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Monday, April 14, 2014

April Linky Party - Handmade Christmas Challenge - New Hoffman Holiday Fabrics

Time to talk about the Make It A Handmade Christmas Challenge, as today starts the April Linky Party for this monthly challenge.

Not familiar with how this challenge works?  Simply participate in any one or all of these challenges and you will automatically be entered to win prizes.  And, you'll end up with handmade gifts to give this Christmas, or items to decorate your home.    The more monthly challenges that you enter, the more chances you get to win prizes!  The majority of the prizes will be awarded after all of the monthly challenges have been completed, in December 2014.

For a current list of sponsors and prizes, as well as links to the monthly linky parties, please click the tab labeled "A Handmade Christmas Challenge".  And, for fun, a few monthly challenges, like the linky party this month, will have a winner that is selected at the end of the linky party vs the end of the challenge to win a prize!

2014 Christmas Handmade Pledge

This event is all about making projects for Christmas gifts, making handmade decorations for your home, sharing insights on designs perfect for the Holidays, as well as inspiring others to make handmade gifts throughout the year vs waiting till the Holiday season and risk of the chance of creating more UFOs.  Plus we want to inspire others to make hand made gifts and share insights on designs, free patterns, tutorials and tips to make handmade Christmas projects.

Each month SewCalGal showcases a sponsor who has generously donated prizes to be given to randomly selected winners that pledge to make handmade Christmas gifts and decorations and participate in this challenge.  And, in this showcase insights are also included on their prizes that are perfect for making handmade gifts and/or decorating your home for the holidays.  As such, today I'm delighted and honored to showcase Hoffman California Fabrics as a sponsor for this event.

Several times a year Hoffman releases new fabrics to help us create beautiful quilts, clothing and other handmade items.  And, they have recently introduced new fabrics for the upcoming holiday season, which are beginning to appear in your local quilt shops and favorite online shops.  But if you don't see them, do let your favorite shops know what lines of Hoffman fabrics that you'd like them to offer.  New Hoffman fabrics for Christmas are absolutely gorgeous.  Here are a few teasers that I hope will inspire you to create with Hoffman fabrics for Christmas gifts, or decorating your home for the holidays:


Stained Glass Christmas 


Woodsy Winter  


Pear Tree Greetings






Holiday Shimmer, by Punch Studio 


Jingle Pops and Alchemy Pre-cuts 


Alchemy, by Fringe 


Winter Berries  by Nicole Tamarin


Suzy's Christmas, by Suzy Zoo  


Bali Handpaints and Bali Batiks





Check out the 2014 Winter Catalog, by Hoffman to see all of their new lines of fabric and various color palettes.  They also have a new APP you can download for your Android devices, which would allow you to plan projects and take their catalog with you when you shop for fabrics!  :)



Hoffman has also donated three beautiful fabric bundles as prizes for this Handmade Christmas Challenge.  Most are bundles of fat quarters or generous half yard cuts.  

Bundle #1 


 Bundle #2


 Bundle #3

 

One lucky winner in the April linky party will win one of these three bundles of beautiful Hoffman fabrics.  They will get to select which of the three bundles that they would like to receive and the other two bundles will be given to other winners at the end of the Handmade Christmas Challenge.  


Time is fleeting by.  Soon Christmas will be here.  April is a great month to Pledge!

 

If you are looking for inspirational ideas for making handmade gifts, definitely check out all the prizes that our sponsors have donated as they'd all help you make wonderful gifts for Christmas or to decorate your home for the Holidays.  Plus you can view the entries in the monthly challenges/linky parties for inspiration, tips, tutorials and project insights:
January challenge
February challenge
March challenge
Many participants in this challenge are getting off to a great start at being able to give handmade gifts this coming Christmas.  Are you taking the Pledge to make Handmade gifts throughout the year to give as Christmas gifts or decorate your home this year?  The earlier you take the Pledge, the more handmade gifts you'll have ready for Christmas, and the more chances you'll have to win amazing prizes!




SewCalGal wants to recognize and thank our sponsors for this event, as they have generously donated wonderful prizes, many of which are also perfect for making Christmas items!  And, I'll be showcasing these projects throughout the year.  Here is our list of our current sponsors for this event:

    Before you add your entry (a link to this Linky), please be sure you read the rules below.



Rules to enter this challenge:

While there are many sponsors and many wonderful prizes for those that enter in one or more of the monthly Linky Parties in the Handmade Christmas Challenge, that are open to quilters worldwide, as SewCalGal will be shipping this particular prize to the lucky winner and currently has limited funds for shipping prizes, the winner of this bundle will need to be a US resident.

1) Projects need to be made in 2014 (they do not need to be made during the 10 day window of a a given monthly linky party.  But they need to be something you made for a Christmas gift or to decorate your home for the holidays.  Please do not enter projects that you giveaway throughout the year, or previous holidays as that doesn't bring you good quilting kharma!
2) You can enter one or more completed projects, but your linky needs to be in a current post (or non-bloggers can upload their photos and provide a link to a view able line tool like PhotoBucket, Flickr, etc.).   note:  Future challenges will require you to use only Flickr.  Click here to see a tutorial for using flickr.
3) Participants are asked to include comments in their post that share insights on the design(s) they use, any tips they wish to share, and if they made something with their own design they may wish to share a tutorial.  Your help to encourage others to make handmade gifts, throughout the year to give as gifts or to decorate their home, is appreciated.  And, of course, you can also inspire others by sharing your projects, providing tips and tutorials, as well as recognizing the source of the design for your project, should others be interested in making it too!

4) Bloggers are asked to include in their post information that that shows they have taken the "Pledge to make handmade Christmas Gifts in 2014" and are participating in this challenge.  It would be appreciated if you would encourage others to also participate, or at least come look at all of the entries each month, as hopefully we'll inspire other quilters and increase awareness of designs, tips, tutorials to help make beautiful Christmas gifts and decorations.  Your blog post also needs to be dated during the period of this linky party (do not link to old posts).


This linky party will be open thru the 25th of  this month, to give participants plenty of time to enter the challenge this month. If you are not familiar with how to use a linky click here for a tutorial.
Please be sure to read the rules before you add a link to enter the challenge this month.



Don't forget our Challenge #5 Linky Party will be posted on May 15th.   You don't have to participate in every monthly challenge, but the more monthly challenges you enter in 2014 the more changes you have to win prizes and the more handmade Christmas items you will have made this year!

There is also an optional email list for this event, that participants may want to sign up for.  As, SewCalGal realizes not everyone follows blog posts every day, I will try to send out reminder emails when monthly challenges are released to those that sign up for these email alerts.   There may also be additional Holiday theme clipart and related info shared in these emails that are not shared in my blog.


For blogger participants that are interested in posting a badge, I need to work on the code. But you are welcome to take any images from this post and link to the main page for this event.

Let's not forget the spirit of this challenge is to make handmade gifts for Christmas or decorations for the holiday season, throughout the year vs waiting till the holiday rush.  We also hope to help increase awareness of designs, free patterns, tutorials and other products that help to make such products. And, your help in inspiring others to make handmade for Christmas is appreciated.  PR Angels are also appreciated.

If you have questions for this Challenge, please read the FAQ.


UPDATE:  The Random number generator was used to draw a lucky winner for the giveaway this month.  The winner gets to selected which of the three bundles donated by Hoffman that they want.  The other two bundles will be given out to winners at the end of all of the monthly challenges.

An email has been sent to the lucky winner and Vroomans Quilts has claimed bundle #2 as a prize.  


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2 comments:

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

Thanks for the challenge!!

Ruth said...

I'm sorry that I won't be able to keep up with the challenge this month and probably not for a few months. Our house sold quite fast and we are busy packing. I was hoping to get something finished, but have other priorities right now. Unfortunately, I won't be going to the Texas Quilt Museum either. We are moving to Oregon near our oldest son!