Did someone ...

... say it's only 211 days until Christmas?

Aaaggghhhh.

Vote NOW ...

The voting is now open at the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  To visit all the categories and vote for your favourites, just go here.  While you're browsing around and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over all the wonderful entries, don't forget that you can also nominate one quilt for the Viewers' Choice award. Don't forget, there's prizes too, just for voting!

 

Bloggers' Quilt Festival, part two.

Here I am again, this time with my entry for the bed quilts category of Amy's quilt festival.

This quilt started as a mystery quilt from a shop in the UK.  I am sorry, I can't remember the name of the designer, but it may have been Debbie Caffrey.

When I had finished the centre I really, really did not like this quilt. So, it got put away, and it languished at the back of a cupboard for about 5 years, unloved, and unwanted.  Then one day, it jumped out of the cupboard, yelling "Look at me.  Look at me"  So I looked.  Then I fell in love with it and had to finish it.

Once I had finished making the blocks for the centre, I knew I wanted it to be a bigger quilt than it was originally meant to be, but that gave me a problem.  I did not have any fabric left over from the blocks to make any more, so I was going to have to add borders.  Another problem - I had bought the fabrics a long time ago, and they were no longer available.  So, off I went to the LQS, blocks in hand, to see if I could find anything similar.  How lucky was I?  Look, I found some tone-on-tone fabrics that were almost a perfect mix, so I put borders on and finished the quilt.

Here's a close-up of the quilting, which also helps to show off the close match of the border fabrics.

I used a plain fabric on the back, which I usually do as that means I have 2 quilts for the price of one, the backing looking just like a wholecloth quilt.

I love this side of the quilt too.

Quilt Stats:

• quilt size: king size
• quilted using a pale yellow thread with a 4-leaf clover all over pattern with the help of Big Bertha and my robotic LA system.

To see the other quilts in the Bed quilts category, and to choose your favourite for the Viewers' Choice quilt, just go here.

OK, I couldn't resist ...

... Amy from AmysCreativeSide.com is currently holding the 5th Bloggers' Quilt Festival, which is a great event with loads of chances to look at some wonderful quilts and maybe win some wonderful prizes too.  You don't even have to have a quilt entered in the show in order to win - how good is that?

This year you can enter two quilts, in different categories, so, of course, I just had to enter one in the throw and one in the bed quilt categories.

My entry for a throw is my Crazy Christmas Trees quilt. 

Of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't alter the pattern a bit, and with this one I decided to add borders, which the original did not have.  Doing that meant that I didn't have enough backing fabric, and so I decided to really step out of my comfort zone, and make a pieced backing.  I then thought I'd make it even more difficult for myself and settled on inserting a pieced strip diagonally.  

Once January had come to an end, I reluctantly decided that my Crazy Christmas Trees had to be put away  but couldn't decide what to replace it with.  Then I realised that February is Valentine month, so I really should have a red quilt.  So what did I do?  Turned Crazy Christmas Trees over!  Simple.  I have a reversible quilt that I am very happy with.  Mind you, it had been like this for several days before Mr Fixit looked at it one evening and said "when did you make that quilt?"  It's good to have someone so observant around!

 and here is a close up of a couple of the blocks, so you can see the quilting. 

Quilt facts

• Quilt measures 64" x 82" approx - almost a single bed size I guess
• More than 30 FQ's were used in the making of this quilt!
• LA quilted by me (with the help of Big Bertha, my robotic LA system)
• Quilting pattern is called Square Spirals

This quilt is everything I thought I didn't like, ie quite scrappy and with a pieced backing.  Well, you know what?  I was wrong, I don't just like this quilt, I LOVE it!

Now if you go here, you can see all the other entries in the Throw quilts category, and don't forget to start deciding on which ones you would like to nominate for the Viewer's Choice quilts in each category.

My face ...

... must have been a picture.  "Why?" I hear you asking.  Well I'll tell you.

Today Mr Fixit and I went to a carvery for lunch.

I had roast pork, and with it came a piece of crackling.  Yummy, I love crackling.  Anyway, I saved it till the end, but was really disappointed to find that I could not break it with my knife and fork, and it was too big to eat all in one piece.  So Mr Fixit said "put it on my plate then" when I whinged about it.  Thinking what a chivalrous gentleman he was to break it up for me, I did just that.  Guess what he did?  He ate it!!!!  I could not believe it.

So that's why I said my face must have been a picture.

If you're going to San Francisco ....

.... Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair"  says the 1960's song.  Well, I'm going to have to go and buy some flowers cos I AM going to San Francisco (actually a few miles outside it) in September.

I am going to visit the Lovely Lynn, who blogs over at Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting.  Woohoo.

I have wanted to visit California for ever I think - certainly since Mr Fixit went on business a few times in the late 70's and Lynn has invited me to visit several times, so I have decided that now the time is right. Yippee.

Lynn and I have never met in person, but have become good friends thanks to the internet - you know how sometimes you "talk" to someone, and just know that they are going to become close friends.  Well that's just how it was for us (well it was for me, I shouldn't speak for Lynn should I?)  We have some fun things planned while I am there, including going to the Quilting in the Garden quilt show. I bet there's going to be lots of talking and laughing too.  Whoopie.

Yesterday I booked and paid for my air tickets, so now it's really, really real.

I am so excited, but I don't suppose you can really tell, can you?

Quilting slump no more ....

I hope ....

For the last month or so I've been in a complete quilting slump.  I just didn't want to quilt   I couldn't go near my sewing machine. My mojo had just completely disappeared.  This was made worse by guilty feelings about all the WIPs I have at the moment.

Yesterday I went to my friend J's for the day, and the plan was to sew our little fingers to the bones.  (Don't worry, there was also going to be gossip and food involved!)  I decided I'd quilt a table topper the day before so I could hand sew the binding down while I was there, since I knew that J would want to work on a special quilt she's making.

Anyway, over the coffee and choccie biccies that are an essential start to our days, we started talking, and it turns out that J was feeling rather the same.

That's when we had a light-bulb moment.

We both had the same problem - we were feeling completely overwhelmed by the number of projects that we had on the go at the same time.

So we came up with a solution - we were not going to start anything new until we had actually finished a few things.

So J got out her first ever quilt, which only needed binding, and she cut and sewed binding strips together and then sewed them onto the quilt.  Now she will sew the binding down on the back, and that will be a finished quilt. (There will be photos in a couple of weeks, when it's finished - it's a stunning quilt.)  I sewed the binding on my table topper, then I took it all off cos I had not done it carefully enough, so I had cut off every single point.  This morning I sewed it back on, and now it just needs sewing down.  (I've just pinned it to the back for now so I could take a photo to prove to J that I had done it!)

So now I'll move on to something else, which will probably be my Country Charmer quilt, but may be my Diamond Drops, or I may finish another couple of table toppers.  I don't know yet, but what I do know is that all of a sudden I want to sew again.

Honey I'm home ...

Hello everyone.  Did you miss me?

We had a great holiday, with lots of these

  

loads of views like these

and plenty of views like this (except the plate was not on it's side - thanks Blogger!)

Now all the washing and ironing is done and I'm back to having to cook meals, make the bed, etc.

So now it's confession time.  Today is this month's Linky party for the Country Charmer QAL, where we are all making a quilt designed by Lynn, over here and I know that before I went on holiday I did at least one more block, but do you think I could find it today to take its photo?  Nope.  So no photo, sorry.  However, to have a look at what other people have been up to, then just go to see Lesley, our hostess, over at The Cuddle Quilter, here.

Woohoo ....

Okay, am I the only one? ...

I've cleaned the house from top to bottom, all the washing and ironing is done, I've changed all the bedding and there are clean towels everywhere,

What's going on?

Well, we're off on a steam train holiday tomorrow, and I always worry that any burglars who broke in might think I'm a really bad housewife if I didn't leave the house looking good.

Handy Household Hints 2 & 3....

.... here is the next in my series (well OK, I have written one before) of Handy Household Hints.

Handy Hint 1
If you are planning to pour some disinfectant down the drainpipe in your shower room, do not leave a dark red bath mat right in the firing line, otherwise you will end up with a two-tone mat like this:

Handy Hint 2

Do not simply turn the mat over and then do the same thing again, 

Bloglovin vs Feedly - part 2

A couple of weeks ago, I told you I couldn't decide if I wanted to use Bloglovin or Feedly to help me keep up with what everyone's up to out there in the big wide bloggyworld, so I said I was going to run with both of them for a while and then make a decision.

I have decided.  I have found that for me, Bloglovin is more convenient for various reasons and here are my conclusions:

Bloglovin

•  It was very easy to transfer the information from Google Reader, but I did lose the groups I had things sorted into although it was very easy to put things back into the groups I had used before
• I liked that I could click on a post and comment on it from within Bloglovin, rather than having to go to the actual blog to leave a comment
• When I had read a post it was greyed out, which made it very easy to see my list and see what I had/had not read
• It was easy to mark an individual post or a complete blog as read
• I found the whole site easy to navigate
• I love the option to have a daily email showing the new posts

Feedly

• It was easy to transfer the information and it kept the groups
• I did not find the site so easy to navigate, although once I worked it out I liked the layout options

So there you have it.  I promised several people that I would post my thoughts (only about these 2 sites, nothing else!)   Now for the small print:  These are only my thoughts and conclusions, someone else might think completely differently about the whole subject.

So, having made my decision, I have now put one of Bloglovin's cute little buttons at the top of my sidebar to make it really easy for anyone who wants to, to follow me this way.  It looks like this,

and all you have to do is click on it,  so go on, you know you want to!

There has also been some confusion about whether you will loose your blog if you don't sign up to one of these readers.  As far as I know, that won't happen, although I am now seeing vague suggestions that our follower lists might disappear, which is why I have put this button on the blog.  I am not sure if my followers will disappear into thin air or not, but I would hate to lose someone, so I thought this might help.

Oh my word ...

... it's already 1 April, which means it's time for the Country Charmer quilt update.

If you remember, the Country Charmer quilt was designed by Lovely Lynn, over at Sew'n Wild Oaks, and this do-it-at-your own-pace quiltalong is being hosted by Laissez-faire Lesley the Cuddle Quilter.

So, what I have been up to this month?  Well previously, I was cutting the pieces for one block, then sewing it together before cutting for the next block as this seemed to work best for me as a non-scrappy quilter.  Then I had a brainwave.  Why not cut one set of pieces from each fabric I planned to use, then use the layout sheet to mix and match them up for a block and put the block in a bag, then repeat for another block and carry on until I had all the blocks I needed.  This is when I had another light-bulb moment.  I remembered that Mr Fixit had made me a cutting table of sorts a couple of years ago which I had not been using cos I'd forgotten about it.  I knew that my back would just not put up with the sort of cutting marathon my plan was going to involve so I asked him to set it up for me, then off I went, wielding my rotary cutter at the speed of light and ending up with this:

which soon became this

then all those little piles went into their own bags.  Now all I have to do when I want to work on the quilt is pick up one bag, and I'm ready to start sewing.  While the table was up by the way I also cut out another quilt and several smaller projects, which is my way of trying to explain why I have not made much progress on the blocks this month.  This is where I am so far though, and I still love the quilt.

Our hostess, Lesley is having a Linky party today, so to see more Country Charmer quilts in progress, just hop over to here.

Bloglovin? Feedly?

... which should I choose?

         

As you probably know by now, Google Reader is disappearing in  a few months, so I decided I'd better try and get to grips with another reader before it goes completely.  Question was, which reader?  It seemed to me I had two choices, either Bloglovin or Feedly. 

I am the type of person who learns more from using something rather than just reading about it (and yes, I am also the person for whom the phrase "if all else fails, read the instructions" was invented) so I am currently conducting a test.  I am running both systems in parallel for a few weeks to see which I prefer.

So far there does not seem to be much to choose between them, but there are a couple of niggles I have with Bloglovin.  Firstly, from what I can see, any posts which I have not read after a couple of weeks will disappear from my reading list.  This is not really a problem, but it might be if I found myself in the middle of the Sahara with no electricity or internet access for a month - not at all likely, where would I be able to plug in my hair straighteners and sewing machine - then I might miss something really important that one of you have written.  The other thing I'm not happy with is that they tell me I must "claim my blog" (I'm not sure why, but I did what I was told, and lo and behold, there is this little button thingy that appears, that looks a bit like this:
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
and that annoys me, cos you may not want to use Bloglovin but may not realise that you can still follow in other ways.

Any way, I will carry on using both, and will report back in a couple of weeeks.

Somebody's telling porkie-pies ...

... it's spring, "they" said.  So how come, this is what I see when I look out of my window this morning?

Where are all the lovely spring flowers like daffodils, and where is the beautiful cherry blossom on the trees?  Come to think of it, I'm still waiting for the crocus and snowdrops, which should have been flowering in January and February.

See why I think someone's not telling me the truth?

Production line ...

Previously, as I worked on my Country Charmer quilt, I have been cutting the fabrics for one block at a time, but today I changed my process.  I've now every single piece cut for all the remaining blocks.  All I have to hope now is that I don't lose any pieces.

Now my legs and back are killing me and I'm looking forward to a night in front of the television with my feet up.

Once upon a time ...

... a long, long time ago, (1943 to be exact) a young sailor in the Merchant Navy, sailed across battle-torn seas, and eventually arrived in Halifax, Novia Scotia.  While he was there, he visited a cafe where he had the most wonderful pie he had ever eaten.

It was called Butterscotch Pie.  He has never forgotten the taste of it but has never seen it or eaten it since.  Now, he wants to eat it again and he has asked his daughter to make him one.

His daughter has never heard of this pie, so she hunted on Google and found a number of recipes, some with meringue on top, some without, but they all seem to be different.  So his daughter, (yes, that'll be me then) who is not a good cook, thought she'd better ask for help.  Please can anyone tell me where I can find the proper recipe for this pie?

I'm boasting ...

...  At Christmas  the Professor (DGS1) took some exams which he would normally take in June 2014 and he got his exam results yesterday:

Chemistry: B
Physics: A
Biology: A*


Of course, he got his brains from me, you understand!

Country Charmer progress ...

Due to circumstances beyond my control (I decided to go down with flu turning to a bronchitis type of thing cos I felt that it was my turn for some sympathy) progress has not been good this month. I have not even been near my sewing machine for two weeks.  Excuses, excuses!

That changed yesterday, and I made another block.  Today I am hoping to get at least two more blocks done.  This month several people have mentioned the "puzzle page" that Lynn has provided with the patterns, so I thought I'd talk about it too.

Here's a picture of it naked, and you can see that all the block pieces are shown.  The idea is that you can then cut the fabric for your block and lay them out on the sheet so you can see what your finished block will look like and also so you can keep track of the 53 pieces that are needed for one block, like this

It is such a clever idea, and I have found it very useful in helping me to decide which fabrics to use where.

Here is a picture of my progress so far.  As you can see, I've still got quite a way to go to catch up with some people, but I will get there eventually.

There are people all over the world making this quilt, called Country Charmer, designed by Lynn from Sew'n Wild Oaks.  You can buy the pattern here, and join us.  This is a very laid back sort of quiltalong, being hosted by Lesley, The Cuddle Quilter and a couple of times a month Lynn is writing a post with some handy hints and tips on things like colour choices, etc, and on the 1st of every month Lesley is holding a Linky party, so do hop over to both of them and see what's going on.  There's a Flickr group too, so as you can see, there's lots of places to go for hints, tips, encouragement and inspiration.  Thanks Lynn and Lesley.

Thank you ...

... Mary Berry.  I followed her recipe for a sponge cake, and look what happened.

For the first time ever, I have produced a Victoria sponge which looks good.  It could almost have been made by my daughter, Mrs Nomad.  Anyone for tea and cake?

Hello again ...

... thank you all so much for the help with my butter. Now I have the answer, I will be able to make all sorts of yummy looking things.  I started by making some Snickerdoodles, using Sunny's mother's recipe, which she kindly sent me.  I took some with me the next day when I went to play with my friends J and F, and we ate them all within a very short space of time, so there are no photos I'm afraid.  They were absolutely delicious, thanks Sunny,

On Saturday I went to a Sew-In day with a fairly new group called the Yorkshire Modern Quilt Guild.  This is a new group, started by my friend QuiltHaze, and a friend of hers, and this was only the second meeting of the group.  There were about 14 of us and it was great fun.  Most people had brought some show and tell items, but guess who forgot her camera?  Still, if you follow the link above, you can see photos there.  Most of the day we all worked on our own projects, chatted and ate cake - one of the members, Liz, brought some delicious cakes for us all.  I made two blocks over the course of the day, and managed to get one of them wrong!  I've shown both of them in the photo though, so you can see how they will go together to make diamonds in the quilt.  Anyone think the fabrics look familiar?