American Made Brand Blog Tour - Day 6 and my day

Welcome! One of today's stops on the American Made Brand Blog Tour is my state of New York.

The email asking if I'd be interested in participating in this blog tour arrived the day before I headed to MQX East last month and to tell you that I was thrilled is a huge understatement. Thank you so much goes out to Clothworks for this opportunity.

Once I got back from MQX a stack of pieces of each of these gorgeous solid fabrics awaited me.

I really love the theme behind the brand...A Farm to Fabric Movement which means that every part of the process of producing this fabric happens here in the USA. That is definitely something worth celebrating.

The fabrics are just wonderful to work with. The colors are vibrant, the feel is great and they unravel very little compared to some other solid fabrics I've worked with in the past.

I had a long list of ideas of things to include in my New York block but eventually narrowed it down to four icons that I believe represent my state well. Here is my New York license plate block.

A New York Beauty block was one of the 1st ideas I came up with and truth be told, this is the very 1st paper piecing I've ever done, aside from my 2 practice pieces that is. I used the colors of Light Aqua, Aqua and Dark Aqua to represent the water that is such a big part of this state... from the Hudson River to the ocean surrounding Long Island to the Finger Lakes upstate and Niagara Falls, just to name a few.

The horse (also my 1st try at applique) represents all the horse breeding farms and racing history here. Not only does New York have Aqueduct and Belmont Park but it has the famous Saratoga Race Course which this year will be celebrating it's 151st season.

 

The Rose is the state flower and I decided to create it with counted cross stitch using the Light Pink fabric as the base. I left out those areas of the cross stitch pattern where the floss matched the fabric and just let the fabric shine through.

And of course I had to include an apple. You may thing that it represents the Big Apple New York City and while it does, more so it represents New York's apple growing industry. We are the 2nd largest apple producing state averaging almost 30 million bushels of apples grown on over 50,000 acres across the state each year. 

So I hope you like my New York license plate block and have learned a little about this state that I have called home for most of my life. To celebrate this blog tour American Made Brand is donating one 8 piece FQ bundle for each blogger to giveaway and I'm offering a 2nd giveaway for a 6 inch stack of squares of these American Made Brand fabrics.

For your chance to win, leave me a comment telling me which variety of apple is your favorite. 

My followers get a 2nd chance to win, just tell me how you follow.

Are you a No Reply Blogger?  If you never get replies to the comments you leave on people's blogs then yes you most likely are. Just make sure you leave your email address so that I can get in touch should you win.

The giveaway will remain open through Midnight, Sunday June 1st.

Also remember to visit my blog tour partner today:

North Carolina - A Stitch in Time

Thanks for stopping by. You are welcome back anytime.

P.S. My giveaways always produce hundreds and hundreds of comments and it just isn't possible to reply to all of you but please know that I read and truly appreciate each and every one.