Happy New Year!!


May you all sail into new adventures in the New Year under lucky stars.

The Green is gone!

The photos are still not up to scratch due to the dull weather and artificial light.... but here is a photo I took in October when I bought the fabrics and they were still on the bolt...

aren't the colours rich and gorgeous?? I have added the creams and greens of course but have no other better pic of those.

Thank you Jo, Susan, Karen and Terrie for all your input. Much appreciated! I will move things around again I think Karen, you are right. But for now I have taken the green out and replaced it with three other colours;


I have put the coral in, which is a gorgeous fabric from Oakshot. You cannot see it here very clearly but it has a very subtle strip in it that changes with the light. I have always loved these fabrics but never really used them yet.

I am about half way in sewing the pieced triangles now. Once I have done them all I will shuffle them about and get the best placement. The solid cloth triangles inbetween are all going to be the same fabric (5th from the top in the first photo).

For now it looks like this;

The olive green now jumps out more together with the coral but I think overal it blends better together now...

Still, the second finished triangle from the left is more the look I am going for but I think that once the spaces inbetween are filled in with the red fabric it would drown in just those colours so it will be good to have the cremes/greens and coral in... you guys agree?

Sorry again for the bad photo quality... here's hoping for nice sunny weather!

Oh and Susan... I have a pattern... so I follow it! that's the easy part... the stuff you are doing in making patterns up ... now THAT is hard!

As I said though in the last post... none of it would have been possible without learning the basics in such a wonderful way. I REALLY could not have done without all Dana's fantastic tutorials..

If you are at all unsure about patterns like this..and on how to make a quilt..... here are all her lovely tutorials;

Supplies You Will Need

Cutting Instructions

Sewing Your Blocks

Assembling Your Quilt Top

How To Free Motion Quilt

Binding Your Quilt

Reproduced here with kind permission from Dana! Thank you very much Dana, these have been my lifeline!

The Beach House - Giveaway

I came across a giveaway for this absolutely beautiful fabric...



I couldn't tell you about it better than the Oz Material Girls themselves (whose giveaway it is) so here is the description in their own words;

"At The Oz Material Girls we are always excited to bring our sewers and crafters newly released products and this one is BRAND NEW, it has not even been released in the US yet!

We are pleased to introduce Robyn Pandolph’s latest range, The Beach House. Typical of her soft, romantic designs, The Beach House fabrics showcase a gorgeous selection of roses and blenders in soft pastel tones.

These fabrics inspire thoughts of waking up in a shabby chic French hotel with crisp white linens, a sumptuous feather filled pillow and a beautiful handmade floral quilt, and we think our quilter followers will fall in love with them. They are also suitable for other craft, appliqué, home decorating, cushions and bags."

I just love this range... it might be the perfect antidote to the warm maroons of winter to sew with in spring!

The Next Project....

Ever since I have bought that stack of red fabric at the craft fair... I have been dying to start on it!

The fabrics are a mixture but mainly by Judie Rothermel. The collection is inspired by The Old Sturbridge Village Collection (for Marcus Brothers) so I read on the selvedge, and they look very beautiful and richly coloured.

The pattern (lying next to the fabrics) is from the Popular Patchwork September 09 and called Stone Cottage Comforter.

My excuses for the poor photo quality.. a dreary day here with rain and it didn't make for very good photos...

I have cut out most of the squares and triangles, but am finding (yet again... this is rail fence revisited!) that I do not like the darkest green in there...

What do you think ??


There are 3 greens in the quilt. The dark olive, the light olive and the very dark christmas tree like one with fleur the lis on. I think I will have to take that one out....

As you can see I have started assembling the colours together and sewn up some of the triangles, about a quarter on the way on the pieced triangles now....

There is a LOT of matching up seams... So THANK YOU again to DANA for teaching me how to do that in her tutorial on her Old Red Barn Co site. I had some practice on the Irish quilt and that really is standing me in good stead now as the pieces are much much smaller...

Irish Flood Relief quilt top finished.


Today I finished the quilt top for the Irish Flood Relief (see couple of posts back..). I made it a priority as the sooner it gets to the very nice people at Irish Quilting Magazine, the better!

A big HURRAH to them and Rachel for organising it all. I hope they get many blocks and tops sent to them.

I will wrap it and send it straight away tomorrow.

A Very Merry Christmas

to all my friends and readers.

Thank you for visiting my blog and being such good friends. I love each and every comment and the support you have all given me over the last year.

I wish you all happy festive days and a very good New Year!

May we all happily stitch and sew together!

Quilts for Ireland



Rachel from PS I Quilt, has joined forces with the Irish Quilting Magazine.

Do you you remember the awful rains and the nasty flooding in the UK in November? Ireland was very hard hit too and a lot of people lost a lot in the floods....

It seems a long time ago now everyone is talking about the snow.. but though for some it might be 'yesterday's news', for those affected the aftermath is all to real ! (and not in a very nice way....).

The action therefore has been set up to send a block or a block or two to either Rachel (if you are in the US) or directly to the magazine (Irish Quilting) if you are in the UK or Ireland. Read all about it on Rachel's blog HERE.

Rachel has a wonderful tutorial on her blog for the suggested disappearing nine patch block. I will not do one but just refer you to here HERE!!

Just a few photos of how my block is getting together................
sew together;
cut through the middle;

turn two bits around;and sew together again...

to have this effect with more blocks together!
Rachel is asking who has time to make a block? Lots of quilts are allready being distributed !
See Rachels update HERE!

Maybe you have some time over the holidays?

The Postman came again!

In spite of the icy pavements, the postman managed to deliver some mail to our house and I was excited to find another little parcel!!


It was from Jo in Edinburgh... She had set me a little challenge, which was to guess which famous person was living in the house, a photo of which she posted...

I got it right!! (you want to play? check out her fabulous tour of where she lives... introducing blackford and morningside... and have a guess....) and she sent me a lovely handmade crochet broach with a handmade label attached.

Thanks Jo ! It is great and I will wear it with pride!

Jo and her husband have a shop in Edinburgh (which is also in the tour) as well as a shop in Glasgow and they are selling the most fabulous kitchens, furniture and homeware. If you want to have a look... HERE ... is the link!

I will certainly stop by if in Edinburgh Jo! Thanks for getting me a little surprise!

Lovely Irish Giveaway!

Quick go to Micki's blog Irish Muses.... She has put together a lovely giveaway with all things Irish.....
There is in the package (6 points copied from Micki's blog);

1. A Belleek China Santa...If you want to see the Beleek Living site, click here to show you all the beautiful china made in Ireland.

2. Odd Irish socks with shamrocks

3. Butlers Irish Cream Truffle Chocolate.....Here is the link to our very tasty handmade Irish chocolate.

4. Irish Colleen Doll with shamrocks too....How cute is she!

5. Christmas copy of The Irish Quilting Magazine

6. A lovely postcard which I will write something special on which shows pics of the thatched cottages in Ireland.... There are thatched cottages all over Ireland, but Adare has the most in its pretty, wee village...If you come here, you will have to see this village.

Last but not least, whether you are entering or not, do visit Micki's blog and have a look around. It is a lovely place to visit and I am sure you will not regret it!

Snow!!

I woke up this morning... looked out of the window....


and what did I see?


SNOW!!!!!

and LOTS of it!!!! Now we hardly ever get snow... so this is exciting stuff... and it seems as well as beautiful, largely disruptive!


The bus is allready stuck in our road (been there for half an hour, in spite of neighbour boys with spades gritting in front of the wheels.....)

and who has been padding in the backyard ????

A surprise Christmas parcel !

Some mail does get through to my house !! YAY!!! I got a lovely surprise parcel from my bloggy friend Evelyn of Use the Loot.


She is a dynamo once she starts making things and I am amazed and awed at all the quilts she makes for charity like project Linus. Not to mention the fantastic finds she makes at yardsales and then spreads to love by sharing her good fortune with us all!

Thank you Evelyn, for your friendship through the year and this amazing Moleskin notebook. I just LOVE the cover (as I think I told you before... ahum....) and I am so glad to be the proud owner of it now. I love that blue and beige together.

I have amongst my good intentions to start a quilters notebook to carry around and make notes of ideas I see. Just never got round to it... so this will be it!!

Thanks you so much. It is lovely!

ps... lovely tute on tote bags on Evelyn's blog now with a special incentive... check it out!!

Giveaway - The Results!

The giveaway is now closed for entries and what a wonderful response there was!

Just in case you missed any of it.... 5 people took up the challenge of posting where they live.

Three of them posted truly remarkable extensive tours!! If you have missed them, go have a look! Thank you so much Jo, Catherine and Lauranie! Your indepth tours and wonderful photography are a true delight. Thank you for taking so much of your time to show us round. I thoroughly enjoyed the photos and descriptions and hope my readers did too!

Jo over on Bearpaw's blog has written a fantastic superb post on Edinburgh in Scotland.
Introducing Blackford and Morningside

Catherine of The Sewing Attic has taken us on a tour of Whangamata in New Zealand. 'My corner of the World'

Lauranie of This is Sew my Life has posted a tour around Lafayette, Louisiana "Lafayette... my kinda town".

2 of the entrants posted a shorter account;

Karen of Badland's blog, had allready posted some pictures on the Selvadge blog
Badlands' Karen on the Selvadge blog and directed us there

On Brenna's blog you can find some pictures of the lake near which she lives.

Thanks to you Karen and Brenna too. It did give us a snapshot of where you live (or used to, in Karen's case) and both the Badlands and the Lake look breathtakingly beautiful!

So if you haven't yet... visit these 5 ladies, the trip is definitely worth it!!

(I also have been promised some more tours by bloggy friends who currently have no time... what a time to reach your 100th post... just before Christmas... I couldn't have timed it worse... but thank you those who are doing a tour in the New Year. I am really looking forward to seeing where you live !!)


Now onto the draw.....
I did have a little help but unfortunately he couldn't quite manage to fish out the paper with his paw! So he supervised while we did the draw ourselves....

Without further ado...

Moda Jelly roll goes too...... Catherine of the Sewing Attic
Canvas Panel............. Lauranie , This is Sew my Life
Notebook to........... Susan, Flossieblossoms
Sewing holder........ Jo of Sewjo on Flickr (not sure about a blog)
Halforsen Panel.......... DeeRoo of DeeRoo Designs
and another Halforsen Panel...........Karen, Badlands blog


Congratulations everyone!!

Please send me your mail address and I will get the goodies out to you. They will not get there before Christmas. I probably will send them out at the end of the week (mad busy week for me too... not even started on Christmas yet... no tree, no present buying, making... nothing....) and with the delay of the Christmas post it will be between Christmas and the New Year. Still, I suppose nice to look forward to when all the Christmas excitement has died down?

It is no surprise that those with the extra entries (who also did all the extra work!) had a bigger chance of winning. This seems to be reflected in the results even though only half of all prices went to a "tour entry". I had rather hoped one of the prizes would have gone to Jo however, who gave up her one day off from work a week, to go around Edinburgh and take pictures for my challenge... It is amazing her name did not get pulled out of the hat but that is the luck of the draw....

However, to show my appreciation for the extreme effort she has gone to, I have decided to add a little something to the prizepool and will put it in the post. So send me your address Jo, and an envelope will fall on your doormat.

Thank you to all who have taken part and in particular those who have done tours. I really enjoyed hosting this giveaway.

Up to the next 100 and hoping you all still be with me and many new friends besides!

Nicolette's Goodies arrived!

In the middle of having my own giveaway, Nicolette's parcel arrived. She had wrapped all the little presents lovingly and separately and taken such care over the parcel!

Not only did I find the beautiful Lecien Cosmo Multi Work Threads I expected, she also made me a lovely heart ornament/pincushion and enclosed a little pink bracelet that supports breast cancer research (it has little charms on it and the enclosed leaflet says you have to tie it on and wait till it falls off and then make 3 wishes. If you do this they come true!),a nice card and ... last but not least... Haagse Hopjes!

These Dutch boiled sweets are named for the city Nicolette lives in (The Hague, or in Dutch, Den Haag) and have a coffee flavour. They are in my top 5 of best sweets ever and of course only available in Holland so I don't get them very often!

Lucky me! Thank you so much Nicolette. I have so enjoyed receiving your parcel and thanks for enclosing all the extras.

Giveaway Update... Still time to enter!

(Update again within this post at the end - 7 Dec- Whangamata New Zealand)
(New update Dec 8 Lafayette... see end of the post)


Thank you all for your entries into my giveaway!

I am absolutely delighted to report that Jo over on Bearpaw's blog has taken up the challenge and written a fantastic superb post on where she lives!

Beautiful photos and extensive text. She has put in every effort and I highly recommend a visit to go and see Introducing Blackford and Morningside to have a birdseye view (literally too!) of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Thanks Jo for taking the trouble. I really enjoyed your tour! (mega extra points have been added!)

Karen of Badland's blog, has also directed me to some pictures of where she used to live in the Badlands (although she has since moved). Lovely country scenes to be found here;
Badlands' Karen on the Selvadge blog

On Brenna's blog you can find some pictures of the lake near which she lives and she tells us a bit about it.

Thanks to Karen and Brenna too for posting the pics.

The giveaway is still open. Both for 'normal' entries and the extra awards for the "Where I Live" tour. I'd love to see some more coming up! You have another week to go and grab your camera. I have been promised another few posts (won't say yet... it will be a surprise) and will be updating as more stories come in !

GO for it guys! Loved your story Jo! Can't wait for more entries to come in!

Dec 7 update:
Another most fabulous entry has come in!! Just look at the amazing post Catherine of The Sewing Attic has put together! Cycling way up the hill to get us stunning vistas of Whangamata in New Zealand where she lives. Go visit her post 'My corner of the World' you won't regret it!

Thank you so much Catherine for giving us such a great look into where you live! Fabulous...

Guys ... I'm sooo excited about this! Really looking forward to another one!!! Who's next ?? (and all extra entries don't forget!!)

Dec 8 update:
The lovely Lauranie has posted a tour around the town she lives...: "Lafayette... my kinda town". She is taking us around Lafayette, it's churches, christmas lights, bridges, university and swamp with real crocodiles... brrrr.... Worth a look... go go go ... NOW...

Thanks you so much Lauranie! A fantastic tour.. This is so brilliant!!

100th Post and Giveaway !!

Hey everyone! My 100th post !!!

(photo found in a forumthread, it's not mine.., if you know whose it is please mail me and I will give them credit gladly)

Who would have thought I'd get to 100... and so quickly! Certainly not me!! When I started blogging I didn't know how to get past the first few as I thought I did not have anything to say.... (or to show....).

The difference with now is staggering! Looking back and taking stock I can see how I built up more confidence in my posts. Not in the least due to all you lovely peeps commenting and supporting me!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to each and every one who has ever commented, emailed, encouraged, helped and cheered me up when I was down. It has been a fantastic first 100 and I am thankful for the good friends I have made online, the great support they have given me and the wonderful things they so generously send!

On the quilting front I have also improved and especially Dana and The Old Red Barn Co Quilting Group have made such a difference! I have moaned, they have put up with it and given me tireless and loving advice. I know so much more now!! I'm looking forward to rejoining the collective quilting effort. A fantastic group. Thanks all so much guys in there, especially the regulars, you know who you are ! (I'm not going to list for fear of missing someone! there are too many anyway....)

As a thank you for all your support I have put together the following, which is what you all want to know about:

THE GIVEAWAY:


THE PRIZES:

First prize:

A Moda Jellyroll - Shangri-La

Second Prize;
A heavy canvas panel, suitable for panel in a tote or cushion.


Third Prize;
a Notebook and cover (this is just the one, front and back seen here)


Fourth Prize;
a small holder for little notions

Fifth and Sixth Prize;
a Nancy Halforsen Panel with 8 small squares depicting 'Love Is'.


HOW IS THIS GIVEAWAY ORGANISED?

Anyone is welcome to enter and gets one point (one chance) for a comment. I will print them, cut them up and stick them in a jar (not really a spreadsheet girl or software engineer.... so more of a hands on affair this time).

Extra points (and chances) can be earned by telling me about where you live as explained below.

All my followers can get one extra chance for following me, just make a separate comment to say you are a follower and actually still following (some of you are awfully quiet!)

All my regular commenters will get extra points commensurate with how often they have commented. You can see how it is much easier for me to print and cut than do a course in computer sofware.. I will add comments as they come in!

So......


WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

1) leave me a comment for one chance to win. preferably something I would like to read, like who you are, which crafts you like to do, something funny that happened today... which prize you particularly like... Anything rather than 'Pick Me!'.

2) leave me a separate comment if you do the following....;

You can earn 10 (that's right TEN!!) extra chances if you read my previous post on 'Introducing Ramsgate' and do a similar post on YOUR blog (leaving me a link) showing me where YOU live. It doesn't need to be a book... just a few photos and lines to show us around and give us a flavour of your surroundings. It would be GREAT to get to know you! (and I give you ten extra because I know it's a bit of a job... but it would be super if you could....)

(On this option you only have to leave one comment, I will read your entry and automatically add 10 chances to the jar.)

3) if you are a follower, give me a separate comment saying so and your extra point gets added.

4) if you are a regular commenter, your extra points for commenting are allready in the jar... there is a bit of a leaguetable on this (I have gone back and read and counted each and every comment) and the regular peeps are sticking out way above everybody else!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to each and everyone of you. It is a privilige to have the opportunity to know you all and join you in all the fun we have online!

The giveaway will stay open till Saturday 12 December, to give you all a chance to get that camera out and snap away in your town! (or wood, or beach... etc etc...:-)

Last but not least; GOOD LUCK!!!

Update: Make sure you leave me a way to contact you! If I have no blog or mail address I cannot reach you !