***CLOSED*** Thankyou Flood Relief Raffle Quilt

RAFFLE IS NOW CLOSED, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PURCHASED A TICKET.
WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED IN A COUPLE OF HOURS.

Welcome to my raffle if you are visiting from the Make it Perfect blog if not then click on the button below anytime after Sunday and there will be a master list of places you can visit and support the Flood Appeal.




It is now quilted and bound and has finished up a nice lap or baby size quilt at 37" square, I have taken this photo on our clothes line which is in front of our vege garden.  The second photo is of the back so you can get a clear picture of the quilting.  It's basic straight line quilting, it was "organic" with no lines drawn.

I was going to do an Auction but I want 'Everyone' to have a chance to win it.
So...
I will do a raffle.
For every $2 you donate to the QLD FLOOD RELIEF you will get 1 ticket.
For every $5 you will get 3 tickets.

So if you only have $4 then you get 2 tickets
But if you have $10 then you can have 6 tickets and so on.

I haven't been to do a donation to QLD FLOOD RELIEF yet as I have been busy sewing so I don't know if the system gives you a receipt you can send to me but it will probably have to be on an honesty system.

If you have a receipt you can feel free to e-mail it to me: beccaj74 (at) yahoo.com.au

If not I will just have to trust that people are going to be honest when they say they have donated to the cause.

It's simple to enter, leave me a comment here telling me how much you have donated and I will work up a spreadsheet in the order the comments are left and then use good old Random.org to generate numbers at the end of the Raffle which will be Monday 24 January 9am Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

I will cover the cost of postage anywhere in the World.

I also just found this cute little workshop that is only $5 to join and all money goes to the flood relief.


Kim Archer Smile Workshop

A Few New Things

I know I have been a very regular blog poster lately, but my internet connection is behaving and I want to do it while I can.

So today I am here to tell you about a couple of things have noticed lately.

1st There will be a blog tour in the new year that sounds quit fun. There is a button over there on the right hand sidebar that will take to you to some more information if you want some great freebies and prizes.

2nd, There are a few other buttons on the sidebar that you may like to investigate.

There is Tea-cup tuesday which is lovely.

The bloggers Quiltapalooza which sounds so fun and is still quite a surprise yet.

There is a Layer Cake Quilt-a-long and a heap of other things.

NOW FOR THE REALLY GOOD BIT...

A Brand new E-Zine that is arriving with the New Year.

It's called The Quilt Pattern Magazine and it sounds wonderful.

Apart from being a monthly magazine with 2 BOMS, lots of other patterns and lots of wonderful information and articles.

The cost is amazing... You can get in now and get a subscription of 13 issues for $11.99 USD.

I don't know about you but I can't find another quilt magazine at that price.

There is a great blog-hop running where you can win a yearly subscription (or your money back if you already have one like me).

Just have a look HERE for the blog hop page with the link to all the people giving away this wonderful prize.

Go here: THE QUILT PATTERN MAGAZINE and look around to see what will be on offer.

Just so you know, I am not being paid or offered anything to do this post. I just though people may want to know. Not that I have that many readers or anything...

Bye

Don't Walk & Definately Don't Run!!!

There is a giveaway but I really, really, really don't want you to enter.

Corrie of Retro mummy Fame who has the Gorgeous Retro mummy shop

is having a super fabulous giveaway but I want to win it so please don't go there!!!

IT'S GIVEAWAY DAY!!!

I am not hosting one here on my personal blog.

BUT

You can go here to my shop blog and enter one there.

Then press this button

and go and enter the rest of them, you may have to wait a while for the post to appear at Sew Mama Sew as it's not the 13th in the USA just yet, but I guarantee it will be HUGE and well worth the visit.

A Give away but please don't enter!!!

It's a bit of a conundrum really.

I have to tell you about it to get an entry.

BUT

I don't want you to enter.

Go ahead if you must

The lovely Corrie of Retromummy fame is having a giveaway. She is very generously giving away a whole bundle of Sweet Broderie fabric by Rosalie Quinlan.

Go and enter if you really must but I am going to win. I tell you this.

While you are there go and visit her Retro Mummy Store she has very different fabrics to my store. She has lots of lovely cute Japanese & Lecien fabrics and some gorgeous patterns and magazines. Go on, support a wonderful Australian fabric business visit Retro Mummy today.

Prizes, Pincushions & More

I had a wonderful month in October.

I won this

I entered a competition on the Crafty Mama's blog I was astounded to get the envelope and find not 1 but 5 different lengths of Farbenmix ribbon inside it.

I am truly grateful for this lovely little prize and I suggest you keep an eye on the Crafty Mama's Blog they are always having great giveaways and have some great tips and sewing information.

And this

I have a yearly subscription to a wonderful new e-zine called

Fat Quarterly

They have an excellent blog that you can have a look at and then purchase either single issues or a yearly subscription to the magazine.

Every issue is jam packed with great patterns, interviews and some fantastic giveaway's. I have been a subscriber since issue 1 and always enter the competitions, I was totally blown away to get an e-mail telling me I had won this book from a giveaway in their 2nd issue.

I highly reccommend having a look at their blog even if you don't decide to get the magazine. There is a quilt-a-long that happened a while ago that you can still get the instructions for. They have great interviews, there was one with Denyse Schmidt the other day and regular features with other quilters and designers.

They also gave a free Holiday Special Edition to all subscribers recently which was great.

As for the book that I won, what is not to like. By the wonderful Australian team behind the "Prints Charming" Store it is full of easy lessons and tips on printing your own fabric and then super projects to showcase your or someone else's lovely printed fabric. Over 40 sewing and printing projects that you can do at home.

I received this

I joined in a swap on Flickr. A Mug Rug Swap. I had never heard of one before but it's basically between a coaster and a placemat and is about big enough for a Mug and a small plate.

Things have taken off for the Mug Rug movement since this first swap and you can go and join the group as there will be plenty more swaps I am sure.

This lovely creation was sent to me by the lovely Jodie from the USA, I don't have her blog address handy but it's so cute, it has 3 little cups spelling out the word tea, some extra bits of fabric and a very nice recipe for some almond cookies that my family just loves.

And this

A Pin cushion swap that I joined. It was run by Ellie I was terrified after I signed up for 2 but then I found the funnest pattern that I sent away and I got this very cute little chicken in the mail from Penny at Back Valley Seasons she even included the cute little hand beaded heart that you see pinned to the side of the chook. I have had to hide it from my Mother in law as she is a chook nut.

She included a lovely card that has a Gelatin Mono-print feature on the front which is very clever.

AND this

How cute is this little fellow. A little beetle from the amazing

Diana Trout. He is cute as a button and nice and small, it fits in the palm of my hand. I am using him when I am moving around a bit and need something portable.

I will do a separate post with my offerings later on this week.

I have also just cut a a lovely Bali Pop to make up into the Quilt a long quilt from the Fat Quarterly blog so I will show you that too.

A catch up

I have been flat out lately so much has been happening.

I had 3 wins of wonderful prizes.
I won a yummy Flutterby charm pack from Ryan Walsh I can't wait to look through my patterns and use this.
I won a beautiful piece of sun dyed fabric from Delia which will be very carefully planned into something special
AND
I won a lovely book from Angela which is just very special as she originally won it from the author and it is signed too. It is really lovely of Angela to share the love once she was finished with this book and I will make sure that I do the same.













I received some amazing fabric that I have listed on my OTHER BLOG and in MY ETSY STORE












We had a couple of sunny days when the kids and I could get outside on the lovely green grass that we have at home.
This is how farm kids play...

Sam on his bouncy ball with the Rams looking on in surprise.








Jess with the kids best friend, Sophie is the most gentle kind dog you could ever imagine, she's not real good with the sheep or cattle but you could trust her with the kids lives.
And yes I do dress her like a boy on the farm because we have so many clothes from Sam that I am not going to ruin new good clothes.



This one because he is just quite angelic when he wants to be.







We have also had a stack of rain, which is good, it's still a bit cold for it to have any effect on making the grass grow and there is just mud everywhere but it's lovely


Visiting Cows







Let's take a walk Soph...








We have lots of lovely little lambs...very cute








Then on Saturday this happened. I was happy to be asked to play my 3rd game of netball for this season when they managed to find a fill in umpire for me but then I go and do this...
I don't think it's broken, I had some x-rays yesterday and am off to the doc tomorrow to find out what's up but I will need at least one weekend off.
Such a bummer, my umpiring is going really well and I was going to get to play some more games before the end of the season.
Now I think I will stick to umpiring for the rest of this year.

SMS Giveaway Winner

Now I notified the winner on the weekend but it has taken me all this time to get the parcel of goods together and take a photo.
The winner of my Sew Mamma Sew giveaway is......

SARA

She has a lovely blog so please go and say hello, she has some really cute cows too...

Here is a picture of what I will be sending to Sara. It's a terrible photo I know bit I was having camera issues that I wasn't patient enough to fix this morning.


There is an Australian Craft Mag, they little bag and some yummy fabric.






Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by and entered my giveaway.

Dont' forget that I have another blog here where I will showing all the goodies that I am now selling, there is new fabric arriving soon and I will be previewing everything and taking orders at the blog or you can wait for it to be listed in my Etsy store.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED

***NOW CLOSED***

THANKYOU FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL 131 COMMENTS WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!!

I have decided to do another giveaway here on my personal blog.

There are heaps of giveaway's happening in blogland this week just visit here here or here at SEW MAMMA SEW

It's very simple to enter my draw.

Leave me a comment, just say hi whatever you want to say and you are entered. One entry per person and I must have a way to contact you, either through your blog or leave me an e-mail address or check back here after 11am Friday 21 May Australian Eastern Time.

COME ON WE ARE SO NEARY THERE, I HAVE SO MUCH STUFF TO GIVEAWAY!!!

What can you win???
This









Or this











A full 1/2 metre of quilting weight cotton. Just so you can get a perspective on the size of the flowers the piece there is folded up to about 15cm square.

More Fabric, for every 50 people that comment I will add another item to the list. I will update with new photo's as we reach a milestone.


We are getting close to 50 people (I changed it from 100 to 50) I want to giveaway more fabric.

So here is the 2nd piece. It is a whole 1/4 metre of quilting weight fabric in a lovely pale lavender with little flowers all over it.





WE DID IT 50 PEOPLE, SO HERE'S ANOTHER BIT OF FABRIC...












ONE PERSON WINS THE LOT DON'T FORGET AND I AM GOING THROUGH MY GOODIES AND THERE WILL BE MORE TO COME, PATTERNS AND MAGAZINES!!!.

PLUS go here for my other giveaway

Swaps and Wins October was good to me...

This first quilt is an absolute work of art. It was sent to me from the USA.
It depicts the ocean and a sunrise in Carolina. She based it on a photo that a friend of hers took. You can see a copy of the photo in the 2nd picture that she put on the label on the back of the quilt.


This quilt is a little swap received from The Netherlands. It is really cute with 4 little mushrooms. It also had a lovely piece of paisley fabric and some Ric Rac and some little pegs with cute birds on them. I love the whole thing...

This is also sooo cute. It is from Sandy in Buenos Aires. She put a lovely little applique bird on a branch in some very accurate squares. There is also a lovley piece of butterly fabric and some ribbon, I am too lucky.

This last picture is of 2 things that I won in October, the item on the left is a little Techie bag, well it's actually bigger than I thought it would be. It's so beautifully made and would carry a camera and some extra items or some toiletries for a night away. It is a lovley giveaway that I won during the Bloggers Autumn Quilt Festival and it comes from Terri at Patchwork Trails on Etsy.

The 2nd item is the red thing on the top right. It's a handcarved stamp by Ruthie Powers at Next Signal Designs/ She had a giveaway on her blog that I was lucky enough to win.

Swapping & Thrifty goodness

First off today we will start with the thrifty goodnes I found while in town on Monday.
A rare trip to Albury with Sam staying home with my lovely Mother in law and Jess having a nice sleep in the pram mean that I got time to look around a couple of thrift shops.
Who would have thought that one of them was having a $2 sale, not per item but per bag. The lady even packed it for me way better than I would have.
So I got some great pillowcases, some lovely fabric with circles on it (already in use for a new quilt), and the pink thing on the right is a really cute tablecloth.
The second photo is also stuff that she managed to fit in the bag, 3 100% wool jumpers. The one on the far right is 100% Alpaca...soooooo soft.... and the striped one is lambswool.
It was just my lucky day I guess.

The next 2 quilts are of swap quilts I have just received.

The first one is tiny, only about 12" big, it is from Swap Till You Drop in Flickr

The theme for August was buildings or houses, mine is on it's way to Dave and Suzi today.

It's so cute there are 2 little tents and outside them is a Doll and a rabbit, it's just lovely.

This next one is truly a work of art.

It was from the Quilting GallerySpring Blooms Swap my partner was Lilliana.
It is a full size mini at 24". I don't know if you can see it in the photo but the top right hand corner is a blue winged butterfly, it is 3D with the body of the butterfly being stuffed and squishy. The bottom left hand corner has a lovely yellow flower that is also dimensional and a bit puffy. The centre is cut out with a beaded lattice running through it with butterflies fussy cut and stuck onto the lattice.

These next 2 are from me to 2 other people. One of them is for Suzi who sent me the lovely little tent one above from the Swap till you drop flickr group, the other one is for a lovely lady called Ana from Portugal who is my partner in the Crafternoon Tea swap flickr group for September.

This one is 2 little houses that are only about 6" and a little pouch/purse
The next one is a little house that is about 12" square.
I had so much fun making these little houses. I found them in a book that I bought, it's Japanese but the diagrams are really easy to understand and all I have to do is trace out the templace and go from there.

Not too much else is happening. Busy on the farm with shearing coming up in the next few weeks if we can get some shearers, they are pretty scarce these days even though the money is really good if you can do a good job.

We have had some horrible winds with 100km/hr and over, luckily none of our trees have come down and our new house and verandah are still standing.

Our boys play in the preliminary final Aussie Rules football this Saturday so we will all have our fingers crossed to be going to a Grand Final game next weekend, it will be the first one in mega-years and will probably be husbands last chance at a 1st grade final game so keep the boys in your thoughts.

Bye for now.

Lucky in every way today.

I have lots of photos today.
The first is of my latest win in blogland.
I couldn't believe it... I won a beautiful set of Heather Bailey fabrics, a Heather Bailey Pattern for a baby stacking game, a raggedy flower pattern and a lovely handmade pincushion. I just can't believe my luck.










Then these are the best photo's of all. I took some pictures of Jess and Sam today on our new finally finished deck that took 6 months to build, it was such a beautiful sunny day.
Jess turned 5 months yesterday and I cannot believe how time flies and how fast they grow.












One of her favourite pasttimes is sucking on her fingers.








And then there's spending time with her big brother.

She just has to see him and she smiles and laughs.

Sam loves to hold her hand and put on different hats to make her laugh.

SEWN GIVEAWAY WINNER

It's over finally, the SEWN giveaway is finished and I have used the ever so popular random number generator to pick a winner who is
....
....
....

Becanne


CONGRATULATIONS.

Thank you to everyone who visited and entered, I have had a wonderful time visiting all the other blogs and my blog following list is just getting ridiculous.

Don't forget I am participating in a Pay It Forward and I have one space left to make something for someone just click here: PAY IT FORWARD

**NOW CLOSED** GIVEAWAY!!!

Welcome to yet another giveaway.

SEW,MAMMA,SEW is having their 2nd giveaway day.

It was great fun the first time around and I was even lucky enough to win a prize. I also gave away some of my lovely handmade soap to 1 winner.

This time I am going to open my giveaway up to anyone in the world. There will be 2 prizes of my newest creations.

1st prize: 1 large Pendant & 1 small Pendant of your choice from my "Bec Clarke Creations" Blog

2nd prize: 1 small Pendant of your choice from my "Bec Clarke Creations" Blog

I will be adding more Pendants over the next few days there are lots of new squares and some rectangles that I am in the process of photographing so you don't have to decide right now, wait until you hear from me if you are the lucky random winner.

Anyone is welcome to enter, there is only 1 condition, I must be able to contact you. Either through your blog, leave me your e-mail address or follow my blog so that when I announce the winner you can contact me. I must hear back from you within 48 hrs of the drawing or the 2nd place person becomes first and a new 2nd place gets drawn. Winners will be drawn on 31 May Australian (Sydney Time).
DON'T FORGET my other giveaway which you can read about here:
Sewn Giveaway

And my pay it forward which is still lacking a couple of participants, go and have a look and see if it is your cup of tea
Pay If Forward

2 Months already!!!

Just a little post about our prescious little girl. On 17 May (tomorrow for us) she will be 2 months old already. My how time flies.

Here she is on the very special quilt made by my lovely internet quilting friends. I am going to try and remember to do this every month for at least the first year, I have seen it done by other people and it really gives you perspective on how much they grow in such a short period. I didn't do it with Sam as I didn't know about it and I only just made him his first quilt when he went in to his "Big Bed" but here he is with Jess today.

By the way, Jess is wearing the cutest little outfit knitted for her by my very clever step-mum. There is a cute little pair of yellow booties and pants and a little cardi in yellows, blues and purples. Everyone commented at football today and she was toasty warm too.

Don't forget about the giveaway that I am participating in and the Pay it forward too. Just see the 2 posts below this one for more details.

All Sewn Up - GIVEAWAY

I am joining in the party!!!

A new website totally dedicated to sewers is about to be launched and they are having a big party. People who have blogs are invited to have giveaways to celebrate and I have decided to join in and offer some goodies to giveaway.

NOTE: AUSTRALIAN PARTICIPANTS ONLY
sorry about that but postage outside the country is ridiculous for what i am giving away.

Now down to business. What will you win off me and how will you win it.
WHAT YOU WILL WIN
1. 2 x Bars of my handmade soap, you pick the sort that you would like, just visit my soap blog and let me know.

2. 1 x of my hand decorated pendants which can also be seen over on the soap blog, if you have a colour preference I have plenty others here at home that I can make up to suit you, otherwise just pick one of the available ones on the blog.

HOW TO WIN IT.
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me which soap you would like to win and your favourite colour for the pendant.
2. Tell your friends.
That's it!!! Draw takes place on 8 June at 10am EST sharp.

I am also still looking for more people for my Pay It Forward so feel free to have a look and join in.
GOOD LUCK