The Kansas American Made Brand Giveaway!

Hello from Kansas! I'm Melissa Stramel, a pattern designer, and it's such an honor to be the Kansas stop for the American Made Brand blog tour. If you're not in the loop on this, American Made Brand is a range of 50 cottons made entirely in the USA. I mean ENTIRELY! The cotton is 100% American grown. Then the yarn is made right here too. The cloth is then made in the USA and even dyed here.

 The challenge in representing my state is that there is so much to love about Kansas! We are known as the Wheat State, the Sunflower State, and the Jayhawk State.

I've lived in Northwest Kansas my entire life, except for 6 years when I went to college and pharmacy school on the other side of the state. (Go Jayhawks!) Northwest Kansas is very rural and very lovely, so I've attempted to show this in the Kansas block.

We have absolutely gorgeous sunrises and sunsets. These are the views out my back and front doors. When I think about being the Sunflower State, it reminds me more of the wild sunflowers in the photo below than fields of sunflowers. We have those too, but you don't see them all that often.

When I was asked to be the Kansas representative for the AMB blog tour, I had already begun a wheat study. If you've been on this blog lately, you know that I love to paint. There is something so musical and water-like about rolling waves of wheat. Kansas has been fondly called "The Breadbasket of America."

We also have lots of other crops out here. In the middle photo above, you can see that it's corn harvest, milo is ready to be picked and wheat is starting to grow.

Who can forget Kansas's most famous movie, The Wizard of Oz? We actually do have lots of rainbows as well. You can see this on my book cover (now out of print), and no, it is not photo-shopped.

I so agree, there's no place like home!

There are about a zillion different Kansas license plates, but here is one I particularly like:

And so, in developing this block, I wanted to showcase the wheat, the rainbow, and the year of our statehood. And the rainbow is so free that I also wanted it to symbolize a sunset. To make your own Kansas block, you can download the instructions here.

OK, so it's giveaway time! Up first, I have a set of 8 fat quarters from American Made Brand and Clothworks!

And second, a little Kansas giveaway from me with some souvenirs, a set of 5 of my quilt patterns (if you don't like to quilt, just let me know. We can switch them to clothing patterns or bag patterns!), 10 "Handmade with Love" sew-in labels, and a little set of 4 cards with envelopes from my painting.

And finally, all of the leftover bits of 50 solids from American Made Brand and Clothworks! Actually theses are mostly pretty large, so enjoy.

There you go, three winners. All you have to do is leave me a comment on this blog post. If you are a "no-reply blogger" please leave an e-mail address so that I can contact you. The giveaway is open until 6/16/14 and I will draw 3 winners on 6/17/14.

Thanks so much for visiting Kansas with me!

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

Love,

xoxo