Ho! Ho! Ho!

Here is the first block from the Sew Happy Sewalong that I joined last week.

Isn't he great?  I love him and am looking forward to next Friday's pattern now.

Like I really, really need ...

... another project.

I've just joined this stitchalong, that I first found out about from Janet. There will be a new pattern every Friday for 8 weeks, and they are just so gorgeous that I had to join in.  I've downloaded the first one and plan to get stitching this evening.  To get there, just click on the button on my sidebar.

The winner ...

... of the Quilt Block Scramble from Saturday's QAL is

I apologise for not posting this on Tuesday, like I said, but this week has just run away with me somehow.  Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just me?

Because I asked you to email me with the answers, each entry was numbered as it came in, and number 8 is Lynda.

Thanks everyone who entered, I know one or two of the answers were tricky, and I did deliberately mislead you with my scrambled version of Anvil but I hope you enjoyed it anyway.  Just wait till it's my turn to host again, I've just thought of a really fiendish difficult  tricky fun contest.

Now I'm off to lie down cos my back's gone again.  Ouch.

For Sale ...

... I have a few copies of my book available for sale.

If you would like a copy and can't find one locally, just email me with your name and address and I will let you know the cost, including postage.  To make it easy, I have a PayPal account, so can be paid in £s, $s, Lunars (that's the currency they use on the moon you know) or almost any other currency you can name.

Here it is ...

... my version of Scatty Christmas Stars

Christmas QAL Post 6

Can you unscramble these 20 block names?

Just email your answers to me before Monday night, and I will use Mr Random-Generator to draw the winner of a small prize on Tuesday.

1. FPuoacrth
2. LgoaiCbn
3. LmoSenreyta
4. J'Lsodecbadar
5. Navli
6. FsnaehiirtpSdr
7. FlysigeneGe
8. IaisrChhin
9. BwoiTe
10. DldiedRguonWbeing
11. hoOSaitr
12. ActtnidiWow
13. oeWMnykhrenc
14. CurhDsnah
15. DedsePrlnate
16. MiaanmCsr'orpess
17. DdnaParrut'ksh
18. FeahttderSear
19. StoeAmtSra
20. CridarTck

Christmas QAL Post 6

Did you know

• The famous Illustrated News etching in 1848, featuring the Royal Family of Victoria, Albert and their children gathered around a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle, popularized the tree throughout Victorian England and the USA..  
• According to legend, a kindly nobleman grew despondent over the death of his beloved wife and foolishly squandered his fortune. This left his three young daughters without dowries and thus facing a life of spinsterhood.  The generous St. Nicholas, hearing of the girls' plight, set forth to help. Wishing to remain anonymous, he rode his white horse by the nobleman's house and threw three small pouches of gold coins down the chimney where they were fortuitously captured by the stockings the young women had hung by the fireplace to dry.
• The ancient Celtics believed mistletoe to have magical healing powers and used it as an antidote for poison, infertility, and to ward of evil spirits. 

Christmas QAL Post 5

Here I am again.  My day has been somewhat derailed because we have DGS1 and 2, (the Professor and Chatterbox), here for a sleepover tonight and Chatterbox keeps wanting my computer!  We've now had dinner and I've got my stars sorted out and 3 of the outer borders now on.  I will add the 4th in a minute, but there won't be any pics until I press it tomorrow.  I'm going back to stitching snowmen for the rest of the evening.

I'll be back in about an hour with a quiz for you.

Christmas QAL Post 4

Let's play a game shall we?

It's called "spot the odd one out"

I told you brain wasn't working today.

Christmas QAL Post 3

It's time for one of these ...

and some of this ...

Christmas QAL Post 2

So, I decide to be clever.

I decide I want to put little star blocks in the corners of my Scatty Christmas Stars border.  What a good idea.  Well, it would be, if only I could get my brain in gear and cut the pieces the right size.  I'm off now to see if it's 3rd time lucky.  Wish me luck.

Christmas QAL Post 1

Oops, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date, as the White Rabbit said.

It's 9am here in the UK and I'm only just posting the Linky thing which you will find by going to the top of the blog and clicking on the 2011 Christmas QAL tab.

I have to decide what I am going to work on today, but I'll do that while I'm showering, flicking a duster around, putting washing in the machine and deciding on what to have for for dinner tonight.

See you later everyone.

Christmas Quiltalong ...

... tomorrow.  I am the host.  I hope you'll be joining me?

Help me if you ca-a-an ...

.... In the words of the Beatles song (thanks Lynn) "Won't you please, please help me"?  Why do I need help? Simple.  I am feeling this overwhelming urge to make one of these

 (in four colours only, of course), but deep in my heart I know I'm mad.  So, can anyone please talk me out of this?

By the way, who's remembered what's happening on Saturday?  Yes, it's Christmas Quiltalong day.  Is it me, or are they coming round more often than once a month?

What an idiot ...

... I am.  Fancy going to a quilt show without a camera.  So this is a picture-less post, sorry.

OK, so I couldn't make myself do a post without at least one picture!
I set off this morning to the Great Northern Quilt Show.  Last year I missed this show as I was away on a steam train, so I had been really looking forward to this.  It opened at 10 am, but I deliberately planned to be there for about 11, so the queues for the car park, ticket office, etc, had all died down.  I was home again by 1.30 - and it's a 45 minute journey. 


This show has been going downhill each year, and in my opinion this year was smaller than ever!  I walked round the quilts twice and didn't see anything that stopped me in my tracks.  I walked round the traders twice and struggled to spend any money.  I met some friends and we had a drink and a gossip, then I met them again at lunch time so we went for another drink.  Then I met some more and we sat and had a chat.  So it was a good time but so disappointing.  Talking to my friends, I wasn't the only one who felt like this.


There were some quilts there that were technically very clever, but just not to my taste.  I did eventually manage to spend some money.  I bought 5 metres each of a white and a cream tone-on-tone cos they're always useful for backgrounds, and I bought a new rotating cutting mat since I left mine in the sun one day last year, and it re-shaped itself (ever tried cutting accurately on a wavey cutting mat?) but there was nothing else that insisted on following me home.  I think when I got home so early and without hundred's of bags weighing me down, that Mr Fixit was worried that I was ill!

It's over ...

... the blog hop is finished.

I hope you've enjoyed the trip as much as I have.  I must thank all the hostesses on our tour, they are the people who really worked hard to make this trip such fun, thank you.  Thank you to everyone for coming along with us too.Without all of you, this would have been rather a pointless journey.

You still have time to enter some of the giveaways, but you'd better hurry as a couple of them close today, so if you would like to win an autographed copy of Pick Four, here are the places to go:

• Insights from SewCalGal (giveaway open until Sun 4 Sep) 
•  Sew'n Wild Oaks (giveaway open until Sat 3 Sep)
•  Sweet P Quilting (giveaway open until Sat 3 Sep)
• Quilting Prolifically (giveaway open until Sun 4 Sep)
• Cotton Cocktails (giveaway open until Sun 4 Sep)

Now I'm going to take off my tour guide's uniform and put my feet up!

Day 10 of Pick Four blog hop

There's something wrong with the dates on my blog.  So today really is Friday 2 September, not Thursday.  Maybe Blogger was enjoying our tour so much he didn't want it to end?  


Sadly it is the last day of our tour today. We are off to Yorkshire to visit QuiltHaze, and she has the last copy of Pick Four to give away.

QuiltHaze is a very talented quilt artist, and I'm sure you will enjoy meeting her and seeing some of her work.  She is also about to embark on a new venture as a quilt teacher, and I would like to wish her luck in that - I know she'll be fabulous.


Now, while we take the last journey of our trip, I'd like to tell you something about Yorkshire.

• Famous novelists such as J B Priestley, Alan Bennett and Barbara Taylor Bradford all come from Yorkshire. 
• James Herriot wrote about his experiences as a Yorkshire vet, in  All Creatures Great and Small, which later became a very popular TV series.  In the books, he was based in Darrowby, which is actually the town of Thirsk.
• Two well known sculptors, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and the painter David Hockney all came from this area.
• Yorkshire is famed as the home of the brass band, one of the most noteable being the Black Dyke Brass Band.
• Yorkshire pudding is probably the best known Yorkshire food.  It is usually eaten with roast beef and vegetables as part of the traditional Sunday roast dinner.

I'd just like to finish by showing our tour itinerary again, so that you can revisit any of our previous hosts and don't forget that some of them still have the giveaway open.

• Wed 24 Aug    -      Hazel's Quilts (giveaway won by Janet)
• Thurs 25 Aug   -     Quilt Hollow (giveaway won by Kristen)
• Fri 26 Aug       -     Silver Thimble (giveaway won by Grendelskin)
• Saturday          -     Magnolia Bay Quilts (giveaway won by Happy Cottage Quilter)
• Sun 28 Aug       -    Bejewelled Quilts by Barb (giveaway won by Linda TN)
• Mon 29 Aug      -    Insights from SewCalGal (giveaway open until Sun 4 Sep) 
• Tues 30 Aug      -   Sew'n Wild Oaks (giveaway open until Sat 3 Sep)
• Wed 31 Aug      -    Sweet P Quilting (giveaway open until Sat 3 Sep)
• Today                -    Quilting Prolifically (giveaway open until Sun 4 Sep)
• Today      -   Cotton Cocktails

I'm sure you'd like to join me in thanking Little Person for being such a great driver on this last leg of our journey. Thank you so much for choosing to travel with me, I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as I did.