The winner is .....

.... someone, who must have an amazing vocabulary.  She submitted a list with 160 words on it! I came up with about 45 - yes, this time I could play along with you all, since I didn't really know the answers.  Hmm, maybe it's a good job I didn't win though, or you'd all be accusing me of cheating. 

The best word though was submitted by Midge, who came up with  AQUITACHRILMONGLIST.  Guess who actually fell for it and was about to Google it to find out what it meant when she told me her husband made it up?  See, told you I'm stupid! 

Anyway, if the winner would email me with a snail mail address, I will get the little prize in the post.

Oh yes, I haven't told you who it is, have I? 

Shellie from Shell Creations step forward and take a bow.  I do suggest you might all like to go and have a look at the snowman she made during the day - he is gorgeous.

Since I'm an idiot ..........

... I forgot to take the time differences between UK, US and Australia into account, so I am leaving the word puzzle open for another 24 hours I will close it at midnight , GMT, tomorrow, Monday.  If you're not sure what time that would be for you, this  is a useful site that works it out for you.

Thanks to everyone who joined in yesterday's Quilt-a-long and helped to make it fun.  I hope that you enjoyed yourselves and that you'll be back next month.

I'm stopping .........

.... for tonight, but thought I'd just show you what I've achieved today.  I have always wanted a red and gold quilt for Christmas, so this year I thought I would actually get on with it.  I played around on the computer, and came up with this design.  When I   have done enough blocks, it will have a narrow red border, a wider yellow one with red corner stones and red binding.  I would have liked to make it bed size, but haven't got enough fabric, so it will be a throw. Now I am finishing for tonight, thanks everyone who came and played along with me.  I hope you've enjoyed your day and got lots done.

It's a puzzle ........

.... not a quiz today.  When you feel like having a break from sewing, see how many words of four letters or more you can make from "Christmas Quiltalong". Names and plurals are not allowed.  Email your list to me and tomorrow about this time I'll announce who has won the "puzzle prize".

I should have said about the recipe that I used a quarter of the quantities by the way, which gave me 14 cookies.

PS Don't forget to add your name to Mr Linky's list.  If you have trouble doing it, please let me know, cos he is obviously not full of Christmas spirit today and is really playing up.


PPS This is Post no 5 today so just scroll down if you want to see any more.

It's time .....

... for tea.  The cookies were made from the recipe Pat gave us last time round.  Apparently these were originally made by Pat's father, who had a bakery and were one of his best-sellers.  Pat's brother now makes them, and I can tell you they are DELICIOUS!  (They should have been iced, but I was too impatient, so I skipped that bit.)  If you want to try them, go to the comments, here.

Not quite ......

  ... so tidy now that I've made a few blocks, and a lot of mess!

A little music ......

.... to put you in the Christmas mood. Go and have a look here to see the brilliant video that Midge from Soggibottom has found for us.

I hope you're having a good and productive time? I have got some fun planned for later, but I'm trying to give everyone time to wake up first.

Good morning everyone ...............

........ well, I had a disasterous start to the morning!  You know that I frequently change my backgrounds (I get bored easily!).  So I wanted a nice Christmassy one today, but it all went wrong!  All sorts of things happened, almost everything on my sidebar went,  my page with the Chocolate for Christmas pattern disappeared, the layout was all different, etc, etc.  I didn't worry though, I went straight into P A N I C K mode.  So I've just wasted the last 2 hours recovering everything.

Anyway, I'm good to go now and just like last time, I've put Mr Linky on here, and I hope you'll all add your names to the list so that we can go visit each other from time to time during the day.

I'm ready ...........

.......... to start first thing in the morning. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully we're going to have some fun.

Do you like my new cutting table/ironing table?  It's part of the old frame I had, and is the perfect height for me.  Being tall, cutting on the dining table was quite a struggle, but this is brilliant.  No more backache, whooppee!

Little Person ..........

 .......  thought he'd just ride in to remind you that there's only two days to Grandma's next Christmas Quiltalong Day.

We're back ....

.... from our train tour of the east coast of Scotland.  It was everything we hoped it would be - wonderful scenery, wonderful food, wonderful weather, a wonderful time.  This was not the first time we had taken a trip with this company, but previous excursions were all day trips.  We had quite an adventure, with one major mishap.  The engine that was being used to take us to Oban, couldn't get us up the hill out of there, so they had to send for another engine to come and help.  That night we should have got to our hotel in Glasgow about 7.30 - we arrived about 3.30 am!  Still, we were comfortable, well fed, and Oban is very pretty.  Here are some photos for you, and the viaduct in one of them is the very one that is in one of the Harry Potter films.  Don't ask me which one, I am not a fan, but that's what I was told!  Enjoy the photos.

Free slideshow created with Smilebox As you can see, there were no photos of the food - it didn't last long enough!  To give you an idea, breakfast was fruit juice, cereals/porridge/melon, followed by egg, bacon, hash brown, mushrooms and beans or kippers, then toast/croissant and coffee. Lunch was a light meal, such as fresh salmon with aspargus and then there was dinner.  That was a choice of soup or something such as haggis and neeps, followed by fillet steak with madeira sauce, mangetout, carrots and potato dauphinoise, then there was a chocolate torte, and to finish off cheese, biscuits, grapes and celery and coffee.  Are you hungry yet?  Imagine a menu like that every day of the trip.  Now we're home and eating light meals!

Bossy Boots is back ....

....... from her holiday to remind you that it's a Christmas Quiltalong day on Saturday, so get your projects out, your rotary cutters or your Go! cutters at the ready, your machines oiled and ready to go cos there's just 3 days till the fun starts.

Choo Choo ..............

.... tomorrow we're off on our short train trip to Scotland.  We'll be back on Tuesday, and I am not taking my laptop.  Well, steam trains don't have internet connections, so there's not much point is there? The steam bit is for Mr Fixit who is very happy that our train will be hauled by four different engines (no, not all at the same time!).  What's in store from my point of view?  Well, I get to sit in a very comfortable armchair type of seat, while somebody brings the scenery to me and fantastic food at least three times a day.  Seems to me a holiday doesn't get much better.

Yesterday ......

.......... I met a bloggy friend for the first time.

Ms Quilting Prolifically called in with her daughter.  They had been to Harrogate to deliver two of her quilts to be hung in the Northern Quilt Show this weekend. To get there, they almost had to go past my front door, so they called in.  We have tried several times before to meet up, but the fates always conspired to prevent it, but this time we beat them.  It is lovely to meet people you've got to know through blogs, and we had a lovely chat.  She also had a giveaway on her blog recently, which I won, so she delivered my prize personally. 

There were 2 quilt pins which I sort of collect and a kit for a really gorgeous little pincushion.  The other thing she gave me was a wonderful mug rug, which she made specially for me.  Just look at the quilting on this

Apparently, this little beauty was made and quilted in a morning.  When I grow up, perhaps I'll be able to quilt like that?

At last ..........

........... here it is ......

..........what you've all been waiting for.......... 

..........the pattern I said I would post for anyone who wants to use it. 

I have called this design "Chocolate for Christmas", which I thought was quite clever, since I used chocolate coloured fabric, and it's a very suitable project for a Christmas Quiltalong Day. Yeah OK, well I thought it was a clever name anyway.

"So where is it?" you're wondering.  Well, that's why it took so long.  I've been waging war against Blogger, so I could put the pattern on a separate page.  Well I managed that OK, but Blogger took an instant dislike to my diagrams and wouldn't let me put them on.  I got there in the end though and now if you look at the top of my blog, just under the header, you will see the name of the pattern, and if you click on that, you will go to the page where the instructions are.

Please be kind though and respect my copyright.  If you do make the quilt, I would love to see a picture of it.  Thanks.

I may be a bit quiet ......

...... for a day or so.  My EQ7 arrived yesterday and I've been playing trying to learn it.  It is very, very different from QuiltPro, which is the software I've been using for years.  I know that software inside out, and can make it do almost everything I want, BUT it didn't like working on Windows 7, which is what is on the laptop I now have.    I thought I'd try and draw up the pattern some of you want, and work out all the fabric quantities and cutting requirements in EQ7 and then compare it to the answers from QuiltPro.

I've also been having a go at paper piecing, which is not something I've ever done much of.  It makes a lot of mess, doesn't it?  The jury's out on whether I will carry on with it.  Tomorrow I am intending to have a serious go at machine applique, which again is not something I've really done before.

  I'm getting quite adventurous in my old age aren't I?

Freebie anyone?

You know the quilt I finished the other day?  The one I made using a jelly roll which I won?  The one I talked about here.  Would anyone like the pattern for it?  I promise to only give instructions for nice, simple, well behaved borders, not for troublesome, pieced borders with bias edges.  This top could be made in one day, as long as you can cut strips of fabric and know what a sewing machine looks like.  It occurred to me that it would make a wonderful project for one of the Christmas Quiltalong days, so, if anyone wants it, let me know, and I'll post the instructions on here for you.

I've been doing my bit for the economy ..........

......... in other words, I've been shopping.

 I've taken the plunge and ordered EQ7.  Whoohoo.

I've ordered some fabric ready for the next Christmas Quiltalong.  Woohoo.

We're going on a short holiday next week.  Woohoo.

Well, it's only right isn't it that I help support the economy?

Just call me stubborn .............

.......... Remember a few weeks ago I won a jelly roll and some yardage through SewCalGal?  Well, I've used it.

I came up with this design, which was very quick and easy to make.  Then came the borders.  Well, I had quite a lot of odd pieces of fabric left, so I had a bright idea (I was going to do "arty" and  "scrappy") - or so it seemed last Friday morning.  Well what followed was almost farcical.  I did some piecing, cut some background fabric, then cut some more, this time to the right size.  Made 2 borders, pieced a bit more, cut some more background fabric, needed to cut some more to the correct size this time and realised I hadn't got enough.  Rethought the background for the piecing, made up all four borders and sewed them on. (All of this piecing for the borders by the way involved bias edges, so I was trying to be very careful.) Stood back and looked, and realised I did not like the border!  Aaaargh.  This had taken me Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons to get to this point.  I spent Sunday evening with a stitch ripper in hand, and then went back to non-arty, non-scrappy traditional borders, and this is the result.

Here, just to satisy your curiosity, is the top with the troublesome borders.

So now you see why my middle name is Stubborn.

Win a Go! cutter

Pssst .....  

Want to win a new toy?  

My friend Paulette over at Sweet P Quilting and Creations is having the most fantastic giveaway on her blog.  She is giving a Go! cutter to one lucky person, courtesy of AccuQuilt.

 As you know, I already have this wonderful toy, and wouldn't be without it, so I won't be entering which gives you lot more of a chance to win.  I can promise you that if you do win you'll be blown away by how quick and easy it is to cut strips, squares, triangles, circles, all sorts of applique shapes, etc. So, if you fancy winning a fantastic new toy tool go on over and enter here and good luck.