Crafty Giveaways

I'm so ashamed

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:36:00 +0000

No...I did not get kidnapped in Paris and sent to work washing dishes in some Parisian restaurant. Nor did I get sucked into the bowels of a great fabric store only to be forever lost among the Parisian toile. You know what happened? Life happened! I got home, people got sick (and since we have 5 kids it takes 2-3 weeks for it to run through the family), the holidays came and then......DUNH, DUNH, DUHHHHHH. My hubby got sent to work in Michigan.

So now from Monday morning to late Friday night I am alone with the 5 lovely children that I brought into this world. Thankfully my in-laws live 5 minutes down the road and are mindful of the fact that I need to be away from my children every so often to retain my sanity. Thankfully my hubby's company didn't want him to turn down the MI assignment so they pay for him to fly home every weekend. Thankfully he still has a job in this horrible economy.

However, this all adds up to one thing - I have abandoned my blogging site. I have no energy to take photos. I have no energy to write posts. I am trying to keep my sanity. My mom said to me, "It's just like you're a military wife who has to take care of the kids while the husband is away on assignment." To which I replied, "I always said there was no way I'd be a military wife because I didn't want to take care of the kids by myself while my husband was away." God bless the men and women that do it. I hate it! I miss us just talking in the evening about what happened during the day. It's not the same on the phone. We get on there and can't remember what we wanted to talk about and end up getting off after 5 minutes. Since it's been so long, I felt that awkwardness. It's like when you tell someone you'll call them back and then you forget to and then the longer you wait, the worse you feel about not calling them and then you can't call because your embarrased that it took you so long to call back?! So I made the call and I know that those of you that haven't abandoned the site yet will forgive me.

But we had a good time in Paris. I want to go back! Now that I have returned to my blog, maybe I'll tell you about the trip as I get the chance/energy/inclination. I haven't touched the sewing machine since I've been home - that's how busy I've been. :-( So, I can't afford to send out craftygiveaways for free any more. I was thinking about revising the giveaways. Would you all be interested in givewaways where you pay postage if you win? How about if we do grab bag giveaways? As much fabric as I can stuff into a flat rate box and you pay the postage? I think the flat rate boxes mail for about $8. Let me know what you think.

HaHa!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Who was I kidding to think I was going to get another giveaway done before I went on vacation?! I'm too busy packing for 6 people. (At least hubby is packing for himself.) I will post at least once when I'm gone with some pictures. Later!

Why leave all this?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:39:00 +0000

Well, before I just up and tell everyone where I'm going on vacation in 13 DAYS! I'm going to finally relay my tropical storm saga. Living in FL (Tine you can come visit when you go to Disney World!) we have our share of hurricanes and the like. So, the first week back to school we were supposed to get some (I said "some") rain from Tropical Storm Fay. That basically means no sun, rain, gusty winds - stay home, don't drive (a gust of wind could blow you off the road). Most times these tropical "systems" as they're called move through or past your area in a 12 to 24 hour period.

My tree fell over because the ground was so saturated and the wind blew the basketball hoop over.

This storm was horrible. The meteorologists can sort of predict where the storms are going to go. The farther away from land the storm is, the less accurate the prediction. You watch the news and they say, "oh it's not going to hit the central FL area at all - it's going to north FL." So by the time Monday night rolls around, we're getting a call from the school saying the schools will all be closed, stay home. Still, it was only a mild storm, so everyone just thought it would be gusty rain. No one knew that it was going to go straight over the area where we live and sit and sit and sit.

Radar picture showing the tropical storm with swirls of rainstorms relentlessly pounding us.

It took at least 2 days to blow over and then it turned around and zigzagged back across the state. So we had rain for 2 days straight. Our city had a record rainfall of 30" and that was just what was measured. It was probably much more. That amount is what we get in 2/3 of the year! The ground was soaked. Streets were flooded. There was no school for the rest of the week because people couldn't get out of their neighborhoods safely or had evacuated due to their homes flooding.

When you can't go outside and play because the yard is flooded and there are 40 mph winds, you build a fort.

We had "wind-driven rain" damage. The rain blows through cracks along windows, trickles down the wall and then soaks up into the flooring. All the flooring in our bedrooms has to be replaced. It was so bad in the girls' room that we had to rip it up to prevent mold from growing.

This is the girls' room after we hauled all the furniture out and ripped up the flooring.

This is the boys' room. Big brother's bed is stored in the garage and the mattress has been flipped around to avoid water damage. Not as bad in here as in the girls' room, but still an inconvenience.

So now I have three little, giggly girls sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of my living room with their two dresses and all their other accessories. It is the exact same room where I do my sewing (usually after kiddie bedtime or during nap time). I had all these sewing projects to do before my trip, and they are not getting done. I don't even know if we'll get the new flooring installed before we leave. Here's the state of my living room:

You can click on the picture to see a larger view and read the descriptions. I was going for a panoramic view. At least we can fit three little girls sideways on an inflatable queen size mattress.

Now why would I want to leave all that?! There's only one thing (well maybe three or four or five) that could induce me to leave such domestic tranquility and bliss.

The most romantic place on earth!

The City of Lights!!

PARIS!!!

There were quite a few of you who guessed my destination. The lucky lady whose name I pulled out of the hat was Beeb. You'll be getting a little fabric (or sewing) token direct from Paris! Of course you'll have to wait until I get back for me to mail it, and hope that I'm willing to part with it. J/K!!

I think I'll be able to fit in another giveaway, if my schedule permits, before my trip. So don't go away! Check back next week.....Until then - Au Revoir!

I'd much rather be here.....Closed

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:25:00 +0000

Well, I have gotten nothing done today. I am part of an apron swap and the deadline is Sept. 15. I really don't want to wait until the last minute to get this apron sewn and mailed off. However, besides the flooding two weeks ago, the restart of school last week, I now have a house full of sick kids to contend with. My sewing space has been taken over as a new "room" for the girls while we wait for the carpet for their room. I usually sew when they're down for naps or asleep at night. I cannot do that when they're laying 5 feet from the sewing machine. Little Monkey doesn't even want to take naps because he's sick.

I took pictures of my mess of a house, but I don't have time to edit them yet. So instead of posting pictures of the sad state of affairs at my house, I'm going to post photos from flickr of where hubby and I are going on vacation in 18 days!

I have so much to do before then - which is equally stressful since all the flooding and now the sickness has wrecked my planned sewing and packing time leading up to the trip. We are sending 3 kids to Nana and Papa's and 2 kids to Aunt and Uncle's for the WEEK we're away. We haven't had a vacation with just the two of us since I was pregnant with my oldest - nine years ago!

I've purposely picked photos that don't immediately give away the location. Since I don't have my next crafty giveaway ready, we're going to make this a giveaway.

If you think you know the location of our getaway, send me an email (so your guess remains secret and doesn't influence others) to craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com. From the correct guesses I will randomly pick the winner who receive some fabric direct from the getaway location. I need an excuse to shop for fabric while on vacation! :)

If you could pack up right now and spend a week away, where would it be? You can post your ideal getaway in the comment section. Don't forget to email your guess to keep it secret. Good luck!

Crafty Giveaway #4 Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Alright....this time we have a list of winners.

The first name I pulled, and the winner of the Disney princesses panel, purple fuzzy fabric and purple binding is Beth of Highland Hen. Our next winner is Mary of Scottish Nanna. She gets the princess panel, cotton fabric and pink binding. Sew Bee It, Helz of Blue Shadow Pony and Tine of Sodeste all will receive the princess panel and the cotton fabric.

How crazy is this - 3 of my winners are from Australia (Hello to my friends down under!), 1 is from Denmark and 1 is from I don't know where yet. :o) I guess I have a very international audience. So ladies, please email me your mailing address and reference your blogger name so I can make sure I have everyone accounted for. The sooner I get everyone's information in, the sooner I can head out to the post office.

craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com

Didn't get to the pictures of our storm damage yet. Hope to do that today and post later. Check back....

Giveaway #4 Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Will be announced tomorrow? I'm currently dealing with Tropical Storm Fay damage and trying to get the kids back to school after an unexpected week off. Thanks for being patient - my house is upside down. (More than usual.) Pictures and winners coming soon....

Crafty Giveaway #4 - Closed

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:51:00 +0000

This week's giveaway is in honor of my two youngest daughters. One turned 5 last weekend and one will be 3 in a week. They are in love with the Disney Princesses. I got these wonderful panels a little while ago on clearance. I went crazy and got alot, so now I have 5! to give away. You heard right. I have five of these panels that are 1 yard wide and 45" high (I didn't measure the height, but it runs selvedge to selvedge.) I should have ironed it for the picture, but I'm lucky I got a picture of it. Today was the first day of school and we've been BUSY! This is a great panel to practice your machine quilting. You can follow the design, outlining the ribbon and details of the princess. You can do an all-over design. You could also use this as a center panel and add borders to make a larger quilt.

I also have backing fabric for you to quilt this into a nice little throw or baby quilt. I have one yard of the fabric on the right. It is a polyester, fuzzy lavender with a stripe nap to it. There is enough of the fabric on the left for backing for each of the other winners. For two of the winners I have enough quilt binding to bind your throw and a spool of matching thread to sew the binding on. I have two packages (3 yds in each package) of the lavender and two packages of the pink.

This is a closeup of the fabric on the left. The background color is a blush lavender. It's hard to describe - lavender with a blush undertone. The tiny dots/bubbles look floral-y and are lavender. This fabric and the princess panels are 100% cotton.

On to the particulars of the giveaway.....if you have a daughter, a niece, a cousin, a friend, a granddaughter, a god-daughter, or want to make this and donate it to charity, then this is the giveaway for you. (I can't think of anyone that wouldn't fit in one of the above categories.) In the comments section, tell me what backing you are interested in (cotton or fuzzy lavender) and whether you want the binding (pink or lavender). The first name chosen will get their first choice. There will be 5 winners - each winner will at least get a princess panel and 1 yard of the cotton backing fabric. Two winners will also get the binding and thread. The giveaway will be open until Monday, August 25th at 10pm est.

As always, if you link to my giveaway in your blog then you will get 3 entries. I have to be able to verify that you actually linked to the giveaway post. If your blog is private or not linked to your blogger name than you can email me the link for me to verify. craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com If I cannot verify the link, then I cannot award you the 3 entries - you will however still get your 1 entry.

Good luck everyone!

Crafty Giveaway #3 - We have a winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:17:00 +0000

Sorry I didn't get to this yesterday. I was busy with preparations and celebrations of my hubby's 34th birthday! He is such a wonderful man and FANTASTIC father. I went out of town last weekend and he had ALL 5 KIDS! Now for him that's nothing, but I know for alot of husbands out there that would be a nightmare. I have really been blessed. You can see a picture of my family here.

But here's what you really want to know.....Who won? Congratulations to nclangs!! She is the winner of the irish chain blocks and assorted fabrics. She mentioned in her post that her hubby works for John Deere. Well, it seems only right that she should now be able to make a yellow and green quilt to match all the other John Deere items that adorn her home. (Nclangs - email me at craftygiveaways(at)gmail(dot)com with your address. If you can get it to me before this afternoon I'm making a run to the post office and I can include your package.)

Hopefully nclangs will include her finished quilt/top in our Crafty Giveaways Creations flickr group. You are welcome to post what you win or what you make that is inspired by a crafty giveaway. Were you inspired to start an irish chain quilt after this last giveaway? Post it in the group. We have two lovely ladies that have posted. Trisha (TLC) from TLC Stitches added a photo of her folded flowers that she made with the squares that I sent her. You can see it here. Tine from Sodeste, a lovely lady who lives in Denmark, posted a photo of her package of squares. That's in the group here. We need more photos in there ladies. Hop on over and start posting!

Three giveaways down, so many more to go.....the next one (which will be up at least by the weekend) is in honor of my daughters' birthdays. No. 3 and no. 4 (they still haven't figured out that hubby and I refer to them by number if we don't want them to know who we're talking about) have birthdays in August. So if you're looking for a great, REALLY EASY project for a little girl you know, stay tuned! PS - I'm giving away more than one - so tell everyone!

Giveaway #3 - Irish Chain - Closed

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:51:00 +0000

First off, thank you to all the wonderful ladies who left words of encouragement and advice concerning my machine quilting nightmare. Time and what you all said has added a good amount of perspective. Now I'm ready to sew that binding on and be done with it. Enough of that - on to much happier things - FREE FABRIC AND QUILT BLOCKS!

Here is Crafty Giveaway #3!! (Did you hear the trumpet fanfare?) ;-) This one is perfect for an end of summer quilt. I'm sure there are alot of you that are getting ready to go back to a school-year routine. You have limited time in between trying to find those obscure school supply items the teachers are requesting and making sure you're signed up for fall activities at the rec center. Or maybe your kids are all out of the house, but you could use a break from piecing tops and are ready to get to quilting. Here's the quilt I made for Twin B:

You are getting 9 of Block A and 10 of Block B. The blocks are 10" finished blocks. After looking at my quilt, I realize I'm giving away more blocks than I used. Crazy! But truth be told, I don't want to see any more yellow and green for awhile and I've moved on to other projects.
You will also get the miscellaneous fabrics in the second photo. There are strips, pieces and 1/2 yards - an assortment to be used however you wish. There may be enough to do a border. So how did I have so many blocks left? Well, for one, I overbought in the fabric department. I was going to do the star quilt in yellow and green. After doing the star quilt I realized I wanted to move on to something else (see a pattern yet?) and I whipped this puppy out of my back pocket.

Have you ever done a strip pieced irish chain? It goes so fast and is really rewarding. It's a great pattern for beginners too since it's all straight line, no frills sewing. This particular quilt is a double irish chain. This is a great way to use up your old strips for a scrappy look or you can do a deliberate color pattern as I did here. If you need instructions on how to make a single, double, or triple irish chain quilt you can go to this great website here. They use the strip piecing method. I think I had this top done in 2 days - with interruptions! That is no small feat.

My first "real" quilt was this irish chain pattern for my oldest son. (Notice that horrible afternoon light that I talked about yesterday. Yuck! But I still love this quilt!)

He is a frog fanatic and I had this great frog print to use in place of the white.

Are you ready to enter now? Add your comment at the end of this post. Let us know if you've ever made an irish chain quilt. Did you use the strip piecing method or piece individual squares (AAHH!!)? This giveaway is open to everyone (international people also). If you would like to increase your chances of winning, write about my blog with a link to this giveaway. Let me know in your comment that you linked to me in your blog and you will recieve 3 entries instead of 1. This giveaway will close on Wednesday, August 13th at 10pm est. Good luck and happy sewing!

I have issues.....(Now with pictures!)

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:19:00 +0000

No, they aren't my issues, but they are one of the reasons that I haven't gotten my next giveaway up yet. (They're worth it though!) School is rapidly approaching, and I've been busy getting 3 kids ready for that. We also have 4 birthdays in the next month in our house. Then, the weather would not cooperate with my picture taking times. Afternoon summer showers do not make for good picture lighting, and no one bothered to tell my 11 month old that he should wait to eat so mommy can photograph her fabric. Could someone clue him in? (He looks a little clueless in that photo - that or he's hoping someone can rescue him from those 4 crazy, older siblings)

But the best reason I haven't posted yet is that this I had to do some more sewing before I had my giveaway ready. Huh? Yes, prepare to be amazed - this next giveaway includes COMPLETED BLOCKS!!! All you have to do is sew the blocks together, add some borders (if you want), and quilt that puppy! You'll have a completed quilt in no time. Alas, it's overcast again this afternoon. Have no fear, there are no plans to leave the house tomorrow and I fully intend to take advantage of the morning sun. So make sure you come back to see what's up for grabs.

Now on to my issues (at least the quilting ones). Have you ever had a quilt go terribly wrong? You pour your heart into it; spend endless amounts of precious time on it, only to be disappointed. I must explain that with 5 little rugrats, my time to even piece a quilt top is taken here and there as I can get it. I do not have the time, or the guts to quilt my tops. I have done some simple stitch-in-the-ditch on some crib size quilts, but nothing serious. So the two quilts that I made for the new twins were sent off to someone to be machine quilted. I had used this person once before and been pleased.

Something went terribly wrong this time. There was horrible communication, etc, etc and I ended up with two quilts that I am sick over. I don't even want to post pictures. They're not mutilated - just not what I intended and not the quality that I would like to give. So I am faced with ripping out every stitch and seeing if I can find someone else to quilt them, or having to sit down and sew a binding on each of the disfigured pieces (there's my dramatic side coming out).

So after you all see these, you're going to know how dramatic I am.

Looks decent - until you get up close.

In each of the white squares is this beautiful feathered heart. But it's too girly! I know there will be those who say it's fine for a boy - but it's not what I wanted. I love it - but not on this quilt for this baby.

So the next quilt I pull out has a large meander all over. Not too bad. I would have wanted it a little closer. Then I flip the quilt over and see this:

You can clearly see that the backing that I sent is even with the strips centered in a border of blue. I assumed she would notice this and make sure the top was centered before she quilted. If you click on the picture I think it will come up larger and you can see that she quilted into the blue border on the left but didn't touch the border on the right. That was unnerving! It's a case of not taking enough time or care.

I think the disappointment is in the fact that there was little to no communication with the quilter. She went a.w.o.l. on me and then I get this email that the quilts are done and she'll be shipping them. Up to that point - 3 weeks after I'd sent them to her - I still hadn't told her what design I wanted quilted. I sent her the quilts and emailed saying that they were for boys and that I didn't want the quilting to take away from the piecing, but that I wasn't quite sure of my design choice - did she have any suggestions? I also said I wasn't sure of what thread I wanted. I expected her to get back to me so we could have some dialogue and then I would make the final decision.

My gracious friend who had the beautiful babies, and knows how much time I've already put into these quilts told me to not worry about it one bit, but that they'd be just fine. It's just not what I wanted. What would you do? Rip out the quilting or soldier on and give them as is? I desparately need advice because I'm too emotionally wrapped up in this and not thinking straight. HELP!!

Giveaway #2 Winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:55:00 +0000

Well, I am having a case of insomnia tonight, so I decided to put the names in the jar, give it a shake and see who came up.

Our winner this week is Sue Cahill who commented that she had some great patriotic prints to use as a border. Let's hear it for Sue who'll be able to do some stash busting when she works on this project. Send me your address so I can send this package off to you and clear another corner.

I have to tell you all that I'm beginning to see empty spots - but I'm quickly filling them up with new groups of giveaways. This is just as exciting for me as it is for you. I'm thrilled that my stuff is finding a good home.

Here's a sneak peak at our next giveaway. Since you don't have to match just because you're a twin, it's totally unrelated to Baby A's quilt.

Has anyone checked out the folded flower tutorial and tried their hand at some folded flowers? Tine got her fabric squares and posted to our Crafty Giveaways Creations flickr group. It's open to anyone who wants to post photos of what you did with your crafty giveaway win or a project inspired by a crafty giveaway. We need more pictures in there!

Crafty Giveaway #2 Closes Tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:37:00 +0000

So here are the two cutest babies! Mom and babies are doing wonderful. The baby on the left is going to be the recipient of the quilt that created this giveaway. I hope he likes it! Get your entry in by commenting on the giveaway post before 10pm est. I'll post the winner tomorrow. Baby #2's quilt giveaway will be up within the next few days.

Crafty Giveaway #2 - Closed

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000

First of all, thank you to all who entered the first giveaway. I sent off Kimberly's prize last week and also the squares to those of you that requested them. I hope you all have had a chance to try at least one folded flower with the help of my tutorial. Feel free to pass on the link to others who might be interested in the directions. I've also started a flickr group so you can post photos of the projects (like the folded flowers) that are inspired by Crafty Giveaways. You can check it out and post here. On to the Giveaway!

This week's giveaway is in honor of my dear friend who is in the hospital having just delivered her two twin boys. (Cute baby pictures to be posted after I visit her.) I had a great time making quilts for them - but I overbought in the fabric department. (Surprise!)

My pattern for this first quilt included directions to make 12 blocks. As you can see, I only used 6 in the quilt, so I'm partially through the other 6. I am ready to move on to another project. So you can be the recipient of pre-cut, pre-pieced blocks. There is enough work left to do that you'll feel like this project is your own, but I've already done all of the cutting for you. You'll receive all of the fabric needed to finish piecing 6 different 14" star blocks, the red print sashing strips and some miscellaneous fabrics. You can see more detailed pictures of the fabrics here.

All you will need to add is the outer border fabric, backing, batting and binding. This giveaway gives you a jump on your next project. I will also include a copy of the original pattern instructions to finish the blocks. Of course, I am also available if you have any questions, but the pattern was really clear and easy to follow.

So here's the twist....if you mention my giveaway/blog and link to it in your blog, you will receive 3 entries in the giveaway. Just drop me a line or comment with the link to your mention. I'm still trying to get the word out about these giveaways. If you don't want to blog about me :( that's fine. You are still more than welcome to enter by leaving a comment. Tell us why you're interested in this giveaway. Is it the fabric? The challenge of those angles? The shear joy that someone else already cut the fabric out for you? Or just because? This giveaway will end on Thursday, July 31 at 10pm est. Spread the word!

Folded Flower Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:24:00 +0000

First, in the interest of full disclosure, I must say that I did not come up with this technique. I am merely providing detailed, pictorial instructions on how to make a folded flower as shown by Rebecca Wat on an episode of Simply Quilts to promote her book "Fantastic Folded Flowers." That being said, many of you also saw that episode and were not quite sure you could reproduce what you saw. I have to say that the directions on the website are not as illustrated as they could be. Despite all your fears, this technique is REALLY easy! I had to do 40 flowers for my in-laws' anniversary wallhanging, and that never would have happened if it wasn't something I could master pretty quickly. I have tried to have a picture for every step. If you find something in the tutorial that doesn't make sense or could be clearer, please leave me a comment or email me directly at craftygiveaways (at) gmail (dot) com.

Start with a 6" square, wrong side up. Fold in half width-wise and finger press. Unfold. Fold in half length-wise and finger press. Unfold.

After the two folds you should have a well-defined "x" in the middle.

Take a corner and bring it up to meet the center. Finger press the fold. Repeat for all remaining corners.

This is how it should now look. The right side is showing on the corners that you just folded up.

Now flip the square over to the opposite side - like flipping a pancake. You should see your creases from the first step as an "X" from corner to corner.

Take one side and fold up to meet the "X" in the middle.

Fold up the opposite side, making sure you are centered.

Holding down the center meeting point, carefully (but firmly) finger press each folded side.

This should be what you see when it is opened up.

Now fold the two remaining sides, as in the previous step. You should have an "X" in the center with a square surrounding it.

Take two adjoining sides and bring them back to the center along the previous fold. Match them up so they are even and centered on each side, making a nice triangular "ear" that sticks up.

Using a needle and matching thread, tack the sides together where they adjoin, getting as close to the "bottom" of the ear as possible, but not too close. I usually stitch through 2 or 3 times. Do not cut or knot thread! Leave it attached.

Bring up the adjoining side to the left along the previous fold to meet the opposite side at the center creating another ear.

As before, make sure the triangle is lined up and symmetrical and tack in place. Continue this, folding up the last side and tacking the remaining 2 ears.

Now you should have four "ears" and your thread attached. Run the needle through the bottom of the first ear where you did your first tack to secure the fourth ear to the first ear.

Now take your needle, go down through the center of the ears into the fabric below. You should not actually go through any fabric but the single thickness of the "back" fabric. Your needle should come out through the "x" in the center (you can fudge and peek to make sure). Fasten off and clip thread.

Now you can unfold the back flaps of fabric and flatten them out.

Pinch / finger press one ear to make sure it's symmetrical and even. I also like to fold the ear to each side and lightly finger press it.

Insert your finger in to the center to hold the fabric that joins inside the ear together as you...

Fold down the tip of the ear to meet the center. If you have a "nice fabric" you can finger press this down and it will stay. If your fabric is stubborn, use an iron to keep it down. Continue for all four ears.

After you have folded all four ears down to meet the center, use an iron to steam them in place. Use alot of pressure and alot of steam. You don't want this to move. This should be what the front of your flower looks like.

This is the back / wrong side of your flower. Theoretically this should be a nice 3" square (if you're perfect). But if you're human, and it's a little wonky - that's okay. Just be careful with it and fudge as necessary when you sew it into your projects.

After sewing into your project and quilting as necessary (don't quilt over your folded flower!), open out your ears from the center to make your flower bloom. Tack the points of the petals to the adjoining fabric for security. Your petals will stick out farther than the block, so do not sew two blocks exactly side by side.

This is a great project to take with you on the road or sitting in front of the tv at night. You only need your squares, needle and thread and a thick, hardcover book. I used the book as my surface to fold and press on and then I would smoosh the flowers in the center of the book to keep the petals down until I could get home to steam press them.

I have started a flickr group called Crafty Giveaways Creations. It's so that you all can post photos of projects that you make that are inspired by or uses items you got from a crafty giveaway. I only ask that you list or link to (if you know how) the giveaway that inspired your project when you post to the group. Also, let me know if you post your project on your blog and I'll let others know about it here so they can check it out.

If you entered last week's giveaway, you have until the end of this week to email me with your name and address for your free 6" square. Please include your comment name so I can verify your entry. At the end of the week I will divide all my squares between the people that have told me they want squares. So far I only have 7 takers for all these great squares.

I hope you enjoy this. I had so much fun making this tutorial. You can click on the little envelope at the bottom of this post to pass it along to your friends - let's revive the folded flower! Press on, people!

PS - Check back on Friday for our next giveaway. There'll be more chances for you to win. Yippee!

We have a winner!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:14:00 +0000

First of all, I wanted to say that in just one week of doing this I have had so much fun. I love reading your comments and checking out all these blogs. You all are so creative! From the wonderful ladies that entered, a winner was chosen at random.

You can see monkey no.4 (in a much better frame of mind than yesterday's post-and older) showing our winner. Back to the business at hand....Congratulations Kimberly!! You are the proud owner of my leftover batiks. (Kimberly is moving overseas - and hording fabric to take with her.) I'm glad I can add to your collection. Make sure you send me your mailing address so I can get your stuff sent to you.

BUT WE'RE NOT DONE YET!!!

Since the tagline of this blog is "I'm cleaning out my stash and you win!", for this first giveaway everyone that participated can be a winner!

TELL THEM WHAT THEY'VE WON BOB!

So many of you commented that you had seen folded flowers and were eager to try it, or were worried that it was too hard, or had been inspired by the batiks, which you usually don't use. So, as I'm digging through my stash for fabric for my next project, I came across SOME MORE BATIKS! I lovingly cut out more squares. If you would like a square, email me (craftygiveaways AT gmail DOT com) with the name from your comment and your address. I'll send you a square in the mail.

THAT'S NOT ALL FOLKS!!!

What are you going to do with your 6" square? Make a folded flower of course! And how are you going to do it? In the next few days I will post step by step directions with lots of pictures to show you just how easy it is. You'll be all set to start folding flowers when your batik square comes. And if you didn't enter this giveaway, I'm sure you have 6" of fabric laying around. ;-) You can fold right along with the rest of us. I'm doing this in the spirit of the "Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself" saying. I want you all to be able to make fabulous flowers and post them on our new flickr group so we can all see what you've done. YEAH!!!!!

Giveaway closes tonight!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:03:00 +0000

See what I have to deal with?! Oh, but I love every one of my five monkeys!

Just want to let everyone know that the giveaway closes tonight at 10:00pm est. For everyone who enters by leaving a comment in the previous post there will be a special SURPRISE!!!! Remember to come back tomorrow for all the fun!

Crafty Giveaway #1 - CLOSED

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:33:00 +0000

There it is. Isn't it beautiful! This inaugural giveaway is related to my blog header. It is a photo of a wall hanging that I did for my in-laws 40th anniversary. This is a portion of the wall hanging showing the quilting.

You can see more photos of the wall hanging here.

I had seen an episode of Simply Quilts years ago featuring Rebecca Wat and her technique for folding fabric into flowers. She was promoting her book Fantastic Fabric Folding. I knew that I wanted to do that for my in-laws' anniversary. Well, I didn't get around to doing it for the 35th, but did make the 40th, using a flower to represent each year. I was too cheap/lazy to buy the book, so I got the directions for folding the flowers on the Simply Quilts archived page. This project may look hard, but as an intermediate quilter it was very easy. I was able to fold and tack the flower blocks while sitting and watching tv or waiting to pick the kids up in the carpool lane. It was a great take away project, and very addicting. After completing my wall hanging, this is what I have leftover for a lucky winner:

A collection of assorted batik and batik-like prints in wonderful jewel-tone colors.

Four pre-folded flowers ready to use in your project

Ten pre-cut 6" squares ready to fold into beautiful flowers

Eight assorted leftover pieces that can be cut into 6" squares and a couple of extra bits

Over 2/3 yard of green fabric and nine 2" strips in assorted batiks

If you are up for the fun of this project, then this giveaway is for you. I have enough leftover fabric to make 22 folded flowers and extra batiks and green to make something wonderful. You only have to supply the imagination.

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment telling us what you would do with the fabric (maybe you don't want to fold flowers and that's okay), and/or who you would make it for. I'll keep it open until Thursday night when I pick a winner at random from the people that have left comments. Tell all your friends! Everyone loves free fabric!

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:45:00 +0000

doll house tornado
Originally uploaded by jencara1

As a mother of five children in a moderate-sized (1875 square feet) home, space is always at a premium. Five kids from ages 9 months to 8 years means five times the clothes, five times the toys, five times the books, and five times less space for my craft stuff. As you can see, even the doll house people are not safe from the destruction that is five children.

I have lurked on other blogs and drooled enviously over whole craft rooms, craft basements, and even craft corners. They are all neatly arranged with fabric nicely stacked and various items strewn around for inspiration and decoration. My craft stuff, on the other hand, has been relegated to the garage on industrial shelves, stuffed in plastic bins and boxes of all sizes. My "crafting corner" is a folding banquet table set up in what should be our dining area with piles of unfinished projects covering all but one third of the table where the sewing machine is. My husband gave up asking when I was going to "put away" my sewing machine and has resigned himself to the fact that it is a permanent fixture in our living/dining room.

I have decided that I too deserve a nice, organized crafting space. But to get there, I need to purge. This is also an idea spurred on by blog lurking. I see people living simply - not surrounded by clutter. I'm all for no clutter. I frequently purge the toys in the house. We would be overwhelmed if we didn't. I also regularly organize. Everything has a place - once again out of necessity.

Now it's time to tackle the beloved craft stash. I am overwhelmed by leftovers and unused, well-intentioned purchases made before I had five kids. That was when I thought I would have all this time to devote to my crafting passions. HA!! I'm lucky now if I have time to devote to a shower. My "passion" is now usually performed from 11:00pm to 3:00am. Even then it's infrequent. I know there are those of you out there that have more time - or use their time more wisely than I. So I thought I would weed through my stash and create giveaways. Everyone loves free things, and who doesn't love winning?! We're all suckers for raffles, lotteries, publishers clearing house sweepstakes, etc....

This blog will be used to post assortments of giveaways relating to crocheting, knitting, sewing, quilting, scrapbooking and other crafts. I'll also post my projects that I'm working on. Some will be given away after I finish them, others I'll post just to show you. I hope to do these giveaways at least once a week, once we get enough traffic. So tell your friends that there's this crazy lady giving her stuff away - her precious crafting stuff. The only thing I ask is that you send me pictures in return of what you do with the stuff you receive in the giveaway. I would love to know how my sacrifice benefits you. Thank you for reading. Send me your comments. I'd love to hear from you.