It's bronken ...

... as Chatterbox used to say.  According to him we also ate chinken.  Don't you just love the words that children use?  We have quite a few that we still use in our family.  Mrs Nomad, for example, used to refer to elbells instead of elbows, and shomin bags rather than shopping bags.

Anyway, I'm digressing.  You are all agog to know what is bronken, aren't you?

This is my poor PCQuilter, which no longer works.  This is the robot that Big Bertha sits on, and it drives her around my quilt so she can work her magic on it.  Anyway, I finished quilting Friendship Chains and then put another quilt on the frame.  I told the PCQuilter what to do, and it just refused!  I told it again and it refused again.  How rude!  I tried it goodness knows how often, but it showed not the slightest inclination to do what it was told.  So Mr Fixit came to the rescue with technical things like screwdrivers and meters, and, after poking around, he pronounced it bronken.  It can't be mended.

Oh no.  Disaster.  What to do now?  Well, luckily there is an alternative, so I have bought that (ouch) and am now eagerly waiting to hear from the company that my new toy has been shipped.

Then I can get back to quilting that pile of unquilted tops that I have amassed.

Remember this quilt ...

... which I made for the blog hop for Kim's book, Scrap Basket Sensations, last year?  The quilt in the book is called Island Chains, but I named mine Friendship Chains.

I have now, finally, finished it.  So here it is, in all its glory.

Here is a close-up, so you can see the quilting too.  I chose to do an edge-to-edge pattern, since I felt that the pattern was so intriguing that I did not want to distract from it by doing quilting that was too intricate.

This one shows the back and the quilting.  I really love the backing fabric too.

A Festive Mystery ...

... I promised you a progress report on my Festive Mystery quilt, so here it is

Thank you and thank you ...

... I want to say thank you to two people today.

The first thanks go to Ann, from enbellefrance.  A few weeks ago she celebrated her first blogiversary, and to celebrate sent gifts to 3 of her bloggy friends.  I was one of the three, and this is what I received.  The picture is not brilliant, but she sent a flower-maker, some fabrics and some chocolate.  I haven't played with the flower-maker yet, but I will soon as I have plans for the flowers.  I can't show you the chocolate, cos I've eaten it!  Everything was wrapped beautifully in tissue paper and tied with ribbon, but I was too impatient to take a photo before I opened it.  Thanks so much Ann, I loved my present.

The other person I want to thank is Mrs Pickles, from Mrs.Pickles Garden.  The other day she very kindly awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award.  According to the rules, I have to tell you seven random things about myself, so here goes:

• I have a warped sense of humour.  I know you'd never have guessed that, would you?
• I am a control freak, which is why I can't do scrappy quilts.
• I am not good at art.  In fact, according to Mr Fixit, I can't draw a straight line even with a ruler!
• I am tall - about 5'10".
• I love computers and spend far too much time on mine.
• As a kid I lived in Australia for a while.
• I love chocolate and hate housework.

Now, according to the rules of this award, I am supposed to pass this on to other bloggers, but I am sorry, I am not going to be doing this.  How can I chose just 15 and give them the award?  I want to give one to everyone who visits me regularly, so please all consider yourself awarded.  Thank you so much though Mrs Pickles for including me in your award nominations.

Come back tomorrow if you would like an update on the Festive Mystery quilt that we are making during the Christmas Quiltalong.

45 years ago today ...

at 2pm, Mr Fixit and I had a very important date with a registrar.

Here we are with our parents after the wedding ceremony.

Happy Anniversary to Us 

(but how on earth are we old enough to have been married for 45 years?)

Christmas QAL - post 5

It's 9.30 in the evening here now, so I'm signing off for today.  Before I go though, I would like to thank Hazel for being a brilliant hostess, and thanks to everyone else for being such fun party-people.

Christmas QAL - post 4

I just absolutely DO NOT BELIEVE how stupid I can be at times.

This afternoon, I decided to get ahead of the game by carrying on and actually starting to piece the Festive Mystery quilt.  After all, it was a long time ago that I wrote the instructions (like about 8 years ago) and I have tweaked them a bit this time, so I thought I ought to try them, just to check they were OK.

So, why, oh why, did I carry on and not follow my own instructions?  I wasted a couple of hours and loads of fabric before I realised.

Oh, and no, I am not showing you a picture.  This is meant to be a mystery, remember.

Christmas QAL - post 3

Want to hear a funny story?

A couple of days ago, my friend QuiltHaze and I went fabric shopping.  We were more than happy to find that the shop we went to had some fabrics at £5/metre (in the UK we are now paying £10-12/metre usually, which is about $15-19).  As you can imagine, we fell on them.  I had found the fabrics I wanted, and then I saw this emerald green that I'm using, and just fell in love with it, so I had to buy that too.  It was only that evening when I was putting them away that I realised that it exactly matched the sweater I had been wearing all day.  I think I must really like the colour don't you?

Christmas QAL - post 2

Cutting all done!

Christmas QAL - post 1

OK, it's finally here.  The first Christmas QAL of 2012, and Hazel is our hostess for today.

Hazel said that she thought we should start our day with some suitably festive food, drink, decorations, etc.  I chose a mug of hot chocolate with cream on, which I drank whilst looking out at a white, snowy world with the sun shining. I didn't think of taking a picture of it and now I've drunk it, so here is a pic of the empty mug instead!

This is a picture of the fabrics I am using for the Festive Mystery quilt.
From the top they are
background:  white tone-on-tone,
dark: dark turquoise
medium: peach
light: a sort of bluey-greeny-turquoisey

Now I'm off to start cutting, as soon as I've taken the washing out of the machine.  See you all later.

Woohoo ....

.... it's time to get your party frock out and get ready for Saturday.

The party is at Hazel's place, here.

The Christmas Quiltalong this year is slightly different.  Each month we will have a different hostess, and I know they will all make us very welcome.  

We are also offering a free mystery quilt pattern this year, which can be made over 6 months.  Hazel has the first installment, (the fabric requirements and cutting instructions) ready for you when you call in to see her on Saturday.  I've heard that she also has mince pies.  See you there.

Here it is ...

Well, come on, be honest now, you knew I wouldn't be able to resist it didn't you?

I've been busy and cut half of my strip sets today, and then I couldn't help myself.  Here is my first diamond.

Lone Star Day - post 2

OK, it's the end of the day for me, and here's what I've done.

Five strip sets made, one to go, once the postie brings me my extra fabric.  These sets are starched and they are so stiff they could probably stand up on their own!  After seeing my previous post, Bilbo did helpfully tell me that I should have covered the ironing board with an old towel to prevent starch going everywhere.  Too late!

I have done enough to start cutting and making diamonds, but I chickened out.  Actually, that's not true.  To do all this cutting, where accuracy is going to be very important, I am going to ask Mr Fixit to set up my "cutting table" for me.  It sounds grand, but all it is really is a piece of board which slots into some trestles. It is a perfect height for me to cut without getting backache, so I decided to be patient until tomorrow.

So that's the end of my Lone Star day, but I will be doing some more tomorrow.

While you're here, let me just remind you that next Saturday is the first of this year's Christmas Quiltalong, and Hazel is our hostess for the day, so do come along and join us, I think it's going to be fun.

Lone Star QAL day - post 1

I couldn't wait for you lot in the USA to wake up, so I started without you.  When you sleepyheads are ready, pop in to our hostess Jayne, here, to sign up with Mr Linky and then we'll look forward to hearing how you're getting on too.

I've just finished making my first strip-set, look.  All pressed, and this photo is just for Bilbo, aka Queen of the Spray-Starch Can.

Lone Star Quiltalong day ...

... is tomorrow and Jayne will be our hostess this month, over here.  

I couldn't wait, so I thought I'd show you what I've done so far.  Yesterday I finally decided on the fabrics and their placement, and actually made a mock-up of one diamond, and here it is.

The next thing I had to work out was how many strips of which colour to cut.  Being difficult you see, I was using a pattern for a six colour quilt, with four fabrics.  I got that worked out this morning, put a lovely new blade in my cutter, and set to.  I cut all the black, then the red, then came to the brown.  Oh-oh, bit of a problem here!  I've cut four strips out of six.  I don't think I'll get two more out of this, do you?  Quick trip to the computer and found that my favourite UK shop still had some in stock.  I placed the order, and they were so quick that within 30 mins I had an email to say my order had been despatched.  Pheww.  

So I carried on cutting, and this is where I have got to.  Tomorrow I will start sewing.  Yippee.