moda blog hoppety hop & giveaway!

the moda designer blog hop theme this time around is all about the places we live, and as usual i've rambled on, so i hope you enjoy!

me! hiding my bingo wings on the hottest day of the year

if you're new to this blog, hello, my name is lucie summers (generally known as lu) and i live on a farm with my farmer husband and 2 boys, an anti social ginger cat and a fairly scruffy looking chicken in suffolk which is in east anglia - if you can picture a map of the UK, the bit that sticks out to the right like a big round bum - well, that's east anglia and i live roughly in the middle of it. i'm a pattern designer and a screen printer and i also design for moda - my new line, 'summersville sping' is due out in february. 

i live in a tiny little village (pop: 550) that has one pub and one hotel and NOTHING else so you have to go a little further afield to do anything at all...shopping, eating out, going to the cinema...it's all a car journey away.

the village pub

i grew up in a small town called mildenhall which is 2 miles from the village where i live now. it is mostly famous for its US air base. it has the largest runway in europe (i think!) and after the opening ceremony of the london olympics the other week, michelle obama flew home from there. when i was a kid, mildenhall air base was host to the largest airshow in europe, but after 9/11 it was stopped for security reasons. although we live quite rurally, the base can be seen over the river across the fields from my back door. i've grown up with sounds of aircraft over my head!

mildenhall is also famous for the mildenhall to melbourne air race that took place in 1934. it was a huge deal back then with all the glamourous 'flying stars' of the era taking part, it's worth looking up on google, there are some amazing stories. my brother nick is obsessed with it and collects air race memorabilia, he's become quite the expert and curated an exhibition for the local museum a few years ago. my favourite story is about the lady who asked to travel on board a bi-plane to visit australia and spent the entire time knitting! 

poster for the air race

in 1942, the mildenhall treasure was unearthed by a farmer in a field. It was the biggest ever treasure trove found at the time and there was all sorts of controversy over it.  roald dahl wrote a brilliant kids book about it with amazing illustrations by ralph steadman. definitely worth a look.

piece of treasure!

roald dahl's book

nobody except my closest friends know what i do for a living. if people at the school gates ever ask they usually say stuff like "ohhhhh, my mum likes scrap booking" (?) or "my friend is really crafty!" or they ask me to put a new zip in their jeans. sigh.

win some summersville. but not the random horse, he's mine :)

i hope you've enjoy hearing about my hometown...now i'd like to hear about yours! & so i've got a giveaway for you - to win a fat quarter bundle of my entire original 'summersville' line all you need to do is tell me whereabouts in the world you live and what your hometown is called. this giveaway is open to anyone anywhere so get commenting :) and remember to keep on hoppin'!

visit today's other blog hop designer, COTTON WAY  then the rest of the hop is as follows:

sept. 12
KANSAS TROUBLES, MALKA DUBRAWSKY and LAUNDRY BASKET QUILTS

sept. 13
KATHY SCHMITZ, SWEETWATER and V AND CO.

sept. 14
MINICK & SIMPSON, Jenn Ski and ZEN CHIC
prizes are announced on each blog and winners chosen on sept 15th so remember to come back and check to see if you've won. you will also want to stop by moda's blog the Cutting Table  all throughout the hop. 

good luck!

don't worry if you don't have any luck in the prize draw, everyone is a winner because to celebrate the hop moda are providing a block pattern that can be created using the latest moda precut, the 21/2" mini charm pack. 

download the PDF by clicking here

thanks so much for visiting, i hope you enjoyed it :)