SewMamaSew Giveaway Day Spring 2015

 Welcome to SewMamaSew's Giveaway Day.

 
***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED - Monday May 11, 2015

CONGRATS!!! to LEO of STRANDKORBTRAUM who said:

"hmmm not white - that's so hard to keep clean when it comes to bags - or mabye it's just me shleppign my bags along everywhere ...
hmmm dark green, may green and some sunflower yellow .."

I agree - the white would be a bear to keep clean. I already have plans to make this with different fabrics. -- Kathy

Thank you to everyone who entered. Its amazing to me that many bloggers who host giveaways have been harping on 'no-reply' commenters for the last couple of years and still - I had over 30. There is no way to contact you based on your blogger profile. Please google No-reply to find easy to understand fixes.  If you are reading this and you commented, please click on your name - which is highlighted - to see what I mean. You have to enable your email address to show.

This was another fun giveaway day with SewMamaSew and I loved all the comments.


I've participated since SMS started coordinating these awesome giveaways and I'm proud to offer up my recent sew. 

SMS is from my neck of the woods, here in Oregon.

 Marni Weaver of HaberdasheryFun recently posted an asymetrical bag tute on SMS.


I was drawn to the color blocking but not so in love with the white. Which you need to make those colors pop. I challenged myself to make the bag as directed and not deviate.

Those who know me are probably laughing in the aisles right now. I am an intermediate sewist and I always have to change something up. This took me about 2 1/2 hours to complete on Tuesday morning. It's a pretty fast sew.

Nice, clean color-blocking.

With very cool handles. I like this tote a lot. 
It's the perfect size for carrying library books, beach towels, stuff.
With stuff inside, it's around 12" high by 12" long x 5"wide.


A little about me: I've been blogging for a while now. I still  get a thrill when anyone comments and I've made some wonderful online friendships via blogging as well as physically met up with blogging friends. I was recently in Japan living it up in all the wonderful fabric shops (so cheap!)
I love to sew and I've mostly condensed my 'stash' into one room. I'll sew just about anything.

I live on an airpark. We keep our planes in a hangar on the property and can fly whenever the weather is nice. I've made the cockpit cover for our biplane as well as the luggage bin in both planes. You can get extra points in the giveaway by saying which planes my hubby and I own.

You can find me on Instagram (RocketGirl50), Pinterest (Katydid), Facebook (RunningWithNeedles). I'm even on Twitter (via etsy).    I don't require you to follow me or whatever - unless you want to. Then I'd probably do some weird happy dance.

I have an Etsy shop - RunningWithNeedles - where I hope to clear 1000 sales this year.

My giveaway is open to anyone in the world. International comments are welcome. All you have to do is answer my question.

***What color fabrics would you use?
 
I plan on doing some prints next time, adding pockets and doing the handles a little differently. Maybe some of those Cotton & Steel fabrics. If you happened to make one, maybe a link to yours.

Giveaway open from Wednesday,May 6 - Mother's Day, 2015.
I will choose the winner very randomly and post this bag to it's new home next week.



To see more giveaways, return to SMS for:

Handmade Items.
Fabric & Supplies.

WInner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER

The SewMamaSew Giveaways for May 2014 are now closed.
If you want to see more photos of the items up for grabs and view the comments,
then you can link back here:

SewMamaSew Giveaway #1 is here.

SewMamaSew Giveaway #2 is here

My two Winners have been notified and hopefully we'll all get our acts together to get this into the post on Monday!

Giveaway#1

For giveaway #1, I sewed this Boxy Zip Pouch and asked contestants to tell me what they would store inside.
Chocolate won out. The **official** answer count:
Chocolate stash - hidden in plain site in this bag - 17 people
Knit stuff - 12 commenters
EPP (english paper piecing) - 8 peoples.


My random winner is Weatherbee.

Who said, "What a great pouch. My husband has been doing a lot of traveling lately, and I think this would be great for storing all of his toiletries.

Thanks for the great giveaway!!"


Thank YOU everyone  for taking the time to comment

Giveaway#2

For giveaway #2 I sewed this clear vinyl zippered pouch. The winner had to let me know which airplane(s) I own.
The WINNER! is  ***DebraKay Neiman***  who correctly guessed;
"I read the blog where you recovered the wings of your Stearman biplane and you mentioned J-5 piper cub which are both fabric covered planes."

1. Stearman Biplane
2. Piper J-5 Cub

A close runner-up was WonderlandbyAlyce who didn't know the answer but popped out
"Definitely a Boeing 787. Thanks! " with proper cheekiness.

I'm definitely thinking about a cheekiness contest for SMS giveaway day next Christmas.....

2014 SMS Giveaway 1

Welcome to Running With Rocket, my rambling journal of treasures I make as well as a place to dump all my flower photos.

I made this boxy pouch back in January from a class on Craftsy. It  measures 6.5" long x 5" w x 5" h. The pouch is designed to lay flat but the winner might find it filled with sewing notions.

The blue fabric came all the way from Finland when I visited there two years ago. Does anyone else  plan their vacations around fabric stores?

About me:  I love to sew and craft and currently, I have taken over two and a half rooms in my house in order to play. I also live on an airpark. When we want to go flying, we roll open the hangar doors and pull the plane out. The runway is at the edge of my backyard. Which I also like to play in. I live on an acre where I garden - both flowers and the edible things. The blog has turned out to be a surprisingly good place to put all those flower photos.

If you want to you can follow me on Pinterest, Twitter and/or look at my May Flowers or even follow this blog but it's not necessary. I do invite you to look around my blog.

I have an especial fondness for Sew Mama Sew as they are from my neck of the woods near Portland, Oregon. I absolutely adore all the effort they put into the sewing community. Please take time to look at all the other giveaways that have linked up this year.

To win my boxy pouch, which is open to all sew-ers, please answer my question:
What would you fill this pouch with?

Giveaway open May 12 - May 16, 2014 Friday evening. Open worldwide.

2014 SMS Giveaway Day 2

Welcome to Running With Rocket, my rambling journal of treasures I make as well as a place to dump all my flower photos.

 
I made this vinyl pouch last night for this giveaway. It  measures 9" square. I had second thoughts about giving this away and immediately cut out four more of these easy-to-make zipped pouches. This morning, I decided this airplane pouch would be the perfect giveaway because it shows two of my loves: sewing and flying.

I'm also thinking a 6" embroidery hoop and some DMC embroidery floss would go well with this zipped pouch....(hint)

About me:  I love to sew and craft and currently, I have taken over two and a half rooms in my house in order to play. I also live on an airpark. When we want to go flying, we roll open the hangar doors and pull the plane out. The runway is at the edge of my backyard. Which I also like to play in. I live on an acre where I garden - both flowers and the edible things. The blog has turned out to be a surprisingly good place to put all those flower photos.

If you want to you can follow me on Pinterest, Twitter and/or look at my May Flowers or even follow this blog but it's not necessary.  I do invite you to look around my blog.

I have an especial fondness for Sew Mama Sew as they are from my neck of the woods near Portland, Oregon. I absolutely adore all the effort they put into the sewing community. Please take time to look at all the other giveaways that have linked up this year.

To win my airplane zipped pouch filled with ?, which is open to all sew-ers, please answer my question:
What airplane(s) do I own?

Giveaway open May 12 - May 16, 2014 Friday evening. Open worldwide.

Bucket Bag

My nephews birthday is today- in Minnesota - two hours ahead of us.
He's 12 and when I asked what he wanted for his birthday, he gave me the list.

The list of stuff I have no idea where to get whatever it is that he wanted.
The list which I probably  cannot afford.
The list that got put somewhere special.
Alternatives?


I was at my local Thriftway and next to all of their wonderful alternative foods is the bulk bins of food, including candies you can't find just anywhere.

Including the gargantuan jawbreaker in the pocket above.

 I needed to sew something to hold the baker's dozen of different candies.
I used a free craftsy class, taught by Kirstin Link, of our own SewMamaSew fame.
The class is called Bag Making Basics, Drawstring Bag & Bucket Bag.

The outside is Oregon State University fabric in orange plaid. Just to remind him where his mom and cousin graduated from.
The pocket on the outside was made from Ikea basic black. You can sew the divider lines anyhow; I chose to make three pockets.

Oops, something fell out.

It was made to fit  into the priority padded flat-rate envelope (best thing since sliced bread) which I can send domestically for under six bucks. I feel so challenged by what I can stuff into these envelopes. (free at usps.com)



Inside lining is from a thrifted plaid shirt. Kinda cements that Halloween feel.




I commiserate with my friend in Japan who moved to Kyoto recently and is slowly putting her sewing room back to rights. I spent more time figuring out where the fleece interlining was, the dang rotary cutter, and the stinkin' iron!
Sewing things went into boxes and were marked but they are in a new place now in a pretty sewing room and I don't know where anything is. It took longer to find my tools than to sew up this project.
This was an easy project which I needed in order to get my feet wet sewing after all that overtime of last year and the remodeling homestretch this spring on the bedroom floors.

SMS Spring Giveaway Winners

Thank you for all the dreams. Sewing people tend to want to sew more - if money were no object.

My three winners:
1. Debra Lee from Needle D won the 4th of July combo - including how to crochet a beer can hat!
Debra Lee's dream? "I would stay home and make dolls all day and attend every retreat around the world! Call me crazy but I want a can hat!"

2.  Diane from Archimede's Bathtub won the Seersucker scraps. She said, " I would move to a beautiful house somewhere tropical."

3. Margaret from Kolorful Scraps won the MopHead Doll Books. Her dream?  "I would travel with my husband all over the United States. I could stop at all the fabric stores on the way "

Congratulations and thank you!
Emails have been sent out- waiting for addresses for a Monday run to the PO.

10th Spring SewMamaSew Giveaway Day

 Welcome!
Thank you for visiting my giveaway today. I love SewMamaSew's Giveaways even though I don't have enough time in the day to visit all the ones I would love to win.
I enjoy seeing all the other sewing/quilting./knitting/ being crafty blogs that are out there.

I have three prizes for you to win.

Up for grabs are:
 
1.   4th of July combo.  Including a crocheted budweiser beer hat pattern! This is so retro- it's on trend for this 4th!  Daisy Kingdom 4th of July Table topper, 4th of July Vest (V.I.P. Dream Spinners) to sew and embellish, pattern to re-purpose beer cans/your drink of choice.

2.    Seersucker scraps. Fun whale patterned fabric. Kid themed. Hearts and Whales are the biggest pieces - others are cut squares (quilt?). whales spouting amongst stars, Hearts, tiny 1/4" hearts & stars, blue, peach & pink solids and small florals.

3.   Mop Head Doll Patterns. Six booklets to make all the mop head dolls you will desire.

I sew mostly garments and crafts. Last year I was on a crazy bag/purse making kick which I hope to god is finished so I can move onto something else.   I have a modern quilt pattern for our bed that I would love to make and need just time and the background fabrics to start sewing it. All the 'fussy' fabrics are in my possession.
I have been working the day job over 50 hours per week since September and my sewing has been pitiful indeed.
My junior clerk came back this month for a few weeks enabling me to work only about 40 hrs/wk.
This is better but it's still not working.

At 50hrs/wk I can hardly think of anything else except work and keeping my health up.
At 40 hrs/wk, I started 'dreaming' about sewing again;

My dream - if money and benefits were no object - would be to quit the day job and go whole-hog into running my etsy store and sewing for it.  I would have time for my friends again and the flexibility to mesh with their schedules. I could re-institute my wednesday kindle lunches with my mom. My creativity would soar.

What about you? If money and benefits were no object, what is your dream?
Comment  in a sentence or two and I will pull numbers out of a hat on Friday night and post Saturday, May 11th. Happy dreaming.

Please take the time to thank SewMamaSew for coordinating another (10!   10!   10!) Great Giveaway day. To enter more drawings, please click here.

small print: Open for everyone. USA and all the other countries.
Drawing open from Monday May 6, 2013 - May 10, 2013 at 6pm.
Oh- if you have a prize preference, indicate in your comment.
Three winners!!!

Birthday Treats

My Japanese friend surprised me with a package filled with airplane birthday love.









These two fabrics have Oregon written on them along with hundreds of other quilty names.

Janine and I met during a SewMamaSew giveaway day -- online. Turned out she grew up right behind me in Canbyland.

She met her honey while living in Japan. She's been living in Japan for 25 years.



Dot Liner shaped liked a mail delivery van.
No idea what a dot liner does but it's stinkin' Japanese cute in it's packaging.



Sewing charms: Thread, Sewing machine, Stork Scissors, Buttons, Tape Measure, Sewing Basket.

Thank you for the birthday wishes.
ありがとう   ( I hope google translate got this right...)

Speaking of SMS, their Spring Giveaway Day (week) starts Monday.

I will raid my garage - still in midst of installing wood floors - and put together 2 or 3 "prizes".

I'm A Winner!

I won this the SewMamaSew Giveaway Days (early December) from Kara over at her Me and Elna blog.
I managed to enter a few giveaways and this bag struck my eye. Was I ever surprised to find out that I won it. Hooray for me!

The bag came loaded with more turquoise and brown fabrics, and some rubber stamps which got put in a special place during the holiday craziness.
The bag is fully lined with the greenish-blue fabric (top) and then Kara did some fancy-schmancy stitching where the drawstring pulls.

A lined bag with boxed corners. Impressive.

I must also put in that this lovely package awaited me after I arrived home from a long, long work day. Too tired to think about eating but not so tired to rip that package open -- big smile.
Thanks Kara.


There will be another SewMamaSew giveaway day in May - be prepared.

2012 SMS Giveaway Winners

 The WINNER of the first giveaway is Maureen Hayes. She's been notified and as soon as she sends me her address, I will post all the sewing goodies to her.
As far as the caramels are concerned, it appears she has numerous allergies, including dairy, but she can re-gift those.

I asked entrants to name their favorite Christmas Carol and it was all over the board compared to 2011 and 2010, when O Holy Night won both years.
But - because I mentioned it, had everyone scurrying to nominate more than 58 other carols!
A little nudge  *wink*wink.

For 2012, Silent Night came up 33 times whilst O Holy Night braked at 8.
Mary, Did You Know was a surprising tie with Carol of the Bells at 7 votes.

I find numbers very intriguing as well as people's behaviors so this 'contest' was definitely fun for me watching voters name any other carol except O HolyNight. There were a couple of entrants who also could not believe O Holy Night won the last two years.

Several voters threw out two or three titles. I particularly loved this one from Tricia: "I would say a tie between Silent night and The First Noel. I always sang the first to my oldest and sing the second every night to my youngest."

All in all, Silent Night stole the show.
Thank you all for entering. I'll be back again for the May Giveaways that SMS hosts.
(did you know SMS is from my neck of the woods? About a 30 minute drive away  - if they had a brick & Mortar store)

Keep reading for the winner of my second giveaway and some fun Christmas Carol videos.

 GIVEAWAY TWO for my airplane towels went to Miss Enota from Minnesota. Rhymes.
She also has been notified and I'm off to pack these up along with some apple cider caramels.

I am making another batch of caramels this weekend so I can fill all my packages that need to be mailed Monday in order to have a chance at arriving before Christmas (read Sweden, Finland, Germany & Japan! plus one for Nephew's unfortunate birthday on the 18th of December.

It's Christmas Day Family Force 5

Santa bring me a dinosaur-Funny Christmas song by Bob Brown

Barenaked Ladies - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings"

olivia newton john silent night