I'm a tree hugger at heart. Truly. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in environment and natural resources and spent the first part of my career working in park law enforcement aka Park Ranger. Carrying a gun, making arrests and riding horses, mountain bikes and boats in lots of beautiful parks across the US. Protecting our resources and spending my time in the great outdoors. Dream. Come. True.
And so, I carry this love for the environment with me, forever. And into my sewing business too. Which is why when I meet people in this industry who are like minded - it just makes me very happy.
Back in 2010, I had the pleasure to meet Jan DiCintio of Daisy Janie at Quilt Market in Houston. Kindred spirits. Jan and I chat frequently about kids, health, business and our shared love for the environment. Jan is an amazing designer who self produces an organic fabric line. Any chance I can get to support what she does for the love of our earth...I love to do it!
As a sewing pattern designer, it is such a joy when I get to feature amazing fabrics in my projects. Even more amazing when they are GOTS certified organic fabrics. It is of no surprise that I have used two of Jan's latest lines on two of my newest patterns.
Here's the best part about this fabric and pattern relationship Jan and I have...to celebrate EARTH DAY...we are giving away a fat quarter bundle AND patterns! We are giving two packages away : one on each of our blogs.
Shades of Grey is such a great line. I can find a million ways to use this line - if you follow what I do, I'm not shy about color. Which is why I love pieces like this that balance out those pops of color - I love it to create monochromatic themed projects too! I used this line on my new pattern, The Date Night Clutch. Check out the cover photo on my facebook page for another peek at this bag. Here's one of our giveaway packages:
Giveaway Package #1: - 1 Date Night Clutch pattern - 1 fat quarter bundle of Shades of Grey - 1 surprise home dec pattern from Trish - 1 surprise scrap pack of fabric from Jan
Then Jan came out with Tilly! Oh, sweet wonderful Tilly! Hard to resist with great colors that just happen to match just about all of my home decor! I see new curtains and chair covers in my future with Tilly. I was super excited to feature Tilly on my newest pattern...and come to think of it - I haven't even introduced this pattern to all of you yet.
So here is her grand debut (although, she started shipping to stores almost 3 weeks ago) - Always a Bridesmaid Clutch. Giveaway package 2!
Giveaway Package #2: - 1 Always a Bridesmaid bag Pattern - 1 fat quarter bundle of Tilly - 1 surprise home dec pattern from Trish - 1 surprise scrap pack of fabric from Jan
Of course, you need not have a wedding or prom in mind to make either of these bags. They would make great date night bags for dinner out with your favorite guy and being a Mom of a toddler - either bag could also make a super stylish diaper / wipes accessory bag.
The Date Night Clutch comes with a version with a zipper and one with a tabbed magnetic snap closure. The Always a Bridesmaid bag folds open to create a larger bag, tuck the flap down behind the tie or secure it with a snap and add a lovely fabric flower brooch.
(you can also catch a glimpse of another sweet friend of mine and fav designer, Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom whose fabrics are featured on version B of this bag)
How to enter our Happy Earth Day Giveaway...
1) One entry, leave me a comment sharing your best every day earth day tip that you and your family live by.
2) Extra entries - like Daisy Janie and Two Peas on Facebook. Leave a separate comment for each.
PLUS - Jump over to the Daisy Janie blog and enter there too!
- Giveway ends on Sunday, 4/22 at midnight EST.
- 1 winner will be chosen from the Two Peas entrants to win Package #2.
- Winner will be chosen by a random number generator
- 1 entry per person. Dupes will be deleted.
- Open to US & International entries.
- Fabric not to be resold!
- Winners will be announced on Monday, 4/23.
(Earth Day is on Sunday, April 22nd!) Maybe celebrate Earth Day by making up some of Jan's produce bags (and say no to plastic!).
Our family's best every day earth day tip :: Compost! We compost food scraps and recycle most of our waste. It takes us 4 to 5 weeks to actually fill our garbage can for trash pick up. Typically, we have one kitchen trash bag per week from our entire house of 5, working to make that even less. We start with a sink side compost container. We dump that daily into a larger container off of our back deck. And then the Gardener (my hubs) rolls that one down to our garden and dumps it onto our compost pile to make garden gold!
With any luck, this giveaway will at the very least teach you a little more about why purchasing products that support sustainability are important. Be sure you read HERE - all the great things that Jan has shared about why this part of sustainable agriculture is critical in her Growing Organically series. I could go into all of the science of it - this stuff I roll around in at my day job working at the university in environment and natural resources - but the reality is that our global population is growing and in order to feed the world we need to take care of our soils, our water, our air, our planet. It's that simple. Be good to the planet. In everything you do.
Happy Earth Day!