Say It With Flowers, My Day

Hello Thank you for visiting my blog, I am Mara and I live in Greece.

Just very quickly, if you are in Europe and would like to join a charity quilting bee, we are looking for one more person to join us in our Siblings Together Euro Quilting Bee, more information can be found HERE.

I want to Thank Madame Samm, for having the wonderful idea of this hop and Carol for being our Cheerleader.  THANKS.

My inspiration came from a The Easiest Sew Along Ever Challenge! to use only what you had in your stash and the fact that I got to read this awesome E-book, my very first e-book, but it definitely won't be my last, it was way cool.

My stash, Burlap, Stiff Interfacing, and a Silk Scarf and some beads.

The end result a Burlap Clutch with a Beaded Flower for Decoration.

The book that I reviewed is called Beaded Flowers & Wedding Bouquets by Katie Dean, you can get a copy from ViveBooks, it is easy to download and I just love the embedded videos, it makes it so easy for a visual person to create.  Plus her voice is so soothing with it's light English accent and it makes a great way to rewind after a day of yelling and whining children, I watched the videos multiple times.  I wrote a review of the book and you can find it on Lily's Quilts.

This Flower says:

Thank you

I made the clutch for my step mom, she is very supportive and I love her a lot.  Thank you Rhonda for being there for me.  Her favorite flower is the Tulip in what ever color, my inspiration picture came from the internet, Yellow Tulip by Petr Kratochvil

The exterior of the clutch is made with Burlap, the bottom and sides with flannel and the interior with Silk it makes it a very textural piece.

Just full of texture

silk on the inside.

A Vespa picture for Madame Samm

I love how the flower turned out.

 I would also like to Say it with Flowers:

Congratulations

To my very good friend who is finally pregnant after many losses, I am making something special for her and can not show you the whole reveal since it is part of the Make It Right Challenge.

A vase filled with Cosmos they mean Peaceful, because I hope the new baby brings them peace and is peaceful!

This is stitched using my regular machine foot and with Aurifil Thread.

I would not be able to enter in this challenge if it were not for the support of Rhonda, she gave me an early birthday present, speaking of birthdays, mine and my daughters is coming soon, so stay tuned for a big giveaway.

Check out all of the other lovely blogs making flowers today:

May 28^th

Secretly Stitching You are here :)

Anolisl’s Kreative Seite

I Like To Quilt Blog

Hill Valley Quilter

InGa

Coto Patchwork

Stitching & Stuff

De Quiltborch

Jatajomi’s Stoff-nadel-fadenwelt

Gingini’s Crafts & Quilts

Debby Kratovil Qults

My lovely Jasmine tree, white flowers that smell divine.

Spring Hyacinth and Daffodils and Summer Roses, from my Garden.

Also linking to Such a Sew and Sew May finishes linky party

Sunday Stash

So excited I have another Sunday Stash to show you!  All of my SMS giveaway prizes arrived in the mail on Friday, what a happy mail day.

First some patterns:

"In the Quilt Shop" by Carrie Payne along with 2 fat quarters and some texty fabric for the girls body.  I will be making 3 of these, look at the adorable sewing machine down there, so fun, thank you Carrie from Believemagic.  You can find your pattern here if you would like one.

The Anna Quilt Pattern by Jibberish Designs, I am going to use this pattern for the Euro Siblings Together Bee.  The blocks are simple and yet it is a really cute quilt.  You can find the pattern here if you would like to purchase it for yourself.  Thank you Irelle and your lovely granddaughters who did the picking.

And last but not least
6 Fat Quarters:

Treasures & Tidbits from Robert Kaufman Fabrics that I won from Six White Horses, Thank you so much Anna, they will be "Treasured".
These FQs are sitting on another win from the Green Bag Lady, she gave out 100 bags and it is made with Amy Butler fabric, nice, I am taking it to the market this Friday.

So those were my wins during the recent SMS giveaway, sweet, huh!  I love it!

Linking to Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth

Anchors Aweigh Baby Quilt is Finished!

I am entering my first quilt into the ginormous quilting festival going on over at Amy's Creative Side.

I wouldn't have quilted it this month without the extra incentive of the festival, I was just to nervous, I mean it is my first quilt and I have a little machine.

I just quilted wavy lines across, it's what Tula Pink suggested anyway.

You can go here and here if you want to see more pictures.

I'm # 96 in the Baby Quilt Section

 The anchor quilt goes really well with the pillow I finished this month for the Echinops and Aster Honeycomb Stitch Along.

The front of the cushion

I also made my pincushion swap partner 2 pincushions with scraps, even used scrap thread (I mean really who can throw away Aurifil thread).

The top one is filled with metal shavings and the bottom has a magnet underneath to pick up pins.

I also finished the bags for my mom to use for her husbands diabetic medicines, you can read more about that here.

 I have a few more things that will be finished before the end of the month but this is what I can only show for now, if you come back on Tuesday May 28th I will have more.

And I am having a birthday giveaway starting June 5th so come back for that too!

Linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes May, Yah!

Say It with Flowers Blog Hop Schedule

Here is the schedule for the blog hop starting on Monday, a lot of Internationals in this one, so you get to travel the world to see Flowers.

May 27th

Just Let Me Quilt

Sew Many Yarns

Quilt Obsession

Nati’s Little Things

Stekje

Felt Free Pa Asly

Patchouli Moon Studio

Pig Tales and Quilts

Thimblemouse and Spouse

Kaydie

Linhas, Cores E Arte

Tutinella

May 28^th

Secretly Stitching

Anolisl’s Kreative Seite

I Like To Quilt Blog

Hill Valley Quilter

InGa

Coto Patchwork

Stitching & Stuff

De Quiltborch

Jatajomi’s Stoff-nadel-fadenwelt

Gingini’s Crafts & Quilts

Debby Kratovil Qults

May 29^th

Kris Loves Fabric

Teatime Creations

~De Zondagssteek~

Ridge Top Quilts

Devoted Quilter

Mrs. Pickles Garden

Life In The Scrapatch

Englating

Why Knot Kwilt

Love It Sew It

May 30^th

A Quilt Lady

The House On The Side Of The Hill

Ella & Nesta’s Little Room

CLF by Nailaa

Atelier De Handwerktuin

Life, Quilts, and A Cat Too

Marjorie’s Busy Corner

Celtic Thistle

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Dreaming In Patchwork

Around The Homestead

May 31^st

Squawk That

How Art You?

A Little Bit of Lorene

Handmade By Mama

Blooming Where I Am Planted

Jane’s Quilting

Just Quilt It

busybeequilts

Lisa In Port Hope

Les Quilts

Quilts My way

June 3^rd

Marla’s Crafts

Hanging On By A Thread

Moments

Lixie Makes It

Tied Up In Ribbon

Made By Me In Red

Nanny’s Nook

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Cindy’s Crafty Creations

Meadowbrook

June 4^th

Seaside Sewing

Kwilty Pleasures

CeLynn’s Sunflower Patch

Words & Stitches

Cherry’s Prairie Primitive

MooseStash Quilting

Bumbleberry Stitches

Just Keep Swimming

Quilter In The Closet

Les passions de cliodana

Timolily

Sew We Quilt

 

My birthday is on the 5th and my daughters on the 8th so we might just be having a giveaway, so stay tuned.

Squawk- Parrot Winner News

Hello Lovely People the winner of the 1 yard of Parrot fabric is Britt-Inger she has already been contacted and I have her address and will be mailing it off tomorrow.  Thank you to everyone who entered!
I will be having another giveaway on June 8, it is my daughter's 3rd birthday and she will be giving away 3 of her favorite things (fabric just might be one of them).

European Siblings Together Quilting Bee

Are you in Europe would you like to join in a charitable bee that does quilts for siblings that are separated in the foster care system.  Lynn from Lily's Quilts is doing a UK one and you can find more information there.  And then Diane of Quiltova decided to make an European bee, but we need one more person, would you like to join?

I am very happy to be participating in this and already have an idea for what kind of quilt to do and what fabric I would use.  I'm thinking I just might get 4 quilts done, very excited for the children to receive these and keep them while they are away from their sibling.

Le Challenge - WINGS and a Giveaway

I have had a busy month making plenty of things with "wings" and if you are visiting this blog for the "It's for the birds" blog hop and you yourself have made something with wings (we all know you did) then you should also join in the fun over at Le Challenge Blog.

First off my "It's for the birds" gone poultry toting with a set of baby chicks, a sleeping mama and a fishing daddy!

I am really getting into stitching and I have Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt to  thank for that since I would never have even thought of doing it except I won a gift certificate over at Janes etsy shop and she has a ton of Precencia threads.  Look at my rooster.

Now check out my Ladybug and Bee that I did for the Honeycomb Stitch Along over at Echinops and Aster blog.  These little insects have wings too!

You can read more about the pillow I made here.
And I just adore the Butterfly dress that I made for my daughter using the Forget me knot dress pattern by Me Sew Crazy.

And the back, it is supposed to look like a butterfly, mmm... I tried, the original pattern just has a circle and I tried to double it, what do you think.

Here is a better shot with my daughter wearing it, while trying to jump on a Ladybug at IKEA.  I wish I could buy this Ladybug for her, it would be so fun.

The fabric is Cocoon by Valori Wells, the top is Cashmere in Ruby White and the bottom is Liv in Coral.

Linking to Le Challenge "WINGS"

I almost forgot, I have a giveaway going on, if you want 1 yard of parrot fabric, all you have to do is say "Parrots" in the comment section and I will enter your name in the drawing.  I picked this piece of fabric up way before I even started sewing, it was on sale at my scrapbook store that also doubled as a fabric store.  And I loved it, but now have no idea of what to do with it, so if you have an idea, then I would love to pass it on.

 I will be writing names down and then doing random drawing on Saturday May 18, night time, my time in Greece, or like 12pm California time. The giveaway is now over and the winner is Britt-Inger, I have contacted her.

It's for the Birds, Poultry that IS!

AND GIVEAWAY!

psstt... Hey it's Mara, from GrecoMara, I'm going to be posting all of my sewing adventures over here.  Hubby doesn't know about this blog, so no complaints on how many photos I show "strangers".  Although really I feel like you are my online sewing family, hugs, hope you enjoy.


For Christmas I made my Mom an I-pad sleeve and when I asked her what I should make for Terry (her husband) she immediately and very quickly told me to make something to put all of his diabetes's stuff in.

I give you the chicken family

So the first thing I made was a laminated UR-Priceless purse designed by Madame Samm (the pattern is available on Craftsy) for his insulin, it can go in the fridge and there are 2 cute appliqued baby chicks inside just waiting to be fed.

2 little hungry babies and Momma's sleeping

The babies hide inside of their Momma when they are on the go, along with a special insulated pocket that is a perfect size for the diabetic pricker machine.

special padded pocket

 
 I used the Large Open Wide Zippered Pouch tutorial available form Noodlehead blog, you can find it here, and just modified it a little to make the pocket.

all of the strips for her I got as scraps from Maureen Cracknell

And while she's hiding in the Jasmine and sleeping, the Daddy Rooster is off fishing.

Looks like he caught a fish

I have a felt fish pocket on the back, hand stitched in.

 I'm really proud of this tote!  It's my own design and made it up with 2 half yards of fabric.  The rooster I free hand drew from a picture on the internet and added a fishing pole.  The embroidery is mostly chain stitching following this tutorial and back stitching from this one, I also did a few french knots that are super easy with this tutorial.  I don't have a FMQ foot for my machine so all of the quilting I did with a regular foot, I think I did a bang up job.  I added a fish charm that I bought in Ireland for some reason, way back like 8 years ago.

Everyone Inside

They all fit inside of each other very nicely.  I think this will be a great addition to my Mom's cabin and will look very organized sitting next to Terry's chair.

And they are off, to travel to New Mexico!

Thank you Madame Samm and Many Thanks to  Mary for being our cheerleader.
Here are the other blogs for the day, be sure to check them all out, although I am sure you did especially if you are at mine since I am the last one of the day.  The full schedule can be found here.

http://www.intheboondocks.blogspot.com

http://mychellem.blogspot.com

www.thimblemouseandspouse.blogspot.com

www.quiltingandsewingarts.com

http://Sewgratefulquilts.wordpress.com

www.aquiltingsheep.com

http://tricia-ramblingsofaquilter.blogspot.com

http://sewmanyyarns.blogspot.com

www.moosestashquilting.blogspot.com

http://bethstrand.wordpress.com

http://quiltoo.blogspot.com

http://teatimecreations.blogspot.ca/

http://secretlystitching.blogspot.gr/  you are here!

I have  a yard of bird fabric to giveaway, It was my very first fabric purchase like 10 years ago when the scrapbook store I used to go to also sold fabric.  This was way before I even learned how to sew, but I liked it sew much that I bought it and now have no idea what to do with it.  If you know what you can do with it, then just tell me you like PARROTS!
Giveaway WINNER is Britt-Inger in Sweden!

giveaway ends Saturday May 18th, via random #

 ps. I love all of your comments but since this is a secret blog I must also reply in secret, so forgive me if I do so a few days late :)  Mara