Wednesday 25 January 2012

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday


Does anyone know how to crush walnut shells small enough for pin cushions?


More soon.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Christmas & Birthday Goodies

My Father really is the best!

Katherine Guerrier for Christmas and a £15 Amazon voucher for birthday helped buy Quilting with Style.


A beautiful quilt journal from my friend Pippa


with a beautiful embroidered surprise on the inside,


some lovely trinkets



and some great fabric. 


And a cook book I've been lusting after for ages.


Thanks Mum, Dad and Pippa!

More soon.

Thursday 19 January 2012

Doodling

I'm not feeling very creative at the moment. Everything is piled up in the sewing room and the sewing table has become the family dump table (sigh).

I suppose it's called the January Blue's. Did you know that last Monday is known as Blue Monday (woot! Wikipedia is back)?

Occasionally I get my Liberated Amish quilt out and do a bit of hand quilting, and I've been thinking about the border whilst waiting for my bargain copy of Quilting with Style by Gwen Marston and Joe Cunningham to arrive. I found it second hand on Amazon for £5, plus postage. Bargain!

Anyhow, this is my latest idea.


I think it might work if I can redraw the leaves so they are a bit closer.  Thank goodness for chalk wheel markers. Rub it out and start again.

I also ordered a Hera Marker (which was expensive as I forgot about the postage from the UK. Sssssh don't tell The Old One!).

I like using my chalk wheel marker for doodling, but for straight lines I think I'm veering towards the Marker.

Have you tried using the Pilot Frixion pens for marking fabric?

Courtesy of Google Images

My friend Pippa sent me one to try and I must admit they are brilliant, but I find there is still a faint trace of a line left and all that rubbing tends to loosen the stitches a bit.

So the Hera Marker it is.

Hurry up Mr le facture!

I'll be back as soon as the goodies arrive from the UK. Got some yummy presents from the Christmas and birthday haul to show you.

More soon.

Monday 16 January 2012

We Have a Winner!

But as far as I'm concerned you are all winners!



However, only one person can win the name banner.

That person is


Congratulations Sue!

Let me have your snail mail address as soon as possible.

Thanks everyone for entering. It's been fun.

More soon.

Thursday 12 January 2012

It's Giveaway Day



Today's the day!

Okay - what am I giving away?

Something very special for you.

Remember these?





Would you like one too? Perhaps for you, or a member of your family?

Well, you can win one, but only IF you are a current follower.

You DO NOT need to blog about this.

You DO NOT need to share it on Facebook.

You DO NOT need to friend me on Facebook.

You DO NOT need to tweet this post.

You MUST be a current follower.

Please DO NOT add yourself as a Follower to enter this giveaway. I shall know if you have ;-)

Just leave a comment before midnight on Sunday, the 15th (Paris time (GMT+1)) and I'll draw the name on Monday, the 16th.

Best of luck!

Sunday 8 January 2012

A Rant About Giveaways.

Photo from Google Images


I don't host giveaway's. I'm not really that keen on them, although I will admit to occasionally entering one or two if the giveaway is something I like.

Recently the Quilting Gallery hosted a massive birthday giveaway and I spent 48 hours trawling through blogs. Some of the prizes were amazing.

I started following blogs I'd never heard of and shared the post on Facebook. I didn't link to them from here as that is not in my nature. My blog is for me and my dear blogging friends and I don't like advertising someone's blog, unless I like the work they do and want to share it.


Do you know what!

I didn't win a thing - nothing - rien - nada!


A blogging/Facebook/quilting friend has just shared an Aurifil Threads giveaway on Facebook and I thought you might like to read my comment

"Given up entering giveaways. It makes my blood boil having to jump through hoops. Leave a comment, then become a follower and leave another comment, then share it on FB and Twitter and leave comments that you've done both, then blog about it and come back to tell me you have, giving me the link, then come back AGAIN to tell me you've all of that twice. Oh and don't forget to "like' the giveaway page and then blog, tweet, FB about that too! and don't forget to tell me you've done that as well. After all that I could have sewn about 6 blocks and then I never win!"

However, I'm about to eat my words here!

I've noticed that my Followers list has recently shot up to 98 (it was 99 last week but someone obviously decided they were getting bored LOL).

So - IF, and I mean IF, my Followers hit the 100 mark I will host a simple, no jumping through hoops, giveaway for my loyal Followers only.

What will it be? Ah ha! You'll have to wait and see.

More soon.


Sunday 1 January 2012

How Did I Do?

Way back in November 2010 I got caught on the hop by that wicked woman, Finn at Pieces from my Scrapbag.

You may remember I pledged to make 9 quilts by 15 March 2011. By February I decided that I would be unable to meet my pledge and extended the date to 31st December.

So how did I do?

Well. The last quilt made 2010 was Quilt #29, made by a quilting friend on Facebook for a boy in Canada.

By the end of January I'd added another 3 to the list, but was beginning to feel a bit swamped by what I had taken on.

Tracey stepped with a gorgeous red and white string quilt with UnRuly letters and we were up to 4 in 2 months!


She certainly gave me a boost.

Then Finn chipped in, followed closely by Ann in France with a gorgeous Irish Chain quilt, bringing the total up to 6.

Carol E produced another masterpiece and lovely Siobhan broke her own record by actually starting and finishing a quilt within a few weeks.

By now I was completely overwhelmed and beginning to lose count of how many quilts were being made all over the world. They were coming in so thick and fast I couldn't update the blog quick enough and sadly it is still out of date.

However, as at 11th December 2011 the grand total was 13 quilts and thanks to everyone we managed to give 12 children some happiness in 2011.

With regard to the great masterpiece, Strawberries & Cream, which is Quilt  #40, I'm still waiting to hear what's going to happen to it.


Michelle Mobley went back to her native GA, USA for Christmas and the New Year and I hoping when she returns to the UK she'll start organising the auction/raffle. I'll let you know what happens.

So that's it! 13 quilts in a year. Phew!  So many thanks to all the lovely people who made quilts so I could reach my goal and, most of all to Finn and Michele for cheering me on behind the scenes.

Now - would you like to read about how other people did in 2011?

Lily at Lily's Quilts has asked other quilters to review what they achieved.

Fresh Sewing Day

Hop over see what other quilters have done. There are some gorgeous quilts.

Here's to 2012 and a lot more red and white quilts!

More soon.