Ravenhill

A winner!

There are a few roses still coming out on my bushes in these late September days, but that isn't what this post is about...

And now the winner of the fabulous La Pomme give away!

With the assistance of the ever-helpful random number generator, the lucky number is: 12! Congratulations to Amanda, who seemed to fancy the pears. (I have been wondering what the winner would select.) You might want to drop by Amanda's blog, because she is as creative and inspiring as can be. Not only that but she is having a give away herself! Ooops, I shouldn't have mentioned it. I want to win it myself...

I am actually still feeling sorry for myself that I couln't enter my own give away, because I adore La Pomme's work. So I have been keeping busy working on the back of my quilt in progress. I realized that since it should be at least 4 inches bigger all around than the quilt front that I had to add some more to it.

It is coming along well, but today I discovered I didn't have any quilting thread so I have to run out to get some. I am already dreaming of finishing this off and starting another project of some sort.

I hope you are having a wonderfully creative day yourself.
 

Fall give away

I so appreciate your visiting my blog, writing such nice words, and all of your encouragement. It means so much to me and having a give away is just a little way to say thank you. So it is really wonderful to tell you that I have such a delightful prize in store for the winner of this one! A friend of mine, Apol,  the incredible talent behind the  Etsy shop, La Pomme,  has offered the prize for this give away!

Actually she is so sweet, you get to pick from two beautiful handmade items. This give away is her way of celebrating the launch of her autum-winter collection. The Joy Pears are half hand sewn and are hand stamped.

As you can see Apol has a lovely touch with such nice details, like the real licorice roots she uses on her fruits,

and the fabric bags she wraps them in are made from recycled old blankets are also hand stamped with "Joy."

These are Apol's Personalized White Plush Apples. If the winner selects this as the prize then she/he may have the names of their choice hand stamped on the apples.

So, to enter my give away please leave a comment to this post. (We would love to hear what your favorite fruit is and why). The give away will close on Tuesday, September 21 and I will select a winner shortly after.

The winner of this give away will get to pick, either the Personalized White Plush Apples or the Joy Pears.

If you would like to help me spread the word about this give away I would be most grateful!

*The give away is now closed. Thanks so much for all of your delightful comments. A winner will be picked shortly.*
 
 

Crazy for Patchwork Pillows and a Winner

The other day I was asked if I would do a custom order for patchwork pillows. It was such a ball that I have made more! For these I have combined Heather Bailey fabrics from all three of her collections. I don't know how those silly dolls, Fru Leren and Fru Mongstad snuck into the photo. They like to do that. They are so used to being in the limelight...

You have all been so nice! I have felt positively lifted several feet off the ground from the enormous amount of good cheer you have given me! Thank you for all the encouragement, both for the things that I make and for the tutorial. I was nervous about it since I had never done one before and wanted to make it very clear. I so appreciate all of you who wrote to me about it. Then it was a huge thrill when Hege wrote me today and let me know that she had already made a little flower to decorate a pretty dress!

I want to thank in particular

Catherine

Melissa P. who also has already made flowers with my tutorial and has posted them on the flickr group!

saffiertje

for assiting me in telling the world about the give away! Eeek! We have two winners!

I used a random number generator to help me pick the winners of my Twine and Heart give away. A warm congratulations to Clare and Linda!

Guess what? I was featured on Cuteable! And a mama and baby showed up here. The very kind Tara also featured my matryoshkas today. I fear my matryoshkas might let it get to their heads... all this fame... Many thanks to you for these fun features!

I haven't made any non-floral dolls for some time now and these adorable Japanese fabrics (the deer one on Fru Osterberg is from Lecien and the lamb is Japanese but I am sorry I don't recall who made it) inspired me to make some non-flowery dolls. The chicken fabric on Fru Bondegård is an old favorite of mine.

I had time to list the dolls in my Etsy shop tonight, but it is getting late and I will have to leave the patchwork pillows for another day.

I decided I would try my hand at crochet today, and maybe I will have something pretty to show you soon... Are you doing any crafting today?
 

Twine and Heart Give Away

There is nothing like new craft supplies to get the creative juices flowing. The very nice Whitney sent me her Whisker Graphics Twine to use and to share some yardage with you!

Aren't the colors great! Who ever heard of lime or orange twine? And the aqua is delicious.

I only got a tiny taste of her new colors, and I am particularly enamoured with the cotton candy at the far right.

So, I get to give away some twine! Two lucky commenters will be receiving twine from me!

But that is not all, the winners will also receive one homemade heart ornamanent each.

As I mentioned earlier, new crafting supplies really can inspire! I made these hearts, with various twines to hang with, including Whisker Graphics.

I had a ball making them.

I used fabric scraps, snippets of ribbon, copious embroidery stitches (french knots, bullion stiches and daisy chains), surrouned it with crocheted lace, and topped them off with colorful twine or perle floss.

There are multiple of ways you may enter my give away. Each one counts as 1 entry (so the more you do the more chances you have to win).

1. Leave a comment on this blog post 
2. Link to this post on your blog (please feel free to use the photos from this post!) and then come back here to leave a comment telling me you have done so.
3. Link to this post on Twitter and then come back here to leave a comment telling me you have done so.
4. Link to this post on Facebook and then come back here to leave a comment telling me you have done so.

If you do 2,3, or 4 please make a separate comment on this post for each letting me know what you have done so as the comments are your entries. So if you do all four you need to leave 4 comments. 

So, please help me spread the word?

Giveaway ends this Sunday, June 20th at midnight and there will be two winners which I will announce soon after!

EXTRA!!! The next 5 buyers in my Etsy shop will each receive one free heart ornament along with their order.

   

Christmastime in my shop

Christmas goods are finally in my shop! The seemingly endless overcast days are making photographing anything an immense challenge. I did have such fun making these Christmassy matryoshkas and want to make more for my home too so we can be surrounded by the good cheer of the season.

Now for the give away!

Using the very handy Random Number Generator I have selected two winners of my Christmas craftiness giveaway.

A warm congratulations to Selina and Simone!!!!

When I have your address I will mail the goodies right off to you! May you enjoy them to the fullest!

 

Congratulations to...

Thank you, one and all, for your fantastic comments, kind words and appreciation of my pretty fabrics! It has been so much fun having a give away once again and getting mails day and night with so many lovely messages!

My newest creations, Fru Friberg and Fru Baden are all smiles in anticipation at finding out who the winners are!

The moment has come that you have been waiting for. The winners!

Winner of the issue of Sew Hip magazine is: Cee Lew

and the winner of the fabrics and surprises is: Muriel

I have contacted the lucky winners of my give away so I can know where to send the prizes.

Today after all this give away excitement I am ready to sit down to relax and knit on this gorgeous variegated yarn that was a gift from Mervi.

The Winner and A Crafty Give Away

Thank you everyone for your kind words about Lilly's being sick. Her fever is gone today, but she and big brother are still coughing.

Finally it is time to announce the winner of Vilte's shawl. Thank you to everyone who participated!I used the Random Number Generator to select the winner and the lucky person is:

Mary Pennington!

Congratulations Mary, this is the lovely shawl Vilte has selected for you:

When I contacted Vilte about the winner of the give away she wanted me to say:

"Take a moment for yourself and sense the gentle and light as a feather silk touching your skin. Be feminine. Congratulations on winning the giveaway, Mary!

And thank you all who participated in this giveaway. Especially for all your warm and kind words for my shawls. This means a lot to me!"

I know many will be disappointed about not winning. I am so sorry! I know that I too am dying to own one of her creations and I couldn't even enter the give away... To help ease the sadness I am having another give away!

This last one was so much fun that it deserves repeating. This time the give away will have two prizes with two winners! First I need to show you something exciting for me that has to do with prize number one.

Give away number one is a brand new issue from the UK's sewing magazine Sew Hip! They kindly offered to send me this issue when they asked if they could feature my dolls. Since I already subscribe to the magazine I requested they send it to a lucky blog reader instead and they agreed!

So on page 72 I'm tickled to find my dolls alongside of these other colorful plushies!

The second gift for some other lucky person will be some of my favorite fabrics. I will just give a peek at them, and a good look at a few.

If you follow my blog you will recognize many of them as I have used most on my dolls. They are a great array of pinks, reds and blues, European fabrics, many Tilda, mostly Norwegian.

I plan on tossing other goodies into this bundle too: delightful surprises like ribbons, buttons, flosses, etc!

You may enter up to 4 times for the chance to win either the magazine or the fabrics with surprises!

For one entry, leave a comment to this post.

For a second entry please mention this give away on your blog and link to this give away. Once you have done this, post another comment to this give away post telling about your blog mention, and you receive a second entry.

For a third entry, alter your “Status” on Facebook to mention this give away. Be sure to include the url: http://ravenhill.typepad.com/weblog/  so that your friends can visit too. Once you have done this, post another comment to this give away post telling about your facebook mention, and you receive a third entry.

For a fourth entry mention and link to this give away on Twitter. Once you have done that just let me know in the comments that you have twittered.

I will announce the winners on June 10th.

Floaty shawl give away

Because I am so very grateful for all the support and inspiration having a blog has given me I would like to give something back. I have been pondering this give away for awhile and this is going to be a big surprise!

No,  it isn't a doll from my shop!

It isn't anything do-it-yourself... although I am having a real love affair with threads at the moment.

This time my giveaway is something incredibly lovely to wrap up in: one nuno felt shawl worth not less than 64$ by felt designer Vilte Kazlauskaite from Lithuania. I am dying to own one of these floaty peices of wearable art myself. Her use of color, texture and pattern on each piece are so unique that the difficulty would be in selecting just one.

Vilte's shop at Etsy is called Felt Magic - pieces of wool, silk, flax and other natural materials are beautifully transformed into felt.

She uses only natural materials and works in a way that is called ethical and eco fashion and design. All her items are unique, one of a kind and completely handmade.

Indulge yourself with the sensation of pure, natural materials and flowy, airy fabrics against your skin.

You may enter to win a shawl from Vilte up to FOUR times.

For one entry, leave a comment to this post.

For a second entry please visit Vilte's shop and leave a comment to this give away post about what your first impression was on visiting her shop and seeing her shawls.

For a third entry, alter your “Status” on Facebook to mention this give away. Be sure to include the url: http://ravenhill.typepad.com/weblog/  so that your friends can visit too. Once you have done this, post another comment to this give away post telling about your facebook mention, and you receive a third entry.

For a fourth entry mention and link to this give away on Twitter. Once you have done that just let me know in the comments that you have twittered.

The winner of the shawl will be announced Monday, June 1st. Please visit me then to see if you are the winner and to discover another new giveaway that I have in the works.

Sorry, but comments are now closed.

Sweet mail!

The sweetest packages have come my way lately and I can't tell you how much we have enjoyed them. I think I must be one of the luckiest people around because I won two more give aways!

 
Thank you Suzie for this pile of beautifully wrapped presents.

Lilly had trouble keeping her fingers off while I took a photo!

There were treats for the entire family, but here was one for me, this pretty heart shaped pincusion. It is getting acquainted with my other pincushions, including this much used mushroom one from Kristin.

Mom sent us a package last week too! She sent us all gifts and Lilly's mouse insisted on scurrying round the pincushions!

This sweet card accompanied the wonderful goodies from Chara Michele, the second give away I won.

The colors she used are so vibrant and uncommonly pretty together.

Not only does she have an eye for color but also such thoughfullness. She backed this beautiful scarf with the softest robin's egg blue flannel which will feel so lovely warming my bare neck on a cold day.

She surprised me too with some fabric treats! I guess I shouldn't enter any more give aways, I feel guilty now. I should give some other people a chance to win!

I haven't made so much lately. I have been spending time getting to know our new camera in my free time. Lilly and Sebastian have inherited our old one. Hopefully I will get the hang of the new one before too long! My husband took this shot today.

We've had some deliciously sunny days this week giving us a tease of spring despite our knee-deep snow. We mothers found ourselves with eyes closed, faces towards the sun, just soaking in the rays with tingling pleasure as the children frolicked in the snow.

I have oodles of new dolls with embroidered faces in my shop today available to ship worldwide!

 

The winner is...

Before I announce the winner of my give away... I have another announcement!

Lilly can do ponytails! She borrowed the pretty compact mirror my darling husband gave me before we were married to get a view of them. Height-wise and hair wise she looks a year younger than she is, but she is growing at her own pace.

My dolls aren't getting any larger in size but they are increasing in number! I am working hard these days to stock my little shop for the upcoming holidays. Hennie and Sovehjerte (BOTH sold, thank you)  are a few of the newest matryoshkas. I am crazy about the chicken fabric they are boasting, not to mention the Liberty fabric on Hennie.

I don't have time to write a decent post today but I felt I couldn't keep you in suspense any longer about the winner of my give away! I am so pleased to announce the winner is: Carol. (I will be contacting you Carol!) Thank you all so much for joining in and you know me, I will want to have another soon!

Above you see a remake of a vintage postcard which I recently sent to my elderly aunt who once lived in Norway. I was flattered when Vintage Indie contacted me asking if they might use my photos for a feature about my dolls! My matryoshkas got to be the "Weekend Swank". They seemed to relish the time in the limelight. A couple of other matryoshkas recently popped up here.

 

Eva Margrethe and Liv Elinor (SOLD, thank you!) are available in my shop. 

 

I also wanted to let you know that I do custom orders if there is a special doll you have in mind!

I hope you are having a good week and won't be shy about leaving me comments! I love to hear from you!

Happy Blog Anniversary to me!

For this week's Etsy European Street Team the theme was the Elizabethan Era. You can see everyone's entries on Dina's blog. I knew I had to make something Queenly. I find the faces of the portraits of people of the Elizabethan era unpleasantly severe. I decided to look into me stash of doll rejects. There are a few I haven't been happy with for one reason or another and have just put aside. I found one with a strict face and transformed her into a Queen! I gave her new hair, sewed on a royal costume and embellished her with many jewels.

Her gown is made of raw silk. Her lovely ruffled neck is a thrifted lace piece. The metallic trim is also from my stash of thrifted trims. The bigger jewels on this royal lady are Swarovski crystals.

I thought you might want to see her undergarments as they are so pretty! Here she is lifting up her skirt so you can get a peek.

Today is my One Year Blog Anniversary!!! I would like to celebrate it with you by giving away a gift certificate for my shop for any doll available. This seems like it might be a nice idea because the winner of the gift certificate could get one for herself or might instead give it away as a gift to someone else! I will send the winner a pretty gift certificate, to be designed soon by my kind husband! Gift certificates will soon be available in my shop.

If you would like to join in on my give away all you need to do is comment to this post by midnight Monday, September 8. Anyone may enter, from lurkers to those near and dear may enter! Please do! I just love to see who is visiting me!

 

An exciting week...

This week has been so wonderful! The highlight of this week: MOM IS HERE VISITING!

We picked her up at the nearby bus stop and walked her home.

On the way home we dawdled to pick raspberries.

Nearly every day on her visit we have gone out berry picking! Here is Lilly sporting a sweater and PANTS that I made for her! This is the first pair of pants that I have ever made! The cotton fabric is sweet as can be with little rosebuds on them. I should show you more of it because the pants would give you a good laugh. I sewed the wrong seams together! I didn't notice until they were entirely done. They look funny as can be flat on the table but when Lilly wears them you don't notice...

All this berry picking has led to the most scrumptious concoctions.

Our dishes were filled with strawberries, goose berries, blueberries, raspberries, red currants, and black currants. Our bellies were full and our freezer is slowly but surely filling up too with summer's bounty.

Both Camilla and Jennifer have received their give away packages so it is now safe to share this bundle of fabrics with you which I sent off to Camilla. Below you can catch a glimpse of some dolls I am working on in some new fabrics.

I said there was lots of excitement for me this week! Well, Méri was kind enough to let me know that she had spotted my mamas and babies on Whip up! Then I found out that some other dolls had made an appearance on Cuteable!

 

I am saving some really exciting news for last! My dear friend Michele had the grand opening of her boutique! You can see her really cute invitation above, and she is selling my dolls in her shop! I haven't heard yet how the opening went and I am dying to hear all about it!

These new happy faces, Idona, Valda, and Hulda are my latest additions to my shop.

Perhaps you can tell by nearly a week of no-blogging that I am wholeheartedly enjoying my mother's visit and wonderful company. I will try to do better on the rest of her visit- there is just too much to share with you to be gone so much!

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Two winners!

This is the post where I announce the winners of my give away! Since the give away was dolls I will show you my newest ones! These were done with one of my all-time favorite fabric lines: Heather Bailey's Fresh Cut. If you haven't seen yet that she has blogged about her two new fabric lines you should hop on over!
 

I loved hearing from so many of my friends and others who were de-lurking and commenting for the very first time. Thank you for dropping by. Thanks for showing an interest in my knitting, sewing and doll making adventures. Thank you for appreciating my children with me. Having a give away is just a small token of my appreciation of you, your friendship and support. It is also a way to give back to this wonderful creative community that I am so happy now to be a part of!

I am pleased to announce that with the assistance of the ever trustworthy Random Number Generator I have selected the two lucky winners of my little give away: Camilla will receive Trude and Anne Gry will be heading off to Jennifer. There will, of course, be little surprises accompanying the dolls but I couldn't reveal that now... but here are a few more dolls in the bird series I have been creating.

Now that Annie has received the doll I made as part of the doll swap I participated in I can show her to you!

 

Annie, you see, is particularly fond of tea so I knew that I had to incorporate tea into the doll in some way. I made her an apron with the little "tea time" embroidery to remind Annie to have a cup of her favorite beverage. I am not sure she really needs any prodding though. You really should see the photos Annie has taken of her though. She is so cute perched in a teacup! Silly me, I didn't even take a photo of the bag I sent her off it! So you really must visit Annie to see it! You will be happy that you did as her blog is full of handmade goodness!

 

I have a couple of pairs of socks (first blogged here) completed to share with you! Lilly trying on her new silk and alpaca socks for next winter.

 

Lilly in action doing some heel tapping with her stripy socks.

 

The socks again, staying still without their lively occupant.

Matryoshka softies for YOU!

 
I have been keeping busy this week with a custom order and an order for Mosey Handmade. These are the dolls I have sent off to Jes. It is really nice to think I will have some of my dolls in a shop!

For the order I needed to make some tags. I used some of the oval cutouts I have leftover from doll faces. Some I left as is and the others I cut into hearts. I sewed a simple line down the center of the heart and ovals.

I haven't forgotten the long promised give away! One of my problems is that I am not very good about making decisions - what to give away? I want to treat you to something special as your kind, funny, thoughtful, helpful, sympathetic and just plain wonderful comments add such a ray of sunshine to my day! So I thought and thought about what to give and then it hit me: my dolls! I will draw two names, I will send Trude to one and Anne Gry to the other.

So here is Trude, bright and cheery in the foreground.
 
Shh, Anne Gry is sleeping. She is the other give away doll! Her very sweet trim was a gift from Melissa.

I will include a few gift tags and some other surprises too!

To be one of the two lucky winners of my give away all you need to do is  make a comment to this post by Wednesday, June 18th.

I just had to show you Trine's backside (she is in my shop). I thought that the polka dotted red and white fabric would be so cute as a mushroom so Trine now has one!

Packages around the world

I had to show you the mailboxes that I use to drop off my packages because they are so bright and cheery. I just wanted to say that the little gifts I sent off awhile back in celebration of my 100th blog post have been arriving!

Four amazing bloggers were the lucky winners and they have been letting me know lately that they have received their gifts. Kajsa got hers, and it will be great fun to see if some of my fabrics turn up on one or two of her appliqués. Erin has been so busy making the cutest children's clothing designs lately, but she took the time to let me know that she got her package. Lara's package arrived safe and sound all the way on the other side of the world. I loved seeing the skirt Lara made from kimono. Alison, who has her own stockpile of fabric, wrote to tell me the she had received hers too.

And dear Jean will likely receive her package any day now! Soon I will show you the lovely gift I was so thrilled to get from Jean. I guess I get a kick out of hearing that I have made someone happy. That probably means that I will want to do another give away before too long...

Hearts

A while back I hearted this shop. Maybe I should explain what hearting a shop means. If you like an Etsy shop and would like to check back again later you can click on add seller to favorites under the  page tools. I did that on Monda's shop.

She wrote me to ask for my address saying that she was sending a gift to me because I was the 100th person to give her a heart! I got this lovely package in the mail!

Inside was this beautiful brooch with hand stiching.

And these were the adorable cards she had enclosed. Monda doesn't just do pretty, she also does MONSTERS! Thank you Monda for the sweet handmade gift!

I spent most of the day again today lazing around with my very weak, sleepy but recovering daughter. She has wanted me by her side at all times. I got a bit of stitching done while my dear one was sleeping.

I also finally sent off the 4 give away packages. I am sorry that I was so slow to mail them off! I so wanted to include a tiny handmade gift along with the fabrics and of course those had to be made!

Congratulations!

With the help of my lovely assistant, the random number generator, I have found four lucky winners of my hundredth post give away:

Erin, Lara, Kajsa, and Alison. I won't reveal who gets which fabrics as it will be ever so much more exciting for each recipient to open up the package when she don't know which pretty pile is going to be hers.

I laughed when I found out who the winners were, because Alison sells fabric on Etsy! Who wouldn't want a bit more though, right!? I think it only fitting that Alison should have a bit of fabric coming her way too.

I wish you a happy Easter for those of you who celebrate it and share with you more digital images from Ian of South Korea.

We are nearly healthy now and ready to enjoy the rest of our 5 day vacation! I want to thank everyone for all the outpouring of get well wishes!

100th post celebration!

Here is the latest dress for Lilly.

How can I thank you for all of your comments, hints, tips and kindness?! Thank you to all for leaving me words of encouragement and for reaching out in friendship! I always find writing the most challenging part of blogging and I wrote more about my appreciation of you but based on my husband's opinion:

"I think it is a little mushy" I have edited it away.

So let my give away be a token of my affection.

To celebrate I will be sharing with you!

Most of us who love to sew, drool over fabrics we see on other people's blogs, so why not share what I have?

I will draw 4 names, one for each pile of fabrics below. Many you have seen. Some are vintage and others new.  I will add in some other treats as well-  like tiny bits of Liberty to get you hooked too! By the way, take a look at what Alex is doing with Liberty fabrics.



Someone will get some pinks!



And there has to be someone who would love some flowery brights?



And the blues. The vintage pansy fabric is one I am especially fond of.


You have seen a bit of these fabrics recently too.

In celebration of this 100th post, I will randomly draw 4 commenter's names (commenters to this post) out of a hat and mail each of the winners one of the fabric piles plus whatever else strikes my fancy that day!  I'll draw the names next Thursday, March 20th at 12 noon EST and announce it soon after.

I welcome those who have never visited or commented before to join too!

And now the winner...

Thank you everyone for your wonderful words of wisdom, birthday wishes, and enthusiasm for my upcoming store opening. I had a marvelous birthday and so far this new decade is looking good.

My mom's handmade basket was filled with your comments. I would have had one of the children pick a name but for two days now we have been computer-less in our little household. Yes, Saturday night our trusty machine stopped. My handy husband fixed it today after doing a bit of shopping at the computer store.

Without further delay, I am so happy to announce the winner of my handmade babushka doll and linen heart: Lina. She is another mother who loves to sew, and I adore the embroidered coasters she made awhile back.

I am afraid that our computer trouble has set me back a bit with my store plans... I hope that you will undersand and be patient with me.

I finished the dolls that I had cut out last week though. The loss of surfing time resulted in a gain in sewing time. I spent much of Sunday hanging out with the family snuggled on the couch embroidering.

I really must list them soon because they are so full of cheer!

They would like to find lovely homes to move to.

I won!

I love to enter contests and give aways and do so freqently but seldom win. This time I really got lucky! Look what I won from Fio d'art in Portugal!

They were in a handmade package with cute red and white polkadotted fabric. She sent a cute card with a sweet little note. It was so fun to recieve and such a surprise to get so many nice treats along with the prize! 

I have been busy getting a couple of packages ready to send and they are in the mail! The first is a local swap in Norway with Merete, a Norwegian blogger who inspires me with her use of color and pattern in her beautiful quilts. She is getting some kimono silk and I look forward to seeing what she will surprise me with in return!

The other package is going all the way to Japan! I thought I would give a sneak peek at what I am sending to Jan. Do check out all of the cute fabric fish she has made! What fun to get to know Jan who is of Norwegian ancestry but has never been to Norway! I am sending her some crafting treasures and surprises from Norway! Here are a few of them.

Jan and I both love embroidery. So she is going to get some vintage embroidery pieces from me; a handkercheif, a couple of small table centerpieces, a small tablecloth, and a wall hanging. A few of them were very hard to part with...

This is kind of a surprise. I hope she likes it!

Jan loves pewter/silver buttons so she'll be getting these.

Then there is the fabric! Cottons galore. Every one of them vintage or newer Norwegian cotton!

What will Jan make? I love seeing her quilts done with the beautiful Japanese cottons.

I wonder what she will think of the Scandinavian designs?

Blogging is so much fun! I had no idea I would meet so many wonderful people.

More gifts received!

I am afraid I have been very slow to show you the other gifts I mailed off! Kristin La Flamme received hers: I actually sent her three small gifts, to thank her for the beautiful fabric post card which she sent me. Two gifts were for Kristin and and one for her daughter! The twirly scarf and kimono scraps I sent with Kristin in mind and the gloves for her little one.

You can read Kristin's lovely thank you post here.

I mailed off the other gift package with hopes that it would delight! Sheree was aslo happy to get her gifts which again she and her daughter were the recipients of. Since Sheree has an affinity for vintage notions I sent her some vintage lace and buttons. Her young girl I had noticed while doing some detective work on Sheree's blog likes fluffy accessories. I had just the thing for her! (Sheree took the photo.)

Sheree had many to thank in her post as she was literally showered with gifts, not just from me but from 3 others as well!

I went through a real stage of making felted bags. It was so satisfying as you never knew exactly how it would turn out after a round in the washing macine! This pink one was really sturdy! It was quite think and would definitely keep its shape. The flower is a broche so completly removable and useful for other purposes. Here are more felted purses I made for a Christmas Market a few years ago.

And the winners are...

Now the children are asleep and the house is delightfully quiet.

 

So now I have time to pick 3 winners!

Having a give away was a lot of fun for me! For one I really like to share my love of textiles with others, and sharing my purchases makes me feel a bit less like someone who hoards things. The best thing about having a drawing though was making such wonderful connections with others! Thank you to everyone for your wonderful comments! I wish I could give something to everyone who commented!

Guess what? Jan, author of Where is my brother blog, and I have agreed to a trade! She will send me more kimono silks and I will send her Norwegian buttons, craft magazines, etc! That is not all! Merete, a local Norwegian art quilter,  wants to trade too!  I had no idea that so many of you would find my blog or that you would be interrested in kimono silks. I have had way too much fun and spent too many hours exploring everyone elses blogs!

I was so impressed with the thoughtfulness of so many who kindly and unselfishly passed the word along about the drawing! Thank you Debbie from Homespun Living, Christine from Sew Christine, Working mom knits, Joanne from Mothers of Invention and my dear cousin Marcie from The Gardner Gang for announcing my give away on your blogs!

Using the Random Number Generator I have found the 3 winners! Congratulations to:

• Beth Dasecke, winner of a vintage kimono silk scarf (Let me know which one you want!)
• Eileen, winner of 3 vintage silk kimono panels for crafting inspiration
• Hazel, winner of a small bundle of vintage silk kimono scraps

Please keep those comments coming! I really like to hear from you. I hope that my small give away might offer some crafting inspiration! I would love to see what you make from the panels and scraps!

Kimono craze and A GIVE AWAY!

Here are a couple of kimono from my collection. They are difficult to photograph because the pattern on these are damask and they have a sheen to them.

I have to confess that I have a kimono buying obsession. At first I figured it was an environmentally friendly way to craft: buying vintage. That is until I considered that it ships all the way from Japan...

The other problem is that I love the fabric but haven't really decided what I will do with it yet. I guess I feel a bit sheepish about sharing my passion for kimonos when I don't really know what I will do with them. I simply adore looking at and feeling the various silks. Some are buttery soft and others are beautifully crisp. The colors and designs are always stunning.

So far I have made a few scarves from the kimono I have picked apart.

   

Here are some panels:

I have also made some flowers. Here is one of them. From Kumiko Sudo's book, Omiyage. That is all I have made from the kimono.

I have assembled a few piles of kimono scraps.   

Since I am not using up the vintage silks very fast and am starting to have a guilty conscience about it I am going to have a give away! Maybe I can help someone with a Christmas gift or help inspire someone else to make something with a panel or scraps?

JOIN THE DRAWING! (Ends December 3rd)

I am going to host a drawing with 3 different prizes! They are as follows:

1. a vintage kimono silk scarf

2. 3 vintage silk kimono panels for crafting inspiration

3. a small bundle of vintage silk kimono scraps

All you have to do to enter the drawing is leave a comment on this post between now and next Monday, December 3rd. On December 4th I will draw 3 names from among those who leave a comment to this post, one for each category. The winner of category 1 may choose a scarf , the winner of category 2 will receive the two panels shown plus a mystery panel, and the winner of category 3 will receive the silk scraps shown here!

Otherwise I am hoping to entice people to trade with me! Anyone want to trade: my supplies or hand-mades for theirs? I would love that! Look in my photo album for things available for trade. Plus if anyone has any tips on more ways to use the silks I am all ears.