The winner .....

... of this great book

Well, before I tell you the name of the lucky person who will receive a copy of this e-book, I want to explain how I chose someone.  This review was posted on my blog here, and also on the Yorkshire Modern Quilters blog.  All the comments on my blog are numbered, but those on the other blog are not - hmm, must get that sorted out before the next review.  So all I did was allocate numbers to the comments on the YMQG blog running straight on from those on here.  That gave a total of 49 for Mr Random.org to chose from, and the number he chose was

and no.45 is Harrysmum, who said

I will send Harrysmum an email, but congratulations to her and thank you everyone who took the time to enter.  I will have another book review and giveaway in a couple of weeks, so do keep coming back and checking to see what you could win next time.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Yesterday I went to the Great Northern Quilt Show, where I met up with loads of friends. Susan who is over here on holiday from Australia at the moment and I had arranged to have coffee together, and QuiltHaze joined us, which was lovely.  Susan was just as I had imagined she would be, and we did a little shopping together as well as looking at some of the quilts.  We arranged to meet some other friends of mine for lunch, but it was all so busy we managed to keep missing each other. Unfortunately, I am currently suffering from some form of arthritis in one foot, so I was not able to stay as long as I would have liked, but as you can see, I did manage to do a little bit towards helping the economy!

Today I am sitting with my foot up and feeling sorry for myself, but I do have a magazine to read, and what looks like a great book called Essential Guide to Modern Quilt Making to read.  There's a funny story attached to this book.  About a week ago, Aunt Marti, from 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks had a giveaway for this book, which I entered.  A few days after that I bought the book from Amazon, completely forgetting about the giveaway. It was delivered on Friday and then yesterday Aunt Marti announced the winner.  In my blog reader, I get the name of the blog and the first few words of the new post, and so the first words I saw were telling me the winner was from the UK.  I thought it would be just my luck to win, (after all, I know I've got two eyes, but that doesn't mean I can read two copies of the book at once) but luckily it wasn't me.

Also today I will hopefully package up 200 of these, and send them off to the US for the 9-patch swap I'm in.

As for tomorrow, well that is when I will ask Mr Random.org to draw the name of the person who has won this great book, so you still have time to enter on my previous post, here.

Book review and giveaway

I'm sorry, this giveaway is now closed.  You can see who won here

(This book is published by Martingale Publications, and all the photography shown is by Brent Kane.)

As its title suggests, this book contains quilts designed by well known bloggers from around the world.  There are 19 stunning quilts included, all with very clear instructions, plenty of diagrams and templates where necessary.

The book starts off by stating the main rule about modern quilting, which is that “there are no rules”.  So, anything goes really in terms of shapes, colours, designs and quilting, and this is certainly borne out by the quilts which vary from minimalist, such as Petal Pod to quite the opposite, like Scattered and from a modern take on a traditional quilt such as Rainbow Stashbuster to improv piecing seen in Improv Color Blocks.

When I read the book, I loved the tips that are often included such as how to sew a smooth curve.  I also like the fact that many of the quilts also show suggestions for optional, pieced backings.  This is not something I’ve ever done before, but I can definitely see myself trying them in the future.

You will also learn something about each of the contributors, as they have all written a little about themselves and you can visit their blogs to see more of their work.

Which are my favourite quilts?  That’s not easy to answer as I really love Trees, which I could see in all sorts of Christmas prints and Starflower, which I think would look great in plain colours.  Then there’s Petal Pods which I’d love to make in shades of orange and raspberry, and Knots, which is calling (actually it’s shouting) out to me to make it in aquas and blues.

Now all I need is a magic wand to make my days longer so I can make them all.

As a reward for reading all this, Martingale Publications are offering an e-book version of this book to one of you. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what colours you would choose to make one of the quilts from this book. If you are a member of the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group, leave another comment telling me so for an additional entry into the giveaway.

The giveaway small print:

1.     This giveaway is open to everybody, wherever you live, BUT please remember to make sure I can contact you if you are the winner.

2.     If you are a no-reply person, you will not be entered unless you leave an email address in your comment as I will not be able to get in touch with you.  (Note, if you are a Google+ person, you will be no-reply).

3.     This giveaway will also be available on the Yorkshire Modern Quilters' blog.

4.     The giveaway will close next Saturday, 30 August.

5.     The winner will be selected using Mr Random Generator.

Telfie ...

... ooh, look, our toes decided to join in the selfie craze yesterday after our wonderful spa day.  Guess which toes are mine and which are Mrs Nomad's.

Spa day ...

...   woohoo.  Today Mrs Nomad and I are off for a mother-daughter day of pampering and being spoilt at a local hotel's luxury spa. Massages, facials, manicures and pedicures are all on the agenda.   I am soooo looking forward to this.

We'll also have lunch in the Champagne Bar there, and to heck with the diet, even though it's weigh-in night at my slimming club later.

Two weeks,

a fortnight, 14 days.  However you want to look at it, I can't believe I abandoned this poor blog for that long.  Where on earth has the time gone, and what ever have I been doing with myself?  Well, I think the truth is that I've been going through a lazy patch, which means I haven't really been doing much, so there was nothing to blog about.  However, that's all changing now.

One thing I have been doing is making these cute little 9-patches.  I have joined a swap being organised by Barb, and she has a wonderful tutorial here showing a great way to make these blocks which will end up being 3" finished squares. The idea is that we will each make everyone in the swap a pair of blocks. There were originally 24 of us in the swap, but we needed 25, so I said I'd go in twice - after all they're only small blocks aren't they - which means I need to make 100 blocks. No problem, they're only small aren't they? Then someone said why didn't we all make 4 blocks for each person.  The majority thought that was a good idea, so now I have to make 200 blocks - but they're only small, aren't they! I have realised that it takes almost the same amount of time to make a block, whether it is a 3" or a 6" or even a 9" block.  Next time I decide to volunteer for extra duties, please someone gag me so I can't say the words.  Mind you, I love the blocks I'm making and think I am going to have a problem when it's time to send them off to Barb to be redistributed.  So far, I have 110 made plus 16 almost made.

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Group that I belong to.  Unfortunately, Scrappy couldn't make it this month.  I was late, which meant there was no space on the table I usually sit at, so I joined the so-called "naughty table".  Oh boy, I now know why it's called that - there was far more talking, joking, and most importantly, laughing than sewing going on round this table.  As one other person said at one point, "I have just spent the last half-hour or so laughing instead of sewing".  That summed up the day.

On the domestic front, Dad is now the proud owner of a shiny black mobility scooter.  He bought it on Thursday, after checking that he was happy "driving" it and that I could dismantle it and get it into the car, and we had our first outing with it on Friday when he had optician and audiologist appointments.  It all worked well, and will at least mean that he can now get out of the house rather than being stuck in all the time.  Since he was ill, he has not recovered the strength in his legs and can barely walk now, so this will make a big difference to him.

After a few weeks of glorious weather, it's all changed this week and has gone to being wet quite often, windy most of the time and relatively cool all the time, with temperatures well below average.

So now, I think I'll take myself back to my sewing machine to make some more 9-patches.

Hello ......

.... I'm still here, but are you still there?

Dad is well on the way to recovery now, and this morning he even got up, showered, dressed, downstairs and had his breakfast on his own and is intending to do his own lunch too, so I think he's on the road back to independence.  I have recovered from my laryngitis, and also from the bronchitis which followed it, so I think I too am on my way back to what passes for normal around here.  Thanks to people who have emailed me to check on me since I've been so quiet.  Talking of quiet, there was a funny side to Dad being ill and me losing my voice.  Dad is pretty deaf and wears hearing aids in both ears usually, but not when he's in bed, so just imagine the fun and games we had trying to communicate when he had no ears and I had no voice. Also, one day, I had to go round to Mrs Nomad and forgot to take my mobile phone.  When I got there, their front gate was locked although I could hear them in the back garden, but I couldn't make them hear me.  I went home and sent her a text that went along the lines of "why the bleep, bleep, bleep is your front gate locked?"  She rang to say it wasn't locked, but I needed to have pushed harder, but why didn't I just shout? Hmm, ever tried shouting with no voice?

On a different not altogether, remember this quilt, made by Vicki when she was pattern testing Tubix for me?

Well, just look at it now

all bedecked with pretty ribbons.  Vicki decided to enter her quilt (now called Orange Slices) into her county fair and won a blue ribbon and also Reserve Champion award for it.  Well done Vicki.  In fact, she entered 13 items across various categories, and won 10 blue ribbons, 2 red, 1 white, a Grand Champion, 2 Reserve Champions and an honourable mention.  Obviously a talented lady.  If you go to her blog you can see all the items and loads more eye candy too.