Okay! To the giveaway! Thank you everyone for your comments. The winner of the pinfeathers fat quarter bundle and sweetwater frame is comment #21:

Ava-J says:

Absolutely yummy fabrics, thanks for the chance! Love your Christmas family photo too.

Congrats Ava! But because I’m in charge here, it’s almost Christmas, and because I have a couple more fat quarter sets laying around I’m also sending a blue Pinfeathers set to:

Heather says:

Oooohhh….lets hope I win, because I just learned how to use my sewing machine!!!

and a pink Pinfeathers set to:

erica K says:

That’s a beautiful family portrait. And the stockings on the piano, it’s all so lovely. Wish me luck!

Hope you all get a chance to sew in this busy, busy season! Please email me your address at carina@carinagardner.com.

I posted photos of my Christmas tree  here because 1. I couldn’t think of anything else to post, 2. I just took pics of my tree yesterday, and 3. It seemed festive.

Every few years I pull out these frames and fill it with photos from the year…sort of as a way to remember the past year. And I always place my tree in a huge pot. It’s filled with bricks to hold the tree up. I love how easy it is to place presents under (and how it makes it easy to sweep the needles out from under it).

Hope you are having a wonderful final week before the big day!

The countdown begins…

On the giveaway table today is a full fat quarter set of Pinfeathers Peacock Blue fabrics (9 fabrics in all) and Sweet Water Frame’s 3×3 Rasley Ornament in Green apple (shown below). All you have to do is leave a comment on this thread to be entered to win BOTH of these.

I believe I have talked about Sweetwater Frames here before. Last week I finally ordered our family pictures for the custom 24″ x 36″ frame I purchased from them. It looks amazing over my antique piano (See my frame below). I purchased the Powell in antique white, but I’m so in love with the black frames, I can see myself coming back for more!

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That green apple is ADORABLE isn’t it? And my frame isn’t bad either:). Btw, because I know you are going to ask, the family portrait was taken by my lovely assistant Susan.

So leave a comment to get the green frame and some Pinfeathers!

XOXO-Carina

PS. This giveaway ends on Sunday, December 18th!

Thank you to everyone who entered the Baby Safari Giveaway! Reading what everyone was doing this holiday season was so inspiring and touched my heart! I had a horrible time deciding, and I implore you to continue to enter the giveaways during this month since I wanted so badly to give every one of you a fat quarter set!

Here are the winners from the blog:

Rosemary says:

This is THE BEST pumpkin pie I’ve ever tasted. It’s the one my family requests to have for Thanksgiving from now on. Happy Baking {Pumpkin Praline Pie Recipe in the comments! I might have to give this one a try! Thanks for sharing Rosemary!}

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April says:

This holiday we are trying to have a homemade Christmas. One of my daughters is helping me make quilts for almost everyone . . . a big project. It is hard to find things to make for men so we are really thinking hard on that one. We have a new baby in the family so I thought your fabrics would be fun to do something with. Have a great holiday and thank you for sharing your creativity with us and all your fun ideas and art work.

That’s a big project April! Men’s fabrics are so DIFFICULT (Believe me as I have been trying to work on a fabric line for “big boys.”) Hopefully, these fabrics help a bit with the “little boys” in your life!

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Vanessa B says:

A few years ago we started a new family tradition in the spirit of giving and the holidays that each one of us would do at least 1 good deed and then speak about it during Christmas Dinner…so Im looking forward to the holiday meal and hearing what each has done out of the kindness of their hearts for someone they know or a complete stranger. Turns out my family is very kind, even to strangers I would luv to win these fabrics, Thanks for the chance!

Vanessa, your family tradition melts my heart! Oh, if we all could just be a little kinder during the hoildays (and throughout the year!). What a sweet tradition!

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Martine says:

Hopefully ithis year it will be a fertile Christmas…Just before Christmas our IVF program will end, maybe next year there will be a small family under the tree!

Martine, I’m wishing you the best of luck in this!!!

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Here are the winners from the Facebook Page:

Jasa Clos  says:

We will just be enjoying having Jake home this year, he was in Iraq for Christmas last year and opened gifts over skype. I have a new little neighbor that sure would enjoy a new quilt and the fabrics are just great.

Bless your heart! So happy for you will have Jake back and I hope you enjoy the fabrics!

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Gemma Robillard says

Beautiful – what a nice giveaway!! I would love to give these to my mom since she’s a new quilter and making gorgeous quilts. Hey, that’s a nice Christmas gift! .

How sweet are you? I hope you both get to enjoy them!

Winners: Please email me at carina@carinagardner.com with your address and we will have these sent out ASAP!

Thank you again for all of your comments—for sharing how you plan to slow down, your recipes (Meg, I WILL be trying to make that apple crisp!), how you are going to cuddle with the ones you love, travel, and play in the snow! (We are also enjoying the recent downfall here in SLC.)

It was so hard to decide on who to choose for this last giveaway, that the rest of the upcoming freebies will be chosen by the random number generator:). lol. Less pressure on me! Just keep those wonderful, inspiring comments rolling!

This week I’m giving away two FULL sets of Dress Up—yep, that is 11 juicy fat quarter fabrics in each set! This giveaway will end on Friday. (That would be Nov. 25, Black Friday, Sale Day, National Standing-in-Line Day, Left-Over Turkey Day, and any other name you can give it..)

Tell me your favorite Thanksgiving Food in the comments below to be entered!

It’s November, and I’ve told myself that this year the holidays are going to be a little different. Instead of the rush, rush, rush, I’m hoping to really live in the present this holiday season and remember to be grateful for what I have. I’ve cleared out my schedule of any “hard” deadlines and while I certainly will be working, I hope to work at a more relaxed pace.

So maybe it’s a change in attitude about the holidays?

Either way, I have been thinking alot about being grateful and generously giving. And as always, my thoughts have turned to this blog and how I can share with you—make your life a little more pleasant or a little more beautiful.

…and that’s when I decided that I wanted to spend the next couple of months sharing with you more craft ideas and more “stuff” on this blog.

So there you have it—it’s officially the season of “giving” here on my blog. And to kick it off, I have 6 fat quarter packs of Baby Safari that I am giving away! Four packs (there are 6 fabrics in a pack) will be given away to comments on this blog post and two packs will be given away on the Facebook thread that links this post. Tell me what you are doing this holiday season. Maybe it’s a tradition or something new. Maybe it’s a scrumptious holiday recipe or the time you plan on cuddling with grandbabies. Whatever it is, share it! Winners will be announced on Sunday evening on both the blog and facebook page.

More fat quarter packs to come, announcements of new sewing patterns, more holiday craft tutorials, and lots of eye candy!

Hoping you also find a lot of joy this holiday season! -Carina

Okay, from random.org we have our winner of a sewing pattern! The winner is #9:

Jenbreeze says:

My daughter is thrilled that I’ve let my sewing stuff overtake our dining room. It would be fun to sew one your patterns with her! Thanks for the chance to win.

Congrats Jenbreeze! Send me an email at info@carinagardner.com and choose which pattern you’d like me to send.

Thank you to everyone else who participated!

This week we are shipping out the first round of patterns. I am hoping to have our online retailers up on the sewing pattern page for your shopping convenience.

So, for the fun of it, I’m doing a giveaway on this new line. For every 100 comments, we will giveaway a sewing pattern. Those that win can choose from 1 of the 4 patterns we currently have available. How sweet is that?

This giveaway ends on Monday, April 4, 2011. Go ahead! Comment away!

Happy Sewing! -Carina

I know you have been patiently waiting all day for me to announce the winner of the Love Nest fat quarter set! I am finally here…so here we go! Drum roll please.

The winner by random.org was jeanie who said:

love it and with a new granddaughter being born in March this would be great to make her some things…thanks =0)

I’m also awarding an honorary fat quarter set to Kelly O who said:

After finding your fabrics yesterday I called my LQS and begged her to carry them!
she said she’d look into it 
you have amazing talent!
I’m sorry I missed out on coquette initially–now I’m scrambling to get some 

Congrats Jeanie! I hope you are able to make something fabulous for your new granddaughter. And a big thank you to Kelly for calling your local quilt store! A little designer like me appreciates it so much when people like my work enough to make the call! Please email me at info@carinagardner.com so I get those bundles in the mail to both of you!

And now, a little begging of my own. This summer there will be not just one or two, but THREE of my fabric lines released. I got a happy little package today with samples! These three lines are currently on sale to shops ONLY (to stock for summer 2011). If you like the lines, would you mind giving your local shop a ring for me? These goodies are on sale now for summer shipping. Take a look at the full lines here: Baby Safari, Pinfeathers, and Dress Up.

Well, these gorgeous bolts have been arriving at my house for the last couple of weeks, and I finally have a bit of time to sew! Hooray! To jump off all this sewing fun, I’m giving away a Love Nest™ fat quarter set. All 12 luscious fabrics mailed right to you…how’s that for fun? Leave me a comment  in this post to get entered into the drawing. Winner will be announced in a week on January 17th.

Happy Sewing!

Carina

Two more things before I turn in for the night. First, Good Things Utah covered my Halloween line (Click on the picture on the right). Amber Packer has some awesome ideas when it comes to working with the line! Check them out on her blog here.

The second thing is that if you sign up for the newsletter, we are adding a digital scrapbooking freebie to the first issue (which will be sent out this weekend). Be sure and sign up for it here so you can get your free copy of my Little Princess Digi Kit. If you have never digi scrapbooked before, this is a great way to see the kinds of files and goodies you get in a kit. I’m also pretty partial to this kit because of my two little princesses.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about the newsletter. It’s almost done and my cup runneth over with happiness about how cute it is!

1- First, it’s the beginning of October and I have one more paper pack (and brads and stamps and vinyl) of Haunted™ in my studio. It’s up for grabs, just leave a comment in this post, and I’ll announce the winner next Monday.

2-We’re hyping up in the studio for our brand-spankin’-new quarterly newsletter. This isn’t your typical newsletter…I promise it won’t disappoint! Our very first one will be coming out in a couple of weeks with lots of eye candy. I’ll be sure to announce new classes coming up, new designs, and show you what we have been up to in the studio. Be sure and sign up!

3-You’ll notice that there is a new navigation bar up top! That’s because we have simplified the website in the hopes that you can find anything your heart desires very quickly. Be sure and refresh you blog page to make sure you get the most up-to-date links.

4-I’m anxiously waiting for my Coquette quilt to come back this weekend…I’ll keep you posted!

Hugs-Carina