This and That........and Giveaway Winners

This has been a good week. Lots of things going on around here, but all good. Gorgeous fall weather has swept through Chicago and I'm loving every minute of it. Fall is definitely my favorite time of year, how about you?

This past weekend it was the perfect weather for us to go on our annual apple picking excursion. Our regular orchard wasn't open this season due to the unpredictable, crazy weather we had this last spring. But we decided to try a new one that turned out to be lots of fun.....

Gigi (Brett's mom) came along on our fun apple picking adventure.

Earlier this week, we made a giant apple pie from the apples we picked. I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to do a crumble or crust on top, but I ended up doing a crust since our apples were almost falling off the top of the pie. This was only four of the apples we picked....they were huge! And the pie was delish!

Instagram Photo 

(follow me @thecottagemama)

We also brought out all the fall decorations so our house looks nice and cozy. The girls had so much fun sipping hot chocolate and helping me decorate. We made this vintage yo-yo garland together and I think it turned out really cute.

These pretties arrived in the mail this week from Riley Blake Designs for my next Design Team Project. This is from the line "The Sweetest Thing" and the small little flower print is the new knit fabric they are carrying. I've already washed it and it came out beautifully. I can't wait to start creating my next project!

There has been A LOT of sewing going on this week as I prepare for our first styled book shoot this weekend! I'm so excited to meet all of the little models and work with my book photographer. Fun, fun!

We have had quite a few giveaways in the last couple weeks, so it's probably about time that announce the winners. Sorry to keep you hanging. Here they are.........

Jo Totes Camera Bag:

Simply Color Charm Packs and Jelly Roll:

Modes4U Japanese Fat Quarter Bundle and Washi Tape:

Congratulations to our winners! Please email me at thecottagemama[at]gmail[dot]com with your contact information and we will get you your prizes as soon as possible! Don't worry if you didn't win, just keep trying. We have more giveaways coming up and you just never know when the random number generator might pick you!

So that's what has been going on around here. Some of those pictures are from Instagram and if you want to check out our daily life around here, you can follow me @thecottagemama. I hope you all had a great week and are finally getting a little taste of this beautiful fall weather.

Happy Weekend!

Goose Creek Candle Co. Giveaway

I recently had the opportunity to try out Goose Creek Candle Co.'s lovely candles from their American Heirloom Collection. If you like scented candles, you are going to love these.  

Goose Creek sent me my scent of choice and I must say that it was really hard to choose. I love all the smells of fall......pumpkin, apple, spice, ect., so I ended up going with Spiced Gourmet, but like I said, it was a tough decision.

Here are some of the fall scents that looked pretty wonderful:

I really liked the American Heirloom Collection candle that they sent. It had a pretty metal top with no label on the side so it actually blended into my decor a little bit better than the ones with the big labels. But they offer the candles in both styles.

The Spiced Gourmet smelled heavenly! I made sure to burn it for a week, so I could really tell you whether or not I liked it. The scent was just right........some candles are a little much for me (and especially for my husband), but this one was great. It made my house smell so nice and cozy and was perfect for the start of fall. Also, I feel like I barely put a dent in it and I had it burning for quite a few hours.

So do you want one for yourself? 

Well, luckily Goose Creek Candle Co. is giving away a 16 oz. American Heirloom Collection Candle in the scent of your choice to one lucky The Cottage Home blog reader.

And, Goose Creek Candle Co. is offering a coupon code for 25% off your total purchase.

Enter code: 1050

Here's how to enter:

Visit Goose Creek Candle Co. and come back and leave a comment on this post letting us know what scent you think you might choose if you win. (Click Here).

Giveaway will be open until September 30, 2012 at Midnight (CST).

Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle Giveaway at Fat Quarter Shop

Today, over at Fat Quarter Shop, I'm talking a little bit about my Blogger's Choice Fat Quarter Bundle that I hand selected for their shop. 

I also answered a few questions for them. If you can guess my answers, then you will be entered to win your very own one of my Blogger's Choice Bundles.

I have to admit, this bundle is even more gorgeous in person (if I do say so myself)!

To enter the giveaway, you must do so over at Fat Quarter Shop. 

Click HERE to enter and read more about this custom bundle.

Japanese Fat Quarter Bundle and Washi Tape Giveaway

I'm so excited about today's giveaway. If I could enter, I most definitely would. Today's Japanese Fat Quarter Bundle and Washi Tape Giveaway comes to us from Modes4u.com.

Modes4u.com is an online shop for cute fabrics, stationery, DIY items and accessories which are imported from Japan and the USA. The shop carries more than 1,000 colourful fabrics from labels like Kokka, Cosmo, echino, Michael Miller, Robert Kaufman or Riley Blake. Modes4u has a wide variety of materials and prints; just recently they added lots of organic fabrics to their shop. You get free shipping for purchases worth $78 or more to any country in the world.

Today Modes4u.com is giving away 10 Fat Quarters of these amazing Japanese Fabrics as well as two Washi tapes to one very lucky The Cottage Home blog reader. Here is exactly what is included:

Looks good, right? Want to enter to win? Here's how to enter (do one or all of the following, leaving a separate comment for each entry):

1. Visit Modes4u.com and leave a comment tell us what is your favorite product in their shop (Click Here).
2. Like Modes4u on Facebook (Click Here).
3. Follow Modes4u on Pinterest (Click Here).
4. Blog about this giveaway and link to Modes4u.com (just leave a comment letting us know you did so).

Giveaway open INTERNATIONALLY through September 18, 2012 at Midnight (CST).

WINNERS!

And the winners of the two giveaways we had this past week are.........

Southern Fabric Fat Quarter Bundle:

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies Fabric and Cookbook from Grandma Jane:

Congratulations to our two winners!  You are both going to love these prizes!  Please email Lindsay at thecottagemama[at]gmail[dot]com with your mailing addresses and contact information and we will get you your prize as soon as possible.  Thank you to everyone who entered!

Souther Fabric Giveaway: Fat Quarter Bundle

We want to give a big giant welcome to our new sponsor Aubrey Marshall from Southern Fabric (Southernfabric.com)!

I've been looking forward to introducing Southern Fabric to you all for awhile.......I know you are going to love their style and selection!  Aubrey has been in business for over 7 years and has sold over 75 thousand items to happy customers worldwide.  Feel free to browse her shop and add her to your favorites. Southern Fabric is constantly adding new Moda, Free Spirit, Westminster and Riley Blake.

Check out some of my personal favorites from Southern Fabric:

 

Oh Deer by MoMo

Check out this GORGEOUS quilt made from 'Oh Deer'.

Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket

Aviary 2 Lilac by Joel Dewberry Half Yard Bundle

Cocoon Jelly Roll by Valori Wells

And now onto the........

GIVEAWAY

Today Southern Fabric is giving away a 

Fat Quarter Bundle (11 Fat Quarters) of Dena Designs 'McKenzie'!

Here's how to enter to win:

Like Southern Fabric on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/southernfabric and leave a comment letting us know that you did.  That's it.....pretty easy!

Southern Fabric also has a coupon code for 10% storewide, good until the 16th of August using code:  tenpercent

Giveaway open until Sunday, August 12, 2012 at midnight (CST).

Eat Your Fruits and Veggies Half-Square Triangle Tutorial and Giveaway

My mom (Grandma Jane) is back today with another fun tutorial.  I am doing my best right now to balance keeping up with the blog, my Etsy shop, pattern sales and writing my book, but it is a lot....oh yeah, and my two most important jobs.....mommy and wife.  I know I wouldn't even have all of these amazing opportunities if it weren't for you guys, the readers of The Cottage Home blog, so I just want to make sure that you don't feel like I have left you hanging in the creative department (since a lot of what I'm working on can't be revealed until a later date). Thankfully, Mom has agreed to help lighten my load and guest blog more frequently with some quilting tutorials. Mom's are the best, aren't they?

And on top of her being so kind to put together these tutorials, she is offering a GIVEAWAY today that she put together all on her own.  How sweet is that?  So, make sure you check out at the bottom of this blog post for more information on how to enter!  Take it away, Mom........

Lindsay and I were lucky enough to be able to say hello to Pat Sloan at her booth at Quilt Market in Kansas City and see her new fabric line, “Eat Your Fruit and Veggies.”

At the time, I thought the line was really cute! I loved the name of the line and the inclusion of batiks with the more traditional prints was an interesting twist. I couldn’t resist ordering some of the charm packs (which do not include the batiks) and when they arrived at my doorstep, I went a little crazy. Usually with new fabric, I spend days or weeks (or months) trying to decide what to do with it but not this! I immediately knew that these darling charm packs with the bright, lively and happy colors were going to be made into half square triangles (HSTs) accented with white and I would decide the quilt details later. So there I was late at night immediately cutting white fabric squares and sewing away. I love the versatility of the simple HST and thought I would share how easy these are to make.

Cut your background fabric squares the same size as the charms—5” squares. I was using 2 charm packs of 42 so I cut 84 white background squares. This will make 168 finished 4 ½ inch HSTs.

With a pencil or marking pen, mark diagonal lines on the wrong side of the background fabric squares. I like to mark all the squares at once.

Place one charm square and back ground fabric with right sides together.

Stitch a scant ¼ inch away from the diagonal line on one side. This is where “chain-stitching” will come in handy. Don’t lift up the presser foot. Place another pair of a background square and a charm under the presser foot and keep stitching. Do not cut the thread. I stitched 15-20 pairs together at a time. You can do more or less.

Cut the thread and flip the squares around and chain stitch down the other side a scant ¼ away. Now you have a pile of all these little squares connected by two threads. Cut apart.

Place each square on your cutting board and line up your ruler with the drawn pencil line. Cut along this line with your rotary cutter to cut each square in half. Take care that you do not cut into the stitched lines.

 
Set your seams with your iron. Press open with the seam toward the darker fabric.

Square up the HSTs to 4 ½ inches. This takes some time but you will be glad you did it when you start to sew your squares together. Line up your 45 degree line along the diagonal seam and cut off the little bit on the right side. Turn your square with the newly trimmed edge to the bottom and measure again. Cut if needed.

Now the fun part—Look at all the designs you can do with the HST just by arranging the squares. 

 How about zigzags? Remember the ORANGE quilt I made for Savannah’s 4th birthday? 

Arrows 

  Triangles 

 Diagonals 

 Hourglasses 

 Pinwheels 

 These squares on point are fun, too! 

GIVEAWAY: I just have to share THREE of these happy little charm packs so you can get in on the HST fun. 

And while we are at it….I’m including this fun cookbook with fast and fresh recipes for all that wonderful summer produce that is available to us right now. 

Remember our mothers always told us, “Eat your fruit and veggies!” 

Enjoy! 

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment with your favorite HST design and your favorite summer fruit or veggie! 

Giveaway open to US Residents only.  Giveaway open until Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at midnight (CST)

PS: You can find more tutorials from Grandma Jane including her piecing, quilting and binding tutorials by clicking HERE.