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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Make It A Handmade Christmas Challenge - Challenge #1 (January)

2014 Christmas Handmade Pledge

Welcome to the first Challenge of our year of "A Handmade Christmas Challenge".  This challenge is open to quilters,embroidery enthusiasts, sewing enthusiasts and crafters who want to be prepared this coming Christmas to give handmade gifts, as well as decorate their home with handmade items and not wait till the last minute.

To clarify, Bloggers and non-Bloggers can join the "linky" party every month to share what Christmas items they've made in 2014 and hopefully share insights on the design you used, possibly share some tips, and maybe if it is your own creation you may want to share a tutorial.  SewCalGal hopes we all inspire and encourage each other to make handmade this year!

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:

For a complete list of sponsors and to see all of the prizes they have donated, you can check the main page for this event which is labeled "A Handmade Christmas Challenge" on the tabs under my blog header.  I will be updating this page throughout the year, to provide current links and more info, as appropriate.  More sponsors will be announced soon, but February lst is my deadline for accepting sponsors for this event.


To help get us in the spirit of making Christmas theme projects for gifts, or to decorate our home, I want to showcase a design from one of our sponsors.  This "Swirled Christmas Tree" design is from Frivolous Necessity.  SewCalGal has drooled over this design and definitely wants to make it this year. I  love the swirl movement of the tree and I also think for those that enjoy free-motion quilting, this would also be a fun project to show off your FMQ (but not required to make this beauty.


The finished size of this project is 27" x 30", making it a perfect size for a wallhanging to decorate your home for the holidays, or to give as a special gift.


SewCalGal encourages those interested to talk to their favorite local quilt shops and online shops to carry this spectacular design (and others by Frivolous Necessity, you can also purchase this design at their Big Cartel Online Store or at Craftsy.


Rules to enter this challenge:
1) Projects need to be made in 2014 and they must be something you make 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.

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.


This linky party will be open thru the 25th of January, 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.





Don't forget our Challenge #2 Linky Party will be posted on February 15th.   Don't forget 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.

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8 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Put this post link and the image box up on my side bar.

Dana Gaffney said...

This is probably just what I need to have things done before Christmas, now I just need to find the time.

ChristaQuilts said...

Ooh! Great idea for a challenge! My MIL wants me to make her My Modern Trees Quilt I did as a quilt along last year, so this is the perfect excuse to make another, LOL!!

Connie Kresin Campbell said...

My first gift of 2014 is done :)

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

As soon as you make the code for the badge, let us know. I'll post it on my side bar then. I've been making gifts instead of purchasing most of them for the past few years. I just got a really late start this past year.

Missy Shay said...

I am definitely going to start participating next month!

barbara woods said...

i will next month

2ne said...

This was a great idè :-)