Thursday 21 December 2006

A Finish

Look! I tied it! I loved doing it so much that I am going to tie the rest of them. There is a errrrr doh though! Found a new way of doing the binding and just went full steam ahead, without thinking. The binding is on back to front, but the general concensus of opinion here is that it looks good that way. Oh how I love that backing fabric.

Monday 18 December 2006

Christmas Greetings

Seasons Greetings to family, friends and all my new pals in Blogland. May 2007 be the year that us quilters get our UFO's finished! With love, Clare, Rex and Alexandra xxx

Friday 15 December 2006

Hold the Front Page

I was just about to sign off for the day and then heard this on the radio. Fascinating.

Essuie-Tout

or kitchen roll! Isn't it great! Since when does one put beer in crepes! One Christmas tradition in this house is the making of chocolate walnuts. Alex and I are going to start making them this weekend. I am putting the quilt away and will be sitting at the kitchen table all day today cracking walnuts, literally, hoping they come out in halves and not itzy bits which are useless for dipping in chocolate.

Thursday 14 December 2006

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

You Are a Bow
You don't think of it as the holiday season - you think of it as the present season!

Blocks Required

I need more blocks! My sister Sophie has a few people waiting for their own special quilt and I have enough blocks for probably another 2 or 3 quilts. Anyone going to come to my rescue?

Free Piecing Crazy Scraps Challenge

An addendum to the previous post. The instructions for Tonya's lowercase letters have now been uploaded onto Quiltville. They can be viewed here.

Yesterday's Photos

Both taken from our balcony and it looks as if it is going to be the same this morning. Time to bring the Lemon Tree in and wrap the plants up I think.

Wednesday 13 December 2006

Pèrigord Vert Matin

We had our first proper frost last night - only a month late! The sky is bright blue, but oh my is it cold! Ha! Blogger isn't playing today - photo will be uploaded as soon as Blogger lets me. In the meantime, sewing and quilting are on the back burner. Yesterday was spent Christmas shopping, today is being spent wrapping the presents, although I can't do Alex's as she is at home this afternoon. We are about to go into Brantome for a quick supermarket shop and to see if there are any decent sized cardboard boxes in the box bin for Christmas Hamper pressies. Deciding to go back home for Christmas is turning out to be a bit expensive LOL.

Tuesday 12 December 2006

Sophie's Quilt II

Thanks to all for your comments and ideas on this. To be honest, having never machine quilted I am petrified of practising on this quilt. So I'm going to duck out and do as Fiona has suggested - tie it. Should be interesting and it gives me an excuse to go out and buy some more embroidery thread!! Talking of which, buying thread has overtaken buying material, but now that I have quit Kim's Fabric Diet for December, its spend up time! May as well make the most of it - it's only for December.

Monday 11 December 2006

My Cherries

Sorry girls. They've got to go. This template is driving me nuts! If and when Pannasmontata gets her act together I will go back to it, but for the moment I'm going back to Minima. And whilst on the subject of templates, I have found a useful site for advice on customising the Beta templates - Christine's Blog Templates.

Sophie's Quilt

I'm stuck! I really really don't know what to do with this now. It looks so lovely that I dare not quilt it. Anyone any ideas on how I should machine quilt this, having never machine quilted in my life! And what about the backing material? Javerlhac were selling it off at 5 Euro a meter. I got 1.5 meters and might be going back to see if they have still got it. I love it!

Friday 8 December 2006

Wooo Hoooo

Done it! Went to my Dashboard this morning and Blogger had decided overnight to let me join Beta. AND my cherries have come with me! Just going to check if the Leukaemia blog is ok and then carry on doing the top for Sophie's quilt.

Thursday 7 December 2006

If you can't say something nice ........

then don't say it! Kim at Peach Quilting has been on her soap box about people leaving anonymous and not very nice comments on fellow quilter's blogs. I don't want to have to turn off the anonymous comments, but I will if you leave any nasty comments here.

Free Piecing Crazy Scraps Challenge

Here we go then! Something to chase away those January blue's which tend to set in after the New Year celebrations. 1. Must be scraps only - nothing from the stash unless it is a "scrap". I suppose FQ's count, but the material mustn't be bought especially for this quilt. 2. No design - go where the scraps want to go. 3. No specific colours. 4. Any size (table runner - small table cloth - cot quilt - wall hanging). 5. Must include Tonya's letters, either upper or lowercase (instructions for the lower case letters can be found on her blog). 6. Must be quilted by hand. I am going to quilt this using Tonya's Fantabulous Fans and shall probably stitch the letters in the ditch. 7. No time limit. What you do with the quilt is entirely up to you. I am keeping this one. Thought it is about time I made something for myself! So what do you think? Oui ou non?

Wednesday 6 December 2006

And Then There Were Nine!

This is for Tamzin and Tom! Huge huge congratulations on your engagement - I'm going to have to find a space for Tom on Ma's quilt now!

Monday 4 December 2006

I Don't Like Monday's !!

Back again. Up and running with a super French keyboard (excuse spelling mistakes) and a much faster machine. Thanks to U.N and Xian for helping me to set it up. November Goals - Family Quilt finished, Sunburst still being cut, 2 rows sashed for Sophie's quilt and I'm working on a surprise to keep you occupied when the winter blues set in. I hope to finish the top by the end of this week, so keeping watching. I think some of you may like it!

Saturday 2 December 2006

AWOL

Old computer has finally decided it has had enough. We purchased a new one on Thursday, only to take it straight back on Friday as the hard disc was not "attached" and the computer wouldn't boot up. So, I am in the process of backing up the new computer before moving over a whole load of stuff from old computer. New computer doesn't have a modem yet (its built for ADSL (sniff)) so am keeping in touch with the www and blogs via old computer. Am I making sense? Probably not! Kim - I have reloaded the html from the old, saved template and hope it works. Everytime I log into Q 4 P there is no code in the box. I have tried mailing you, but Comcast is bouncing mail. The internet has been really weird these last few days - nearly every single mail I send has bounced, and it's not jut me either! Will write more as soon as I can. In the meantime, I will update on November goals, December goals and some "hot gossip" soon. Keep warm and have a great quilting weekend!