Giveaway entries ...

 

 ... I have replied to every entry that I can for this giveaway, so, if you have not had a reply from me, it means that you are a no-reply blogger who did not leave me an email address either.  PLEASE leave another comment if you have not heard from me, otherwise I will have to re-draw if your name comes up.

The giveaway is open unti lmidnight tonight, so you still have time to enter here to try and win a copy of Schnibbles Times Two.  I will announce the winner tomorrow, so good luck everyone.

Cooee .... Giveaway here ...

This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to everyone who entered.  The winner can be found here.
... I'm still here, even though I've been quiet this week.  There's not been much any quilting going on in QuiltTimes-land  so to make up for it, I've been reading about quilting.  I've had a couple of quilt magazines to read, and this book:

This is such a clever book, as there are 12 quilt designs, and you could choose to make a small version with 5" sqares, or a larger one using 10" squares - just perfect for either charm packs or layer cakes. Here are my favourite quilts

When you open this book, you will immediately find that it is actually a very readable one.  The author, Carrie Nelson, has a great writing style and her sense of humour comes through on almost every page.  I would love to meet her some day, as she does not seem to take either life, or herself, too seriously.  As you read the book you will find yourself laughing over and over again as she tells you something about herself, or how she named a design and so on.  I will say that the instructions for each quilt are very clear with lots of great diagrams too, and the first chapter, which is called "Puzzles, Pests and other Probably Not-So-Important Stuff" is full of useful hints, tips and techniques.

Now I can offer one of you the chance to win a copy of this book, thanks to Martingale and Company.  All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post before midnight GMT on Thursday 31 March, and I will use the random-thingy to draw a winner on 1 April.  Please make sure though that I can get in touch with you if you win.  If you are set as a "no-reply" blogger, or if you do not have a blog, please make sure you put an email adress in your comment.

Look what I've found ......

Yep, MY BOOK.  It's now on Amazon, together with pictures of the projects and a great summary of the book.  It's also on Martingale's website, here. 

Do you want to know the funny side of this?  I didn't even know it was on either site until Tessie's Mum told me about Amazon and then Kim told me it was also on Martingale's site .....

Now, how does the song go? 

I'm so excited

And I just can't hide it .....

Help Japan - Win this quilt.

I am sure we have all been moved by the tragedies that have hit Japan in the past week.  Well, Mary is making a most generous offer to raise funds for the people suffering in Japan.  She is offering you the chance to win the gorgeous quilt above if you make a donation to the Red Cross (for relief efforts in Japan).

Please consider entering her giveaway, here, and you could soon be the lucky owner of the quilt she made.

Why DID we call it ....

.... Scatty Christmas Stars?

Well, are you sitting comfortably?  Good, then I'll tell you a little story.

Once upon a time there were two scatterbrained quilters called Sue and Cathi who decided it would be a good idea to design a quilt which could be made during their Christmas Quiltalong days.  So they got together, thanks to the wonders of modern science over the internet, and designed a quilt with stars scattered around on it.  Sue and Cathi really hoped that other quilters, who were scattered around the world, would like their design and want to join in and make their version.

As for the "Christmas" and "Stars", well, I don't think I need to explain them.

Since you were all partly right, but no-one was completely, I decided you all deserved to go into a draw, so I talked to Mr Random.org and asked him to choose a number between 1 and 17, and the number he chose was .......

and number 7 is ....  

Trudi. 

Trudi, I'm sure I have your address somewhere, but just to make sure, please could you email me again?  

Now I'd better go and decide what the prize is!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and to everyone who took part in this month's Christmas Quiltalong.  Don't forget, the next Christmas Quiltalong will be on the second Saturday in April, and will be hosted by Cathi.

Night, night ...

Post 7

It's now just about 10pm here, and I've been up since 5, so I'm signing off now.  I hope you all enjoy the rest of the party, but son't stay up to late, and don't have the music up too loud.

Thank you all for coming today, I'll come visiting you all tomorrow.

I i i i i t's ...

Post 6
... competition time.

 Not a quiz this time, something a bit different.

As you know,this is  the Quiltalong quilt, which is called  Scatty Christmas Stars.  So what I want to know is, why did we call it that?

Leave a comment on this post with your theories (serious or funny) as to how and why it got it's name, and I'll announce the winner on Monday morning.

There will be a small prize for the winner,  (Hmm, note to self:  decide what the prize is going to be.)  So good luck everyone.

What am I going to do now? ....

Post 5

First, I'm going to go and put the dinner on.  A yummy fish pie - not very Christmassy, but yummy all the same.  Then I must make a confession.  I have never actually sat and sewn down the binding on Chocolates for Christmas, or on Christmas Stars, so that's what I'm going to do next.  Together with a good dvd.

Would you believe I saw this film for the first time a couple of months ago?  I know, I know, I can hear you saying "where have you been?" but there we go.  I've seen it now and love it, and think it would be just the thing to watch while I'm binding. 

I'm seeing stars ....

Post 4

 .... no, not because I banged my head, but because I've just made this month's blocks.

Did you like how I staged them with a pretty poinsettia?  Aren't I the artistic one?

A little music ....

Post 3

Don't forget ....

Post 2
... to put your name in Linky-thingy on the Christmas QAL page if you want a copy of the next installment of the Scatty Christmas Stars pattern.

Good morning ....

Post 1

.... all Christmas Quiltalongers, and anyone else who happens to be reading this. Have you got your list of presents all written out for Santa?  No?  Me neither.  Still today we can hopefully help Santa out a little bit by working on our Christmas gifts.  I have put the Linky-thingy on the special Christmas Quiltalong page, so just click on the tab to go and put your name on the list so we can all have some fun visiting each other during the day.  Also I will send out the second part of the Scatty Christmas Stars pattern as soon as possible.

Now I must go and do a little dust-stirring around the house before I can start sewing, but I'll be back soon.

Guess what ....

... day it is on Saturday?  (My background might give you a clue)

Yesterday I was dyeing ...

... when I went to a workshop run by my friend QuiltHaze, from Cotton Cocktails.  Fabric dyeing is something I've always wanted to have a go at, but although  Hazel has run this workshop about 3 times before, she always managed to arrange them on days when I couldn't go.  (Hmm, I wonder if that was deliberate?).  There were 10 of us there, and it was great fun, if messy.

 But this:

 

Leads to this:

 and this:

 which leads to this:

  

(and this is what the colour catchers looked like after I washed the fabrics!)

 In the afternoon we all tried our hands at dyeing silk scarves, and here are some of the group modelling the results:

 and these are the 2 scarves I produced:

I came home very tired (well I had been using my brain, which is not something I'm used to), with very dirty hands, cos I kept forgetting to put my rubber gloves on, but very happy.  I love the results of the fabric dyeing, but I don't think it's something I'd want to do a lot of, but I will definitely do some more silk scarf dyeing.

You can always pop over to Cotton Cocktail's blog to read the story from the point of view of the teacher.