Happy Giveaway Day!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!  Its Giveaway Day!!!

I love all the wonderful blogs you can discover on Giveaway Day, so welcome to mine if you are new!  I had a great and fabulous year this year with the release of my DVD, “Heirloom Sewing Techniques for Today’s Quilter”.  So to that end, I’m going to giveaway one copy to one lucky commenter!

MY DVDcoverSo here’s the deal.  Leave me a comment about what your big quilting accomplishment was for 2014. It can be anything!   Comments will be open until Decenber 12th.  I’ll pick one winner at random and contact them to ship their DVD!  Good luck, and Happy Giveaway Day!!!

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED AND THE WINNER WILL BE PICKED SHORTLY!!

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The QATV Blog Hop Stop – Plus a Giveaway!

What a great idea it was to introduce everyone from this season of Quilting Arts TV by doing a blog hop!  I’ve been on the show a few fair number of times, and I have even had people tell me they recognize me by my hair, which is pretty neat!

Here’s a few behind the scenes photos of the show and set…
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Make up! I do my own hair for the show, but I had it colored the week before by my very talented stylist Cara.
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Selfie time!  I’m known to post these fun selfies on Instagram all the time.  IMG_2711

Susan and I taped an episode about using Sharpie markers for tie dye effects on fabric!
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We also taped one about using shaving cream to make marbled prints on your fabric with acrylic inks.
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Sounds like fun, right?  I can’t wait for you to try these methods in your fiber art.

sharpieTo that end, I’m giving away a 24 pack of Sharpie Markers so you can try this at home!  And you can also use them for your journaling, drawing, and other stuff too.  Here are the rules:

1.  Please only enter one time.  Multiple entries will be disqualified. (Comments are moderated, so you won’t see your entry online right away)
2. International entries are welcome!
3. You must leave me a way to contact you, so please leave your valid email address when leaving a comment.
4. The drawing will be open until Tuesday July 29th at 5:00 PM CST.
5. The winner will be chosen randomly the evening of July 29th.  Check back to see if you are the winner!  GOOD LUCK

Now, leave a comment, and go visit these other fine folks in the blog hop!!
July 18: Vivika DeNegre 
July 19: Luana Rubin /Linda Friedman 
July 20: Sarah Ann Smith /Karen Gloeggler
July 21: Carrie Bloomston/ Catherine Redford that’s me!!
July 22: Sue Reno / Rebekah Meier
July 23: Lyric Kinard  / Margie Ullery
July 24: Cheryl Sleboda  / Jane Sassaman / Julie Creus
July 25: Susan Brubaker Knapp

***COMMENTS ARE CLOSED*** Check back for the winner shortly!

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Blog Hop Stop #10 – The Buck Stops Here (with a GIVEAWAY)!

Welcome to the last stop on the blog hop tour for my DVD “Heirloom Sewing Techniques for Today’s Quilter“!  I’m so incredibly grateful to the fine folks on the blog tour so far.  They are all friends of mine that I have come to appreciate over the years. So here’s one last shout out to them, so go on and visit them.  It’s ok, I’ll wait.

June 9 – Susan Brubaker Knapp – http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/
June 10 – Maddie Kertay – http://www.badassquilterssociety.com/
June 11 – Faith Jones – http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/
June 12 – Lynn Krawczyk – http://smudgedtextilesstudio.com/blog/
June 13 – Julie Creus – http://www.latodera.com/blog
June 16 – Catherine Redford – http://catherineredford.com/
June 17 – Megan Dougherty – http://thebitchystitcher.com/
June 18 – Pokey Bolton – http://pokeysponderings.com/
June 19 – Jamie Fingal – http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com/

Ok, now that you have seen how awesome my friends are, I’m happy you’re back for the giveaway.  The thing about making a DVD is that you work real hard making the samples, get all gussied up and do the taping, and then…. well you wait. And when it comes out, you have no idea if people like it.  So, if you have already gotten the DVD (or instant digital download), and you want to let others know what you thought, pop on over to the Interweave shop and leave a review! I really hope you love the DVD as much as I do, and I am happy to hear your thoughts.

And I also want to thank you all, my readers and friends, who have encouraged me to share my art with the world.

14QM15StoreImage_SmTmp_LandingSo, onto the giveaway!  I’m giving away a copy of the DVD!  WAHOO!  And Also one of my Heirloom Smocking Templates too!!  Now you will be all set to do many of the techniques on the video.

Here’s how to win it:

1.  Please only enter one time.  Multiple entries will be disqualified. (Comments are moderated, so you won’t see your entry online right away)
2. International entries are welcome!
3. You must leave me a way to contact you, so please leave your valid email address when leaving a comment.
4. The drawing will be open until Friday June 27th at 5:00 PM CST.
5. The winner will be chosen randomly the evening of June 27th.  Check back to see if you are the winner!  GOOD LUCK

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED, the winner will be posted shortly!

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Giveaway Day Fun Spectacular 2014!

Ha ha.  Ok, maybe I’m ahead of myself, but I’m super stoked for this year’s Giveaway Day.  Why?  Because I have LOTS to celebrate over! finished_piece I am the newest author of a DVD on Heirloom Sewing from F+W Media, called Heirloom Sewing Techniques for Today’s Quilter. It contains dozens of fabric manipulations for your next project.  It’s full of fabulous techniques!  I hope you will check it out when it’s released at the end of May!   WOOT!

StoreImage_SmTmp_LandingFor Giveaway Day, I’m giving away one of my brand new acrylic Heirloom Smocking Templates, so that you can put smocking into your next sewing or quilt project. It has complete directions on how to use it for smocking, and it even comes with a pattern inside!  You can use this for any project, not just quilting, so think about smocking the pocket on your next shirt, or the front of your next bag… the possibilities are endless!

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Here’s how to win it:

1.  Please only enter one time.  Multiple entries will be disqualified. (Comments are moderated, so you won’t see your entry online right away)
2. International entries are welcome!
3. You must leave me a way to contact you, so please leave your valid email address when leaving a comment.
4. The drawing will be open until Friday May 16th at 5:00 PM CST.
5. The winner will be chosen randomly the evening of May 16th.  Check back to see if you are the winner!

Good luck, and be sure to check out the rest of my blog, my shop, and look for my DVD at the end of the month!

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Review, Interview, and GIVEAWAY – Intentional Printing by Lynn Krawczyk

Lynn is one artist who I admire, and she has a couple of fabulous DVDs on Color Theory Made Easy and Print, Design, Compose: From Surface Design to Fabric Art.  These are some of the best DVDs I own, so I was very excited to hear Lynn was writing a book.
Intentional Printing - jacket artLynn’s new book, Intentional Printing: Simple Techniques for Inspired Fabric Art makes fabric surface design techniques approachable.  I love the easy going nature that Lynn uses to approach her artwork.  None of the examples feel overdone, and I think that helps me as a novice.  The “Simple Techniques” in the title are just that, and the way Lynn breaks them down allows you to not feel intimidated to make beautiful art fabric of your own.  The book is gorgeous too, it’s very high quality. Tons of eye candy!

I got a chance to chat with Lynn and ask her a few questions about her art:
Cheryl: I really like the “Self Awareness” page to help you self identify your artistic type.  I’m definitely the Worrier Artist.  Which artistic type are you?
Lynn: I’m definitely a blend of all three – PhD, Flower Child and Worrier. When I’m getting into something new, a technique or a project, I dig in like a terrier chasing a chipmunk, I want to know everything there is to know about it! But there is always the angst that comes along with anything new, right? I think that’s natural, completely normal. I think worry is not always a bad thing, it makes us slow down and consider what we are doing. We just can’t let it rule the roost and end up holding us back. And as far as the Flower Child artist? I *love* checking out new stuff. I might not always fold it into my regular studio practice but I’ll stick with it long enough to have a good time. 🙂

Cheryl: Are you the kind of person who enjoys the journey and all the steps while you work, or are you one who just likes to get to the end result?
Lynn: Hmmm, I’m kind of both. I love holding the finished product in my hand. But getting there is definitely incredibly fun. There are parts I wish I had minions for – like sewing sleeves onto the back of finished collages/art quilts or washing out the giant pile of print tools I left floating in the sink while I printed tons of fabric – but watching the piece grow from something that is just kind of “eh” at the beginning to a “yay!” at the end is addicting. Can’t have one without the other! 🙂

Cheryl: How do you find the time to make art?
Lynn: Ah, the age old question for artists. There never seems to be enough time to do everything, does there? I think the best thing – and the hardest – is just do what you can. Meaning if you have five minutes to work on something, embrace those five minutes. If you have a few hours, go wild and fling paint all over! There is no “right” time to make art. It’s like everything else, it gets worked into the small places in life and that’s how things get done. It can be frustrating for sure, but folding art into the way your life runs is much easier then trying to bend your life to the idea of “proper” studio time. Be an artist, that can happen any time you find the space for it.

Want to win this gorgeous book?   Here’s the rules:
1.  Please only enter one time.  Multiple entries will be disqualified. (Comments are moderated, so you won’t see your entry online right away)
2. Sorry, only residents of the USA can enter.
3. You must leave me a way to contact you, so please leave your valid email address when leaving a comment.
4. The drawing will be open until Monday April 7th at 5:00 PM CST.
5. The winner will be chosen randomly the evening of April 7th.  Check back to see if you are the winner!

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED.  CHECK BACK SOON FOR THE WINNER!

Draw, stamp, screen print and more to create gorgeous art cloth with the help of surface design artist Lynn Krawczyk’s new book, Intentional Printing: Simple Techniques for Inspired Fabric Art (Interweave/F+W Media; $26.99.) Take part in the blog tour with stops along the way at:

 

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