a little giveaway & my love for...

Japanese fabrics!  My love for these sweet textiles is what I've had since I first started my manic obsession!    Yes, I adore all the cutsie little forest animals in the bright lovely colors!    If it wasn't for these adorable little creatures I don't know if my love of fabric would have begun.  They were some of my very first fabrics I started to collect and still get just as giddy when new ones come out.

I don't think I've seen such cute Japanese fabrics for quite awhile so am extra excited about their arrival!

 Animal Candy and Sweets

 Little Forest Friends and Baking Blocks

 Kawaii Animal Stripes

 Animal Friends Cooking Sweets in Pink

 Deer and Bunny Teacups

 Little Forest Friends Baking Mix on Aqua

 Animal Friends and Apples

 Animal Drinks with Aqua Polka Dots

 Animal Sweets in Creamy Yellow

 Matryoshka Animal Friends

 Bunny Sweets Patchwork

 Also, you add in Japanese + shabby chic = pure bliss!  Aren't these ones fabulous!!

 Flower Rose Bouquet Collection

In October I've got some new lovely Atusko fabrics coming that I can't wait to see!!  I thought you may like a sneaky peaky.  :)

 A fabulous patchwork in all these pretty colors!  Yum!

Aren't all these so pretty!!  I love all of them!!

Would you like to win a fat quarter bundle of the new Japanese cutsie fabrics or the pretty floral Japanese fabrics.   I'll pick two winners, one for the cutsie forest friends bundle and one for the pretty florals.  :)

You have 3 chances to win. Choose any 3 of the following~

1. Tell me what you've been sewing this week (sadly I've been missing my sewing machine, life has just been too busy) 

2. Blog about this giveaway
3. Have commented on my blog before
4. Are a follower of my blog
5. Have bought from my Etsy shop, Sew Deerly Loved

Make sure to leave a separate comment for the 3 you qualify for. I'll be using random.org to pick the winners so if you don't leave a comment for each 3 that you qualify for you will only get one chance instead of three.

You have until Sunday evening, September 30th.  I'll announce the winner on Monday.

Good Luck!

pillow talk!

Lets have some pillow talk, why don't we!  :)  Sign-ups for The Pillow Talk Swap just began today!!  I can't believe it is round 9.  One little idea sprouted into one of the most fabulous swaps I've been delighted to help run.  We have had some of the most amazing pillows swapped in the past 8 rounds.  They simply amaze me more and more, and each round brings a new level of creativity.  Check out some of these steller pillows~

 Leaf Pillow by Jolene

 Diamond Star Pillow by Terri

Popcicyle Pillow by Tamiko

 Scrappy Diamond Pillow by Amy

 Scrappy Squares Pillow by Tamiko

 Spool Hexagon Pillow by Charise

 Patchwork Squares and Plus Pillow by Corrie

Stars and and Squares Pillow by Tamiko.  I was the lucky one to receive this amazing pillow!  :)

 Patchwork Text Pillow by Amy

 Munki Hexagon Pillow by Heather

My pillow from the last round.

My pillow inspiration mosaic for this round. 

1. Axe head patchwork - cushion, 2. yoyo pillow, 3. hexagon pin cushion, 4. Modern Crazy Quilt for Aurifil Thread Challenge, 5. Pillow Talk Swap Top, 6. busy little pinwheel quilt, 7. The Simple Life pillow, 8. this feels familiar, 9. Red Pink & Aqua Hexagon Pillow Top, 10. Brit Quilt: Summer Medallion Quilt, 11. scalloped edge dresden plate trivet, 12. mini apple pincushion, 13. uhg swap finished, 14. Hexy MF QAL, 15. Not available, 16. Mini Cross Quilt for Kerry

Aren't all those pillows amazing!!  Now you can see why I love this swap so much!!  I can never get enough of amazing plush pillows!!  And they are all such eye candy.  We are having sign-ups till the 20th or until we hit 150 swappers.  It looks like we are about half way there this morning.   Then we will give out partners on the 24th, and the mailing deadline is the 15th of November.   If this seems like a swap for you please feel free to join in.  We'd love to have ya!  :)

Now to start brainstorming some pillows ideas!   Hope you have a fabulous week, my friends!

farmers wife for the home~ tutorial and giveaway!

Good Morning, dear friends!!  Most know that I have slowly been working on my Farmers Wife Blocks, and really love the sweet little blocks.  It is a big project and is something that you can't do in a week or a month.  So I was excited to be invited to the Farmers Wife for the Home collaboration. Thanks, Andrea!   We each make a project for the home using some farmers wife blocks, post a tutorial or our process and then give that project away on our blogs.  

We were sent a lovely charm pack from Robert Kaufman, some grey solid, cream solid and a little bit of trim.  The challenge was to make something mostly using solids.  It was a fun way to go out of my comfort zone as I usually use at least 20 prints per project.   It made the process much faster and easier which was great!!  Not a lot of thinking which can be half the battle for me.  :)

I made a lovely table topper.  Would you like to make one too?  Here is what you'll need~

Farmers Wife Book
Templates 7, 8 and 45
Kona Charm Pack or some Kona scraps
A few print fabric (1 for each block and one for a border)
3/4 yard of Kona solid  in cream, white, or snow
1/2 yard of Kona Grey for backing
1/4 yard of Kona for binding
Ric Rac Trim (mine is Riley Blakes Velvet Ric Rac in Aqua)
Scissors
Pins
Tape

We are doing block {11} Broken Dishes.  Choose your Kona solids and your print fabric.

I place a piece of tape on the back of my template so the template doesn't shift while I'm cutting out my pieces.

 Cut all your pieces for the block and lay them out.

 Start stitching your pieces together as it shows in the book.

 Keep stitching your block together!

Continue with your other two blocks.  Block {34} Flock, and block {39} Friendship.  Then lay them out in the order you prefer for your table topper.

Cut your border pieces to 2 inches by the lengths of your blocks.  Mine were six inches but most others are 6 1/2 inches.  My templates printed out a bit smaller.  Then stitch them to your blocks.

Cut and stitch your large top and bottom border.  2 inches X the length of your topper at this point.

 Add a cream border, print border and then one more cream border.

 Sandwich and quilt your topper.

 Stitch on the ric rac using a 1/8th seam allowance.

Stitch on the binding.  I machine stitch my binding with stitching it first onto the back.

Before you stitch your binding onto the front I cut my corners to create less bulk.  This especially helps when using ric rac.

 Then turn your binding to the front, pin and then stitch your binding on.

 Yippee!  We are all done!!

Would you like to win this table topper or one of the other lovely projects?  All you have to do is sign into the rafflecopter and it will let you know how to enter and the number of entries you get.  Super simple!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure to stop by all the other talented bloggers this week for inspiration and a chance to win their project!

Monday, September 10th - Erin of Two More Seconds

Tuesday, September 11th - Kerri of Lovely Little Handmades

Wednesday, September 12th - Jodi of Pleasant Home

Thursday, September 13th - Jody of Everyday Beatiful

Friday, September 14th - Amy of Diary of a Quilter

Saturday, September 15th -Andrea of Knitty Bitties

Good Luck!

labor day stitching

For Labor Day week-end we did a little family camping trip. There were a total of 20 of us with 12 of those being kiddos. We had LOTS of fun! I brought along a cute little embroidery project for me to work on.

It is one I pinned last week from Flickr that is from a vintage pattern.   Jamie even gave the link to the vintage embroidery patterns here.

Isn't she such an adorable happy strawberry!

I'm not sure what I should make her into?  What do you think?  I need some fresh ideas.  Or would you leave her in the hoop and hang her like that?

Happy Tuesday, my friends!