Creating a Mess!

Greetings from a gorgeously warm South West France! I think we've missed out on Spring and Summer has arrived!

To celebrate I started creating chaos in the sewing room.

The plastic tub holds triangles of all shapes and sizes

Couldn't be bothered to clear the decks or swap the walking foot on Emma 1 (on the right) for the 1/4" foot so got out another machine. She hasn't been used for sometime and I wondered why. Now I know. She chews fabric! Definitely does not like string piecing.

So I started with this

This is a 5kg plastic tub and that is the top layer.

I'm finding all sorts of treasures which I'm keeping. You know how much I love batiks and I couldn't bear to use these beauties.

Yes, I know the square top left is not a batik, but I want to keep it for something special.

But I'm having fun piecing together odd shapes,

ironing, cutting and seeing what happens.

After about 3 hours solid sewing (with the odd interruption when The Old One turned off the electricity supply without telling me!), I created these.

I'm looking forward to hearing what they whisper to me.

I must tell you something funny.

For some weeks now I've been turning my Parts Dept upside down looking for some specific crumb blocks which I was sure I had. Somewhere.

Imagine my surprise when they turned up in Blogland! Pat had them! You can see what she's done with them here. I did have to mention that the block bottom right in the last photo is a house and it's now lying on its side!!!!!

On to more mundane things for family readers.

We're slowly recovering after the Big Freeze. The Old One has spent the last 3 days up a ladder trying to join pipes together where they burst. He's working in a tiny space and soldering new joints proved impossible so he's using special joints. We've finally got cold water to the main bathroom! However, when he did the hot water run he found 4 small bursts further along the line which meant hauling out The Very Big Ladder, climbing down into a very small space (lucky that he's small and thin!) and finding the leaks. I personally feel it would be easier to replace that particular pipe run, but he's adamant that he can fix it! We shall see.

Just one more thing before I sign off and start cooking supper.

The Liberated Quilters Yahoo Group (see link in sidebar) has got some astounding blogger'esses and they are churning out some wonderful stuff.

We've created a special blog so they can show off their work to the world. Click here and then click on any of the blogs which interest you. Some you may know already, but others you won't. Enjoy!

And on that note, I'll love you and leave you with a recent photo of a local church, processed with my new find, The Gimp.

Nontron Church

More soon.

Please Do Not Adjust Your Set

I'm in the process of importing all the posts from my old Wordpress blog into this one and your blog reader may show 2 year's of new posts showing for this blog.

Please ignore them.

More soon.

Widgety Fidgety!

Courtesy of Google Images

There is only so much snow a gal can take!

To relieve the boredom I've been blog hoping and finding new bloggers - a great way to spend a cold and grey afternoon.

Not a lot of what I call "me" blogs. Some quilters are far too precise for my liking and need to ease up a little. LOL!

However, I have found some great widgets.

Look at the side bar and scroll down to the widget below "Past Ramblings". Talk about a space saving device! You can add it by clicking on the "Get this widget" link underneath it.

Another one (and I Do like this one A Lot) is a Print or PDF widget (look at the footer underneath this post). You can get this one by clicking here and following the instructions.

However, when you get to the layout page bit the widget will be at the top of the sidebar. You need to move it by dragging it to underneath the Blog Posts box.

More soon.

It's Giveaway Day

Today's the day!

Okay - what am I giving away?

Something very special for you.

Remember these?

Would you like one too? Perhaps for you, or a member of your family?

Well, you can win one, but only IF you are a current follower.

You DO NOT need to blog about this.

You DO NOT need to share it on Facebook.

You DO NOT need to friend me on Facebook.

You DO NOT need to tweet this post.

You MUST be a current follower.

Please DO NOT add yourself as a Follower to enter this giveaway. I shall know if you have ;-)

Just leave a comment before midnight on Sunday, the 15th (Paris time (GMT+1)) and I'll draw the name on Monday, the 16th.

Best of luck!

A Rant About Giveaways.

Photo from Google Images

I don't host giveaway's. I'm not really that keen on them, although I will admit to occasionally entering one or two if the giveaway is something I like.

Recently the Quilting Gallery hosted a massive birthday giveaway and I spent 48 hours trawling through blogs. Some of the prizes were amazing.

I started following blogs I'd never heard of and shared the post on Facebook. I didn't link to them from here as that is not in my nature. My blog is for me and my dear blogging friends and I don't like advertising someone's blog, unless I like the work they do and want to share it.

Do you know what!

I didn't win a thing - nothing - rien - nada!

A blogging/Facebook/quilting friend has just shared an Aurifil Threads giveaway on Facebook and I thought you might like to read my comment

"Given up entering giveaways. It makes my blood boil having to jump through hoops. Leave a comment, then become a follower and leave another comment, then share it on FB and Twitter and leave comments that you've done both, then blog about it and come back to tell me you have, giving me the link, then come back AGAIN to tell me you've all of that twice. Oh and don't forget to "like' the giveaway page and then blog, tweet, FB about that too! and don't forget to tell me you've done that as well. After all that I could have sewn about 6 blocks and then I never win!"

However, I'm about to eat my words here!

I've noticed that my Followers list has recently shot up to 98 (it was 99 last week but someone obviously decided they were getting bored LOL).

So - IF, and I mean IF, my Followers hit the 100 mark I will host a simple, no jumping through hoops, giveaway for my loyal Followers only.

What will it be? Ah ha! You'll have to wait and see.

More soon.

A Little Something

I finished this mini quilt way back in March as a birthday present for The Young One.

Unfortunately I messed up the binding so I have spent the last few days unpicking it.

I then cut off the excess batt and backing and started again.

This is the result.

A lot flatter and neater.

Re photos. I was wondering what on earth Blogger was up to with that Lightbox thing. I was reading Sharon's blog this morning and saw that she managed to disable it. After a lot of fiddling about I managed to find out where the settings are and it is now disabled.

So if you want to go back to the previous post and click on the photo you should be able to enlarge it.

FYI - the Lego quilt currently measures 52" x 48" and, no Sharon, I hadn't spotted that arch until you mentioned it.

More soon.

Want to leave a comment ......

........ but you hate that box thing which opens up at the bottom of the post?

I've gone back to the Pop Up Window.

It took a bit of fiddling about with Blogger. Going back to the old dashboard format and then trying to remember where the settings were, but I did it!

More soon.

Oh Heavy Sigh

That's what I did when clicked "New Post".

Google Chrome is getting slower and slower and reading blogs is getting harder.

I'm just reading the Liberated Quilters Web Ring at the moment, and even getting behind on that. It's like walking through treacle.

Firefox is fine, but I miss Chrome.

However, in between dodging the dreaded Hornets who are eating all the figs (The Old One is in despair), making sure The Young One is ready for Rentrée on Monday evening and generally trying to keep out of the heat, I have been sewing.

Et voila!

I wasn't at all sure the dark green would work, but the TheYoung One assures me it does, providing I don't use any more.

Looking at this photo, I think the "d" needs to be redone, but I'm liking the layout so far and I do like that y.

I'm limbering up for "all we do here!". The colours are the big thing now. A bit more purple I think and perhaps the exclamation mark at the end should be the same fabric as the first A to round it off. On the other hand I've got some black and white star fabric which would be great.

I'm now going to see if this will publish via Chrome so will wish you a happy day/evening/night wherever you are.

More soon.

Two Finishes

What on earth is happening to Blogger?  The Dashboard has changed, as has the post page and I can't find anything.

It's taking an age to load and Google has, for some reason, changed my template.  I rather like it!

Anyway.  I had a marathon binding day yesterday.

Let's see if I can upload photos.

First off Family Trees in all its glory.

The more I look at this quilt the more I love it.

Next up - Cutie Bug!

The quilting is very basic as I wanted to get it finished.  I tied the centre, hand quilted the letters and tied the border.  Very quick.  It took me about a week which is surely an all time record for me.

My niece is going to love this.

I've given up on Ab Fab.  That didn't last long!  I really want to get Blueberry Fool tied.

S is for Stripes is also calling to me.  Did I mention that a friend has got 70 metres of curtain insulation which is exactly the same as a cotton batt, but not as thick.  She's given me a couple of metres to try out and I'm dying to use it on S is for Stripes.

The ankle still hurts, but I'm counting down the days until 21st June when hopefully the cast comes off and I can drive again!

More soon.

Problems with Comments

I understand there is a problem with commenting.

I use Google Chrome and haven't had any problems.  However, if you use IE8 or Firefox you can read how to get round the problem here, which is the Blogger Help Forum.

Clare

Not Wordless Wednesday .....

........ because we have photos and words.

I've been slaving away and trying to meet my self imposed challenge.

So far I have one more quilt basted and waiting to be tied.

This one is going to a little girl in the UK who has just celebrated the first anniversary of her bone marrow transplant.

Then we have another quilt waiting to be be basted.

I've grown very fond of this one.  It's the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning.

Then we have my huge string quilt.

Whoops!  Didn't realise that a corner had flipped!

Each 1/4 block is 9" so this is going to be BIG!  It takes me about an afternoon to do one complete block.  I managed 1 and 2/3 today and have got another 4 complete blocks to do.

When it is finally done you'll have to flip over to the Quilts 4 Leukaemia blog.  I'll let you know when.

So far I've completed 3 quilts and with 2 in the making that makes 5 done and 4 to go (the one above doesn't count.  Yet!).

I've also extended the date of my Challenge until the end of April.  Spring is on its way and the garden is calling. The Wisteria needs pruning and there is a lot of stuff that has got to be moved or removed!   I've yet to update my sidebar, but keeping watching it.  The date may change again.

Mimi Pipette/Poucette is doing fine.  Gaining in confidence every day.

I somehow managed to lose the SD card for my camera today (goodness only knows where it is).  The inbuilt memory only allows 5 captures at a time so this is the last photo of the day.

We've decided to kick the old fashioned desktop (5 years old!) into touch.  It's still with us and being used as a music player/recorder etc, etc, etc.

The Young One and I now use a cross between a laptop and a Netbook.  It's downstairs in the kitchen and we love it.  The only problem is I'm standing up/crouching to use it and it's not doing my posture any good.

I promise that photo is not posed.  That's how it is.

The cotton reel is there because I'm doing a search for the thread that I like best.  The coffee cup?  A long story but I love it and it's staying put!

Just before I sign off.

Someone recently gave me an blogging award.  A Very Nice One.  She sent me an email and I looked at her blog.  Now I can't find the mail or the blog link.  If you, nice personnage, are reading this could you contact me again.  Thanks.

More soon.

What do You Say?

Is it me, or do you find that when you've trawled through so many blogs each morning/afternoon/evening you run out of words?

Do you read what everyone else has said and try to not sound the same?

If you are the first person to leave a comment do you try to be witty?

I'll admit I'm useless.  Gorgeous.  Wonderful.  Love it.  Great work.  Love the colours.

Come on then.  Use this post of mine to be honest!

Speak!

Taking a Break

I haven't got much to show on the quilting front at the moment and most of the stuff I'm doing is charity work, so I'm taking a blogging break.

I've desactivated myself from the web ring so please don't click on the Liberated Quilters web ring badge cos it won't work.

I'lll be back when I've cleared the backlog of Quilts 4 Leukaemia quilts and have finally got something liberated to show.

See ya!

A Geeky Moment

I spotted Paula's post about blogging templates so I had to take a look.

What do you think of the new look?


Hop over to Blogger in Draft and take a peek at all the fun things you can now do with your blog.

Storage Solutions

I'm trying to blog every day this week and hit a mental block today as I'm tying and binding Quilt #26 for a little girl in GA.

So I decided to blog about how I store all those useful tutorials that I find online and want to keep, without having to search through my bookmarks every few days.

When I first started doing this I had everything stored in a cardboard foolscap sized folder, but couldn't find anything!  I then started an index system, but couldn't keep up with the indexing (sigh).

A couple of years ago The Young One had to start using A4 plastic inserts for keeping loose leaf papers in so she didn't lose them (she has to keep everything from 6° upwards - reams of paper everywhere!).

At rentrée these inserts are sold by the 100's for centimes, as well as the loose leaf folders to keep them in.  Some have the inserts sealed into the spine and it's these which provided the answer.

The top one is for odds and sods found on my blogging and internet travels and the other two are pretty obvious.  I thought Tonya suited purple and I think of Bonnie as a blue person.

This is a photo of some of the stuff in the unclassified section

 

and this is an extract from Tonya's folder showing how I print the pages to save paper (and ink).

Each tutorial is in its own plastic insert so all I have to do is take them out of the insert when I need them.  In Tonya's case, they are filed in numerical order.  The photo shows her first letters tutorial.

They are stored with my quilting books, take up hardly any space at all and the best bit is I know where everything is.

I've also got one for loose leaf recipes which is kept next to the cooker.  It's my very own recipe book.

Heigh ho - back to the binding (yuk!).

30 FQ's Give-Away

Yup - 30! Hop over to The Fabric Shopper - click here.

What's in a Name?

I was supposed to be making my name for Tonya, but decided that I liked it too much. I might do her another one or just send her some letters and orphan blocks if she still wants them. I suddenly realised that I have never done a family quilt for us! Did one for my Mum here and one for my Aunt's 80th birthday here. Never one for us. So I'm going to start one. I love Lynne's alphabet sampler and her Semonile patchwork bands. I've got a thing about white backgrounds at the moment. Perhaps it's because Spring has arrived with a bang! Ohhhh - hot news. I won a prize last week. More on that soon when it arrives. Is it me, or is everything in the right hand column all squashed up? Wondering if I should change the template again, or leave it? Perhaps go back to Minima White? Off into the sunshine I go - skippity skippity hop hop hop!

Possible Reopening

Please be patient while we redecorate.

Take a peek

at this.

but please don't leave a comment.  She'll kill me!

I must admit that I'm impressed with the way she writes - no wonder she wants to get into fashion journalism.

PS: I hope you can read French :-)

Bloglines

Before I start jumping up and down and screaming.

Is anyone else having troubling logging into Bloglines?

I keep on getting an Error 500 Internal Server Error