Charm-ed to Meet You

Looking for the Oh Deer giveaway?  Click here.

Do you like this?

And what about this? 

Well, then, you're bound to like these.

If you do, hop on over to Charm About You for your chance to win one from Fluffy Sheep Quilting (the shop).  Good luck!

Mod Pop QAL Color Choices

UPDATE: Apparently my Gmail account is sending spam to several of you.  Please do not open it unless there is a relevant current subject line and you are sure it is the real me sending the email.

I am so sorry for spamming you.  I have taken several measures to ensure it does not continue.  The one change you will notice is to leave a comment you will now have to have a Gmail or Open ID account.  I am sorry to loose those of you who do not have these accounts, but I just can not go on spamming you guys.  

If you continue to get spammy emails from me, please tell me.  Without that, I have no idea I am sending out the nasties.  And now onto our regularly scheduled blog post....

It took me about 30 seconds to join in with Leanne's Mod Pop QAL. I have never joined in a QAL before, mostly because they came at the wrong time for me personally.  There are several I regret missing.  This, however, I could not let pass.  

You see, I want to make a quilt as a Christmas gift for a very special fella.  I have been struggling with the idea of a man-quilt, as I am sure you all have at some point.  That was until I saw this:

Shamelessly stolen from Leanne of She Can Quilt

Perfect.  The added bonus of joining in with the QAL is that Leanne will help me get over my fear of piecing curves AND she has a schedule that will allow me to finish before the holidays.  To really ensure I stick to the schedule and don't embarrass myself, Fluffy Sheep Quilting (the shop) has become one of the QAL sponsors!  I'm totally on board.  No messing up now.

This week's homework was to choose our fabrics.  I've pulled a few that might work.  Try to imagine the white in Leanne's quilt replaced with a Kona Ash in combination with this: 

I took out the lighter colored fabrics at the top of the pile as they hurt my eyes when the sun came in the window.  Maybe, being in Ireland, I am just not that used to the sun.  Possibly.  Anyway, here we are without the lighter fabrics:

I like that.  Now what about just blues and purples?  Now we are getting somewhere I think.

What do you guys think?  Is there enough variety here?  I tend to go for medium and darks leaving out the lights.  But then, there will also be Kona Ash to brighten it up.  Any hints are welcome!

Just Can't Get Enough....of Solids

There was very little sewing this weekend.  I had fabric on the brain.  Solids, to be specific.  That's right, ladies!  I cut like CRAZY to make up the blogger fat 8th bundles from the competition this past July.  They are just spectacular in person.

Amish Girl

While I was already going to town with the rotary cutter, I made both fat 8th AND fat quarter bundles.  Who could say no to double the goodness?  I could not, apparently

Beginner's Toolbox

 So, if you are looking for a bit of this goodness in your stash, you can head here for the fat 8th bundles....

Mermaid Splash

 Or pop over here for the fat quarter bundles.

Sunrise

I had such a good time having each of you participate in the bundle creation.  Thank you so very much to everyone who contributed a mosaic.  It was so fun I am already dreaming up a second round....are you interested?  Maybe this October we'll try it all again.  I would love that!  Hope you would too :)

Under the Palm Tree

Tomorrow's focus will be turned back to sewing.  Even though Granny Mania is finished, I am still making Granny blocks.  That is right - not one, but two of my bees are looking for Granny.  I can not wait to dive into more!

And the winner is....

A great big thank you to all of you lovely folks who created mosaics for the Kona bundle competition.  You have such fantastic taste and were incredibly creative with the colors given.  The linky was just filled with eye candy!

To give you the voting results....

The overall winning mosaic with the greatest number of votes is Sunrise by Susan at Canadian Abroad.  She will be taking home 2 yards of Kona Solids to add to her stash.  Fluffy Sheep Quilting will also offer Susan's bundle for sale starting in August of 2012.

The runner up in the warm category was the gorgeous Bahama Mama by Jennie P of Eclectically Delicious, filled with oranges and reds but with a smattering of pinks included.  What a great combo!


Within the cool category, the mosaic with the greatest number of votes was Under the Palm Trees by Jennie P of Eclectically Delicious.  Jennie also created the runner up mosaic called Something About the Sea.  Fluffy Sheep Quilting will recreate Jennie's Under the Palm Tree bundle next month!  Well done, Jennie! 


In the pick-a-mix category, the greatest number of votes went to An Amish Girl created by Laurie of West Texas Threads.  

This mosaic was quickly followed in popularity by the Beginner's Toolbox by Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts...

...and Mermaid Splash by JL Verde of Just Something I Made.  Again, all 3 pick-a-mix winners will be new Kona solid fat 8th bundles available at Fluffy Sheep Quilting.

Again, thank you all for jumping in and contributing your creativity to make this a fabulous competition.  You've made this great fun!

Do you love Kona Solids? I do!

And would you like to win 2 yards of Kona Solids to add to your stash?  Well who wouldn't?

Fluffy Sheep Quilting (the shop) has 35 different Kona Solids.   So that each and every one of you can bring home a bit of this rainbow, the shop will offer fat eighth bundles of  8 Kona Solids later this summer.  I would therefore like to open the chance to you, Fluffy Sheep Quilting readers, to create delicious bundle combinations in a mini competition.  Are you interested?

Join in!
Here's what you need to do:

• Head to the Fluffy Sheep Quilting flickr page where you'll see a photo set of Kona Solids.  Choose your favorite 8 colors that you think would make a fab bundle.
• Use these images to make a photo mosaic of your proposed bundle of 8.  If you need a bit of help making a mosaic, there's a mini-tutorial below that might help.  
• Post your mosaic on your blog and then come right back here and link up your post with the linky below.  Please, please, please be sure to list the Kona color names in your bundle somewhere in your post or photo caption.  If you do not have a blog and would like to enter, just email your mosaic to me at fluffysheepquilting(at)gmail(dot)com and I can add it to the linky for you.  
• You may make as many bundle combinations as you want and link up each and every one of them as a separate entry.  The linky will request unique URLs for each mosaic, so you may have to write multiple blog posts to link several mosaics.  Alternatively, you can upload them in flickr and use the image URL in your linky.

Your Winnings!
The winner of our linky will be chosen by public vote.  Voting will be open on 9 July for 1 week.  You're welcome to tweet, facebook, blog all about the contest trying to drum up votes for your bundle, but in the end the general public will make the final decision of which bundle they like best.  

I am offering 2 yards of Kona Solids to the winner in any way they would like.  If you want a full 2 yards of one color, that's fine by me.  If you'd like a selection of FQs, that's also fine by me.

I will also be offering the top 5 combinations as fat eighth bundles in the Fluffy Sheep Quilting shop under your name.  For example, if I won...which I won't...Fluffy Sheep Quilting will offer the Cindy Bundle.  Or you can come up with what ever cheeky name you'd like...I'm just not that creative with words.

Timeline
Start linking your mosaics today.  This linky party will be open from 25 June to 8 July (5PM), giving you two weeks to create something spectacular.  On Monday 9 July I will open the voting for 1 week.  The winner will be emailed by me on 16 July.


If you are emailing your mosaic to me, it must be received by Thurs 5 July so I can do all of the behind the scenes stuff and get you into the linky in time.


Short Mosaic Tutorial
You can do this any way you'd like.  My favorite is with Big Huge Labs.  To create a mosaic with them:

• Follow this link to their website.
• Choose 3 columns and 3 rows to give you space for 9 images.  You'll only use 8 of them.
• Go to my flickr page and view the photo set of Kona Solids.  Just click here as a short cut.
• Click on the color you like.  Click again so it's in a shadow box (black background with just the color swatch floating).  
• Highlight and copy the URL link
• Go back to Big Huge Labs and insert the link in the "enter URL" box
• Repeat this again and again until you've inserted URLs for all colors you like.  
• You can create/view/edit the mosaic using the buttons at the bottom of the Big Huge Labs page.
• Be sure to save the HTML code for your photo caption in your blog post OR write out your color choices so we have a good record of your favorites.

There's also a good tutorial here that you might like better than my brief instructions.

Small Print.
This linky is open to all international visitors.  I will happily ship your winnings to you anywhere you may be.  You must leave a working email for me in your linky upload to contact you.  If you do not respond in 2 days after my email letting you know you won, I will go to the second winner.