SMS Giveaway Winner.

Thank you all very much to all that joined in the fun of the SMS giveaway.

 It really was a great success and was delighted to read all your messages.    

It made me smile to here that it is still the little things that happen in day to day life that makes us all smile during the day.   

I'm glad to see it isn't all doom and gloom out there.  ( It was Budget day in Ireland on Wed so it has been doom and gloom on the telly and news.)
 

I do see that the old Random Number Generator has been hard at work over the past 24 hours...Only one other man in a red coat knows how that feels....

So with out further to do I would like to let you all know that my winner of the Stof Pure FQ bundle is .

Susan at Canadian Abroad

Congratulations Susan.  

I am sure you will find something to make out if it.  

I love the line and although it came out in the UK shops quite a while ago, I still have my stash in the cupboard waiting for the day that I will make them into a quilt.

I had a great but exhausting time looking through all the blogs and entering the giveaways. 

But for now it will be back to some sewing.

Erin

Sew Mama Sew giveaway

 

 GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

You know I had full intentions to make something to give away for the Sew Mama Sew giveaway blog hop but I thought I had at least another week before I had to get it ready....

So then I thought....What do I have ample of?

Fabric.

 I don't think anyone will say no to a bit of fabric.

So here is my giveaway

Some fat quarters of  Stof, Pure.

(I do love this line)

HERE ARE THE GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

1. Simply become a follower of my blog and leave a comment to say you have done so. And let me know what has made you smile today. (One entry per person)

2. A BONUS ENTRY TO MY CURRENT  FOLLOWERS ....

But....If you are a follower already, ( and I know who you all are) you have a second chance to win the bundle by leaving a message Bonus Entry.

Please make sure your email address is available to me to contact you if you are the lucky winner. 

Giveaway closes 12.00 midnight (GMT) on Thursday 6th December   
GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

 winner will be selected soon after by the Random Number Generator.

International contests are welcome.

 

  GOOD LUCK EVERYONE AND I CAN'T WAIT TO TRY MY LUCK OVER AT 

SEW MAM SEW THIS WEEK.

Erin

Recycle

It's really sad when you get a hamper from your hubby's work isn't it! 

Lots of goodies in it.....wine, plum pudding, hot chocolate and the list goes on.....

But I am looking at the whole package here....

As he walked through the front door this week, I was punched the air with my fist.  YES....Another one.  

As I was taking it off hubby, my smile was ear to ear.   He began to laugh...'I know why your happy!'

Because this is the state of my scrap box......

Last years hamper box was snatched up straight away and put to good use.

So this means I will have 2 scrap boxes.

I'm one happy camper.

Erin

BP....Quiet achiever!

  I have been slowly ticking away at a few things over the  last week.

Some little mug rugs finally finished.

I think though I need to bind a different way as I really don't like the fussiness of  trying to sew the side up...tried a different edge and still I'm not happy with it.  A bit to bulky.

And look ....Finally there is a bit of sun to take a photo of the quilt top.... pity it was a bit windy...

I have another project but all will be revealed in a few days.....I need to write a tutorial!   eek!

Oh and the Christmas tree got the chop too.

Going to link up today For WIP Wednesday.... don't get time to do it that often.  

My last day off today so will get some binding done, and now I have no excuse to get this quilt top basted.....but the Swoon blocks came out last night....I'm finally ready to trim then and get the quilt top put together.

Erin.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Not the best of days to take a photo here in Ireland...very dull indeed.

I may have to take the yellow out and get a brighter shade.

Some of you may have seen some progress photos on Instagram for the rest...here it is!

Just to let you know it has been handy having the Sopranos box set to watch while this has been sewn together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Block time again

Wow it seems to come around so quickly but once again the Blogger's Block of the month is here again.

 Dhia at Peach Patch Quilts has all the bits and bobs about the block of the month here.  

I'm having lots of fun with this and am looking forward to the next installment.

This months block is by 

Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts

 Her quick and easy blocks  (just what I like) tutorial can be found on her blog.

I whipped this up in no time, but I wish when I did the fussy cut I cut the little hat out and just kept the coat.

block three

As you can see I am making all the blocks... Little Apples is a favourite fabric line and now that I have started with it, cannot get away from it.

Our flickr group can be found here....anyone that wants to put up their finished blocks are more than welcome.

Comfort zone.

I have been branching out and trying something new this week....nothing like getting out of your comfort zone.

When I went off to the K & S show a few weeks back, I was looking for some of these.....

I really love the diversity of hexagons but have never tried to do them.  If anyone knows a good tutorial on them, please let me know as I want to know if I am doing it right or not.

Fiona had let me know that she buys her hexagons at Paper Pieces.  I gave up after going down  the rows twice with all the lovely polite crowds...so I caved and ordered them on line.

So it isn't fabric...is it! 

I did have an idea for these....My Japanese Charm Swap that arrived a good few weeks ago that I haven't blogged about....some very sweet fabric in that I will use with these hexagons

Now I have moved on to some triangle...I made these myself...a little easier to do than cutting out hexagons.

I hope I am doing these the right way also....again any tips are much appreciated.

What am I using these for? 

 you will have to wait and see...a good 100 to go I think.

 And I love that they all pack away in my lovely frame purse from Christiane (blogged here)

Back to stitching!
Erin

Lots of parcels in the mail....

 This is what has been arriving in the mail of late.  

 My Mouthy Stitches tote bag and oh do I love it!

I cannot say how much this bag is so up my alley  (can I say that?)

Are they my little billy button flowers.  I think so Nicky.

Janet  can I just let you know how much I love my bag. You have done an exceptional job. 

Poor Janet had a bit of trouble getting linen and then bought her daughter a sewing machine! (she was visiting her daughter and the sewing machine that she was to use was not very helpful.)

 It was an expensive swap for you Janet.

 I was swanning around the Knitting and Stitching show two weeks with it proudly on my shoulder showing it off to the thousands that were there, and let me tell you Cindy and Fiona were all ooooooohhhhhh's and aaaaahhhhhhhh's over when we met up there.

 My key ring is there too and an amazing photo on the postcard.  

However the chocolate that you sent was not able to be around for the photo shoot. (yum)  

I really am in love with this bag.

          

Just to let you know I crumbled under sheer desire for some fabric and bought some of  these.....

photo from Fluffy Sheep Quilting

But then won a golden ticket (or two) to the Knitting and Stitching show in Dublin...thanks to Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting. 

I emailed Fiona at Patchwork Delights and finally met up with my blogging friends.   

Girls I was the dumb one that didn't get a photo! Of course the other two got photos but not me.
I was in there to get some essentials....not that I have touched my freezer paper from last years show.

  Lots of fun and giggles about societies and bingo buses and how we are going to be black and blue on Monday morning.  And great to see Ger and Eva at the their stall Pippa Blue.
Girls once again a lovely selection of eye candy.

So my beautiful mouthy tote bag was put to use straight away and at the show was able to get a few bits and pieces that were essentials and yes.... a bit of fabric as well.

 

See the leaning tower of Pisa?

 And I found a new friend for my classroom as well.  

I have called him Boris.   

And I love his ear ring.

The children loved him and he now is telling them all about 'Big School'

A little while ago I was asked to join Bee a Brit Stingy.  

 

 

It is all kicking off in January but before then we were to make a pin cushion for our partner.  I received a lovely  pin cushion from Karen at Blueberry4park. Karen has some very inspiring work on her flickr page.  I am very jealous about her screen printing too...can you see the card...check out her cushions....savage!

Thanks Karen.  It has been put to work straight away.

 

I went a little overboard with my pin cushions....they were so fun to make. It took a little while to get over as some other parcels did too.

In conclusion, I think any parcel the I sent over to the UK got this boat...

 A currach

I'm sorry to anyone that has been waiting on a parcel from me.. I cannot understand that I can send a parcel or letter to Australia and it gets there in 5 to 7 days and a letter to the UK can take 10 days or even more!

Back to some sewing now, I think I said to someone that I would do a tutorial.

Erin

Not enough hours in the day.

Were has this year gone?

I had so much that I  promised myself that I would do this year and low and behold this week will be the start of November.

Finding time to sew and read (sometimes look) all these lovely blogs is hard for me...although I do love my iPod so very much and it does it's duty keeping me up to date when I have a spare 5 minutes or when I am unwinding after a crazy day at work.   Work also is what is eating into my spare time.  In the past month I have had 3 training days on a Saturday and another set for November in a few weeks.  Am I babbling...yes!  Unfortunately it is part of the job.  I do get my time back but where it goes...I don't know!  What I am trying to say is that I do look at your blogs and if I don't leave a comment it doesn't mean that I haven't checked you out this week. 

I sometimes get too excited to do these swaps too and then run out of time (have no fear all have been sent) and I have realized that my last quilt that I have made was my Echo quilt.

I have only discovered Instagram in the past month..

(I promised myself that I would not sign up to yet another social networking site.  I'm not a fan of Facebook and rarely go on it, saying that  Facebook does own it.)

I am finding it really handy though, a lot quicker to take a photo and write a note on it than to blog about it.  

If there is anyone else out there that is on it...let me know you will find me at  

erinbillybuttondesign.

But here is a few things that I have been up to this weekend .....It's a Bank Holiday in Ireland and I have loved every minute if it.  Lot's of Erin time this weekend and it isn't over yet.

As some of you know I am joining in with

Jennifer at Sew Kind of Wonderful was the Blogger's Block of the Month for October.

A churn dash block.

I haven't tried this block before and found it quick and easy to churn up ...(it had to be said now)

The finished block is to be 9 1/2". 

Unfortunately, I cut mine down to 9"....I wasn't thinking so I may have to make it again..ops!

I have also been admiring some lovely weekend bags of late that came out of the Sewing Summit.  

Particularly one from Debbie at A Quilter's Table.

I saw that Elizabeth at Oh Fransson!  blogged about the sewing technique

I had some lovely Washi to use and thought that it would be good to make some mug rugs

 I whipped these up last night...didn't take too long but as you can see.....I obviously didn't have enough lighting in the room as look what happened.

I also think that they do need a bit of binding around them.  These look too much like little bags and I want the backing fabric to be a bit more fitted to the batting....does that make sense?  So back to the sewing machine today.  Have no fear though, these little rugs have been put to work straight away.

Enjoy your day.

Erin

Still grooving.

Now that I have my front finished and I don't want to be branded a topper, I am on the way to having this quilt batted this weekend and hopefully get a bit of the quilting done.   Still cant decide how I am going to quilt this one....There are so many lovely FMQ on others but I am not that great at it and feel that straight  lines are more my forte.  I do think that I need to get out of my comfort zone though.

I originally chose the fabric for this quilt around this stash that I had hidden in my cupboard.

Amy Butler Belle collection.

See that lovely Amy Butler Belle Fabric down the bottom...yep that's it.

Although I had a meter of this fabric I still needed to use the rest of my solids to make the back up.  I wasn't going to spend any more money on buying the Belle fabric as it was OPP and I did buy a bit more of each solid just in case I made a mistake when cutting. 

Binding is cut and delighted that I have a little bit of each solid to put away in my ever growing stash.

So you know what I will be doing this week.

Linking up to Alyssa.....

Mouthy Stitches Tote bag done....TICK

Yes I have a list as long as my arm and was beginning to panic a week ago but with a bit of time off work last week I have been able to whip this tote bag up for my secret partner in round 2 of Mouthy stitches.

Pattern was from Skip to my Lou's blog

I was thinking some HST's but was too worried I would loose the design on the fabric I had chosen. 

 ( I was also thinking the tote bag was a lot bigger ) 

 Maybe another star block that I made for Cindy in the Modern Irish Bee but really that would be cheating right!

So 2" squares were chosen and am happy to see the final product.

Back was just the bits left over sewn together.  You can't waste anything.

I did do one mistake.....I cut the linen fabric for the strap and realised that it was an inch too thin so I had to improvise seeing that there wasn't any more of this linen in my stash...(believe it or not)

Fabrics used:

Geometric Fabric....Could 9  (if you can grab this for your stash do....its really bright)

Essex Linen in steal grey (bought from M is for Make)

Lining is Laurie Wisbrun (it was in my stash)

Partner I hope you like!

Erin

Oh man...the Last Quarter?

Yep it is the last quarter for Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap's Finish a long....

.

I thought I would be very sneaky and put up only one finish to do last quarter and do you think I got it done....NO!

So it seems that it is now back on my list again.....

No. 1    Log cabin Quilt......blogged here

And this is how far it has got to date...well at least I had organized it to which blocks were going where.

photo

Need to do.....

Sew it all together, 

Quilting 

Batting 

Binding 

and hey presto...it's done! 

No.2   My Swoon Quilt. Blogged here

My beautiful Swoon quilt is on my list....it really needs to be finished.  the reason why I have stalled on this mama is that I have to square all the blocks up and I do not have a block cutter that big....am I procrastinating or what!  

Need to do...

Sew the quilt top together

Back( all ready and waiting)

Batting

Quilting...(oh man this is going to be a big one)

Binding

No.3  My Kitchen Window quilt. Blogged here
 

Again it has been hanging for quilting some time and will need to be finished.

Back

Batting 

Quilting 

Binding.

Now do you seriously think I am going to get any of these done....yes indeedy!  I want a fresh start for next year.  Now that Mouthy Stitches is out of the way and all my charm swaps and finished my pin cushion for Bee stingy.....I  can concentrate on these.

Happy Stitching.

Erin

Thanks Linda

A little parcel arrived out of the blue last week....who could this be from?

I've got a wonderful parcel of Linda before and my mug rug is always ready to be used when the cuppa is had.

From Mug Rug and goodies swap.

I sent some things over to Linda and look what I got in the mail...a big surprise....

Now I have another wonderful bundle of goodies....

Linda thank you very much....they have been put to good use already.
I honestly believe that you can never have enough pin cushions and
my little purse is now on my car keys...I will always have change for the parking meter and that pesty parking inspector will never get me again.

Thanks again Linda

Erin

Bee a star!

I'm having a few days off work so am loving that it is raining cats and dogs outside...until I want to take a photo that is. Finally I got my September block finished off

for our latest blocks for the Modern Irish Bee....

Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting was our Queen and what a block she had for us.

Now I do love HST's but I kept putting these off as I didn't want to rush them.

 I hope they will be OK for you Cindy

I promise they will be in the post tomorrow.

 Erin