I forgot to show you ...

... my sort of modern wedding ring quilt.  I started this last year and acttually finished the top at the quilt retreat last October.  It didn't get quilted till after Christmas and the binding finally went on a couple of months ago. It took so long cos I fell out of love with it when I was making it. I had all sorts of issues with biases (yes Bilbo, I did use starch too) so the blocks were not fitting together properly.  Originally this was going to be a much larger quilt, but I decided enough was enough so it's quite a small throw instead.  Now I've finished it I am happy with it and it is currently decorating the back of the sofa.

Here is a close up of the quilting, and also, my pieced backing - I was obviously determined to use up all the odd bits of fabric from the front, as even the binding is pieced.

Sorry it's a bit scrumpled looking, but my back didn't feel like I should be crawling around on the floor to smooth it out, so what you see is just how it landed.

Happy birthday to ...

... Mrs Nomad. I can't tell you how old she is, but the numbers six and four feature in her age although not necessarily in that order.  I will say she's changed a bit since this photo.

I will also say that she's going to be furious when she sees this!

Talent ...

... I've got some very talented friends that I'm going to boast about.

Firstly, You all remember Naughty Nancie, who I met when I was staying with Lovely Lynn in California two years ago? (Two years?  Where has the time gone? How can it be two years?) Anyway, back to topic in hand. Well, during the Country Charmer quiltalong (Pattern by Lynn, quiltalong run by Leslie) Naughty Nancie and I had a little private challenge going on, which you can read about here.  Nancie entered her unquilted top in a competition, The Better Homes & Gardens, American Patchwork & Quilting, Handi Quilter Big Finish Sweepstakes and from over 500 entries, Nancie was one of the four winners.  The prize was to spend time at HandiQuilter on a very special retreat where they got to actually long-arm quilt their entries. Nancie is back home now and has shared some of her experiences on her blog, here. I'm not jealous. Nope, not at all, the green shade on my face is just reflection from my sweater. Here's a picture of the unquilted top, which I have shamelessly stolen from her blog without asking her permission.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished quilt now. Come on NN, you've been home a week, surely it must be bound, labelled (and on it's way to me as a surprise present) by now?

My other talented friend that I thought I'd give a shout out to is Lovely Lynn herself.  Lynn was a guest on The Quilt Show a while ago, and they loved her so much they asked her to do a teaching series based on her Patchwork Math book.  You can find the details about her classes here.  They are available free, to anyone and will be there for ever and ever. Lynn's classes are aimed at taking the fear out of the maths that can be involved, and they are great. 

Congratulations to both of you for being so clever.

Handy Household hint ....

.... when you're cleaning a shower screen, make sure you know which side the marks are on.

I spent ages this morning trying to get some splash marks off my shower screen, with absolutely no success, until I realised they were on the outside of the door and I was trying to remove them from the inside.

What can I say?

I'm a published author again ...

Edited to add: I've just added this to a great monthly Linky Party called Let's Bee Social. The Linky badge is on my sidebar, so hop on over to join the party or just for some inspiration.

The really observant ones among you will have noticed that, although I showed pictures of my quilt testers' versions of this, (thank you again Nancy, Sandie, Sassy and Susan,) and I did give you one peek at my unfinished top, you never actually saw mine completed.  Now you know why. I can tell you, it is very difficult for me to keep secrets like this, but it has to be done!  Here are two more photos, one showing the quilt full on and one to show a close up of the quilting.

This time I've been published in a great on-line quilting magazine called Make Modern. If you've never seen it before, then you are really missing out on something. The magazine includes all sorts of interesting articles as well as patterns and I recommend that you go here to have a look at it and maybe even buy a copy, I promise you it's a good read..