive Vintage Christmas Wreath Fabric in which two lucky winners will each receive a fat quarter sized wreath!  






Thanks for visiting!  Lara


Friday, November 14

Celebrating with a "Cookie" Giveaway!



These yummy looking chocolate chip cookies have zero carbs.  Yep - It's true!  And don't they look mmm-mmm good?
  
Good enough to fool people into thinking they are real, which has happened repeatedly.  They are really Cookie Coasters made with fabric that I created on Spoonflower!  

The funniest reaction I had was when our son Sam came home for the weekend.  We had just walked into the kitchen.  I had this plate full of cookies on the kitchen table,  sitting by the sewing machine, so I could add to it whenever I made another cookie. Sam made a beeline for the table.  Jim and I heard a sharp intake of breath, followed by a strangled "What?! Huh?! Argh!"  And then he bellowed something rather indelicate.  We all died laughing.  It wasn't intentional, there was no glass of milk photo prop sitting there, but I got him good.  Hee hee.  Even though I owe him for a thousand pranks, I made him a batch of real cookies later, because I am a nice mommy.

I have a lot to be happy and excited about!  I made my book submission deadline for the American Quilter's Society! Woohoo!!!  There is still more work coming up, but creating the projects and writing the chapters was the biggest part of the hurdle for me.  It was a huge challenge and I am completely tuckered out, but also very happy that I took the leap!    

To spread around some of that happiness, I am giving away cookie coaster kits to four lucky winners, whose names will be drawn at random.  You do not have to be one of my followers or a regular here to enter, although of course that would be great! Each winner will receive a roughly 18" square of cookie fabric, which has 16 whole cookies. They will also receive one fat quarter of Kona cotton in Gold, for the backing of the coasters. 

"Gold" was the closest match to the cookie fabric.  You can see it in the photo below, which shows a flipped over cookie.  I made the cookie coasters using the same technique I used for making the Maple Leaf Mug Rugs.  The exception is that after turning the cookie right side out, I ironed and then glued the opening shut so that no stitching would show.  They make really fun and useful coasters.  The fabric would also make a cute apron, or tote, or a pillow front too. 

You can see the fabric here: Fresh Out of the Oven - Chocolate Chip Cookies   

It is really fun to design your own fabric on Spoonflower and if you have not tried it before I encourage you to give it a shot!  I am not being paid to say this: Spoonflower is so much fun!  It is a gathering place for indie fabric designers too, some of whom have gone on to design for major fabric companies.  It's also a great place for people like me who just want to play around with a few of their own designs.

For these cookies, I had Spoonflower print out the fabric using their Basic Cotton Ultra process - for very sharp color.  They offer that if you join their Basic Cotton Ultra Test Squad.  I wrote and asked if people could still join and they said this option would be available until they competed the testing.  You can get a behind the scenes peek of what the company is all about with Julie Schneider's Spoonflower tour.




To enter the contest, just leave me a comment telling me what type of fabric you might make if you created your very own design.  I think it would be fun for everyone to read about each others ideas!  Also - please make sure you are not a "no reply" commenter.  If you win and I am unable to contact you, I will have to re-award the prize to someone else.  

We will randomly select and announce the names of the four winners on November 22nd.  










I really do follow a lot of links from every linky party I join - it is such fun to see what everyone has been up to!  
Thanks for visiting!
Lara


Hi!  The cookie fabric giveaway ended on November 22nd, but you can still buy the fabric anytime on Spoonflower: 
Fresh Out of the Oven - Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sunday, November 9

Cats on Quilts - by Alina B.


Little Willow napping on the Lil' Twister Pinwheel Quilt.
All that play time must have tuckered her out!