We Love You: Week of Giveaways

We are hosting a week of giveaways over at HeroWeb. Check in every day for a chance to win!
Love, BBQ

Winner and another Giveaway!

Lee won a charm square pack and a fresh set of sewing needles for machine quilting! Lee, please contact us with your mailing info!

Here at Blackberry Quilts we are celebrating our 9th anniversary!

We are giving away a Prairie Girl baby quilt kit of your choice. To enter our anniversary giveaway, please tell us about the first quilt you ever made. What was the occasion? Who was it for? What fabrics did you use? Did you finish it?

Enter by October 30th, midnight.

How To Machine Quilt

Machine Quilting is the Best!

Gather your supplies:

1. Rubber tipped gloves, preferably cotton, to grip the quilt and save your hands.
2. Safety Pins, the thinnest and finest you can find.
3. Brand new needle in your sewing machine.
4. Good music. You decide.
5. Straight Pins.
6. A walking foot. Buy one.

Stitch structural quilting lines
 
Sew structural lines across the quilt. Follow the sashing, for example, stitching in the ditch. Start in the middle and work your way to the edges.

Let the Quilt Talk to You

Sometimes at this point I let it sit overnight. It bubbles in my brain while I'm sleeping, and I wake up knowing just how to finish the quilt.

Here is a peak at my process:

The block has one large X across it, for structure. Hmm, not enough.

I added a diamond in the middle of the block. Still not enough. It doesn't speak to those little tiny 3/4" squares.

That's it! Stitched on the diagonal, through every other row, and now those tiny squares are talking to me!

Body Care:

1. Get up and do something different every half hour.
2. Turn on the lights. Work in natural light if you can. Add a lamp over your machine.
3. Drop your shoulders. (I tried Tai Chi-briefly-and came away with this gem. Turns out I'm not such a balanced person.)

Do you have any machine quilting tips? Tell us everything! One lucky winner will receive Schmetz sewing machine needles and a pack of 5" 1930s charm squares. Drawing ends Oct. 2nd at midnight.

Apron Giveaway Winner

We have a winner! Thanks for all of your comments on aprons.

Nancy, please send us your contact information, to stef@blackberryquilts.com
and we will send out your apron. I apologize for the delay. Summer took on a life of its own here in our blackberry patch.

Win Tickets to The Creative Connection!

Come say hi to us at The Creative Connection! In just 7 weeks we will be surrounded by creativity!

*Tweet the following: "Win a full pass and hotel for you and a friend to BlogHer Handmade and The Creative Connection Event!" #tccevent11" and have a link to http://www.thecreativeconnection.com/

*Leave a comment on The Creative Connection Blog that includes the following information: Why you want to attend BlogHer Handmade and The Creative Connection Event and who you would pick to take with you and why.

Also, be sure to leave the link to your tweet or Facebook promotion!

Additional entries:

Blog about this giveaway and tell your readers why you would love to attend BlogHer HANDMADE and The Creative Connection Event-5 additional entries-leave the link on each comment.

Have THE CREATIVE CONNECTIN EVENT button or link on the sidebar of yoru blog(2 entires-leave a link to your page on each comment)

Winner selected at random.org. This contest ends at 11:59 on Thursday August 4th. Winner announced Friday August 5th!

10 Tips for Holiday Survival

I really like to give home made gifts. When there is time and forethought, this is what I like to do: create something special. But I don't have endless hours......Here are 10 quick and easy hand made gifts! Try one this weekend. These are quick and easy gifts.

Make one with your kids. They will remember the time you spend together more than the latest gadget they are asking for. Come visit our tutorials.....

1. Customize baby onesies! Buy a generic package of plain white onesides, and add some pizzaz. Time: 1 hour

2. Give cash in a hand made wallet! Perfect for the person who has enough stuff.

Time: 2 hours

3. Pincushion-quick and easy We used scraps-try a corner of a treasured but retired quilt.

Time: 1 hour

4. Use scraps to make a headband. Make one in every color to match your outfit!

Time: 1 hour

5. Make your own advent calender with activities for your family. This is your chance to keep it real, keep it simple, and focus on what is meaningful for you.

Time: 1-2 hours

6. Buy a dollar store planner and cover it with fabric you make from your scrap pile.

Time: 2 hours

7. Share your favorite recipes. Ask your aunties and uncles for their secret recipes, and record them!

Time: 1: hour

8. Put together a sewing kit for a girl in your life. Or an embroidery kit! Last summer I put together embroidery thread, scissors, an embroidery hoop, and large muslin squares into a wrapped box for some pint sized friends. They were given instructions not to open it until they were 1 hour into a 4 week road trip. The creations they came home with!

Time: 1 hour

9. Make your own lavender water for ironing. Or spritzing your house. Go to town and create special labels.

Time: 1 hour.

10. Finally, wrap it up! Make your own reusable, green gift wrap. I use orphan quilt blocks and leftover pieces of fabric. Give a gift and feel good about the wrapping. And, over the years, this will end up saving you lots of time!

Time: 1 hour.

And, of course, start early. We take our family photo in November, and try to send out the cards by Dec. Who has time to write? A picture says a thousand words.

Tiny Prints provides stylish, modern and unique stationery from photo cards to personalized greeting cards to thank you cards and business cards. Offering exclusive designs from the nation's top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side the Holidays will be a cinch! They offer adorable Thanksgiving Cards, Christmas Cards, Hanukkah Cards, and even New Years Cards. All fully customizable and personalizable.

I wrote this while participating in the TwitterMoms and Tiny Prints blogging program, making me eligible to get a $75 Tiny Prints gift certificate. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Add your favorite holiday survival tip, for a chance to win a scrappy gift of a dozen fabrics! Drawing will be held December 10th.

Giveaway

We closed our giveaway at midnight, Pacific Standard Time. We will count all comments entered on 11/11/10! Check back tomorrow for our winner. Thank you! I really enjoyed hearing about all of the color combinations.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour!

Welcome to our blog!

Would you like to win a hot-off-the-press copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks? One lucky quilter will win from our blog! Enter at Quiltmakers blog for another chance!

Leave a comment here-Just tell us your favorite colors to use in baby quilts!

We are waking up on West coast time, so I'm sorry if we missed some early birds. We will certainly use the entries from earlier this morning, posted below.

Giveaway Winner

8th Anniversary Giveaway: Joyce has chosen the Pretty as Posie quilt kit as her prize!


Have fun making up this sweet baby quilt, Joyce!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks 2010 Giveaway

Join us on a week of touring blogs! Come back on Thursday, November 11th, and enter here for your chance to win a copy of the new release of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.

Go to Quiltmaker's Blog to get your daily tour guide, and enter for a chance to win a fabulous ginormous prize package.

November 8-12 only. Pack your bags and let's go!

Giveaway Winner!

We used the random number generator(how fun is that!) at http://www.random.org/ and got #17. The seventeenth person to comment was .....drum roll.......Joyce!

Joyce, Please write us, stef@Blackberryquilts.com and let us know which kit you would like!

Eighth Anniversary-Giveaway

It's our eighth anniversary over at BlackberryQuilts!

Everything is on sale this week. Type in HIKE at checkout to get 25% off your entire order.

Tell us what you're sewing this fall, and you will be entered to win our giveaway! We will send the lucky winner a baby quilt kit of their choice.

You can enter more than once! Share our giveaway on your blog, facebook, or a tweet, and let us know about it in another comment.

Contest ends October 29, 2010. Enter now!

Scrap Bag Projects-Giveaway!

Check out all of our Green Sewing Projects! Share what you have made out of your scrap bag, or old clothes, and you will be entered to win a bag of quilter's scraps!

Giveaway Winners!

We have winners for our October giveaway! Ruth Anne S., Sue C., Amy F, and Liz, please contact me with your addresses! Stef@Blackberryquilts.com