HELLOmynameisHeather

My Rag Doll & a Giveaway

I must tell you about this gorgeous new book from Corinne Crasbercu. With beautiful photographs, classic designs, and even darling little sketches and watercolors mixed in throughout, Corinne's new book, My Rag Doll, is a visual treat. Here is just a glimpse of the bright and inviting styling in this treasure of a book.

Even the materials-list pages are pretty. Look how the fabrics, ribbons and yarns are laid out for the Red Riding Hood doll shown above.

My Rag Doll takes you through the creation of a simple doll with customizeable hair and features. You can start with a clean and tidy hairdo and let the naturalism develop over time as the doll is loved and dragged about by her human friends. Or, you can style her hair with wispies and frayed ends for a more broken-in effect—see hair-style examples above.

And there are many different clothing and shoe patterns included as well, from dungaries and a raincoat to pajamas and a kimono—and everything in between.

I have a true soft spot for rag dolls. The sweetest gifts I received as a child—and I still have most of them—were all rag dolls made by my mother. My first rag doll can be seen in my baby portrait at one year old. I was so attached to my Raggedy Ann that the only way my mom could get me to stop crying during the photo session was to hand that doll right on back to me.

My next rag-doll baby doubled as baby Jesus in our family Christmas devotional when I was four. Somewhere amongst my keepsakes there is a photo of me as Mary holding my dolly Jesus. Later, for my eighth birthday, my mom made me another doll with a matching moses basket and a change of clothes. Again, there is a photo of me somewhere with my friends all gathered on our front lawn while I tear the wrapping paper off of this beloved gift.

I have often thought about creating the quintessential rag-doll pattern book. Something to pay homage to my long-standing love for rag dolls. I envisioned an intro with these personal photos and an account of my own history making dolls, even having dolls of mine displayed at a museum. Then, a lovely book like this shows up on my doorstep—it's great to have publisher friends—and my fantasy is quite fulfilled. I don't even have to do the writing and pattern-drafting work. I can skip straight to the fun part—gathering fabrics, trims and yarn and making up a rag doll for my own daughter to drag about and love. While I might write my own doll book one day, I'm in no hurry for now. This book is lovely.

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Stitch Craft Create, the publisher, has offered me a second copy of this new book to give away. To enter, leave a comment below by Friday at midnight MST. If you have a rag-doll memory, share it with us. One winner will be randomly chosen early next week. To purchase the book in advance and also immediately receive a downloadable e-book at no additional charge, click here. Or you can pre-order the book on Amazon. Blog-hop details here—psssst—there might be others giving away a copy of the book.

Giveaway Day 30

Today, I had the privilege of flipping through an early copy of Kerry Goulder's new book, Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love. The release is set for mid- October, but I got my hands on one of the only two copies Kerry has seen herself.

That's right, Kerry (aka Kid Giddy) sent me one of her only two copies so I could share the book with you as part of my August HELLO Giveaways celebration. So exciting! Thank you, Kerry.

My first peek at this charming project book was earlier this year when Kerry asked me to write the book's foreword. Over the course of several emails back and forth and a couple of phonecalls, I got to know Kerry and her concept. Each project in the book is tied to a story and centered on four themes, taking us "from a fairy woodland, to the coastal waters, to the arctic, and back."

Kerry lives in Maine with the ocean as her neighbor. One of my favorite projects in the book is her Pinchy the Lobster character. Coming from the land of paisley turtles and floral elephants, there's something about a calico lobster that certainly works for me.

I also love her station wagon and hipster-camping-trailer pattern above. Not only does it wax nostalgic, but here's one car toy that won't split your eyebrow open when your toddler attacks. That's a true bonus. I've had more than one request from my family to design some soft boy-toys suitable for snuggling. Our Evan likes a big reaction. This often translates into experimental hammering on his siblings and parents—especially at bedtime.

Beyond these great projects, Kerry has also included a dolphin pattern, an orca whale, a row boat, a hot air balloon, a teddy bear, and an igloo—to name just a few. A wide variety of projects for one book.

Join me in congratulating Kerry and KP Craft on their lovely new book. Watch for Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love: 18 Toy Patterns for the Storytelling Sewist to reach your local bookstore or fabric shop this fall and go get yourself a copy. Also, keep up with Kerry on her Kid Giddy blog (she's just beginning to post reveals of her gorgeous new sewing studio), and on facebook, twitter, pinterest, and flickr while you're at it.

Today's giveaway winner will receive this early copy of the book—signed by the author and me. Invaluable :-) Comment to enter. One entry per household. Be sure to include your email address in the comment form so we can contact you if you win.

Giveaway closes at 11:59pm PST on Sunday 9/1/13. It's a holiday weekend and the final stretch of my giveaway marathon. As such, I'm giving you through the weekend to enter so everyone can have a decent shot—even those who have found time away from the computer with their families! Watch for the winner to be announced within the week at the bottom of the post.

For more info on my August giveaway party, click here. Please share the word. See you again tomorrow. And Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone.

Good luck!

xo—Heather

Giveaway Day 10

Happy Saturday. There's nothing like a busy first-week of school to help you appreciate a quiet Saturday. We don't have one thing planned. Except another giveaway.

For today's giveaway, my friends at Martha Stewart are offering the winner their fun new book Favorite Crafts for Kids. This isn't a small, 24-project book. Rather, there are 175 projects included. I admit, my copy of this new book hasn't arrived yet, so I can't give you the play-by-play. But, everything the Martha Stewart company creates is absolutely lovely. I'm sure that Favorite Crafts for Kids is no exceptio

And Potter Craft makes beautiful, beautiful books. I met with them at Random House in New York City on this trip. I thought I was having lunch with one person and found myself in a board room with a whole team. The same team that brings us this playful new book from Martha. That's another untold story. A positive one.

My Charlotte is wildly into crafts and I'm excited to see what she does with Martha's big book of ideas. If you don't have kids, let this prize give you a good headstart on holiday gifts or add it to your personal library for rainy-day inspiration. A $25 value.

Comment to enter today's contest. Be sure to include your email address so we can contact you if you win. You don't have to type your email address into the body of the comment if you entered it in email-address field on the comment form, as I can access info from the form behind-the-scenes.

Today's giveaway will close at 11:59pm PST on Saturday 8/10/13. Watch for the winner to be announced within a day or two at the bottom of the post. For more info on my August giveaway madness, click here. Please share the word. Check back every day. (My actual birthday is Monday, so watch for a big prize that day.)

Good luck!

xo—Heather

Giveaway Day 6

Thank you, everyone for your encouraging comments. Please don't lose any sleep over my last post. It's been years and I'm doing okay now. I think I've only shared that experience with ten people beyond my family. It just needed to be said aloud. I knew it would explain some things I haven't been able to explain around here. Like why I've been rather quiet about Trash Ties, when they are so darn fabulous.

So, let's get back to lollipops and chirping birds. There is plenty to celebrate. Especially in the fabric department. I have two cotton quilting collections coming out in the next year—one of those is very, very soon. I also have a basics line to support those feature collections that will be out in the fall. And. And. And! I just heard word this week that Free Spirit will be moving forward with my fashion fabric collection for next Spring. Now I can put my fashion design degree to direct use in designing dresses, skirts, blouses, shifts. I've got a sketchbook full of ideas.

Ashley and I have been brainstorming new products all morning and I'm dying to make time on my schedule. If only I commanded a troop of robot clones. Or hired a larger pool of talent at the studio. That might be more feasible. Especially if I can get these great products into your hands.

I'll be patient. My business is art-centered which means it just plain takes longer to get those products made. I'm cool with that. I just get excited.

Okay. So are you ready for today's giveaway yet?

Today's HELLO giveaway prize is a copy of Signature Styles by Jenny Doh, featuring 20 stylish stitchers. Projects from each designer are included. My contribution is the quick and easy wristlet purse shown at left. Winner will also receive Where Women Create—the one with me on the cover up there. This magazine is much more like a book for its fabulous content. In my opinion, they should make these things with hard covers. Every page is draped with images of luscious studio spaces and inspiring stories and insights. A $45 value.

Comment to enter today's contest. Be sure to include your email address so we can contact you if you win. Today's giveaway closes at 11:59pm PST on Tuesday 8/6/13. Watch for the winner to be announced within a day or two at the bottom of the post.

Prizes from our friends are starting to arrive at the studio now, so watch for a greater variety of items in the weeks to come. We have a full-on Project Life kit, fabrics from my upcoming collection (yet to be seen!), a giant 50-spool pack of thread, inventive baby items, and much, much more.

xo—Heather

Pattern & Design

If you're looking for a fun present for someone artsy in your life, check out this new coloring book from Jenean Morrison, another print designer who works with Free Spirit. She published this gorgeous thing herself. And it's just that—gorgeous. Every page is a new repeating pattern—there's 50 of them—on crisp, white paper, in a thick, substantial book—it's not one of those floppy, wussy coloring books with newsprint pages.

I'm a big fan of artsy, craftsy gifts for kids especially during the holidays because they come with built-in entertainment. This makes the time off from school go more smoothly. And it's not TV or video games.

I'm giving this copy to Charlotte for Christmas. So, I've gotta go wrap it up.

If you want one too, as a gift—or for your own self—you can get your copies on Amazon.com. Here's the link. Support an independent artist while you're at it. They are only $12. And stop by Jenean's blog for a hello and a congratulations. Birthing out a book is no small feat.

Little Bits Giveaway

Kathreen from Whip Up has a new book out. Little Bits Quilting Bee is all about using small bits of fabric, such as charm squares, jelly rolls, layer cakes and fat quarters to create a bunch of fun, modern quilts, from wall hangings to bed quilts. (Quilters have great terms for identifying every kind of fabric scrap.)

All sorts of aesthetics are represented in Kathreen's designs. Some quilts are sewn from solid fabrics only. Another features reproduction prints from the 1930s. There are japanese novelty prints, woodsy prints, modern florals and geometrics (my alley). My favorites of Kathreen's designs involve circles. She has a play quilt that looks like a scrappy, colorful sun and another that reminds me of the Spirograph I received for my 6th birthday, with interlacing swooshes and circles. The photography is fresh and clean-- and there's a pattern pack included! That's the best.

In celebration of Kathreen's fabulous new quilting book, Chronicle Books is providing me with a copy to give away. Send Kathreen your well wishes in the comments below and I'll employ the RNG to help me pick a winner.

Follow the Little Bits Quilting Bee blog tour over at Chronicle's lovely blog.

The Champions, My Friends

How about I announce some winners? Has it been long enough? Har, har.

As always, you’ve made picking giveaway winners extremely difficult for me. That’s a good thing. Thanks for the great comments! It took a bit of effort not to fret over this decision disproportionately. I love you all. (I might need a Decision Therapist.)

Jen from Backwoods Wife, give me a holler, along with Naomi from Nome’s Brag-a-Long. Come on down! You can each have your pick of travel mugs and Pocket Posh books. Thanks for making my birthday bright.

Jen: “Our 4-year-old daughter asked her Grandma to go to the park with her, to which Grandma replied, "Not right now, Grandma's pooped." Wide-eyed, Riley replied incredulously, "In your underwear?!"”

Naomi: You’ll have to navigate to Naomi’s hilarious story. I’ve chickened out of posting it on the main page. It involves a diaper change. (comments, p.6—at the bottom)

And because I’m a total softee—and I’m moved that hundreds of you took the time to add your thoughts to the birthday soup—I’m also handing out a gaggle of gift certificates to the following (I wish I could send every one of you a gift):

Becky W. – for expanding my vocabulary with the term, “The Skoots.” (p.1)
Megan – for her awesome banana slug / turtle joke (p.3)
Mary Beth – for having TWO 14-year-old boys at home & enduring it (p.3)
Liz Mouse – for weathering a baby’s birth the same week as selling one home and buying another (p.3)
Brittanie – for this fantastic quote: “Cleaning and sorting while you and kids are growing is like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.” (p.5)
Julie – for a kind, gushing compliment that made me smile (p.6)
Carrie McW. – for not knowing she was pregnant till 24 weeks into it (p.4)
Marcy Mahle – for her ‘winning store display’—go read this one! (p.5)
Seanna Lee – for helping her mom deliver a baby on the couch when she was only three (p.4)
GG – by mistaking my remark about shaving my legs to read,“It is far easier to HAVE swollen ankles”—and her disappointment at not learning more (p.5)
Julie B. – for needing cheering up after being called an “Old Fogie Mama” for having a baby at 38. (p.5)
Chanel – for needing cheering up after shoulder surgery and enduring the hairiness that accompanies having your shaving arm in a sling for many weeks (p.5)

And to the following new mamas, all with babies that were due about the same time as my little guy. I am your Mid-Night Commiserator; we are sisters is sleep deprivation.

Kim (ChefMessy)
Ashley (love that green bunk bed, btw!)
Celeste
Bianca G.
Elizabeth Jeanne
Shannon
Sarah Cap

Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes, stories, laughs, etc. (Have a look—great stories!) As I have said before, I wish we all lived in one, weird, modern town where we could get together for sewing bees on Sundays and dance parties every Friday night. Thank you for your friendship.

Winners, I will email each of you with instructions. If you don’t hear from me in the next two days or so, assume my email got lost in the VooDoo Net and send me an email (link in sidebar).

* The collage shown above was made by the lovely Lynette Carroll using HB papers & such.

Blah, Blah, Boom!

Is it seriously my birthday today? The day might come and go without this sinking in - at - all. There is so much going on around here. Not only are we adjusting to the back-to-school schedule (yesterday, between us, Isaac and I made 6 trips total to and from the kids' schools -- 30-45 mins each trip!), but Elijah chipped a major chunk off his front tooth Wednesday night (emergency dental appointment), all of my licensing partners are asking for new artwork by the end of the month, and I still haven't figured out where we are going to put this baby -- who could come at any time -- but will be here by the end of the month no matter what.

We have two kids' rooms, one office, one open office, a loft, a turret-like play room... a closet. Do you bunk a newborn boy up with his 14-year-old brother who sleeps like a log, or with his 6-year old sister who doesn't? Neither is the obvious choice. Or do you turn the teensy turret into an adorable nursery -- that may only fit a crib and a nightstand. Nevermind the room is right over the front door (doorbell, barking dogs), it's insanely bright in there, and there's no sound barrier (such as a door). Or do you move the teenager into the office and the baby into the teenager's room? Isaac is convinced no teenage boy should have a downstairs room by himself -- much more a reflection of Isaac's teenage years than a concern over Elijah as a mischief-maker. Besides, we kind of need the office. 

I don't know. I've been telling myself that we'll just set up a bunk for the baby in our room for a while till we know what he's like and see how he does with sleeping & such. This is still 'the plan.' But, what I realize now is that his STUFF still needs a place. So, where do we put the clothes, the diapers, the blankets, the toys? My room, C's room, E's room, the loft, the office -- same contenders.

These are things a mother should probably address in the 2nd trimester before her energy is thoroughly drained. Alas, I spent all of my nesting energy on meeting deadlines and getting my business obligations squared away so I could focus on the baby when he gets here. Not a bad plan, really. But his baby stuff? I have to wash things and put them away -- well, somewhere.

So, here I am. Tick, tick, tick, tick... the timer is about to chime. He's coming out of the oven.

I should probably forget all of this for one more day and just go do something fun, huh? Antique-shopping would fit the bill.

Before I do, I have a birthday obligation to meet -- my annual birthday giveaway! I have four new Pocket Posh books out with Andrews McMeel Publishing that - are - stinking - fabulous. I've got two prizes for the guy or gal who can cheer me up / calm me down / get me jazzed / sooth my swollen legs with a funny birth or baby story, a great joke, amazing advice, etc.** Your call.

Each winner can have his or her pick of one of my new travel mugs and one of our new Pocket Posh books. (Which I have learned are the PERFECT things to keep in the car for school-pick-up-line boredom. PERFECT.) They don't just have clinical definitions and such -- they have history, and interesting facts, and smart stuff. They're really cool.

• 120 Words To Make You Sound Intelligent
• 120 Words You Should Know
• 120 Words That are Fun to Say
• 120 Job Interview Words You Should Know

** I reserve the right to be completely befuddled by all of your fabulous comments and to resort to the Random Number Generator for help if picking a winner is too stressful for my rotund self.

And, before I forget, can I say it is FAR easier to shave swollen ankles!? This fascinates me.

Summer Reading

I recently asked for book recommendations on Twitter. Here’s a list of what came through. Of course, who knows what literary taste each of these books reflects, but I’m enjoying the adventure of finding out. If you are looking for a summer read, one of these might suit your fancy -- but read at your own risk. I don’t know anything about these books.

• 19 Minutes by Jody Picoult (several people recommended this, but warned that it’s “heavy”)
• Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler
• The Birth House by Sideshow Ami
• Charlotte Collins by Jennifer Becton (“if you like Jane Austen”)
• Christmas Jars
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (“anything” by him)
• The Giving Tree (ha! a kid's book)
• The Great Night by Chris Adrian
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• Mistress of the Art of Death (looks like this is a series)
• Modoc (this is about an elephant!?)
• The Red Tent (several people recommended this one)
• Remarkable Creatures
• Sarah’s Key
• The Tailor’s Daughter
• The Time Traveler’s Wife

And I’ll add Bossypants by Tina Fey to the list.  I’m curious to see what that one is about.  Has anyone read it?

Several of these titles were not available at the library yesterday with multiple holds placed on each of the copies -- a good sign.  The three I ended up taking home for Round 1 were:  Back When We Were Grownups, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Corrections (by Jonathan Franzen). 

Thanks to everyone who sent their picks.  I have to read at night to fall asleep, otherwise, my mind invents all sorts of excuses to stay up!  If you have a suggestion or two to add, please share it.  Maybe tell us a little about it.  Twitter does’t afford space for much explanation, does it?  Here you can cast more than 140 characters in the role.