TAST again

Well I would love to say that this little seahorse is mine but that would be a humungous lie.  I just pinched him from Sharon B's blog Pin Tangle and if you click on him it will take you there.  Now why did I flog him and am I sending you there you may ask?  Well the reason is obvious.. there is something fantastic happening over there!!!

Starting January 3rd Sharon will be hosting  a stitching program called Take a Stitch on Tuesday (TAST for short).  In case you don't already know about Sharon she is a superb embroiderer.. the little seahorse is just one of her fantastic samples you can feast upon if you go to her site.  Anyway in an attempt to spread the enjoyment one gets from embroidery Sharon is going to be introducing a new stitch every week for a whole year.  She not only shows you how to  make the stitch she also shows you some variations and from her blog you will find links to many other people who are also joining in. what inspiration. 

I started TAST a few years ago and so am already up to lesson 11.  Yes I know that isn't even three months in but this time I will make it further.  Anyway click on the link and join in.

On my Mind

Well I have decided to join in on another blog activity.  Rhonda whose blog Down to Earth is just full of home made solutions for everything you can think of has an activity called simply 'on my mind'.  Every Friday.. or any Friday that you can get around to it you simply take a photo of something which is on your mind and write about it. 

So today on my mind is this little scissor fob which I made about a year ago.  I have felt like getting back into stitching for a while and although my stitching is only simple I love it.

Richard and by lines

My youngest son, Richard has a delightful sense of humour and it is always interesting to read his by lines from his email.

This poster is his latest.  I don't know why he chose it but it makes me smile.

World Capitals

Yes I must agree with what several visitors to my blog said.  It is amazing how poor our general knowledge is of other places in the world.  When asked what was the capital of Canada, I thought, "Nasty!"  Why?  Because of course I had no idea.  I am the same as many of the visitors to my blog and simply assumed that the capital must be the only large place that I knew in the country.... Vancouver.... and I was of course WRONG.  The capital of Canada, is in fact Ottowa.

My knowledge of the world has improved over the past few years, no thanks to my own research or the net but thanks to the fact that I have two sons who are studying overseas and who have traveled extensively... but it is sadly still lacking.

Thank you to all of you who had a guess at our capital.. which is Canberra and which was chosen  for the fact that it wasn't Sydney or Melbourne and in fact was built about halfway between those two major cities and placed in its own territory just so that it didn't lie in either of the two major states of the time also... good reasons...hmmm!

Blog Tour winners

Although I am still waiting for the Australian blog tour winner to respond to my email I have received a response from an excited Janis Truesdell   from Oregon who was the overseas winner.
Congratulations Janis and thank you to Quiltmaker for their generous support with sending Janis her own copy of the latest 100 Blocks magazine.  I am certain Janis will enjoy it as much as I have already..hopefully she does more than simply oogle and hope to make some of the wonderful blocks,which is usually all that I achieve :)

Yvonne's Mystery

Yes here it is my block from volume 4 of Quiltmakers 100 Blocks, Yvonne's Mystery.  Yvonne is one of my students who after making several of my quilt designs wanted to make of Flying Geese.  Figuring this was too easy for her I offered to design her a quilt which incorporated the Flying Geese.  

Her first lesson was paper piecing of Wild Goose Chase, which is simply four rows of Flying Geese all flying into the middle or out to the corners of a block which is placed on the diagonal. After successfully completing those blocks I then showed her the next part of the design.  Although I had planned it to be as per my block Yvonne preferred more blue in her design and so we changed some of the value placements, resulting in a more traditional Feathered Star.  Next was the simple sashing and the cornerstones of nine patch were Margaret's idea.  

Hasn't the whole quilt come up beautifully? And pretty good for someone who has only been quilting three years.

Now there are two copies of Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 4 to be won. If you live in Australia simply leave a comment with your name and a guess as to the closing date for entries in Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Volume 5..... one clue it has already past... yes there will be another of these great magazines being published in six months... what a top resource if you have them all.  
Btw you are still able to buy copies of the previous issues from www.quiltmaker.com
If you are non-Australian please leave a comment to the post below.
Good luck and thank you for visiting my blog..

Non- Australian's chance to win a copy of 100 blocks

Only if you are NOT Australian would you mind answering this question...without looking up any sites... I am not interested in knowing if you actually know but I am interested in knowing HOW MANY non-Australians can correctly name the capital of Australia.

My son works for the United Nations, which one would assume would know minor things about the countries of the world.  Anyway his girlfriend is doing a job interview and asked could they please change the location from Afghanistan to Australia as she will be here when they are due to be held.  She was told OK, she could do it in ......... , the capital of Australia.  Yes you guessed it they gave the wrong city.  This city is often listed as the capital of Australia and so I am curious which city/cities non-Australians think is our capital.

Leave you guess below to be in the running to win your copy of Quiltmakers latest fantastic 100 Blocks magazine.  If you don't know you can write that also.  If you don't wish your response to be published just tell me in your comment, you will still be in the draw for the magazine.

Or if you prefer you may simply click on one of the options  in the panel beside and then leave your name below.  I am unable to get the text colour to change for the options but if you highlight them you will see three of the most common options.

Thanks and good luck

100 Blocks Volume 4 tour starts today

Well here it is the first day of the 100 Blocks Volume 4 blog tour.  Check out the main page by clicking the button and it will take you to a list of today's featured blogs, where you have a chance to win your own copy of the magazine.  

Don't forget to also leave a comment on Quiltmakers own blog as they have a fantastic draw at the end of the week with amazing prizes from each of the sponsors.

Check back here on Friday for my give away and also a photo of what one of my students did with my/her block..... it really was her bock as I designed it for her when she wanted to make a quilt with Flying Geese.

Shifting Sands

Well another 1600 quilt.  This is in fact the only one for which I actually bought a regular jelly roll.  It was also my first attempt at following the instructions... I ended up changing a few here and there as I didn't like some and then I found out a few more errors, like how you have many similar colours lining up together.  I was able to remove some of these by cutting the strip apart and rejoining but even better I figured out how to line up the fabrics before sewing so as to minimise the problem.  If you check out last Friday's blog post Hilde's Camels you will see that I have a more even spread of the colours.  Mind you I still like this one, particularly how the borders turned out, they are in reality straight and even... I am a better quilter than I am a photographer:)

My binding will be the same colours as the first border and the purple really stands out so it should provide a good contrast.

I am really enjoying getting back to blogging.  It is a pity when life gets in the way of fun.