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American Brand Solids– Farm to Fabric Challenge Bonus Bundle Challenge with Fabrics N Quilts

by 124 Comments

I love a good challenge and I’m really excited about this one!
My friend Shannon from Fabrics N Quilts contacted me when she heard about the challenge from American Brand Solids – Farm to Fabric.
Have you heard of the new American made solid fabrics from Clothworks?  Fabrics N Quilts stocks the entire line of fabrics.  Clothworks is having a challenge to go along with the launch of their new fabric line and Shannon (Fabrics N Quilts) and I are teaming up to add more prizes to the challenge. 
The theme is ‘Farm to Fabric’. 

What does it mean to you, your family or your community to bring fabric production back to the United States to use in your American made quilts? 

There is so much amazing information about the American farmer and the cotton the US produces on the American Made Brand website.  I highly recommend you head over and spend a few minutes on their website.  But I’m going to take a few minutes here to share my story.  I’m a farmer – but I’m an apple farmer.  Not quite the same thing as a cotton farmer – but the same concept.  We grow approximately 3,000 apple trees at our small family orchard and over 60 varieties of apples.  We sell our apples a few ways.

  1. Direct sales out of the shed on our farm that we convert to a store for three months of the years.
  2. To multiple local schools for lunches.
  3. To breweries, wineries, and home brewers.
  4. CSA Share Supplements

All of our selling venues are 100% local and within Wisconsin.  The local support our family, friends, neighbors, community and loyal customers, have shown us for the past 30 plus years is incredible.  Without them, our dream would not be sustainable.  For example – during the 2012 season we lost 80% of our apple crop.  We are still in business today because of our customers.  We sold whatever apples we could to the folks who visited our place that fall.  We also grew more tomatoes, cabbage and other vegetables to supplement our loss and the folks ate it up.  Even though it wasn’t a great year we pulled through and our loyal customers returned in drones during the 2013 season to once again enjoy the delicious, locally grown apples we had to offer. Now we have an opportunity to purchase fabric that was grown, created and produced in the United States.  What an incredible opportunity to support our community!
The ‘Farm to Fabric’ Challenge is the perfect for me –  I’m so excited for this one and I can’t wait to see what others come up with too!
First…be sure to head over to Clothworks and read the details about the ‘Farm to Fabric’ Challenge. 
For our bonus challenge…we require you to purchase one of three options of a 12 pack fat quarter bundle.
pd bundle
Option 1 – Purchase the pack of fat quarters bundle that I put together – the ‘Persimon Dreams Fat Quarter Bundle.’
bundle
Option 2 – Build your own bundle – the ‘Persimon Dreams Build a Bundle’
pd surprise
Option 3 – Purchase the SURPRISE fat quarter bundle – the ‘Persimon Dreams Surprise Fat Quarter Bundle’. 
To qualify for the Farm to Fabric Challenge your quilt must follow the guidelines of the challenge HERE.  Fabrics N Quilts and Persimon Dreams have nothing to do with the Clothworks Challenge. We are just upping the ante a bit if you want to join in the fun!
If you want your quilt to qualify for the Clothworks Farm to Fabric Challenge pictures of your piece can not be published in books, calendars, magazines, newsletters, websites, blogs or any other form of publication prior to November 2014.  This is very important!  We don’t want to mess up your chances! 
We will open the linky up at the bottom of this post for our challenge from November 7th to November 21st.  My children will each choose a random winner from a hat once the linky closes – so that’s THREE winners!  You can only link up projects you made using one of the three fat quarter bundles Fabrics N Quilts is offering.  Fabrics N Quilts will be giving out $20, $30 and $40 gift certificates to three of the participants! If you don’t finish your quilt by the deadline of the clothworks challenge you will still have time to link up to ours. 

DON’T FORGET YOUR BACKGROUND YARDAGE!  Go to Fabrics N Quilts AMB fabric selection and choose your favorite!  They stock the entire line of 50 solids.

GIVEAWAY NOW! (Closed)

To add to the fun of this great challenge – we’re starting with a giveaway of one Fat Quarter Bundle NOW!  One randomly chosen comment will win their choice of one of the three fat quarter bundles – the Persimon Dreams Bundle, the Surprise Bundle, or the Build a Bundle! 
AMD PDBIn order to win just leave a comment below answering one simple question. 

How do you support your local farmer and/or community?

BONUS Entries  Leave a separate comment for each to gain extra entries (7 more chances).

Giveaway is now CLOSED.

Seriously – if you don’t leave your email address, I won’t be able to get ahold of you and you won’t get the prize…this is very important!

I know I gave you a lot of information above so in summary.

  1. Read about the Farm to Fabric Challenge and check out all the rules.
  2. Answer the giveaway question above for a chance to win a bundle of fabric from Fabrics N Quilts.
  3. If you don’t win the giveaway, to participate in our *bonus* challenge purchase one of the three bundles from Fabrics N Quilts.
  4. Do not post any pictures of your challenge piece until after November 1st.
  5. Come back here between November 7th and November 21st, 2014 to link up your finished quilts for a chance to win one of three prizes!

An InLinkz Link-up

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. This looks like it is just up my alley, I love challenges :). I love in the summer to go to the farmers markets. The one in town runs June through October and is the best place to pick up tons of yummy veggies. I love to pick up extras of items too, like peaches, when they are in season to can.

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  14. We go to our local farmers market twice a week and we have also started our own backyard garden. My husband and I were talking today about purchasing a small farm after we retire from the military and opening our own stand.

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  24. I support local community in many ways. First, I shop at the local farmer's markets and even our Walmart sells local corn in season. I lost my husband less than a year ago, so I have been attending a grief group. Now, that I have "graduated," I have volunteered to help facilitate future sessions. Our church is starting a new widows' program and I am going to help with that. I made quilts for needy children. My brother is a wood worker and I have been connecting him with quilt friends of mine in his state for possible seam ripper business. We are hoping to do a seam ripper fund raiser from wood from my state and his workmanship for my quilt guild. Plans have yet to be made. Hopefully, the wood will come from the pecan farm of one of the guild members. I also buy most of my fabric at my local quilt shops. I was raised on a small dairy farm and know how important local support is. Blessings!

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  29. I buy local whenever I can, at the LQS and farmers markets primarily. I also look for products from the Pacific Northwest for regional support.

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  33. I support our local farmers by ordering meat and other locally grown things through a coop. It coordinates famers from my state and you receive the benefits of their hard work.

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  35. Support local farmers by buying fresh vegetables and fruits at our local farmers market, and we purchase our beef from locals who raise their own beef. I am excited about USA grown and made cotton quilting fabric, having been raised in the South where my oarents earned their living in cotton mills which are all long gone now.

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  36. Ooooh – would love to win! We are members of a local CSA – our friends introduced us to it last year and my hubby has been bugging me to make SURE we got signed up this year. We even got in early enough to get the fruit share in addition to the veggie share we loved last year! 🙂

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  51. We love to visit the local farmers market for produce we don't grow in our own garden, especially the sweet corn since we don't have the room to grow that. Our daughter & SIL raise chickens, so we get all our eggs from them. We used to get apples from a local orchard until our trees started producing; we just planted 2 pear trees and 3 aronia bushes last year as well as more raspberry plants to replace those that didn't make it over the winter. We also share garden produce with our friends & family, who also share with us….country living is so enjoyable.

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  59. I buy local if what I need is available. I love picking apples, so I try to go every year. The local farm stuff is so much better than the supermarket food!

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  62. We purchase as much as possible from our local Farmer's Market and directly from farm stands in our area. We are very lucky to have sources for local foods.

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  68. I am a local farmer! When I go to the farmers market to sell my free range eggs I buy the things I don't make myself from other farmers.

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  72. I received my first newsletter from you today and look forward to many, many more. I love yellows, oranges, pinks and greens. Such bright, happy colors. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity

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  73. I follow you on FB. I support locally by going to farmer's markets, local craft sales, and we buy our beef from a local farmer directly. I have friends and family who are farmers so I like to be able to support them.

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  77. I buy local produce from our Senior Center when in season and trade my eggs for produce from neighbors. I have Roosters and Hens but don't sell them or their eggs, just trade and giveaway! I am pretty rural my father in law raises our beef.

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  84. we support our local farms by buying their organic produce. Just today I purchased my first "good farm box" – a really cool concept where I can place an order online by Monday and then choose where I want to pick it up on Wed. LOVED that since I live in the city and can't always drive out to the farms. We also have some great farmer's markets in our city. Last fall I drove out to a blueberry farm and purchased 30 lbs of blueberries and we're still enjoying them! I'm learning to grow my own veggies and planted an urban garden last year and this spring we've started planting from seeds. It's so fun to see my daughter nurture and love the plants and get really excited to see how much they've grown each night! 🙂

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  87. I love summer season for taking advantage of our local produce, I think some of the best corn in the world is grown just a couple of miles from my house. I love to get fresh fruits for freezing and jam making.

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  91. I support my local farming community by shopping farmers' markets.
    I was thrilled to hear about American Made Brand cottons about a month ago! So happy about it, that I promoted it with a local quilt shop owner in person and then sent her the website link to the manufacturer. On a subsequent visit to her shop, she told me that she has ordered the entire line of American Made Brand cottons for her Quilter's Ranch store!!! The AMB fabric should be in stock by the end of May. Yippee! I would be in 7th Heaven to win the FQ Bundle

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  93. I purchase weekly from our local farmers market and farmstands. Not only is it the freshest, tastiest and most nutritious produce, but my family is also supporting our local farmers. In addition to fruits and vegetables I also purchase wonderful goats soap, honey, molasses, eggs and baked goods!

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  102. Kim – I was thrilled to hear about the all American cottons. I think it's a great investment in our country and plan to support this effort. At home, I buy local as often as possible – farmers markets and often roadside stands for produce, art and craft fairs and local studios for home goods.

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  113. We live in a place where there's not much for "local" farming–some and we try to support it by buying from them at our farmer's market. We also try to buy "local" on a larger scale by buying American produced fruits and vegetables at the grocery store.

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  114. I grew up on a farm and still go back on a regular basis – we try to buy local wherever possible to support our friends and neighbours. I love the Persimon bundle. Thanks so much for sharing

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  117. I try to buy locally grown products when they carry them in our local stores & at farmer's markets. I can think of lots of fun things to make with the Persimon bundle.

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  121. I support my local farmer by volunteering hours and HOURS a week. (My local farmer is also my husband!) 😉

    Reply

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