Make It, Take It Bloghop (With Giveaway)

Welcome to my stop on the Make It, Take It bloghop!

Way back over two years ago, Krista Poppyprint told me that she was going to write a book on retreats and asked if I'd contribute a project. I couldn't say yes fast enough. I was - and am - absolutely thrilled for Krista! All of the opportunities and success that this book and her Chess on the Steps pattern have brought to her are the culmination of over 10 years of really hard work and beautiful creations and I am so delighted to be a part of it all: as a contributor, a frequent participant in her day and overnight retreats, and as a friend.

Make It, Take It is a book that celebrates retreats, and features projects for taking your equipment, and projects you can make while you're there. Have you ever been on a retreat? If you have the chance, do it. I think what makes it so special for me is that it’s not just the time; it’s the space. Physical space for basting a big quilt is wonderful but more than that, retreats afford me metaphysical space that I need, too. On my annual overnight retreat, meals are announced with a chime. When it sounds, I slowly stop what I’m doing and go eat a meal someone else has planned and prepared. I eat it in communion with other women who, regardless of who or what we all are in other aspects of our lives, share a passion for creating. I’m a wife and a mother who works full-time outside the home, so freedom from the usual obligations and responsibilities of family and home and work is what I love most about retreating.

My pattern in the book is a set of placemats designed for a round table. If you aren't into scrappy projects, these placemats would look fabulous with just two colours of strips, maybe with a fun contrasting binding? Or you could use precut strips from one fabric line. Lots of choice! If you did your cutting ahead of time, you could get a very good start on a set of 4 during a long day retreat, and certainly finish them at an overnight getaway.

I came up with the concept after a visit with my Dad when I noticed his rectangular placemats weren't really working all that well on his round table. I didn't tell him I was making them for him (because surprises are so fun!), and it took quite a while before they actually went from idea to finished project (because of course they did). Once the placemats were finally done, I proudly mailed them off and he sent me a lovely thank you email when he got them. Shortly after I got the email - we're talking minutes here - my Dad called. He told me again how much he appreciated the placemats, how lovely they were. Then he paused and said, "Felicity.....I got a new table." I'll give you one guess as to the shape of the new table. Correct! NOT ROUND! Good sport that he is, Dad uses the round placemats on his square table (and they work really well, actually).

There are lots and lots of other projects in this book, and they're all fabulous. I've made one other one so far (blog post to come). Have a look a this list of contributors and fellow bloghop hostesses who'll be sharing their projects over the course of the hop:

Friday, April 4 Blog hop kick-off: Krista at Poppyprint
Monday, April 6: Berene at Happy Sew Lucky and Amy at During Quiet Time
Tuesday, April 7: Leanne at She Can Quilt and Felicity at Felicity Quilts
Wednesday, April 8: Martingale Inc. at Stitch this! (check out their Rainbow Round the Cabin staff party!)
Thursday, April 9: Krista at Spotted Stones and Krista at Krista Withers Quilting
Friday, April 10: Lynne at Lilys Quilts and Cindy at Live a Colorful Life
Saturday, April 11: Ayumi at Pink Penguin and Krista at Poppyprint
Sunday, April 12: Kristie at OCD: Obsessive Crafting Disorder and Christina at Sometimes Crafter

Now for the exciting part: how you can win your very own copy of Make It, Take It! Two books are up for grabs: one digital copy (courtesy of Martingale, the book's publisher) and one hard copy (courtesy of yours truly).

Simple entry rules:
- Comment on this blog post.
- One comment per person, please. I'd love to know where in the world you are, so if you want to include that in your comment, that's cool but optional.
- Make sure your email is attached to your profile (or if you're unsure, just include it in your comment to be safe, using AT and DOT to avoid spam) because if it's not there, I will have to choose another entry.
- International entries are welcome.
- I'll close this post to comments at some point on Friday, April 10th, probably around 8:00 pm Pacific, then use Random Number Generator to select TWO winners. One will win the digital copy, the other will receive the hard copy.  Edited: Giveaway closed and winners announced. Thanks for entering!