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.

Here they are ...

... at last, my fabrics for the Lone Star quilt have arrived.  There were 2 packages, both coming from the same shop, both shipped on the same day.  11 days later, one of the packages arrived safely, but the other one seemed to have disappeared into thin air.  After waiting another week, I contacted the shop to ask them if they could investigate this disappearance.  You can guess what happened next, can't you?  Yep, the following day the missing package turned up.  Well, strictly speaking, it didn't turn up, but Royal Mail left me a note while I was out to say that they were holding the poor thing hostage until I paid a large ransom.  So what could I do?  I paid up, and now have all these fabrics ready for me to start my quilt at last.

BUT - I have a dilemma.  I seem to have accidentally ordered the black and the beige in the same pattern, so, should I change it for the black in this photo?

Any thoughts anyone?





By the way, this Saturday is the Lone Star Support Group meeting, with Jayne as our hostess over at Jayne's Quilting Room.

I'm back ...

... from wherever I've been!

Actually I haven't been anywhere, and I just don't know where last week went.  I think I did a Sleeping Beauty, (or is it Rip van Winkle?) for a week and have just woken up again.  The only thing of note really is that I have done my tax return for this year, so now I know how much I owe the tax man - ugh.

I have also realised what a very bad blogger I have been.  In December I was lucky enough to win two giveaways, and I have only just got round to showing you the great things I won.

Firstly, I won a selection of handmade cards from Rhonda at Quiltnut Creations.  I had seen some of Rhonda's cards before on her blog, but when they arrived I almost couldn't bring myself to use them, they were so lovely.  I have though, and several of the people I sent them to have commented on how lovely they are.   Thanks so much Rhonda.

Then Linda from Living the Dream celebrated her first blogiversary by giving away a voucher to a great online shop called Intrepid Thread, and I was the lucky winner.  It took me ages to decide what to buy, but I did eventually manage to make a decision.  These are the fabrics I chose.  They are so different to my usual style and colours, and I love them.  When I ordered them, I knew just what I was going to do with them.  Unfortunately, I have now managed to forget!  Still, it doesn't matter really, cos they're so lovely I am happy just getting them out of the cupboard and stroking them.  Thanks Linda for picking my name out.

The winner ...

.... just before I tell you who won, I thought I'd show you a couple of pictures.

I took this picture this morning in my garden.  Roses, blooming in January?  In the UK?  What's going on?  Last January, we had this:

Now, the winner.  By the time I had given followers their extra entry, and deleted a couple who said they did not want to be included in the actual draw as they already had the book, there were 82 entries.  Then I paid Mr Random.Org a visit and asked him to chose the lucky number.  This is the number chose:

and number 16 was the additional "follower entry" from Jayne of Jayne's Quilting Room. 

Aarghhhhhh ...

I never learn.  Big Bertha does NOT like dark green batik fabric.  I knew it from past experience, so why did I think anything would be different this time?

This is what happens every time she had to sew backwards on the green fabric. Can you see that very long skipped stitch?

Just to prove that it's only with the batik, this is a picture of the same part of the pattern but on ordinary fabric.  Spot the difference?










By the way, there's still time to enter my giveaway, here.

Giveaway update ...

Several people have contacted me to say they can't leave comments (again) on my blog.  Blogger have been told, but who knows if they will be able to help, but meanwhile, if you would like to enter the giveaway, but can't do so through the comments, just send me an email and I will post your comment for you.  Also, please do tell me if you are a follower, as that gives you an extra chance to win.

You have until Friday to enter, and I will announce the winner on Saturday.

Giveaway ...

Oops.  Edited to add that  I also wanted to say that there is no Christmas Quiltalong day in January.  The first one for 2012 will be on 11February, and our hostess will be Hazel from Hazel's Quilts, so don't forget to pay her a visit on that day.
... cos it's my birthday (well, it was yesterday) I decided last night that I should have a giveaway.  I bet you can't guess what you could win?  Yes, an autographed copy of my book is the prize.

All my life I have disliked having a birthday close to Christmas, and envied my sister, who has hers in June.  I've often thought I should be like the Queen, and have 2 birthdays.  She has a real one, and an official one.  Her official one is when all the ceremonial parades etc are held- and I guess that's when she has her ceremonial party, presents and cake too.  So, all you have to do is tell me when you think I should have my Official birthday.  

Here's the small print.  The giveaway will close on Friday 20 January and I will ask Mr Random Generator to pick the winner on Saturday 21 January.  The giveaway is open to anyone, but followers will have an additional entry, as long as you tell me you are one. Finally, if you are a no-reply blogger, you will have to leave me an email address, so that I can contact you if you win.

Happy birthday ...

... to us:

Chatterbox and I share a birthday.  One of us is 10 years old today.  The other one is older!

Lone Star day - Post 5

I want to thank everyone who took part in yesterday's Lone Star day.  It was an interesting day and it's going to be great to have a group we can call on when we (i.e. "I") run into trouble.

Lynn  is going to be using the Eleanor Burns book that I am also working from.  She was lucky enough to be given a Go! cutter for Christmas and will be using that to cut the strips.  She went fabric shopping yesterday (what wouldn't I give to have a shop near enough to do that) and I love the fabrics she's chosen.

Elizabeth actually started her quilt before Jane and I officially announced this group.  She is using a free pattern she found online and some gorgeous blue and green fabrics.  It could be very useful having Elizabeth further on than the rest of us, as she can test this pattern for us, and has already found one error in it.

Hazel has drawn up a gorgeous design, in exactly her colours.  She also asked for advice on books, and has received some useful feedback already.

Teresa has told us about nine books on the subject, and they all look great.  She is not new to Lone Star quilts, having made four, yes that's right, four of them in the past.

Last, but by no means least, my co-host Jayne, was delighted to find that she was much further on than she remembered on the quilt that she started nearly 20 years ago and that she intends to finish with the help of this "quiltalong".

I also want to thank everyone else who helped by making suggestions about my quilt centre, and the tips we were given about starching everything.  (I'm still not sure if we have to starch ourselves though before we start cutting!)

The next Lone Star day will be on the first Saturday of February (which I think is 4 February), when Jayne will be the hostess.

Lone Star Day - post 4

I did say I'd talk about the books I have that are all about Lone Star quilts.

The first one I bought was Radiant Star Quilts by Eleanor Burns.  I bought this last September (I've been planning this for some time, as you will gather).  I wasn't over-inspired by the quilts, but the instructions seem quite good, although I did find the layout a bit confusing and I had to read through the whole book a couple of times before I "got" it.

Then a friend, Tessie's Mum, showed me All-Star Quilts by Helen Frost and Blanche Young.  The quilts in this book are just wonderful and the instructions were far easier to understand straight away.  I fell in love with one of the quilts in there, but I thought I'd better remember the old saying about not running before I can walk, so I'm not doing that one just yet.

Bilbo Waggins highly recommends Jan Krentz' book called Lone Star Quilts and Beyond.  I haven't seen this book myself, but I have seen pictures of some of the quilts in it and they look fabulous.






 Don't forget, if you are posting anything about your own Lone Star quilt plans, please do sign in on the Linky, here, so we can all visit and see what you're up to.

Lone Star day - post 3

I guess I should have said that I have not tested the instructions in the links I gave in the previous post, and therefore can give no guarantee as to their correctness.  They do look OK though on a quick glance!

This gorgeous quilt has been made by my friend BilboWaggins (aka Queen of the Spray Starch Can).  This is the only Lone Star quilt she has made so far, but she has b i i i g  plans for another one.  Don't go rushing over to her blog though to look for quilt inspirations, fabrics, or even the tiniest little piece of thread showing.  She moved into a new house a couple of years ago, with a huge garden that needed totally revamping.  She reckons that's her excuse for not having done any quilting lately.  Personally, I think she's just being lazy!

I know the one tip she would want to share with us though is to starch everything!  I wonder if we have to spray ourselves and our cutters too?

Don't forget to Link here, if you're writing about your Lone Star adventures.  Dinner needs more attention, so I'll be back in a while to talk about books.

Lone Star day, post 2

Hello again.

Sorry to be late back from lunch. You can blame my daughter, Mrs Nomad, who called in for a coffee and gossip! Anyway, as I promised, here are some links to free patterns for this quilt.

• The first one, here, was supplied by Elizabeth from Sand and Sunshine.  She has already started her quilt, and has discovered an error in the pattern, which she writes about on her blog.  Thanks for the input Elizabeth, that's just the sort of information I was hoping we'd be able to share on these days.

I found all the following by just googling something like "free Lone Star patterns"

• Kaye Wood's Shimmering Star .  This one does make sense, but you need to read it carefully to see what she means in one or two places.
• All People Quilt have a pattern for a quilt, here with a Lone Star in the centre, surrounded by LeMoyne Stars, but the Lone star is strip pieced.
• Free Patterns.com have a section where someone asks for an easy strip pieced Lone Star pattern, and if you click on this link, you can scroll down until you get to the question and the answer.

They are all for strip pieced versions.  I am sure there are also free patterns for anyone who really wants to cut out individual diamonds and sew them together, but for myself I would prefer to do it this way.

I must go and get the dinner on, then I'll be back and will tell you about a couple of books with great patterns in.

Don't forget, you can link your posts here, and feel free to take the button from my sidebar too, if you would like to help spread the word.

Welcome to …

... the first Lone Star Quiltalong Day.  As I said in my previous post, here, this is not a conventional quiltalong, more of a mutual support group.  So, no instructions, no deadlines, no anything else really.  I hope people will join us, sign up to the Linky below, and write about their experience with this pattern.

Today I am not sewing, because I only ordered the fabrics yesterday - yes, OK, stop muttering about the lack of planning.  It's ordered now OK?  I couldn't do it before, cos I only finalised the design I plan to work on yesterday.

Here is the design I've come up with.  Actually, to be precise, here are the designs I've come up with.  They are both the same, but I can't decide whether to have a dark centre star or a light one.  One book I've read says you should always have a light one, so the light seems to radiate out from it and that you should never have a dark one cos it looks like a black hole, and the other book says exactly the opposite.  I like them both, so I thought I'd ask you for some help.  Which of the two looks better?
         
Later on (after I've had lunch) I'll come back and tell you about some pattern sources I've found, and I hope you'll all chip in there too.

Remember this ...

The quilt I asked you all to help me overcome the urge to make?

Yes, well, you were no help at all!  In fact, you were quite the opposite.

Quite a few of you even said that you would make one too, if I would run a quiltalong for it.

Well, thanks.  I thought you were meant to be my friends.

Then Jayne, from Jayne's Quilting Room encouraged me even more by saying that she would like to help host this mad project, sooo, here's what we are proposing:

1. We will not be providing patterns or instructions, but we will try to suggest places where patterns are available;
2. You can write posts about your progress on your blog, and then sign in to a Linky on one of our blogs on the first Saturday of the month, so we can see each other's progress (or not);
3. There are no other rules/timescales/competitions/etc. except Rule 4 below; 
4. You have to encourage me cos I think I might struggle with this quilt.

I have put a button on my sidebar, with the code underneath for anyone who wants to help spread the word.

Now, I'm off to try and choose and order some fabrics, decide on the final design, etc.  I will have the linky here on Saturday, when I will also do a post showing what I've decided.

So, who's going to join us I wonder?  Or have you all thought better of it now?

Happy New Year ...

... to everybody.  I hope 2012 is good to you all.

We had a great Christmas, with lots of family time, food, laughter, etc.  I think we're getting old though, cos last night we could barely keep our eyes open long enough to see in the new year!  We did manage to stay awake long enough to watch the firework display from London on the TV and it was fantastic.

Oh noooo ...

....

There I was the other night, Mr Fixit was out, there was nothing on TV, just the perfect evening to wrap Christmas presents I thought. So I put some suitable music on, got things organised, wrapped the first couple of things, and then realised something.  I had forgotten to buy any gift labels.  Without them I could still wrap everything, but I wouldn't have a clue later which package was for whom.  That could have made for an interesting Christmas Day couldn't it?

Last night ...

... I went late night shopping with Mrs Nomad.

We try to have this girly-Christmassy expedition to a fairly big shopping mall near us every year.  We always start with a visit to the chocolate fountain, where we have strawberries dipped in the warm chocolate.  We get very messy and sticky at this point.  Then we do our shopping.  We make sure that we only need one or two things, so it becomes more about the social side,  then we finish off with some sort of coffee or hot chocolate drink with loads of cream.  Yummy.  This year - disaster.  The chocolate fountain wasn't there!

Oh well, we'll just have to do the shopping then.  I didn't need very much, just one or two stocking-filler types of presents.  I'm not sure if I had a successful outing or not, cos the only thing(s) I bought were these.  Happy Christmas to Me!

On another topic, I have just seen that my bloggy pal Lynn has entered a quilt, called "Untitled" into the Quilting Gallery's contest this week.  It is a beautiful quilt, and you can see more about it if you go here and scroll down the post a little.  I know she'd be thrilled if you went and voted for her, here.

So how does this work then ...

... this weekend I decided it was time to write the Christmas cards.

I got the cards out, I printed off all the addresses, I put them all on the table and went off to make coffee.  Along comes Mr Fixit, who sees the cards and says "Oh great.  I'll just write mine first, then you can do yours."

Mr Fixit writes cards to 3 particular friends of his. So can you explain to me how come the ones I write to everyone else, friends or family, are "mine"?

Bilbo told me today that I have to put a photo of my Christmas tree on my blog, so here it is.  It actually looks far better in real life.  The lights are all small, so they are not showing up properly in the picture.

Here is a picture of my new "Christmas tree" too.  I went out to buy a small tree to put in the bay window in the lounge.  This is what I came home with!

Christmas QAL Party - Post 4

OK It's now 8.30 here, so I'm about to settle in front of the TV with my stitching, but before I go, I would like to do two things.

First I want to thank Cathi for volunteering to co-host the QALs this year.  When she did this, she did not realise just how successful her business was going to be.  Despite being so busy, she did a great job as a host.  Thanks Cathi.

Secondly, I must thank everyone who joined us this year.  It has been great fun and I have met some lovely new people who I now call friends.

Thirdly (OK, I can't count, can I?) I want to tell you about the Christmas QAL plans for 2012.  As you know, we asked for people to act as guest hosts, and have been delighted with the responses.  We will have a different host each month, which will be great fun I think.  The QAL's will still be held on the 2nd Saturday of each month, and will run from February to December.  Here is the list of our hosts:

• February: Hazel at Hazel's Quilts
• March: Joanna at Needle, Thread, Happiness
• April: Lesley at The Cuddle Quilter
• May: Lynn at Sew'n Wild Oaks
• June: Paulette at Sweet P Quilting & Creations
• July: Sharon at Vroomans Quilts
• August: Cathi at Shakerwood Quilts
• September: Maureen at A Quilt Complex
• October: Elizabeth at Sand and Sunshine
• November: Janet at Caribou Crossing Chronicles
• December: Me, here

I'm sure our new hosts will have lots of fun planned for us, and I'm looking forward to travelling to different places for our QALs.

So, I'll see you in February if not before.

Don't forget to sign up for the party here by the way.

Christmas QAL Party - Post 3

It's time I showed you all what I achieved during the Christmas QAL days.  This will be a photo-heavy post I think.

 This flimsy is a Christmas present for myself.  I have always wanted to make a Drunkards Path quilt, but was put off by the cutting of all those curves.  Then I got my Go! cutter and borrowed the DP die from my friend QuiltHaze and the cutting was done so quickly it was great.  This is still a flimsy, but I have made the backing and the binding, so it's all ready for quilting now..

 This is my version of Scatty Christmas stars, which I know quite a few of you have been making.  I'm ashamed to say that mine is still unquilted, although the backing and binding are ready and I've even cut the wadding for it!

This is my Christmas Wreaths quilt.  I saw the pattern Over and Under in Kim's book (Scrap Basket Sensations) and knew I had just the right fabrics for it.  Guess what though?  It's not yet quilted, even though the backing, wadding and binding are ready.

All of my snowmen have been put together in a quilt top,

which I'm ashamed to say is still not finished.

 This little quilt has been finished and sent off to a friend.  I hope she likes it.

 Another one finished and on its way.

 This is also a present which is in the post.

 I decided to treat myself to a wreath topper too.  I will hopefully finish this one today.

 These cute little stitcheries are probably going to become a couple of wall hangings.  The patterns were from Lesley Boost She issued a pattern each week as a sewalong.  Thanks so much Lessley.

Finally, this is what I intend to work on this evening. This is a pattern from Michelle and the rabbits.







Crikey, just writing this, I am exhausted! I must confess, I am seeing a bit of a pattern here though.  Perhaps I should make next year the Year of the Finishes?

Don't forget to join the party by signing up here.

Christmas QAL Party - post 2

I saw this and thought you might all enjoy it too.  

 Don't forget to sign up for the Christmas party here.

Christmas Quiltalong party

Just write your post showing all the wonderful things you've been creating during the 2011 Christmas Quiltalong days, sign in with your blog address on the Linky-thingy here, get your party frock on, and follow me as we dance along to visit everyone else who's signed up. La, la, la, la, la, la, LA ....

Tomorrow ...

...  is party day.

Just write a post with photos of what you've been working on during the Christmas Quiltalong days this year, and sign into the Linky which I will put on my blog tomorrow.

Then off we go in our best party frocks, to have fun....

Where have I been ...

... and what was I doing while I was there?  I have been so quiet that I just know you're all wondering.  I've even had a couple of emails from people and a phone call from my friend Bilbo, to check that I was OK. Thanks for caring enough to be worried.

Well, to be honest, I've been around, but very busy.  Every day almost for the past 3 weeks, I've had appointments ranging from hairdresser to Financial Advisors, shopping (food, not Christmas) to waiting for various repairmen to turn up and do their thing. I've also had a few days down south to go to Little Person's school Christmas concert.

Speaking of the repairmen reminds me, we had to pay a call out charge of £91 for someone to come and fix a broken burner on my cooker.  When he turned up, he was not in the house for more than 5 minutes - that works out at £1092 per hour!  I think I was in the wrong business when I worked, I could have earned a fortune as a cooker fixer-upper!

Now I'm back, and hopefully, normal service will be resumed.

Christmas Quilts.

Woohoo, SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show is open, so here are my entries.

This first quilt could be considered a shameless plug for my book, Pick Four!

It is one I designed for the book and was made and quilted by my friends Lis and Drew.  Almost every woman would love to be given diamonds as a present, but I also had a wish for a red and gold Christmas quilt, so I called this design Diamonds for Christmas.

 This close up shows the gorgeous quilting that Lis did, using a gold thread.

The other quilt I want to show is this one, called Christmas Wreaths, which I made during our 2011 Christmas Quiltalong days.  As soon as I saw this design (called Over and Under) in Scrap Basket Sensations, by Kim Bracket I  imagined it done in red.  I had hoped to have it quilted before the show, but that has not happened, so I'll show it as a flimsy.  Hopefully if you come back in a couple of weeks I'll have it quilted, bound and displayed on a chair.

I hope you are enjoying all the wonderful quilts that will be on show, thank you for visiting, and thanks too to SewCalGal for organising the show and to the generous sponsors who have donated some great prizes. Don't forget to visit SewCalGal here to see the details of how you could win a prize just by looking at quilts, voting for your favourite, etc.

Christmas Quilt Show

... yes, it's that time again.  Tomorrow sees the start of SewCalGal's annual Christmas Quilt Show.  The show is not a competition, and any one can enter quilts of any size (even those you haven't had time to make yet but have designed in EQ6 or EQ7).

Be warned though, there will be loads of great quilts to look at, and you will not get much else done while the show's on.  (Hmm, wonder how I know that?)  Although the show is a competition, there are prizes to be won.

So, I hope to see you at the show some time next week.  To get there, click on the button on my sidebar.

Happy ...

... Thanksgiving to all my American friends.

One day last week ...

... J and F came over for a playday, and just look at what they did:

F set to work making coasters, and I love the fabrics she chose.

J started this table topper, which she finished off at home.

She must have enjoyed making it, cos she's started another one.








As well as becoming a brilliant quiltmaker my the way, J also bakes fantastic cakes, and we enjoyed a wonderful coffee cake this time, sorry, it's all gone so no photos of that!

They both also wanted to say thanks so much to the people who generously sent some markers for them to try.  They will be playing with those and have promised to report back through my blog soon.