Friday 27 February 2015

Save up to 70% ....

Yep, Craftsy are at it again and trying to tempt us to help the economy out.

Craftsy 

Get the fabric, yarn and project kits you’ve been dreaming of! The Craftsy Inspiration in a Flash Sale is on now, with up to 70% off best-sellers from all your favourite brands and designers. You deserve a treat or two, don’t you? The sale expires on Sunday 3 March at 11.59 pm MT, so grab your shopping bag (the quilted one, of course) and go shopping to save!  See you at the checkout .... 
(Note: this is a sponsored post)

Tuesday 24 February 2015

TV Debut (and giveaway alert) for ....

... my friend Lovely Lynn.


Lynn's now starring in episode 1604 of The Quilt Show, where she talks about how she takes the fear of maths out of quilting, and shows her wonderful method of making complicated blocks by breaking them down into simple components.  In the show Ricky Tims also has a play with some components, showing how you can make different blocks using the same "bits".
By the way, you can buy Lynn's book through the Quilt Show, or through her own blog.

Lynn also talks about her strip taming device, aka a pasta dryer. Her clever husband, Mr Joe is a whizz at woodwork, and has come up with this super-duper improved version of it,

 and Lynn is offering one as a giveaway over on her blog at Sewn Wild Oaks. This link takes you to the post with the giveaway.   That same post gives you a link so you can watch Lynn's show for free. It's a fascinating show, and I urge you all to rush off and watch it, if you haven't already done so.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

An Anniversary and a challenge

Last weekend we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary by spending the weekend in London.  I contacted the hotel beforehand to ask if they offered any sort of upgrade, and they definitely did.  We were upgraded to a deluxe room, which was huge with a lovely sofa, a Nespresso machine and lovely toiletries and in the room was an anniversary card with a plate of macarons.  Sorry, no photo as we ate them!  On Saturday we were out for the day, and when we got back to the hotel, we found this in our room.

Today Scrappy has been here and we had a great day with no sewing, lots of chatting and some fabric stroking.  I had a bag of scraps to give her, and Scrappy wasted no time in tipping it out to see what was in there and to fold and stroke it all.  There was this little piece of orange in there, and she was thinking it might be too small, even for her and was going to throw it away, so I've challenged her to use it.  I can't wait to see what she does with it. With friends like me, who needs enemies?

Thursday 12 February 2015

Wednesday 4 February 2015

What IS "modern quilting"?

This is a question that has been exercising my brain a lot lately.  I have seen various suggestions as to what constitutes a modern quilt, ranging from quilts not having borders, quilts with a lot of white in them, quilts that only use plain fabrics and various other suggestions.  So I thought I'd throw this one out to you lot.  Who can define modern quilting for me?

Just because a blog post must have a picture, and because I hope spring is on the way, here's a picture of a small quilt I made some years ago..

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Pardon?

Here's a good example of how crazy technology can be.  My laptop insists that I have a password to access anything when I start it up or wake it from a sleep.  OK, that's not a problem.  At least, it wasn't until a few days ago.  Then, I typed in my password in the morning and was told it was incorrect, so I tried it again.  Same result.  Try again. Still no good.  (Incidentally, I had not done anything to change the password, nor had I mistyped it.)  So, what to do?

Well, Microsoft were very thoughtful, and up pops a message telling me I need to reset my password.  Mutter, mumble, grumble, says I.  Then I read the rest of the message on the screen.  To reset your password, visit www.whatever-the-address-was.com.

Sorry?  How do I do that when I am locked out?  How ridiculous.  Luckily, this laptop is not the only computer in the house, so I was able to access my account and change the password, but really?  There are households with only one computer in.  How are they supposed to do it?  Another well thought out plan by those-who-would-control-us I think.

I also think I must be turning into a Grumpy Old Woman. I blame my bad back which has been playing up again.  (Makes a change from me moaning on about gout doesn't it?)
09 10