Giveaway: Guess The Project!

It's been a while since we've done a giveaway, so I thought it might be fun to play a little game and give away some designer fabric!

I have gushed about my love for Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room fabric collection. I had a little bit left after making my clutch and zippered pouch, and bought an additional yard of it for a new project.


Can you guess what that new project is?

Here are the clues: first, the fabric itself and second, assorted notions that will be involved in the project.

Clue 1:

Clue 2:

What am I going to be making with this stuff?! Give us your best guess in the comments. One entry and one guess per person, please. Make sure your comment includes a way to reach you, like an email address or link to blog. This little contest is open until Sunday 10/24 at midnight PST.

Here's the best part: there will be 2 winners!

First person to guess the project correctly wins a fat quarter of the above mentioned Shadow in Teal by Anna Maria Horner (home decor weight).


And just for playing along, we will also pick a random winner from all answers. Their winning bundle will include the following fat quarters (quilting weight cotton): Mocca in red by Alexander Henry, a lovely green FQ from Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy collection, and Swing Toss in pink from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane collection.


Winners will be announced on Monday 10/25. If there are no correct answers, we'll pick one random winner from all comments who will receive all 4 fat quarters.


All fabrics have been pre-washed and ironed, so they are ready to go for whatever cute gift projects you've got planned for the holiday season!

Good luck!

Rejardin Giveaway Winner!

Last week, I wrote about Rejardin, the beautiful Etsy shop of jewelry by our friend Rebecca the Housewrecka. Becky graciously offered one of her gorgeous ceramic pendant necklaces for a giveaway to celebrate our 100th post. Thank you so much, Becky!


Many of you participated, and this morning, we have a winner!


Congratulations, jensings!


We'll email you to coordinate the delivery! Thank you to everyone who participated. It's always lovely to hear from each and everyone of you. We look forward to the next giveaway!

We hope you enjoyed browsing Rejardin and discovering Becky's pieces. Remember to sign up for the feed in her Etsy shop to stay updated on her new additions. She also does wonderful custom work, so please contact her if you have a unique piece in mind. Thanks again, Becky!

Show and Tell: Rejardin (and a Giveaway!)

Happy 100th post! We've been having so much fun working on Stumbles & Stitches, we look forward to the next hundred posts! And to celebrate this accomplishment, dear readers, we're having a giveaway. That's right!

Before I get into that, let me first introduce the subject of my spotlight today: Rebecca from Rejardin. Becky is a friend of ours and a super talented crafter. You can check out her jewelry on Etsy here, and make sure to visit her blog for amazing photography and craft posts.

Aside from being talented, she is also super awesome and is offering a gorgeous pendant to one of our readers for this giveaway to celebrate our 100th post! Thank you, Becky!! For a chance to win this lovely pendant, check out the details at the end of this post!



I've made a bit of jewelry in the past, and still have some tools and a little bead stash that have sadly been left untouched for too long. It is such an art form! I love to browse Etsy for jewelry to see what handmade goodness people are creating. Such creativity and inspiration -- and Rejardin is no different!

Becky says she finds her own inspiration and ideas from magazines and stylish catalogs, for example the beautiful Sundance Catalog, as well as from watching other women. If you ever catch her staring at you, she's probably just checking out your jewelry! Working with unique materials also spurs her creativity. One of her favorite places to shop for materials for her Rejardin designs is the Brimfield Antique Show. It is billed as the "largest outdoor antique show in the world" and features incredible estate jewelry, beads and gemstones that can't be found just anywhere. She dismantles what she brings home and uses it in her own designs.

Here are some of her latest earrings. Aren't they gorgeous?!



It's been fascinating to talk to Becky and find out all about her process and journey toward making jewelry. After dabbling in a bunch of other crafts such as pottery, painting, sewing and knitting, she found jewelry-making to be the most satisfying and rewarding personally. A few years ago, it became her focused hobby, her "niche". I am so envious of that feeling, I wish I had that kind of clarity regarding crafting!

You can read about Becky's first lesson in jewelry-making here, and check out pics of her first creations here. I still love those simple bead earrings so much! But it's also very cool to see how the style and intricacies of the pieces in Rejardin has evolved since then. You can see her evolution by browsing through the jewelry posts on her blog. Her Rejardin Etsy shop also features an eclectic selection of pieces.



Becky says her process of jewelry-making is a mirror of her life: all over the place! Like us, she is a busy mama to 2 young sons, recently adopted a puppy, is pursuing photography classes and assignments, jogging, blogging, the list goes on. Similarly, her jewelry-making is passionate but diverse. She likes to constantly be trying something new and different and often takes classes to learn new techniques: ring and stone jewelry, sweat soldering, lampwork bead making, fused fine silver, etc.



She has used some of these newly learned skills in her designs like her stamped and hammered pendants (above). I love this unique twist on the popular stamped pendants: the back is stamped with simple initials, but the flowery face and beads work together to make this a gorgeous necklace. Becky seems to have a knack for finding her own style amidst trends, so her designs are hip but distinctive.

"I try to look at things differently and then develop my own unique design. The stamped jewelry is quite popular with names, inspirational words or just a letter or initial. I took it another step further with these large initial pendants made out of sterling silver wire that I've shaped and hammered and then tumbled to make extra smooth and shiny. I've yet to put these in my shop but I do get a lot of compliments when I wear my own."



I mentioned earlier that Rebecca's blog is full of great posts about photography, jewelry and various other crafts. One of my favorite posts recently was a great tutorial for making shrinky dink earrings. Check it out. You know you want to make some!!



To stay up to date on the latest designs featured in Rejardin, you can add her Etsy shop to your feed reader (find the "subscribe to shop feed" link in the right column of the Etsy page). Aside from being on Etsy, Becky also does quite a bit of custom work. Make sure and check out her blog, Rebecca the Housewrecka (love that name!). Whether it's a gift or custom order, if she features it on her blog, she can recreate it for you! Just contact her with your vision, requirements, budget... and she'll work her magic for you!

Okay, and now... drumroll... here's the giveaway!!

Bright polka dots of black, chartreuse, and teal adorn this whimsical cobalt blue and black artisan made ceramic pendant. The pendant measures 1 1/2" in circumference and is attached with a black leather cord. Findings are sterling silver. Necklace measures 19".




For a chance to win this fun pendant by Rejardin, simply leave a comment below! Make sure it includes contact info. Comments will close on Sunday 8/8 at midnight PST and we'll announce a randomly chosen winner on Monday. Good luck! And thanks again to Rebecca the Housewrecka!

Wow, can I enter to win this contest myself? Because I am loving that necklace. I have some of Becky's earrings and always get comments on them when I wear them. Her use of color and unique materials really infuses her work with her personality: classic, colorful with a touch of whimsy thrown in for good measure. I can't wait to see who wins this piece!

Our First Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered our first giveaway this week! It was wonderful to receive so many comments, from readers old and new and from all over the world! We have loved hearing from you and hope you will continue to chime in on our posts.

Now let's pick a winner! The lucky one will receive a handmade blue patchwork pincushion caddy with pins, an assortment of vintage buttons, about 500 yards of Jazz yarn, a vintage needle book and 2 fat quarters of hard-to-find Heather Ross fabric.

And the winner is...


Congratulations, Jenny!


We will email you to figure out the details on how to ship you your new goodies!

Thank you again to everyone who participated! We hope to have more of these little giveaways in the future. Have a great weekend!

Scrappy Squares Quilt: Progress!

Hi Angel! So much to talk about today! First off, how lovely and wonderful to hear from our readers on the giveaway post yesterday. I love how the internet breaks down all geographical boundaries, we got visits and comments from all over the world. What a wonderful international crafty community!

(Note to our readers: If you haven't left a comment to enter yet, it's not too late: the giveaway is open until Friday morning PST when we will pick a winner at random! Check it out, spread the word, and drop us a line for a chance to win some lovely goodies! Also, for those of you who asked, I fixed the code for the button -- at least I think I did!)

Let's move on to some project talk... I have made a little progress on my scrappy squares quilt! I wish this could be a post about the finished top. Unfortunately, I'm not quite there yet. Between our 3-day heat wave last week which left this pregnant mama pretty useless without AC, and a busy weekend of outings, World Cup final and early Bastille Day celebrations... I didn't get much done. BUT there is some progress which I will show you here!


I have written about this quilt-making experience (my first ever!) a few times over the last couple of months. A few weeks ago, I posted this photo (above) of my fabric choice on our Facebook page: a crip Kona White. While I pondered some more unique choices like natural linen, gray or even turquoise, I think white is indeed the best option for showcasing all the bright colors of the diverse blocks.

Once the fabric was chosen and purchased, I washed and ironed it. I then proceeded to draw my plans in my little notebook. Writing and drawing stuff out helps me so much in the creative process, I'm really noticing the difference in my productivity and efficiency when I can refer to my notes instead of winging it (which I have been known to do...).



On these notes, you can see I figured out and jotted down all the measurements and steps in the top assembly. The quilt's final size will be about 55" x 67.5", which should make for a decent lap quilt, perfect for snuggling and watching TV on the couch.

In my notebook, I also planned out a couple of options for color arrangements. I chose the more organized option over the haphazard one (shocker!). I used two sets of colors per row, alternating cold and warm in descending order: blue > turquoise > teal > green > purple (I know, purple doesn't exactly fit there...), and yellow > orange > red > pink > brown. I could have switched out the purple and brown, but liked it better this way. I especially love the middle color combination of red and teal/dark turquoise. These are the colors I'd like to use for the backing and binding. I need to hunt down the perfect fabrics...

Then began the prep work and assembly:




(That's not beer, sadly. Just apple juice.)

I thought I had measured everything scrupulously. But, I think my square blocks were not all exactly the same size. Probably because I made them all over the course of many months. Note to self: do not trust self to have had adhered to same guidelines throughout a project that lasts this long. Re-measure everything before proceeding! Because of the unevenness between the squares' exact width, I had a few issues making my rows consistent in terms of the spacing between white and color. I made a few tweaks, and I think I fixed the issue.

Here are all my rows, completed:


I then sewed these rows to long strips of white fabric, completing the sashing phase. I ended up with an almost finished top.




The last step to finishing this top will be to add the white border all around. While all the quilt sashing is about 3 inches wide after being sewed, I cut the border strips to be slightly wider: about 4 inches wide before the binding is attached. We shall see how that works out!

Ben loves this quilt already. He told me all about his favorite color blocks and, as evidenced by the photos above, couldn't keep his little hands and feet away from it! One added benefit of using scraps from all kinds of fabrics is that this quilt is becoming a very fun game for my almost-3-year-old: Find the cupcakes! Find the birdies! Find stripes, or polka dots!


Anyway, that's about it for my progress. Adding the border should be easy, but I'm a bit anxious about basting, quilting and binding. Eek! Of course, I will report on my stumbles and progress!

Reminder: Dear readers, please don't be shy. Go say hello on this post and enter the giveaway! :)

Jen! That is a lot of progress! I think the white was definitely the right choice, the colors really stand out. So you're looking for a red/blue or aqua fabric? I'll help you look, maybe window shopping for you will help me stick to my "use what I have" New Year's resolution......

Can't wait to see who wins our first giveaway! I've got my box all packed up and ready to mail to the lucky winner.

Our First Giveaway!

We recently realized that we've been writing this little blog for 6 months. That deserves some kind of acknowledgment and celebration, don't you think? How about a little giveaway? We are so thankful for the loyal readers who have followed us from the start and those who have joined us along the way. You guys make this little project more than worth it!

We've assembled a few things that we hope will strike your fancy. See below the photos for several options to win this little package.

Pincushion caddy
Featuring blue linen as well as prints by Amy Butler, Denyse Schmidt and Kaffe Fassett, comes with a few lovely pins. (Handmade by Jenny, from a pattern by Anna Maria Horner in Seams to Me, details on the sewing process here.)



Assortment of vintage buttons



Yarn
"Jazz" by Artful Yarns, color 51 (50% alpaca, 50% wool), about 500 yards!

Vintage needlebook with 21 needles



and 2 fat quarters of Heather Ross fabric
VW Camper Vans in blue and Sea Kelp in blush



For a chance to win this giveaway, you have up to 6 options! That's right, 6 chances for 6 months of Stumbles & Stitches! Please leave a comment below for each of these things that you choose to do. Each comment is an entry.

- Simply say hello, and if you'd like, tell us your favorite things about Stumbles & Stitches
- "Like" us on Facebook
- Link to our blog or to our Facebook profile on your Facebook page or Twitter account
- Add us to the blogroll of your blog
- Subscribe to our RSS feed (see link at top of right column)
- Add our button to your blog (you can find the code in the right column)

Make sure to leave a comment for each of these things that you do, and to include some form of contact info. Already do one or more of these things? You still get an extra entry! Just let us know in a separate comment. We'll pick a winner at random from the comments and announce it on Friday, July 16. Good luck!

Thank you so much for supporting us and our crafty endeavors through every stumble and stitch.

Comments are now closed on this giveaway. The winner has been announced here. Congratulations!

Thread Stash

As I posted on our Facebook page, the wonderful blog Sew Mama Sew is having a thread giveaway. GORGEOUS new thread collections by Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler. For a chance to win, you can either post photos of projects you've made using fabrics by these two designers in this Flickr pool, or answer this series of questions about your thread stash.


I often think that I ought to be more mindful about my thread choices and to incorporate thread as a design element more often. So this little list was good food for thought. Here are my answers:

* How did you select colors for your personal thread collection?

My thread collection is not extensive by any means. It was built through making project after project over the last couple of years. If I needed specific thread color to match a certain fabric, I would buy a spool or two. There's often a lot left over. Hence a growing stash!

* Do you always match the color perfectly to your project?

No. I am actually terrible about this. I tend to use white or natural thread for almost everything. If I'm working with a brightly colored fabric, especially if it's plain, I tend to match the thread somewhat.

* Do you ever use contrasting thread?

Yes! I love using contrasting thread for top-stitching. I've done so with horrendous results (such as my red top-stitching on those burp cloths, Angel!), but as I get better with sewing straight lines, I find that using contrasting thread to top-stitch can be quite lovely and enhance the pattern and design.

* Do you use the same color in the bobbin as the upper thread?

Usually yes. Sometimes, for example if I am making a burp cloth or receiving blanket that have two very different sides, I'll use different colors in the bobbin and upper thread.

* What if a fabric has big areas of very different colors?

Like I said earlier, I tend to use white or natural thread for almost everything. In that case, I would probably use natural thread and ease my troubles! I'm all about simplifying.

* Do you have any tips or suggestions about choosing thread?

Not really, but I'd love to get some!

* Can you show us a picture(s) of your thread collection?

Oh boy, it's nothing to write home about. My thread stash is not too visually appealing. It's usually crammed, threads all tangled, into a small plastic box. I cleaned my act up for this photo.


The bunch of vintage wooden thread spools I got from my mother-in-law on the other hand is pretty cool, I keep them in a vase as a decorative item in my craft / dining room.


* Do you ever buy thread because you fall in love with the color (without a particular project in mind)?

I never have, but now that I see these gorgeous thread collections by Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett, I might!

* Do you “invest” in thread?

I recently discovered cotton thread and now try to sew exclusively with that. It's a bit more expensive than polyester thread, but I think it's worth the investment. Most of the stash I've built up is polyester thread, and I'll definitely go through it before I buy cotton thread in those colors.

* What types of thread do you have? (elastic, quilting, all-purpose, wool, etc.)

I have all-purpose polyester thread and all-purpose cotton thread. Period! In that vintage bunch, I have seen some silk thread but I'm not sure what I'd use it for. I also found some "extra strong button and carpet" thread in there, it's quite heavy duty. I need to purchase some elastic thread so I have it on hand to experiment on projects involving knits or smocking.

That's it for my answers! I would love to know if some of our readers have answered them as well, please link in the comments so we can find you, or share your thread tips with us!