If you’ve ever wanted to see a photo of me really happy (and not in a wedding dress) this is it. (Big huge thanks to @guicy_guice for taking this photo!) The #100Days100Blocks adventure might seem like it’s coming to an end, but this is just one chapter closing as another opens. This is me and Lizzy House (yes, I just did waving fanning hands in front of my giddy little face when I typed that) with my finished #100Days100Blocks quilt. I’ll blog the quilt in detail later on, but I thought this was a fitting way to place an end marker for this chapter because it sums everything up perfectly; giddy happiness, quilt and the power of the online.

When the idea came about for the sew-along I was on a Ferry in Sydney Harbour with my birthday bestie, Lisa (of Sweet Little Pretties). We’d just had a great day at the Sydney Quilt & Craft Fair and we were on our way to meet some more fabulous quilters. (You can read about that adventure by clicking here – it’s got a great photo of me with Tula Pink, just saying…) We’d both purchased Tula Pink’s book, City Sampler, so we could get her to sign it in a completely spontaneous fan moment. We were sitting on that ferry flicking through the book and an idea was born.

I can, hand on heart, tell you that we had no idea the idea was going to resonate with so many people and in such a wonderful and varied way. I put the idea out on my Instagram account and was so thrilled and excited to see people embrace it (and then impatiently wait for it to kick off). It was brilliant. When I planned how it was going to come together I specifically chose for it to end on Thanksgiving because I wanted to be able to say thank you to this amazing community that has embraced me, my family and my crazy ideas. I wanted to end on a positive and share that moment with everyone that had joined in.

We built a community around this little hashtag. At the moment there’s over 56,500 posts and growing. We want that community to continue so I’m excited to announce that we’re working towards providing you with a big year of sew-alongs in 2017. I’m also excited to announce that #100Days100Blocks is about to become a yearly event. That’s right, baby! Strap yourself in we’re going to be making more quilts together! So, let’s get down to what you all want to know about – the winners – and then on to what we’ll be doing in 2017!

Actually, no, I’m gonna make you wait and torture you a bit longer… here’s a little sneak peek at what’s happening in 2017! (More details will follow over the next couple of weeks.)

52 Weeks with Quilter’s Planner

Start Date: 7 January 2017

End Date: 30 December 2017

Details: The Quilter’s Planner comes with the details on how to make one 12″ block per week as part of it’s many handy features. I’ve partnered with Quilter’s Planner to bring you a year long sew-along which will encourage and support you to make each block each week. Never fear, if you don’t have a copy of the Quilter’s Planner you can get the block details by clicking here. (I’ll let you in on a little secret – there will be extra prizes for those that do have the planner! You can buy the Quilter’s Planner and find stockists by clicking here.)

This is a great sew-along for those of you looking to get into a regular sewing habit in 2017. It’s also going to be a great way to make some big quilts for you to use at home, gift to loved ones (think end of year school gifts for example! Note the look of panic in my eye as I’m struggling with that right now!) and to gift to charity if you’d like to do more of that in 2107.

There will be a monthly prize for those that sew, and post on the correct days, all the blocks for each month. There will also be a big end of year prize for someone who sews all 52 blocks!

Snail Paced Slow-along Sew-along

Start Date: 8 January 2017

End Date: 5 November 2017

Click here to buy Pattern.

Details: I’m a huge fan of Lindsey from Pen and Paper Patterns and when she started dropping little hints about this quilt I was so excited and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I begged and pleaded (maybe not so dramatic, but still I wanted it) with Lindsey to let me do a snail paced slow-along with her pattern Garden Snails. She said yes and the “Snail Paced Slow-along Sew-along” was born.

This is all about taking your time and enjoying the process. The quilt is made up of the same block repeated so it’s not taxing on your quilty skills, but we’re going to savour the process. To be eligible for prizes you’re going to have to post your snail block each Sunday (your time). In 2017 Sunday is going to be #snailday!

Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell

Start Date: 15 March 2017

End Date: 12 July 2017

Details: When this quilt-along came together I was literally jumping around the house doing a happy dance; I’m really excited about this one! The fabulously awesome Jen Kingwell has given us her blessing to take her pattern, Long Time Gone (it was the Amitie Textiles Block of the Month for 2016) and team up with Marti Michell to offer you tutorials and conversion charts on how to make the quilt with (or without) Marti’s amazing templates. It’s going to be epic.

This will be a great quilt-along for those of you who’ve long admired Jen’s quilts but you’ve been too scared to dive in to one. There’s no appliqué in this one and it can all be done on a sewing machine (although if you want to hand stitch it you can totally do that too!).  I’m so looking forward to learning how to use Marti’s templates to make a scrappy quilt. It’s also great for those of you that may have purchased Marti’s templates as part of the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Quilt-along.

It’s going to be fast paced so you’ll have no chance of changing your mind or getting distracted by other projects. We’ll be doing a block a week with a week to put your top together and then another week to quilt it. (Although you won’t have to have it quilted to be eligible for prizes!)

Once it’s done, you never know there may be another Jen Kingwell quilt-along to follow it up with…

#100Days100Blocks2017

Start Date: 7 May 2017

End Date: 15 August 2017

Details: The challenge is the same; make all 100 Blocks and post them on the correct day (in your timezone). We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re going to make it easier for you to manage the hashtags and accounts to follow, but the challenge will still be hard and the prizes epic. We’re kicking this round off on a day that’s special to Lisa and I; our birthday! This round is all about celebrating, so why not think about making a festive or seasonal quilt this time if you participated the first time. (I’m thinking maybe Halloween… or maybe Christmas… or maybe just more Lizzy House! Muwhahahaha!)

You can buy the book via these links Book Depository (click here) |  Amazon (click here) | Fons & Porter (click here) | Keepsake Quilting (click here) | Interweave Store (click here) and if you do so I will make a small commission on the sale which will go towards helping me to run this amazing event. (Thank you so much!)

But I want more!

Ok, Oliver settle down! There’s more to come I promise, but I don’t want to blow the surprise for you so savour the now and work out which (or all) you’ll do! If you really want to be the first to know then make sure you’re signed up to my newsletter, Gnome Gnews (it’s good news!). You’ll get all the happenings straight to your inbox and never miss a thing that way! Click here to subscribe.

Ok, so now I’ve got you thinking about how you’re going to sew your way through 2017 lets get down to the main draw card…

Winners are Grinners

The following winners were required to post all 100 blocks on the correct date (in their timezone), use the correct hashtags and following the appropriate accounts. Congratulations to the following people for completing that mammoth task!

Tales of Cloth (sponsored blocks 31 – 40)

Prize: A rainbow selection of 12 fat quarters from Joel Dewberry’sTrue Colors, 3 packets of EPP shapes that the winner can choose, 2 spools of light coloured Aurifil Thread and 1 packet of Bohin milliners needles.

Winner: @smanske

Fabric Pixie (sponsored blocks 41 – 50)

Prize: $100 Gift Voucher

Winner: @idagoede

Clair’s Fabrics (sponsored blocks 51 – 60)

Prize: $100 Gift Voucher

Winner: @berrypatchcottage

Two Blue Birdies (sponsored blocks 71 – 80)

Prize: Tula Pink Premium Aurifil thread collection. Large spools of 50wt Aurifil thread in 12 spectacular colours, valued at $180 (AU).

Winner: @chickenwingchub

Ave & Neve (sponsored blocks 81 – 90)

Prize: Prize is the 9 month subscription to the Block of the Month that is a full liberty quilt. Value is $600.00 (AU). Optional boarder option is not included in this prize.

Winner: @teamcakesquilts

The Strawberry Thief (sponsored blocks 91 – 100)

Prize: 12 month fat 1/16th subscription to Love Liberty valued at $360 (AU)

Winner: @makeshiftkat

Spotlight Stores Australia (sponsored blocks 1 – 100)

Prize: Brother SL500 RRP $549 (AU)

Winner: @sharingthegoodstuff

Congratulations to everyone who won. You have 48 hours from the publishing of this post to contact me to claim your prize.

Don’t despair if you didn’t win a prize, the adventure isn’t done just yet for 2016.

#100Blocks Finished

We decided to divide and conquer so that we could work hard at getting 2017 set up for you all so Raylee and Lisa are running #100BlocksFinished to motivate you to turn your 100 blocks into a finished quilt top and for those really motivated, quilt. You can find all the details here at Raylee’s Blog or here at Lisa’s Blog. It’s a great opportunity to keep your sewjo flowing over the holiday period when it can become so easy for us to all stop sewing in favour of getting caught up in the manic of the holiday season.

A Word from the Organisers

Winners decisions are final and discussion will not be entered into. I’m sure you can all appreciate how much effort went into organising this event, not to mention the poor person we made sit down and go through every account and photo to ensure we had a winners that met the eligibility. It was no mean feat and we’ve done our best. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t the possibility that somewhere in there we’ve made a mistake. If we have, we apologise. However, we’re not going to remove a winner and allocate it to someone else. We’d also really appreciate it if you could not harass us, our sponsors or the winner if you think there’s been an error. It wasn’t intentional or personal, promise! All winners were chosen at random by a third party in no way connected to the outcome, sponsors or quilting industry. Thanks for your understanding and consideration.

Tula’s Tabby Cat

But wait, there’s more. When I was at Quilt Market (you can read all about that adventure by clicking here) I was super lucky to be able to stop and talk to Tula and her fabulous team about the sew-along. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be talking out of school to say they were blown away and impressed by what everyone had done. We were standing there in the booth talking about how amazing you all are when Tula decided that you deserved an extra special prize. She reached down and plucked her favourite Tabby cat from the booth and told me to find it a home with someone who’d love it.

Now originally we’d said that we would award the prize to a participant who’d made all the blocks and posted them on the right day (in their timezone) and hash tagged it, etc. etc. but as the sew-along came to an end we decided that the cat that Tula loves needed to go to a person who loves Tula and so we’re using our executive powers as the people who’ve pulled all this together to make a special awarding of this particular prize.

The winner of this amazing Tabby Cat is @unmessynessie who took the challenge and commitment of making an all Tula quilt to the next level. (You have 48 hours from the publishing of this post to contact me to claim your prize or it’ll go to Lisa who has been coveting it since I told her about it!)

And for those of you that will undoubtably want to make your own tabby cat the pattern is from Funky Friends Factory. Click here to get the pattern.

* We also need to note that we did say Tula would have signed it, but in all the excitement I walked off like a love struck dope without it signed. So, please forgive me. I’m hoping the fact that she cradled that cat for all of Quilt Market will make up for my ditzy moment.

Big Huge Sentimental Thanks to You All!

2016 has been a big year of ups and downs for me. I’ve written a book, I’ve travelled to America, I quit my job and I’ve been constantly sick all year. At times I’ve really struggled with life and there’s been days where I’ve thought about giving up and going back to being a slave to the man who quilts occasionally. On those days, and all days, it’s your comments of support, camaraderie, encouragement and, I have to be honest here, downright crazy that’s made me laugh, made me cry and made me very thankful for this amazing community.  I try to get back and comment and reply and like and love but at times it’s too much for me to do while keeping an eye on the very active little piece of my heart in the shape of a boy and keeping the ship afloat. But I really wanted you to know that I do see them, I do read them and I do think of you all as my extended friendship circle of awesome.

I’m really excited and enthused about what 2017 will bring and I can’t wait to go on the journey with you. I hope you’ll find something to excite you and get your motivated to make 2017 a big sewing year. If there’s something you’d like me to host as a sew-along or quilt-along drop me a line by clicking here. (For the love of all that is Heather Ross, please don’t ask me to do a Dear Jane. Some you have hinted at it and while I am in awe of that quilt there’s no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that I’ll be able to do it in 2017! However, I might know someone who can so don’t totally rule it out if it’s on your must make list for 2017. *wink*)