Paper piecing, blog stuffs, giveaways… Oh my!

There seems to be a lot happening in blogland at the moment. Thank goodness as it gives me something to write about today, as progress in Quiet Play sewingland is rather slow at the moment.
Think I’m kidding? Here’s what my progress is looking like:



Isn’t that tragic! I have pieced all the sections, even trimmed them up. I just need to sew them together and I just haven’t done it. It’s been sitting like this for two days! Seriously. Tragic. I will try to work on it today though.

I do have some sewing things that are still in planning stage occupying my time too. Here’s one of my gunna-do projects. I am working on a quilt for my Nan’s 90th birthday. The original plan started with it being a memory quilt, but my mind has changed for the gazillionth time. I’m still undecided on what I’m going to do, but I do know that I’m going to use scans of some of my grandfather’s letters on fabric, thanks to the magic of Spoonflower.

This is the snippet I'm going to use:

It’s from a letter my grandfather wrote to my Nan in the war years. He died when my mum was just 16 so I never had the chance to meet him. But I have loved getting an idea of what he was like through reading some of his letters. Some of them are very moving and had Mum and I both a little teary! Anyways this snippet is one of my favourites. It says:

”We are going to get engaged, and then married, and live happily ever after. Now don’t you think that is a swell Romance Story? Well Pat dearest, I will have to close”

So playing around on Spoonflower, I got it to repeat to look like this (and those of you are who are awesome at graphic designing, please don’t cringe too much at my amateur attempts – I’ve never planned to be a fabric designer!):

I’m planning to use the script fabric as a background fabric, and a series of green Kona solids in some pattern as the feature. Still not sure. I’m thinking something woven-looking would be neat – all meaningful about family threads being woven together with family member’s names embroidered on the “threads”. Yeah I know. More thought needed. Not like there’s any pressure to make a super awesome quilt, despite the fact family folks are contributing money and ideas to this quilt. Yeah no pressure whatsoever!

So those are my in progress projects that I’m linking up with the new beginnings linky party hosted by Diane at From Blank Pages.

Right! Moving on! I have talked about paper piecing (albeit briefly) – now about blog stuffs! We are starting to wind down the Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop. Can you believe it?! Only a handful of bloggers to go – then it’s your turn! Linky party right here at my place starting on the 29th August (28th for those of you not Aussie/Kiwi!).



This is your chance for you guys  to share your paper pieced projects (maximum 2 projects per person). Hope you’re paper piecing your hearts out with something to enter! You can include any project that you have made in 2012 – so long as it shows a way to use a paper piecing block and it’s made by you, it’s welcome! Oh and there will be randomly drawn prizes, so everyone has a chance! I’m thinking I might extend the linky party for a few days, and draw the prizes on some momentous day, let’s say… 4th September. Just happens to be my birthday so why not share some giveaways

Here’s the final week schedule of hops before the linky party begins!
Mon 20th Fiona from Finding Fifth
Tues 21st Beth from Plum and June
Wed 22nd Megan from Jaffa quilts
Thurs 23rd Juliet from Tartan Kiwi
Fri 24th Katy from The Littlest Thistle
Sat 25th Tracey from the Peony Teacup
26 Sunday – Day off
Mon 27th Fiona from Celtic Thistle Stitches
Tues 28th Anorina from Samelia’s Mum
Wed 29th Aug – Tues 4th Sept Linky party to share projects - blog hoppers and readers all welcome!

Two more blog things to mention!

The above bit of paper piecing? Let’s consider that my sneak peek for an upcoming blog hop! I’m very excited to have been invited to join in the Friendship Quilts Blog Hop that Diane at From Blank Pages is running! My day is the 14th September. It’s going to be great!  Lots of fun inspiring projects, a chance to reminisce about the 80’s (those clothes! that hair!) and of course giveaways! Pop over and check out the details here.




My gorgeous friend Alyce from Blossom Heart Quilts is hosting a mini quilt along. It’s Christmas themed and all about HSTs! Fun! A Very Merry HST BoF (block of the fortnight) kicks off next week on the 28th August! It looks like it’s going to be great fun!



Right! Now to sum up my newsletter on happenings in blogland…. hehe a couple of giveaways are happening that you won’t want to miss.

If you’re an Aussie or Kiwi, pop over here for a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to Wrapped in Fabric. But hurry it ends soon!!!


Fiona from Finding Fifth not only made an awesome play mat for the PPP blog hop, she has not one, but two Summersville charm packs up for grabs! Pop over and leave a comment to enter. You’ll want to comment when you see her amazing play mat!

I’ve also signed up to join in the Quilter’s Blog Hop Party from Quilting Gallery, so make sure you pop back for a fun little giveaway here, and also check out the oodles of others that will be happening next week! Oh the fun never ends!



 

And that my friends sums up what’s going on in my portion of blogland hehehe. Now maybe I’d better get busy and actually sew something so I don’t have to rely on blogland happenings to fill up a blog post Wish me luck!