With the help of good old random.org, Amy who loves Black Orchid is the winner of my Handmade Gifts Giveaway!

Amy, I’ve just emailed you, I need your address and you need to let me know what color palette of my hand dyed scarves you would like…I’m guessing Black Orchid!

I’ve spent the morning dyeing things on my Candy Claus list, now I’ve got to start figuring out my nieces bag design!

Giveaway is closed, congrats to Amy who loves Black Orchid!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed my DVD blog tour, complete with 12 giveaways! I’ve received so much great support from folks all over the internet that I love to give back to it – so I thought I’d end with just one more!

It’s the holiday season, and I love to give handmade gifts: either ones I make myself or buy from a fellow artist. My hand dyed scarves make excellent gifts, so I’d love to help you give one to someone (or…save it for yourself! You could wrap it up and put it under the tree and say it’s from “Candy Claus!)

How to enter? Just take a peek at my scarf color palettes and then leave me a comment on this post telling me which one is your favorite…or, is there a certain color combination that you’d like to see that isn’t there? I’m always looking for new color ideas, let me know! (Comment moderation is on, so don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away, I’ve got to approve it first!) I will ship internationally.

Sew Mama Sew has put together a huge list of blogs hosting giveaways this week, if you’ve got some time, head on over and enter some more! They all end this Friday at 5 pm Pacific, so you’ve got a few days to tour around and enter a bunch!

I’ll email the winner over the weekend and I’ll send the winner’s choice of habotai scarf out a week from today so it can under the tree for Christmas! (Or around your neck for a holiday celebration!)

Today is the final day of my DVD tour! Wahoo! I hope you’ve had lots of fun visiting the sites of some awesomely talented folks. It’s been an honor to have them share their opinions of my work (I’ll admit that it’s a little nerve wracking knowing so many people were going to be talking about me!)

I’m ending the tour by giving away 2 copies over at Sew Mama Sew. It should be no surprise to people who read my blog for awhile that I really enjoy thinking about construction when sewing; whether it’s figuring out how to get the right kind of pockets in a bag, covering the zipper on my pillows in a pretty way, or building houses out of peltex and fabric, I really like figuring out how to make those details work with fabric and thread. The blog of Sew Mama Sew is chock full of great tutorials on how to do sew all sorts of things! Beth and Kristen do an incredible job of soliciting incredibly useful tips and tutorials from talented sewists all over the internet.

• Need to buy a new sewing machine? They have a great guide that walks you through all the steps to deciding what kind of sewing machine you need. And then they had folks submit reviews of their particular machines, so there’s now a huge master list of sewing machine meme’s right here.
• Ever needed to make a pleat? Here’s a whole post about it!
• Puzzled by sewing patterns? They’re unmystified right here.
• Want to slipcover a chair? A three part series starts here.
• Take a look at all these helpful tutorials!

Wahoo! Today is the penultimate day on my DVD blog tour! Today I’d like to introduce you to Natalia, long-arm quilter extraordinaire. Natalia is a full time quilter – she quilts an amazing amount of quilts with her Gammill, she and her mother design traditional quilt patterns, and she’s recently been a cover gal:

I love two color quilts quilts, and this one is stupendous! It would make a great Christmas quilt. And speaking of Christmas quilts, I wish I’d started making her “Argyle Christmas” months ago…it would look great on my sofa this month!

Don’t you think it would look cool with my hand dyes? Sigh, next year…

None of these photos really feature her machine quilting though. Let me show you a couple of her YouTube Videos. This first one really gives you an idea of how physically taxing it must be to machine quilt all day (but also, look at the freedom she has – although I know it takes a lot of practice to move this smoothly, it’s awesome that the machine stops and starts with her, and she doesn’t have to worry about how to get bulk underneath the arm!

I love this next video, I find myself thinking where I’d place the next swirl; often times she goes right where I would but sometimes she doesn’t and I’m thrown for a loop for a second. (Um, is it weird that I do this? I sure hope not!)

Here are just a few shots of her excellent quilting:

I read lots of blogs, and quite a few of them are blogs from folks who are pursuing their art full time. Of all of those blogs, I think Natalia takes the cake when it comes to work ethic! Seriously, she shows what it takes to make a full time gig from her passion, and it just blows me away to look at her output.

Finally, look at this “Daisy Delight”, another quilt she designed – I just love the colors!

But for now, head on over to Natalia’s blog to enter the giveaway!

And as reminder, here’s the rest of the tour:

1. Friday, 11/11 – Victoria Gertenbach of The Silly BooDilly­
2. Monday, 11/14 – Susan Brubaker Knapp of Blue Moon River
3. Wednesday, 11/16 – Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studio
4. Friday, 11/18 – Melody Johnson of Fibermania
5. Monday, 11/21 – Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side
6. Wednesday, 11/23 – Diane Doran of Ooh! Pretty Colors
7. Friday, 11/25 – Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber
8. Monday, 11/28 – Brenda Gael Smith of Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt
9. Wednesday, 11/30 – Amy Webb of Amy Lou Who Sews
10. Friday, 12/2 – Robin Ferrier of Simply Robin
11. Tuesday, 12/6 – Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
12. Thursday, 12/8 – Beth and the gang from Sew Mama Sew

Oh my goodness, we’re on the home stretch of my DVD tour. I’ve been having a wonderful time introducing you to my artistic friends that I’ve met on/through/because of the internet. Today I get to introduce Robin Ferrier who blogs at “Simply Robin”, the woman who got me started blogging! Years ago, I believe the Spring of 2008, she invited me to be part of a group blog devoted to working in a series. Although it didn’t last that long, it did provide me with a taste of blogging (and a STRONG dislike for Blogger, which is what this blog was on) and when I was ready to start my own blog (on WordPress.com) I started with the posts from that group blog to get me past beginner’s blogger’s block.

Robin is an incredible visual artist who works in all sorts of media. Although she has been most prolific as a quilter, she is also an awesome photographer, and she has begun to paint as well, and her early work looks lovely. She also has an ability to create wonderful 3-dimensional shapes with natural materials.

Look at this – a simple photograph of a quilt in progress is a work of art:

This is only outdone by the photos she takes of her finished work:

I KNOW! When I win the lottery, I want to live in a house just like Robin’s, maybe even down the street from her because she lives in Hawai’i, sigh…

She also often takes pictures of herself at work:

Look at all these photos! Beauty, beauty everywhere!

I am trying very hard not to get an inferiority complex when I contemplate her talents, those shown here are just the tip of the iceburg. She is also an incredibly kind person, who I just know is considerate and thoughtful, this is immediately apparent when you read her blog.

Her latest work is this lovely video:

my simple little quilt from Robin Ferrier on Vimeo.

Perfection.

I am so grateful to know Robin digitally, and I hope that a day comes that we can visit in person, over a cup of tea, and talk about color, and blogging, and our kids and….you get the drift!

But for now, head on over to Robin’s blog to enter the giveaway!

And as reminder, here’s the rest of the tour:

1. Friday, 11/11 – Victoria Gertenbach of The Silly BooDilly­
2. Monday, 11/14 – Susan Brubaker Knapp of Blue Moon River
3. Wednesday, 11/16 – Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studio
4. Friday, 11/18 – Melody Johnson of Fibermania
5. Monday, 11/21 – Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side
6. Wednesday, 11/23 – Diane Doran of Ooh! Pretty Colors
7. Friday, 11/25 – Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber
8. Monday, 11/28 – Brenda Gael Smith of Serendipity and the Art of the Quilt
9. Wednesday, 11/30 – Amy Webb of Amy Lou Who Sews
10. Friday, 12/2 – Robin Ferrier of Simply Robin
11. Tuesday, 12/6 – Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
12. Thursday, 12/8 – Beth and the gang from Sew Mama Sew