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It’s here!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I did! There is nothing quite like reconnecting with family. But today and this weekend is all about getting the deals! This weekend, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, I will be hosting a giveaway. Purchase anything from either of my Etsy shops here:

Scrapendipity Designs on Etsy
Scrapendipitees on Etsy

Or directly from this website here:

Scrapendipity Designs

And you will be entered to win a $75 Etsy gift card! You can use the gift card in one of my own Etsy shops, or you can even use it to purchase something from any of the other great shops on Etsy. There are lots of handmade items there that would make great Christmas gifts for anyone on your Christmas list!
 
 
Here is just a small selection of items available at my shops:






 
 
Here are the details for the giveaway:

1. You must make a purchase from one of the 3 shops linked above between November 28,2014 12:01 AM EST and December 1, 2014 11:59 PM EST
2. Only one entry per person, per household even if multiple purchases are made.
3. The winner will be contacted by email and/or Etsy convo. If I do not hear a response within 48 hours, another winner will be picked.
4. The Etsy giftcard will be emailed to the email address used to confirm you as a winner.
 
 
**Bonus**
Comment on this blog post what you purchased from my shops this weekend for an extra entry!

Happy Shopping!
Rachel

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A Quilting Life

Today I am sponsoring a fun giveaway over at A Quilting Life.

The prize is an applique pack that includes a pttern from Eat Cake Graphics called December 26th, a 6-pack of Kimono silk thread, a pack of freezer paper, and a pack of sharps needles. Everything you will need to get started appliquing! This prize pack is valued at over $50.00. And don’t worry, if you have never attempted applique before, this pattern has wonderful instructions to help guide you.

Be sure to head on over to A Quilting Life (here) to enter.

Also, my June newsletter will be coming out this weekend, so be sure to sign up (here)! All newsletter subscribers will be automatically entered into our monthly drawing for a free pattern.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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We Have a Winner & a Finish!

Wowee!! Thank you so much to everyone that stopped by my blog for the Sew Mama, Sew Giveaway. I had well over 600 comments and many of you felt my blog was interesting enough to start following it. I really appreciate that. I used random.org to pick a winner on Friday, and have contacted them. The big winner was Leah, who had this to say:

“My most treasured quilting tool is my rotary cutter for sure. We are the best of friends, spending almost every day together. She has only nicked me once and I forgave her. After all, we are BFFs :)”

Congratulations!! The awesome thing is that Leah was actually comment #1 on my blog!! Who says that being the first to comment means you won’t win? I will be sending your prize out tomorrow Leah!

So this weekend was Memorial Day weekend. My husband was in the military, so we always take time to remember those men that we knew that have fallen. We are very blessed that many of the men we were friends with are safe at home with their families now, but sadly a few were not so lucky. If you didn’t take the time to silently thank our soldiers yesterday, please try to remember to do that today.

It was a pretty productive weekend for me actually. Since I got back from MQX, I have been bound and determined to figure out the problem with my longarm machine. I was having issues where it would freeze up and completely stop if I slowed down too much while sewing. This, of course, really makes it hard to have sharp points, because you have to slow down a bit to get those. Additionally I was having lots of issues with eye-lashing thread on the backs of my quilts. This is very frustrating as I purchased the machine with the hope of quilting for others eventually, but if I can’t get these issues fixed, there is no way I would put anyone else’s quilt on there!

So I sat down on Saturday and did some research on Google to see if I could find some fixes. There were a few suggestions for the whole stopping when I slow down thing, which I did. Then for the eye-lashing, I pulled out my new tension gauges and figured out how to check the proper tension for my top and bottom threads. I put in a new needle, and crossed my fingers. I threw a quilt that my son helped me create and just went to town.

I was super surprised to find that all my issues were fixed! The machine still has a little bit too much vibration, but I think that may be because my table isn’t quite level.

For the quilting, I tried a simple design that I learned from my MQX class. I was able to get pretty sharp points, and when I slowed down to make them, the machine kept plugging along. I need to work on slowing down overall to help keep my stitches more consistent, but I am very excited for what I have already been able to do!

This is the back of the quilt, I know many people would think I am crazy to put ‘Carsโ€™ on the back of this beautiful front, but this is 100% my son’s quilt. He picked the fabric for the front, he picked the pattern, I made the blocks themselves, but he did the placement of them. So he got to pick the backing, and he picked this cars sheet I picked up from a thrift shop.

I went with a simple brown fabric for the binding. I figured that would help keep the front looking nice and separate it from the backing.

Seeing the backing and the front together does make me cringe and smile at the same time. It makes me cringe because it is such a beautiful, grown-up front, and the back is such a kid-quilt backing. But it makes me smile too because it is just so my son to combine these two things.

I am still practicing on my quilting, but I have my meander down pretty good. I am hoping to be able to offer my services to others pretty soon. I will probably just focus on doing a simple meander for people, which will keep the costs really low. I will keep you updated on this if anyone is interested in my services.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Sew Mama, Sew Giveaway Day!

Today is the day! If you have never taken part in Sew Mama, Sew’s Giveaway Day before, you are in for a treat. Tons of bloggers will be posting giveaways today, in the spirit of friendship and kindness. You should totally check out all the offerings, but I assume you would like to see what I am offering before you do!

Today my giveaway includes two items, the first is a pattern that can also be found in my online store (here). It is called “Slideshow” by Atkinson Designs.

I haven’t actually tried this particular pattern myself, but if the “Yellow Brick Road” pattern is any indication, her patterns are excellent! Her directions are clear, concise, and very easy to follow. This should be an enjoyable pattern to make.

The second item included in my giveaway is this fat quarter bundle from my own personal fabric stash.

This bundle is made up of 11 fat quarters from Denyse Schmidt’s new line of fabrics, “Picnic and Fairgrounds”. One lucky winner will get both the pattern and the fat quarter bundle. These fabrics are simply divine and I think this will be a great pattern to show them off.

All you have to do to enter this drawing is leave me a comment. Easy as that! To make it fun, you can tell me what your most treasured, or most wanted, non-fabric quilting tool is.

If you are new to my blog, I am the owner of a new online shop called Dewberry Lane. We specialize in all your non-fabric quilting needs. The store just opened in mid-April, and May is our official Grand Opening month! You will find that most of our prices are currently 10% below retail. That may not last forever, but our newsletter will keep you up to date on all our specials and new items in store. If you sign up for our newsletter, our subscribers are entered into a drawing for a free pattern each month.

To celebrate my new store, I am going to allow for extra entries into this giveaway as well. Just let me know that you have done (or already do) any of the following, and you will get one bonus entry per item:

1. Sign up for the Dewberry Lane newsletter (here, left-hand side)
2. Follow Dewberry Lane on Twitter (here)
3. Follow this blog (Using Google friend to the right, or any other feed reader, just let me know what you use.)

This allows each of you a total of 4 chances to win this fun prize! I am also happy to ship internationally.

I hope you enjoy all the wonderful giveaways today, I know I will be hopping around and entering as many as I can! Be sure to check out the full list here.

Contest is now closed!! I will make a new post announcing the winner very soon. Thanks everyone!!

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Giveaway Winner and New Items in Store!

I realized this weekend that I had never picked a winner for my “Back in Business” giveaway!! I am very sorry for the delay in that, I got so wrapped up in my P.S. I Quilt giveaway that it slipped my mind. ๐Ÿ™‚ I picked a winner using random.org though, and Judy Purcell is the lucky winner!! I have been in contact with her, and will be sending out her Darcy pattern very shortly.

I also sent out the May 2011 newsletter for the store. Every month I will pick a newsletter subscriber to win a free pattern, so be sure to sign up for a chance to win! The newsletter will help keep you up to date on all the fun things happening at Dewberry Lane. You can sign up for our newsletter right at the store, on the left-hand side. This month we gave away a High Street Messenger Bag pattern by Amy Butler. The winner was chosen and contacted and her pattern is going out in today’s mail.

Be sure to keep an eye on this blog in the coming months as I am hosting a few different giveaways on popular quilting blogs around blogland. I will post here when they are live with a link of where to go to participate. You don’t want to miss out on the prizes!

I also wanted to take this chance to tell you about some new products we have up in the store.

If you have never seen Kate Conklin’s designs, you are going to be in for a treat. I have to say that as I uploaded each pattern into the store, I was dreaming of the fabrics I would choose for each one. Even the heart applique one, which is a bit beyond my normal quilting. All of her patterns are so pretty and inspiring. The best part is, they are downloadable! No shipping costs, no stalking the mailman. Just pay, download and get to sewing that very day. Be sure to check them out! (click on any of the images to be taken to the store)

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

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Big News and a Giveaway!

Yesterday my emotions ran the gambit of utterly elated to completed frightened. It was quite a roller coaster to say the least. Since my husband got out of the Marine Corps, our family has been of the dual income kind, however starting on July 31st this will no longer be the case. Yesterday I walked into my work and submitted my resignation. It was very difficult to do as I truly enjoy my job, the company, and the people I work for. But our family path has started to head in a new direction. We just feel that our son needs to be home-schooled, even if it is just for a year. He needs the space to spread his wings and grow into himself without all the rules and restrictions that are necessary in a public school. This will not be an easy time, the budget will be small, but the rewards will be huge. I cannot wait to spend more time with this amazing kid.

So that is my big news for today. It may not be big to other people but to us, this is huge!! It will be a journey for sure, but like everything else we have done in our lives we will figure it out as we go. But now I want to tell you about the giveaway part of this blog’s title!

For the next couple months I am a sponsor on Rachel (great name! :)) Griffith’s blog, P.S. I Quilt. If you haven’t seen her blog, be sure to head over there and check it out, especially today! Rachel is hosting a giveaway in honor of my new store Dewberry Lane.

Up for grabs is a pack of CuttingEDGE rulers. I have been using these rulers for a few months now and I love them!! It took a little adjusting to get accustomed to using a new ruler, but now that I have worked out all its quirks, I adore how it really sharpens my blade as I am cutting. I haven’t had to put a new blade in since I have started using it, and I can still easily cut through 6 layers of fabric!

The giveaway is a $75.00 value and includes the following rulers:

12.5″ x 12.5″
9.5″ x 9.5″
6.5″ x 12.5″
6.5″ x 6.5″
4.5″ x 4.5″

A nice variety of sizes to fit all sorts of quilting needs. Be sure to head over to Rachel’s blog to get an entry!

Ruler Giveaway

So does anyone out there in blogland home-school? Any tips or advice? I have 3 months to get a plan together, find a group and convince myself that this was the right decision to make. ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

Happy Quilting!
Rachel