Sew Grateful Highlights: Reflections, Projects and Giveaways

This post is a long time a-coming! Thank you everyone for participating in the Sew Grateful challenge--it was great to see your projects, participate in (and even win--woot, woot!) the giveaways and read your reflection posts!  Here's the second installment of the Sew Grateful Challenge highlights:

Reflection Posts

• To all those who inspire and give(away) from Beau Baby: A lovely post from Suzanne about all the things she's grateful for from the sewing community.  Check out this post to see a recap of some of her projects including a wonderful bombshell dress.

• Sew Grateful from Happy Little Seamstress: A lovely short post from Evie about her sewing machine that was a gift from her mom and her sister.

• So far...from OonaBalloona: A walk down memory lane...I just love this post where Oona reviews the process of making her past  21 creations as part of the Sew Weekly feature.

Projects

Hello Lover Bag from Reana Louise over at Curves, Patterns and Pins.

Reana Louise created this amazing bag using japanese cotton (the same used for her Welcome Spring dress) and thick, luscious cotton-sateen. The best part?  She didn't use a pattern but just created shape that she liked with a rounded edge.  The Sew Grateful bit is that the seams on this bag are serged and she is so thankful for all the advice she received from her readers on serging.  She even included an awesome graph (I so love graphs :) Isn't this bag the best?
_______________________________________________________________________________

Sew Thankful Pillow from Mommy en France who blogs over at the Two little cabbages and cie

Mommy en France made up this adorable pillow from a quilting square that her mother gave her last summer. It was a leftover from a quilt her mother had made for her cousin about 20 years ago. Inspired by the challenge, Mommy en France took out the square, chose a contrasting, but harmonious, second piece of calico, and whipped up a very basic pillow case.  I just love seeing things being passed on in families--what a wonderful piece of tradition!
________________________________________________________________________________


Sew Grateful Quilt from Seeks over at Seek Speak

At the end of summer, M is for Make hosted a giveaway for a fat 16th of Storybook fabric from Birch Fabrics that Seeks (who blogs over at Seek Speak) won. Seeks immediately thought of making a quilt.  So she made the quilt for her niece from the material she won in the giveaway. How sweet! I know she will love those adorable fabrics.
________________________________________________________________________________

Collaboration Shrug from Steph over at 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World

This is the shrug that 3 bloggers made.  It’s a very fine, airy New Zealand merino/ viscose blend.  Leimomi brought it with her to Australia as a gift when she visited Steph who blogs over at 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World.  Steph immediately thought it would make a good shrug and remembered Tanit-Isis’ 1950′s shrug pattern available as a download.  It's perfect as a shrug and it's conception really does embody the spirit of the sewing community!
________________________________________________________________________________

iwannahula skirt from Oona who blogs over at Oonaballoona

Ms. Oonaballoona decided to make a project using a pattern she received during the pattern swap at our NY meetup extravaganza.  The fantastic pattern swap portion happened per Lisette's suggestion, and this pattern is from Lisette's very own contribution to the pattern swap.  Isn't this skirt a-mazing?  You've done us proud Oona!!
_______________________________________________________________________________

Thanksgiving Apron from Stacie Thinks She Can:

Stacie got this pretty lace trim from Project Angel Kisses. She ingeniously added it to the neckline of her recent apron project (despite protests from the sewing machine).  I just love the detail it adds!
_______________________________________________________________________________

Sublime Stitching Babe from Amy at Sew Well:

You may remember the Sublime Stitching giveaway that Tilly of Tilly and the Buttons hosted.  Well, Amy won that giveaway and Sublime Stitching sent her a large canvas bag and a set of the Beach Babes embroidery patterns.  She had never done any detailed embroidery before, just the eyes and noses for some animal blankets, so this gift enabled her to venture into new sewing territory and don't you agree her first beach babe is amazing?  I just love it!
_______________________________________________________________________________


The 80 Year Old Burda Skirt from Janine at Interrupted Sutures:

Janine gives us some stats on this beautiful skirt: fabric = at least 40 years old, buttons = 30 years old, pattern = 6 years old and the lining fabric = 4 years. Only the zip and thread were new.  Janine was given the pink linen (along with various other dress and craft and home dec fabrics )  from her (ex) neighbour when she moved. The neighbour told her it came from her own mother`s stash and she can remember it from when she was quite young.  What a wonderful way to appreciate the gift of this amazing fabric!
_______________________________________________________________________________

Dead Simple Quilt by Unconventional Katie

This sew grateful quilt is in honour of Lynne at Lily's Quilts for hosting a quilt-a-long and also to Cindy at Fluffy Sheep Quilting for hosting a weekly free motion quilting practice, which is what Katie did before tackling this quilt. Don't these colours look great together? Great job, Katie!
_______________________________________________________________________________

Apron Dress by Hana at Marmota's Dress Diaries

Hana made this apron dress from gingham-ish print that she got from a friend's mother (She also got fabric to make the pale green 1970 dress, and several other projects). The bias binding is the infamous Very Pink Poplin of Doom, also a gift. So, an apron dress you say? It is inspired by the Colette Patterns - namely their Crepe dress, using this free pattern by Lekala and modified by Hana. Brilliant idea--and two of my favourite colours together!
_______________________________________________________________________________

The Sew Grateful Dress: Vintage Simplicity 4908 by Alana at Lazy Stitching

Alana from Lazy Stitching just made a super duper fabulous Sew Grateful dress.  She made it with one of two vintage patterns that she won in a blogiversary giveaway from Amy of Sewing Through the Motions.  Check out Alan's post to see how she combined this Simplicity pattern with the Sewaholic Pendrell blouse and the Burdastyle's Jenny Pencil Skirt.  Ingenious and absolutely stunning!
________________________________________________________________________________

Projects in Progress: Sew Grateful by Diane at Marguerite Designs

This Sew Grateful project in progress is from Diane who blogs over at Marguerite Designs.  She's  using a Burda sewing pattern which she received as part of a worldwide pattern swap organised by Kat from the Sew Weekly Sewing Circle. She's making the red, satiny fabric (see photo) which she found at a nearby fabric for an insanely cheap price.  The best bit?  Guess where she is going to wear this dress?  To see a live performance of the Strictly Come Dancing tour! How fun is that??
________________________________________________________________________________

Giveaways

My First Pattern Giveaway by Jane over at Passing All Understanding

Jane from Passing all Understanding is doing her first pattern giveaway! And what a giveaway!!! She has eight patterns up for grabs and she'll choose two seamstresses who will each get to choose two patterns!  She'll send them free to anyone in the U.S.  The giveaway is open until midnight December 11th.  Click here to enter.
________________________________________________________________________________

Sunny Day Gray Skirt Giveaway by Lavender over at Threadsquare

Lavender is giving away an amazingly constructed, beautiful skirt.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Contest is open until December 7, 2011, 23:59 EST (that's TONIGHT). Here are the flat measurements (double the waist/hip) of the skirt:

• waist – 13.5 ” / 34.29 cm
• hip – 19.5″ / 49.53 cm
• length – 26″ / 66 cm

------

That concludes the round-up of Sew Grateful Challenge projects, reflections and giveaways! I hope I captured everyone's projects.  This was so much fun to do and as someone (Vicki, I think?) suggested, we should do this again!!!  So here we go.....How about a post-holiday Sew Grateful Challenge?  Mark your calendars for the week of January 16th.  I already have some fun ideas for projects I want to complete!  How about you?