Belated Winners Announcement

Our hearts are heavy with grief and sadness at the tragic events that unfolded in the nearby town of Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and people of the community.

Thanks to everyone for entering this giveaway. The randomly selected winners are:

Elle
Pontos de Flavia

Please email me your mailing addresses.

xo,
kate

At Last, A Blog Post (and a giveaway!)

Due to new works in the studio...

...my blogging/tweeting/facebooking has pretty much fallen apart. You know how it is!

I’ve requested that Franny and Lou form a blue-ribbon panel to investigate my drop in blogging productivity. They set to work right away. Lou tried to find a reason buried under this big pile of bubble wrap:

He was sure there was something there, but he just couldn't put his paws on it. Franny was still suspicious and stared me down a few times trying to get me to talk. It almost worked (just look at those eyes!).

They kept looking around in every corner. Nothing in this one either...

They did spot a fresh coat of paint in my studio space...

...and this cute little tree...

...but Franny and Lou said the rest of their findings won’t be forthcoming until hibernation season is over — following groundhog day. Silly kitties!

Luckily, our cousin in Ireland’s dog has offered to fill in

as the provisional authority. He’s barked some orders at me to thank you all for sticking with me through this quiet time and insisted that i spread some holiday cheer by randomly selecting two people to win a dessert role or charm pack of Honey Honey. Please leave a comment that includes your favorite winter holiday story, movie or tv special. My favorite story would have to be The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. I loved those beautiful, ethereal illustrations. But then again, i also loved the tv show Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town — the one with the winter warlock and scarfed penguin! Anyway, please have your entries in by midnight this Friday, December 14th and winners will be announced on Saturday morning.

Cheers!

Furry Friday

We finally got around to painting the dining room last weekend! Lou helped with the drop cloth and Franny did the crown molding. So nice to have such good helpers around here.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

xo,

kate

Sweet Little Surprises

I like sweet little surprises. Who doesn't! And “sweet little surprises” sum up this time of year pretty well here in our new neighborhood — crisp mornings, visits from family, friends, new neighbors, and migrating birds at the feeder. Reds, oranges and yellows are slowly coming into the landscape, and we've prettified our front porch with some happy mums and a pumpkin (or is that a gourd?). Hope you are enjoying the shift in seasons as much as we are.

Some newsy news...i recently learned that a bunch of fun gift wrap, tissue paper and gift bags i designed has finally landed at 400 select Michaels Stores! Pete and i raced over to the nearest store to check it out and take some pictures so i could share this exciting news with you. We didn't find any in our location, so maybe you'll have better luck! Here's a sampling of what it looks like:

You can always ask the store manager if they'll be getting it in or if they could order it (wink, wink). If you find it and like it, i'd be so grateful if you could leave a "thumbs up" or review on the Michaels website. Thank you!

As we were roaming the aisles at Michaels, we came across another sweet little surprise...

...my Christmas goodies have already arrived! I had no idea they'd be in the stores so soon. I don't know about you, but i'm not exactly ready to be decking the halls or making lists and checking them twice (i haven't even bought Halloween candy yet), but now i'll be prepared for when the time comes. There's all sorts of fun stuff including these note cards, magnetic list pads and chubby pens...   

...and these adorable little shaped melamine plates.

I think these plates would be perfect for some festive cookies, don't you? Fortunately, my extensive clutter of cookie cutters, colorful sprinkles, and frosting bag/nozzles made it in our recent move. I know i saw them somewhere around here, and hope to find them before Christmas! An assortment of cute holiday gift wrap should hit the shelves at Michaels some time in November, so keep your eyes peeled — for all i know, it might even be there already.

What sweet little surprises are finding you these days?

 And here is a little fur to end the week. These two are so happy that their kitty hammock was finally unpacked!

It's starting to feel like home sweet home around here at last.

Have a wonderful weekend.

xo,

kate

Winners and a Sneak Peek

Thank you all so very much for participating in Moda's Sew Sweet Blog Hop and for sharing a little about your hometowns. It was so much fun to hear from you, and you've given me quite a long list of places i'd love to visit! Here are all the winners...i couldn't help myself and picked a few extra names. Please email your mailing addresses to me at: kate(at)katespain(dot)com and i'll send your goodies out to you. Also, you'll want to swing by the Moda Cutting Table blog where you'll find instructions on how to set all those sampler blocks together. Thank you, Moda!

And i figured this would be as good a time as any to make a U-turn and zip back to show you a sneek peek of my next fabric collection for Moda. It's called Honey Honey and is a summery sorbet of colors that i'll be telling (and showing) you more about in the next couple weeks. Hope you like it!

Furry Friday and Fun Charity Auction

So these two are settling into their new home very well. They seem to like the view and i caught them studying my sewing machine manual. Hmm.

My friends Carrie and Fred Basas are working through Reece's Rainbow to adopt an adorable little girl named Delilah. They need some help and have set up an online auction to raise money for their adoption fund. Auction items are posted on a public Facebook page and will continue through September 17th. Instructions for how to "bid" are included at the top of the page.  Lots of wonderful things to bid on...including a bunch of fabric I donated to help their cause. Keep scrolling down the page to find:

Auction 1. Ten yards of Terrain

An assortment of 10 yards of fabric from my Terrain collection for Moda. I'll specially select the 10 1-yard pieces and ship them to the highest bidder. You do not have to pay for shipping. The 10 yards will include 1 yard of the scarce Terrain / Forest Floor / Bloom   #27090-18.
**UPDATE: I changed my mind and instead, the highest bidder can pick 5 of the 10 yards and I'll pick the other 5**

Auction 2. Ten yards of Christmas/winter holiday fabrics

An assortment of 10 yards of fabric from my Moda Christmas/winter holiday fabrics – Joy, Flurry, and 12 Days of Christmas collections. I'll specially select the 10 1-yard pieces and ship them to the highest bidder. You do not have to pay for shipping.
**UPDATE: I changed my mind and instead, the highest bidder can pick 5 of the 10 yards and I'll pick the other 5**

 Last but not least, Auction 3.

Ten yards of Archival Spring Collections – Verna and Central Park

An assortment of 10 yards of my “Verna” and “Central Park” collections for Moda. I'll specially select the 10 1-yard pieces and ship them to the highest bidder. Again, shipping is on me.
**UPDATE: I changed my mind and instead, the highest bidder can pick 5 of the 10 yards and I'll pick the other 5**

Please consider helping Carrie, Fred and Delilah. Every little bit helps and your generosity is so appreciated.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and don't forget to stop by tomorrow to find out who the winners are of the Moda Blog Hop.

xo,

kate 

Sew Sweet Moda Blog Hop Day 4

It’s so nice of you to swing by for a visit. Hope you've got a full tank today because you'll be headed coast-to-coast from here in Connecticut to Ohio to visit Deb and then on to sunny California to visit Anne.

This time around, the Moda Blog Hop is about hometowns, sampler souvenirs, and a travel snack you can win, compliments of Moda, to celebrate National Sewing Month.

If you're new here, i'm Kate Spain and i design all sorts of patterns that are featured on all sorts of products from dishes at Crate and Barrel to wrapping paper at Michaels Craft Stores to fabric for Moda. Welcome to my hometown of Fairfield, CT! How about we go for a quick tour?

A little history if you like this sort of thing, if not just skip the next few paragraphs :) Fairfield, CT is in southern New England and has so much history, it's hard to figure out where to begin! The town was established by British settlers in 1639, after the area and beyond had been home for hundreds of years to the Pequot tribe.

In the summer of 1779, about 2,000 British troops burned the town to the ground, even the church. Ten years later, while passing through Fairfield, President George Washington was amazed by the many visible remnants of destruction. In his diary, Washington noted stopping in Fairfield where he stayed here at the Rising Sun Tavern.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Fairfield was largely an agrarian town — prosperous due to, of all things, onions!

The crop was grown on the hills of Fairfield and shipped out of Southport Harbor. You can still buy heirloom seeds of the Southport Red Globe onion through the Sustainable Seed Co.

In the 20th century Fairfield transformed into a suburb to New York City, Stamford, CT, and Bridgeport, CT. Fairfield grew rapidly as neighboring Bridgeport became a booming manufacturing center for U.S. and ally efforts in World War I and WW II. The famous Corsair fighter plane, the first plane to fly 400 MPH, was constructed nearby.

 Today, Fairfield is home to about 60,000 people, two universities, and to General Electric and Bigelow Tea. Constant Comment and Earl Grey are two of my all-time favorite flavors.

So why in the world did we move here?? That's pretty simple:

The New Yorker is my fave :)

And maybe this place (i mean, mon Dieu! just look at those baguettes and home-baked tarts)...

Isabelle et Vincent French Bakery

Or perhaps we moved here because of this place...

Original tomato pie, plain and simple. yumm

...or this place...

"Thanksgiving on a Bun" is one of my favorite sandwiches from here

...but mostly, i think it was this that brought us to Fairfield:

There are 5 beautiful miles of public shoreline stretching along Long Island Sound (we like to call it the Gulf of Connecticut), and we've walked along these sandy shores so many times and have come to know them in every season.

What else? Oh yes, some famous people are from here. Fairfield was once home to Meg Ryan, writer and U.S. poet laureate Robert Penn Warren, actor Jason Robards, conductor/composer/musician Leonard Bernstein, and pop star John Mayer...and these two:

It's a cute little town, and we have loved living here. But last week, we moved. Just one town over to where wild parrots roam the sidewalks (not kidding, see for yourself):

and to the original home of:

I think we're going to like it here!

Here is the Oh Sew Sweet souvenir sampler block for you to add to all the others you've collected so far. You can download the instructions here. This block uses Moda's newest precut, Candy (those adorable 2 1/2" squares), and is made with my newest fabric collection called Cuzco — due to ship in early October. 

And what would a road trip be without a snack?? How about fueling up on one of these?

Moda was so generous to send me two layer cakes and six candy precuts of Cuzco, and i am so happy to give them away to eight lucky winners. To enter, please just leave a comment and let me know one thing you especially love about where you live. Winners will be randomly selected on September 15th. Good luck!

Thanks so much for pulling over for a pit stop. Have fun with Deb and Anne, and all my other wonderful Moda friends, but don't drive too fast or you might miss some attractions along the way.

Whoops, too late. You just whizzed right by a peek at my next fabric collection!