J'ai déménagé

I have moved.

My new address is

www.dordognequilter.wordpress.com

I've been tagged ...........

by Bea over at Capricorn Quilts.

So I have now got to nominate 5 blogs that inspire me from the huge amount I try to read every day (when I can connect (sniff)).

So here goes.

First, mais certainment, is TONYA. She has opened my eyes to a completely different way of quilting. None of the tricky flying geese for her. Oh no, wonky houses, wonky letters, hearts, stars, firebursts and now I see diamonds!

Second is VIVI. She has been through such a lot over the last year or so.

Third, and I think possibly this should really be the most important one, is DAVO. This boy's strength and determination to carry on, regardless, is awe inspiring. Please visit him sometime to make him laugh, take him out of himself and given him a lift - he needs it. BTW he was the recipient of the first quilt.

Fourth is SIOBHAN. Again her efforts to overcome MS and carry on as normal amaze me.

And fifth, but by no means last, is MELZIE who needs no introduction to us quilters. She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, she makes me feel sad and the next minute happy. She is one of life's survivors.

So there you have it. 3 of my 5 are quilting blogs, the other 2 aren't.

Who inspires me apart from those 5? Well, there is Finn over at Pieces from my Scrapbag, Joyce with her fantastic free piecing and a brilliant imagination, Sassenach and her amazing articles on quilt history. I could go on and on, but I won't for fear of boring you all.

See you later. I'm borrowing a friends computer who has got ADSL so I'm going to upload loads and loads of eye candy for you which will have to keep you going for the time being until I can get this blasted connection sorted.

WiP Wednesday

Same as last week I suppose, but I am on the home stretch. One more row to tie and then bind and label.

I have to confess that now the good weather is here I would prefer to be gardening than quilting, but we do have yukky April to get through yet.

However, one thing I am doing is going through my RSS feeds. I have an awful habit of just clicking on the link and looking at the last entry on a blog. If it looks interesting I will investigate further, if it doesn't I don't. So I was missing out on a whole load of interesting stuff.

What I am doing is altering the name of the blog, so instead of the feed saying, for instance, Dordogne Quilter, it will now say Clare's blog.

Belated Blog Birthday and Quilt History

Belated Happy Blog Birthday to me. Hard to believe that just over a year ago I started blogging and look at what has happened!

I'm so busy with Quilts 4 Leukaemia that I haven't got time for anything else; I have made friends with fellow quilters all over the world and hope some day to meet some of you in the flesh; my idea of quilting has changed beyond recognition thanks to a certain person; and I have well and truly amazed myself.

A big hug to each and every one of you and thanks for stopping by over the last year.

Onto the second part of the title.

As you probably know, this last weekend saw the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of the slave trade. On BBC Radio 4 on Sunday evenings there is kids programme called Go For It. Yesterday evening the programme was devoted to the slave trade. I wasn't really listening (rarely do), but suddenly heard a woman saying how quilts were used to depict safe houses for escaping slaves and contained hidden messages ( Drunkard's Path, Northern Star, etc).

Is this really true? I only ask because this topic came up on Stashbusters the other month and someone said it wasn't.

Pictures soon hopefully.

Blog Banners

Fiona has changed her blog banner (I think it looks brilliant) and mentioned the link where she found the instructions on how to do it.

I did exactly the same until last week when, after a bit of Googling, I discovered Brenda's blog and how to actually place a photo inside the border instead of creating another widget.

I tweaked it about a bit as I didn't need the URL code and other bits and pieces and the result can be seen above.

If anyone needs any help let me know. Oh and I'll let you have the HTML code too.

Template Fiddling and Bloggers

Alex wanted my blog to look like the French flag so we tried dark blue, red and white - yuk! We then went through all the blues in the customise, fonts and colours bit. A dark blue background looked good, but the post font didn't look good in red or white. So, we have come up with this.

Goodness only knows why we had to practice on my blog and not hers!

When you have a moment go over and say hi to a fellow Viveur, Wendy from the Gard. Also, thanks to Peter at The Languedoc Page and his never ending list of blogs a la française, I have come across a lively blog about life in the Lot et Garonne/Dordogne borders. Take a look if you are interested in reading about how us Expats live our lives in France.

Hedgehog .......

........ is alive and well. She has been hibernating (as Hedgehog's do in the winter) and will be back with us soon.

Blogs Coming Out of My Ears and the Weather

I'm sorry - I am reading, but I can't get round everyone so am dipping in and out, leaving comments on some and not on others. I've stopped using Bloglines and do like Fizzle for Firefox, but I can only add so many blogs to the list.

I apologise to the Owners of the various Rings.

Alexandra is at home today. No bus this morning so I drove her into school. No sign of life! All the roller shutters were down and only one teacher made it into school so we turned the car round and came home!

Meant to say - has anyone heard from Hedgehog? She is very quiet.